Our First Visitor

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 and the kids were up early the next morning testing the new fishing poles.

Can you tell the time at this church?

Feed the birds. . .

Later that afternoon, we drove to Wejherovo, the county seat, to pick up our completed van documents. The square in town is a fun place to walk around and we enjoyed some ice cream. We also walked through the outdoor market area there and looked at the clothes and produce. Our next stop was the insurance office to finish up some paperwork.

The valley!

Ben was up for more adventure so we drove to an acquaintances property to explore the countryside. We parked our van above and walked down a rocky path into a beautiful valley. This property was used as a fish hatchery and the grass is very lush and green.

Remember the music night/sausage roast we attended hosted by a new friend, Caesar? He is a skilled musician and has also composed many scripture songs for children. The week following the sausage roast, Caesar met with us and asked if we would be interested in learning some of his songs in English. His vision is to travel across Europe with a children's group and evangelize children through music and other presentations. We had agreed to visit his home Thursday, September seventeenth and Ben went with us. We learned three catchy tunes about Samuel, Esther and Joshua that afternoon.

On the way home, we stopped at a beautiful lake. It's a peaceful place surrounded by forest. It was the end of the season but we found a few wild huckleberries (Grandpa B could quickly fill his bucket here. . .) Not wanting to lose a chance to fish, the kids and Ben waded through the water to cast their lines from an old dock. No fish were caught but it sure was fun!

 

Playin' round the campfire

Our sweet friends, Goscia and Jurek

This week was also full of packing our cabin in preparation for our trip to Ukraine. A couple evenings that week, we sang round the campfire and roasted sausages. Friday was also busy because we practiced with our friends Jurek and Goscia for a concert in Sopot on Sunday. They taught us a Hebrew song which we performed together. 

They live very close to the beach and we took the opportunity to visit the Baltic Sea. Some swans came to swim with us and the girls found more jellyfish.

The swan herders

He got his toes wet!

Mom celebrated her birthday on Saturday. The girls made a gingerbread cake with our friend Danusha and Nancy provided a chocolate cheesecake. In case you didn't know, Mom is now. . . one year older than last year!
 

Sunday morning we attended church at Ecclesia. After lunch, we drove to Sopot to prepare for our concert and do a sound check. The day was overcast and the rain started falling halfway through our performance but the audience came prepared with their umbrellas and most stayed until the end. Jurek and Goscia shared some songs in Polish and we rejoined them for the Hebrew song. Afterwards we all went out for delicious ice cream and so ended our first segment in Poland.  

Rainy day in Sopot

*Sorry about the funny white boxes and irregular text.  It looked normal until it was published.