Click on the name of the person that you would like to read an excerpt from.
Day 1:
Traveling. UGH. I’ve never liked flying long distances; it’s so boring. Today is the day, though. Sarah and I finished packing last night, and stayed up until around 12 or so, so we’d hopefully be tired enough to sleep on the plane. Drew and Emily were in charge of taking us to the airport, in my car… surprisingly, the Focus hatch swallowed both suitcases and the 4 of us no problem!
When we got to the airport, we test weighed our bags and the big one was over by like 15 pounds! So we moved some stuff, and Heinz helped us out with some things, so we made it through check just fine. Sarah has been nervous since last night about going through security check; it’s actually kind of funny now! No problems at security, and we were off to the gate. Little snacks, ok, big snacks, and the plane was boarding. This is a short one, and I had hoped to catch a nap. Nope. Not happening.
It’s neat to see the excitement for the people going on a missions trip for the first time. That’s why I can’t sleep, I can hear their voices and the excitement in it. I’ve been on trips before, but never have I been “in charge” of a certain area of it. I used quotes there because I really am just going to do what I’m told and hopefully be able to share Jesus with people, in a real way.
Getting to
Rich and Lori met us at the front of the airport, it was nice to put a face with Lori, after talking with her so much on the phone this last week. We made it to the vans, and I am stopping every couple of feet because of all of the cars I am seeing here! I love it! Some of the team rode with Rich, and the majority of us got to ride the bus for the first time. Must have been a new driver because there were a couple of incidents that she was very unsure of the size of the bus and making sharp turns. Rich took the time to warn us about the safety of the buses and to keep an eye on each other for the pick-pockets. What’s weird about the buses is that the people are so quiet. Never before have I realized how loud we are as Americans. Some of us more so than others!
Most of the team hasn’t slept in over 20hrs, and it’s starting to show on their faces! I’m seeing walking zombies around the mall! We then headed over to the seminary, where the MAPS team would be working all week. It’s a neat school, small, but neat. The addition that the maps team is working on will almost triple the size of the school. Lots of ministers will be trained here. Its definitely bigger than what we are seeing just in front of us!
Meagan Pace (Student)
Saturday October 6th, 2007
Oh man, I slept like a rock last night! I woke up to the knocking of Pastor AJ. The day begins by going downstairs to breakfast, at breakfast the food was great! After breakfast we head over to the school and start work. The MAPS team starts their job and the Evangelism team starts moving bricks. When it was time for lunch we, had pizza! It was excellent. Sarah explained a few games to us after we were done eating, in case we had extra time or something. We went to a youth group and played a couple of games , one of them was called Samurai, and the other was a name game, sort of.
Worship time! The games were over and it was time to worship. It was so cool that they picked out songs in Polish that we would know in English. After we were done worshiping, we went to the
The city was amazing and beautiful. Passing out the fliers didn’t go so well though. It started pouring down rain, and when it cleared it was time to leave. On Saturday night for dinner at McDonalds (McDonalds food here is a lot better than at home). When we got back, Pastor AJ had all of us meet in the hallway by his room. He said something that was very interesting that had to do with Matthew chapter 5. Pastor AJ said that we should always let our light shine no matter what.
October 6th
I cannot believe how much activity can be packed into one day. Breakfast at the hotel was good. Note to self, skip the granola looking cereal and just go for the eggs. Forgot my bus pass, had to walk back and get it. Everything happens for a reason. Had a nice walk with
Day 1 and 2
Where to start… The plane rides were ridiculous. I hate plane food. Now that I got that off my chest…ha ha ha.
We got to
From the hotel, we went out to a mall by bus to eat. The food was amazing. It was like a gyro, but I have no Idea what kind of meat it was, but what I do know is that is was pretty tasty. After that, we got an hour to roam and check it out. It was small and not very exciting. From there, we went to the Bible college and got a tour and then had “dinner” of sorts in the kitchen. We got to the hotel around 8:00p.m. I hit the hay around 8:02 (After being awake for 36 hours, I was pretty tired.)
10-9-07
Blessed time at breakfast! AJ convinced many to try the pate. They had something akin to a sweet quark(cross between whip cream and cream cheese sweetened) it tasted great on a bun with jam.
