Platyny

Throughout my time here, some of you have heard about our ongoing saga with a tiny village called Platyny. I have no idea how to make this long story short, but I will surely give it a shot. So, starting right when Amber, Patsy and I arrived we (as a team) began working alongside a Polish pastor named Marcin in this tiny village most Poles don't even know exists. Platyny is home to about 200-300 people who all have very low income and high alcohol abuse rates. The village used to be a communist cooperative where the whole village farmed together and shared the results. Perhaps due to this fact, there is still a lingering sense of "survival of the fittest at any cost". Therefore, the behavior we see is oftentimes horrific. We see fighting between children as young as 5 years old, hitting, spitting, yelling, name calling, door slamming. It's a very rough place to live, to say the least. However, in the midst of all of this darkness, Marcin and his wife Monika have a huge heart for these people, to go and minister Christ's love to them and fight for them, not against them, which is something they're not used to.
As we've worked together to minister there over the past year and a half, we've encountered all kinds of opposition from the city leader, including being locked out of the community building where we teach english and being asked not to come back, although the parents from the community eagerly want us there! It's been an up and down ride, to say the least. All along, as this summer outreach was being planned, we all kind of knew that this was a huge "fish or cut bait" time. It's going to either go really great or really, really bad. We wanted to completely lay the gospel out there and offer these people an opportunity to respond so that if the door to Platyny was indeed closing and we were run out of town, we could at least leave them with a full understanding of the gospel. Since planning has begun, we've found out that there will be roughly 300 recovering substance abuse addicts staying in Platyny for a camp and that the city guard of a neighboring village is going to use their van to transport children from Olsztynek and Jemiolowo (two other villages we've been working in) to Platyny for the activities. The Lord is definitely at work here and I am really hopeful. However, just a few weeks ago we also learned that several youth had been killed in a drunk driving accident, which is heartbreaking.
I don't know how much sense any of this makes, but all this is to say, please pray this week. If you're checking out this post, please pray for:
-the people of Platyny; for hearts that are open to life, healing, freedom, and forgiveness through Christ and that God's Spirit would sweep through there in an undeniable, mighty way
-the team from America and us who live here in Olsztyn--it will be a loooonnnnggg, busy, intense week; please pray for us to find our strength in Christ alone and just be available to the Lord to do as mighty a work as He pleases this week
There's a verse from the Bible that I've been thinking about a lot lately, and it's been my prayer for this week:

"When You came down long ago, You did awesome things beyong our highest expectations. And, oh, how the mountains quaked!" Isaiah 64:3
There are definitely mountains in the way that need to be quaked, but our God is able! I'll be sure to update and share what has happened, but until then I'll leave you with some pictures from last year's camp in Platyny.