Rewind!

I know that for those of you who read my Blog as your Soap Opera, the past few days may have been killing you.  LOL.  I am really sorry!  But pull up a chair because i have some really wonderful things to share.  The question is...where to begin!  This is the problem with going so long without writing!  So Thursday was a pretty ordinary day.  I didn't have Bible study in the morning, but i had an Easter service planning meeting with Darek and Marta.  That meeting went very well and we are pretty well set for our combined Polish and Easter service.  YAY!  My mom and Grama sent me some chocolate covered espresson beans, and i had been waiting to share them with Marta and Darek because i thought they would like them!!  Hahaha....not so much!  Marta was so funny; she couldn't make up her mind what to think about those things!!!  LOL.  We had a good laugh.  Then Darek came in and we offered him some--not letting him know what they were.  And he just kind of....didn't say much.  So later, i told Darek, "You are more than welcome to have more if you would like."  To which he responded, "Oh no, really i don't want to rob you of them."  And we did this three times, me being like, "Really Darek, it's okay, i brought them to share!"  Until finally he was just like "Please understand i do not like them! And i am only trying to be polite!"  Hahaha, i was just like, "Darek, if you don't like them you aren't going to hurt my feelings!  You can just say you don't care for them and then i will know that is what you are actually meaning!!"  But he said something about Americans being so delicate and sensitive, or some such nonsense.  I was like...."ummm, i am not sure what Americans you talk to usually, but i don't think we are that sensitive.  We are pretty direct."  But he insists we are.  *shoulder shrug* eh, whatever. One more stereotype to add to my book.
So then we had a staff meeting, and since i was all alone with Bryn and Kent (because everyone else was gone for one reason or another) i was their "specimen"....yes i am pretty sure that is what they referred to me as.  But they are both pastors and have given the sermons the past few weeks, so they wanted to do a little investigation of "homiletics"???  So they were asking me all these questions about their sermons and things i remembered and how i applied and what i thought of this and that and the other thing.  And by the end of the examination, we determined that my "spiritual gift" is a very large attention span.  LOL.  They were amazed with the kinds of responses i gave and the  things i remembered or the things i walked away with.  But i just think it must have been really encouraging for them!  And i am glad i was able to encourage them in that way.  And i do think of my "attention span" as a sort of gift.  LOL. it sounds funny, but think about it, how many times do you talk with people and fear you are boring them, or feel uncomfortable wondering if all they are thinking about is how soon you are going to be done?  As a teacher, that is terrifying!  So i do really train myself to be focused.  Sometimes my mind will wander, but i always just have this feeling inside me of which wants to show the other person who is taking their time to express ideas, that i value their ideas and their words and i value the time they are using to give me those ideas and words.  I think that communicates a lot of love to people.  I think a lot of times in our witnessing to people, we might just be thinking of what we can say next, or what we can say to change their minds or what we can say to prove their flawed thinking, when really, if we would just be quiet and LISTEN to what they have to say, we would learn more about the person and  their real state of mind.  And once that happens, then we can really have a foundation for knowing how to minister to them.  God promises that He will give us the words to say in those times when we stand in conflict.  And so, I am doing my best to really just listen to people.  Sometimes i have something to say right away, other times, i simply acknowledge what they say and tell them they have some great points, and that i will have to look into those ideas. I know i don't know it all.  And i think it is foolish in a conversation to talk like i do.  I don't have to have answer for everything right away.  I think it may speak vloumes to some of the people i am meeting here, when i acknowledge the good things of what they say while at the same time, letting them know i will be going to God's Word to help them find an answer for the question they are having.
So Thursday night was an amazingly encouraging night!  I am officially the first friend Dagmara and Pawel have ever had over to their flat!  We had such a great time. I got to meet their guinea pig and Dagmara made some yummy scrambled eggs.  And we just talked, about their feelings of church the past Sunday!  Dagmara struggles with the differences between the character of God in the Old Testament and the God of the New Testamant.  In the Old, He is just, and you see His wrath and judgment and harshness she says.  And then in the New, it is like it is all about love and grace and mercy and.....she just doesn't see how it can be the same. God.  She believes in "God", but she is unsure about Jesus being God.  She said she really enjoyed worship though!  :)
Pawel said he would need to go more to make a judgment becuase he doesn't feel once was enough.  But!  He told his friends about it and his family--and now TWO of his friends want to come and his dad and brother wnat to come!!!!!  PRAISE GOD!!!  Pawel and i do a lot of IM and email on Facebook because he feels more comfortable writing with English than talking, and so in the last email he sent to me, he wrote, "My thinking about religion is changing a lot. I know there is someone like Christian God, I believe that, there is Jesus Christ, but I don't know is Chrystians point of view right. What about other religions? Sometimes I think, that every monoteistic religion is about the same one person. I just don't know what to do with my spiritual life. I wish I have yor faith, but I haven't."  I am just so absolutely thankful to the Lord for bringing these people into my life and bringing me into theirs.  Before i came here, i was just like, "Why NOW God?  Why is it you have put such an urgency in my heart to go NOW?  And for heavens sake, why POLAND????"  LOL.  But God knew the people here who He wanted me to love and serve and minister to--and He created me in Christ Jesus that i should walk in the good works he planned for me. 
