Embracing Accusation

HALFWAY!!!!!!!

2012-01-28T04:40:00.004+01:00

WOOT WOOT!!! :) I am SO happy to remind everyone that we are HALFWAY through this 10 day juice fast! Today, I unfortunately don't have any pictures...I guess I've been kind of lazy today. Actually, other than breakfast that Scott juiced for me in a hurry so I could take it to work with me, I haven't juiced anything today. Yep. I had another small bowl of fruit at work today. I came home pretty hungry but just wasn't feeling up to juicing. I don't feel bad physically, I'm just tired of juicing...or I needed a break.

Breakfast was pretty good - but a nasty radioactive green/yellow color: Kiwis, Mango, Blueberries, and Apples. After work I decided to go by Kroger and stock up a bit on some things that I was running out of. I also, taking some advice from Shea, decided to buy a half gallon of Chocolate Almond Milk. It's still super-low calorie and made from almost all natural ingredients and it provided some AMAZING relief from the mundane juice flavor/texture. I also picked up a 64oz jug of V8...never thought I'd say that. However, after drinking some of my cucumber or beet concoctions, it was a pleasant and much welcomed tomato-y taste. :)

That's all I've had today though...I know I should be consuming more but I'm just tired of drinking stuff. Scott just made me some hot raspberry tea, but it's a welcome change too. Going to Kroger twice today was kind of tough, and for those of you non-Owensborinians(ites?) Kroger is right next to Five Guys...ugggghhhh. The smell KILLS me. I want a cheeseburger so bad. We even watched "Food Inc." yesterday and I STILL want a cheeseburger. haha

Well, time to watch some "Guy vs. Rachel"....not sure why I'm doing this to myself. They're doing a fried chicken cook-off. Bbbaaaaahhhh!!

Goal for tomorrow - more juice! Less whining.

Day 4

2012-01-27T04:03:00.001+01:00

It's the end of day 4. It's 8:40pm and the day has been pretty good overall. My throat is hurting pretty bad today...I read on another blog that a sore throat is one of the symptoms of detox. My energy was pretty good today though. I'm staying kind of hungry, after a chat w/ my brother we figured that I'm probably not juicing enough. Tomorrow I'll juice more, but I'm getting pretty tired of the frothiness of the juice and the taste of veggies in juice form *blech*. BUT, I feel good about sticking to it and about actually consuming said veggie juice, I consider that quite an accomplishment. I would kill for a coke right about now...and a brownie with vanilla ice cream...or a Chik-fil-A sandwich....................

I always daydream about food when I'm typing. Anyway, here's what the day looked like:

For breakfast, Scott made us a yummy smoothie with bananas, strawberries, and a little apple juice to thin it out. Yum! What an amazing husband I have...he drinks breakfast and dinner with me. :) We went to a student gathering at KWC tonight where they always provide dinner and dessert, he even passed on an AMAZING smelling meal with me! :) A good guy.

Lunch was not so amazing. An apple, carrots, spinach, and cucumber. If you don't like cucumbers to begin with, don't juice with them! See all that bright green froth on top of my juice - pulpy, cucumber flavored froth. SO GROSS. I tried a few gulps then had to spoon it off the top. I'm getting to where I can't really stomach my drinks with veggies in them...they get to me quickly.

SO, although I wasn't a fan of the cucumber-y, spinach-y lunch...guess who was!

Bryan LOVED it! So funny! I put a little bit of the froth on the tip of my finger for him to taste and he immediately started reaching, mouth wide open. Adorable. What a great role model for his Mommy. He motivated me to drink a bit more of it. (What you don't see is my apple-juice chaser on the coffee table...it's my go-to chaser of choice. haha)

Well, I'm tired...and hungry...tomorrow is halfway! WOOHOO! :)

Day 3 - Yams & Pineapple, hooray!

2012-01-26T03:36:00.002+01:00

It's Day 3 of my 10 day juice fast. I'm still feelin' pretty okay aside from the occasional fast food/snacky craving. I had to go to Kroger's for work today...so that was kind of annoying, but as I walked out the door with my bags in hand I was hit square in the nostrils with the sinful aroma of Five Guys right next door. THEN, I get back to work and hop out of the car only to be greeted by the most amazing pizza smell. Ugh. :( I would love a giant slice of pizza...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............................

Okay, refocus. So breakfast this morning was yummy. Two oranges, 1 apple, 1 lime, and a handful of red & white grapes. I have to confess, at work today I had some fruit - however, it was completely etiquette based! The lady I work for couldn't stand to have me sit there and watch her eat her soup and fruit, so I told her it would be okay if I had a little fruit with her. I didn't consider this cheating...I only had fresh fruit...just not in juice form. I have resisted every other temptation so I'm pretty proud (and surprised by) of myself so far.

I decided to be a little adventurous for lunch. Two tomatoes, 1/2 a jalapeño, a handful of spinach, some garlic salt, and a few drops of Tobasco. Okay for the first few drinks, but it got old after a while and desperately needed something to cover up the taste afterwards.

So, in order to cover up the tomato/garlic-y taste I took a leftover glass of the berry blend I made for breakfast yesterday morning, threw it in a saucepan and heated it up. It made for quite a nice change. It was just good to eat/drink something hot. A hot berry soup...not bad, just too tart to finish it all. It did the trick though...I think it could have been much better if it had had some pineapple or apple in it to cut some of the tartness.

As I ate my warm berry soup, this little guy was happy as a clam sitting on the floor playing, talking to himself, and bouncing up and down to the music in the background. Was hoping to catch a glimpse of his two little teeth in the pic, but he was too quick. :)

I wasn't too excited about dinner to be honest. The juicing is kind of a task, but figuring out what to juice...hoping to get the right flavor combo so my dinner won't suck...that's kind of tough. I wasn't feeling very excited about having more juiced veggies either, but I've been seeing this recipe online and it intrigued me, so Scott juiced it up for me. :)

4 oranges

1 pineapple

1 yam

DELICIOUS! (As far as juiced fruits & veggies go) It was a much needed break after like 3 green drinks that I've had the past couple of days. The pineapple and yam make a pretty palatable flavor combo and the yam give the juice a nice thick but not too thick consistency, PLUS I noticed it was virtually pulp free which was nice...now, I just need to figure out a way to get rid of that stupid froth that accumulates on top...I guess I could spoon it off...but I'd feel like I was throwing away the healthy part...because the juice itself isn't....healthy....enough???? Yep. I think I just won that argument with myself.

It's about 8:30pm now and I would still kill for a Five Guys little cheeseburger, Taco Bell soft taco with no lettuce and mild sauce, or even the stupid Cheez-its that are still haunting me from the pantry. I'm hungry for food that is greasy and tastes good. I am hungry...as I'm sitting here typing this my stomach is growling, but I don't want to drink anything else today. I want those freakin' Cheez-its. *lol* Oh well. Tomorrow is Day 4 and I am anticipating a little discomfort...mentally and physically...I feel like I'm kind of sitting here waiting for the detox to kick in and wreak its havoc. We'll see...for now I'm going to attempt to distract myself with either some Hulu or Netflix.

Day 2

2012-01-25T03:37:00.001+01:00

Well, day two is coming to a close. It's honestly been fine except for desperately wanting to pull something from my pantry to eat. Here's what breakfast looked like this morning:

A Berry Blend for clear skin! Loaded with antioxidants. Pretty yummy...but it was blended and not juiced. This method led to a thick, more smoothie consistency and lots of seeds to chew on. It took me most of the morning to finish it.

Lunch today was tolerable but still not my favorite. Today's lunch recipe was: 1 carrot, 1 apple, 1 orange, 1 yam, a hand full of spinach, and a tiny bit of ginger root. I think I'm having a tough time with the texture of the yams. We'll see, maybe it'll grow on me.

Dinner: Mango, Watermelon, Kiwi, Grapes, Lemon, Cucumber, & Carrots

A full day of juice...doing ok, but hungry. It helped a LOAD talking with my brother this evening. There were several times where even the Cheez-its in the pantry just kept calling my name...but I resisted. We'll see how tomorrow goes!

JUST SAY NO TO BEETS!

2012-01-24T17:09:00.000+01:00

DAY 1.

Well, the garbage disposal was fixed long enough for me to make our "dinner" last night. So, our dinner consisted of:
1 yam
1 carrot
2 tomatoes
1 bunch spinach
2 pears
and...
1/2 a beet...

What in the world possessed me to put that beet in there (or even buy the beets to begin with)...I have no idea. I KNEW better! I knew that beets taste like dirt, so I don't know what took over my brain for those moments that led to my "beet amnesia" but it totally ruined any chance of my veggie dinner being palatable. Here's what it looked like:

Pretty colors...fun, vibrant, excited about what I eat being healthy and colorful...as it should be...

Looks are deceiving. Here's me not really being excited, but grossed out rather, by the dirt -in deceitful pretty juice form- that I'm about to choke down.

It was terrible. However, nose plugged and apple juice chaser in the left hand I managed to choke down half of it. Well, I certainly learned my lesson. Last night was a rough start to this 10 day fast, but now I figure if I can get down just about anything - as long as it doesn't have a beet in it. The bag of beets is now at the top of my trash can. Good riddance!

Last night was pretty difficult, more mentally than anything. You really take notice of how much food is on your mind when you can't eat it. A pretty big eye-opener was that every thought of food that I had, was fried, covered in grease, or full of sugar. Taco Bell was calling our names last night after we'd had our "dinner." Scott and I used to make late-night Taco Bell runs when we were in college (undergrad and grad school)...it's kind of been our thing since we started dating. *lol* Mmmmm..Taco Bell. The fact that it's 9am and I am "mmmmming" at the thought of Taco Bell...yikes. Wake-up call! No wonder people think I'm pregnant. Now, honestly, I'm really not THAT unhealthy of an eater. I drink cokes (but not excessively, usually no more than one a day recently), I do love chocolate...usually in cake, brownie, or ice cream form - but it's not like I stuff my face with these things. I probably have a bigger serving than I should when I do have them. Here's my problem(s) - I don't eat enough fruits, veggies, & whole grains and I don't exercise enough. Isn't that about 75% of America's problem? Ugh. I loved living in Poland because I was healthy. Walked a million miles a day (more like 5 or so), drank lots of water & fewer cokes, and just ate healthier. Well, one thing was that we ate our bigger meal at lunchtime and a smaller something at dinnertime. Anyway, I miss that lifestyle...I miss that body. I am hoping this fast will increase my awareness of how much I need these healthier foods and smaller portions of everything else. Though I do think it's ok to indulge in the things that we love, but in moderation. Like any good gift that God gives, if we take advantage of it, let it become our idol, it can ruin us. If I let the food that I eat or the immediate self-gratification I get from eating it take over, it will undoubtedly lead to a life dependent on pills, laziness, and shorter life which will deprive my family of time with me. I want to be around as long and be as active as I can for my children, husband, family...I know I can't determine my life span, but I can take care of the body that God has given to me and do my part to keep myself around longer.

Anyway, guess I should go do something productive. Maybe work out a bit. Just finished a much more delectable berry medley breakfast (good for clear skin & antioxidants). Chewing a bit more than drinking...b/c I blended it and berries are full of seeds...so thick & full of texture, but tasty and WAY more tolerable than the dreaded beet juice. Never again.

Said Juicing Hath Commenced...

2012-01-24T02:02:00.001+01:00

Day 1. Well, I sort of count today...more this evening. The lady I worked for took me out to eat lunch at the Olive Garden, but...I did keep my lunch at a veggie soup, salad, and one breadstick. So, that was at noon...it's 6:52pm now and I'm starving. I just went to the good 'ole Kroger and bought a boat load of fresh fruits and veggies - yams included, as my friend Kat had suggested. So...I came home, fruit and veg in hand to be greeted by a backed-up garbage disposal so a sink that won't work (bathroom or kitchen). Luckily, we have a wonderful maintenance crew here at KWC so the on-call worker hopped on over after we so rudely interrupted his family time :(, but he's in here now graciously trying his best to clean up the mess.

I'm a little nervous about what my dinner might look like...because it needs to be mostly veggies...and I HATE veggies. :( However, I have accountability with my bro who is doing this with me and my amazing husband has decided that he is going to do juice breakfasts and dinners with me. :)

OH!! SUCCESS! Disposal is cleared...let's get this show on the road! Stay tuned....

And she juiced...

2012-01-20T22:54:00.001+01:00

Well friends, I have decided that a "Mommy Reboot" is WAY overdue. With the help of some random strangers who have inspired me to pay some serious attention to my weight, I have decided to take action. For the last time...I ALREADY "know what [I'm] having:", because I HAD him 6 MONTHS AGO. ;) I recently watched the documentary, "Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead" by Joe Cross and he also inspired me to do a 10 day juice fast. SO, THIS MONDAY said juice fast will commence. I am fasting along with my big brother. I have talked him into doing this with me for accountability and bonding. haha

SO, I have been collecting recipes, fruit, and veggies to give a few a try so I can start off knowing at least what I love, like, and what I can stomach if I hold my nose. The juice is supposed to be 80/20 (veggies/fruit)....eeeeeekkk...I AM NOT a veggie girl. This could be brutal. I'll do my best.

Anyway, I tried out my first recipe today, thanks to my dear friend Katrina. She did the fast for 5 days and put some pretty good recipes on her blog. So, here is my first attempt at juicing: Apple Pie Juice

YUMMMM-O! Definitely didn't taste the carrot at all, the cinnamon & nutmeg made it SUPER yummy. One thing I'm going to have to try and get over with the whole juicing thing, is the big pile 'o froth that accumulates on the top. Well, I drank the whole glass. Here's to a start.

2012-01-03T04:42:00.000+01:00

Christmas 2011

Life has changed dramatically since November 2010, as you can clearly see. I'm sure this is not what I had envisioned life being like as the big 3-0 is quickly creeping up on me...not so much in a bad way, but different, sometimes stressful, and sometimes frustrating.

Pure JOY entered our world and our lives on July 7, 2011 at 5:04 in the morning in the form of a 9 lb, 21 inch bouncing baby boy (literally, the kid LOVED - and still loves to bounce). He is perfect...and a perfect testament to how much we are loved by our Father - for Him to give us this precious, undeserved gift that is our Bryan. He makes us cry with joy, makes us smile, makes us laugh, and makes us proud. Only occasionally does he make us nervous. :) When we got married, we wondered how much our lives would change - it really didn't...we just got to spend a lot more time together and learned how to live with one another. Parenthood is a game changer. Our lives FEEL different now, older - not so much the wiser - but a little more seasoned. Having another life depend on you 100% puts your priorities in check, forces you to grow up - real fast, makes you a lot less selfish, and drains your bank account - real fast. However, all of these small things seem so minuscule in comparison to the amount of joy I receive when my little babe smiles his "mouth wide open" smile and squeals in delight at whatever silly dance me or Scott choose to entertain him with. My heart melts when he reaches for my face or burrows himself deep into my chest until he falls asleep. What an amazing, indescribable love. How deep the Father's love for me.

So, this little bundle of joy is currently almost 6 months old, sitting up and playing on his own, trying his darndest to crawl, dancing (or bouncing) to music, eating solid foods, sipping from a cup, and developing LOADS of personality by the minute. He's a stocky 22 lb quarterback now too, broad shoulders, strong legs, marshmallow arms. (Just don't tell his grandmother's - they've vowed "no football!") He goes to the Dr. for his 6 month on the 17th - and will soon get another Echocardiogram on his heart to see if the "echo/shadow" has closed up or if it will need closer attention. We're confident this little guy is just fine though. :)

Moving away from Wheaton may have been the most difficult thing we've ever (or I've ever - I'll speak for myself) had to do. Not that I don't love home, being close to relatives and good friends...but Wheaton was a life-changing experience for me, for Scott, and for our marriage. The Lord was VERY intentional about sending us to Wheaton, so it was scary to move away from that solid support system that knew ALL of the ins and outs/good and bad in our lives. However, God called Scott back here, to 'the Boro, and well...here we are - trying to remain faithful and do what we feel is best. It's been a big adjustment, but our saving grace has been our family and friends here. If it wasn't for them, I'd high-tail it back to Wheaton in a heartbeat. A lot of my bitterness is strictly with the State of KY. I currently hate it...LOATHE it...more specifically the KY Board of LPCCs...you have ALL heard about this GIANT, frustrating pain in my rear...so I'll spare you...mostly because it just pisses me off to think about it when I don't absolutely have to.

In other news: Moving in has gone quite well, things are starting to come together at Casa de Newman. It's slowly beginning to feel home-ish. It's in a SUPER convenient spot so praise God for that!

