A small group of six, three each from Mount Pleasant Christian Church and Southport Presbyterian Church, were the first to leave the camp lodge and start their day. They arrived at the Tomy Community Center to help with distribution of food supplies delivered the day before.
More than one-hundred families were served in this effort.
God is generous.
The remainder of the mission team loaded up and headed out to a park with the Tomy Church to host a community picnic. A basketball tournament was conducted, pick-up volleyball games were enjoyed, kayaking was available, and other various children's activities were provided. After a morning of activities, a camp-fire was lit and polish sausage was provided for roasting on the file. Later a small parachute was opened and billowed by children old and young.
While a grey, somewhat cold day was provided for the activities, the turn-out was good and a lot of fun was enjoyed by all.
Tonight, in the middle of the night, most of the Southport Presbyterian members of the mission team will depart for their return to the United States.
From Blair Schier:
I can't even begin to explain the blessings we recieved while working in the preschool at Centrum Tomy. As soon as we entered the building the children ran up and greeted us with the usual "Dzien Dobry" and kisses. The first group we worked with were the 3 year olds. We were teaching them "The wheels on the bus" song in english. They would perform this song for their parents at the picnic hosted by PROeM and the Tomy Church.
It amazed me how similar the children were to those in America. Although we could barely communicate with them, they were happy to just play with us as the language barrier seemed to make no difference. Following the three year olds we worked with the older children on songs such as "Baby Shark", "Five Little Monkeys", and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" .
The children at the pre school seemed to be truly happy. You could tell they enjoyed their lessons and their teachers. God's presence is definitely evident in the school. Centrum Tomy is working miracles in the lives of people in the city of Tomascow, Poland.
Please continue to pray for the people and the staff at Proem.
God Bless
blair
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
Days 4 and 5
Mission Brief:
On Thursday morning, the Southport Presbyterian mission members departed for Krakow for a visit to Auschwitz and a day of shopping and sight seeing at the Krakow town square. The contingent of Mount Pleasant members spent the day visiting schools in Tomaszow, the Tomy Child Care Center and performed additional work at the Tomy Church.
Friday morning started with an american breakfast for the Tomy/PROeM staff prepared by the entire mission group. In a colorfully decorated dining room, pancakes, french toast, scrambled eggs, and biscuits and gravy.
Each of the Tomy/PROeM staff members were provided a gift, one from each mission member. Afterward, a second visit to the Tomaszow Public High School No. 2 was completed as promised, support and help provided at the Tomy Child Care Center and along with additionaly work at the Tomy Church.
From Kevin Behnke:
As we have worked throughout the week I have found great joy in Partnering with PROeM. The Things they are accomplishing and the vision they are casting is Phenomenal. Over the course of he week, relationships have formed both between he team and the local staff as we continue to share with the staff they share right Back. For instance, when I told Rafael my plan for this Post secondary plans, he quickly named off many key places and told me that he has visited chula vista several times. That is one example of many.
Along with Rafael, I have met Tomek "The Media Guru", Daniel "The Jester", and many more; one in particular Robert. Robert along with being a Jueto master, Youth Minister, Handy Man, and Husband, he is a Great Soccer Player. (A pickup soccer game was played Friday afternoon between some local young men and members of the Tomy and Mount Pleasant churches). As we got on the field, I wasn't expecting To Win or Come close. Why I say that is because as we all walked towards the field, the polish team we were going to play were already on the feild and were wearing various uniforms. At that point I basically thought That this game was going to be a joke and Decided to have fun with the Game. Our team filled out with star players such as Micheal Hinsely, John Baker, Robert All, Guy Quinenette, Maciek Moryn, Robert (from PROem), and Myself. We played hard We scored the first goal and held them off until the final minutes in which They Scored a Goal. We Settled it Quickly with a shoot-out. We ended up taking Home the Victory! Yay!
Through all of this I have been blessed with Great weather, fellowship, and Friendships. I hope Everyone can pull out as much From this Experience As I Have. It has been a blessing to serve along side everyone Here as well!!
On Thursday morning, the Southport Presbyterian mission members departed for Krakow for a visit to Auschwitz and a day of shopping and sight seeing at the Krakow town square. The contingent of Mount Pleasant members spent the day visiting schools in Tomaszow, the Tomy Child Care Center and performed additional work at the Tomy Church.
Friday morning started with an american breakfast for the Tomy/PROeM staff prepared by the entire mission group. In a colorfully decorated dining room, pancakes, french toast, scrambled eggs, and biscuits and gravy.