Now comes the crazy part....so when they were there Sunday for church, Bryn ended the sermon with saying that this week as we meet with our unsaved friends, that we must be confident and bold in sharing the Gospel with them.  A little awkward with my unsaved friends sitting right next to me!  lol.  Dagmara brought this up saying, "I began to think that maybe this really nice girl who we have come to really like, doesnt even really care about us and alll she wants is to try to make us believe in what she believes....".  My heart broke.  And i felt like Paul when he was writing to the Ephesians trying to convince them of how much he cares for them and loves them.  Because that is how i feel about the people i am meeting here.  I LOVE these friends.  And i began to just tell them how much i loved them and that in my love for them i want them to know God like i do, but whether they come to or not, or whether they come to church or not, i LOVE them!  And they reached out and embraced me and we just sat there on the bed in a big hug!  And it was so awesome.  And it is so amazing the love that God can put in our hearts for people.  And i just pray that that love continues to be overflowing from me into the lives of everyone i am meeting and growing closer to.  And in feeling that love and in seeing my life, they will come to know about how real Jesus is and what He wants with them.
Saturday was a full day!  I had an English lesson with Gosia and her husband.  Then i did some filming with Andrew for the movie i am making for Missions Month at church in March.  Printed off the bulletins and did some Bible study, then headed off to Klaudia's house for a small ladies get-together!  Klaudia is one of those ladies that you just LOVE.  She is so sweet and fun and funny and smart.  Very helpful and dependable.  She has helped me out in a lot of ways while i have been here and  i am so thankful for her friendship.....and her cooking!  She made one of the best salads i think i have ever had. :)  It was mixed greens, the stinkiest cheese (lol), pears, asparagus, bean sprouts, walnuts and a dressing made with olive olive oil and mustard and something else.  It was very tasty.
Then she took me to meet up with Nela and a few friends to go to a pub for a meeting of ERASMUS students and couch surfers.  The night before, Nela, Stephanie and i had coffee at Sweet Surrender--Nela loved it!  We were talking about the idea to start up some kind of literature group where we get together and talk about all sorts of literature!  Which was totally God directed because Nela said how she and many of her friends had thought of doing something like that before and they would love to have something like that!  So praise God that he was leading in a direction that is something my friends here are interested in!!
So when i met with Nela, i was introduced to two more students my age who are studying English and have actually spent some time in the States--Marcin and Monika.  I mostly talked with Marcin, who was raised in a Catholic church but when he came to the states and experienced what a Protestant church was like, he really felt God become more real in his life.  So now he has a relationship with God and goes to both a Catholic church and a Protestant church here.  He said he came to a point where it was like, "God!  I have the Catholics telling me one thing and saying these things about the Protestant side, and the Protestants saying these things and accusing the Catholics of these things!  And both are claiming to be about YOU!  Who am i supposed to believe???!!!"  And then he decided that he would just believe God and His word.  Amen.  But he does have some hesitancy in this...he wants to know how he can really trust that the Bible because if it was written by men, couldn't there be some mistakes?  But he believes that even if there were mistakes, he asks God to teach him the right things from His Word and that he would get the right meanings when he reads it, even if there were mistakes.  His big thing though, is why the books in the Bible were chosen at the exclusion of others....a question i have been wondering myself lately.  So as we talked, i decided that i really need to learn about how the Bible came to be in its current compilation.  And these friends want to come to PIC and check it out! And they are also interested in going on our church retreat A.L.I.V.E !!!  Which is super exciting! 
Today, Sunday, was special because Rich is finally back from the States after being there for a month with the K5N pastor, Piotr.  They were in the states raising support for the ministries here in Poznana and Bread of Life Ministries.  :)  So we are so happy to have our pastor at PIC, Rich, back! 
Phew, that was a lot of stuff!  And this next week is going to be equally busy, so i am so sorry if i get to slacking again!  I will try to post at least every other day for you fanatics who can't sleep at night without an "episode" in the life of a college student serving God in Poland!  *wink*