A mommy update: Post-pregnancy SUCKS. My body has aged about 10 years and with 30 coming quickly, I can't afford that! I am kicking my butt into gear. I am 6 months post pregnancy and STILL in maternity clothes because I REFUSE to buy the size that I am scared I would fit into currently. The next person to assume that I am pregnant or ask how far along I am gets a swift kick in their teeth. NEVER....NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER, ASSUME that someone is pregnant and comment on it. We all know what ASSUMING does. I have started a crunch regimen in the morning (about 4 days strong now) to get my abs back to where they should be...currently they're still in Poland, and we know how long it takes things to travel overseas. ;) My goal is to drop at least 30 (preferably 40lbs) by April 3rd. Today is officially Day 1. According to my Wii, I am teetering dangerously close to the top of the "overweight" line. My body feels terrible, not sure if it's due to my weight or due to the fact that I'm pretty sure I'm inheriting my Mom's Fibromyalsia - UGH. Another reason for desperately needing to become more active. SO, here's somewhat of a plan:

At least 30 min of cardio every day
My morning crunch routine
Drinking at least 2 14oz glasses of water a day (baby steps here)
Cutting back my coke intake significantly (maybe 3 or 4 a week...currently, it's daily)
Eating more veggies and less sugar
Blogging about my progress
Unofficially joining Weight Watchers w/ my sibs
Keeping up with my "SparkPeople" account

One of my first steps is to watch the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Almost Dead" (read about it on Pintrest by a girl who did a 60 day veggie/fruit juice cleanse) YIKES, probably won't go that far...but maybe it'll give me some motivation.

Also going to try and start taking more pictures, doing more creative things, enjoying my family (immediate/extended/& in-laws) more, praying more, and playing with the babe as much as possible.

Szczesliwego Nowego Roku everyone!

Bun In The Oven!!

2010-11-05T16:06:00.001+01:00

Get your free online pregnancy calendar from WhatToExpect.com

I SHOULD be reading...

2009-10-03T06:26:00.002+02:00

but obviously I'm not. ;) I do have several things that I should be doing actually...reading three chapters in Nichols "The Lost Art of Listening," a chapter in Hill's "Helping Skills," a chapter in my Ethics book, and about 5 chapters in about three of my Cognitive Behavioral books...plus I have 5 research articles to critique, one to prepare a presentation for, a research proposal of my own to think up, an Ethics paper to start on, or a test in Research Design to study for....what shall I do? Blog. Listing those was mostly for my benefit so I could actually have down in front of me what all I need to accomplish. Yikes...maybe I shouldn't have, it's a bit scary to think about.

So, speaking of all things Clinical Psych related, school is going SO well! I have a FABULOUS cohort of about 29 others from literally all around the world who are each absolutely amazing, loving, brilliant people. We attend 5 classes together a week...Mondays: Ethics: Issues in Professional Practice followed by Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. On Wednesday we start with Humanistic/Experiential Psychology (my favorite), followed by grad chapel-which is always a nice break, then our Foundations Class (where we learn to integrate Psychology & Christianity), followed by Clinical Research Design. We all each lunch in class together on Wednesdays because we don't have a break. We meet in triads each week (I have two AMAZING gals that I meet with) to practice our counseling techniques on each other...and then we have to videotape and critique each other once a week...good times. Our cohort hangs out together a lot...we go sailing, have "Ethnic Birthday Parties", surprise our professors, go to concerts together...I know I say this a lot (at least to myself)...how in the world did I end up here? I mean, I know. It was obviously the hand of God - only He could get me into such an institution as this...where great minds like Billy Graham and John Piper went to school, where one of my professors taught Rob Bell in his undergrad (a funny thing because you can SO tell how Dr. Rich Butman has rubbed off on Bell with his teaching), where other professors (Dr. Jerry Root specifically) studied and got to know the great C.S. Lewis...almost all of my professors have double lives as authors and practicing clinical psychologists. It's just unreal...I am like a sponge in each class that I go to (with the exception of Clinical Research Design - no offense to the wonderful Bob Gregory)...There is such a huge desire in me to soak up every word that falls from the lips of each of my professors. There's one class in particular where my cohort sits in a circle along with four of our professors (Terri Watson, Michael Mangis, Rich Butman, and Derek McNeil) and they just talk to us and we get to listen to these great minds bounce ideas off one another about their ideas of how Psychology can integrate with Christianity. I just can't believe I go to school here. This summer I will have the opportunity to take a week-long class in Bereavement with the fantastic Dr. Butman up at Honeyrock Camp in northern Wisconsin. In November we start applying for our internships...I'm hoping to get one at Cornerstone Christian Counseling in downtown Chicago. I'm a little terrified actually...the thought of being "turned loose" on innocent people seeking counseling and healing and having them trust in me, that I have the knowledge and competency to help them find a way to heal their hearts and minds...unnerving. Though I have learned SO VERY MUCH in so little time and I know that each week I'll become more skilled as a counselor...I feel SO INCOMPETENT right now. I'm told this is the "Conscious Incompetent" stage...where I've realized exactly how incompetent I am as a therapist. I've realized that all of these years I've been an absolutely terrible listener. Terrible. My goal is to get to the "Unconscious Competent" stage where my counseling skills will just come naturally, without thinking...but that is a LOOOONNNGGG way off my friends...that I'm sure of.

It is very exciting...knowing that only a couple of years from now I will be a competent Mental Health Professional/Counselor/Psychotherapist (which sounds like a scary word). I know that there's no way in...well you know...that I'd be here if it wasn't for Divine Intervention. The Lord never fails to provide or surprise! :) So, as I've been thinking of research proposals and whatnot...we're all being encouraged to start trying to decide what types of people groups we'd be interested in working with...what "therapeutic orientation" we'd like to focus on (Psychoanalysis, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Psychodynamic, Group Therapy)...anyway, I've been thinking of a couple groups that I want to work with...I've always been interested in Marital Therapy. Good stuff there! :) That's a definite...pre-marital counseling/marriage counseling...all things marriage-related. :) Our professors actually encourage us to seek therapy of our own...so Scott and I will hopefully be attending marriage counseling within the near future. Especially if we ever plan on counseling couples together - it's good to be able to know how the "other chair" feels rather than just the counseling seat. :) Working with college-age women - LOVE IT! This may be my favorite group to work with. I adore this age. :) So, a new people group I've been thinking of working with - thanks to my absolutely wonderful friend Tam for helping bring this to light - I'm thinking I'd like to work with missionaries. Especially for Reentry-Adjustment issues (or Reverse Culture Shock)...going to and from the mission field can take a lot of toll on a person mentally/spiritually/physically, I know it would have been beneficial for me and Scott...so I'm actually going to a conference in November for this exact type of counseling - YAY! :) I mean, the hope is that when we're done here, we'll be competent to counsel a VERY WIDE range of issues...you name it...we can counsel you through it kinda thing...and I can very well see how all 30 of us will likely be very skilled in two years...which is exciting! I've NEVER felt like I was REALLY good at anything. I mean, I'm three years shy of 30 and I've not remotely had any kind of career or held a job longer than 2 years...so this is so exciting for me. To KNOW that I'm finally going to be good...really good...TRAINED by amazing professionals good, at something...makes my heart flutter a little. To know that I'm going to have the ability to seriously impact the people that will walk through my door...but also the responsibility of that. Whew. That's a rush.

Well, time to read some more before I hit the sack. Love and miss you all! Please pray that the Lord will give us the wisdom that we need and the ability to comprehend all of these readings they keep throwing at us. I know personally, I've never felt much like the "academic type" so it's very scary and intimidating going to class with a bunch of brainiacs and deep philosophical thinkers...that's just not me. I'm working on it though. ;)

All that to say...I am so so very blessed and I'm so glad I'm here.

Crazy Traditions...

2009-08-26T03:18:00.002+02:00

Hey everyone! So, it's been a good and busy week so far. All of our students are officially moved in! We had our Graduate School Orientation yesterday - and let me tell you...I have never felt so good about being at an institution than the one I'm at. Absolutely everything about orientation was so incredibly encouraging. There is just a very strong spirit on this campus. I feel there is such a great balance of faith and education. I honestly have never felt so proud to be a part of a school before. Wheaton is much much more scholarly that I realized - so much so that I'm a little schocked that I was accepted...I mean my grades were decent, but these students are amazing! Anyway...classes start tomorrow and we are very excited and we've been very encouraged by older students and by our professors. So...anyway...it's just a very joyous time right now and our hearts are very full with gratitude that the Lord's allowed us to be here.

So, the thing about Wheaton - and I was attempting to explain this to my good friend Kat earlier today - it is a very different school. I feel kind of like I'm in a weird bubble. In many many different ways...specifically though for this blog entry, I just wanted to share with you all what Scott and I just witnessed. Apparently Wheaton students have a lot of "traditions" that take place each year. Particularly at the beginning of the school year and most are geared towards "welcoming" the Freshman class. Today was the "Mastadon March." They've named it the "Mastadon March" because we have a huge Mastadon on campus named Perry - his bones were found in a man-made lake in Glen Ellyn about 60 years ago and he's proudly displayed in the science building now...kind of a cool exhibit. Anyway, the Freshmen were getting ready/learning a song for their "All School Communion" tonight (another tradition) unbeknownst to them that they were about to get a BIG welcome from the upperclassmen (and apparently some faculty and staff as well). I was sitting outside the Student Rec Center when I see TONS...HUNDREDS of students pouring out of the dorms with the most ridiculous costumes on...you name it, there was one there. There just aren't words to describe what all I saw. So, I saw the costumes, but Scott actually saw what happened. The freshmen were outside and this HUGE parade of upperclassmen came marching down the walkway, led by two of Scott's bosses - one on a double decker bike pulling his 18 month old in a cart behind him, and his other boss the VP of Residence Life (or VP Student Life one) following behind in the back of an orange convertible - white suit/giant glasses - daughters dressed up in crazy costumes with him. There was also a big "mastadon" in the parade and following them were the probably at least 1500 students behind making all kinds of noise and chanting "We love Freshmen" and making all kinds of noise.

For those of you who haven't heard us rave about the food service here...it is AMAZING...AMAZING...AMAZING. Well the food service even went all out too. They had several stations set up outside and the entire school had a picnic outside. There was a line for gyros, a line for hamburgers, popcorn, sloppy joes, fresh grilled chicken breast sandwiches (which I had - YUMMM), and a line for grilled corn on the cob. The food service here makes EVERYTHING from scratch, from their bread, to their pastries, to smoking their own ham for deli meat...just unreal. Anyway, they had this parmesan butter for the grilled corn - holy cow. Just...no words. *lol*

So we had a grand time tonight! We feel like we just got a good taste of what Wheaton life is really like with students here and how involved the staff is. SO much fun.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that strange yet delightful experience with you all. Wish you could have been here to see it. Crazy. Well, I've got class tomorrow bright and early - YAY!!! So, I'm going to try to enjoy my last night of "freedom" for the next two years. :) Wish I had something exciting planned, but I think I'm too tired to really do anything. :) I'll just enjoy the peace and quiet.

An update :)

2009-08-20T19:07:00.003+02:00

Last week was a SUPER fun week! Mom, Dad, & Shea came up to visit Thursday and stayed until Sunday. We took the Metra into the big city, took them to downtown Naperville, out to Giordano's to eat some Chicago style pizza, drove them all over Wheaton & neighboring suburbs, and had a blast! :) It was so much fun to have them up for the weekend. We think they liked it here too...we're expecting them to be frequent visitors. :)

Shelley & Kyle also stopped by for a couple of days - they came Sunday and stayed until Tuesday. It was so great to have them here - I'm really missing my girls. We went to the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Science & Industry Museum - WAY COOL :) They had TONS of props from the movie...including the Weasley's Flying Ford.

And probably the highlight of Scott's week - they took us to a White Sox game and we won!! WOOHOO! It rained off and on, but all in all we had a great time. :) And yes...Shelley and I are basically wearing fancy garbage bags that say "Sox" on them. *lol*

So yesterday was a day to get some things done. I picked up mine & Scott's books. I'm pretty pumped about it, but pretty nervous as well. Not sure what I've gotten myself into. I haven't been in school in 5 years and this time I think it's going to be a bit more demanding...from the looks of it. These are just my first semester books! Except the giant DSM - it's a basic reference book for Psychologists/Psychiatrists/Couselors...it has just about every disorder you an think of...and lots you didn't know existed in it. Anyway...classes start....um..next week? Yikes. I am excited....I am excited...I am excited...*must keep repeating*

What else is going on? Well, I'm going to buy a Wii Fit today - good times! WAY excited about that. AND I'm going to start taking Zumba classes today. I have definintely gained some weights since moving...well since moving back from Poland. I decided yesterday that something must be done. So, I'm drinking more water, I'm going to TRY to drink less Cokes *I'm super addicted*, and I'm NOT going to keep chocolate ice cream in the fridge. NOT going to do it. I really need to buy new clothes because several of mine do not fit me anymore...SO I decided I won't buy new clothes until I need to buy SMALLER sizes and not bigger ones. No new clothes for me for a while...maybe that'll be motivation. :) I know I'm not super overweight, but I was very healthy and pretty fit when we moved home and I FELT much much better. Gotta get back to that. My plan is to turn over a productive leaf today. I'll let you know how that goes! :)

Home Sweet Chicago! Under construction

2009-08-12T16:38:00.003+02:00

So, I'm having trouble getting my video to post. Looks like I'm going to have to step away and come back to it later. Don't want it to get the best of me. :)

Here's a little look into our first trip into the city! We hopped on the Metra about a three minute walk from our apartment and bought a 10 ride pass to share between the two of us. Looks like we'll be going more on the weekends b/c you can get an unlimited Metra pass for only $5 for the entire weekend! Anyway, yesterday we just tried to get a good idea of how to get around and some easy places to get to...it was definitely a fun and full day! :) WHOA! I just noticed that the date says "Jun 28, 2157" That's hysterical! Fixing it would be a big hassel...so I'm just gonna leave it that way. *lol*

Downtown Wheaton

2009-08-10T02:57:00.004+02:00

Hey everyone! So today we have had about 15 students move in *YAY!!!!!*. The final count for today should be 17, but we haven't seen them all yet. We absolutely love it! It's part of Scott's job to try and connect with the students moving in...let them know he's their new GRA, get some paperwork from them, etc. Today was a RIDICULOUSLY hot day so we decided to make some yummy strawberry lemonade *recipe courtesy of Kell* and walk it around our buildings as students and their parents unloaded their things. I also made muffins and Scott and I will be delivering them tonight once he gets back from a meeting. :)

Last week, Scott and I took an evening to walk to downtown Wheaton. These are some of the pics that I got on the way. Here we're on the Prairie Path *one of the longest bike trails in the country - goes right through downtown Wheaton*. The second picture is a miniature golf course that is part of the apartment complex in the pictures.

The Metra runs right along downtown.

And here is the main Metra station in Wheaton. There's another one right across from our apartment, but this is the main station.

Tates Homemade Ice Cream - yummm-o! Wheaton is full of little specialty shops like this in the downtown area.

The popcorn guy sells freshly popped popcorn in this alley for I think 75 cents a bag. You can also buy candy by the piece in his alley. :) It really is an alley, someone just happened to put an *oning...auning...awning???? - good grief* you know what I mean - over it and it became a popcorn shop. It's as wide as the door and that's about it. :)

This little wine shop always seems to be full of people in the evening tasting different wines and looking very sophisticated. :)

And here is Suzette's Creperie...haven't been there yet, but it's definitely on my list. From what I can tell they have authentic French food...crepes, Croque Monsieurs, and such *yum!* They set up a booth at the French Market on Saturday mornings downtown and make fresh crepes for people and sell fresh croissants as people peruse around the market. :) OH...and apparently they have Jazz bands there fairly often in the evenings. AWESOME.

And speaking of Jazz...last Thursday night Scott and I checked out the Thursday night Wheaton Municipal Concert in Memorial Park. So supposedly it was a summer long thing...each Thursday night the city would bring in a different band/orchestra/some form of entertainment. We happened to catch the last one last Thursday night and the Wheaton Jazz Band played. We went with our new friend Keila. Keila invited us to church last Sunday and we had her over for dinner the following Thursday and decided to go check out the concert together. It was a good time. :)

And here is a silly video that I tried to take of the band...but it didn't turn out so well because we were talking in the background. *lol*

So, that was our week last week and our day today. :) Oh, we did visit a new church today...believe it or not I found and advert for it on Facebook and thought it looked like one worth checking out. So Scott, me, and our friend Hannah and her 19month old Cooper went this morning. We really enjoyed the service. The three of us got there about 40 minutes early though due to false advertising on their website...which wasn't a huge deal. There was this fantastic little coffee/breakfast shop across the street and we went over for a breakfast muffin and Scott and I were able to have a nice chat with Hannah. :) I think we'll definitely visit it again, we think it's really important to get involved with a church and we don't want to take too long looking around for one. Not sure exactly what we'll do next week - I do know that I'm super excited about Mom, Dad, & Shea coming to visit us for the weekend! YAY!!! :)

Now, it's time to go pass out some muffins! :)

New Apartment Pics!!

2009-08-07T18:16:00.004+02:00

SO our apartment is FINALLY getting there! We've spent the past couple weeks trying to make it look like a home and I think we passed the test last night when we invited a student over for dinner and she said, "WOW! You guys have made it look so homey in here!" :) It does feel much more like a "home" now. There's still a couple things I'd like to get on the wall, but we're getting there. :) So, here's another quick tour of our place... our new living room complete with curtains, new slip covers, a new rug, and a cool new Target sofabed...

Scott putting up our curtains...plus a new addition - a hibiscus plant

Here is our updated bathroom...new shower curtain, and a new wall shelf...

