Remember When....

For those who spent this summer in Zako:
Remember when...

• Molly asked what the Polish word for "jam" was
• Malisa convinced us girl to by dog tickets for the train
• Peter locked me in the climbing tower, but didn't realize it
• Gary would go running with us
• We ran 6 miles just to see a cow
• Hannah took awesome pictures on the run to the cow... lol
• Molly tried to stretch her legs out on the bus
• Hannah and Molly put shoes in front our room door so we would hear anyone that came into our room
• Kuba asked if he could lay on us when he really meant to ask if he could rely on us
• Hannah would blow her nose like a horn and I would sneeze a million times every morning (I bet Brooke really misses us :)
• Molly asked everyone she met if they had seen HOT ROD
• Molly accidentally hit Tomak in the head with a doll... lol
  
• Victor dropped us off at the train station and pointed toward the entrance
• We thought we would get to go to the beach then it would always rain
• Molly fell and all she cared about was whether or not her WOODLANDS shirt had a stain on it
• We ate our cereal with giant spoons (it's weird now eating cereal with a normal spoon)
• Hannah asked David if he got his sweat shirt when he was 16
  
• Branden dissed Brooke on facebook
• Asian James and his panda bear shirt
• Ashley and the fanny pack conversation
• We had to push Marysia's car our of an intersection in the rain on our way to church
• Maya picked Malisa up and carried her half way across the basketball court
• We did the "Waka Waka" dance for a workout
• The random Polish guy thought we were runners from the Olympic Center, because Robert told us to keep training hard.
• Molly tried to whisper to me that her armpits hurt while we were running
• Molly caught a bee
  
• We sang baby shark on the way to the airport
• John tried to set Molly and I up with the guys from his English class

I'm sure there are more stories that I have forgotten, so if anyone has any please comment. Thank you everyone for a great summer, for your prayers, for your laughter, and for your friendship.

Much Love!

Asia

Home Sweet Home

Hey Everyone!

I'm home! but my brain still thinks I'm in Poland, because it woke me up around 4:30 am. Fortunately we have a bit of a drive today for post directives, so maybe I can get a bit of a nap in. Anyway the trip home had very little excitement, Marysia, Maryka, Molly, and Hannah all took me the airport and helped me drop all my luggage off. It looked like all of us were leaving because I have so much luggage...lol. The trip fairly uneventful, which is always a good thing when your trying to come back to America. There was a large and loud welcoming party waiting for us when we got back. A lot of my friends from my last internship came to the airport with horns, candy, balloons, which I accidentally nailed some random lady in the head with as we were leaving the airport. She glared at me as I apologized, but it was still really funny, because I was totally oblivious to it until one of the girls from the Kenya team pointed it out... lol.

After we got off the plane, we grabbed our luggage, said our "goodbyes" one more time, and headed out for operation Post Directives, which involves a bigillion sticky notes (side note: Staples sticky notes don't stick, as well as Post-it notes), Sharpies, a large amount of caffine, American food, mind games at Dave Stone's house, just enough physical activity to keep us awake, funny stories and take-away's from our trips and how to use what we've learned. There's more to come, but we never know exactly what... lol.. which has been a common theme for all of us during the summer. One day, one moment at a time, maybe God is trying to teach us all something :).

Much Love to Everyone!

