Photos

Teaching youth at the Oasis Center the american game of Jacks and also making balloons

Dinner: Danley and Naomi dressed up as clowns ready to go to Kids Games:


A little computer time in the main hallway:

Polish worship at an evangelism workshop at the Oasis center:

Arts ministry sidewalk chalking:

Unity

Last night we had a total breakthrough in unity. Yesterday morning things seemed to be a mess--there was disorganization about who was supposed to be where and when, what time dinner was at, people frustrated, there seemed to be gaps in the communication between the different levels of leadership. Something had to change, we all knew.

Several people started receiving the same vision from God: There were holes in our armour of God letting the firey darts of enemy pierce through. Individually many of us had our armour on, but as a group, our shields of faith were not edge to edge, overlapping, and as a result there were gaps where the attacks of the enemy could penetrate.

But the Lord was busy writing 1 Corinthians 12:12 on our hearts: For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Individually the Lord had been bringing the HSE1 leaders and outreach managers the vision of why we were here--that this isn't just about "going on practicum" or practicing servant-leadership for three weeks--God is giving us an opportunity to be part of a much bigger vision, a vision bigger than the Festival of Life even, a vision of uniting the entire body of christ. God is going to give us incredible opportunities here--Poland is fertile ground, both in how green the city is, as well as how ripe the souls are to the calling of God. But how can we unite the body of Christ until we unite our own group first? The leaders started by getting together and meeting over pizza and communicating about the vision of why we are here.

And then we stopped what we were working on and took the evening last night to take a walk through the countryside of this beautiful city that God has brought us to, and dedicate the evening to prayer, and the leaders shared with the rest of us that vision. And in doing so, we gave God the chance to unite our hearts, to bring the big picture of what we are doing into each of our hearts so we don't feel disconnected from why we are here, and helping us to focus on the big picture rather than on the individual tasks at hand.



And when we got back from our prayer walk, we discovered even those who were not with us in the flesh had been with us in Spirit.

Miracles

Tonight is Devin and Ali's five year wedding anniversary. Ali, writes the blog for HSE2 and has been here in Poland for a couple weeks now. Devin rode on the bus with us up to LAX. He shared with several of us who were wondering who this non-hse student on our bus was his story of why he was there, hoping that although he didn't have any money to spend on a ticket, he might be able to make his way to Poland to be with his wife for their anniversary. He was on that bus to LAX on faith that he would find a way, if it would be God's will. The bus drove off and left him at LAX with us, and that was the last most of us saw of him, having no idea of whether he had found a way or not. Many prayers were lifted up for Devin, both as a group and by individuals who felt a burden of prayer, and we were very encouraged when we arrived at our third layover and there was Devin sitting in the terminal waiting for our same connecting flight. He found his entire way to Poland without paying for a ticket--he handed one of the flight attendants an itinerary to see how much it would cost, and the computer came back saying it was paid for already. Miracles happen. Ali got to spend her anniversary tonight with her husband, and we couldn't have been more excited to see her reaction when she saw Devin step out of the bus in Visla to surprise her. In the teampoland blog, Ali posted a picture from that night, but I know some of you may not have gotten to hear the beautiful story behind the picture.

A second miracle happened last night. A prayer meeting for the festival of life was held at the conference center here and included several of the local pastors. Eva felt a call from the Lord to pray for a specific woman who attended the prayer meeting. She was obedient to the calling and God worked. She shared her own testimony of how God had corrected her blindness and asked if the woman if she would like the Lord Jesus to heal her. She suggested that the Lord could fix her finances, but the Lord suggested through Eva, "how about the Lord heal your body instead?" and pointed toward her baby-bearing parts, having had a vision from God of the cause of the woman's problems. Eva was able to share what the Lord had told her, that the problem had been there since she was much younger, and had fallen over a chair. As if to signify Jesus's healing touch, when Eva layed her hand on the woman praying in the name of Jesus, she fell back in her chair and was healed on the spot. She cried, the holy spirit having come upon her, filling her with the reality of how much Jesus loves her. Miracles Happen.

Sports Outreach

This is Martin (say: Marteen). He's one of the local youths that we met in the park. Him and his friends were hanging out near the playground because they did not have class that day due to exams, so we invited them to play soccer with us. The kids here really like soccer so it is a good ice-breaker. After a couple games,

We are praying that by building relationships with these kids they will open up to us and share with us what is happening in their lives so we can point them to Jesus and how He can help them though their struggles. Perhaps they will open doors to speak to their classmates in their school.