Our bedroom...really hasn't changed much...I'm thinking I'd love something on the wall across from our bed...which you can't see in this picture.

And the room that's made probably the most progress...our guest room...new curtains, a cleaned-up bookshelf, a new comforter, and some new pillows.

This was my first try at pillowcase/pillow making. The bigger one is just a pillow case over a little travel pillow and the little long one is my own pattern I guess...as far as shape goes. Plus it was my first actual pillow that I've made. :) YAY!

Naperville

2009-08-03T21:25:00.002+02:00

So, last week was a good one. We spent the week making some big changes to the apartment...as far as seating, putting up curtains, buying plants, etc. We also explored a bit more. On Thursday night (I think) we took a trip to a neighboring suburb, Naperville. VERY happenin' little place. AND apparently has an Independent Film Festival and loads of other fun things to do throughout the year! :) Here are a few pics from our trip...we ate lunch at a fun place with Mexican food: Potter's Place. After dinner we scouted out the Italian Geleto store...it was perfect! Just like eating ice cream from Galeria Dominikanska in Wroclaw...that's some good ice cream. :)

That store is called "Sugar Monkey Cupcakes." hehehe

Moving Days...

2009-07-29T17:23:00.007+02:00

It should tell me something when I have to write two seperate blogs in one day just to catch up on what I haven't blogged about. Yeeesh! Well, WE'RE HERE! Our new home in Wheaton, IL. Scott started his job yesterday and it looks like he's working about 9-3pm this week. We just love all the people he's working with. Lots of couples right around our age several little bitty kiddos running around. We've had several dinners together now with a lot of his co-workers. I'm actually about to go babysit for his boss who has a 5 month old daughter. :) Everyone has been super friendly and helpful. I absolutely love it so far! Wheaton is a west suburb of Chicago and we are surrounded by probably at least 4 or 5 more little suburbs around us. So many different stores, fun places to eat & shop, lots of parks and great places to walk! It's a total bonus that we're only about 25 minutes outside of the big city and there's a Metra stop literally right across the street from us. We haven't made it that far yet...we took last week to make a big moving day up with our Mom's and Kellie (WHO WERE HUGE HELPS!) and then we came home for the weekend and trucked it back up here with another car load. So, here are some pics of the outside of our apartment so you can see where we're living:

We're actually on the top right corner of this building, you can't see our windows from this picture.

These stores are directly across the strees from us. (A retail shop, travel agency, furniture boutique, and a SUPER expensive restaurant...probably won't be visiting there soon! ;) )

This is the Metra stop right across from us, there's an actual station behind all of these stores.

So this fun name plate is on the wall beside our front door. :)

And this sign welcomed us into our new apartment! :)

The five us spent the rest of the evening unloading boxes from the truck...wait, I take that back. About 5 or 6 guys (other GRAs and both of Scott's bosses) unloaded and carried everything up the stairs for us in a matter of minutes! What great guys! AFTER that we spent the rest of the night unpacking boxes and made a pizza run to Geno's East for some Chicago style pizza (which Scott and I ate on for two days after!). So, we got most of the stuff unpacked and the next morning...what we'd been waiting for...

YAY FOR IKEA!!! :) We shopped until our stomachs started growling so then what did we do...well what else!? We stopped for lunch at the IKEA cafeteria. Scott and I had some pretty bangin' Swedish meatballs with Lingonberry sauce! Which you can also purchase at IKEA. Yummm-o!

The next couple of days we spent trying to make our apartment look a bit more like home. Here's what we've come up with so far...some of the rooms still need a lot of work in the decor department.

Our kitchen :)

And this is one side of our living room...it's a pretty big space, and we're not quite sure what to do with it yet.

This is our guest room (those clothes are actually hanging up in a closet now and we bought a comforter for the bed). Those are the desks that the school supplied us with and the desktop computer they've supplied us with as well!

This is our bedroom. :)

And last but not least, this is our little bitty bathroom...okay it's not unbearably small, but those of you who knew that bathroom we had at my Mom & Dad's...this seems tiny. It just needed a little color though. :)

So there you have it...a tour of our new apartment! Once we finish the decorating I'll post some more pics. I'll try to take some pics around campus this week too. :)

If you haven't see my post about GREASE make sure you click on the web album in the next post! :)

GREASE is the word...is the word...is the word...

2009-07-29T16:30:00.010+02:00

Hey guys! So, FINALLY for all of you who didn't get to come to our grand production of GREASE you can see loads of pictures of the performance and some behind the scenes pics. I have never had so much fun! I may be addicted to performing in musicals now. :) I do know that Wheaton Drama will be doing Oliver! and Chicago this year....yay!! I just might have to go audition. Anyway, Kellie and I had SUCH a blast doing GREASE this summer...though there were a couple of rough patches it was so worth it. It was so much fun to make so many new friends and let me tell you...thesbians are a hoot to hang out with! Those crazy kids...we loved them!
CLICK HERE FOR MY GREASE WEB ALBUM!!

GREASE

Here are even a couple of videos for your viewing pleasure! ;)

Busy Week!

2009-07-06T23:29:00.002+02:00

So, the past couple weeks have been kinda busy. We had a wonderful visit with our precious Lauren. For those of you who don't know, Lauren lived very close to us for a year in Poland. She lived in the city of Olawa, which was about a 20 minute train ride from our place. This beautiful lady became part of our family last year. It's amazing how close living in a foreign country can bring strangers. And the funny thing is, Lauren is from Owensboro and went to school with Scott and we only came to know her from living in Poland with her. She is a precious part of our lives now...her and her wonderful new husband Aaron.
I've also been super super busy with my GREASE rehearsals. I'm not real sure how I'm feeling about it. The cast is a hoot to hang out with, but I'm a little nervous about the performance. It just doesn't seem like it's coming together real well. YIKES! Here's a pic of us hanging around during rehearsal - my sister Kellie and Vance (playing the part of Teen Angel).

So, the MAJOR part of this week - Scott and I taught the missions class at VBS this past week. It was a good time, but WHEW was it tiring! Scott and I also brought a friend, Jaci, with us each day and she LOVED it! Jaci also became a Christian at VBS this week too...so that was pretty precious to be a part of. :)

I would love to write more...but I'm feeling pretty crappy today. Sinuses and whatnot - blech! Have a wonderful week guys!

More to come soon! Can you believe we move in TWO WEEKS!!!! HOLY COW!

Some good Zydeco...

2009-06-23T23:44:00.002+02:00

The beginning of this past week was fairly uneventful...being bored out of our minds in the mornings, then me going to GREASE rehearsal at nights - normally a good time. I hate having to leave Scott three nights a week now and our rehearsals are closed so he can't ever come with me. BUT the fun thing about this week - the WC Handy Blues and BBQ Fest! Always a good time and a Henderson tradition for the past 19 years. Thursday night is Zydeco night - complete with red beans & rice and gator-on-a-stick. As you can see Scott and I enjoyed a good bowl of red beans & rice w/ a little andouille sausage thrown in - YUUMM!!!

The past two years Scott and I have missed the Handy Fest because we were in Poland so we were super stoked to be able to make it this summer. My parents and Scott's parents have made it a tradition each year to go to Zydeco night together. My Father-in-Law, Jim, is cajun (from Crowley, LA) and we all love anything cajun related! :) This year Jim wasn't able to enjoy it with us, but Debbie and Brandon both came down to listen to the Zydeco with us. :)

Dad always enjoys Zydeco night too...and he likes him some soft serve ice cream!

Shea walked over from his place too with his fun new purchase. :)

So, that was the highlight of our week! Our weekend was spent helping out with Cindy's son's wedding. A good time, but WHEW were we tired after that!

Can you believe it?!

2009-06-18T19:28:00.010+02:00

(Last night after the Handy Fest - Downtown Henderson)

We're back! So, after thinking about it and spending the better part of the morning re-reading my entire blog through teary eyes...I've decided to give this blogging thing another go! Actually, it's probably due to the fact that Kellie just sent me an email saying "Are you going to start blogging again when you get to school?" Yes! Yes I am! I may re-title my blog to "Grad School Adventures in Chi-Town." :)

(During our grad school search trip to Chicago & Grand Rapids - Navy Pier)

(After looking at a school in Grand Rapids we stopped by the lake.)

AND THE WINNER!! We are SO excited about attending school here!

It really was quite the trip down memory lane reading through everything again...so many things I'd forgotten about. What an amazing time we had. We were so so blessed. I mean, what newlywed couple gets to move to Poland during their first two years of marriage, be missionaries, go to Paris on their one year anniversary, learn to speak another language, and leave that country feeling as though they have a home and a family there? Wow. There are no words.

"So!" you say, "What have the Newman's been up to since their big move home?" Well, here's a run down for you:

So, living at home has been a blessing and a bit difficult - going from completely on your own to totally dependent on your parents again - very humbling. We searched for months to try to find jobs.

As far as jobs go, Scott and I both applied to be substitute teachers...he worked just about every day (bless his heart!) while I opted out and got a job working at Sun Tan City. Whew! It's been a long 10 months.

This gal was the one reason I stayed at STC as long as I did - one of my best girls, Angel. She is something else and Scott and I have become so blessed to have her and her family in our lives. They've become like family to us! A precious precious lady.

At her daughter Jaci's birthday party. I made Jaci that quilt for her birthday. The first quilt I've ever made and it turned out pretty darn cute!

Since we've been home Scott and I have had a rough time staying put in one church because we help out so much...if we weren't moving to Chicago in a month we would make this our home church.

In Owensboro - I have no words to describe how much I adore this church, the people in it, the teaching, the ministries, the music...everything about it. A precious place. We started going there a couple times a month starting in October since then we've started taking Angel and her family with us and occasionally Mom & Dad will go too. My heart is just breaking that we won't be able to be a bigger part of it. :( But we've loved every Sunday we've been able to attend there!

Here are a few other things that we've been up to since we've been home:

This was at the Engage International Conference - We led music during the conference and had a blast getting to know so many international students. :

Scott and I led CROSS at HCC during the school year - these were a few of our faithful guys who always attended meetings. We took them on a weekend mission trip to do some work at this church and had a blast!

We went down to Louisiana with the fam to see our grandparents, aunts & uncles, cousins...and of course to eat some good cajun cookin'! :)

I had the priviledge to be in one of my best friend's weddings! YAY for Kat & Jonny Drew!

Since then we've been hiking with the Drew's and hanging out with Davis's as well. Two of my favorite couples ever.

(L- Hiking at Audubon Park R- Couple's night at the Davis's...once again, the ladies dominated in Cranium!)

All my high school gals at our bud Beth's wedding. YAY for high school flashbacks! :)

We've been able to spend loads of time with the Stanley family - Dad's side. (Unfortunately you can't see the other upteen Stanley's in this picture.)

The dreaded ice storm where we all had to move in with Shea for a week. Scott and I came down with the plague and were quarintined to the back, uppermost secluded spot in Shea's house so no one else would catch it. :) (Below - our beautiful trees destroyed by the ice)

Scott's birthday! He got a Didjeridoo from my Dad. :) Shea got one for his birthday too...they've both been playing them nonstop ever since! hehe

And so there you have it! The past nine months in a nutshell! Currently, we're up to being unemployeed, filling out Grad School papers, trying to spend as little money as possible, Scott's playing softball each week, and yours truly has rehearsals three nights (sometimes four) a week for this summer's Madisonville Community Theater production of GREASE! Yep. I'm going to be in a play. A musical no less! I've never been in a play before. Kellie's going to be in it too! YAY for sisterly bonding! :) It's been a blast! I don't have a huge part, Kellie and I are both in the chorus. I do get to sing a special song during a scene change though...and that's fun! :) Come see it! Tickets are $15 and you can get all the info about the play here: http://www.glemacenter.org/

Have a great week! I promise you'll be hearing from me soon!
Love to you all!

I call him Albert...'cause he's so contrary

2008-09-24T16:59:00.004+02:00

Yesterday Scott and I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon with one of the most precious ladies I've ever known. I met Ms. Ione when I was working for Wesleyan Heights UMC as their youth director. I would give the children's sermons on Sunday morning during both services. Ms. Ione attended the 11am service. She would sit and smile real big at me while I was giving my sermons each Sunday. One day I was in my office and received a call from her asking if I could come over some time and she would give me some coaching on public speaking. ;) Scott and I went over to her condo one afternoon and stayed for several hours.

Ms. Ione also used to record readings of the Bible for the blind. The first time we went over to her place she showed us her room where she records. She had a huge Bible placed on a table with quite the impressive tape recorder infront of it. I can't remember what book she had read through but she'd gone a long way. Ione just now quit recording because her advisor told her they were recording on cds now and her equipment was a bit out of date. She's also a phenomenal writer. She has given me several of her books that she written, including her autobiography "Hayloft to Heaven" which she wrote and had published at age 84. One of my most cherished books from her is a short little book called "The Joy of Trusting." This book came along in my carry-on on every flight since my first one to Poland. Her words, experience, and trust in the Lord have always been a huge encouragement and comfort to me.

She told us of her teaching careers, how she taught ESL to Czech students, and she told us all about her travels which she began after the death of her husband. Her first trip was to: Hawaii, Austrailia, New Zealand, and Tahiti. She's been to Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Norway.....and to London via the QE2 Concorde! She was about 70 years old when she began travelling the world. When she heard the news that we were moving to Poland to be missionaries she was delighted. We knew the world traveller that she was and how excited she was about our trip to Poland, so I created a special picture for her which is of us and our city in Poland. It now hangs on her wall.

We went to Ms. Ione's again yesterday. It was such a joy to see her; ALWAYS cheerful and full of joy. She was just a bright and bubbly as always. Ione told us how she felt very well except for a little pain in her knee when she walks. The doctors say that she can't have knee surgery now because of her age. She is still very capable of driving, but chooses not to incase she had to get out of her car in a hurry she didn't think she could manage. We sat and chatted for hours. Scott and I showed her pictures of Europe and of our students and she gleamed with joy and let out great "Oh"s and "Oh my stars!" every so often. Ms. Ione has a map of the world in her home with push-pins in all of the places she's travelled in her years. She let us put one in Poland and told us since she can't travel anymore, we're travelling for her. What an honor. :)

We love you Ms. Ione! You are a blessing from the Lord.

Ms. Ione is 91 years old today and just as lovely as she was in this picture. We showed her our pictures on her new laptop. It was a present to herself for her 90th birthday. As she was waiting for it to "warm up" yesterday before we could show her our pictures she made me smile with this comment: "I call him Albert...'cause he's so contrary."

Finally Home and Trying to Get it Together...

2008-09-04T05:28:00.004+02:00

Again, I say "I'm sorry" to those of you who have kept up with our blog for two years...I could have at least written a "Hey! We're home!" but honestly, things have just been crazy. And strange.

We left our home in Poland on July 28th. Words cannot express the feelings and emotions that came with this staple event in our lives. The Sunday before we left I cried and cried and cried on my poor sister's shoulder during church. It's been a long time since I've cried that hard. I had just bottled up the emotions for months, working with the KBC Team, working an English camp, and then traveling with Kellie & Blake, plus trying to pack everything up. There just wasn't time for emotion. Saying goodbye to our students, to Elaine & Jason, Wojtek & Agnieszka...just heartbreaking. Packing up our home of two years...the longest we've ever lived somewhere as a married couple...in just a couple of days and a few suitcases...no words. Plus the ridiculous anxiety that came with getting back on a 9 hour flight...horrendous. Again...my poor sister, she was SO there for me. I don't think I could have made it without her.

Anyway, we finally made it home, slept in OUR bed for two nights and then drove to Chicago to pick up our 4 Polish youth who would stay with us for two weeks...(one for 4). We took these kids everywhere. Thanks to everyone who helped get them here, visited them, or provided us with tickets...you were a huge blessing! We've been taking the past two weeks to try to get some sort of "normal" life back together here and again...draining. Of course it's wonderful to be home and to be around family...but I think most people don't understand how difficult such a transition is. Our life as a married couple has been in Poland. We've lived on our own, we had a daily routine that we enjoyed and worked for us, we knew how to deal with daily tasks there...cleaning, buying groceries, paying bills, using telephones. Everything is different here. We're literally having to learn how to share a home with parents, use cell phones, buy "American" groceries, decide what kind of sponge to wash my dishes with! I know, it sounds ridiculous...but literally all seems knew and strange to us. Frankly, it's been tough. I know it's been forever since I've sent out a newsletter too and I had planned on sending out a final one and I still hope to, but it's just been the last thing I've wanted to do...to have to think of all of the things I left behind there, while I'm trying to move on here. I just haven't been up to it. But we hope you know how much we've appreciated your support and prayers.

And don't get me started on jobs! We're trying to figure out where the Lord wants us right now. I think I may have found something I can put my time and energy into. Please just keep us in your prayers as we keep seeking and trusting the Lord for guidance.

We will be leading campus ministry at Henderson Community College this year so that's one thing that we're really excited about. One thing we do know...the Lord has given us a heart for college students! We're so thankful that He's made it where we can spend this working with students where we're at, while still trying to save money for seminary.

We have two seminaries in mind right now...Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and Wheaton College outside of Chicago. We're hoping to go and visit both colleges in October. :)

Well, that's the update for now! It has been nice to be back on here and post a blog entry. It is familiar and I have missed it. I hope you've enjoyed it too!

