Poland spends a weekend in Germany!

After evangelizing at a festival on Friday afternoon, taking multiple trains to visit two different cities in Germany on Saturday, and presenting at both a German and a Ukrainian church service on Sunday, we arrived back at “home” in Jawor, Poland around 8:00pm on Sunday evening.

Most of the people we shared with at the festival on Friday were decidedly not Christians, and our team experienced a large variety of reactions as they approached people and asked if they could pray for or share the Gospel with them. Some people were friendly and curious and welcomed the opportunity to ask questions and accept the Polish tracts that we had to hand out. Many others did not react so well, some even spitting and hissing at the name of Jesus or intentionally blowing cigarette smoke into our face, but our teens remained bold and undeterred as they continued to share with those who were more receptive. We had a good debrief time when we returned home and most of the team shared how they had seen and felt the Holy Spirit at work in spite of the obvious influence of the enemy and his powers that were also present. We trust that our efforts for the sake of the Gospel are not in vain and that seeds of truth and life were planted even if we may never know the results.

Our Saturday morning started bright and early as we left the church at 5:45am to catch a train to the historic city of Dresden, Germany. Upon arrival in Dresden, we enjoyed lunch from some street vendors in the downtown area. Some of us went authentic German with bratwursts or kabob, but much of the team opted for traditional American burgers. After filling our bellies, we spent the rest of the afternoon touring the old historic district of the city that was founded in 1206. The architecture, history, and sheer size of these 800 year-old buildings would have kept us occupied for much longer than the time we were able to spend there, but we had to catch another train to the German city of Zittau Saturday evening. Our connection there was the oldest son of our Polish host pastor, who is a leader in a German church there. The church members there greeted us with a warm welcome and a delicious meal of a traditional Polish soup and ham and cheese sandwiches before they showed us to the rooms that they had prepared for us to spend the night. The next morning we enjoyed a light breakfast at the church before joining the German service where the team did a fantastic job sharing their presentation. Then we were blessed with a Ukrainian style lunch, complete with lots of cakes and pasties for desert. After a little bit of downtime to work on verse reviews and play volleyball with some of the church members we joined a group of Ukrainian refugees for their afternoon church service (in the same location) and the team shared their presentation again. Then we said some quick goodbyes to our new friends and rushed off to the train station to catch our ride back to Poland.

It was a busy weekend with lots of moving parts, but we count it a blessing to have had the opportunity to experience another country and culture and to worship with two more groups of our brothers and sisters in Christ. This morning (Monday) the team is headed back to the work sites to continue our projects as we have passed the halfway point of our time here in Poland.

Hey family! How are all of you doing? Poland is so nice! The people are super nice as well! This past weekend we went to Germany. That was so cool to go there. I miss y’all and love y’all so very much! -Levi S.

We went to Germany this weekend. It was really cool! We participated in German church service and a Ukrainian service. The food was also really great!- Sadie W.

 Hey mom and dad! Pulling is amazing! I’m having the best time here. Jawor is a beautiful town and the people here are very kind and hard-working. We’ve gotten to see many incredible things and I’m so grateful I’ve gone to experiences! Miss you lots love you. - Emily P. 

 Hi guys! Paul is beautiful. We had a great opportunity to go to Germany, which was super awesome and fun. It’s been really cool to serve and help. Love you and miss you all. -Lizzy S.

We continue to covet your prayers and support as we continue with our work here for His glory!