POLAND - DAY 4 - DAY OF PAINTING

March 31, 2014

Jamie decided to wake Taryn and I up around 3am whispering in Vietnamese.  

Taryn thought that Jamie was practicing her Rosetta Stone and I thought that the two of them were just talking because Jamie was whispering when in fact, Jamie was merely sleep talking in Vietnamese. (She leaves in April for Vietnam SO apparently she was practicing)

I woke up at 6am and finished my blog by 7am since I couldn’t finish it the night before. Then I headed back to the cabin at 7am sharp to get my hair did.  Jamie put some sweet cornrows in my hair for our painting day. Taryn got a French braid done. As we’re in our van this morning I say, “I gotta wear my durag tonight, make sure my hair stay tight.” And Jamie says, “What did you say?” HAHA

The hair made me extra ghetto this early morning . . . for the rest of the entire day.

BESTIES/ROOMIES

(including Taryn but she's taking the pic!)

This is the main building which I refer to as "The Castle" 

(mainly because it provides internet)

SIDENOTE: I’m on 4 hours of sleep because I went to bed close to around 2am then woke up at 6am. So, I was pretty overtired and had way too much energy.

Our sweet bunk beds

Just before leaving, Daniel says, “Rafel will be late. He’s a buster.” And I say out loud, “Wow, he knows good American slang to call him a buster” then Taryn says, “He said Pastor not buster” Oh, hahahha

There are pony’s and donkey’s in the back and Daniel warned us that the pony likes to nibble so watch our butts.

WARNING: Anything/Everything you say WILL end up in my blog.

Jamie was fixing my weave.

We were all hysterically laughing at 830am for who knows why. I was extra ghetto because of the braids and delirious because of barely any sleep.

 A few of us drove with Daniel and he’s hysterical. We initially were following Peter who was driving Margaret and Nathan and the van went off the road a little and Daniel says, “Peter, stay on the road. Drunk again.”

Daniel also informs us that at 18 is when you get your license, you can drink and get married. So I turn to Taryn and say, “Great, so you can be drunk WHILST driving to the chapel.

We have to drive an hour out of our village to anywhere, if not longer, and here I am never bringing my book with me! SO, after two days, I’ve decided to use my head and pack my book with me to read on the van rides.

Once we got to Lodz, around 10am, there’s was the cutest dog by the fence and I say, “He’s cute” and Daniel replies, “Oh, thank you” and I’m all, “Oh, I love him” and Daniel says, “Oh, wow.” Haha He’s such a character. His wife and kids must be entertained and all times.

We painted for a few hours. There were some supplies there but not enough for everyone so they made a couple of trips to purchase more brushes, etc. We got some done and plan on doing the rest on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our group (Captain Jeff, Taryn and Jamie) laughed A LOT ALL DAY.

BESTIES!

THUG LIFE

And apparently this is how I sand walls.

My sista from anotha mista

Captain Jeff is a professional tape wall putter
(that's right, I said it)

Maddie doin work!

Ladies . . . working hard or hardly working?

HAMMER TIME
(best pants EVER)

Iphone break

The children came around 3pm, we say down and ate with them and just socialized. The ages ranged from 3 years old to 10 years old. The older kids speak some English but the younger kids don’t. It’s ok though because I found out that tickling and high fives are also universal.

I’ve fallen in love . . . with all of the children and we only visited with them for 30 minutes or so today.

The kids were so sweet. This little 5 year old boy kept speaking to me in Polish so I called Simon over to tell me what he was saying and he was telling me that he can stand on his head. And the older boys wanted to go outside and play soccer and basketball but we were only meeting them for that short time today. On Tuesday is when we will mainly play with all of them and I can’t wait.

This is the 5 year old boy telling me about standing on his head.
His name was super difficult to say. I will find him tomorrow and ask again and retain it.

There’s this hand shake the older kids do and if you’re not paying attention, they hit your forehead. It’s quite entertaining for everyone.

She put her arm around me when we took a picture.
So sweet. This is Olivia.

Of course the table I'm sitting at, the kids are throwing up hand signs.

HAHAHAHAA

We went to a large mall for an hour or so and I was able to mail my postcards.

I didn't buy anything, I'm just not much of a purchaser.

While Simon was telling us what's where, at the mall, Jamie was looking down so I lean in and ask, "Jamie, are you sleeping?" and she looks at me and says, "No . . . but good question. Fair."
She sleeps ALL the time and pretty much anywhere, haha

The camp where we are staying is simply amazing. 

It's like a giant jungle gym.

(I'd post more pics but they take WAY too long to load here)

Love the trees

That's as far as I went, I didn't want to go higher. 

One day, I will make it to the top and stop being afraid of the height.

 Margaret is a professional and they kept using weird words I didn't know but I felt safe.
DID IT.

We ended the evening with food and a meeting.

We have a great bunch of people and we've all warmed up and have been laughing practically non stop since we've gotten to Poland.

They feel us so well here and have such hospitality. 

They're such loving people.

Grateful that work gave me the time off for this trip and thankful for allowing God's plans unfold.

(It's 12:30am and I'm the only one left in the castle blogging. Off to bed to wake up at 6:30am to shower then find the donkeys!)

POLAND - DAY 3 - FIRST DAY IN CHURCH IN TOMY

May 30, 2014

We woke up in the morning and right when I took this picture, a squirrel ran by!

I believe the village that we are staying in is called Zakosciele. NO IDEA how to pronounce it.