Asia

Time to say Goodbye

Ok, I'm going to attempt to make this blog happy, which is going to be a little difficult since tomorrow at 6:05 AM I will be boarding a plane to head home. Oh goodbyes, how I hate them. My hope is that one day I'll be able to come back to Poland. I don't know for how long or when, but one day.
God has again taken Himself out of the cookie cutter box that I placed Him in and shown me more of who He is an who His children are. When you think about what you might do on a missions trip, one of your automatic thoughts would probably be that you would tell someone how they could know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, and that you will most likely do some sort of physical labor. But what does going on a missions trip really mean? In my opinion, it means doing whatever you are asked and being content with doing nothing if that is all there is to do. I walked into this internship with some ideas and expectations already formed. When the things that I thought I would be doing didn't happen or things weren't going the way I thought they would, I began to question God about why I was here. He would gently remind me of all the doors He had opened for me to get here and I was here for a reason. At the other camp I had worked at I connected really well with my campers and was able to have some great conversations with them, but here with the language barrier that wasn't as possible. I started to become frustrated and question things again. Then God brought the question to mind, "Are you here so you can feel good about yourself and proud of what you are doing or are you here for me?" Our plans are not always His plans, which is exactly what was happening here. Instead of connecting really well with the kids, I connected with the counselors and staff, which was actually what I prayed for before I came. Funny how sometimes we forget what we pray for and when God answers the prayer we're like, "Wait, what just happened?" Then He has to remind us this is what you talked to me about. All that to say a mission trip is more than a trip with a checklist of things accomplish. It's to see more of who God really is.

I'll see you tomorrow! Love you much!

Asia

Week Number... I'm not really sure any more :)

Another week at the most wonderful camp in Poland! This week is the last English camp of the summer and sadly my last full week of camp. I'm excited about seeing family and friends back home, sleeping in my bed, having my own room, and car, but I'm not ready to leave the family and friends I have here. It won't be easy saying "goodbye" next week. I'm not just leaving people that I worked with, but people who have become my family. God has allowed me to build relationships that aren't just fluff and they're genuine, where hopes, dreams, problems, and worries have all been shared. One of my favorite memories will be the evenings that some of us girl interns would hang out and pray together. It will also be one of the things I miss the most. Ok, I'm going stop with the sentimental mush now, otherwise I might start to tear up. Let's get back to what's going on this week.

I'm an assistant and English teacher again, the only differences are I have 9-10 year old boys this week, who are sooooo precious, loud, but precious, and I'm teaching 16 kiddos by myself, which isn't bad since we get lesson plans at the beginning of each day. We don't have an American group here this week, so Hannah and Brooke have done most of planning classes and Molly and I have helped more with planning the games for the afternoon. Also, all of us interns have been asked to speak at either the morning or evening meetings. I'll be speaking Friday evening about the kids going home, since it is the night before they leave.

Also this week most of the counselors that have been at camp this summer are working at the Lodz Kontact, a church outreach project. The purpose of Kontact is to bulid relationships in the hope of starting a church plant in Lodz in the future. I may have already told you all this, but Lodz is the second largest city in Poland with the population of 1 millions people, only 600 of those people are born again believers. There are a few small churches in Lodz, but many people are still lost and without the true hope Jesus Christ. There is a great need for believers to come to Poland and share who Christ really is.

Thank you all for your prayers! Please keep praying for the kids, staff, and camps throughout the rest of the summer and for the people of Poland.

I love you all very much and will see you soon!

Asia

I wish I was Balla'

Here's a run down of what's been happening lately... The first week of international basketball camp is going on right now with 5 countries represented- Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, and America. A group from Sacramento, CA is helping out this week with coaching, refereeing, and a variety of things. Usually in the morning we have speed & agility drills along with basketball drills, then in the afternoon the games begin and last till about dinner time.
I'm coaching one of the teams (Go Liberty!), playing in the international division with USA, and cleaning on MOP crew. Btw MOP doesn’t stand for anything cool. It just mean’s I clean and people think it’s funny to tell me that I “missed a spot”, which they think is soooo funny and I think it's so dumb... lol. I've just started holding out the broom and telling them they can get all the spots that I miss ;). This week really has been the best week of the summer, because we're super busy, tired, and outside all the time, so it finally feels like camp. We're all sweaty, smelly, and we're all dressed in workout clothes. Although there are a few girls in dress until they have to go play ball. Then there's me, I wake up, wash my face, brush my teeth, and fix my hair as I walk out the door. lol...
Anyway my team was doing great 2-0, but now I think we're 2-1 because they had to switch up the teams. My team killed the teams we played the first day by about 20 points, apparently that isn't fair or fun for the other teams in the league.. lol... Idk... The team is still doing good it's just a little bit more of a challenge, espescially when the coach doesn't completely know what's going on. It's good learning experience though, as is playing in the international division. Some of the girls that come to the camp aren't girls, they're women. Women who have played on the national leagues in their countries, so they're pretty hard core. For not playing together ever, USA is doing fairly well. We're 1-1, but were probably going to get killed in the couple games, especially when we play Belarus. FYI, Belorussians don't mess around when it comes to basketball.
That's about all that's been going on so far this week... Oh! And I went to my first Polish Protestant wedding... for those of you who know Robert, he got married to a Polish women, who is his age ;). It wasn't really any different from an American wedding, except it was all in Polish, the bride and groom sat during the vows, and the bride didn't throw her flowers for the girls to catch. Ok, for real this time, I don't have anything else.

