Glogow

Here's a little story about Glogow (Gwo-goov): Glogow is now a city of about 300,000 approximately 40 minutes north of Lubin. Being on the western side of Poland, it was one of the first cities overtaken by the Germans during the war. We went to Glogow a couple times. The mother church of the church plant we worked with is there, and that's where the university where we did an English workshop is. The last day of the workshop, Rich (the IMB journeyman)walked around with Chase & me, and he showed us some cool stuff.

(Click on the pictures to see them larger.)

Here is a picture of Rich. He's learning about Glogow.

Most, if not all cities in Poland have a crest. This is the crest of Glogow:

And here you see Chase and the crest.

This is a poster displayed in the city. It shows how Glogow looked during the war.

This is a church (basilica, I believe) that the city decided not to restore but to leave as a reminder of what they have been through.

This is an example of some common graffiti. "2PAC" was spray-painted on the side of the basilica. We noticed several American band names as graffiti. "Metallica" was a popular one.

For doing the English workshop, the people at the university gave us bags o' Glogow goodies including DVD, brochures and books about the city; hats, pens, laniards, penlights and stickers.

Here you see me and a bunch o' Glogow goodies.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed the story of Glogow. Caleb & Keli were ministering at the single mothers' home the day Chase & I trekked around town and finished the English workshop with Rich. I'll leave you with this picture of Rich and me acting natural while Chase took our picture on the pink bridge:

Some Pictures

I'm going to take some time to put up some pictures and explain a little bit about what we did in Poland.
The one thing that we did every day from the 10th - 15th was VBS (Vacation Bible School) The first couple days we didn't have very many kids show up. In fact all the kids that came were from the church. But the last few days we had more and more kids that hang out at the coffee house come and participate too. That was one of the most incredible things that God did during the trip. The last day of VBS we got to share Christ with almost 10 kids, some of whom had probably never heard the Gospel. Here are some pics of VBS.


This is Chase teaching a mad lesson about Zacchaeus. He was a wee little man...


We played some awesome water games. It was super hot all week so the kids loved it.


Of course, what VBS could be complete without snack time? And what snack time would be complete without playing with the food?


Keli and Alisha put together some kickin' crafts for the kids to do. This picture is from the day when they made lion masks out of paper plates. Trivia: What story do you think was taught that day?


...and we sang and danced a lot. We have other pictures of the children dancing but I liked this one the best because of the kid in the front doing some kind of Russian dance. Ha! His name was Aaron...he's so funny.


This is us hanging out at a couple's home for lunch the first Sunday we were there. The food was pretty incredible all week. The people in the church were very hospitable. I found myself getting frustrated because I was not able to express my gratitude in a way that they could understand since most of the adults didn't speak English.


This is the soccer stadium that was right behind our hotel. There was a game on Thursday night but we already had plans to go someone's home for dinner. I still regret not going.


Paul, one of the missionaries that we worked with, had some car trouble and we had to push start it a few times. It was fun and tiring.


We gave a concert at the coffee house the last day we were in Lubin. We had a lot of kids show up from the ages of 10 to 21. The other missionaries said that it was the largest turnout they had ever had. We got to share the Gospel to everyone in the room. It was awesome. Rich, a journeyman missionary with IMB, played drums for us. He was awesome.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I'll get to put up some more when time permits. Thanks again for all your prayers and support.

Back in the US of A

Just wanted to do a quick update... We got home safe and sound yesterday around 2:00 in the morning. We're still trying to adjust our sleep patterns to the Central Time Zone.

There will be more details, pictures and possibly some video up here at a later point, but here's a quick run-down of some of the things we did in Poland:

*Vacation Bible School
*English workshop at a university
*English conversations/teaching
*Single Mothers' Home ministry
*Music performances at a special education/therapy school
*Concert at Coffeehouse Logos
*Eating home-cooked Polish food
*Lots of Frisbee, foosball & ping pong playing with the local youth

While to our knowledge there weren't any specific commitments made to follow Christ, we did notice some drastic transformation. It was incredible to be able to serve God and His Church in another country with other believers on the other side of the world. This trip has gotten us thinking more seriously about overseas missions.

Thank you for praying for us and the people of Poland. Please continue to pray for them as the ministry continues.

More details, stories & pictures are forthcoming.

~Alisha

Update! Frisbee! Coffeehouse! VBS!

Things are going great so far. Please pray for these people specifically: Michael, Kames, Marciek (Marcheck), and Bartek. These are the 4 youth that we have been hanging around these past few days. To our knowledge they are not believers and the language barrier is almost impossible to overcome. Polish is so hard! But God is much bigger and more powerful than any language barrier so be praying for God to move in their lives. Also pray for the coffeehouse ministry in Lubin, Poland. Here's a link for Coffeehouse Logos Lubin. Pray that God would continue to bring young people there to hear the Gospel from the missionaries.

Tomorrow we start leading a VBS from 10am-12pm local time. It will be very much like American VBS, but with a gigantic language barrier. Please pray that God will use us in spite of this obstacle. Also pray that we will be able to make contact with parents through this outreach. The VBS will be located at the coffehouse.

We'll also be visiting an orphanage in the afternoons. Some days we'll be volunteering at a school for special needs children. Again, we hope to minister to these individuals, but we also want to share the gospel with parents. Our schedule is very packed. Please pray to God that we might have enough rest in the evenings. A/C is seldom seen in Lubin and we Americans don't like sleepy in the hotness.

Here are a few pictures of our work so far. First is Caleb. We've been teaching the Polish kids how to play ultimate frisbee. They love it. It's the new football.
















Here is Marciek. Trust us. He doesn't need coffee. He has LOADS of energy.

Safely in Poland

The flights were long and exhausting, but we've made it to Wroclaw. After 25+ hours of travel, we're still not yet to our host city, Lubin (pronounced Loo-bean). Hopefully we'll check into our hotel tonight. We've met some of our host missionaries and it sounds like we're gonna have an exciting couple of weeks.

Hopefully we'll have stories and pictures soon. Keep praying.

T minus 15:45

We fly out of St. Louis in approximately 15 hours and 45 minutes. Please pray for God's mercy as we travel... not just that we arrive safely, but that we are able to share the gospel as we travel to our destination.

We'll try to update as often as internet access allows, so check back for more specific prayer requests and photos. We love you.