Okay, so I guess if I was to try to tell you about these past few weeks that I have NOT written…..it would be like trying to collect those little monkeys and make that chain. It would be totally possible BUT oh so very time consuming to make all of those connections once again….because to be honest….I really cant put it all in order! LOL. SO! I am going to just begin with the BIG idea…..I have been saying goodbye. Spending any and all time I can with people, which has in effect meant little sleep—even less than I was already getting! Hahaha, BUT! In the words of my dear friend, “you can sleep LATER!” And she is right; right now all I want to do is relish the time and make the most of it I can while I am here with them. I feel like the last five months of my life have been so much more than five months should realistically feel like in terms of their value for my life. God has been so incredibly good and the people He has put in my path have blessed me so much—even if they don’t know it, or don’t even recognize Him in it. I am pretty sure God brought me here because I needed some working on in some major areas of my life and some minor areas. And the people He led me to here, were a huge part of that. When God tells me to do something NOW….i hope I am always quick to remember this time of my life and the blessing that came from it.
I am thankful for adventures. I had a great adventure the other night! I finally was able to see the “farm” Dagmara told me about so long ago that her family has! She hosted a party with a bunch of her friends from Hebrew class and elsewhere and it was truly a great time! She is so silly because she kept thinking I wasn’t having a good time--that I was bored because of everyone speaking Polish—but I was really having a great time just being a part of their group! It was a special memory I will have of my last week here. Her farm has become one of my “favorite spots” in Poland along with a not-so-typical and really not-that-wow of a place near Most Teatralny. It is a little park where there is a swing set with my name graffitied on it! LOL. I know that sounds bad, but it is amazing that somewhere here there is another girl named Amanda! I think I need to come back to find her! But I go to swing in this park because it is covered by a canopy of trees and it is just so….serene and calm and dreamy to look up into those branches and just swing. And they also have a teeter-totter (and when I called it this NO ONE knew what I was talking about until I described it and then everyone was like, “OH! A see-saw you mean? Where in the heck did teeter-totter come from?” We are taking Americans, Australians and Polish people, lol. Does anyone else besides me call it a teeter-totter????) I had been wanting to go on this teeter-totter for some time and FINALLY! When Daga and I were together, SHE finally made my dreams come true! LOL….although, she thought it was quite boring I am afraid, hahaha. It kind of is, after a while.
I have been trying to write goodbye letters and also figure out things to get for some people back home…..not an easy task. LOL. Writing goodbye letters for some of the people I have come to live here is like….well HOW can I ? There are so many important things I feel like I could say, but only the little things come to mind. But all these “little” things really just made the time I had here what it was. It was a collection of little things. I don’t think I will ever be able to write to them the collection of all the things I have felt and experienced with them and my thoughts for them. And just the act of saying “goodbye”….hhhhhh. It is not a fun task. I wonder what Paul would have done with Skype? LOL.
As I am looking back over the past five months, I feel like I have for the first time really been ALIVE. I think of that verse about whoever would find his life should lose it….and I feel like I found life while I was here in fulfilling some greater purpose than what I normally live for back home. I mean, here it was like, about living to reflect how great God is and show His love to others and reach out to them and serve them and …. It was different than what I have experienced at home. And I think the greatest challenges to me were not what faced me HERE, but what faces me when I return home. Not to just fall back into the rhythm of everyday life back home—the one where I am a studious student and future teacher. But remain in the life that I have found here—the life of living for Jesus in everything and trying to figure out how to best serve Him and serve others and love others and build other people up and encourage and comfort and do whatever needs to be done so that people will be like, “Wow, God is good!” I just want to make people think, you know? Think, and feel that maybe they haven’t taken the idea of God to the real depths it truly has. Even if they think they already have it all figured out. Just to make them wonder, “Okay, that IS different….”
Today at church, Richard had us repeat; “God first, others second, then self”. I feel like that is the key to why life has been so full for me here in Poland. Because of trying to put that into practice. Certainlly didn’t master it while I was here, but I can tell you I feel like I can feel a change in myself since I came here and really began to put this into practice. And whereas in the beginning it was often a need to remember to do this, in some cases I have found that I can look back and see how it was just something that kind of came naturally to me to do. J Not that I began to just naturally act selfishly and had to stop myself to do the unselfish thing, but actually just naturally did the selfless thing! And definitely only because God is real and HE has been working in my heart.
I just had a wonderful time with my flatmates. J We sat around—all four of us!!!—and just talked about my time here and my experience. It was so nice!! They gave me this book with all these amazing pictures of Poland and places to visit and inside they wrote: “May this album be a reason for your return, and visit more interesting places in our beautiful country.” It was so sweet. And I gave them each my card for them. We had some icecream and cherries. Which I just found out that we have a cherry tree!!!! But I am so sad because I will not be here when they are ripe. L Which is the end of June. Sadness. One of their questions made me laugh: “What about Polish men? How do you like them?” Hahahaha, it was funny and I felt like I was back with my girlfriends in the states. And they asked about foods I liked here, and favorite places, what I will miss, what things I did, what God did in my life, what I expected in Poland and what was actually true…..it was a special time to share with them. Especially Ula because we haven’t talked much since I don’t speak Polish and she doesn’t speak English.
The next few nights are going to be filled with goodbyes….*sigh*.
This past week and weekend I was trying to spend as much time with anyone and everyone that I could. Today Ola, Marcin and Sandra had a big exam and we all went out for pizza afterwards at my FAVORITE pizza place—we are talking better than ANYTHING I have had in the USA. It is called DiGrasso. I just love it. And it really is quite reasonable in price I think. And the sauces that they come with, I likey a lot!!!
Alright, I know this does not do justice to the past few weeks….but it is VERY late. And I really need some sleep for my very full day tomorrow.
OH! I met some guys here from Arizona! Crazy huh? They all are actually from Phoenix and one went to ASU but now goes to U of A, and one is in seminary and another is in community college but interning at a church. J They are here for two months for a short term mission! SO AWESOME!!!! But they will be in Kaleesz doing ministry there. But I got to work with them for an afternoon collecting donations for Bread of Life at the university dorms. So that was nice….a sad confession….we actually all sang “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” theme song when we met. Hhahahaha. You know with Will Smith?!?!?! I don’t remember what one of them said, but it triggered that song for me and I started to sing it and before you know it we were sitting there singing it together!!! It was great. Makes me chuckle to think about it. So when they come back to the states, they are supposed to invite me to their presentation! Yay!
Alright, goodnight for reals.
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