Breathe...

It's been a while. Our team arrived a week ago this past Friday and time is already flying. We went to a city about an hour train ride from Wroclaw and worked in a primary school there. The team (the 5 of us) were split up into three different homes for the week. I have no good words to tell how great that experience was for us. Andy stayed with the young pastor of the church, Pawel - a single guy right at 30 yrs old who LOVED NBA Basketball (especially the Lakers), the girls stayed with the missionaries there we've been working with for two years - Gary & Ewa and their two kids...a Polish/Australian family with bilingual kids...can't get much cooler than that. Scott and I had the priviledge of staying with one of the single gals in the church, Ola - 30yrs old and the sweetest gal you could ever hope to meet. Last week we were able to go into the classroom and openly share the Gospel with each primary class and talk about how God is loving and forgiving. We also had a campfire at the end of the week for the school hosted by the Baptist church (which is a BIG DEAL here!). It was great...very fruitful, however - the best part for us was staying with each of these hosts. We experienced the body of Christ in a very practical way last week and it was so refreshing. These hosts went out of their way to make us each feel welcome in their home. Each morning, Ola set breakfast on the table for us. :) We all had really great oportunities to spend some quality time with these families. It was a great week.

We're so busy though. I woke up this morning with a very sore throat, but still went about my business today. This week we're "leading conversation classes" in the school. We decided at the last minute to really open the door to talk about God...and mainly the difference between RELIGION and FAITH. Anyway, I really enjoy being in the high school classes - the kids are really open and very curious but I'm afraid I talked too much today. My throat has gotten worse as the day goes by. Scott got me some pretty potent throat drops so I've been sucking on those to numb my throat. So the team is out hanging with the high schoolers in the Rynek, and I'm here trying to rest my voice.

We've been so busy, thus leading to a lack of me spending much time with the Lord (which is no excuse, I know)...thinking about this fact, I thought of a wonderful Nooma video. You all who read our newsletter know how Nooma videos were a big part of the ministry here last year. Well, I found it on YouTube. :) I don't know...since we've been here the Lord has just really done a lot in our lives...opened up our minds a bit. Like every other Christian in the world I'm sure, I get frustrated with the church. Not the "church" that Paul refers to in the Bible, but the church we see today. The ones that focus too much on politics, constantly provide us with a list of things we can and cannot do, have fundraiser after fundraiser to raise money to add a movie theater and a ferris wheel to their list of attractions, all the while not batting an eye at their next door neighbors who are going through their trash looking for food or cans to recycle. I'm not saying every one is like this, but we can all be like that sometimes can't we?

I say all of this to promote the reading/listening to/watching anything done by Rob Bell. Rob Bell is the pastor of a church in Grand Rapids, Michigan called "Mars Hill Bible Church." Also, I HIGHLY PROMOTE the listening to/reading of anything done by this guy:

Rick McKinley.
Rick is the pastor of Imago Dei in Portland, Oregon. You can download podcasts by
Rick McKinley and Rob Bells off of iTunes and they are FANTASTIC. Funny, witty, truthful and relevant messages. You can also read Rick's Blog at http://rickmckinley.net/

So, anyway...I LOVE LOVE LOVE this Nooma. It's one of my favorites...it's called "Breathe." Enjoy. May you allow the Spirit to move this week.

Part 1


Part 2