The Hi-Light Reel

So, I once again apologize for being a bad little blogger. I do actually have an excuse though. For the past week, we've been in a town about 2 hours away from Olsztyn for our Annual General Meeting (AGM). We left on Friday the 30 of March and got back the following Friday. It was a great week filled with meeting new people, talking about different ministries and strategies, hearing from a great Pastor and having times of worship in English!!! The meeting also happened to be held in a fabulous hotel with a huge indoor water park. Nice. The hotel was also in a little town that was on a lake! I got a lake-fix and it was wonderful. One night, a group of us walked down a long pier as it was getting dark. Ahhhhh. It was a great week, but I still feel the effects of the lack of sleep. The good news is, tomorrow is a holiday here in Poland, so our language class is cancelled and we can't leave our flat until at least after noon. Seriously. It's called "wet Monday" and it's a tradition here that young boys and men throw water on women who are walking around outside. Don't ask. I honestly have no idea what to expect, but just in case, Amber and I have been advised to wait it out inside until at least after noon. Up and down the aisles at the local supermarket, there are tons of water guns for sale right alongside the Easter goodies. Like I said, I have no idea what to expect, but I'll be sure to get some pictures!

Since it's been such a long time since I last updated, I'll fill you in on the hi-lights:

*we met with another group of four girls and had a great time; that makes two groups that we've gotten to meet with now and made contact with nine girls all together. Please pray for these girls, that they'd have a hunger and thirst to know God more

*we went into Agnieszka's classroom and spoke with her students; we got to share with several of the classes why we are here in Poland and it was so interesting to go into a Polish school...all I'm saying is that I'm convinced that teachers are the same on any continent. I'm pretty sure I even saw some women wearing clothes from Christopher & Banks =) Check this out though: none of the teachers have their own classrooms, they all meet in the lounge and have little cubbies where they put their things then go to their assigned classroom each period! Can you imagine?!?!?! Oh wait, yes I can imagine...I lived that for four years. Thank God for crates-on-wheels. Hey dad, I think those would be a hot commodity here...think you can get ahold of several thousand of those that mom could find space for in the house??? =)

*we got approved for our VISAs! However, the letter we received stated that we were valid for one year, although we'd applied for a two year VISA. Sean's going down to the office Tuesday to figure it out. Please pray that everything would be taken care of in a simple and quick manner!

*our friend Ula called and wants to be a part of our Bible studies, which is awesome news because, um, she speaks Polish. And we don't.

*AGM was awesome. I don't even know how to sum it up. The one thing I do know, is that it was so refreshing to worship with a large group in English. Knowing this, I ask you to please pray that the Lord would continue to give me the discipline to continue learning this language. Just as I loved worshipping and hearing God's Word in English, the Poles need to worship and hear His word in Polish.

*Since we got home, the keys to our stairwell haven't worked, so we've essentially been at the mercy of people coming and going to let us in...thankfully, Sean came to the rescue today with some WD-40 and we're back in business!

So, in a nutshell, that's the past two weeks. Phew. I'm going to attach some pictures that go along with this post and work on a post about my first Polish Easter. It's been a great day so far and all I'm saying is that I had NO idea the Poles had so much soul...

--the first picture is of the pier along the water that was lined with restraunts and shops

--the next picture is of the bridge we had to cross to get to the pier

--the final picture is the view from our room! how beautiful!