Blessings!

STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNGGGG!!!!!

2008-06-27T11:01:00.002+02:00

AAAHHHH!!! Who has the best husband and friends in the world? This girl. Last night, The Police played in a city near Katowice (2 hours from us). Our friend Andy had a ticket to go see them with our other friend, Pete. Pete had one extra place in his car and kept asking Scott if he wanted to go too. We were pretty excited for Andy to get to go...I was secretly SUPER jealous though because my brother and sister had seen them the past year in the States and I SSSOOOO wanted to see them too and they were going to be SSSOOO close to us! So, the concert was yesterday and Scott and I headed back into the city (from Olawa) for a day out and Pete was going to pick up Andy here in Olawa, so we said bye and wished Andy a great time. Scott and I go to McDonald's for lunch and I just assumed we'd be spending the day out by IKEA and as we're sitting there eating lunch, here walks Pete into our McDonald's. I immediately knew what was going on and practically ran out of McDonald's to get in Pete's car to go see The Police. AAAAAHH!!!!! When we got in the car I assumed we would stop by Olawa to pick up Andy and that's when Scott told me that Andy had given up his ticket so Scott and I could go together. What a guy. I love that kid...what a gift to give up his ticket to see THE POLICE so I could go with my hubby.

It was AMAZING. AMAAAAAAZZZZING!!!!

Here is a clip from someone's cell phone from our concert. For now, enjoy and I'll write more later.

Time is a flyin'...

2008-06-24T14:14:00.002+02:00

It's been one quick and very busy summer. This is why I haven't written since...well, since I haven't written. Scott and I are in charge of summer teams when they come over in the summer. "In charge" meaning: planning their daily schedules, making sure they know how to get around, and making sure they're fed properly. This week we are in Olawa doing a "day camp" of sorts for English students here. I am responsible for breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day for 7 people. Whew! Matter of fact, I have to start lunch soon so I don't have much time to write. Anyway, I'm enjoying it. I love cooking and I love taking care of the team so it goes hand in hand. :) During the days while I'm here shopping for groceries and cooking the team leads games & activities from 1-3pm. At 6pm we have a 2 hour cafe each night where we play card games, Scott and Andy play some acoustic stuff, and then we watch a Nooma video. Last night was our first night and it went really well.

Scott and I had the opportunity to make friends with a guy who lives nearby and joined in on our cafe last night. He's in his 30s with two boys - 11 & 13 and his wife of 15 years is about to divorce him. We're hoping we get more chances this week to love on him a bit. So, keep him in your prayers...his name is Jurek (Yoorek).

Okay, time to get back to work!!

HAPPY DADDY'S DAY!!

2008-06-15T18:42:00.006+02:00

Let me take a very important moment to say...HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to the greatest man in the world, my Daddy! :) This guy has been through a heck of a lot the past couple years...not sure how the four of us kids got so lucky to have such a great Dad. We are incredibly blessed, that's for sure. Love you Daddy! :)

"Proud to be a coal-miner's daugher!" Here he is licking the wall at the Wieliczka Salt Mine...testing to see if the walls were really made of salt. :) (They were!) I think this was Dad's favorite part of the trip. ;)

Here he is with my Mom on a tram in Vienna catchin' all the sites. ;) I love my parents. :) Mom & Dad...enjoy your time alone now cause in just a few weeks you'll have a full house again! :)

And another BIG HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to the greatest Father-in-Law in the world! I'm one lucky gal to have married into such a great family. :) Love you Jim!

Prince Caspian

2008-06-05T13:22:00.004+02:00

Last night we were able to go see Prince Caspian, the new Narnia movie. There are very few movies that move me the way the Narnia movies do. It was amazing. There's just something about the way they portray Aslan that really really gets to me. So, C.S. Lewis was a Christian when he wrote these books and it I feel like he hits the nail on the head with Aslan. It literally makes me speechless. When I see these films and Aslan comes on the screen I just automatically well up inside, I tear up, and I even get butterflies in my stomach. I feel as though it is this perfect image of the Lord. That's what my Lord is like. In The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe the comment is made, "He's not a tame lion, but he is good." Aaaah! Love it. In this second movie it's just perfect. Aslan has the ability to make [even the waves obey him], but his relationship with Lucy is like a loving Father to his child. It takes my breath away. Aaaaah!!! If you haven't seen it....go! And when you do...let me know what you think! Here's an international trailer.

Breathe...

2008-06-02T19:22:00.009+02:00

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

STO LAT!

2008-05-25T00:24:00.001+02:00

It's my hubby's 25th Birthday! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT! I LOVE YOU!

HOLY COW!

2008-05-21T17:44:00.003+02:00

WOW....our summer team gets here in two days! What does that mean? It means that our time living alone here in Poland, doing our thing, enjoying life at a slow pace will cease to exist after Friday. It means that our two years here is quickly coming to an end. It means that my sister and brother-in-law will be here in 7 WEEKS. It means that we'll have to leave our friends and family here that we've grown so close to. It means that we'll have to say goodbye to this precious place, this city and culture that we love and have come to know as our "home." This is big...really, think about it....Scott and I have been married 29 months now. We've lived in Poland 20 of those 29 months. All of our "traditions" that we've started as a married couple...Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, BOTH Anniversaries...they've all started here. Our way of living, as a couple, has been established in this culture...the way we eat, the way we cook, the way we excercise, interact with people...all done here. Being honest, generally I do like living in Europe better than the US, life is slower, society here isn't as materialistic or as egocentric as American society (sad but true), we are healthier, the culture is incredibly rich with history, life, and diversity. However, we do miss our family and friends like you wouldn't believe...and of course we miss us some Arby's and Taco Bell somethin' awful. ;) I couldn't bare to be away from the people I love the most for another year.

So, needless to say - things here are INCREDIBLY hectic! We've got the girls coming in 2 days, we have 5 solid weeks of ministry with them (7 days a week), then we're off to the mountains somewhere to work a 10 day English camp, then two days later Kellie & Blake get here for two weeks and then we move home. JA CIE KRĘCA!

Life goes by quick...and it's going to go much quicker.

However, let me say we're pretty stoked that tomorrow we will take a break from our busy lives to see this! That's right...we get to see it before you do since we're 7 hours ahead. Muuuaahhhahaha!

Happy Days...

2008-05-12T21:01:00.006+02:00

I'm always late...but better late than never right? And this blog is only a day late. I was thrown off because the fam had their Birthday/Mother's Day celebration a day early, but enough with excuses!

First to my Momma - Happy Mother's Day...she's pretty much the best mother in the world...hands down. I want to be just like her when I grow up. :) She is absolutely beautiful, she's insanely talented in a million ways, AND she's learning Spanish! I adore everything about her. You're "more precious than rubies" Mom. :) And she's a pretty funny gal. :)

And of course, to my amazing Mom-In-Law. I was blessed with a wonderful, loving, spunky Mother-in-law and I absolutely adore her. She's one of the strongest women I know. :) Happy Mother's Day Debbie! We love you!!

Last but certainly not least a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" (said with a Brak voice) to my big brother Shea-Bird. There are no words to express how much I love this guy. Handsome, funny, witty, incredibly caring, and definitely the coolest and most talented guy I know. He's pretty wonderful and I want to hang out with him all the time. Happy Birthday again Shea! Enjoy your Choco-Softies! ;) I love you!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE THESE PEOPLE.

I know...I know...

2008-05-10T22:16:00.002+02:00

I feel terrible! I can't believe it's been almost a MONTH since my last post. I apologize. :( Things here are great though...we can't believe that our summer team will be here in TWO weeks, holy cow. In no time it'll be time for us to pack up and head home!

Things with the youth group are going good, they have the money for tickets and they all have their visas so they'll be coming to visit in July. YAY! :)

I just wanted to say that I'm sorry (to you loyal readers) for the lack of postage (haha), I really want to write a new entry soon. The Lord's doing some neat stuff and I'd just like to share, but for tonight...we still have to balance our budget and I need to work out a meal plan for the week...and we're pretty exhausted already...so I'll leave you with some awesomeness.

My sister sent me this in an email and I couldn't resist but to share the wealth! :)

All from Ice Cream

2008-04-13T00:25:00.002+02:00

As I've mentioned before, Scott and I sponsor a little boy living in Uganda through World Vision. Isaac is his name and he is precious precious precious! Scott and I have something we call an ice cream fund. Last year we heard the statistic that Americans spend enough money on ice cream in one year to eliminate world hunger. So how do we take that info and put it into practical use? Not eat ice cream? That wouldn't do anybody and good! Plus we love ice cream! But, it is a scary statistic...so we decided to set up an "Ice Cream Fund." We decided that YES INDEED we would eat ice cream, but we would keep track of each cone and every zloty spent on ice cream and put that same amount into a separate fund and we would decide how to spend it at the end of the year. Last year the two of us spent roughly 100 bucks on ice cream alone. We decided in December that we would see if we could somehow give that money to our sponsored child, Isaac and his family. At Christmas we sent the gift through World Vision. What a precious gift we received this month. We just got a letter in the mail this month from Isaac and his family. With our measely $100 he bought what you see in this picture. Here he is with his uncle (whom he lives with). With the money he bought a school uniform, a backpack, new shoes, a matress, extra food for the family (he has 5 siblings), and a "she goat" who they say is pregnant. :) Scott and I teared up while reading this letter from him. He and his family have been in our life for 2 years now. This is most precious gift we've ever received, to be able to help provide for this family and see how excited he is about his new uniform and just this excited look on his face...worth a million dollars if we had it. I'll say it again...if you aren't sponsoring a child through World Vision I can't promote it enough. :) Our precious Isaac and his family have enriched our lives and blessed us abundantly. One day, we will go to visit him. :)

On another fun note...today is my birthday! And a lovely one it's been! I woke up this morning to a beautiful card made by my wonderful husband. He gave me my birthday present (a new rainjacket YAY!) and made me some INCREDIBLY YUMMY vanilla/cinnamon pancakes for breakfast!

I got emails and phone calls from my family and friends from home. :) :) :) This evening friends came over and we had a great time! Today is also Elaine's birthday so we decided to throw a party and celebrate together. :)

A great day. :)

ADORABLE...

2008-04-06T21:05:00.003+02:00

We spent last weekend in Opole, a city about an hour away from us. This summer, we'll be working in an elementary school there with our summer team so we went there last weekend to stay with a missionary family there to work up some plans for the summer and Scott was invited to preach at our church plant there on Sunday. (He did wonderfully, by the way!) Anyway, while we were there we just spent a lot of our time with the family...Gary, Ewa, and their children Tommy & Kalena. Gary is Austrailian and his wife Ewa is Polish. Their children are bi-lingual. This little girl is precious! And Scott is just adores her. I have to admit when she's speaking in English and throws in a random Polish word...it's pretty darn cute. She followed him around all weekend...he's going to make a pretty adorable dad one day. :)

Land of Jazz Bistros & Sushi Bars

2008-04-06T20:23:00.004+02:00

A couple weekends ago we took a two-night retreat to Warsaw. :) Last year we had the chance to visit several places outside of Poland...this year we've stayed at home. But, we did get to take a mini-vacation just to get away for a couple nights. The Poles around our area don't seem to be too keen on Warsaw because it's big and modern...to them it doesn't really feel Polish. We noticed a couple things about Warsaw...

1. You have a big modern-skyscraper skyline on one side and old European architecture on the other....strange, but we thought it was pretty cool. :)

2. Warsaw is VERY international...we spoke English the whole time *she says sheepishly*

3. There's a jazz bistro and a sushi bar on every corner!

4. They have a Hard Rock Cafe!! And we totally ate there. The giant building in the background was a "gift" from Stalin (the Russians). The Poles hate it. The Russians meant for it to be a "gift" to them to remind them that their "big brother" was always watching. Now, it's a movie theater. (okay okay, not ONLY a movie theater but that's what you enter through the main enterance. Scott and I thought it was pretty cool.

5. The squirrels there have long ears! Crazy! They'll eat right out of your hand too.

So...it was a fun trip! You can see all of our pictures from Warsaw here...http://picasaweb.google.com/ScottandJackieNewman/Warsaw

Tasty Eggs & A Happy Easter

2008-03-23T23:05:00.008+01:00

Or "Smacznego Jajka" as they say here in Poland. It means "tasty egg" sometimes they'll say "Happy Egg" to...and then of course there's always Wesołych Świąt which means "Happy Easter/Happy Holidays". We love Easter in Poland. Poles take Easter seriously...as it should be. It's a big family holiday...and for this family, it will continue to be even after we move home. Anyway, here's a short clip of a traditional Easter ritual here that occurs on Saturday. Families take their Easter baskets to the church and have them blessed by the priests. The baskets are filled with the things they will be eating for their family breakfast the next morning. Some are symbolic...typically eggs, meat, bread, salt & pepper.

After church today we headed to Wojtek & Aga's for Easter dinner. There were 8 of us...9 counting Dawidek (Dah-vee-dek). Again...I'm smitten with this kid. Here are some clips & pics.

HAPPY EASTER TO YOU ALL! Please take at least a moment to remember the reason for this precious day...I know I take it for granted all too often. Chwała Bogu! He is risen! :)

I can't resist.

2008-03-21T13:31:00.003+01:00

Have I mentioned that I ADORE this kid? I'm trying to conjure up a way to sneak him in my luggage on my way home. Shhh...don't tell his parents. ;)

A short clip...

2008-03-21T13:19:00.004+01:00

Here's just a short clip of the guys (David, Andy, & Scott) practicing "What If God" for the Teczowa concert last Wednesday. :) My camera doesn't take long clips...but at least you can hear about 30 seconds. The girl in the video is Sara, David's sister. Both of them will be visiting us in the States in August...YAY!!! :)

Busy as Always...

2008-03-20T17:02:00.005+01:00

Today is officially the "First Day of Spring." It's been snowing ALL DAY LONG! ;) For months we've had no snow...just consistantly cold temperatures, but it started snowing yesterday and hasn't stopped since. However it hasn't really stuck much because the sun is out so it just melts right away, but nonetheless...we have snow. :) Now when I'm ready for spring to be here. Oh well, I'll take snow over rain & wind any day!

Things have been busy here, but really good busy. We have had three incredibly sucessful Friday nights at "The Well." It's become one of our favorite parts of the week...but makes for a very long Friday! This week we're taking a break because it's Good Friday and our students have all gone home to celebrate and be with family. In addition to The Well, we have meetings here at the flat on Wednesday nights called: "Deeper Waters." The past two weeks we've had about 6-7 students! That's GREAT! These are students who missed The Well on Friday night and want to rewatch the video and students who were there but are wanting to talk more about what they saw. We had a GREAT meeting last night. Each Wednesday night I cook dinner and dessert for our students, we enjoy a meal together and then rewatch Friday's video and that has lead into really good discussion each week. I can't explain how we've seen the Lord bless this ministry! We couldn't be happier with the outcome. :) Wednesday nights are my favorite because I LOVE LOVE LOVE cooking dinner and dessert for these students and making them feel at home. One student in particular has a job as a postman and for about the past month his only meal on Wednesdays have been the meals that I've cooked for him...before we knew exactly what his job entailed, he called me and said, "I'd love to come to your Nooma meeting, but I've had a long day and I'm very hungry. Nooma would be good food for my soul, but if you could prepare some food for my body I would be grateful." *lol* So from that night on I've prepared dinner each Wednesday night. This student works 12 hour shifts a day and DOESN'T get a break for lunch...or a break at all. Incredible. Anyway, this is what I love to do. :)

This week is "Recollection" week in our high school - Teczowa. This is where we lead English Clubs every other week and we are in very good standing with the teachers and director of the school. The religion teacher asked us last month if Scott and I would prepare an EVANGELICAL concert for this week. In a public school....holy cow...what a wide open (and frankly- scary) door! Teenagers can be brutal...especially the ones here. But we said "yes" and Scott, Dawid, and Andy put together an incredible program! The day before the students had a similar assembly, but it was put on by a local Charasmatic Catholic church and lasted for 4 hours. 4 hours of charasmatic praise & worship and testimonies. Our program lasted 45 minutes. Scott had the idea of presenting the Bible as a love story and picked out 7 songs that went along with what he was wanting to say. These three guys gave a GREAT concert and the stories that Scott told inbetween each song went perfectly. It was honest, relevant to their lives and no "churchy" words were used that nonbelievers wouldn't be able to understand. We did use some Derek Webb...and that made us happy. (Though we would have gotten kicked out of the school if we'd done this in the States.) The lyrics were edgy and strong...but so honest and relevant. It was a beautifully constructed program which could only come with a Devine inspiration. I'm pleased, as were the guys, Wojtek, and Basia - the religion professor.

So something real fun! We suprised Lauren this week with - HER MOM! Yep! Sneaky people we are. Her mom had secretly bought tickets to come to Poland and let Scott & me know. We picked her up from the airport on Tuesday and brought her to our flat where Lauren was "meeting us for lunch" COMPLETELY oblivious to the fact that her Mom was in the country. It was fantastic. Here's her reaction. :) Listen closely!