I love you all! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

Asia

P.S. It's again late so my apologies :).

Rain Rain Go Away...

Before I came to Poland I was under the impression that it rained a lot here, so I packed an umbrella, rain boots, and two raincoats, because who doesn't wear 2 raincoats at one time. I think I was on something when I packed, because one of anything was rarely ever good enough. Three must be my lucky number though, because I packed 3 pairs of tennis shoes, jeans, jean shorts, running shorts, and I'm sure there's more. Anyway, we're done with random Joanna facts, back to the rain. When I say rain, I mean torrential down pour, flash flood warnings, tornadoes... just kidding, minus the torrential down pour, that part is true. Last Sunday started out as a beautiful sun shiny day, which is exactly what I dressed for. No jacket, no rain boots, and no umbrella. On our way to church the rain starts to pour, we drive through a few large "puddles" and Marysia says something about how life is always an adventure when Molly and I are around. :) Little did she know what was coming... lol..A few minutes later water started seeping through the car floor. Then, I don't know exactly how it happend, but the car died in the middle of the intersection. So there we were- 5 girls dressed for church, in the pouring rain, with no other option but to push the car out of the intersection, which is exactly what we did. lol... It was one of those priceless moments. We did end up making it to church safely and looking slightly like drowned rats. ;) Awh... good times...
This week is the first ever International Fish Art camp with people from 4 different countries- Poland (obviously, but I had to say it), USA, Ukraine, and Belarus. It's been a pretty simple week with part of the Southeast Christian Worship team is here leading workshops, worship and the morning challenge. During the meetings the music has been in Polish and English with a little Bella-Russian thrown in the mix. Side note- Bella-Russian is crzy! They have numbers and a stars for letters. It's just a little strange, but it's all good... Anyway, it's been really awesome to have people from multiple different countries all worshiping together; and also being able to worship again in English. It's another one of those little things that I didn't realize I would miss so much. Last night instead of having a normal meeting we had a worship service, which was very refreshing. Then they had something like America's Got Talent and Just Dance combined. Oh, and for those of you who know Brian Sites, you should invite him over to play Just Dance... lol... He's got some awesome moves ;). If only I had remembered my video camera to share it with everyone... Not that I really have any room to speak. I can keep a beat, other than that I'm a straight up white girl :).
I think thats about it for this week. I'll leave you with a few random/interesting facts:

• To be baptized in Poland the person must be at least 18, otherwise they must get permission from their parents, which is very difficult most times.
  
• No one really knows what hand-sanitizer is.
  
• According to Molly K. the toilet paper here is whole wheat... lol
• Poland has a "what's yours is mine" policy about food. If you don't want to share you're food you must find a secret place and eat quickly j/k.
  

Hugs to all! Miss you much!

