*Editor's Note: It has been a bit of a tradition on this blog to bring on another writer during the mission trips to add color to my allegedly dry and boring prose. Since Claire and Joseph are unable to be with us this year, the lot has fallen to Donovan. His report on the day is near the end of this blog. Not everything he says can be taken as unembellished fact, but it is about 95% true, as near as we can tell.
So, our
first official full day in Poland is over. Again, I’m going to try
to keep this short for the sake of time, and rely on the idiom “A picture is
worth a thousand words.”
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| Casper, Joseph's piggy-back buddy. |
Our travel
was, for the most part, uneventful. Except for Jamie, who was my seatmate on
all three flights (why me!?!). Jamie decided it would be a good idea to wear a pillow on his head and a cape around his neck for part of the
international flight, and call himself “Pillowman.” He also asked the flight
attendant to be his best friend. He still informs me merrily that she agreed. The attendant came by while he had the pillow on his head (roughly 1:00 AM EST) and said
in a dry, tired sounding voice, “Still awake I see.”
Another
interesting story from our trip over was the way in which our team managed to convince Melissa that her sister
Katie was not coming on this trip. Melissa believed that because Katie had just
gotten back from Uganda, she wouldn’t be going on this trip. All the while,
Katie quietly packed and raised money. When we got to the airport, Doug
skillfully avoided a direct count of suitcases. We proceeded to the check-in
kiosk, where Mark and Beth (Katie and Melissa’s mom and dad) checked their
whole family in, while Melissa waited in the back. Once we were all checked in,
our group, excluding Katie, went through security together. Once through, we
congregated behind a partition in the airport, in order to shield Katie from
Melissa’s view. Katie then proceeded through security, and avoided us, keeping
in contact by cell phone. As soon as the first call to board the plane was
made, our group got in line. Once on the plane, Katie followed us in, and took
her seat next to Melissa – who was in complete and utter shock. She had not
suspected it at all, and had missed all of the red flags that should have been
obvious. I’m currently sleeping with my door locked, as she has promised to
kill all of us.
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| Greeting the village |
We had a
layover in Washington-Dulles IAD, and had Five Guys Burgers and Fries. I was a
bit suspicious at first, even though Tyler tried to convince me of the
wonderful goodness these people make. I was however convinced after my bacon
cheeseburger.
We also had
a layover in Frankfurt. Once we landed, we had to go through security again. In
my humble opinion, those metal detectors were set to an excessively high level
of sensitivity, as even the old woman in front of me in sweat pants set it off.
The majority of our team received "enhanced" pat-downs. Security also didn’t
appreciate my bag filled with cables and electronic devices. Even though Roanoke
had no problem with it, the Germans made me dump it out, and send it through
the X-ray machine again. They apparently consider shotgun microphones suspicious
objects in that part of the world, and sent me into a little room with a metal
table in it (not joking by the way). They then swabbed the microphone, and ran the swab through a
machine, before releasing me (with my microphone).
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| Hardcore Ping-Pong |
We made it
Krakow uneventfully, and met Jerry Goss (the missionary from the IMB who we
coordinate with) and our translators. We then had a lovely bus ride to the
hotel, during which the driver almost rear-ended one car, and came close to
taking out another one while changing lanes; all of this in a van that had no
seatbelts.
Once we got
to the hotel, we unpacked and unwound. After a team meeting, most of our group
went immediately to bed. But, because Tyler and I are hardcore American sports fans, we
stayed up, and watched some of the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games
on Polish TV. We eventually got bored and went to bed because we couldn’t
understand the commentary, and Google Translate was having a hard time keeping up.
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| Lunch, Kielbasa, cheese, and delicious bacon. |
This
morning after breakfast, we made our first foray back into the village of
Szaflary, where we ministered last year. Our purpose today was to rebuild
relationships we had made last year while here.
We did this through Ping-Pong,
soccer, volleyball, a meal, and Bible Study. Donovan also passed out crayons to
the kids, along with coloring sheets, and t-shirts with "Franklin Heights" on
them.
This
evening, as is our tradition, we had a time of sharing with the believing Roma
of Szaflary in an outlying building of our lodge. Pastor Holland preached a
short message in which he relayed our team’s calling, which we see in scripture,
the support of our church, and the calling of the Holy Spirit. Several people
shared their testimonies, including an older Roma man, who was a pastor. He
gave a brief history of the Roma people, and then shared the story of his
salvation. It was a bit interesting relaying his story, because he spoke the
Roma language and only spoke Polish haltingly. At one point, he was going to
speak in Roma, a Roma woman was going to translate to Polish, and our Nigerian
interpreter Patrick was going to translate from Polish to English. We ended up
with the Roma man struggling through his Polish, with Patrick translating to English
with occasional help from several of the Roma. This worked well, except for the
fact that the Roma who did know Polish couldn’t help but laugh as this man
apparently butchered the Polish language; a fact lost on us Americans until
later.
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| The Roma man giving his testimony, with Patrick translating. |
Well, time
to wrap things up! Tyler and I just finished watching some Olympic swimming, Ping-Pong,
and archery, and I’m ready for bed. I’ll do my best to keep you updated as the days
roll on.
We started out the day heading to
the village in Szarflary to minister to the Roma people. The children have
officially been introduced to FHBC’s crazy AWANA commander. Seems that the
famous chicken hat is a hit in any language!!!!!
We grilled an authentic Roma
lunch for the village including kielbasa sausage, white sausages, cole slaw,
and a smoked salty cheese that you lay on the grill to soften and warm. The
cheese reminds me of a smoked salty mozzarella that is delicious. ( Sorry
Chele) Speaking of the cheese……Doug has talked about it non-stop since last
years trip, so after eating his body weight in it today, he may not make it to
the village tomorrow. The lady at the lodge was talking about making him stay
behind to meet the plumber!!!!!
Now to take a page from Jeff
Foxworthy…..You know your from Tennessee when…….a translator that speaks 4
different languages is ask to help you share a testimony and she replies “I
will try I have problems understanding your accent” We made it through and I
apologized to her for my upbringing.
On a final note Pastor Holland is
doing great and is singing Michele’s praises. See when I was leaving Michele
put some items in my baggage that I told her I would not need, she replied
“someone on your team might need them so take them anyway” so Michele he says
“thank you for being a nurse and being ready for anything” and “ tums are just
as good as rolaids “. Note: see sentence about what we cooked for lunch if you
have any questions.
Well better get to bed, headed to
church in the morning to hear Pastor Holland speak and for us to share with the
church here. So goodnight and Love you Chug Bug…..Love you Hot Rod…..take care
of mommy for me…..
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| End of a long day. |
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