I love suprises. :)

Also one more fun thing...not quite as exciting, but I'm having fun. I'm learning how to knit! I'm in the process of making a scarf right now, but I love it...and it's pretty darn addicting! :) I love the yarn that I picked out...but I think I should have started with some thicker yarn. Oh well!

Okay, well Happy Easter to you all! We'll be spending it with our church and we'll be having a big Easter Dinner at Wojtek & Aga's with Lauren and her mom and Andy. It should be a good time. We're thinking about taking the Monday & Tuesday after for a short trip to just get away for a couple days. Maybe going to Warsaw since we've never been there. We'll see!

Yesterday

2008-03-09T15:20:00.002+01:00

We woke up this morning kinda tired, it’s been sort of a long weekend with The Well and all. Yesterday was a nice day. Scott took me out to dinner and we went to see one of our students who sings in a choir. They’re concert was at this lovely cathedral about 20 minutes away from our place (on foot). She had invited us to the concert so we went to support her. Something about it struck me. Here in this place we’re surrounded by what seems like cold, lifeless, giant cathedrals where things have just become routine. Easter is coming up so the concert included songs about the crucifixion of Jesus. I think that as Protestant Christians we usually allow ourselves to just become “comfortable” with Jesus. We tell people about how He’s our “good friend” and we can talk to him about the most ridiculous things…which I do. BUT, I think we allow ourselves to forget…the Lord is REGAL…he’s the King of all kings. Sitting in that church last night listening to the choir sing, it just sent a chill through my bones. I imagined the angels mourning over the death of Jesus while that choir was singing. The sounds filled that big, cold, somewhat lifeless building with the presence of the Lord. I found myself with goosebumps every now & then. I just let myself forget how big the Lord is, how righteous and perfect, how immaculate He is. And the thing that touched my heart the most: Sitting all around me were Polish babcza’s (bab-cha’s) or little old lady’s…some with friends, others by themselves. I’ve never said that we’re here to bash the Catholic church or convert people to the Protestant faith…it’s not about that for us. It’s about helping people deeper their relationship with Christ and hopefully deepening our own while we’re here…which I believe we have. To look at those little old ladies…they’re something else, truly. They are committed warriors of their faith. Whenever I see them on the trams, it’s guaranteed that they’ll be praying whenever they pass a church…I hear them. They love the Lord. Sure…there are some things about the Catholic faith that well…are questionable as far as putting Mary on such a high pedestal or all of the rules and regulations that they must follow to be good Catholics…but who’s to say that the Protestant church is any “better off” or “are TRUE Christians.” That’s bull if you ask me. When I see someone following Jesus, living like He lived, teaching what He taught…those are the people I recognize as Christians. Denomination is the furthest thing from my mind. I’ll leave you with a video of that choir singing last night. The quality may not be fantastic.

A Saturday Update!

2008-03-08T21:09:00.005+01:00

I love Saturday! Today is National Women's Day here in Poland...so HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY! Today I'm sure we'll see lots of guys carrying around flowers. :) Today are plans are to be lazy, get some blogging & emailing done, and later go to an Easter concert at one of the cathedrals here...one of our students is singing in the choir. :) Okay...a bit of randomness that I didn't get a chance to blog about! So, my favorite type of juice here is called "Red Oranges from Sicily" and it is YUMMY!! It's my mom's favorite too! We were at our giant indoor market the other day and what did we stumble upon...Red Oranges from Sicily! Yep...they're real...red oranges! And they are just as yummy as the juice! I'm sure we could NEVER find these at home, so we're going to enjoy them while we're here! Here's a pic to prove it...

Okay, and so The Well...last night was our second week for The Well! YAY! We've been so excited with the turnout and our students' responses. Last night's video was called "Polluted" and it talked about how maybe the church or its people don't always give a good representation of the life that Jesus lived while he was here. It was pretty good. We had several new students this week who sat around and chatted with us after the video for at least an hour or so. It was great! We couldn't be more pleased! :) We are looking forward to the following weeks. We actually had a bit of a "scare" yesterday as we were setting up. We (me, Scott, Lauren, and Andy) were at the chuch from around 2:00 yesterday. Lauren and I decided to finally go get lunch/dinner about 4:00. So we went to pick up some "Nalesniki" (crepes) and walked back into the courtyard where our church is. Now our church is in the Triangle...which isn't exactly the best part of town, but we've never really felt unsafe there. Plus it was still light outside so it wasn't a big deal. Anyway, we were headed back into the courtyard and we noticed that 3 young (20's) guys were walking behind us. They were pretty rough looking, one's faced was all scratched up where he had probably been in a fight and they were all drinking. They were probably talking to us but we couldn't understand and when we noticed they were behind us we started walking a bit quicker. We didn't know this at the time, but luckily Wojtek was rounding the corner into the courtyard and noticed the guys following us so he quickened his pace too. When Lauren and I came around the side of the church where the door is they were right behind us and we were afraid they were going to follow us into the church. Luckily the guys hadn't locked the door back so we got right in and locked the door behind us. They started to knock on the door and whistle...we just left it locked and ignored it. Anyway, a few seconds later I heard it unlock and I thought somehow they had managed to unlock our door so I ran to it and locked it back before they could open it and I looked through the peephole and it was Wojtek. :) When I opened the door to let him in I noticed that there were more of them standing outside five or six. So, we ate our lunch while the guys were still outside the church. Wojtek decided to call our other pastor, Bogdan. Bogdan decided he would call the police because technically, drinking in public is illegal here. We just decided to pray for protection for us and for our students who would be coming that night. I was a bit concerned that they would be angry if they knew we called the police and that they might come back later that night angry AND drunk. The guys were no where in sight after we prayed and the police never showed up. :) Whew!
Looking back it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. They were just guys standing around drinking and absolutely nothing happened...but at the time, I just wasn't sure what kind of mindset they were in. You just can never tell who people will act when they've been drinking a lot. Anyway, the night was fine, students came, and we had a great time! Praise the Lord! :)
Here are a couple videos just so you can get a glimpse of how it looks on Friday nights. So, in the first video I'm basically saying: "Okay, so we're at The Well and it's the 2nd week. I'm in the balcony and I'm going to show you around." BUT, I had to whisper because the video was going and you can't really hear a thing I'm saying. In the second video I'm showing you the botton floor where the students are watching the video. :) They're not great quality, but at least you'll have an idea of what it looks like. :)

Fun stuff

2008-02-29T10:20:00.003+01:00

Hey everyone! So today is the big day...Our first "Well" is tonight and we're really excited! It's about 10:00am and we're getting things together...so if you're reading this today, please say a prayer for us. :)

For your enjoyment, I've decided to post a couple of awesome YouTube videos.
Awesome little kids...

Videos, Nice Weather, & Random Spiritual Thoughts

2008-02-26T23:57:00.008+01:00

Sorry to rub it in your faces *those of you who 'round our part of KY* but the weather here the past three days has been GORGEOUS! Sunday it was in the 60s, sunny, and beautiful! We couldn't help but get out and enjoy it! Even the mariachi's were out in the rynek...

Last weekend we also made it to Pizza Hut..

And managed to get out, go to the park, and scout out some of the natives...

These dwarfs are everywhere around our city. Has something to do with communism actually. The one on the plate is fun...he's actually outside of the Pizza Hut...fitting because that's exactly how I feel every time I leave there. That one and the one with the flower are new additions to the city. We've had lots of new ones popping up here and there recently.

I love this city.

So...Friday's the day! We start up a new minstry, "The Well." We're so excited about it. We've had a great response from students so far. They seem to be really interested in the whole idea. We just sent out our February newsletter via snail mail...so all of you who's mailing address we have, you should be getting it within a couple days. If you'd like one and we don't have your mailing address, we can send it to you via email...just let me know if you'd like one! :) Anyway, it has some info on "The Well" in it. We really can feel how the Lord is already blessing it. He amazes me...the Lord. He just amazes me.

I spent hours sending out personal emails to students inviting them to and explaining the purpose of "The Well" and I've been blown away by how so many students are interested and how many of them are seeking.

Scott, Andy, and I watched a documentary on Mormons the other night...there are several of them here in the city on their 2 year mission. It was interesting, but heartbreaking at the same time. It's like every time I go into the city center I'm hoping to see some so we can invite them over to talk. Sometimes I just want to shake them and say..."Wake up! It's not supposed to be like that." Anyway...my experience & opinion on that is another blog, another time.

I'm so tired of hearing about "the laws." The things we're supposed to do and not supposed to do, which Presidential candidates we should be/shouldn't be supporting because we're "Christians", tired of hearing all of the things that are wrong with the church, why so many people are leaving it or not going at all. Once more...I'm not keeping a "tally" of how many people I "save" because I'm not doing anything. Praise the Lord for that. It's solely through the grace and power of God that I am occasionally able to put together a coherent sentence of who I am and why I'm here.

But I do know one thing that I wish more people understood. It is, has been, and will continue to be solely about Jesus. I think that's where the problems lie. Seems like people have forgotten that...I forget it often. Being a "Christian" has become and adjective when it should be a verb. The Christian religion has become about obeying laws, living up to a stereotype, listening to the right music, voting for the right people, telling everyone else what's wrong with this church, what's wrong with that church. It's simple really...but seems as though we've mucked it up with our selfishness and our desire for power...even us "Christians." It's about Jesus folks. And should only be about Him. If we love like He loved, cared about what He cares about, attempt to live like He lived...

His love does not bind us to the law it sets us free from it...so why do we do it to ourselves?

Blech...

2008-02-17T20:08:00.003+01:00

I know...I've been a slacker. To tell you the truth, not a whole lot has been going on recently. The majority of our students are back in their hometowns because it's winter break, so we have a lot of down time. BUT, we have been able to just spend some time with friends, which has been great.

We missed church this morning...first time in a long time, actually. I have a mixture of the stomach bug and sniffles. It's just been nice to stay home and rest today. I feel a bit better, but my sneezing & runny nose is getting worse. But, I did manage to complete a towel today! My sister, Kellie, has gotten me into the habit of embroidery. Lots of fun and a nice stress reliever! :)

I just got a package in the mail from her with a new apron (that she made) and some fun new dolls she's starting to make! They're filled with lavendar so they smell WONDERFUL, not to mention they're adorable!

While siblings are on my brain, ya'll pray for my brother Shea...he's come down with the black plague. He may resort to leeches if it doesn't go away soon. ;)

Chocolat

2008-02-07T18:24:00.000+01:00

So...today was/is sort of a "blah" kinda day for me. We had a meeting today about a summer camp that we'll be working, which was productive and exciting. Then we decided to eat lunch. Poland tends to have an abundance of "Kebab" places. Kebabs are this... a combination of some type of meat (usually chicken or pork) that they shave off of a giant rotating stick, and stick it in a pita with a ton o' vegatables on top. The meat looks like this: It's been over a year since I ate one of these...mainly because I got DOG-SICK after I ate it. Blech. Since then, when I'm in the mood for foor...this shaved meat soaked in garlic sauce is the LAST thing that my tummy craves. But today, the people we were with wanted to go so I just went along hoping that this experience wouldn't be as bad as the last. Well, it wasn't as terrible afterwards this time as it was before...but pleasant it was not. I would have much rather had some good 'ole Subway. No more kebabs for me! So, after we ate I was dying for something to relieve my taste buds. We headed to the mall where I was anticipating purchasing a double chocolate chip cookie. This is the SECOND time I've been to this Subway and they've let me down with a lack of freshly baked cookies. :( We continued to walk around the mall and ventured into the "World Cuisine" store where they sell American imports. Today, they had things like a boxes of 8 poptarts (blueberry, strawberry, apple-cinnamon, or smores) for about $12 bucks! Apparently poptarts are a delicacy here. They also had some random things like...one box of Betty Crocker Brownie Mix, one box of Chocolate Chip cookie mix (all ridiculously overpriced), marshmellows (big and small), about 4 gargantuan bottles of Worchesteshire sauce, Ceasar salad dressing for about $7, and some more randomness. It's just a fun store to go in and look around to see what things make it over and how much they charge people for imported American foods. This store had imports from Great Britain, Africa, Japan, and lots of other places. BUT...as we were leaving I spotted this little bar of goodness and couldn't resist . It costs me about $2 which wasn't terrible I suppose. It's been SO LONG since I had Hershey's chocolate. Europe does have some pretty fabulous chocolate, so I'm not complaining about that...but there's just something about Hershey's. It just melts in your mouth and it has such a distinct taste from other chocolates. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. :)

Speaking of Chocolate, we did have our "Chocolate Cafe" last Friday night (I think it was last Friday) anyway, it went over INCREDIBLY well! We had a blast! About 15 students came, we ate lots of chocolate, watched the movie "Chocolat" and ended with a promo for our new coffeehouse ministry "The Well." We had a really positive response from all of the students who attended so we are really looking forward to starting this ministry up on the 29th!

A 12 foot Pope!

2008-02-02T16:15:00.000+01:00

So, last Sunday me, Scott, and Andy went to a birthday party for our good friend Jurek (Yur-ek). His wife Maciejka (Ma-chea-ka) invited lots of friends from church over. We had such a great time! This picture shows Jurek sporting his daughter's lovely hat. ;) This picture is of me & Jurek's wife Maciejka. She is wonderful! :) And, here are friends Bogusia, Beata, and Gosia. Sweet, sweet ladies. :) Okay...so, on to the Pope. Jurek is an INCREDIBLE sculptor. He is commissioned by cities in Poland to make sculptures to put around the city. He has done several that are here in Wroclaw. Currently, Jurek is working on a statue of Pope John Paul II. It is absolutely amazing. AND MASSIVE! The detail in it is incredible, the resemblance in the statues of pictures of the Pope are unbelievable. This man is so talented. Anyway, here is a picture of us with the Pope. :)

Here's some video of so you can here a little Polish and see some of our friends. :)

Here's a little of us playing "Charades" (well...a mix of Charades & Pictionary) This is Maciejka trying to get her team to guess the word "Bi-Polar" (or the Polish equivalent). I love these people. :)

An update on our Chocolate Cafe will be coming soon! It was GREAT!!! :)

This is what it's about...

2008-01-26T17:44:00.000+01:00

Today we had some very good friends over. This is a couple we have become especially close to these past two years. Scott met Boguś when he came over for a one week mission trip in March. When we arrived last year we connected with them and started inviting to English Clubs, Nooma Meetings, Cafes and eventually got to the point where they felt comfortable enough around us to just hang out two-on-two. This is the second time they have come to our house for dinner. Boguś & Dorothy are very very busy, very smart students. Both attend church regularly and enjoy talking about spiritual things. The first time they came over for dinner I cooked a nice Cajun meal (jambalaya) for them and they really enjoyed it. This time, I cooked a good down home southern meal. BBQ Chicken with corn, fried potatoes, & corn bread. Then bought out the hot brownies & ice cream for dessert. :) We had a LOVELY time! This couple is very precious to us. Their relationship is one that is very rare here...they are not living together. They've been dating over 4 years and both still live with their families. That is incredibly rare. Tonight at dinner we had a chance to just talk and enjoy time with them. Boguś is leaving to study in Denmark this week. He'll be there until July so this is one of the last times we may ever get to see him. Dorothy is staying behind and we assured her that we would take care of her while Boguś is gone. We had a chance to share about our marriage and show them one of our Nooma videos on love, relationships... depicted in the way they were meant to be. They loved it and we believe it provided encouragment for them. We talked about the church and they mentioned that sometimes it could be boring. We were able to give them the name of a wonderful Catholic fellowship for students that is doing great things here. Hopefully they'll visit sometime. Before they left Scott asked a very personal question, if he could pray for Boguś before he left. He willingly accepted as Scott put a hand on his shoulder and thanked the Lord for our friendship, for their relationship, and for safe travels and all the blessings the Lord had given to them and us. It was a big step...but they were blessed by it, as were we by their company.

A common question that always comes up when we're in the States talking about our mission work here is "How many souls have been saved?" "How many people you led to Christ?" This is not why we're here. Of course it's our hope that all people will come to know the Lord, but if it's through our work, if it's through the testimony of someone else, if it happens and we have absolutely nothing to do with it....that's not the point. When Jesus was here he LOVED people, he CARED for people, he LISTENED to people. He did not keep a tally of how many followers he gathered up like fish in a net. Being a missionary isn't about numbers, it isn't about converting the world to your denomination, it's about loving people and BEING the Gospel, representing the love that Christ has for all of us...in a tangible way. Loving these students and letting them know how valuable they are, how much we care for them, but most importantly how much Jesus loves them and desires their hearts. That's what matters. THIS is what it's about.

2008-01-25T21:58:00.001+01:00

Lots of goings-on...

2008-01-21T20:36:00.001+01:00

So...hhhmmm not sure where to start? There has just been lots & lots going on recently. Let's start with something nice & simple! So...I got a hair cut! About a week or so ago Scott and I had a "date" day...very nice! We started out with a hair cut that took a LOT longer than expected! Apparently I have VERY VERY thick hair. So my hair has gone from this:To this:
I kinda miss it...my hair's never been that long before. :( Oh well...so after a haircut we went out to dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant near us...AMAZING food!
After dinner we went to our friend Konrad's Karniwal (or Carnival) ball at our church. Here is a clip of buddy Konrad dancing with his dance crew. Konrad's the kid with long curly hair wearing the mask. :)

So, we only stayed at the ball for about an hour then we had a show to see! Our beloved British friend, Bev provided us with our "date day." She scored us some fantastic seats at a musical here and provided us with the funds for food that day! :) The show we went to see was called "Swing" The Duke Ellington Show. Minus a little unexpected culture shock, it was a spectacular show! Here's the add for it...just because I thought it would be neat for you to hear what a typical Polish advertisement sounds like. :) And the goofy guy with the trumpet...that guy is definitely in the show.

