Home again!

It's Wednesday morning and we have been home for 2 days and I still don't know exactly what time it is!
It was so wonderful to see the smiling faces of the CREW who came to meet us at the airport in Louisville! Brett, Barb, Martin, Dan, Robbie, and "the OLD guy", you gave us all a lift in more ways than one! And THANK YOU SO MUCH for the cooler full of ICE COLD Mountain Dew and real DIET COKE!!!!!!! And with all those extra hands it was easy to get the luggage loaded.
The final leg of our journey was on it's way! And we were in KENTUCKY once again!
We were all tired but the group agreed a burger and fries was needed right away! So the first stop after leaving the airport was MCDONALDS!
This time our trip through Beaver Dam was uneventful. Just a bathroom stop and back on the road! We pulled into Murray around 11:30 or 12. It was so good to be home!
Our time in Poland was full of great times and great people. I learned so many lessons throughout the planning and the going. I know I received so many blessings from participating in this trip. And I look forward to being able to share it with all of you.
There aren't words grand enough to express our thanks for all that our friends and family have done to support us. All the encouragement, donations of money and supplies, but most of all your prayer support! This was truly a TEAM effort! We were just on the front line, but without all of you this would not have been possible. We knew you were here at home covering us in prayer everyday. The devil was VERY active trying to stop the work there but you were fighting a good fight! Even when we couldn't get in touch because of internet problems we knew you were covering us in prayer.
The theme of our English Day Camp was an Adventure with God. How appropriate that title was for the kids and for us! This has been an adventure that has become part of who I am. I will always have a little bit of the people I met with me in my heart and mind.
Each one of us is on an Adventure with God everyday. No matter where we live or what our job is our goal should be to grow closer to Him and seek to do His will. I pray that I will always remember to put Him first and remember to give Him all honor and glory for each day, each breath, each beat of my heart.
And now the Adventure continues. Where will it take me? Where will it take you? Who knows maybe we will be sharing a Polish Adventure again next year!!!!!!!

Day Camp Day 5

Today is the last day. We can't believe how quickly things went this week. We have enjoyed the kids so much that the time has flown by. Today we had almost 20 kids again (we knew that a couple would not be able to make it today) and we learned about Salvation. Today was the hardest day to teach since salvation seemed extra hard to explain with words that may or may not translate, especially to young children. But, we knew how important it would be for us to get this message to them. Vern taught the lesson today and we all prayed that God would speak through him as he ministered to these young minds. Several students raised their hands to pray for salvation with Vern so we will continue to pray for these kids hoping they understood and truly was seeking to be a believer. Whatever seeds were planted this week, we pray that they will continue to be nourished and not only grow with that child, but with the families of these children. Many of the homes these children come from are not involved with the church, some only knew about the day camp through the feeding program at the church. Many of the families that attend the feeding program have alcoholic fathers and are facing many challenges. Please help us to continue praying for these families.

The kids signed a banner for us to bring back with us to the US and hang at church...

Today was water sport day and the kids loved it!...
Tonight, we had the Family Party where all of the kids were invited to bring their families to the church for a review of what they did during the week and to pick up all the crafts they made. They were surprised to also get goody bags full of fun items for the kids to take home including candy, toys, and other items donated by people in the US. The kids absolutely had a blast! We also gave them all (kids and families) a Across Ministries shirt and two kids even won an ipod shuffle from our ticket program where we handed out tickets for good work during the week! They could not believe how much they were taking home with them! These kids are more than grateful for everything we have done and its an amazing feeling to see them light up with even the smallest things like a craft. These are memories we will definitely never forget.
At the end of the night, we took pictures, thanked the families and thanked the church for allowing us to be here this week. God has truly blessed us with this week!