Proem is a Christian Organization and the office is based in Warsaw for over 20 years. 

http://www.proem.pl/proem.php?id=poznaj_nas&lang=en 

(If I'm correct, which is slim, I believe that Proem camps started in the village that we are staying in and then became much bigger and expanded to the church Tomy as well as the new building in Lodz)

I woke up around 6:45am to shower and then go to breakfast early in order to finish uploading pictures and my blog from Day 1 & 2. The internet is slow here so it takes extra long BUT I'm adamant about posting each blog each night regardless of how long it takes. Which means that I'm staying up later.

These are the cabins that we are staying and the main hotel (or castle as I like to call it) is what has internet. So it's cold and pitch black walking in the night. The cabins are nice. We slept with our doors unlocked last night because we couldn't figure out how to lock the door. 

Maddie and I were walking to the cabin this morning and I was saying how we didn't know how to lock the door and she said, "I watched the lady show Taryn" and I laughed and said, "Well, apparently Taryn didn't watch." HAHA

TREES

This is the entrance to the church. It basically looks like a tiny cafe from the outside.

And it is! 

They are fancy.

Of course there's a "Vegas" place to go and lose your money! 

 Rafel (the head Pastor and not sure if I'm spelling his name correctly) told us that we have plenty of time to sleep in Poland...there's so much time during the service. HAHA

Kimberly and I are with our headsets on. Luckily service was translated.

The name of the church is Tomy 

Tomaszow Mazowiecki is the actual full name of the town.

(I'm trying to get the names of towns and places that we go and everything about this organization information so forgive me if any of it is incorrect. I'll adjust/correct as needed.)

They had baptisms on the Sunday we went to church so that was pretty awesome to witness. Everyone told a brief summary as to how they came to Tomy and why they want to be baptized. 

Pretty amazing

The person who spoke this morning had a great message.

You become like your friends. 

Who you follow affects where you go and who you’ll become. 

He showed a Home Alone 2 clip of Kevin running in the airport thinking he was going the right way but in actuality, he was going the wrong way.  Macaulay Culkin is in rehab and has said that his life is a lot like the movies. Spending his Christmas’s alone. He has all the money in the world to buy anything but he spends his time with no one.

In John 10:10, Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” 

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the negative that we don’t pay attention to all of the good that’s happening around us.

We may not always admit it but we’re always following someone or something. And often times, we end up following the wrong people or the wrong things.

He spoke about John 10:1-6 and how we are like sheep.

Just an all around good message. 

The picture below shows the church as it was before. It used to be a movie theatre before being renovated into a church.

Water in glass bottles.

Love.

The band playing us a couple of their songs from their new album.

We were curious as to why there were holes at the bottom of the door and Rafel said it's ventilation. All bathrooms have doors like that. Then he made a joke and said, "God is always watching you!" - HAHA

This was one of the church walls. 

I'd love my room to have a wall like that.

I purchased more water and some Polish chocolate which was simply divine.

 Now this is how alcohol should be spelled. 

ALKOHOLE 

(just like it sounds)

This is a downtown area which apparently gets trampled with people at night and they are doing construction right in the middle.

I had to take a picture in front of the Kebab place and Dino.

If I ever have a boy, his name would be Dino.

I've loved that name since I was little.

I pretended as if I was excited to take a picture of an actor that we could clearly not read the name or would know who it would be. But it was like walking around Las Vegas or Hollywood Blvd in CA.

Great name

This is the name of the city we were walking in and where the building is that we are helping renovate.

Lodz is the capital of the county --> Lodtzkie

We went to the new building and Rafel told us a lot of information about the building and everyone that's a part of the planting of it. It's going to act as a halfway house for youth. It's not a detention center but it's not a church. It's a place where kids can go and essentially be loved and taken care of. On Monday, we'll be painting and renovating and then later in the day we'll meet the kids but it's about building relationships and just listening to them and talking with them. 

This is a part of the new building.

Everyone is so hospitable and they feed us so well.

This is the line for the coffee - HAHA

We pretty much try and connect to wifi everywhere we go. Jeff and I were NOT successful here.

I'm very excited.

It's pretty awesome to see such love and things that we do where we live, thousands of miles across the world. Love is universal. God is universal. 

The round cookie things were delightful. 

We are all pretty much on coffee here and sleep on the bus every chance we get.

Or at least I do!

Rafel telling us about the building and organization.

Jeff telling them about Verve while Rafel translates. At one point, Jeff was saying how there was a pimp, strippers, a fire breathing clown and a lion tamer and Rafel only asks about the lion tamer and asks, "Is this someone who dances with lions?" HAHA

It's all about BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS (which are lasting and can take quite some time) and merely LOVING ON PEOPLE.

We ate some soup called, "Zurek" which translates to "Sour Soup" and it was VERY good.

After dinner, walking back to our bus, we passed a cute little place.

Jamie has this issue of sleeping EVERYWHERE.

She had fallen asleep MINUTES after we were all just talking and we looked at her and were like, "Jamie?" and she had her head forward and her hand on the seat and wasn't responding then I laughed and took a picture with flash and she woke up from all of that. 

It's rather entertaining and I laugh and take pictures before I help in any kind of way, HAHA.

 We left Lodz a little late (8:30pm) so we didn't get back until close to 10pm. I tried uploading pictures and my blog then but it was now 12:30am and I still wasn't finished. SO, it's not 640am and I got to the castle (main building that has internet) by 610am for me to finish my blog this morning and post it. I refuse to let technology forbid me from my goal of posting my blogs each night. It's now a competition between, technology, life and I!

Oh! Everyone on this trip knows about Big Ang and even the people of Poland do! 

I miss her :(

It's now 7am and I have to get back to my cabin so that Jamie and put cornrows in my hair. 

SURE DID just say that.

Getting my painting attire and "look" prepared.

HAPPY MONDAY!