Okay...so that was a fun day! What next?....Hhhmmm...I do have a video clip from youth the other night. :) Scott had the kids doing some kind of goofy game where they had to work together..."Being the body of Christ" kinda game. Here are our kiddos. :)

So...here is where much of my time & prayer has gone recently...

To my Pops...he's just had a rough year, but a stubborn Stanley he is and he just kept on truckin'...all over Europe as a matter of fact! He just had his back surgery on Friday and everything went smooth as silk...save for the giant epidural they stuck him with. ;) We told him if we'd known they were going to do that, we'd prayed for that too. He's a trooper! At home recovering now. The surgeon said it was a miracle that he was walkin' with the shape that his back was in! Duh. We already knew that, didn't we? ;) The surgeon sent him home after surgery without rehab and without a back brace! Praise the Lord! It just kills me how people can witness these kinds of miracles and still not believe...kills me. Anyway, thanks to all you faithful folk who keep on prayin' for us. We love ya! :) (And yes...in the picture, my Dad is "reading" a newspaper in Czech.

On to the next event...Ladies' Potluck! YEAH!! Last week, I had invited all the ladies from the church over to my place for a Ladies' Potluck. Lauren & I did this in the hopes that we could just get to know some of the women in the church better. So, this past Saturday, I had 10 here in my little flat which was a splendid number...just right. They all brought TONS o' grub...mostly sweets. We ate Pickle soup (my favorite! REALLY!), lots of sweets, and played a games...these women go nuts over door prizes! ;) So, this is not all of them...but I wanted to tell you who these gals are because I adore them all and we all attend church together. This first pick is Ewa (a Polish gal in our church), Jennifer - Missionary from Lexington, and Victoria - Ukrainian teaching English at a Christian language school at First Baptist Church.

This next pic is of Becky & Gosia. Gosia is the mom of one of youth - Michal (they're the ones who make us Pierogi when we go to their flat!) Becky is British and she's also working as an English teacher in the Christian school at First Baptist Church. I LOVE this gal! She is adorable and she has the loveliest British accent! And she's funny! :)

Next, Gosia (again) with Bev. I just cannot explain to you how much I love British people. I ADORE them! They crack me up. Everything they say is either hysterically funny or it just sounds SO....proper! My precious Bev...I just love her.

I know this isn't the greatest quality picture...but I love these two Polish ladies as well. Ewa L. (the mother of our youth-Dawid) and Bogusia in the back (mother of our other youth-Mariusz). All of these women feel like family to us. :)

And lastly, here's me & my gal Lauren. I am so glad that she's here. :)

So, that was our Ladies' Potluck. The women had so much fun they want to keep doing it! Gosia even asked if we could do it again the next Saturday! We decided this should at least be a monthly thing! Next time, Bev's going to lead it (here at our place) but she's going to make it a Curry Fest! This chick loves Indian food. I'm pretty excited. :)

So, what's on the schedule now? Well, Andy came over today and helped us put together care packages for our students. We'll be giving them out in class tomorrow before their exam. Then, on Wednesday we'll be setting up our "Free Tea/Coffee/HC" stand which will be a big hit. I'm terribly excited! Please pray that I have the courage to actually share my faith with students when they say "Why are you all doing this?!?!" ;) It's bound to happen. I want to be spiritually & mentally ready to be bold. :)

A new season

2008-01-17T12:23:00.000+01:00

I normally don't promote TBN...I would hardly EVER suggest for someone to watch it because I have some pretty strong opinions about it. I would never in a million years suggest a non Christian to watch it. I think most of it is a scam and has nothing about people's true relationship with the Lord...just one HUGE infomercial trying to sell Jesus to people like one might sell a vaccum cleaner. So, please disregard the fact that the following has a "TBN" label on the screen ;) I'm chosing not to judge Shane & Shane by their actions. ;) Anyway...I'm entering a new season with the Lord...maybe I'll share about it later but right now...just a tune for you! :)

Please pray for my Dad!! He's having surgery tomorrow on his back at 8am in Evansville. :) Thanks! :)

Today...

2008-01-07T23:13:00.001+01:00

In class, one of our students approached us...this one to be exact:

This is Maggie - adorable gal isn't she. :) She is one of the students who is a part of our "Student Prayer Ministry." Her sponsor's name is Lindsay. Lindsay & Maggie have been emailing back and forth and sharing pictures with one another. Maggie came up to me today and went on and on about how wonderful she thought the idea was. She was so thankful for Lindsay and the chance to get to know her. She told me about how she received pictures from Lindsay of Lindsay & her family. Maggie even went on and on about how adorable Lindsay's little boy is. (Which we know ;) )

I don't expect every relationship to "take off" this well...but it was just so encouraging that this ministry IS making a difference in the lives of some students. So, for those of you who are participating - I hope you have the same kinds of responses and if not...keep praying. I hope this has been an encouragement for you!

Untitled

2008-01-07T23:01:00.000+01:00

So, didn't make it to Jola's funeral...just couldn't do it. I really did want to go to show support and all, but we found out at the last minute when it was and as I started to get ready I just couldn't. Just sat on my bathroom floor and cried for an hour. It happens. BUT, through that Lord did give me this little...whatever it may be ;)

Son of David
God breathed and you were alive
Your body was broken by the fall of mankind
Never a complaint, never a cry
Your faith could defeat a thousand Philistines
Just as David wrote his Psalms of praise
You sought after God's heart, all of your days
Though silence eventually had its way
Your smile said a thousand words the tongue couldn't say
Now you rejoice in heavenly bliss
But surely you know how much you are missed

Gggrrrr...blogger.

2008-01-04T12:40:00.002+01:00

For some reason I can't post videos from You Tube and type on the same post. Any other bloggers know why? Anyway...that "We Met at Starbucks" clip is from one of my favorite movies...Best in Show. :)

We Met At Starbucks

2008-01-04T12:40:00.001+01:00

Bunch O' Nothin'

2008-01-04T12:23:00.001+01:00

That's what we're doing today. Which is okay by me! :) I took several hours yesterday to give our kitchen some deep cleaning & reorganization. It's pretty impressive now. :) Today my goal is the bedroom/living room. Slept in a bit...watched some fun online clips off my brother's blog...thanks Shea!! :) You've provided entertainment for the morning! :) We highly recommend the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Consider it joy.

2008-01-03T21:37:00.000+01:00

Sometimes it's a hard thing to consider. But, as James tells us "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds..." (James 1:2) Easy to read, tough to do. Fortunately this is something that I believe I have come to know and practice...though sometimes the devil gets the better of me...my humanistic nature wants to say "poor pitiful me" but normally it's overpowered solely by the work of the Holy Spirit that I can "consider it joy." That's something many many people, unfortunately just don't understand or haven't figured out how to achieve it yet. A church member passed away last night. We weren't really close her...her name is Jola, a precious woman who loves the Lord. Jola's been struggling with severe cancer for as long as we've known her (not exactly sure what kind). She's always been a faithful church member though. Last year we had prayer meetings for another church member, Adam-when he was severely ill in the hospital. Scott and I were at the meetings-Jola was there every week as well, faithfully praying for Adam. She was even at church this last Sunday. I remember exchanging smiles with her before walking up the stairs into the balcony that day. She hadn't been in a few weeks and we kept praying for her. Every now and then she'd come and give a report about how she was doing. She was always so optimistic even on Sunday...but in a different way. She stood infront of the church, thanking us for our prayers and just started reassuring the church that she was okay. She even said, "I know death is coming. I can feel it. It's normal...it's normal." I remember those words (as they were translated) because they struck me. She said it with such confidence. This lady knew who she was, she loved the Lord, and it was so obvious that He had given her the strength to stand infront of a church who constantly worried about her...and she reassured us that this was just "normal" and things were going to be okay. I think she knew it was her last Sunday and she'd come to say goodbye. What a precious woman. What a heavenly reward she is receiving now. Consider it joy.

Obviously the situation reminds me of my brother. Not that I ever enjoy these reinactments in my mind. Nonetheless, I saw the same exact strength and confidence in him...in his eyes, the night he left us. He just knew and he was okay. He wanted us to know that too...and he so desperately wanted those he loves (and still does I'm sure) to know the joy that he had and is now experiencing to the fullest. There is no doubt in my mind. My sadness comes from the terrible pain of missing him-an absence of something once tangible, which is normal. Sadness is temporary and comes and goes. My joy comes from the relationship I know that he has with the Lord and the indescribable bond that came with that common aspect of our lives. That is the sole reason I can consider it joy...and I do. It's truly a miracle and a work of the Holy Spirit that I can sit here and type this, talk with my students or friends about him-without breaking down and even type with joy in my heart and a smile on my face. I understand that it's not that easy for everyone...nor would I expect it to be. I consider it a gift and a testament to the love and faithfulness of Jesus Christ and His unfailing mercy and grace. His desire to comfort His children who are hurting. To me, it truly is a miracle. I pray with all my heart, every day, that one day it will be that way for others.

So...all of this to say a couple of things. One is that I was not wanting nor prepared to attend another funeral for a long long time...but I will and I'll get through it.

Second...joy. For those of you iTunes savvy folks, or for those of you who maybe do not attend a church anywhere for whatever reason (which again...I have pretty strong feelings about), Scott and I have started downloading messages from an AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING speaker/and the church he is the pastor of. Rob Bell from Mars Hill Bible Church. Holy Cow... I don't care who you are...go here and listen to all of these... the one I'm specifically referring to though is the sermon from 12.09.2007. AMAZING!
http://www.marshill.org/teaching/index.php
We download these messages each week and they are absolutely phenomenal...not like any other sermon you will ever listen to. You know who you are...listen, please. I'm so impressed and blown away by this church and its pastor Rob Bell. We're actually using Rob Bell's Nooma Videos http://nooma.com/ in our weekly meetings for our college students. He also has a couple o' great books out there...the first being "Velvet Elvis" go to Amazon & buy it.

Anyway...enough of a rant. Just go there and do it.

Consider it joy. Ask God for joy. Be blessed this week.

P.S...Student prayer ministry is going SSSSOOOOOO WELL!!! I'm stoked about it! Thanks for participating!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2008-01-02T21:40:00.000+01:00

That's all I got right now. Just wanted to say it! I've been on here WAAAYY too long.

Merry 2nd Day of Christmas!!!!

2007-12-26T20:37:00.001+01:00

Today is officially the 2nd Day of Christmas here in Poland. Today has been fun as well. We spent the morning sleeping in and then headed over to our friends' Jason & Anna to spend an evening with them. It was great! We had a WONDERFUL Italian dinner and homemade Tiramisu for dessert. :) Then we sat around, played with Emi, the baby and played Cranium for a while. Lots of good fun. I dread the day we'll have to say bye to our friends...they've become like family to us. But we at least have a few more months before we have to think about that. Now, we'll just enjoy the candy canes & hershey kisses that Jason sent home with us!!! :)

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

2007-12-25T13:27:00.000+01:00

Merry Christmas!!!!!

It's been a good one so far! :) Granted, not being at home with the fam is always tough...even more so at Christmas, but we've been very blessed despite the tough stuff. Yesterday we spent a WONDERFUL day/evening with Wojtek, Aga, Dawidek, Wojtek's dad - Bogoslaw (Bogo-suave), and Aga's mom & sister - Bozena & Basia. It was wonderful. Though she doesn't speak a word of English Bozena & I cooked in the kitchen, Basia helped me ice cookies, while Aga took care of the baby, Bogoslaw watched TV and Scott and Wojtek did...I'm not sure what they did. ;) Dinner started at 5pm with prayer, sharing Christmas "wafers" and giving Christmas wishes to one another. A beautiful tradition that we'll be adopting. We started the meal with hot beet root soup with mushroom-filled pasta. Then tore into the 11 other dishes that were prepared. :) Scott tried traditional Christmas carp and herring. After dinner we opened gifts from one another and had dessert. :)

Scott and I came home around 11pm and then had Christmas with my family! It was SO MUCH FUN! They gathered around the tree in their traditional circle and sat us (the computer) between two of them so we could both have a turn in opening gifts. :) It wasn't EXACTLY like being home...but pretty darn close! What a blessing! :) Thanks guys...you made Christmas away from home much easier for us. :) NEXT YEAR.....PARTY!!!!!!

We finally went to bed around 2:30 this morning and slept in until 11:00am. :) Then we opened gifts from one another. :) After gifts I made a nice Christmas breakfast: Scrambled eggs, fried ham, and biscuits. YUUUUMMM!!!

I suspect that any moment now, we'll be opening gifts with Scott's family. Hopefully again in the circle! That was so much fun! :)

Today our plans are to stay home, play with our new toys, and watch movies! :) A good day. Tomorrow we'll be spending the 2nd day of Christmas with Jason & his family. :)

It's been a good one...but I'm definitely ready to spend the next one at home. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!! Please take today to remember the TRUE meaning of Christmas! "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

May you be blessed with the closeness of family and may you feel the love of Jesus Christ and cling to the hope that we have in Him. Glory to God in the Highest!!

Frosty Wroclaw

2007-12-24T10:55:00.000+01:00

Saturday, we went out shopping for each other's Christmas gifts. I left earlier than Scott that morning and when I went outside I immediately called Scott to tell him to bring the camera when he came out. It was BEAUTIFUL! The night before we were over at a friends' house and left around 10:30pm. It was very cold, but REALLY foggy that night. She began to tell us about a weather condition that Wroclaw experiences in the winter...freezing fog. As soon as she told us about it, I felt a very very cold mist hitting my face. I looked up toward a street light and there were tiny tiny ice crystals everywhere. It looked like the air was full of glitter! The next morning when I went out, there was absolutely no snow, but all of the trees were covered white with frost! It was beautiful! I'll let Scott's pictures speak for themselves.

Dinner with Family :)

2007-12-23T23:08:00.000+01:00

The other night we went over to the house of one of our youth's parents. Gosia & Artur. Michał is their son. :) We LOVE this family. We loved getting to know them last year, and this year...they have officially become family to us. "Rodzinki" is the word. Actually, while we were there Gosia made a traditional Polish Christmas dessert for us and she was having us guess the ingredients. I was trying to say them in Polish and one of the ingredients were raisins. The word for raisin is "rodzynki"...one letter difference. So, I said the word for family instead of raisin. They got a kick out of it and asked me to repeat it over and over before they told me what I was really saying, but they liked hearing it. :) And they are...they are definitely family. Anyway, we always LOVE when Gosia & Artur invite us over...Gosia makes some GOOOOD pierogi! That night she made traditional Christmas pierogi for us. Dumplings filled with sour cabbage & mushrooms. Very Polish. We also had hot barszcz (beet root soup) to drink and a nice salad to go along with it. :) Plus, poppy seed & raisin dessert. :) We stayed there for about 4 hours...they practiced their English, we practiced our Polish. :) It was a pretty great evening. :)

Ears

2007-12-21T10:08:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I was walking down the street and I thought my ears were going to fall off. It's cold here.

Christmas Cafe

2007-12-20T23:21:00.006+01:00

A week ago tomorrow, we had a "Christmas Cafe." I've not written about it yet because I've been waiting on pictures and a video. Well, I got the video today! Thanks Ivy! :) That Thursday started out to be quite a day! On Thursdays we have classes with our dear American friend & professor. He has an 8am class every Thursday and this class wears us out every week! There are only 7 or 8 students in the class but each (minus one sweet, quiet gal) is VERY opinionated...even at 8am in the morning! Well, this week the student's presentation was on the topic of "Fate & Destiny." With this class inparticular, the student who is presenting usually starts off by going around the room and asking each individual person their opinion about something. This week the question to start was "What is your opinion about destiny & fate...do you believe in it....etc etc." So we went around the classroom and each gave his or her opinion. This gave Scott and myself a great opportunity to openly tell the classroom that we both believed in a very very personal and loving God who is very much still working in our lives but who gives us the free will to make our own decisions...etc etc. :) Later on during the class we were split up into groups and given topics such as "horoscopes, I Ching, tarrot cards." I was in a group with two great ladies...our topic was "terrot cards." Again, I had the chance to give my opinion, they gave theirs, and then one of the girls returned to the opening question on fate & destiny and asked me a few questions about my answer to that question. For example..."You say that God is active in your life, but you also say that He gives you free will...how is that possible?" GRAND question at 8:00 in the morning...but thankfully as it tells us in the book of Matthew when Jesus is speaking to his disciples, He says "...do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." (Matt 10:19-20) Now, I understand that in this passage Jesus is speaking about being thrown in jail & whatnot...BUT I've known this promise to be true in many situations...and this 8am class happened to be one of them. I went on sharing specific examples of how the Lord works in my life from a day to day basis and she asked more difficult questions and somehow I ended up sharing a bit of testimony about my brother and that one of the differences in being a Christian is that when terrible situations, unpredictable situations, unstoppable situations befall us...I still have a joy that overpowers all of my sorrow. Though it doesn't take away our pain...I can still find joy in my Father...I have, I do, and I will. When the presenter cut us off, my student had tears in her eyes. I had nothing to do with it, praise the Lord. :) It's like they soaked up every word I said...at 8am! I KNOW I had nothing to do with that. I'm suprised that I was even able to say their names at 8 in the morning. haha

So....that was a good class. I even noticed that Scott was chatting with his partner (another VERY opinionated, proclaimed athiest) about Protestants, what we're doing here, and how he "admired" the joy that Protestants seem to have. Makes me mad at myself for sometimes "not feeling like" going to that class because it's so early.