Joanna "Power-ta-the-House"

The Invitation

Wednesday is always a very important day during the camp week, because it is when the kids are taught about what Christ did for them on the cross and they are invited to accept Christ as their personal Savior to pursue a life of hope and true joy. Many of the kids have a lot of questions, especially since they have grown up in the Catholic church and have been taught salvation by works.
Prayer Requests:

• For God to open the eyes and hearts of the kids so they will truly know and understand who He is and what He has done for them.
• For the Counselors as they are answering questions from their campers.
• Everyone's health at camp- Many people are getting sick because of the crzy hot/cold weather we have been having.
• The staff to stay energized and focused- Because we still have kids over the weekend, many times the staff doesn't really get a day off.

Answers to Prayer:

Before coming to Poland I prayed that God would allow me to build lasting relationships with some of the women that work with Proem Ministry, to be part of Polish people and culture, and to learn the language- All of which He has allowed. Although coming a month before camp started was a struggle at times, God allowed me to build a relationship with Stephcia, a missionary from Southeast who started out as a year intern, but has now been here for 7 years. Since she has been through much of the same things she has been a great help in processing the culture and a great friend.
I also really wanted to be part of the culture and people in Poland. It's never fun being "the foreign kid" or the person out of the loop, which is exactly how it is when everyone is speaking in a language you don't understand. It's pretty bad when you're learning words from pre-schoolers... lol ;). Even though I still don't understand a lot and I can't speak much Polish, I'm learning; and God has provided patient people, who have been willing to teach me.
One of my favorite memories will definitely be when Hannah and I were sitting on the front steps of the Hotel waiting with everyone for lunch and we both realized we were chillin' with the Polish group of counselors and not the American ones.
I've really apprecaited the friendships that God has allowed me to build with the Polish and American interns. Despite the language and culturial differences, God has brought all of use togehter with the same passion and desire to serve Him and tell others about Him. It has been awesome to hear the stories of how coming to camp changed many of the interns lives for Christ. Many times camp is like a haven for the campers and counselors, because this where they grow and be Christians. Since Poland isn't a very envagelized country, there aren't a lot of Christians to encourage each other like in the U.S. Rarely are we the only Christian. We get to pick out our Christian friends, and we get to choose which Christian guy we get to marry. There aren't as many options here and many times that makes things difficult. When people in Poland choose to become Christians, it's truly a life changing decision. They are choosing to walk away from everything they have ever been taught and from what most of their families and friends believe. Thankfully though they aren't walking alone when they make that choice. Although the road will be rough, choosing Christ is worth it all.

Much Love,

Asia

Summa Time Is Here!

Happy Belated 4th of July to you all! We didn't do much here to celebrate, except for wearing red, white, and blue and we taught the kiddos Yankee Doodle. Woohoo! I know you all a jealous, since all you were doing was sitting by a pool, drinking lemonade, and eating hamburgers. Maybe next year you will have the opportunity to teach Yankee Doodle to someone :).

This week Southeast Christian Church is here to help with jr. English camp! Woohooo! Not only are they helping with the camp the also brought me Peanut Butter ;) and the week before that another group from Louisville brought be Choc. Chip Cookie Dough Pop Tarts. People were jealous and I almost lost a limb because they thought I had been holding out on them all summer. Just kidding... but seriously :) No worries though, I think they will move on to Molly since her family just sent her a huge box of candy, Reeses in particular, which is really special because Poland doesn't have Reeses. Crzy I know, but such is life. )I'm writing late at night sooooo my apologies again).

Highlights From the Week:

• I found a large mug so I don't have to use the small ones any more for coffee (Kawa). I was really excited about this, which is obviously why it came to mind first. :)
• Molly and I are teaching English this week together and we had to make up a team cheer, which where our camp team cheer experience came in handy. Woohoo Go Cheetahs!
  
• The word for brother in Polish is Brat. It's spelled and said the exact same way we do it in America. (I thought that one was funny, just in case you wanted to know)
• Polish summers can be in the 50's, although the Polish say it is rare. Thankfully I over packed and am prepared for these freakishly cold summer days :).
  

Ok Time for Sleep! Good night all you wonderful people out there! Lots of love!

Asia

Lato Camp!

Hello to Everyone!

