New Villages and Easter

The school in the small village of Nowe Kawkowo, where we'll be teaching English on Thursday afternoons.
We went prayer-walking in Nowe Kawkoko (which means NEW Kawkowo! There is an OLD Kawkowo as well!) this past Thursday with a Polish believer named Radek. As we walked past this rock, he pointed out that this tiny village is older than America. Crazy!
This is the swietlica in the even-smaller village of Szalstry, where we'll also be teaching English on Thursday afternoons. Amber and I will also be making the short (about 4 KM--although it takes about 10 minutes to drive because the road is so bumpy) drive from Nowe Kawkowo to Szalstry solo...in a standard VW van! Thankfully though, the road is so bad we won't have to go any higher than second gear =)
Lydia, Patsy, and Lydia's good friend Ela at Easter lunch. Ela is the professor who invited Amber and I to her classes to invite her students to practice English and study the Bible with us.

I have a few minutes this morning, so I thought I'd sit down and do a little "catch-up" blog. It's been a while! Sorry! We're getting ready today to head out to two new villages, Nowe Kawkowo and Szalstry. It's always nerve-wracking to go somewhere new, but I'm also looking forward to meeting some new people and seeing what God will do in these villages. Bryan and Radek have been meeting with some ladies from these villages to practice some english and study the Bible. Please pray for these villages and for open doors to share the gospel with them. We're at the point now, in many of these villages, where we're really looking at where to go next. Obviously, teaching english is a great service to the community, but we're also wanting to gain the opportunity to share God's Word with people and looking for creative ways to do that. So, please pray that God would open doors and give us some creativity as we plan for the summer.

This past week, Amber's parents came for a visit. I got to tag along as their second daughter, and it was great. We didn't do too much out of the ordinary, but they got a chance to see what "everyday life" is like in Olsztyn, Poland. We even took them to the grocery store! They missed out on fun events like the post office, but maybe next time =) We did get to play a couple of games of euchre, which Amber's mom and I won! Woo-hoo!
We also, obviously, celebrated Easter this past week. The three evangelical churches in Olsztyn had a joint service in the morning at a local hotel. Then, in the afternoon, we all went to the Stevenson's house for a DELICIOUS lunch! After eating too much, and drinking coffee to stay awake, we had a time of worship to celebrate Christ's victory over death on our behalf, then Amber, her parents, and I headed back home for the evening.

So, in a nutshell, that's what's been going on here. As you can see by some of the pictures above, there is still snow here! It's actually gotten really cold and has snowed almost every day for about a week now. I know that it's almost April, and I'm totally ready for some warm weather, but I still think the snow is pretty. Well, when the sun shines on it anyhow!
By the way, on a sidenote, over the Easter break from school (which was Thursday through Tuesday), there was another camp for kids held in Warsaw. Marcin took ten kids with him and his wife and six of those kids trusted Christ! Two of the girls are involved in our English club in Olsztynek, and one of the girls comes to our club in Jemiolowo! Please pray for these kids, that they'd be drawn to spend time reading God's Word and grow in Him.