Now! The concert that night....SO FUN! Here's a pic of our friend Jason at the concert. Really, this guy is one of our closest friends here and he and his family are very very dear to us. It was such a blessing to have so much fun with him. Here he is with a Christmas gift that my parents sent him in the mail...he was very very very thankful.

Jason LOVES Oreos. :) (That's Scott trying to steal them from him!) This concert also allowed several students to come to our church who had never been there before. They all LOVED the atmosphere and some even chatted with Wojtek (pastor) and Bev (our friend & Sunday morning translator) about the church services. We're hoping to see some of them in church soon! :) (This is me & one of my favorite students, "Matt"...he is ALWAYS smiling and so happy to talk to Scott & me. We were very suprised to see him show up at the church to attend our coffeehouse. :) Not real sure what he's doing in this picture though. haha

So....here are a couple of AWESOME videos from the concert. The first one is of me & Jason and Scott singing "The Peace Carol." Jason wanted to sing this song...he remembered it from the Muppet Christmas with John Denver so we practiced for a couple weeks and here's the result! The second one is an "encore" for two late students fcoming in who missed the first go at it....I like the second one. :) Enjoy!

Christmas Concert

2007-12-20T23:21:00.001+01:00

Christmas Concert...My favorite

2007-12-20T23:17:00.001+01:00

IFA Christmas Party

2007-12-18T16:10:00.000+01:00

On Saturday, December 8th our institute had its
annual Christmas party for the English students (well...Jason & Elaine started this tradition last year). Anyway, we've looked forward to this both years and the students had a great time! We had about 30 attend this year!

Students sat around, mingled with one another and sang Christmas carols.

They sampled Elaine's British Puddings and tried lots of different types of cookies (An American Cookie Exchange).

All in all it was a pretty fun night. :)

Two Years!

2007-12-18T09:34:00.000+01:00

Thank you so so much for your warm anniversary wishes! :) Yesterday was a good day...a day of classes, carol singing, & good food. However, this time instead of ME writing about it...let me lead you to another link. I think Scott said it all this time. ;) I am a pretty blessed gal. http://thoughtsfromscott.blogspot.com

A Night at the Opera

2007-12-15T15:09:00.000+01:00

So this has been a REALLY busy week for us...but right in the middle of it we had the chance to take a night "off" and spend it in the city center. Our 2nd Year Anniversary is this Monday (YAY!) so as an early Anniversary gift we went to see "The Nutcracker" at the Wroclaw Opera. VERY CUTE! I'd never seen it before...Scott had seen it when he was little, but could only remember the mice and a giant swing. :) I think the best part for me was actually getting to go inside the opera building. The ballet was really cute, but there wasn't a live orchestra. However, it was still loads of fun!

After the show was over we headed into the city center for some dessert. I had a glass of hot apple cider and some sort of chocolate cake (never a bad choice!). :) Then we walked around bit more and took a couple of pictures before heading home for the night. Really it was a perfect night out! :) And a very much needed break!

It's Been a While

2007-12-14T23:53:00.000+01:00

So, we have LOADS of updates for you guys! A lot of really great things have been happening here! :) This week has been a really crazy & busy week for us...thus the lack o' blog the past couple weeks. Rest assuredly though...we have nothing but good news to report! :)

First, I'll post a couple pics from the past English Club...

This first one is a pic of 2nd year student-Dorothy (who speaks with an American English Accent!), our ever faithful attendee - Peter, and Peter's friend-Damian. We've spent a lot of time with Damian the past couple weeks. He is a very sweet guy, a very faithful believer. Damian attends one of the Catholic churches here in the city that is actually very active in reaching students! Scott and I have even been to a mass in this church geared towards students and we were very impressed with the atmosphere. :) Anyway, Damian was very curious about our church so he attended the service with us last week and loved it. :) However, of course in no way would we expect him to leave his church and I'm pretty sure he's very happy where he's at. Anyway, that's not really why we're here is it? Obviously we're not here to pull faithful Catholic believers away from a church in which they're already perfectly suited. Praise the Lord for Catholic churches where great things are happening! ;)

This next photo is of the girls who attended that night also...a typical English Club night:

Some pretty sweet gals, I'd say! The one on the left is Marta. She and I have become quite keen on one another lately. She and I have a common love...the piano. She is studying two faculties (or majors): English at our university and she studies piano at the Musical Academy here in Wroclaw. (She also studies Kung Fu...and she's quite good at it!) She's a first year student there...but she's brilliant, I'm sure. I invited her to attend an American music concert one night a couple weeks ago. So we went and one of her friends and her professor ended up playing in the concert. :) She invited me to another piano concert the other night...unfortunately I didn't read her invite until it was too late. :( Anyway, she knows how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE the piano. There are two material things that I just really really really want. My own dog and a piano. Aaahhh...if I only had one. I would sit and play it for hours I think. When I attended these American music concerts last month I specifically remember one night Scott and I went. One of the American composers we met, we had the opportunity to hear him play. This guy was my favorite. I can't remember his name at the moment...but I remember watching him play and enjoying every second. As ridiculous as it sounds it brought tears to my eyes watching him. I could just tell that he loved it. Not tears because he was so great at it.... but because I want to be able to do that SO badly. Really. It's my dream to be able to just sit down at a piano and play and sing whatever I want. Compose my own spin on songs. Play like Harry Connick (HA! Fat chance, but wouldn't it be great?). Really sometimes my heart just hurts whenver I watch someone play really well. Every week I have the opportunity to watch, Peter, our jazz pianist in our church, play the piano (brilliantly) during the service. Sometimes after the service I'll race to the piano just for a chance to get my fingers on the keys and figure out a little something. Oh well...someday maybe. :)

So, last Monday I had my Ladies' Gift Exchange Party. Loads of fun! Here are a couple pics from it...

The first pic is of students Tuba & Malvina. Again, sweet sweet gals. Tuba is not Polish...she is one of our exchange students from Turkey. Granted, she doesn't celebrate Christmas I think she still had a great time. :) Tuba is a good friend and is very precious to us!

In the second: (L-R) Maggie, Magda, Karolina, & her roommate Marta. Karolina & I became good friends last year through our love of cooking. She's is one heck of a cook! Last year she taught me how to make "Pierogi Ruskie" (Pierogi w/ Potatoes & Cheese). I'm actually planning on heading over to her place on Sunday for a cooking date. Cook some dinner, watch some girlie movies over there. :)

Did I ever mention our night at the "Pride & Predjudice Ball?" Probably not. Anyway, another one of our students & close friends: Konrad is a dancer and his dance group has 2-3 "Balls" a year where they teach different types of dances. They're always held at our church because it's a great venue for it. So here a couple pics from it:

This picture is of Elaine & me. Elaine is probably one of our best friends here. For you who may not know her, she is the reason we are in the University here. She is one of the English professors and she originally invited us in to her classes as "Native Speakers" to give her students some extra help. We absolutely adore Elaine. My parents had the pleasure of meeting her when they were here. It will be a sad sad day when we have to leave her in July. :( She's become a very big part of our lives. Anyway....this ball was also lots & lots of fun. :) We're always dog tired when we leave, however. We definitely get our exercise from it!

So, that's probably enough for now! It's past our bedtime here! BUT...maybe tomorrow another bit of blogging. :) There is still MUCH more to update you on. :)

An Update!

2007-12-05T14:33:00.000+01:00

Hey all! So as far as legal issues go...right now, we are just waiting. A very trustworthy & capable friend went to this "big important office" on our behalf on Monday. We all prayed together before she left and just gave the situation to the Lord. She went to the office and gave them all of our paperwork (which was a lot!) and they took it with no questions. SO...that's a good thing! They could have looked at our passports said "They've been here too long...send them back now!" but nothing was said. So hopefully what will happen now is that in about 40 days we'll receive our temporary residence cards in the mail. Also, we're expecting the police to come by our flat just to make sure that we are, in fact living here and are who we say we are.

If we were to start getting phone calls and they started asking questions, then we might worry...but for now we just wait and enjoy the holiday season. :)

Legal Ridiculousness...Please Pray

2007-11-29T14:24:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone! Well, for those of you who were with us last year during our journey...you may remember all of the mess that we went around this time last year. Getting stuck in the Wroclaw airport for 2 hours...waiting to see if they were going to let us back in the country. Well folks...once again (and again at Christmas) we have another potential roadblock in our midst. Obviously the devil doesn't want us here!

So, the law in Poland has changed once again that if a "visitor" is here for 90 days, then they must leave the country for 90 days before they're admitted back into the country. We are in the process of applying for temporary residence. Anyway...to make a very long story short we have been in Poland 65 days. They need at least 35 days to process our card and whatnot so that would put us over the 90 day mark. PLEASE HELP US PRAY THAT THIS WILL NOT BE A BIG DEAL.

I'm confident in the Lord and know that He's sent us here for a purpose, so I have no worries. But I am a strong believer in the power of prayer and I know with prayer...this could be much easier than it's looking right now.

We're going on Monday....PLEASE PRAY FOR US! :-) :-) :-)

YAY!!!

2007-11-28T17:48:00.001+01:00

Who has the cutest sister in the world!??!?! I DO!!!

Kell I just got the CUTEST APRON EVER in my mailbox today!!! (Not to mention ADORABLE coasters and napkins as well!) It goes with the colors in our apartment PERFECTLY! YAY! I'm so excited! I wish you were here to see how perfect everything goes! :) I love it! It's perfect!

Thanks sis! I'll take homemade gifts over store-bought anytime! ;) They're much more special. :)

Love you!

Our Thanksgiving

2007-11-23T21:43:00.000+01:00

I am so stuffed full of turkey and pumpkin pie that I can hardly function...so tonight, I probably won't. Just lay on the couch/bed and watch "Elf"....I think that's the plan for tonight. :) It was a great day! First let me tell you something fun about yesterday!

So, our friend from Turkey, "Tuba" came over yesterday. Tuba has a roommate in her dormroom who is from the States! They planned to make a small Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and Tuba wanted to suprise her roommate with a homemade pumpkin roll! Tuba had come to our Thanksgiving English Club last week and LOVED the pumpkin roll, so she asked us afterwards if she could come over this week and make one for her American roommate since she loved pumpkin and was missing home. So, Tuba came over yesterday and we helped her make a pumpkin roll for her roommate. She just sent me an email and said that her roomie was suprised to tears! :) We were very excited that we could help her out. :) We also had a chance to share with her about what we do here and a bit about our faith...we were waiting for the cake to cool ;) Here's Tuba and Scott preparing the icing for the cake...

Yesterday was a pretty full day...classes at 8am, baking from 10:00-12:30, class again until 3:00 and my mind is kind of a blank after that...I don't really remember what we did. :) OH! No, we talked to our families over Skype....while they were eating Thanksgiving dinners...talk about not fair! :P

So, TODAY was OUR day to have Thanksgiving! So, we got up this morning around 8:00 and headed out to our new mall with other American missionary friends, Lauren & Jennifer for some good 'old "Day After Thanksgiving" shopping! However, it wasn't quite as exciting as I'm sure it was for you all who ventured out at 4:30 this morning to Best Buy or Wally-World. BUT for the sake of tradition...it was a lot of fun and we did have lunch at BURGER-KING!! YAY! Our first Burger King in Poland! (That we know of) And it was pretty dern good! After our shopping spree (well not really shopping spree...we bought things to cook for dinner) we came back to our flat and cooked up a storm!

We made turkey & HOMEMADE stuffing...that's right...stuffing from scratch...it was pretty yummy if I may say so myself. We made mashed potatoes, and a pumpkin roll, Lauren made brown-sugared carrots, and Jenn brought some pumpkin pie and corn souffle! To top it off we had hot apple cider. Again, for the sake of tradition we stuffed ourselves silly until we could hardly move...laid around for a while, and then ate some more dessert. :) (All while watching the

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!)

So, after dinner & dessert we watched "Miracle on 34th Street" and "It's Christmas Charlie Brown!" while putting up Christmas decorations. :)

To be away from friends and family hasn't been the easiest thing...but the Lord has definitely brought us comfort in the little things we can get excited about over here. Spending time with friends who've just sort of become our "family." Today was a blessing...talking with family over Skype, spending this holiday with friends who are in the same boat as we are, shopping, a great meal, good fellowship, and the Christmas story told byLinus....considering the obvious....I'd say it was a pretty good Thanksgiving and we definitely have MUCH to be thankful for!

(You can see all of our pictures here :) http://picasaweb.google.com/ScottandJackieNewman

Thanksgiving English Club Pictures!

2007-11-23T09:14:00.000+01:00

Hey all! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving! Today Scott, Lauren, another missionary friend Jen, and myself are celebrating Thanksgiving today since we all had to work yesterday! We're so excited! We're going out for a mini shopping trip...you know, it is the day after Thanksgiving! Then we're coming back for a little Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas decorating, and the Macy's Day Parade! (We recorded it! YAY!) It's been tough to be away from our families during the holiday...but having other American friends around to celebrate with makes up for it a little. :)

Anyway! Here is a link to our pictures from our Thanksgiving English Club!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ScottandJackieNewman

ENJOY!!! :)

The Feeding of the College Students

2007-11-18T09:26:00.000+01:00

So, I know so many of you are chomping at the bit to know how our Thanksgiving Dinner turned out! :) On the edge of your seats, right? ;)

We started cooking at 10am on Thursday...5:00 comes and we're still running around like crazy people trying to finish this Thanksgiving feast. "Can you run and get this?" "When does the corn go in the oven!?" "I still gotta cut the cake!" "We forgot to put a trash bag in the bathroom!" "AAHH! There's the door!"

So at 5pm, the doorbell rang and our first group of 8 or 9 showed up. After that the door rang again...and again...and again...and again (aaaaannndd knitting aaaaahhhaaahhhaaanndd knitting - for all of you who would get that) until there were at least 23 of us in our tiny little apartment.

YEP...23 hungry students. After we assumed that most of our guests were here we (Scott) gave a little "Thanksgiving speech," welcomed them to our home, explained the rules of a "buffet!" They definitely dug the Hot Apple Cider. Everyone had a plateful (or two) and we still had enough food for our lunch with Wojtek & Aga the next day! They LOVED the pumpkin roll too, and the baked corn, and the cream cheese & ham dip! We even have one of those students coming over on Thursday of this week to show her how to make a pumpkin roll. :) So, after dinner we socialized a bit more and then watched the Thanksgiving episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond"...classic! They LOVED it! :)

We sat around some more & talked with our students, tried to get to know the new ones. Some stayed until 10:30pm! It was great...we couldn't have asked for a better night! We were pretty exhausted by the end of it though. Right now, we only have a couple pics of the food and one of some students who were here. I'm planning on developing my pictures this week so I'll have them posted within a couple of days.

The Feast!

Today's The Day!!!

2007-11-15T09:16:00.000+01:00

Okay...so it's exactly 9:22am on Thursday, November 15. Yesterday evening we began our cooking venture. We started with a trip to Carrefour (our closest thing to Wal-Mart). But we couldn't proceed on an empty stomach so we stopped at the "Fast Food" place for some pierogi!

After about an hour or less in Carrefour (we went in on a mission!) we came out with all the things we needed to get on the stick! So we started with the pumpkin roll and the process went a little something like this:

And so we have 2 finished pumpkin rolls! (They'll be much prettier when they're cut! :) We also made two batches of pecan pralines....yyuuummm!!!

Today, we tackle the bird & the rest! Here's how it looks...

The Menu:
Hot Apple Cider
Cream Cheese Ham & Garlic Dip w/ Crackers
Deviled Eggs
Fruit Salad
Turkey & Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Baked Corn
Cornbread & Whitebread (We only have one package of cornbread mix *lol*)
Pralines
Pumpkin Roll!

We've got the roll & the pralines done...which means we have a heck of a lot more to do! PLUS clean our flat!

Last night, we got several emails in a row of people who are definitely coming. So where we thought we had 16...we KNOW of 23.....23 students who are DEFINITELY coming! Not to mention the 7 that "may" come and WHO KNOWS if students will show up without letting us know! So that's potentially 30....30 students in our one room flat!

Holy cow. I've gotta get busy!

Tomorrow...it's go time.

2007-11-13T21:50:00.000+01:00

So...here's the skinny.

Our Thanksgiving English Club is THIS THURSDAY. So far, we KNOW of 16 students who are attending...who knows how many will show up without letting us know in advance. We are cooking...for all of them.

