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