Camp is here! and so are about 200 campers! Ahhhhhh! That was an excited ahh!, not a "what have a gotten myself into" ahh! just to clarify. I'm an assistant leader to Marysia, another intern, and we have 13 girls this week. Since there are so many campers this week most of the assistants aren't starting with their cabins, which is cool with me. I think I can "suffer" and stay another week in the hotel :).
All the kids arrived Sunday, which was chaos with luggage, kids, and parents everywhere, but it wouldn't be camp without that chaos. The language barrier made things a little awkward at first, but now the girls are always teaching new things to say, like hamster (I'm not sure when I'll ever use that, but it's all good :). They're all about 9-11 years old and very sweet! A couple of them speak English well enough to help me communicate with the other girls that only speak Polish and when we can't communitcate with words we play Gestures (I'll be a gestures pro by the end of the summer).
The camp schedule is pretty much the same as any other camp, except it's written in Polish so I still don't know what's going on sometimes lol... but that might have something to do with that fact I'm a little ADD too... Did I mention my need to wash my feet and I'm so getting a pedicure when I get home? I thought my feet were bad before. Anyway, what was I saying? :) Oh yes, camp and the girls. Marysia and I really do have a great group this week! Tonight we all prayed together before they went to bed and Marysia asked is any of them wanted to pray and almost of them raised their hand. Even though I couldn't understand everything, it was still awesome to see all of these young girls jumping as the chance to talk with God.
It's been interesting to see God's hand in everything this summer. From being sick, to cultural barriers, to building relationships with people I never imagined I would be able to be friends with. So many things the be thankful for and excited about!
I'm sorry this is short, but I'm tired and tomorrow is going to start early. And again I apologizes for the spelling errors and missing words. I'm too tired to reread this. I love you all and your prayers are much appreciated!

Joanna "Powerhouse" Hufhand

Oh! and a special thank you to the Kenya MI2 Team for the gifts and letters! Love you guys! Wish we could all be in 2 places at once!

Po to da Land

What up Everybody!

So many things have been happening in Zako lately! It's pretty much the most exciting place in the world! Lol... jk, but really.... things have been picking up with all the new interns coming in, staff moving to camp, and mission groups coming in. Kids will be coming in Sunday afternoon for Fish Art camp, where the kids will have the opportunity to learn more about media, photography, music, and dancing. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be helping with next week, but all of us interns will be assigned jobs for the week at the staff training meeting on Saturday. Also on Saturday, there is an AWESOME group coming in from CAL (Christian Academy of Louisville) to help out for a couple weeks. I don't really know that many people in the group, but Blake Shively, who led my missions trip to kenya, is leading the CAL group, so it will be nice to see a friend from home.

Let's go to some general updates:

• Health status = Fabulous! Thank you for the prayers!
• Cleaning status= Been doing a lot of it
• Room status= 3 girl interns, 1 room, 1 bathroom, + a lot of luggage = crazy! (Fortunately we all like each other, at least right now we do... lol... I let you know next week if the status is still the same.)
  
• Polish status= becoming more Polish everyday! Most importantly I know how to ask for certain foods, the bathroom, and pay for things. Oh! and I already know how to do a Polish smile. Thank you Chicantek side of the family :).
• Relationship status= I haven't been married off yet. But they've tried to set me up multiple times.
  

Other things are that are going on:

• We will be attending church in Warsaw to celebrate the 90 years the Christian church has had an influence in Poland.

• Ummm... that's the only other thing I can think of thats going on. lol... more later.

Interesting facts about Poland:

• They throw the veil instead of flowers at weddings.
• Its considered rude to say "hi" to random people on the street.
• When you walk into a store its polite to say "good afternoon".
  
