Poland Week 3
Apologies friends for giving my 3rd update of Poland ONE MONTH LATER! It has been a hectic month filled with multiple events and the simple day to day happenings of life, and I have not been permitted the wonderful relief that comes in writing!
I cannot believe that it has been nearly two full months on the 23 of June that I will have returned from beautiful and historical Poland, and there is not a single day that goes by that I do not think of the people and everything I experienced.
On our final week in Pultusk, my team and I spent countless hours presenting Canada to children at school and in the Public library found in the town square. The children were so excited (and extremely rambunctious) about a group of Canadians that had been in the town for two weeks coming to visit them!
As fun as it was for the children, that week was probably the most difficult. I was beginning to feel homesick, tired (exhausted really) both physically and spiritually. The hardest battle was fighting everything that was rising up in me - the doubt, the emotional drain, the frustration and the need to be alone. As an introvert that was probably the hardest thing: not having time to be alone and recharge made things so hard.
That's when spending time (even 10 minutes) reading my bible before a busy day early in the mornings and speaking my prayers in my mind and out loud as I rushed around my room to get ready became so crucial. That too became to hard to find time for.
And the questions rushed in again: is this worth anything? What is this doing for the kingdom?
On our very last day teaching, after our very last class in the school we walk about an hour and a half to get to (at least that's what it felt like), the principle approached us with a huge smile and inexpressible amount of gratitude for the time we took to tell these children about our country, and to spend time with them.
In that moment I felt God tug on my heart and say "see? It was worth it. I have been working, even in this"
I was able to see God's hand in it all - able to see how he was moving and how we made a difference in representing Christ to a people who hold so strongly to tradition. The entire time we were there, that is what we were doing. We were being salt in light in all we did - in the way we treated one another, in the way we supported the community, in the way we took time with these children - Jesus spent time with the people and reveled in community and that is what we did. We made connections and laid a small foundation for the local church amidst community for them to continue progressing and building on.
There are days now when I look back and feel like I could have given more, and some days when I returned that I felt like I had failed my team and the people around me, but in confessing this to my team and to my good and faithful father, I have come to realize that God used me even in my weakest. He never lets his name falter and he always finishes what he started. I was looking to be enough when really, God was saying, "I am in you, and I am enough."
There was nothing more I could do then what I did as long as my heart continued to long for God to use me and his holy spirit to fill me, which he did.
And so looking back at Poland and everything I experienced, I see the relationships we built and the bricks we laid and I am so honored that God used me and my team as a tool to build a fire that the Holy Spirit had already ignited in the city of Pultusk. I hope that one day I can return and see what more God is doing, because we left, but God did not. He is still there just as he is here with you and me, starting a revival in the hearts of his people who seek and hunger for truth.
I will never stop praying for Poland, and for this world that needs to know a relationship with the living God. It is more then religious practices and rituals - it is more then tradition and history - it is more then come to church and go back to normal life (routine). It is love to its fullest and this world is hungry for it. Can I ask you all to join me in prayer for this world to know love in it's fullest? To come to an understanding of who Jesus is, what he did, and how he so dearly loves us and desires for us to invite him in everyday? For Poland, for Canada - for every nation?
Prayer is powerful, and will move mountains. It is in prayer that we fight battles, and with the holy spirit anointing us, we win every time.
I cannot believe that it has been nearly two full months on the 23 of June that I will have returned from beautiful and historical Poland, and there is not a single day that goes by that I do not think of the people and everything I experienced.
On our final week in Pultusk, my team and I spent countless hours presenting Canada to children at school and in the Public library found in the town square. The children were so excited (and extremely rambunctious) about a group of Canadians that had been in the town for two weeks coming to visit them!
As fun as it was for the children, that week was probably the most difficult. I was beginning to feel homesick, tired (exhausted really) both physically and spiritually. The hardest battle was fighting everything that was rising up in me - the doubt, the emotional drain, the frustration and the need to be alone. As an introvert that was probably the hardest thing: not having time to be alone and recharge made things so hard.
That's when spending time (even 10 minutes) reading my bible before a busy day early in the mornings and speaking my prayers in my mind and out loud as I rushed around my room to get ready became so crucial. That too became to hard to find time for.
And the questions rushed in again: is this worth anything? What is this doing for the kingdom?
On our very last day teaching, after our very last class in the school we walk about an hour and a half to get to (at least that's what it felt like), the principle approached us with a huge smile and inexpressible amount of gratitude for the time we took to tell these children about our country, and to spend time with them.
In that moment I felt God tug on my heart and say "see? It was worth it. I have been working, even in this"
I was able to see God's hand in it all - able to see how he was moving and how we made a difference in representing Christ to a people who hold so strongly to tradition. The entire time we were there, that is what we were doing. We were being salt in light in all we did - in the way we treated one another, in the way we supported the community, in the way we took time with these children - Jesus spent time with the people and reveled in community and that is what we did. We made connections and laid a small foundation for the local church amidst community for them to continue progressing and building on.
There are days now when I look back and feel like I could have given more, and some days when I returned that I felt like I had failed my team and the people around me, but in confessing this to my team and to my good and faithful father, I have come to realize that God used me even in my weakest. He never lets his name falter and he always finishes what he started. I was looking to be enough when really, God was saying, "I am in you, and I am enough."
There was nothing more I could do then what I did as long as my heart continued to long for God to use me and his holy spirit to fill me, which he did.
And so looking back at Poland and everything I experienced, I see the relationships we built and the bricks we laid and I am so honored that God used me and my team as a tool to build a fire that the Holy Spirit had already ignited in the city of Pultusk. I hope that one day I can return and see what more God is doing, because we left, but God did not. He is still there just as he is here with you and me, starting a revival in the hearts of his people who seek and hunger for truth.
I will never stop praying for Poland, and for this world that needs to know a relationship with the living God. It is more then religious practices and rituals - it is more then tradition and history - it is more then come to church and go back to normal life (routine). It is love to its fullest and this world is hungry for it. Can I ask you all to join me in prayer for this world to know love in it's fullest? To come to an understanding of who Jesus is, what he did, and how he so dearly loves us and desires for us to invite him in everyday? For Poland, for Canada - for every nation?
Prayer is powerful, and will move mountains. It is in prayer that we fight battles, and with the holy spirit anointing us, we win every time.
***
Thank you to every one who supported us in prayer and to those who supported us financially! Without you none of this would have been truly possible!
Thank you to my family in Christ in Poland who inspired and encouraged me in my faith and who allowed themselves to be used by God to help us even while we were there for them.
And a big thank you to my family who supported me in probably one of the most difficult years for us. God challenged us and the enemy looked to destroy what good God had in store, but our God is big and powerful, and with him, all things are possible, and with the authority given to us through Jesus Christ, we have won and can shout victory.
one of the classes we taught in the last school we were in
students in the library, and below photos of us teaching in the library!
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