06.30.09
quick update + a prayer request
Poland was great! Here is one town’s media coverage of our distribution: http://www.itv.kielce.eu/pl/artykuly/pokaz/1041. It is in Polish, but you can get a sense of what a distribution is like. They interviewed Janusz (the pastor in charge of evangelism), Susan (my precious roommate who served as a physical therapist), and the relative of a wheelchair recipient.
Camp (Week 1) was great! I was perfectly matched with my camper, Kirk. We had a blast together, and I learned a lot from him and his parents.
I am currently resting (which means: cuddling with my cat who is suddenly HUGE and full-grown, watching lots of Academy Award “Best Picture” winning movies, swimming laps at the local pool, and eating homemade nut-&-honey butter).
Camp (Week 2) starts Thursday and ends Tuesday. Then I will join my family at the lake until Saturday, July 11. You can expect a REAL update (complete with pictures) sometime the following week!
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Please pray for my friend Justyna and her family.
I am supposed to be in Houston picking her up from the airport today, but her mother was in a terrible car accident, so she had to return to Poland to care for her, and will not be joining me at Camp (Week 2). I am very sad for her.
06.12.09
tomorrow
Oh wow, I leave for Poland tomorrow.
It really snuck up on me!
I like lists, they help me feel on top of things.
So I am making a list.
Things I am so excited about:
1. Spending lots of time with Delinda. I love her. She is great. Hearing stories about her kids. Laughing a lot.
2. Spending lots of time with Mariola. I love her. She is great. Laughing and laughing and laughing a lot.
3. Getting to speak Polish to PEOPLE who understand me! Wojtek (the cat) is wonderful, and understands Polish, but doesn’t exactly respond in Polish. That will be nice.
4. Distributions!!! The work of the ministry: equipping local churches, supporting local churches, facilitating growth for local churches. Parachurch organizations can only do so much. They are not the church. I appreciate that this parachurch organization is all about the church!
5. Pierogi, yum to death. Pierogi Swiat is a restaurant, translated Pierogi World, that serves like 50 different kinds of pierogi. It is awesome.
6. Church in Polish! Most of the songs they sing have been translated from English, so that is pretty neat. But there is this one particular song that does not have an English equivalent, and I really like it. Kazdy dzien upewnia mnie. Pan w milosci wierny jest… it is great & I hope we sing it.
7. Old Town Warsaw. Cobble stone streets. Boleslawiec dishes.
8. Men wearing capris. I like it. I really really do.
9. Blessings! Every night at our debriefing meeting, Delinda chooses one person to receive a “blessing”. Let’s say it is Tom’s turn to receive a blessing. Everyone on the team will tell Tom how he has been a blessing, or how they have seen God use Tom, or how they are praying for Tom, or share a story about Tom, etc. Tom is not allowed to say anything but, “Thank you.” It is such a great way to build team unity, be ever-mindful of great and small blessings, and keep the focus on the Lord and how He uses sinful, ordinary, broken people to do the work of His ministry.
10. Weather that is less than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Whoop!
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This week I was thinking about a certain hilarious experience I had last summer in Polska, and remembered that I wrote an email about it. Enjoy:
Tonight Mariola insisted on taking me to a Tex-Mex restaurant. I was pretty skeptical. It turned out to be quite the experience! First of all, the waitresses tied huge yellow bib/aprons around our necks. When I looked at the menu and 2/3 of the items included mozzarella cheese, I knew it was going to be a disaster. The salsa left a lot to be desired. It was basically ketchup. So I ordered fajitas (cheese & salsa free) and it came with…no joke…written instructions. How to assemble a fajita. I found this HILARIOUS! Apparently people were confused? I guess Polish people don’t have much experience with fajita-making. But the fajitas were great! They were legitimate fajitas! And spicy!! Overall, a night to remember.
Oh, and twice a man dressed like Zorro ran out of the kitchen shooting a cap gun with a slice of birthday cake.
06.09.09
swim swim swim
When it started getting hot, I quit running.
When I quit running, I felt like a bum.
Then my friend Shannon invited me to her daughter’s pool party!
I wasn’t planning on swimming, but I wore my swim suit anyways. At this pool, which happens to be 2 minutes from my house, there are two lap lanes for adults only, which is really nice. When the lap lanes were empty, I decided to swim a few laps. I think I swam 6 and felt like I was gonna die.
But I wasn’t hot, I wasn’t sweaty, there were children happily playing in the background, and I suddenly decided that I liked swimming!
So I have been back to the pool several times to swim in the lap lanes, and I really enjoy it! And, just like running, I started to improve really quickly. Today I swam laps for 30 minutes straight (way more than 6 laps), then rested for 30 minutes, and then swam for 20 more minutes!
You can’t do that when you are running. You just have to keep going or you will be stuck in some random neighborhood 2 miles from home gasping for breath.
That was what always got me when I was running. I would think, “Well, I’m doing okay now, but if I run another mile away from home, that is ANOTHER mile I have to run BACK to home,” so I would turn around sooner than I really should have because I didn’t like the idea of there being no escape.
But with swimming, I am able to push myself “just one more lap” but then I finish that lap, and I think, “just one more,” and then again, and again, etc… I like that there is the opportunity for escape. It is easier to push myself that way.
So hooray for swimming! I will relish it while I am in College Station this summer, and will miss it terribly once the pools close and the running recommences.
PS: I wish more stores that are cheaper than Academy sold athletic one-piece swimsuits. The end.
06.01.09
pictures and memories
At the end of student teaching in the Spring of 2008, I started a photo album. I put one picture of each student in my class. Those sweet, precious people. I loved them. Still love them. We had so many laughs, so many memories, and each kid holds a very special, unique place in my heart. I wanted a way to remember them forever.
Today I printed pictures from this year, my first year of teaching. I added to my photo album. Again, each kid has such a unique place in my heart! I can’t imagine ever forgetting them, but I love having this very tangible way to insure that they are forever imprinted in my memory.
There is something about a picture that brings so many memories to mind. I plan to add to this album each year that I teach, and I know it will be something I treasure all my life.
Next time you are at my house, and you want to make my day, ask to see it. You will get see the sweet faces that made my days so wild, hilarious and beautiful.