MEJ and I cleaned and repaired some tiles. We almost finished the room we tiled yesterday. It is a cold day outside and in the school. You could see your breath outside. I wore my toque outside and much of the day inside.
Today’s theme song is “I got everything I need… almost” in response to the question, “Do you have everything you need?”
MEJ and I helped a lot today and laid the tile in the closet. It went fairly well.
To Bel’s intensity and sometimes inflexibility AJ created this word:
Stubbornity: noun, stubbornness, hard-headedness, inflexibility as, “Her stubbornity makes me crazy”.
Oct 4/07
The day has arrived. The day that has been sneaking up on us for 7 months. I am off to
Oct 5/07
We traveled from
Our luggage was all take to the hotel by the missionary in a big van. Lori took eleven of us on the bus, it was very crowded and difficult to keep everyone together. We arrived at the Arkadia hotel, we have a double bed and a bathroom with a shower. The bathroom smelt so strong of sulfur that I could hardly breathe. I opened both windows to air out the room.
We left on a bus route 190 to a mall not far away. Many German named stores in it. Real, Orsay, Deichmann Schuh. There was an Ikea right beside it. We had Doner Kebabs form a Kebab House affiliate there, yummy! Bel Cosby, Laura Kasprynski and I walked around the mall.
We went to the Bible school by bus 190 and walked to see where we will be helping with construction. This was the most exciting part of the whole day. We got to see the Bible school in the middle of construction. A lot has been done, but still lots to do. Now I have a better idea of the things that I will be spending my time in
We toured through the current Bible school which can only house 20 students. When finished the new school will have capacity for nearly 100 in dorm rooms.
We had an orientation meeting in which the missionary welcomed us to
Oct 6th 2007
Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It was off to work we go. After breakfast at the hotel, we walked over to the Bible school and after some orientation and divvying of work assignments, we started work.
Bel Cosby was our team leader, taking charge of laying floor tiles in the “to be library” of the college. She has obviously done this a lot before. Also working with me were Heinz, and Carey Valentine. The guys mixed the mud and cut the tile when needed to finish the edges. Bel placed the tiles and I “buttered” them with mud. We worked til late lunch. After lunch (pizza-yummy even cold) we start on the librarian’s office. Things did not go as smoothly as Bel would have liked it, but hey we got the tiles on the floor. We were the last to finish again. All the others on the construction team were waiting to leave for dinner, well waiting to go change for dinner. Missionary Rich took us to an Egyptian restaurant called Hammurabi, again great food. Mall walking in a pretty upscale mall.
Back at the hotel we had a “team meeting”. Sitting out in the hallway with Polish wedding reception music in the background, we heard from the evangelism team members about their day. They went and handed out flyers and went to a youth service. They got wet in the rain, but were all excited and positive about their day.
I enjoyed my first work day. It was fun to be doing something new and watch Bel. She is a hard worker and dedicated to doing quality work. I have learned a lot from her.
Pastor AJ had a short devotion with us, His message, “Take time to hear the whisper of God”.
We went to the service at the
We rode the tram, an electric street car, downtown where we ate some Polish perogies. They were very good. Then we walked around the old city. The buildings were just great old buildings. I loved just looking at the craftsmanship.
We went back to have an evening service. Pastor AJ, Pastor
I even got to usher here. When the service was over we talked, or tried to talk to the people. It was hard but enjoyable.
Day 4
Today was unbelievable. The little kids are amazing. I had so much fun. I gave my testimony today in front of the little kids. We worked with first through fifth graders, so obviously they were cute as anything. We taught them how to play American football. That was interesting and quite hilarious. We also played basketball with them. That was fun also.
This morning the bus was crowded, and I mean packed. But we got through it.
The lunch at the school was pretty good, but the drink, whatever it was, was awful.
I taught one kid an American handshake. He caught on quick, he was very smart, actually. All those kids were smart. We also played soccer with them. It was a mixed team, but my team won, of course. Ben was on the other team but we still won. I did really well for my first time playing in like, what, 8-10 years? Yeah, but today was fun. For dinner we had a soup with sour kraut in it. I was pretty nasty, but the other stuff we had was really good. I don’t know what it was called, but it had chicken, broccoli, and rice in it.
