My week in a "nut shell"

It has been an extremely busy but wonderful week. I began the week with a normal day of school, which we had school all five day along with all the other fun things we did. After school on Monday I went with the roomies to a friend’s house for dinner. We had a blast talking and just spending time together. On Tuesday, we hosted the first Alfa group. The first meeting we were able to sit in on and it was wonderful. There were two young ladies in attendance and they will be back again. We are praying that more will attend and want to know more about the Bible. This is an informational “Bible Study” for non-believers. Their opinions are heard and then discussed along with a 45 minute video about the topic for the evening. On Wednesday we had Team Meeting and it was just a wonderful day in all. (Days like that are wonderful!) On Thursday we had the first International Coffee House which was wonderful. We had a local artist who plays on the street play and he was great. He is going to the University and plays on the street to make a living. He was hilarious and had the audience rolling with laughter. Next week there will be a blind man playing and singing for entertainment. We hope there will be a big crowd for this. We had a wonderful turnout and only hope and pray for those to come back and for more to attend. Then on Friday, last night, I had Polish Sign Language Lessons. This was so much fun. I was able to learn some words in PSL and work on my spoken Polish too. I had a wonderful time getting to know the lady, Ula, and learning a language I love! She was able to learn some ASL from me, but mainly I was doing the learning and her teaching. It was a wonderful week even with all that was going on.

What a month...

Wow what a month it has been. We moved into our new apartment on October 1, 2009. The apartment is wonderful and has plenty of room for all three of us. We have been settling in and learning how each other works and operates. On Tuesday we begin an ALFA group in our apartment. We are just the hosting house and provide light snacks. I am extremely excited about this because in each group new believers are born. ALFA is a Bible Study for non believers. It runs for 11 weeks and will be from 6:00p until they are done. Each week there is a video on the topic of the night and discussion. There is a wide range of topics covered from: Who is Jesus?, Who is the Holy Spirit?, and What is Sin? On Thursday, we are kicking off the New International Coffee House. We were meeting in a coffee shop above a book store, but with the coffee shop closing early and having “entertainment” weekly on Thursday’s it became very hard to hold conversations. For the past month we have been meeting in a different coffee shop which is open later and has no live entertainment. This has been going great and new people have been showing up to talk. We market it as FREE English conversation. We sit for three hours and have English conversation with whoever shows up. Many want to know when they will have to pay and we continue to tell them, never. Beginning this Thursday we are moving yet again. This time we will be meeting in a conference room in a hotel. The room will be set how we want it and then cleaned up for us. This is nice because we are not confined by how the coffee shop has their space set. Also, we are able to bring in our own entertainment. We are getting local artist to come in and play, sing, show there art, etc. and then from their have topics for discussion. We do not want to preach from the microphone or from the table, but our job is to keep the conversation going and draw it to God and who He is. We then are hoping to then have contacts to meet outside of coffee house where we can then have a deeper Spiritual conversation.

Kiddos

Kid’s night was a blast! I had the kiddos over for a Kid’s Night out on Saturday. What a blast we had. The kiddos made their own pizza, had popcorn, and made and ate their own Ice Cream Sunday’s. The Sunday’s were gone very fast and I was told they were wonderful. Most of the kiddos were baffled at why they could not have any more ice cream once they were done. The best part of the evening was the Music Video we made. My new roomie, Ashley, filmed and cut the video while the kiddos were playing, making their food, and watching Charlie Brown. Go to the Northeast Poland link to view the video. Know the kiddos had a blast and we look forward to more videos soon!

Outside of my box...

I took American Sign Language (ASL) in college as a language. I love signing and watching others sign. I have wanted to learn Polish Sign Language (PSL) and then use it to reach the deaf here. I kind of gave up the idea once school started because nothing had happened and I figured I would be too busy to work with them. Well after thinking about it and talking with those here, I thought maybe I should “take a dare on God” and find the lady at church who signs in Polish. I found her this morning! (With a little help :)) Because I speak very little Polish I signed to her. She was very impressed with me and in the fact she understood everything I had said, even though it was in ASL not PSL. It turns out she speaks some English too, and want to learn ASL. We are going to try to meet this next week and begin teaching each other the Sign Language we know. I am very excited, and a little nervous, about where this can and will go. I am hoping to be a light to the deaf here, who are rarely seen but there, and who might have been turned away from the Catholic Church and open to the True God and His love!