podgorzyn

i googled the name of the town where our english camp is going to be (podgorzyn), and i found these pictures:

isn't that BEAUTIFUL! this is south west of wroclaw (where the chorale stayed last may), and it's pretty close to the czech border. those are the karkonosze mountains (thanks, tim!!!).

it's less than four months away!

it's been too long, folks.

i'm sorry that i haven't updated in so long! i have been quite busy with school work and this weekend i am with my dear friend as she is getting married in twelve hours! because of that, i cannot write much but i wanted to give you a quick update.

we currently do not have a third person for our team - BUT THAT'S OKAY! we're going anyway! =) the dates have been figured out for the english camp and it is officially: august 9-20. not only that, but we also have a location - in podgorzyn, poland (though i don't have any more details than that).

as for financially - i have almost ONE THIRD of my finances! over spring break i sent out 120 support letters to the members of my congregation (yay trinity!).

things are really moving along, and i'm not in the second half of the semester! that means that (a) summer is quickly approaching and (b) the work load is significantly increasing! but i must admit that i am loving my classes and loving what i'm learning!

well, i must be off to bed. there's a wedding in the morning!

team wroclaw.

the need was for a team of THREE to go to the english camp in august. we have a definite TWO - myself and evelyn. evelyn and i got an email saturday morning saying that we needed to find a third person by the end of the week, or we would have to call off the trip. i had not even thought that this would have been a possiblility! (i mean, come on, who would pass up a chance to go to poland?!) at lunch that day, i sat with my friend rachel. i told her about the email and she asked me for more information about the trip. i shared with her what we would be doing and she said that she might be interested! so last night she talked with her parents...and they are supportive of her going! so now we are praying and waiting until thursday for her final answer. she seems so excited about it, and i really am too. so please pray with us for rachel as she makes her decision!

as for me, i've sent out a few support letters so far and i'm waiting on more addresses (i really need to call home about that...) and for the go ahead from my church's missions committee to send letters to the congregation.

we're getting closer! =)

and we're off...

it's been a while since i've written in here, and a lot has happened in the past few months. i was officially accepted with SEND International right before christmas break, and i recieved my information packet shortly thereafter. however for some reason, i was not excited. something didn't feel right. so i let the packet sit with my things for the three weeks of christmas break, only to actually read it the night before returning to school. it would be an adventure, for sure, but was i ready? was i doing the right thing? it didn't sit well with me that i had to raise well over $2000 to travel to poland for two weeks, and do what? help at a coffee house? sure that would make ME happy, but what was my motivation?

i returned to pbu for our annual mission's conference, where i was greeted by david and elizabeth givens, the missionaries who traveled with the chorale to europe in may! we even planned another "chorale reunion" where we watched clips from our concerts from tour! during the week, liz talked to me about an opportunity in poland to work at an english camp in wroclaw - the two weeks after my scheduled two weeks in lubin. i would already be there, and could just take a train to wroclaw! i prayed, thought, and talked with the SEND team about extending my stay to a month.

my questions and anxieties about the trip slowly began to fall away as i got more and more excited. so now, the plan goes as follows:

july 18th - depart from usa
july 19th - arrive in lubin, poland
minister at cafe logos
august 4th - travel by train to wroclaw, poland
meet up with a small team from SEND to help at an English camp
august 20th - leave poland, bound for michigan
august 21st - debrief at SEND headquarters
august 22nd - finish debrief, jump on a plane for connecticut
see my family!!!

of course, this is going to be one crazy summer, but i am actually really excited about it. i like the idea of this adventure before me and so far, i feel comfortable with the unknowns involved. God has some big things planned, and i'm sure i am not even seeing the beginning of it right now.

thank you for reading and if you think of it, please keep me in your prayers as i begin to send out my support letters!