Tomorrow...it's go time.

Our goal is to turn this

Into this...

I'm ready.....bring it on.

YAY for Friends, Games, & Taco Bell!

2007-11-12T22:51:00.001+01:00

So, today was a good day. :) A good day of classes...we made some connections with a couple new students today. Invited all of our students to our big Thanksgiving Dinner this Thurdsday! We're pretty stoked about it...a tad nervous...no idea how many will show up therefore having NO IDEA how many to cook for! Ja Cie! (ya-che...or "good grief!") We've had several students sign up to come already...I'm expecting at least 10-15...20-25 wouldn't suprise me. We'll see...PLEASE PRAY! ;)

So, after classes we went grocery shopping and came home to have tacos with our darling Ivy...what a doll. We just love her. I'm sure she was pretty excited she got to spend 6 hours with us today too...don't play girl, I know you read this blog religiously! *lol* I love you! ;) She's precious, really....and she loves her some Taco Bell! After Tacos we watched some Office and then played "Mad Gab" for about 3 hours...now, that's good fun! :) "My Co Jack Son!" (That's for you Kell!)

So Ivy left a couple hours ago & I got to talk to Kell for a while...always makes my day better. :) Then talked to the 'rents down in Florida. They're having a good time...visiting with family & the like.

While I was talking to my sister I noticed a piece of GLASS floating around in my WATER! A tiny piece of glass...but not tiny enough to where I wouldn't have felt it or possibly BLED to death if I'd swallowed the thing! (That MAY have been an exageration...but still) How the heck it got in there in the first place? Beats me. Luckily, I spotted it before I took the last drink! Knew these contacts were good for something!

Well, time for bed! G'nite yall!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!

2007-11-11T16:46:00.000+01:00

It snowed today!!! WOOHOO!! It started snowing when we were in church this morning and by the time we got home it was coming down pretty hard! :) I think it's supposed to snow all week!

We were all set to come home and I was going to make some homemade chicken noodle soup for Scott because he's feelin' a little under the weather...when we stopped by the market we found out that it is "Independence Day" here so NOTHING was open. Good thing we bought a kilo of potatoes the other day! Potato soup was the next best thing, I think. :)

This isn't from today...but here's a pic of me cooking in the SUPER CUTE apron that my AMAZING sister made for me! I love it Kell! I wear it all the time! :)

Things are falling into place

2007-11-10T12:06:00.001+01:00

Hey all! How's the weather there?? It's as always in November, cold & gray today. It was hailing a bit earlier (for about a minute). Today is a lazy day...well not really lazy. It's a cleaning/catching up on work day for us. :) Yesterday was a good day. We FINALLY had a date...dinner and a movie, which was quite nice. :)

It looks like things are finally settling into a schedule here this is what it looks like:

Monday - Classes in the AM, Scott plays B-Ball & I have my "Ladies' Night" at 8pm
Tuesday - Classes in the AM, Youth at 6pm (until 9:00 or so)
Wednesday - Polish Lessons at 10, Bible Study one week at 1:00 and the next week Conversation Club at Teczowa High School at 3:00, then every week Nooma Meeting at 6pm
Thursday - Classes in the EARLY AM and in the afternoon, English Club at 6pm unless it's moved to a Friday or Saturday for a special event.
Friday - Day off! (Usually)
Saturday - Reserved for cleaning, planning, meeting with students, who knows.
Sunday - Church...normally takes up most of the day. :)

So there it is! That helped...sometimes things just need to be written down where you can see them!

We have our THANKSGIVING ENGLISH CLUB on Thursday! Please be praying for us: that we can have everything prepared and that we have the funds to buy the food! :) And for our sanity. Luckily we don't have classes on Thursday...it's the anniversary of the day the University was founded (or something like that) so the director is giving everyone the day off. We will be preparing a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner for...who knows how many students. So, we need all the prayers we can get! :) It should be fun. :)

So, now I'll leave you with a few pics from our trip with my parents in September. Thanks to my AWESOME big bro who sent me the pics yesterday. :) ( I love the pictures of Dad "reading" the German newspaper and Mom with the random little boy in Nice!)

A Shout-Out for an AMAZING Organization

2007-11-08T23:56:00.001+01:00

So right now, Scott and I are young...traveling a lot and we're definitely not ready for kids yet. At least not until we get back on US soil! So...while we're not having children yet...there's one very very important on in our lives that we love and adore like he was our own. His name is Isaac Damoi and he lives in Gulu, Uganda. Isaac is about 7 years old now and we have been supporting him through World Vision for 2 years now. :) This little man is precious! We write back and forth to him as often as we can...he loves to draw us pictures. :) Mostly of huts. :) Just incase you're not familiar with it, World Vision is a Christian organization that is dedicated to taking care of and working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. I've never been more proud to be a part of an organization. 87% of the donations that World Vision receives goes toward supporting these children & their families. Scott and I have seen, through Isaac, how World Vision has helped him. Isaac is a "Hope Child." Meaning that he lives in a community that has been severely affected by the HIV/AIDS virus therefore he is at risk. A huge threat where Isaac lives is a threat on the children there. Each day, many children are kidnapped by the LRA or the "Lord's Resistance Army" and forced to either become child soldiers where they will be brainwashed to kill or choose to die a slow & painful death. Children as young as 5 years old are kidnapped and forced to join this force. Isaac wrote to us in his last letter: "During January, we had the last funeral service of 22 people in our village....three of our family members were killed and [burned] by the LRA."

I can't imagine the world this little boy lives in. Despite the fact that his family members were brutally murdered, despite the fact that he is surrounded by the AIDS virus, despite the fact that he in a third world country and cannot imagine all of the luxuries that we, as Americans/Europeans enjoy and take for granted every day...this little boy is proud, he is full of joy, and he loves the Lord. He also loves to sing, tell stories, he has good grades in school....and he LOVES to play football with his friend, Simon.

Some things are just very very important to me. It has been a HUGE blessing to support Isaac each month. The difference that occurs when you sponsor a World Vision child is indescribable. Literally ALL it takes is $30 a month and a little effort to write a letter every now & then. But when you make the relationships with these children, you want to do so much more that the $30 feels like the absolute least you can do. Scott and I are determined to visit Isaac in Uganda one day. :)

If I could encourage you to do ANYTHING...PLEASE think about sponsoring a child from World Vision. Maybe you have a family and it would be something your children would like to do...to have a pen-pal. Maybe your children are gone and you would like to support another one in some way. Maybe you don't have children and never plan on having them...take the money that you would spend on a nice dinner out once a month and use it to support a child, like our Isaac. I just...when I think about how much we have...how much we take for granted. And what do we do with it?

So...at least visit World Vision's website & pray about sponsoring a child. Maybe even a "Hope Child" like Isaac. :) http://www.worldvision.org/

Matthew 18:5 "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me."

English Club Tonight

2007-11-08T22:35:00.000+01:00

English Club tonight was so much fun! :) We had four girls to come, three were new 2nd year students. One was our ever-faithful, Asia. :) We took some time to get to know the girls, tell them a little about ourselves, and eat a lot of junk food! My brownie supply is now completely gone. :( After our "get-to-know-you" activity that we made up, we played "Mad Gab" with them. So fun! It's a GREAT game, especially good for helping with their pronunciation skills! They absolutely loved it! We are having meetings with our college students about three times a week. Monday nights are "Ladies' Night," Wednesday nights are "Nooma Meetings," and Thursday (sometimes Friday) nights are English Club nights. This has been great for us because some students can't come on certain nights, but they can come others so we've never had too many in our place. This gives us better chances to get to know students one-on-one. So, they're small meetings, but I think it works better this way. So far, we've counted 23 different students in our home this semester. Next week we'll be having our "Thanksgiving English Club" again...we're hoping for about 15 to 20 students again this year! :) Please pray for us! We're really excited about it!

Here are some pics from our "Mad Gab" session tonight! New students: Ania, Marta, & Judyta along with "Veteran" member, Asia. :) **Asia is wearing a black shirt & brown scarf**

Ciocia & Dawidek

2007-11-08T22:06:00.000+01:00

Who has the CUTEST little "nephew" ever?! Here are a couple pics from our Polish lessons with Agnieszka on Wednesday mornings. I always have to get in a little playtime with the coolest little guy I know. Check out this kiddo's grin, adorable no? So here are a couple pics of Dawidek & Ciocia Jackie! (Little David & Aunt Jackie) I adore this kid! And his Mamu, Aga is the best Polish teacher ever. :) Jesteś moja ulubiona!!

And how could I forget to put an equally adorable picture of Dawidek & Wujek Scott! (Not to mention proud Tatuś, Wojtek) :)

Cold November Rain

2007-11-06T16:16:00.001+01:00

Blech. It's cold, wet, gray, & rainy here...and having to walk everywhere in it...not fun. :P Booooo on November weather in Poland. I'm ready for snow! (As soon as I get some warmer gloves!)

On Being Single

2007-11-05T21:03:00.000+01:00

You know...this is something that's really been on my heart recently. A youth came over to our place last week. An AMAZING young person...desperately seeking to please the Lord. Surely a young man after God's own heart. While talking with him, however...he made the comment that he may just stay single because it's "easier." It was kind of funny at the time he said it. However, my husband did a wonderful job of explaining to him what we believe about single vs. married life.

Since then, it's become sort of a burden on my heart. This is a subject that can be pretty controversial...especially depending on one's current relationship status. This is our opinion.

Genesis 2:18 "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
2:24 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh."

The Lord created us to be in relationships. Scott and I married obviously, because we loved one another, but more importantly because we had a common love for the Lord and a desire to glorify Him. We found that when we ministered together, our ministry was better that it would have been had we stayed single. We work so much better together, we found joy in being together...because the Lord made us to be in relationships. This is one of most amazing and most suprising blessings from the Lord. Marriage is a beautiful ( but not always easy) gift from the Lord and represents how our relationship with Him should be, in a tangible way. It takes commitment, selflessness, hard work, and a lot of prayer! There are going to be times when it isn't easy and you want to "get out" but that's where your common relationship with the Lord, your desire to glorify Him...that's how you make it through. I know you're probably saying..."Rookie! What do you know? You haven't even been married 2 years!" No...but we've been through more than one might assume. Through it all the Lord has been sufficient.

Now, we do have an arguement for the other side as well, believe it or not. However, it may not be what you might think.

In Matthew 19 Jesus is speaking to His disciples about divorce and that there are only certain circumstances where divorce is acceptable. His disciples go on to ask Him this:

10"If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry."
11Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."

We believe that Jesus is saying here that it is okay to be single only if it is because you have chosen this way to further the kingdom of heaven. In other words...only if the Lord has called one to be single in order to serve Him better. This is something that VERY VERY few people can do. BUT, to those the Lord has called this specific ministry and who live it out...BLESS YOU! Those who are called to this specific ministry, however, are STILL called to be in relationships. We are ALL called to be in relationship with the body of Christ...the church. (This is another rant, but) We don't join a church for our own personal enjoyment. It is to be in fellowship with other believers...to offer the gifts that the Lord has given to us to build up His community in the church. You attend a church to give the Lord the worship He deserves and to be with His people...not to get your weekly fill-up, to pay your dues, or to be entertained. (Sorry...just felt really "preachy" there) Anyway, ESPECIALLY if you're single, you need to be in a body of believers. We NEED to be in relationships. Or the consequences could be devastating.
I love these lyrics by Derek Webb

I have come with one purpose
to capture for myself a bride
by my life she is lovely
by my death she’s justified

i have always been her husband
though many lovers she has known
so with water i will wash her
and by my Word alone

so when you hear the sound of the water
you will know you’re not alone

(chorus)
‘cause i haven’t come for only you
but for my people to pursue
you cannot care for me with no regard for her
if you love me you will love the church

i have long pursued her
as a harlot and a whore
but she will feast upon me
she will drink and thirst no more

so when you taste my flesh and my blood
you will know you’re not alone

(chorus)
there is none that can replace her
though there are many who will try
and though some may be her bridesmaids
they can never be my bride

We need to be together (unless called by the Lord otherwise). Men and women were designed to be together. Desires are too strong, loneliness can set it, temptation can take over, we become dependent on the world to satisfy us...which it never can, fully. No amount of money, the nicest home, the best job, the greatest friends...nothing can satisfy the way the Lord can in a relationship with Him and in the blessings He gives through marriage.

That's my opinion on that.

A Change

2007-11-05T20:40:00.000+01:00

So, this change occured in me on October 19th of this year...just a couple short weeks ago. A little something (nothing of great note) occured that just sparked a need for a change. Somewhere in that moment, the Lord awakened a new love inside of me. Never had I ever been one to read my Bible. Can you believe it? Yep...a missionary who didn't read the Word or have a daily prayer routine. Note...the word "missionary" does not always signify someone who had a deep, strict, discipline with the Lord. For this "missionary" it just meant that this gal loved the Lord and wanted to go where He wanted to send her and do what He wanted her to do. Like I said, the Lord awakened my discipline-less heart. I had always wanted to get into a routine of reading/studying the Bible, praying with some "umph!" and just being a little more disciplined all together...but for some reason I could never manage. I was complacent with my "doing doing doing giving giving giving" life. My heart wasn't satified though. From that day, my relationship with the Lord is like a completely new one. Each morning is dedicated to writing down my prayers, meditating on his Word, studying It, and really praying with gusto! I can't tell you what this has done for me. My attitude has changed...I don't get as irritable over silly things. I find so much more joy in my day because I'm filling it with the presence of the Lord. I even fill like my marriage is stronger and I'm becoming a better wife...which my loving husband deserves nothing but the best. Most importantly...me & the Lord...well, I can't find anything in this world that brings me more joy.

You are my Holiday.
You are right in the middle of me.
You are my Hideaway.
You are Home.

Calling out Your name.
Oh, my Holiday.
You make my heart new.
I love You.
What it is I'm trying to say
You are my favorite part of me.
(Shane Barnard)

God, You're so good to me.

Restoration

2007-11-05T20:27:00.000+01:00

You may be wondering one of several questions. One...why the new bloggy address? Well, no REAL GOOD reason really...I've just started to take a fondness to the way Blogger is set up. Second, there are just a lot of changes going on in me and revamping our blog was sort of an outward way to display it (in a tiny way). Another question you might be askin' yo-self... Why the odd "Blog Title?" Because it's what's going on in me currently. It basically comes from a "Shane & Shane" song (I know...pity I couldn't actually come up with my own creative blog title...creativity is my brother & sister's specialty...not mine). The song is actually called "Embracing Accusation" Here are the lyrics:

Father of lies, coming to steal kill and destroy
All my hopes of being good enough
I hear him saying, "cursed are the ones who can't abide"

He's right, hallelujah, he´s right
The devil is preaching the song of the redeemed
That I am cursed and gone astray
I cannot gain salvation
Embracing accusation

Could the father of lies be telling the truth of
God to me tonight?
That if the penalty of sin is death, then death is mine
I hear him saying, "cursed are the ones who can't abide"

The devil's singing over me an age old song
That I am cursed and gone astray
Singing the first verse so conveniently over me
He´s forgotten the refrain...
JESUS SAVES!!!

There's just something about that song. Powerful to me. It boasts of victory over all of the lies that Satan feeds us everyday. I have been restored, Praise Jesus

Embracing Accusation

HALFWAY!!!!!!!

Day 4

Day 3 - Yams & Pineapple, hooray!

Day 2

JUST SAY NO TO BEETS!

Said Juicing Hath Commenced...

And she juiced...

Bun In The Oven!!

I SHOULD be reading...

Crazy Traditions...

An update :)

Home Sweet Chicago! *Under construction*

Downtown Wheaton

New Apartment Pics!!

Naperville

Moving Days...

GREASE is the word...is the word...is the word...

Busy Week!

Some good Zydeco...

Can you believe it?!

I call him Albert...'cause he's so contrary

Finally Home and Trying to Get it Together...

STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNGGGG!!!!!

Time is a flyin'...

HAPPY DADDY'S DAY!!

Prince Caspian

Breathe...

STO LAT!

HOLY COW!

Happy Days...

I know...I know...

All from Ice Cream

ADORABLE...

Land of Jazz Bistros & Sushi Bars

Tasty Eggs & A Happy Easter

I can't resist.

A short clip...

Busy as Always...

Yesterday

A Saturday Update!

Fun stuff

Videos, Nice Weather, & Random Spiritual Thoughts

Blech...

Chocolat

A 12 foot Pope!

This is what it's about...

Lots of goings-on...

A new season

Today...

Untitled

Gggrrrr...blogger.

We Met At Starbucks

Bunch O' Nothin'

Consider it joy.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Merry 2nd Day of Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

Frosty Wroclaw

Dinner with Family :)

Ears

Christmas Cafe

Christmas Concert

Christmas Concert...My favorite

IFA Christmas Party

Two Years!

A Night at the Opera

It's Been a While

An Update!

Legal Ridiculousness...Please Pray

YAY!!!

Our Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving English Club Pictures!

The Feeding of the College Students

Today's The Day!!!

Tomorrow...it's go time.

YAY for Friends, Games, & Taco Bell!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!

Things are falling into place

A Shout-Out for an AMAZING Organization

Home Sweet Chicago! Under construction