What's Really Been Happening

Wait, wait, wait. Don't believe a word that Claire and Joseph write. I'll be locking my door from now on after that post.
Here's what's really been happening.
So, the time since my last blog has been a whirlwind, and I'm going to use that as my excuse for not getting out another blog sooner. Also, once we finally got the key to the internet, it actually went down for a while.
So, nothing really exciting happened from the time I wrote my last blog post until we got to the hotel. We landed in Munich yesterday at 8:00 AM Germany time (2:00 AM Eastern Time). We had a three hour layover in the airport. We crammed into the shuttle that took us to the airplane, and climbed on. I got to my seat and went right to sleep. Unfortunately, while I was asleep, I missed my in-flight pretzel. Oh, well. We arrived in Poland and met the Goss family and our translators. We then took a three hour bus ride into the mountains where we will be staying and serving this week.
That's when things began to be a little more interesting.
After we unpacked, we went outside in the 45 degree whether to play volleyball in the rain. We were all slipping and sliding and getting soaked. That was a lot of fun. Then, some of us took a walk to the local convince store. There was a small soccer/basketball court behind the store, and we walked over to have a closer look. There were a few kids hanging around on the court. Almost immediately, one of them asked (in fluent english) "So where are you guys from?". I responded with "The United States". Apparently, the girl that asked the question didn't like the answer. Let's just say that that's the first time I've been cussed out by someone in a foreign country, speaking English. Joseph, Dillon, and Matt all thought it was hilarious, of course. Actually, when we played soccer with the kids a bit later, the girl that cussed me out actually helped us communicate by translating a few things for us.
That was yesterday, now to today.
This morning I wake up to "Ezra, Katie just blew up your transformer." I thought "Great way to start the day, huh?" Apparently, she had knocked on our door at about 6:30AM asking for my transformer. Matt got up, answered the door, and gave it to her. Well, Katie decided to run her hairdryer through it, which blew my transformer up, and killed the power outlets in both our rooms. OH, boy.
This morning we went to a Polish church service. It was very similar in many respects to our church, barring size. They had a praise band who did praise and worship, a stage and sound system, etc. Oh, I forgot to mention, their service is two hours long! It was a great time of worshipping with fellow believers. It was blessing to me, and think to the rest of the team as well. It's just amazing to hear other believers singing songs in another language ,that you know ,while trying to sing along yourself… in english!
After lunch, we had a time of planning and prayer with the believers from the Roma village in which we will be working this week.
For the rest of today, we have been hanging out and just getting to know the Goss family, the translators, and each other better.
So far, it's been great, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week!

An Important Message

Greetings from Poland! Everyone is doing well here except Ezra. I regret to inform you that Ezra was unfortunately left behind in Munich, Germany. Our team was in a mad rush to catch our flight to Krakow when we realized Ezra was missing. Apparently, Ezra was filling up on hot chocolate when he accidentally spilled some on his brand new macbook pro. We told Ezra not to wipe up the mess but his exact words were, "Save yourselves! This macbook is my life. I can't leave her behind! You must go forth to Poland without me. I will be okay! If my macbook makes it through alive, I will book another ticket and meet you all there." So, we had to leave Ezra. However, he arrived early this morning, but is still very shaken up. Joseph and I (Claire) have taken on Ezra's blog responsibility because he is simply unable to perform the task at hand. Please send your condolences to him. He could really use some encouragement. However, his macbook seems to be okay! Otherwise, you would not be receiving this update.

No seriously, (Sonja) Ezra is okay. That was all fiction. Our team really is doing great! We can already see the Lord moving here and our team is enjoying building relationships within our team as well as with translators and the Goss family. However, we almost broke a relationship with Ezra by stealing his computer... BUT we did not shatter our relationship completely and that is why this message is allowed to be brought to you by Claire and Joseph (reigning ping pong double champions). Anyway, I hope this was a fun update for you all. It just goes to prove how great of a time we are already having together. Thank you for your many prayers. We look forward to updating you tomorrow and the rest of the week about the incredible things that the Lord is doing here!

Signing off from Poland (until the next time we steal Ezra's macbook),
Claire Guilliams and Joseph Wampler

