The End

This will be a short post, since it's the last one. 

Church today was bitter sweet. The children wore their t-shirts and we did also. They sang a couple songs at the beginning of the service and at the end of the service the children gave each of us a small gift: A coffee mug from Opole and a wooden angel. 

We've been to a restaurant for the noon meal and then we took a ride on a double decker bus and a ferry boat ride. Tonight one of the families from the church is coming over for supper with us and then we will have an early night because our plane leaves Katowice at 6:00 a.m. so we will leave here at 3:00 a.m.   We fly to Frankfurt, Germany and from there to Houston and then to Omaha.  

God has truly been with us on this trip!  

Pastor Pracki wearing his new hat from the LCMS. 

Our bus ride was a bit rocky. :-)

Only one more day left

Today we went with Pastor Pracki to a 250th anniversary of a Lutheran Church about 40 KM north of Opole.  This church was built by a German Duke. He also had a palace in the town which was destroyed during WWII. After the war this part of the area became Poland again - after being a part of Germany.  In the 1980s the Russians gave the Germans a chance to go back to Germany and 80% left.  Today there are only 80 members in this beautiful old church.

The inside of the church needs restoration but is still beautiful with many relics from 250 years ago. (I just have to say that the pews in my home church are really comfortable compared to these!) it was fun to hear, "A Mighty Fortress is our God" and "The Church's One Foundation" sung in Polish. It was REALLY hot there, which I'm sure didn't help attendance, but the church had a good number of people in it along with a band and a choir which we were told came from 180 KM away. 

They had vendors selling souveneers and "Fast Food" outside in the street.  We had barbecued pork steak and it was good. They also had scrambled eggs on a piece of thin bread.  We toured the local Lutheran cemetery, a Jewish cemetery and a park built by the Duke that has pretty much turned into a forest. 

The box where the ducal family sat. 

Bible school is done

Today was the last day for our Bible school. I have gotten very fond of these children and the parents that have been helping. Today the local TV station sent out a crew to interview one of the children and one of the teachers. Gail was the lucky team member. (I'm so glad I had my turn yesterday).  Today it's 96-97 degrees and even at 12:00 when we were done with classes it was too hot for games. So we filled some water balloons and turned on the faucet and got everyone wet. They loved it!

This afternoon we had a choice of going to an air conditioned mall, a coal mine, or a local museum. Guess which one we picked?  Opole has a nice modern mall with some stores that we recognized. They also sell brands like we have in the states. Of course, there are some I've never heard of also. 

I think tomorrow we are going to a church celebration in another town. Things are wrapping up and we will be home before we know it. I told Pastor Awe today that my favorite part of the trip is that I can say I've got friends in Poland, now. 

The picture today is Gail being interviewed by the reporter in the church garden. I love it that I'm taking a picture of Pastor Pracki taking a picture of the reporter filming Gail. :-)

A busy day

Today seemed especially busy. Pastor Pracki gave the children their t-shirts from the Bible class. They had the Bible passage theme on them.  "So this is love.  Not that we love God but that he loved us and gave his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."  1 John 4:10. They were pretty excited to get the shirts!  Then during our snack time, which they call second breakfast, a man from the Opole radio station came to interview some of the children.  He also interviewed Pastor Awe and me.  The wanted to hear a woman's voice. This was not my favorite thing to do!  :-). We also sang some songs for the radio. We will be singing the same songs in church on Sunday. 

Today instead of our traditional Polish meal we had soup and pizza. Polish pizza looks like ours except it doesn't have the tomato base. I couldn't believe how much the kids ate. I guess just like American kids do!  :-). What I did find unusual was that they serve catsup to put on the pizza. I couldn't make myself do that. 

Then this afternoon we went to a German Stalag where military POWs were kept. I never knew these existed.  Not nearly as many people at this place than at Auschwitz.   These were not death camps because of the Geneva Convention.  POWs were imprisoned here from all over Erope and Norrh America.  The Russians, however didn't sign the Geneva Convention and they were killed/executed by the Germans. They found a mass grave of 40,000 Russians.  I found a cemetery with German soldiers buried there and found a Gustoff Riedel.  A long lost relative?  Riedel is a very common German name.  

Today I'm including a picture of Pastor Awe being interviewed with Ania, our translator.  The second picture is one of the monuments to commemorate war dead near the Stalag.   

Over halfway done

Today we had the story of Jesus's crucifixion and death. The children did a good job of listening and asked some excellent questions. One was, "Did Jesus know we would sin SO much?"  Yes, he knew that and still wanted to die for us. 

Edith Jensen made some Christmas ornaments and some crosses for the children here and today one of the older boys asked it they could write a thank you note to her. Of course, some of the kids could only write their name but they all wanted to add something to the note. I can't wait to give it to her. 

