Fast Debrief...

Fast Debrief...

So this week I gave God my appetites. I gave him my appetite for food, for music, for the internet, for relationships and other things. I didn't fast to really have some special word from God that would make everything all clear. Mostly, I wanted to give him these things this week as offerings and sacrifices. It was a week of worship. Though I saw pretty much every emotion known to man and really wondered about my own sanity, it was a good week. There were no huge epiphanies or "ah ha!" moments. But there was a steady desire for God and for right decisions. Two passages of scripture that I learned from this week are...

"The Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." Genesis 4:6-7

Sin is pictured as an animal here that is sitting at your door. It is waiting for you to open the door so it can devour you. There's this idea that whatever it is that is sitting at your door doesn't desire the best for you. We see what it does with Cain in the next verse, "Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him."

Passage number two is Isaiah 1:16b-17. "cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause." This passage gives examples of what doing good looks like. These are all relational. It's how we deal with the people around us. My time here should be a time of doing good. My time for as long as I live should be a time of doing good. We must think about what Justice would look like in our relationships. Are we doing evil in our relationships? Or are we seeking justice? Are we pleading the cause of the widow? Are we bringing justice to the fatherless? Are we correcting oppression?

I feel like part of oppression is ignorance. We send teenagers in the states on mission trips all the time and there are always stories of how those short term missionaries had their eyes opened. God changes people when they see with their eyes how the world is and how he sees the people in the world. The moment we see past someone's exterior image and status and our eyes are opened to see into someone's heart--our lives are changed forever. God connects hearts.

My desire, to work toward correcting oppression in Poland among the Roma (notice I say "working toward"), is to see people's hearts be connected. I have this vision to see Poles and Americans have their eyes opened to God's people regardless of their status here in Poland. I'm working toward putting together bike tours through Poland in which we'll have the opportunity to meet new Roma people who live off the beaten paths in Poland.

So thank you for praying with me during this past week and for continuing to pray for me. Thanks also, if you're reading this last paragraph, for reading this lengthy debrief. I hope to be keeping up with my updates more regularly.

"making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it [the mystery of the gospel] boldly, as I ought to speak." Ephesians 6:19

Warsaw:Warszawa

So my first time to Poland, our team flew into the Warsaw airport and quickly jumped in cabs to take us to the train station. Before leaving for Poland, we hadn't figured out how we were going to get to Rzeszow. We heard we could take the train. Come to find out, the train was 6hrs long and the next one wasn't for another 4 hours. So we sat in the train station, too exhausted to do anything or go visit anything, and we ate McDonald's cheese burgers. By that time I was starving and that burger tasted so good. One thing we did explore during our wait was the bathroom situation. Under the train station, in the little tunnels, there we bathrooms with ladies manning the door and demanding money. We quickly discovered which bathrooms were the best deal. We were looking for cleanliness mixed with a good price.

After a week in Rzeszow, we returned to Warsaw for a day of tourism. We wandered around the Old Town. I had duck for lunch. Toward the end of the day, I was getting really thirsty. So I stopped in a little shop to get some "niegazowana" (regular water without gas). I said it several times and finally the lady pulls a bottle out of the fridge and I pay her and leave. When I found a nice cozy spot on the ground outside, I popped it open and took a huge gulp... I spit it back out. It was gasy. My taste buds weren't refined enough back then to appreciate a bottle of carbonated water.

That was 2004. June 2006, I was living in Rzeszow. I was getting a chance to take a short intensive course at the University of Warsaw with some other summer interns in Warsaw. So I packed my borrowed hiker bag and my roommate took me on the train to Krakow. From Krakow I took another train to Warsaw. I don't think I slept at all the night before that trip. I was freakin out because it was only my 3rd time on the train. And this time I would be by myself. What if I missed the stop. What if I got on the wrong train. What if I couldn't figure out where to go when I got to my stop in Warsaw. Thankfully some kind woman told me when it was my stop. The train went underground and she motioned that it was finally time for me to get off. Then I wandered to the upstairs main room of the train station and just stood there in the middle like I was lost. I was wearing a shirt that said, "Employee of the Month". As I was standing there, I realized that the people who were meeting me there had no idea what I looked like. I didn't have their phone numbers. I didn't even have a cell phone. So I just stood there trying to look lost. They found me. And all was well.

Now I'm excited because I'm going back to Warsaw. This time I'm going to do work. I'm going as an experienced train rider (especially after the train ride from hell from Bratislava to Krakow). And I even know a little bit of Polish. How boring is that? I mean really.

No, I'm really excited because this is my first time to get to travel for my job. I'll get to see what the boss man does weekly. Maybe I should bring pencil and paper to take notes. I also get to get some coffee with a friend. Maybe I'll stand in the middle of the train station and look like I'm lost for old time sake.

time for everything

i'm thankful that "the way" has different times for everything.

in life, there is a particular way of living that was established before time even began. God put into motion the particulars of the world we live in--our lives and everything known and unknown. he established things the way he wanted them to be--his way. that is the way of living that i'll be refering to as "the way".

last night i went to a club for a friend's birthday. i didn't plan to stay for the whole thing because it had been a long day. but i got there and there were 2 other people from church there. so we stayed for the whole thing. it was good to not be alone. it was good to be able to be a light in the darkness with other believers who weren't there to judge and just to feel uncomfortable. it was good to be with people who enjoyed the time and the music as much as i did. haha... american hip/hop and rap... and banana juice... and new friends... and deep conversation... amazing.

tonight is a time for something different. part of "the way" is about proclaiming and praising God for who he is. tonight i'm leading worship. i hate to do it because i let the politics consume my thinking and attitude about it (that's a rant for another day). but i'm glad i get to do it tonight. despite my stumblings, there is hope that God may use me and that God will hear me praising him for who he is and who he has been in my life.