• Aggressive behavior is absolutely necessary when standing in line- Line jumping is acceptable and no that doesn't mean people jump over lines painted on the ground.
• Hair driers will blow up if you have the wrong type of convertor. (Yes, that's spoken from experience. If you smell smoke and seeing a glowing red/orange light coming from your hair drier I would suggest turning it off. Just a suggestion ;)
• I'm not for sure about this one, but I would say "Girl Power" is not as popular in Poland as it is in the states. lol... Why is would say this is because... one last quick story... Molly and I came to the directors wife to see if we could go kayaking up the river. Simple enough, right? Yeeeeaaaah... the were both like, "Are you going by yourselves? No, boy is going with you?" Molly and I looked at each other and looked back at them, "No." Lol... neither one of them seemed too excited about that idea, but it ended up working out ok. I took my cellphone with us and a boy intern went with us. :)

Ok, that's all I've got for now. I'll be uploading some pictures soon, so check out fb. Oh, and please ignore the sp/gr errors and missing words lol... I'm to tired to reread and correct. Much love to everyone! Lots of hugs!

Asia

Thank You Lord for Today

Greetings from Poland,

I think a good place to start would be a very special thank you to everyone who has remembered me in your prayers. I think some times we forget what prayer can really do, what it means to the people we pray for, and what a privilege it is to be able to talk to God personally. How awesome is it that I can be anywhere, doing anything, and talk to my Jesus about whatever is going on! Tonight a couple of the other intern girls (Molly and Hannah) and I went to Stephanie's house for dinner and some girl time. After hanging out and talking Stephanie prayed for us, which doesn't seem like it would be a big deal, but I know it meant a lot to all of us. Rarely, do we pray for someone on the spot, but what an encouragement that is! God is so good.

Praises from the week:

• The Doctor came and gave me antibiotics! Thank you Lord!
• Thankful for the girl interns from the States- we all get along really well- huge praise!
• We had beet soup yesterday, potatoes, eggs, and cooked carrots today- thankful for food that doesn't hurt my throat! (awh it's truly the little things in life!)
• Culture shock is wearing off.
• Last but not least, I'm feeling better today! Huge praise again!

God showed me this week:
The smallest gestures mean the world, and the days that I feel well are a blessing. During the week we always have a meeting where we read scripture, pray, and discuss what needs to be accomplished that day. Thursday we read Psalms 30 and the first 2 verses stood out to me the most. The first verse talked about God not letting our enemies defeat us, and verse 2 talked about the Lord hearing our cries and healing us, which is exactly what I did that day. I prayed and cried out to God for physical healing, which may sound a little drastic. I don't feel like it was at all. I'm stilling praying that same prayer. Being healthy and having the physical ability to do anything, it's a gift. I used to run or workout everyday, but right now I'm excited that I can work and go for a walk. I'm not telling you these things for pity, but rather to have you stop and recognize the little gifts God gives you every day. Praise God for caring about the little things in our lives.

Much Love,
Do Widzenia,

Joanna Meredith

Updates

Dzien Drobry! (good afternoon)

I hope that everyone is doing well and surviving the heat. The weather here has been finicky, really hot then cold, which might have something to do with me being sick again. This time I have strep, but thankfully it isn't to bad yet and the doctor is coming today! Woohoo! I don't think I've ever been so excited to see a doctor. Hahaha... Actually, the doctor that is coming just got baptized this weekend with about 13 other people at camp. During the service everyone who was getting baptized gave their testimony- doctors, college and high school students, fathers, and families, all who were brought to Christ by others who wanted share how Christ had changed their life. I don't remember the names of everyone, but I hope you can still understand One story about a father, daughter, and friend that touched my heart. The daughter she spoke first, telling how she grew up with a catholic background, which was how everyone began their story, but there was no relationship with Christ. Because of circumstances and frustration she walked away from the church for awhile. A few years later she came to a basketball camp at Proem that a friend invited her too. Her friend had recieved Christ at basketball camp a few years prior. The daughter had come to camp only for basketball, but walked away with much more, a heart for Christ. When she came home her father noticed a difference and began to listen to what his daughter had to say about God. After reading the Bible and searching for what his daughter had, God revealed Himself and the girls father accepted Christ as his Savior. One by one lives are changed and people are giving a hope, a purpose.

