Mighty Bright Lights

A fter our busy Sunday, Monday morning dawned a little too early but we finished packing, loaded the van and tidied our cabin.   B oth families came down to say goodbye and after a sweet prayer ti me we started o ur trip to Ukraine. We stopped in Tchew at the home of our friends (Piotr and Marisha) and enjoyed fellowship with their family and Yanush and his family f or an hour.   They had large plates of delicious pastries prepared for us, along with lots of coffee and tea. They also gathered around us and prayed for us, and we felt that we were saying goodbye t o family as we pulled away from their home. Jewish Ghetto Memorial Poland has a re ally nice toll road and we traveled on this until we safely reached "Varshava" as Warsaw is pronounced.  Ben had contacte d Jerzy Schmiel, a gentleman who was instrumental in arranging the tours that he and the other younger siblings t ook part in years ago in Poland.   It was a ma zing that we found his

After exploring Poland for a month and meeting many new people, we were excited to see a special visitor who arrived October fifteenth from the States.In preparation, we created a new Polish greeting custom—a sausage lei. We all piled in the van, drove to the Gdansk airport and waited in front of the security doors for. . .Uncle Ben! (Sorry about these fuzzy pictures. . .) He was loaded with his heavy luggage (containing luxuries Poland/Ukraine don't have) and trusty bass. We snacked on the sausage lei until we arrived in Bojano. We took the scenic back road forest route to the Stebnecki’s home where Nancy had prepared spaghetti for everyone. After dinner, Uncle Ben unpacked his luggage. He brought along expandable fishing poles for the kids to share, peanut butter, coconut oil, vanilla extract and Kobos coffee! He also brought letters from various friends. Ben slept in the main house so he could catch up on sleep but his jet lag pills must have worked because he a

Drawing lesson with Tim We continued to enjoy beautiful weather in September and maintain a school schedule.  Most afternoons, the kid enjoyed walking to town through the forest to buy sweets at their favorite store, Biedrunka.  We also bought fresh bread from a local bakery and a variety of sausages from another store (or sklep) nearby.  Scarlett and Julia Another Christian home-school family also lives on the Stebnecki's property.  They have a sweet twelve year old girl and cute little boy age two.  Scarlett enjoys spending time with Julia and Samuel has become Eliana's little shadow.  Their mother, Danusha, has taught us some Polish and her husband Gieshek has helped Chris "modify" our van.  We've been enjoying spending time with this family and learning from them. Beautiful  Bojano On Saturday, September 5th, Chris was blessed to be able to attend a "Daddy" conference about 5 hours from Bojano in the city of  Lodz (Wooj.) There

It looks a little Norwegian.  Enjoying a sermon on the beach? Some of the young people at Ecclesia.   Here is a summary of our first month in Poland. . . better late than never!          We arrived in Poland refreshed after our wonderful stay with our Norwegian friends.  After landing, we collected our mountain of luggage and hauled it outside to await our greeting party.  Jurek arrived first in his van and managed to pack all our luggage in the back in less than five minutes!  Three other vehicles also came carrying the Stebnecki family, Goscia (Jurek's wife) and two of their friends.  After orgainizing seating arrangements, our caravan set off to enjoy dinner at an "American" restaurant.  The food was worth the hour and a half wait.  With full bellies, our caravan then continued to our new home in Bojano, Poland.  Our cabin is like a fairy tale home-- very cozy.       After a few days of getting acclimated to our new surroundings and accommodations, w