*No Ezra's or macbook pro's were harmed in the making of this blog.*

In-Flight Blog Post

Blog Post 072911
So, the first blog post for the Poland missions trip 2011. I'm writing this as we hurtle through the air 37000 feet straight up, traveling at roughly 550mph.
Well, we got to church at 9:00 this morning in order to sort out all the luggage and all related baggage weight issues. All in all that went as well as could be expected.
We started off our trip to Poland with a bit of a road trip, driving from Rocky Mount down to Charlotte, North Carolina to fly out of Charlotte Douglas International Airport. My ride down was actually quite enjoyable. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel an hour outside of Charlotte to have lunch, thus avoiding exorbitant costs for food at the airport. I ate hearty knowing that it might be my last chance for a decent meal this week.
We continued our trip, and made it to Charlotte an hour or two a head of time. We lugged our suitcases to the closest shuttle stop, and waited for ten minutes in the blistering NC heat for the shuttle. The first thing I noticed about said shuttle once boarding, was that the glass box, with "break glass in case of emergency" printed across the front, had already been broken. Great, what glass were we supposed to break in the case of emergency.
This is jumping ahead of myself a little bit, but I noticed on the plane, they give the instructions first in German, then in English. If there's a real emergency, and the pilot needs to make an announcement, what is he going to do, give it first in German, and then the rest of us Americans can wait and listen for the English version? I guess it might pay to be German.
We made it to the Charlotte terminal, and drug our suitcases off the bus onto the sidewalk, to this message "May your flight be better than your bus trip to the terminal!" "And have better safety equipment, I thought.
We then got our boarding passes and proceeded to security. Although they made me nervous by running my backpack through the X-Ray machine several times, we made it through without incident. No knives this year! Several of the members of our team did go through the full body scanner. Apparently Doug, Joseph, and Mr. Andersen look extra suspicious.
We proceeded to our gate, and the Carters, Joseph and I staked out a spot behind a kiosk that had a power outlet. Joseph went to buy a Dr. Pepper, and Amanda and I followed. We found an amusing toy dog rolling around on the floor, which Amanda, always the compassionate one, promptly untangled from it's leash. I said "Amanda, it's a toy."
We then continued into the staging areas and, from there, onto the plane. Takoff was smooth. We weren't ten minutes into the flight when Mrs Andersen, sitting several rows up turns around and yells "Tanya, you doing OK back there?" I enjoyed a great documentary on Google. Having so much fun!

Poland Informational Blog

Witaj! (Polish for Hello)
At the moment I type this, I am less than a week away from leaving the country with a group from my church. We will be traveling to a small village located in the foothills of the Tatra Mountains of Poland. The village is half a world away, but as I learned during our trip last year, the people are the same as they are in every other place in the world.
As this trip draws closer, I can barely contain my excitement. What a great privilege and opportunity it is to travel across the world to work with people that otherwise I would have no chance of meeting in my life, and share with them a life changing gift. As Doug (our youth pastor) has emphasized several times, this is a beautiful picture of the love of Christ. That people from half a world away would give up valuable time and resources to come visit, and share Christ with a specific group of people.
So, a little bit of background about the trip: On this trip, we will fly to Poland with the specific intent of sharing the love of Christ with the inhabitants of a small village of about 100 people located in the mountainous region of southern Poland.
Other goals for the trip include:
To be a blessing and encouragement to the Goss family (IMB missionaries that we are coordinating with) and further their mission efforts.
To be a witnesses of Christ as we travel and interact with people that come into our paths.
And, to experience a deeper level of community with our own team from Franklin Heights Baptist Church.
These are our stated goals, but we know that the nature of missions is that things can and do change. So, an unstated, but very important goal for us on this trip, is to be flexible in all that we do. I must confess that although I feel as though I can adapt to change fairly well, it does jar me a bit whenever things do change. My personality is one that likes to know what’s going on and why, almost all the time. I hate getting in a car and just riding. I want to know where we’re going. I’m OK if plans change, as long as we have another plan, and we know what it is. The one thing I hate is “Just winging it”.
So, who’s going? Well, here’s the list (in no particular order):

Doug Hayes
Courtney Taylor
Pate Doherty
Meg Carter
Amanda Carter
Claire Guilliams
Ricky Wampler
Tanya Wampler
Joseph Wampler
Fran Wampler
Kateleigh Wampler
Shana Kohnen
Amy Layman
Eryn Layman
Matt Mays
Ezra Richards
Mark Andersen
Beth Andersen
Katie Andersen
Dillon Andersen
Melissa Andersen
Ian Andersen

I apologize in advance if I misspelled anyone’s name.
You can tell just by looking at the list that the group dynamic is a bit different this year. We have several families going, and not quite as many youth as in previous years. Although this is different, I’m actually looking forward to it. I think the unique mix of students, adults, and children will make for an exciting and interesting trip. I also think it will be a lot of fun!
During the trip, I will be doing my best to keep everyone informed on how the trip is progressing, so that you can know what’s going on with our team, and will know how to pray. My goal is to write one blog post a day, as well as post occasional photos and videos.
There are several places on the web where you can check for these updates:
First (and most important) this blog: mrzchuck.blogspot.com
Second: My YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/MrZchuck
Also: My Facebook and Twitter pages
I will be posting updates on the youth group Twitter and Facebook pages as well:
www.twitter.com/fhbcimpact
www.facebook.com/fhbcimpact
So, if you haven’t already, go like/follow the youth group pages!
Do Widzenia! (Goodbye)

VBS Poems

Seeing as how we just finished VBS at Franklin Heights, I thought it might be appropriate to post a couple of VBS related poems for your enjoyment. Enjoy!