Each of the Tomy/PROeM staff members were provided a gift, one from each mission member. Afterward, a second visit to the Tomaszow Public High School No. 2 was completed as promised, support and help provided at the Tomy Child Care Center and along with additionaly work at the Tomy Church.
From Kevin Behnke:
As we have worked throughout the week I have found great joy in Partnering with PROeM. The Things they are accomplishing and the vision they are casting is Phenomenal. Over the course of he week, relationships have formed both between he team and the local staff as we continue to share with the staff they share right Back. For instance, when I told Rafael my plan for this Post secondary plans, he quickly named off many key places and told me that he has visited chula vista several times. That is one example of many.
Along with Rafael, I have met Tomek "The Media Guru", Daniel "The Jester", and many more; one in particular Robert. Robert along with being a Jueto master, Youth Minister, Handy Man, and Husband, he is a Great Soccer Player. (A pickup soccer game was played Friday afternoon between some local young men and members of the Tomy and Mount Pleasant churches). As we got on the field, I wasn't expecting To Win or Come close. Why I say that is because as we all walked towards the field, the polish team we were going to play were already on the feild and were wearing various uniforms. At that point I basically thought That this game was going to be a joke and Decided to have fun with the Game. Our team filled out with star players such as Micheal Hinsely, John Baker, Robert All, Guy Quinenette, Maciek Moryn, Robert (from PROem), and Myself. We played hard We scored the first goal and held them off until the final minutes in which They Scored a Goal. We Settled it Quickly with a shoot-out. We ended up taking Home the Victory! Yay!
Through all of this I have been blessed with Great weather, fellowship, and Friendships. I hope Everyone can pull out as much From this Experience As I Have. It has been a blessing to serve along side everyone Here as well!!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
From Kevin Bausman:
When on mission trips, I always keep my eyes open for a defining moment in the mission, a moment produced by the activity of God’s presence in the mission. Last night, Maciek Moryn delivered the testimony of the difficulty of his life to his walk to Jesus provided through the love of his new wife, Adrienne. Today an event was noted as historic by the pastor of the Tomy Church during a visit to High School No. 2 in Tomaszow. This high school is noted for excellence in education in Tomaszow.
For the past few years, the mission team from Mount Pleasant had been denied a visit to the high school. However, this year, through the efforts of Tomy Church, the Poland mission team was permitted to visit a combined meeting of two english language classes.
The meeting began with general introductions and a question and answer ice breaking session. It was followed by a short break and shortly thereafter reconvened.
A decision had been rendered to embark on a debate within the class. There were many hot topics that could have been discussed, and some VERY hot topics were also available. There seemed to be an air of caution in the selection of THE topic to be debated. The topic…? Gun ownership in Poland, currently a very restricted prerogative in the country.
With the help of Stephanie Guzda, the class was divided into two camps. David Whitlow organized those advocating ownership of guns, and Blair Schier organized those opposing ownership. Ground rules were established to maintain control over the debate process and with me as the moderator, the debate began.
The rapport was very lively and engaging. Friends were respectfully disagreeing with friends in heated debate. As the debate began to swing toward summarization from the two camps, the class suddenly ended, leaving a sort of void in the process.
It’s worthy to note that the english spoken in the class was very good… even great. These students exercised the language very well.
Later, one of the teachers of the two classes commented that she would appreciate even more time to be offered in a single visit. Not just the two hours afforded today, but more like four or five hours. The engagement of the students with the ministry team left a longing in this teacher for more interactions between the ministry team and the students of these classes.
Before the ministry team left the school, the principal of the school warmly received ministry gifts. To our wonderment, the teacher asked us to return to the school, asking if we might return this upcoming Friday. And not just for a couple of hours, but for most of the school day.
Rafal Piekarski, the pastor of the Tomy Church, considers the request for an additional visit a historical milestone in the ability of an evangelical church to reach further to the people of Poland. Not just for a subsequent visit, but a visit of increasing magnitude through a longer visit.
This is, yet again, another testament to the power of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit at work in the fields of missionaries. Through the work of the Spirit, doors had been set before us to be opened for the work of Jesus Christ. Those doors were opened and, although undetected by them, these students began to encounter a living and loving God in their lives.
From Derric Hicks:
Good Day, everyone. Or in Polish, "Dzien dobry!".
Today, John Baker, Robert Mason, Ron All, Shannon Thompson, marle Stanifer and myself (Derric Hicks) have been working at the Tomy Church in Tomaszow. We have been there all week! We're working on cleaning up a side lot with a garage, and painting a wall across the street from the church.
