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It’s that time of year again….preschool hunting. I know you, like us, look for the best schools for your children. Their education is very important. So as we look between different local schools we are anxiously looking at the Polish school we talked about Emma attending last year.

We were not able to sign her up and commit to the different requirements of us as parents, but this year we are on board with anything they ask. One fabulous requirement of a parent is to being the coffee/tea and cakes once a month.  How awesome is that? You know I’ll be working on some Polish recipes.

But what we love so much is the overall Polish feel and well…world we jump into. They speak only Polish at the school, teach Polish holidays, history and culture. Exciting! It is only on the weekends so it’s a supplement to the other preschool she’ll be going to. I’m nervous for Emma and how overwhelming it will feel for her. But am confident she will pick up the language quickly and meet some new dear girl friends.

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http://life-love-laughter.tumblr.com/post/4431940058/a-great-reminder

This is so encouraging to be reminded that we are all right where God wants us and just in time for everything. We’re never late…even when moving to Poland.

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So often I (Travis) find myself jealous of other missionaries serving in places like Africa, South East Asia, the Middle East, South America, etc… these are places I call “the sexy” mission field, there’s a certain automatic appeal about these places.  Generally (and very generally) people (mostly Americans) associate this appeal with either Islam, third world, or poverty. All of which need missionaries, and more importantly need missionaries who know what they are doing, can create reproductive groups of fellowships, and love on the people like Jesus does. My problem isn’t with the work, it’s with the immediate reaction, and “understanding” that comes so easily because, well, it’s heart breaking to see people in such poverty, war-torn, and sad situations.  If people didn’t have this reaction, I would be second guessing the Church more than I already do!

My “problem” is me, it’s my own immediate reaction to say “BUT WHAT ABOUT POLAND?? (and other nations like it)”‘, but most of the time I keep that reaction well under control. The jealousy comes from the overwhelming support people provide to those “sexy” places, sure there are more tangible needs – water, food, shelter – yeah I better hope we’re helping those kinds of places (while making life-long relationships and providing education and tools to build up self-sustaining generations). I just have a hard time swallowing that reality when I know there’s 10′s of millions of people (including here in America) who go about their day with “everything” and have zero relationship with God, many by choice, and yet, as in Poland, many with out an opportunity to discover Him in true, God-seeking relationships.

Is not the greatest call, the bottom line of the Church to have people know God personally? To know who Jesus is, was, and is to come? May I never loose this heart, and may our hearts melt for Poland more and more. Click “Why Poland” to find out more about the spiritual needs in Poland.

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Looking at learning Polish as a whole, seems like a massive mountain that is impossible. It seems I will always sound silly and unable to make the ‘normal’ sounds Poles make. One example, rolling your tongue. I have no idea how I was jipped while I was being created in my mom’s womb but I did not get the gene that allows me to roll my ‘R’s.

There are times that all I need to do is open my mouth and I’m non verbally saying ‘FOREIGNER HERE!’ Which is not incorrect or bad. I am not from Poland and even though I will work my tush off to learn the language, I will always have different American way s of saying/doing something.

I can remember during our last visit to Poland, I was at a convenience store buying chocolates for our friends back home, and the clerk said the total of everything which I understood only numbers. No order to them though. I gave her a larger bill knowing it would cover the purchase. She gave me my bag and I left feeling like living there might not be so hard as I might imagine.

I didn’t go 5 feet out the door without her running after me yelling something in Polish. I followed her back in only to realize I had about 120 zl change waiting for me on the counter! 120! I felt so foolish as the others in line were looking at me like, ‘what?!’ but knew that it was just one of those things that happen.

I smile about it now. It’s really not a horrible story. Just a reminder to keep up the language mountain. And next time, I look forward to not only taking my change from the lady but understanding what she says to me.

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Weronika and I.

Weronika, I had such an amazing time getting to know you more and I SO look forward to being able to get to know you better in the near future! Love our friendship.

Do you have friendship you wished were better? This is one for me. We get along great but there’s a little something blocking us from being GREAT friends…it’s the Atlantic Ocean.

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We were able to take some pictures of each other while at our last visit. I think you can totally see the friendship the two of them have with each other. It’s awesome.

It helps also, that I was behind the camera saying ridiculous things to make them laugh. There is nothing more beautiful than a natural smile.

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We’ve been ‘home’ for about 2 weeks and when friends have asked us how our trip was, we’re finding it hard to explain. Yes, we were able to express about our time with our friends but it seems less and less like a foreign place where we need to process what we’ve seen/experienced/done. It seems more like Seattle. Gone for a bit to visit those we love and are back in Portland again. We feel like no re-entry processing is needed.

We are, however, fortunate that we didn’t have any problems with the time difference. We were able to pick up right from where we left. I can remember a friend asking me if it was difficult at all coming back to Portland.

I was internally surprised. Well yes, obviously, we wish we were living in Krakow right now…but it’s become more familiar to make this trip that it seems to get easier and easier.

One hard part is that here, we are not able to visit with our Polish friends like we were able to this trip. Who knows, maybe the next trip will be with visas and tons of suitcases!

There are three “mile stones” for us to pass before we leave the USA for Poland.  The first is to grow our family, we hope to have one more child before leaving, if we end up being fully fund-raised and w/o another child, then we’ll probably move to Poland and grow our family in the field.  The second mile stone is getting enough monthly donors to commit to 120% of our living and ministry budgets, currently we need an average of $30/month from 187 more donors. Lastly is having our deployment fund raised, which includes emergency money, three months of reserves, first month of living/ministry costs, moving costs, etc.

But those are all details that don’t really matter without a heart and vision for the harvest.  There is a harvest of souls, a population of people who are at the best unsure of their faith, and at the worst completely fed up with the “system”. Yes, the same is true here in America, but what’s not true in Poland is that there are not churches in every town and neighborhood, the opportunity for someone to even hear or know of someone filled with God’s saving grace can be summed up in this bit of trivia…

In Krakow, the first city we plan on living in, there is a population of more than 2 million (similar in size to Portland, OR) – there are about 12 churches, and a dozen or so other para-church (protestant) organizations doing works in the city.  Of those groups, it’s estimated there are about 1,000 to 2,000 believers in the entire metro area of Krakow.  In Portland, OR (a city known to be “un-churched”) there are over 20 churches of 1,000 or more people in attendance each week.

There is a harvest.  Hear us LORD, send us.

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Here are some last pictures from our trip to Seattle. They HAD  to take a ferry. We insisted.

I think it’s impossible to go to Seattle on a summer day and not fall in love with the city.

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