VBS
Every year when VBS rolls around,
I have to be running when I hit the ground.
I walk in the door and I‘m handed a CD,
And from then on it’s all up to me.
I start to put together the slide show,
And oh! Here we go!
The first slide is there: “Boomerang Express”
But where are all the rest?
The computer decides to hibernate,
Oh, this is just great!
In the middle of all this,
While for a break I’m starting to wish,
I hear Brandon start to cry.
And when I ask why,
He whines “No girls in my group!”
I tell him “No big whoop.”
A wireless mike starts to feedback
And my eardrums are about to crack
When something goes wrong
It doesn’t take long
Everyone turns around to see,
Who the person that caused it might be.
One thing they need to understand,
And I hope eventually they can:
If everything comes to a halt
It’s not Ezra’s fault!
By:
Ezra Richards

VBS 2010
Craziness, craziness, VBS
It wouldn't be authentic if it was anything less
Two hundred screaming kids galore
Well, at least it can't be called “a bore”
Slide shows, light shows, and music to boot
At least the question of whether it's complicated is moot
Snacks, crafts, and games are in there too
And the opportunity to serve no matter what you do
Whether you help with registration, rotation, or as a group aide
There's no one place where you've just got it made
It's never easy, (sometimes hard)
But it can all be summed up in one response card

MrZchuck

Anti-Social Month Recap

First of all, let me say, that I am hesitant to even write this blog post, lest in doing so, I defeat one of the stated goals of this experiment by making a big deal of it; namely, to prove that teens are not addicted to social media, and it is not a big deal to give it up for a month.
Also, on that point, I have had people say “Ha! You picked February because it is the shortest month of the year.” *Cough, Brandon, Cough* While I admit that it was a fortunate coincidence, this was not a large part of my original reasoning for picking the month of February. February was simply a month that it did not appear (though I was later proved wrong) there would be much happening. I knew I would miss the Super Bowl (since I'm a huge sports fan anyway) and Valentines Day. Big Deal. But, to solve this little quandary I decided to extend my “Anti-Social Month” experiment to include the first several days in March.
So, what did I learn?
First, different people have varying opinions on teenagers and social networking There were some that said “Wow, you're doing THAT! Why?!”. There were others that said “Yeah, I don't get on my [Facebook] very often, so it's not a big deal.” But, by far, the biggest response I got was “Yeah, I need to do that too.”
Second, for me at least, doing this for a month was not really hard. Now, I know for some of my friends, an experiment like this would have been a harder proposition, living in a dorm room, or at home with internet access. We only have dial-up at my house, and I get on my Facebook page most of the time at the library, so it wasn't there staring me in the face all the time. There were times during the month when I felt “out of the loop”, or wished I could post about this or that, but altogether it was not particularly hard..
Third, during the past month, I began writing letters again, after about three months during which I had slacked off. It was refreshing to use an older (though not antiquated), more personal and meaningful form of communication. I did not get as many letter written as I had wished, but hope to continue this habit, of letter writing ,into the coming months and years.
Fourth, it was amazing how much could actually happen, unexpectedly, during one short month. The entire Middle East and North Africa erupted in protests. Apple released iPad 2 and the new MacBook Pros. Principal photography began on “The Hobbit” movie. The lead guitarist for Skillet, Ben Kasica, left the band to pursue other business ventures, and the possibility of another Narnia movie was announced, among other things.
So, in conclusion, the “Anti-social Month” experiment taught me a lot. It was good to take a break from the continuous stream of information, but I did occasionally miss the information and being able to add to the stream.
With that being said, over next several weeks, be watching for tweets with the #TDASM tag, which stands for: Thoughts During Anti-Social Month. I will be tweeting my thoughts on the various events which occurred during the past month, interspersed with my regular tweets.

Anti-Social Month

For the month of February I will be going anti-social. Now before anyone gets excited, let me explain what this means.
What it is:
During the month of February I will not be using any social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter.
What it isn’t:
This is not an attack on social media. I think social media is a very useful tool for communication. Also, this is not a complete withdraw from all screens, or even from the internet. I will be using a computer, and I will be on the internet this month, I will just not be using social networking sites.
Reasons (These are several in number):
First… I have heard a lot of people (adults especially) comment on how teenagers seem inseparably linked to technology and social media. While I agree that this might be the case with a portion of teenagers, I know it is not the case with all. This experiment is partially intended to prove to myself and other people that it is possible for a teenager to “cut the cord” so to speak, if only for a limited amount of time. ☺
Second… I want to prove that I can do this, before my parents decide that it would be a good idea to make me. ☺
Third… In the last couple of months, I have drifted away from letter writing, which is something I enjoy very much, and is a good release. I want to use this month to revive that practice. Again, this is something that most adults couldn’t ever imagine a teenager doing.
Plus, February is the shortest month of the year. If I’m going to go without, I should at least be able to do it during February!
I would encourage any of my friends, that find this interesting, to join me in this month-long experiment. It’s only 28 days, you can do it!