God wants Martin. Of his group of friends, he was the only one who doesn't smoke, although after his friends encouraged him he told us he drinks. He seemed rather surprised, to hear Scott step out from our group and individually vocalize that he doesn't drink. "Not even just a little bit?" Nope, not even a drop. It was a moment that was of God; Dave almost jumped in to add a "me too" to Scott's statement, but felt the call of the holy spirit to hold back and let Scott's statement speak for itself that he was speaking out alone and not just going along with whatever is popular in whatever group you hang out with. We pray that that experience like this will leave positive impressions on Martin and the other kids--that its okay to stand up against peer pressure and do what is right.

Martin says his english is "not that good" but he has not seemed to have much difficulty communicating with us despite that, and we thought his English was quite good. He really liked the Passion of the Christ when he saw the movie, and he shared with us that he has never been to the States, but he will be going to New York to visit relatives in two months. We are continuing to pray for Martin and are praying the God will touch his heart.

Team USA versus Team Poland:

Polish girls Eva and Diana drawing with sidewalk chalk in the park with the Arts Ministry:

Day 2 ~ School Outreaches

We split up into three groups to do different outreaches. One group went to pull weeds and paint a fence at the local cemetary. Another group went to the park to begin to build relationships with local kids by playing soccer with them.

A third group of only eight (as many as they could pack in two cars!) left bright and early to speak at a junior high schol about an hour away from Visla. That outreach was hugely successful, and they all came back with the familiar glow of having spent time at the center of God's will. We are praying for more opportunities to speak in schools and for more of our class to get to share in this experience.

The group split up and spoke in different classes at the shool. Matt talked about purity. Jerimiah and Ryan talked about choices. Shortly into their talk, the two of them noticed that adorning the back wall of the classroom, written in polish were the words: "Jesus, Faith, Hope, & Love". After seeing this, they felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to abandon their outlines and use this as their outline.

Because Poland is a Catholic country, it is not a conflict to speak directly about Jesus like it would be in America, so they were able to share directly about how Jesus had transformed their own lives. The kids were so entralled with the presentation that they asked their teachers to let them stay for an extra period. The schools here are a lot more flexible in their schedule than many American schools are, and with a quick okay from the teacher for the next period, they were given permission to stay. This allowed time for a full presentation of the gospel to the kids, and to really hit home about how they have a choice to have an attitude of "I can't" or an attitude of "I can" and how in the bible it says that throgh faith we can have hope because hope doesn't fear.

After their presentation several of the kids came up individually to the speakers with lots of tough questions they were struggling with like if God loves us so much why is there so much desparity between the rich and the poor? One kid in particular, Jacob, had a lot of questions as he previously had believed in God but was now facing doubts about his faith and they had the opportunity to encourage him. They ended their presentation with the powerful question--you have a choice to receive Jesus, what are you going to do with that choice?

Only two days later Monica is already getting emails from a couple of the kids she spoke with at the school. The kids had asked whether they could meet with us Americans more and talk "lots and lots and lots". These kids really want to get to know us. God's been showing us that in Poland, the kids are why we are here; their hearts are wide open, and they are looking for something--they have a choice of where to fill that void in their heart, whether to fill it with Jesus or with drugs and alcohol.

Day 1 in Poland

On our first day here we got to sleep in a little since we'd arrived so late, and were awoken to our first polish meal, breakfast. Although the meals here all consist of items that we have back home, it is served differently enough from what we're used to that for some people it was a pleasant treat, and for others it was something that takes a little getting used to.

In the afternoon we went on prayer-walk and took a tour of the town. Some people stopped for a treat and got polish ice cream. Matt stopped to talk to some kids in the park--he started talking in English, but quickly realized the kids did not speak English, but he recognized something one kid said as German and started conversing with the kids in German. Athough the conversation wasn't seemingly special, the kids were so excited by this and were sad to see Matt have to leave and begged him to stay longer.

A group of kids we met on our first day in Wisla, Poland. Matt is speaking to the kids in German!

Teaching some local kids we met how to play American footall.

Team Poland Has Arrived

Four plane flights and two bus trips later, we finally made it to Visla,Poland monday night very late. HSE2 was waiting to greet us when we got here, excited to share with us the work they'd already prepared for us.

Although the flights were long, and everyone was pretty tired by the time we got there, God was hard at work the entire time. Ryan gave up his comfy aisle seat on the second leg of the journey to let a guy sit next to their friend, and after some musical chairs, ended up sitting next to some missionaries from Iowa heading to Uganda with Pioneers. Travel group B was blessed with the opportunty after that flight to pray for their team.

praying with the pioneers missionaries

Several of the travel groups also got opportunities go out of the airport in London and into the city to evangelize. Some of the people in our group really noticed that, as Americans, people were really receptive to listening to what we had to say while we rode on the tube.

Having our Bible study while waiting for our plane in Munich, Germany.

Preachers Corner, London, England