Today's pictures will be about food. The one picture is of a traditional Polish noon meal. We had a cold soup today that was fruit based. We thought it had rhubarb, plums and blueberries in it. I wasn't sure I would like it, but it was good.  Then we got our plate of ground pork, coated with a flour/egg mixture and fried.  It was delicious!  We usually have boiled potatoes that are seasoned with dill.  There is usually some slaw also, although yesterday instead of slaw we had peas and carrots.  Usually the soup is hot and other than chicken noodle, I haven't tasted any of them before. 

Today when we were eating our sweet snacks I mentioned kolaches.  Our translator was amazed!  She said she didn't know any other Americans who knew what kolaches were.  I told her that almost everyone in our area knew them!

The second photo is of a store where we bought gelato.  I've tasted yogurt flavor, coffee flavor, watermelon flavor and mixed berry flavor.  They were all wonderful!

Day 2 with the children

Today went smoother for me anyway.  We figured out that there were two more outlets in the front of the church where we could plug in the boom box for our music time. The outlet in the back of the church was too far away and we couldn't hear we'll enough.  

The children had American style donuts today for snack and they seemed to enjoy that:  sugar donuts, some Bismarcks and some with donuts with frosting.  No sprinkles on the donuts!  :-)

It was funny to watch Adam teach the children how to play kick ball.  The children here grow up playing "football/soccer" so those rules are second nature not them.  Kick ball rules didn't make much sense to them and they ended up playing kick ball with some rules that go with another game that they play with another ball.  They had fun, though. 

I had taken a short video when I was at home of what it looks like in the area around my house.  One of the children that watched it said, "Nebraska is a place where NOBODY lives."  :-). Gail is going to bring a picture of Omaha (where she lives) today, so the children know we do have cities too. Poland has lots of people in lots of cities!  

After our Bible class time today Pastor Pracki said that he had another castle to take us to see.  This one was about a half hour away.  It looked like a fairy tale castle from a Disney movie.  Pastor Pracki said it was in the style of French architecture.  This castle had been destroyed by Russians during or after the 2nd World War. The first castle we saw whe we got here was destroyed by Germans!  So much destruction!  The city of Warsaw was totally destroyed and has been rebuilt.  Luckily not all cities had that fate because the people here are REALLY are proud of their past. 

Finally, about the weather!  Yes, it was hot yesterday, but a small breeze felt good and a few stray clouds helped too.  The breeze went down at night and our rooms cooled down about 12:00 so it was easier to sleep.  Today looks like it will be much windier!  That will be good for our walk into town later. 

On Saturday they are predicting temps to reach 101 degrees.  I wonder if my air conditioned house will feel too cold when I get home?  I think NOT!  

Today the pictures are of the kickball game and the castle. 

Met the children!

Today was the first time for children in our English Bible school. I believe we had 14 children with only 3 girls!  One of the girls was shy, but the rest not so much!  :-) It didn't take them long at all and they were acting quite at home.  I could tell they were starting to understand what we were wanting from them more by the end of the day. Some of the older children speak very good English.  One of the older boys had to leave early and he very politely came up to me to tell me that he had to leave early and thanked me.  

We took the children to a restaurant to eat our 1:00 meal. I was amazed that there was a table of 6 boys and they were so well behaved!  I have to mention that they ALL had beet soup and a pork stew with boiled potatoes and cole slaw.  They ALL ate and there were no complaints of not liking the food.  

It is getting really hot here in Opole.  Today's was the first day when the temperature reached 90 degrees.  By Friday and Saturday the temperatures are supposed to reach 99 and 100, so please pray for a breeze!  There are no air conditioners here and with our bedrooms on the 3rd and 4th floors, it will take a while to cool off.  The areas where we have Bible Class in the morning are pretty cool. When the children play outside, however, they get hot.  

I'm excited to teach about Jesus and the children tomorrow.  

1 down and 4 to go!

Tomorrow we start

We attended church in our home congregation today. Pastor Awe was asked to say a few words to the congregation. He invited everyone to come see us in Nebraska.  (But he said if they were in Nebraska they would probably be lost because it's in the middle of nowhere.) They thought that was funny.   The church looked nearly full - we figured about 75 people, but Pastor Pracki said that he usually has many more young children in church. There were several babies and a toddler and then several school aged children. Older people as well were in attendance.  Of course, we understood little of what was said, but litergy and the order of service had the same feel. The last hymn even had a familiar melody.  After church some members left immediately but others stayed and talked a LONG time.  One lady could speak English and she spent a long time talking to us.  She was very interesting.  

After church Pastor grilled Polish sausage on a grill in the beautiful garden outside the church for our afternoon meal. Church was at 10:30 and people didn't get done talking until almost 1:00!  Pastor's wife said they had been gone on vacation for 2 weeks so everyone wanted to catch up with them. 

After a leisurely meal we (the team) went to set up for "school" tomorrow.  This is the first time the church has had Americans so they don't know what to expect.   (I really don't either.). :-)

We had a really long day of sightseeing yesterday and the day was capped off with a trip to Auschwitz. I really can't explain how emotional that visit was for me.  Hard to look at .  . . and yet something everyone should see.

I'm excited for tomorrow and yet a little nervous as well.  

Feeling blessed in Opole.