Those were the verses that we memorized on our ALIVE retreat this past weekend. :) The retreat was absolutely 100% total awesomeness. Coralanne did such a great job with just making all the little details come together. She even had little recipe cards for each group when we were in charge of meals--now that is foresight. :) Probably the greatest blessing was just what i saw as i watched everyone together. i saw people serving eachother and investing in eachother and loving one another. And it was just really beuatiful and great. People opening up and sharing, people listening to the people opening up and sharing. It was definitely a special time for a lot of us who are going to be leaving Poznan soon.
It was so great just to be CAMPING though! As i write this, i have flashbacks of Brooke going thorugh my mind! That lady, LOOOOOOOOVES camping, LOL. :) She was so excited to be sleeping in a tent.....even while it was raining.....and she was sharing it with a bunch of kids. hahaha, i loved her enthusiasm. And definitely felt it myself. I went for one of the most wonderful walks while i was out there. it was soooooo nice to be out of the city and just....out in the open and the green and open sky and just dirt and grass and trees. We had some awesome campfires and wonderful worship both nights. We made some smores---OF COURSE! And some Kielbasa--they are just as much crucial here in Poland, as Smores are in the US. We played "telephone"....using all the different languages present in our group!!! THAT was FUN! English, Norweigen, Polish, Taiwanese, Australian Aboriginee, Nigerian, Creole, Hungarian, Spanish and German. WOW! That is a lot of languages right there!
And now for a story of Gods awesomeness BEFORE the retreat....so this is like, a need for a time machine this is such OLD NEWS, LOL. But, i ever wrote about it so i really want to share it! So i was on my way to FoF. AS usual i was walking, not-as-usual i decided to walk through a park. As i was walking, i saw i was pretty early so i thought i would take a seat....which seat, was the question. The park was pretty crowded, and th benches were definitely full...all except a seat next to a young Asian gal reading a book. I asked her if i could take a seat next to her and she nodded yes and rearranged her stuff more closer to herself. I was listening to my music, not planning to have any kind of conversation....i was only going to sit a few minutes and listen to my music and then be off to FoF. But.....i felt a little nudge, i say i felt, becuase the music in my ears was a little too loud to hear the small voice and i think God knew that. :) So i looked over. She was reading a Polish language learning book. "You learning Polish?" I asked,taking the earbuds out of my ears. She gave a chuckle, as if the idea were quite comical--which it is becuase it is so stinking hard. But she told me that she was indeed trying, but it was....."very difficult". So we got to talking about how we had come to be here, what we were doing here and how long we had been here and how long we were staying. I looked to my phone and saw it was time to get going to FoF...."Well, i need to get going to my student group i am a part of. We meet at this real cool little cafe, Sweet Surrender, have you heard of it before?" She said no and i began to describe to her what it was like and how it was the cutest little place, etc, etc, etc. "If you want to come and check it out so you could know where it is for the future you are more than welcome to join me. And you could even stay for the FoF meeting if you wanted. Check it out and see if it is something that would interest you. If you aren't busy of course!" Well, she wasnt busy. :) And she did come, and she did STAY. And in talking with her afterwards, Stephanie found out that before moving here from China, she never thought God could be real--that it just wasn;t possible. But since she has moved here, she has been thinking about it more and more because of some of her Polish friends she has made. :) SOOOOOOO! I think it is totally awesome that God put me into her path to give her just one more little nudge in His direction through inviting her to FoF where she heard hte Word of God and expereinced His love through those of us at FoF and then was interested in coming to Church at PIC!!!! So praise God! I am so excited to see what HE has for Yilin in the future. And excited to be a part of it. :)
So yeah, it is quite late now and i have got an early morning ahead of me. So i think i am gonna turn in.
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