Support Raised . . . to date

It's been almost a month since my last post and I want to stay true to keeping up to date.  As I mentioned last post, it's been hard lately finding balance with so much distraction.  We are still working on finding balance with a new school format for our older three children, four kiddos participating in four sports, working and staying involved with our church and small group.  God is working and I am thankful for His presence as we navigate each day.  I pray God daily reminds me of my true priorities and that I can learn to let go of the rest!

I truly feel after visiting Poland with Dustin this summer that we are meant to be there and each day I long to be back in Lubin.  The new school year for Polish children started at the beginning of September and that means that the English school attached to the church is back up and running as well.  While we were in Poland, Dustin and I had the pleasure of participating in eight separate English classes among five teachers.  I had such a great time in the classes and found it difficult to even fall asleep after the first day I attended classes.  It was such a joyful experience for me personally meeting the students, and speaking with them and I'm so looking forward to getting back and teaching!!!!

Dinner with one English class where we practiced talking about food.

The English school visited a local school to share about the American west.

Linda and Bogusia and some students.

So how do we get back to Poland???  Well to date, we are at 40% of our support.  We need approximately $50,000 to support our family for the year we are gone.  This includes travel, food, shelter, and required international health insurance.  The support we have so far has included some pretty generous one time donations from our friends and family as well as our home church's commitment of 1/3 and we are so thankful for this support.  We are still seeking out supporters willing to pledge monthly.  If we could get 25 people to support us at $100/month, we'd be on a jet plane tomorrow.  Okay maybe not that soon.  Or if we could get 50 people to commit to $50/month, we'd be on our way.  How about a 100 people at $25/month?  You get the idea.  Point being, once we know that there are commitments of support for our year, we will be on our way.  We cannot do this on our own, this is outside of our capabilities and we know we have a pretty big God that has already counted our support and appointed our team.  We are working on trying to seek out and connect with those people that God is calling to us.  Please continue to pray that we pursue God's direction and timing.

If you, someone you know, or a church you know may be interested in being a part of our support team, you can connect with us through our family email of petroskyfamily@hotmail.com or through Facebook messenger.  Contributions towards our support are tax deductible and are directed to our church which is acting as our sending agency.

Super

Forests in Poland are double super.  All forests are accessible to the public at all times because the government retains control over all of them.  This means if we see a forest in the middle of a field, we are welcome to explore it.  Could make for some fun hiking adventures.  Secondly, NO poison ivy!  It doesn't grow in Europe.

Most common trees we spotted everywhere in Poland.

Hiking trail we explored on the edge of Lubin.

Nie Super

Air conditioning isn't the norm in Poland.  Polish people do not like to be cold.  Thankfully, Poland tends to be cooler generally speaking but that doesn't mean it doesn't get hot.  This will be a huge adjustment for us with no air running in the summer but it should make for cheaper utilities.

Distracted

My last blog post was in June.  It's now September.  Yikes!  I'm not doing so well on keeping this up to date and I need to do better.  The one thing that I've noticed lately is that the devil is working overtime right now trying to keep me distracted and unfocused on getting to Poland.  He continually steals my attention to unimportant things.  He's been trying to fill me with anxiety about things that I cannot control.  He's made sure that I've kept my focus inward.  I could use prayer in this area!  It's easy for me to get wrapped up in our family, in busy schedules, in schooling our children, etc.  While life still happens and the every day needs are important, I have to keep my focus upward and outward.

We've had quite a month of transition.  Our oldest three are trying out Indiana Connections Academy which is an online tution free public school. This has the potential to be a great thing but we aren't there yet.  It's requiring a great deal of energy to make adjustments and manage expectations. Thankfully, we already had a getaway planned out a year ago to head down south for a few days.  We needed the break!  We spent some days in Gatlinburg as a family just relaxing and enjoying the mountains.  We are back now and ready to hit the pavement.

So where are we at in the process right now?  When are we leaving?  These are the most frequent questions we receive.  As far as where we are right now in the process, we are seeking prayer support and funding for our one year commitment in Poland.  Our budget for airfare, and living expenses is around $50,000 for the year.  We do have a good portion pledged towards our support but we are not there yet.  If you are interested in supporting us with prayer or financially, we'd love to hear from you.  Please contact us by email at petroskyfamily@hotmail.com and we will send you a letter.  We are also seeking out churches that may want to join with us on this journey and we will be focusing in on that more.

As far as travel dates, we haven't set any.  Once we have the support pledged or given, we will make our final arrangments.  We'd love to leave as early as January or February of next year.  But the truth is that God's timing is perfect and good and we want to be faithful to his timing and the needs in Poland.

A friend of ours started something cool while he and his wife were living in France (Jay & Deb Hocking).  He ended his update letters with a piece of French culture that was cool and something that wasn't so cool (pas cool).  I always looked forward to that last part of his letter.  So I think we shall continue his tradition into Poland with a section called "Super y Nie Super."


Super 

The tea selection in Poland was fantastic.  I don't like mint but I gave this Lime & Mint a try.

This hot summer berry tea was the best tea I've ever had.  It tasted exactly like eating berries.