Other Highlights:
Four other interns from America are here, well one is on her way. I now have a roommate, Hannah, who is actually from Greentown, IN, which is about 20 min. from my home town aaaaannnndddd her grandma lives in Tipton. It's crazy how small the world really is and the sense of humor God has. Hannah is teaching in the school today, since she has a degree in English as a second language. The other interns and I taught at the language school last night to cove for some peopel who were gone. The best part of the class is when the students walk in and look at you with big eyes and a question on there face. That question is, "Do they speak polish?" and there's another one, "Where is my real teacher?" As soon as the word "um" is said they know that English is the only language that will be coming out your mouth. No one ever seems to excited about lol... Anyway, the classes went well. I taught an advance class of adults, that means they already know a lot so I corrected more than I taught. We did introductions, answered some questions, and played a game, so class was pretty simple.

Well, I thats about it for now.
Do Widzenia! (goodbye)

Asia (Joanna)

The Week...

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all doing well and soaking up some sun! The weather has been gorgeous here and I was able to catch some rays this past Saturday. An interesting note on that, whitey tighties are perfectly acceptable at the beach at any age in Poland... lol... I wanted to take a picture, but thought that might be a little inappropriet.

Other interesting facts I've learn:

• "No" literally means "yeah" in Polish. ("Nie" is "no")
• The Olympic Polish Training Center is 10 min. from where I presently live.
• Instead of chasing you with flashing lights, Police officers wave a flag if you are speed and you are supposed to stop (I'm not sure what happens if you don't stop.)
• Polish people don't do ice cubes. (I never realized how much I love ice till now :)
• To roll down the window in a car you push the up arrow instead of the down.
• The bride and groom sit for the ceremony at a Polish wedding.
  
• Hot coffee/tea are always acceptable no matter what the temperature.
  
• Polish people make fun of Ukrainians and Lithuanians like we make fun of people from West Virginia
  

I'm sure there will be more to come throughout the rest of the summer.

All the schools in Poland have a program called green schools, where parents sign their children up for basically multi-day field trips. During the school year Proem has different green schools come and rent the camp. Right now we have 2 greens schools here, about 80 children altogether, till Friday. The schools have their own programs, but each day there are different activities that we do for them, like the climbing wall, zip line, baseball, mini-golf, etc. Also, this week we are having a men's conference. I'm not exactly sure how I'll fit into that, but I know I'll be finding out soon.

I've been able to take a couple Polish lessons and hopefully will continue that for as long as possible. I'm sure when camp starts things will get to crazy to continue, but then I'll have 12 little teachers/kiddos running around me all the time telling me how to say things. I can't wait! really!

Oh! and to update you on my sickness status- I'm still sick... lol... but I'm feeling better. The good news is there is a doctor that goes to the church in Tomy, who was able to check me out. I have a lovely sinus infection, but thankfully I now have antibiotics that are supposed to start helping me feel better in 3 days. Being sick for almost 2 weeks has taken a toll on me but I have a greater heart for those who are sick all the time. Thank you so much for your prayer, but I would appreciate prayer for me to get better.

You all are greatly miss and loved! I wish I could hug everyone of you!

The Poland Team (a.k.a. Team Jo)

ProFit

Alright here's what's been going down in Zakosciele. We had about 50 people attend ProFit camp, ages ranging from 21-68, and a few different countries represented. Most people showed up last Wednesday and stayed through Sunday. Everyday there were different fitness classes, medical workshops, discussion groups, and activity times for everyone to choose from. Instructions from America came and taught kickboxing, zumba, and flexible strength. During the week I had the opportunity to teach boot camp and pilates. As I explained what Boot camp was too everyone, I mentioned that it would begin at 7:15 am and it seemed like everyone either groaned or gasped. lol... I then proceeded to tell them how crazy American's would start around 5 or 6 am, rain or shine, hot or cold, which came back to kick me at the end of the week when it rained Saturday morning. I got up that morning hoping, praying, and confidently thinking no one would get up for boot camp. Wrong! 4 people showed up all proud of themselves. Lol... Awh crazy Polish people ;). Over all fit camp went well and relationship were built and strengthend. The only downer this past week has been this cold that I can't seem to kick. Tylenol, sleep, water, tissues and I have all become very close friends lately. It's been lovely getting to know them better... Hopefully this next week will better with a little less sniffing and a little more running! Your prayers are much appreciated, and I miss you all! Oh and you can get a free donut at dunkin donuts today! Eat one for me!

