"Why not go to Poland?"
Over the last few weeks, I have spent an incredible amount of time reminiscing over my past mission trips and trying to remember the experiences I had and the lessons I learned. Part of this was brought on by my yearly bug of wanting to travel which will be remedied here in just a few short weeks when I head to Rwanda with My Love! And part of it was brought on by the lovely TimeHop app that has made looking back on memories oh so easy for anyone with a smart phone. Thanks to TimeHop I have been reminded of my Week of E trips and my missions classes. And it's got me thinking about Poland.
Our trip to Poland was one for the books. It was one week long lesson on being flexible. We arrived in country with one idea of what we were going to be doing and ended up doing something completely different. But while frustration was high at times, the lessons and memories were/are priceless.
Our team was incredible. The personalities and gifts all clicked together smoothly and we had so many laughs throughout our week together. With making up a team of 12 people, all from different backgrounds, majors and friend groups on campus... we amazingly had no hiccups or frustrations with each other (at least not that I know of).
One of the main things that we ended up doing was visiting various churches in three cities (Bielsk Podlaski, Lublin and Warsaw). Our main goal was to encourage the pastors and the believers. We did this by sharing our own personal testimonies. Singing worship music. And sharing meals. It was a huge lesson on how the simple, non-glamorous things can be the most impactful and encouraging. It also taught us a lot about the beauty of community and simply living life together. We shared so many laughs over each meal and in our times of worship or teaching it was beautiful to see multiple languages be used, but at the same time have a sense of unity.
I have many great memories of my trips. Poland included. And I am so grateful that even though we were questioning why we were there, we were given a chance to learn, be blessed and bless in return.
So to close... in the words of my friend Sarah, "why go to Poland? Why not got to Poland?"
Our trip to Poland was one for the books. It was one week long lesson on being flexible. We arrived in country with one idea of what we were going to be doing and ended up doing something completely different. But while frustration was high at times, the lessons and memories were/are priceless.
Our team was incredible. The personalities and gifts all clicked together smoothly and we had so many laughs throughout our week together. With making up a team of 12 people, all from different backgrounds, majors and friend groups on campus... we amazingly had no hiccups or frustrations with each other (at least not that I know of).
One of the main things that we ended up doing was visiting various churches in three cities (Bielsk Podlaski, Lublin and Warsaw). Our main goal was to encourage the pastors and the believers. We did this by sharing our own personal testimonies. Singing worship music. And sharing meals. It was a huge lesson on how the simple, non-glamorous things can be the most impactful and encouraging. It also taught us a lot about the beauty of community and simply living life together. We shared so many laughs over each meal and in our times of worship or teaching it was beautiful to see multiple languages be used, but at the same time have a sense of unity.I have many great memories of my trips. Poland included. And I am so grateful that even though we were questioning why we were there, we were given a chance to learn, be blessed and bless in return.
So to close... in the words of my friend Sarah, "why go to Poland? Why not got to Poland?"
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