Day Camp Day 4

Day Four has been another great day. We can't believe it but we topped our numbers today with 21 kids! The kids were just as excited to see some new faces as we were. Today we learned that God is Forever! God never ends.. he always has been and always will be!! We showed the kids things here on earth that do not last, such as flowers, animals, etc. And explained to them that God never gets old, and he will never die. Today, we also showed the kids the big banners we made while still in the US, covered in the hands, scriptures, and blessings of our friends and family at home. They couldn't believe that there were so many people that were praying for them and thinking of them in the US! They are excited to be able to make their own banner tomorrow for us to take back to America. We told them to bring their favorite scriptures or remember what they have learned in their lessons this week to write on the banner.

The sports today was especially fun as the kids got to play with the big parachute! They loved the parachute! Kenneth and Anne did a great job showing the kids how to use the colors on the parachute and how to do the "popcorn" where you bounce several different sized sports balls on the parachute to see if you can pop it off.

Vern shows off his skills

Tonight was a youth/family night and we had something special planned for them. Vern dressed in his Kung Fu attire and showed them what he has trained to do as a black belt. He even brought his sais with him, a three pronged object used in battle! After showing them a few moves, Vern also explain about his training, and talked to us about how he kept Christianity in his training instead of other religions that are usually introduced through Kung Fu and other similar arts. He also talked about defending your faith by knowing God's word, as you would defend yourself physically from attacks. The people who attended highly enjoyed his presentation and Lydia, the woman living here with us thought the front row was a little too close for the action so she scooted her chair back as Vern was doing some moves.

"VIdeo Coming SOon"

Day Camp Day 3

God has been so good to us! Even after all the worry and stress that goes into making a trip like this, He has provided everything we need. The first couple of nights were hard because we felt out of place and like we were breaking everything when the toilets all got stopped up at once, the shower broke, and other things happened that made us feel like we were intruding on the people's territory here... but God showed us very quickly that we would be alright and that they were not unhappy with us here. In fact, they have been more receptive to us then we could have imagined! On the second night, God even showed us a rainbow that filled the sky and we felt like he was telling us to have peace.

Now, when we look into the eyes of these children we can't help but know that God was in control the whole time and already had this planned out for us! Its amazing to see what he put together for us! One of my favorite scriptures, Jeremiah 29:11 tells us "For I know the pans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to fail you" I know a lot of people refer to this scripture as the big picture of their life but I think it fits very well with what has happened here.. even when things left and right were tearing up or messing up, we had to remember that God put us here for this mission to Prosper, not to fail.

Day 3 has been fantastic! The kids singing and dancing give me an excitement that is irreplaceable! Today they learned that God is True. You would think it is hard to explain this to children, but sometimes its hard to explain this to adults too! We learned today that God will never lie to us, he will always be true to us and He IS the TRUTH..Jesus said, I am the Truth, the Life and the Way and that is what we believe today. Today we had an even more amazing number of kids, 19... we continue to grow!!

Climbing to the castle

While we were here, Dianna wanted us to be able to see the castle ruins that were near Chrznow. We took a bus ride about 15 minutes out of town and then hiked to a very steep hillside. At the hillside, we decided to climb up to reach the castle ruins of Lipowiec. The castle only has a portion of it left but was built in the 13th century. It was built then as part of the defense system for the bishops of the area but was later converted to a prison in the 15th century. What still stands today was actually the first part that was built, the tower. The tower is unbelievable stretching up into the sky and you can climb all the way up to the top, which we did. It was a great adventure! It was a tiring day due to the climb up the hill and then the climb up the tower but it was well worth it!


And of course, on the way down, we stopped for some LODY!!!

American Cooking

We decided while we were here that we would cook an American meal (well kind of) for the Polish workers that had been taking care of us all week. We made a big meal of TACO SALAD and COLD Ice tea!! I am not sure that they liked it all that much but they seemed to eat it up, except for the kids who couldn't stand the onions. The Cold Tea was not quite a hit except with a couple of the women. But, we are glad we had the opportunity to do something for them. The only bad part was the plan to make brownies and we couldn't figure out how to use the stove, so the brownies were ruined and we had to run to the market and get something at the last minute for dessert. Oh well.. it turned it good and we enjoyed doing something for them instead of being waited on. And, we think a couple of them might enjoy some ice tea if we can ever bring some back from the states!