God bless!

why poland?

this time last year the pbu was preparing to tour in poland, germany, and czech republic. it didn't really seem real, and i moved forward knowning that i would be going unless God did not provide the money, and even then i felt as though i wouldn't have minded if that happened. it was the conductors job to do all of the behind the scenes work. we just filled out paper work. even while we were in training the week before we left, it did not feel as though we would be leaving the country soon. the semester had been so stressful and i had not had time to even think about our trip. i cannot remember when it first hit me that we were in a foreign country. maybe it was when i stepped foot in poland and suddenly realized i could not understand anyone other than those whom i came with. perhaps it was when i stepped out onto the tarmac to see the 60 person plane before me. or maybe it was when we sat down in the church in wroclaw after unpacking our things. the smell was different. the atmosphere was different. we had worn the same clothes for over 24 hours and hadn't slept that long either. throughout those first few nights i went to bed trying to wrap my mind around the idea of being in EUROPE. i tried to picture myself on a map, but it was still hard to understand.

in preparing for europe, the country i was most looking forward to visiting was germany. i'll be honest and say that i wasn't all that excited for poland. it just seemed there. it's hard to explain. anyway, looking back, poland was definitely my favorite country. i remember sitting on a bench in germany, close to tears because i missed poland. (that and the bach museum was not all that exciting.) there was just something about the country that just stuck with me.

there was this bridge, the "dreaming bridge," as marta called it. when you walk across it, you are supposed to not talk and dream a dream (make a wish) and if you do not talk, your dream will come true. (some some of us surmised that this was created by parents who wanted their kids to be quiet, but we observed the tradition nonetheless.) while walking across i wished that i could return to poland.

there is something about the people. the culture. the land. the history. over the summer i read a book called, "push not the river," which is about poland in the seventeenth century. in it they say that in ancient times, the poles would worship the worm because no matter how many times the worm got cut up, its heart would still beat. and so is true of poland. it has seen the effects of war too many times, and yet it's still there and its culture still lives.

there is an interesting battle going on right now. not for land, but in the mind. there is a battle of the old and the new. drive through any town and this will be evident. the cathedrals from the thirteenth century right next to a modern looking building. the country is undergoing a time of transition. my generation striving to become modernized while the older generation, still hurting from the effects of communism, strive to hold on to a culture they desperatly fought for. my generation searching for answers and differing view points. the older generation not sure who it is safe to trust.

this country knows christianity as rituals and doing things for the sake of tradition. there is a place for tradition, sure. but where is God? where is grace? how can a person learn to trust when they can still taste the effects of communism which ruled only twenty years before?

but they are open. i have never met such loving and open people. after we had sung out concerts, there were people coming up to us afterwards thanking us over and over again. for some of them, "thank you" was the only english phrase they knew. others sought translators to express their gratitude to us. others took us by the hands, looked deeply into our eyes, and spoke in polish words that we could only suppose were of how our music had ministered to them. this is a very beautiful culture with a very beautiful people. actually, they are not that much different from you and me.

so why poland? why not poland. "one study has shown that when certain numbers are crunched, poland has the most need of workers than any other country in the world!" says poland 52-7 newsletter. i want to be apart of that. i want to be where the need is greatest and i want to serve my God, wherever He may lead.

here's the kick off.

well this is all very exciting. i am finding this blogger a little hard to navigate through, but i suppose i will get used to it the more i use it.

this blog is for a specific purpose. i have my xanga to keep tabs on my life and such, but i want this to be for my journey as a missionary. it's so strange to say that. i'm not sure exactly what emotion that invokes. excitement, sure. but i'm also scared. there is a lot of unknown that goes along with this journey and a lot of struggle that i know will come. it's a step of faith. aw heck, it's a RUN of faith. but that's life and i love it.

so i'll be going to poland in july. so i'm looking to... hoping to... man, i don't know how to say this. when i say, "i'm going," i get scared because what if i don't go? what if it isn't definite? there are so many "what if"s. BUT if i spent my life focusing on "what if"s, then i will never really live life. so i want to live my life. starting now: i'm going to poland.

my next step is to fill out an application to SEND. it's actually a pretty long detailed application and it makes me kind of nervous, i'm not going to lie. i will keep you updated on how that goes. i'm going to go now and work on that.

God bless. :)