The Unexpected

So little and so much is going on all at the same time! Even though this is a down time for the camp I still feel like I'm running around 90 mph with everything being new. God is so good as always though! There's a church right down the street from camp in Zako that is about 1,000 yrs. old. Zakosciele actually means "town behind the church", because that is where the town was built. After my run this morning I was walking around the churches cemetary, which is obviously similar to ours in America, except for the tombstones are COVERED with fresh flowers and lanters. Many of you probably know this already, but Poland is primarily catholic and they believe that flowers and such will help the person who has passed away to be release from purgatory quicker. It broke my heart to see all of these graves and realize that their families were still trying to help them work their way to heaven, but it also gave me a greater burden for the people of poland and those that I know that don't have a personal relationship with Christ. The great thing is God is an awesome and mighty God, that can save anyone, anywhere, from anything. Even when the circumstances seem may seem unlikely, my God can do anything. There are many challenges to working in a foreign country, not knowing the language or the culture and just the general adjustment, but God will help me within and through these challeges. When I am weak, His glory shines.

The Latest and Greatest

Somewhere between Wednesday and Thursday I made it to Poland safe and sound with all of my blessed luggage! Praise the Lord! (during the retreat I forgot my bag, it was worse than the where did I put my keys game). We got stuck in traffic on our way out of Warsaw for a couple extra hours, where I caught up on some extra sleep, which I ended up losing again when I woke up @ 1:30 this morning... lol... Jet Lag you're the bestest!
Today I spent most of the day in the grade school and preschool with Rachel, one of the teachers. Fit camp starts next week Wednesday, which i'll be helping with and a couple instructors are coming in also. There's probably more, but I'm gonna try to get some of that sleep back :). Good night world!

Back it up... to the Retreat

Last Saturday the Kenya (2 Mollys, 2 Katie's, 1 Sam, 1 Nicole, and 1 Elise) and Poland ( Team Jo) Mi2 teams met and went on a retreat to... actually none of us know for sure, but it was a lil' bit of TN/GA/NC all mixed together. After we got to the first cabin we unpacked the van then put everything back in the it because we realized that this cabin was at the beginning of the road and not the end, where we were supposed to be :). After we unpacked for real our first team building experience took place at the always amazing Food Lion, which again we're not really sure what state that was in. The Food Lion was also where we met Manager Jack, the ex-sniper who loves to talk about how being a store manager pays better than being a sniper & what state everything is in. Food Lion wouldn't have been the same without him. The next couple days were filled with legistics and other necessary directives things, like white water rafting and funyaking ;). The first day of rafting was in Ducktown,TN where the 1996 Olympic Rafting was held. It was awesome and body numbing cold... lol... the second day was colder, but we all stayed nice and toasty in our full body wetsuits, rubbers boots and splash jackets (Yes, there will be pictures to come). I really don't know what we would have done without all that gear though, besides shiver intensely since the warmest the water got was 45F. The rafting went well minus that time that I steered one of the Mollys and I into a tree, that was right after I told her I had done this in Canada and she should trust me... lol... and we had another slight mishap @ the end our journey. We got a little to excited about our success with the 2nd to last rapid that we totally wiped on the last rapid. All you could see of Molly as we went down were her legs sticking verically in the air... lol again pictures to come... All that to say we had a great, safe retreat and the Mi2 2011 group is amazing. It's gonna be a good summer...