In today's work, we swept down the walls a nd ceiling of the garage and swept out the garage floor. Then we sgtarted to move big 4x4 beams and plank boards from the basement. We put them into the newly cleaned garage.
Also, today, we started to sand down the wall across the street and put on a paint primer coat to dry. When dried, we painted the wall; different banded shades of brown, one each for the top and bottom, and yellow in the middle.
Tomorrow, we will put on a second coat of yellow paint and continue to clean out a couple of rooms in the church used for storage, placing the contents of supplies from those rooms into the garage.
It's been hard work all week, but when we're done, the people of Tomaszow will have a beautiful church to worship in.
In Christ-
-Derric Hicks
When on mission trips, I always keep my eyes open for a defining moment in the mission, a moment produced by the activity of God’s presence in the mission. Last night, Maciek Moryn delivered the testimony of the difficulty of his life to his walk to Jesus provided through the love of his new wife, Adrienne. Today an event was noted as historic by the pastor of the Tomy Church during a visit to High School No. 2 in Tomaszow. This high school is noted for excellence in education in Tomaszow.
For the past few years, the mission team from Mount Pleasant had been denied a visit to the high school. However, this year, through the efforts of Tomy Church, the Poland mission team was permitted to visit a combined meeting of two english language classes.
The meeting began with general introductions and a question and answer ice breaking session. It was followed by a short break and shortly thereafter reconvened.
A decision had been rendered to embark on a debate within the class. There were many hot topics that could have been discussed, and some VERY hot topics were also available. There seemed to be an air of caution in the selection of THE topic to be debated. The topic…? Gun ownership in Poland, currently a very restricted prerogative in the country.
With the help of Stephanie Guzda, the class was divided into two camps. David Whitlow organized those advocating ownership of guns, and Blair Schier organized those opposing ownership. Ground rules were established to maintain control over the debate process and with me as the moderator, the debate began.
The rapport was very lively and engaging. Friends were respectfully disagreeing with friends in heated debate. As the debate began to swing toward summarization from the two camps, the class suddenly ended, leaving a sort of void in the process.
It’s worthy to note that the english spoken in the class was very good… even great. These students exercised the language very well.
Later, one of the teachers of the two classes commented that she would appreciate even more time to be offered in a single visit. Not just the two hours afforded today, but more like four or five hours. The engagement of the students with the ministry team left a longing in this teacher for more interactions between the ministry team and the students of these classes.
Before the ministry team left the school, the principal of the school warmly received ministry gifts. To our wonderment, the teacher asked us to return to the school, asking if we might return this upcoming Friday. And not just for a couple of hours, but for most of the school day.
Rafal Piekarski, the pastor of the Tomy Church, considers the request for an additional visit a historical milestone in the ability of an evangelical church to reach further to the people of Poland. Not just for a subsequent visit, but a visit of increasing magnitude through a longer visit.
This is, yet again, another testament to the power of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit at work in the fields of missionaries. Through the work of the Spirit, doors had been set before us to be opened for the work of Jesus Christ. Those doors were opened and, although undetected by them, these students began to encounter a living and loving God in their lives.
From Derric Hicks:
Good Day, everyone. Or in Polish, "Dzien dobry!".
Today, John Baker, Robert Mason, Ron All, Shannon Thompson, marle Stanifer and myself (Derric Hicks) have been working at the Tomy Church in Tomaszow. We have been there all week! We're working on cleaning up a side lot with a garage, and painting a wall across the street from the church.
In today's work, we swept down the walls a nd ceiling of the garage and swept out the garage floor. Then we sgtarted to move big 4x4 beams and plank boards from the basement. We put them into the newly cleaned garage.
Also, today, we started to sand down the wall across the street and put on a paint primer coat to dry. When dried, we painted the wall; different banded shades of brown, one each for the top and bottom, and yellow in the middle.
Tomorrow, we will put on a second coat of yellow paint and continue to clean out a couple of rooms in the church used for storage, placing the contents of supplies from those rooms into the garage.
It's been hard work all week, but when we're done, the people of Tomaszow will have a beautiful church to worship in.
In Christ-
-Derric Hicks
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Day Two; More work at the Church - Another school visit
From Macey Moreland:
Today was a day of great blessing. The children of Tomaszow were better at basketball than I expected. As a group of us went into the school today, we didn't expect much, but it became a blessing in disguise. The children were so excited to learn basketball skills, and I was excited for them, too. We invited them to the get-together on Friday. I hope thay come.