Nie Super

No flavored coffee, no flavored creamers.  Just plain coffee with or without milk or cream.  The coffee isle was a sad place at the supermarket.  I've only been drinking coffee for about a year and I'm a bit of a coffee snob.  I only drink Michigan Cherry with Italian Cream creamer.  It's ridiculous I know but it's as good as it gets for now.

Sorry for the lull

I promise the ladies tea and men's day out wasn't the only thing that happened during our time in Poland.  This trip was a "vision" trip for us and Paul and Carlene did an excellent job of giving us a full look at what is going on in Poland both as a mission and within the culture/history.  We were booked everyday and it was fantastic.

Our Sunday was busy as we spent the morning with the Lubin church for service at 11:00.  Pastor John provided the message which was translated beautifully by Natam.

The rented building for the Lubin Baptist church.  Top floor is apartment of the owner of building.

The building that the Lubin church is currently renting isn't huge by any means and serves as the English school during the week and church on Sundays and whatever else they need it to be.  It's amazing what can be accomplished in such a small space.  As I sat through service on Sunday, the ladies tea on Saturday, and several English classes throughout the week, I couldn't help be think how much can be done with so little.  The small church kitchen serves as a copy room, a storage room, a sound system room, oh yeah . . . and a kitchen.  Sometimes we make excuses about not having enough of this or that to accomplish our goals or God's will.  Yet in Lubin, they have made the most of every bit of space they have.  Soon, the church in Lubin will be able to move into a much MUCH bigger space.  The local government donated land to the church and a new building is under construction as we speak.  Just think of all that will be accomplished in the bigger space considering how much they have been able to do in their small space.

Progress on the new church and school

Looking up at balcony

Looking down from balcony

City of Lubin from balcony

One of two Ukrainian men working on the building.  These men work long days and make quick progress.  

We had lunch with Paul and two of his kiddos before heading off to Legnica for their 16:00 service.

Legnica has only been holding services since the beginning of this year.  It's exciting to see a new church plant in the early stages. The building in Legnica was donated to the church plant by the local government and much has been done to renovate the existing space to make it usable for the purpose of church and English lessons.  An apartment is also being renovated in order to provide a living space for Piotr and Iwona Piotrowski that plan to lead the church.  Read more here: https://www.gofundme.com/mission-building-in-legnica-poland?donorname=Chris+Whitworth. I previously posted pictures on my blog of the inside renovations.  The space is really coming together and looking great!

Front Door

Building face, three stories high

View across the street from Legnica church

Unfinished ground floor space

The last Sunday we were in Poland, we were able to participate in a unique combined service in Legnica at a government building.  Several area churches have come together to form a sort of fellowship in the Legnica area and they came together for their first inaugural combined service on June 4th.  It was good to experience this on our last Sunday in Poland with a few members of the Lubin and Legnica churches.

Just a few of the ten that were able to attend.

More to come later . . .

Where to begin . . .

My good intentions of blogging have gone by the wayside of an amazingly busy schedule.  We have been going since our arrival here in Poland.  It's hard to know where to start in sharing our time here. I'm going to have to break up my posts over time and hit different things each time.

After our fun day(s) of travel, Dustin and I spent Saturday divided.  He went with Pastor John and Paul (and Ian from Sugar Grove, Goshen) to visit some other churches in the area.  They then spent their day driving all over the place visiting a castle, a church, a Polish work camp, boar hunting, eating etc, etc, etc.  It was a great chance for the men to enjoy time with each other and take in some history, culture, and food.  They got home at about 23:00 that evening!

Underground tunnels built under houses allowing people to move around town without detection.

"Work for Freedom"  This is was a Polish work camp and the average lifespan was 5 weeks

Yes, Dustin came all the way to Poland and ate pizza

While the men were off doing their thing, Christine and I got to have our first interaction with the ladies of the Lubin Church.  We just so happened to be in town for their annual ladies tea, one of their outreach events.  We went in early to decorate, assemble party favors, and prepare food, and met a few of the other missionary women for the first time.

Amber, team member

Linda and Carlene arranging seating

Our questionaire

Party favors

The ladies tea was a lighthearted event with several fun activities. We had a number match-up game where we were supposed to decide what numbers corresponded to certain things like:  How many cups of tea do people in the whole world drink each day?  3,000,000,000  What's the percent of Brits that drink milk in their tea?  98%.  Of course, it was in Polish.  So, I wasn't much help but there were about 25 questions.  The high score was 9 correct.  They were tough!

Two women volunteered for a sensory game where they put bandannas over their eyes and were supposed to guess by feel what certain items were.

Thank you to those that prayed for me in preparation for my testimony.  It went very well and it also opened up some good conversation with several women.  Bogusia (Bo-goo-sha) did a beautiful job of translating for me.

We also did a some fun photos with props and had a light snack.

We laughed, we talked, many translated, and we cleaned up.  We finished around 8pm and it was a blessing to be a part of this time.  Dustin and I have already been invited to homes for dinner, and our children have play dates set up for their future here in Poland.

I will share more as time allows and catch up when I get home with the things that I may not get to at this time.  Thanks for sharing in this journey with us as we prepare our hearts and minds for what God has in store in our future.