10-8 Fifth day
Dan and Tom helped a guy lay brick pavers out front. Lowell and Thomas continued to work on the stage. They almost got one side of it done. The rest of us were split into tile groups. Bel and I laid tile in a bathroom and it went very slow. Heinz and Marylyn finished the room Bel had started Saturday. Carey (upgraded to ‘princess’ today) was our “official” tile cutter. All he did all day was cut tile, and help mix mud.
After dinner, AJ led a devotion on how to let your light shine and used the illustration of the candle. I think this was good for everyone because it is important that missions teams, both construction and evangelism teams, not get frustrated or disappointed at the trip and let their light burn out.
I forgot, before devotions, AJ gave us a chance to talk about our day. The construction people really didn’t have much to say, but the evangelism team was really excited and had lots of positive attitude about their first day of school. The funniest thing I got out of it was Dave Pace trying to play soccer. On the serious side, some of the kindergartners shared their testimonies and had some really good stuff to say about how God had moved in their lives and what he had done for them. At such a really young age, our team was shocked at their testimonies.
October 5, 2007
When we arrived in
Saturday was the first day of work for our team. Some members stayed to work and some went downtown to pass out flyers for the
I went to bed around 11:30 pm to wake for church at 8 am. Some well-meaning polish folks decided to have a wedding in our hotel directly below our room. I mean, the band and music shook my bed until 4:44 am. In the morning, needless to say, it was hard to stay focused.
October 11, 2007
It was nice to sleep in just a little bit and not have to ride bus and tram for 3 hours everyday. I was so ready to do some dirty work, if you will. AJ wasn’t there to delegate because he wasn’t feeling well so I asked Carey what I could do. I ended up sweeping the main walkway and hall. I was making a whole bunch of dust come up and then we had to wear masks, oops. It worked out because they ended up leveling that part.
Then we did the most odd thing in the world to me….we threw away dirt. Yep, threw it away. Rich said it was bad dirt…okay? Then Lori explained that the dark stuff had cement in it and when it rained, it would harden and grass wouldn’t grow. Okay no problem. We got rid of all of that stuff, but yet we continued to throw away dirt, that was perfectly good dirt. I still don’t understand, but I did it.
A small group went to the center to hand out flyers. Matt brought me back flowers. I wish I could take them home with me. But pictures will have to do.
Went back to the hotel to clean up and go to dinner. We went to the mall to go to this Egyptian restaurant. I had a pizza and it was good. It was small pizza. I was only able to eat 2 pieces and gave majority of it to Ben. The hot chocolate was the best part. It tasted like how dad used to make hot chocolate for us in the winter. I liked the atmosphere a lot. The lights were gourds with holes punched in and colored beads in them.
Day One
We arrived in
After that, a few of us arrived to the hotel by bus; the others arrived by van(lucky them). I and
After a 5 minute meeting, we walked to the school where the MAPS team will be working and we stayed there till about 4:30ish. The whole team went to one of the local malls, had dinner, and from 5:25-6pm, we walked around the mall. Which was really boring, but the cool thing was they had a grocery store in the mall. Left the mall around 6:15ish and from the mall we went back to the school, had devotions there and around 7:45pm, we walked back to the hotel and at 7:59, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. So that’s the end of day one.
Northwest Airlines was gracious to us and designated a group line and two attendants to us so that we could check in on time. It did take nearly an hour to check in and get through security, and we took our first of many long walks to the gate. I heard several times on this journey, “Why aren’t we taking the tram?” After being here in
Our flights were just the way you want flights to be: un-eventful and on time. I got a kick out of watching our first timers travel, and I have remembered the things that I had to learn as I have traveled to new places around the world. The gadgets and gizmos that help to bring marginal comfort on a plane like the little button that makes the seat go back. The way that toilets flush in different parts of the world. The way that faucets work, or other conveniences that we take for granted at home that are still available to us to some extent, but operate a little differently than what we are used to. I have enjoyed watching the apprehension, the awe, and even the fear that comes from stepping in to the unknown and seeing how people deal with these emotions in different ways.