From David Whitlow:
Today was very interesting in our first visit playing sports in an elementary school in Tomaszow. We were definitely the American novelty. They stared up at us as we watched them bustle to and from class. They seemed a little apprehensive when they walked into the gym, but soon warmed up to us.
We divided the boys and girls and taught them basketball drills on either side of the court. Their skills in ball handling were quite surprising. It was obvious they had played before. We also taught them how to shoot an accurate lay-up: off the left foot, up with the right hand and off the backboard square. This proved problematic for the southpaws.
We played a little scrimmage in which we showed them the international rules of the game. They caught on quickly to the traveling violations, but not so fast with double dribbling and hand checking. After our game, we mixed things up, playing knock-out with both boys and girls. It came down to just one boy and one girl, and the latter took the glory! The girls erupted in cheers and they pulled off the upset.
The tide turned for us Americans as we played soccer (football), however, for even the children had more skills than we did! It was a blowout!
Our time with the children was very fun and engaging. What a blessing it is to share the universal language of athletic competition!
From Shannon Thompson:
For the past two days, the efforts of the Poland Mission Team has reminded me of the efforts of the workers mentioned in the 26th chapter of Ezra who were clearing away the rubble before rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. In the past two days, we have cleared away the rubble of years, consisting of lumber, rocks, bricks and trash that has accumulated around the building. We also have removed up to a foot of dirt that was covering octagonal paving stones around a courtyard we didn't really know was there. We have had to remove some, repair them and re-lay them.
We have also, in cooperation with the city of Tomaszow and surrounding neighbors, scraped and removed layers of paint from an outside wall directly cross the street from the church. We then repaired and primed it and hope to paint it in the next couple days. This wall will be used by the church to reflect via projector messages events at the church. The staff is very excited to have this portion done as they can begin bringing the church to life with this 'message' board.
We have also fit into our schedule a little sightseeing, visiting schools and the pre-school. It has been an exciting and exhausting week so far and we can't wait to see what God brings for us to do tomorrow.
Today was a day of great blessing. The children of Tomaszow were better at basketball than I expected. As a group of us went into the school today, we didn't expect much, but it became a blessing in disguise. The children were so excited to learn basketball skills, and I was excited for them, too. We invited them to the get-together on Friday. I hope thay come.
From David Whitlow:Today was very interesting in our first visit playing sports in an elementary school in Tomaszow. We were definitely the American novelty. They stared up at us as we watched them bustle to and from class. They seemed a little apprehensive when they walked into the gym, but soon warmed up to us.
We divided the boys and girls and taught them basketball drills on either side of the court. Their skills in ball handling were quite surprising. It was obvious they had played before. We also taught them how to shoot an accurate lay-up: off the left foot, up with the right hand and off the backboard square. This proved problematic for the southpaws.
We played a little scrimmage in which we showed them the international rules of the game. They caught on quickly to the traveling violations, but not so fast with double dribbling and hand checking. After our game, we mixed things up, playing knock-out with both boys and girls. It came down to just one boy and one girl, and the latter took the glory! The girls erupted in cheers and they pulled off the upset.
The tide turned for us Americans as we played soccer (football), however, for even the children had more skills than we did! It was a blowout!
Our time with the children was very fun and engaging. What a blessing it is to share the universal language of athletic competition!
From Shannon Thompson:For the past two days, the efforts of the Poland Mission Team has reminded me of the efforts of the workers mentioned in the 26th chapter of Ezra who were clearing away the rubble before rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. In the past two days, we have cleared away the rubble of years, consisting of lumber, rocks, bricks and trash that has accumulated around the building. We also have removed up to a foot of dirt that was covering octagonal paving stones around a courtyard we didn't really know was there. We have had to remove some, repair them and re-lay them.
We have also, in cooperation with the city of Tomaszow and surrounding neighbors, scraped and removed layers of paint from an outside wall directly cross the street from the church. We then repaired and primed it and hope to paint it in the next couple days. This wall will be used by the church to reflect via projector messages events at the church. The staff is very excited to have this portion done as they can begin bringing the church to life with this 'message' board.We have also fit into our schedule a little sightseeing, visiting schools and the pre-school. It has been an exciting and exhausting week so far and we can't wait to see what God brings for us to do tomorrow.
Monday, March 31, 2008
More from the first day...
Our service for the first day came in three parts...Across the street from the new Tomaszow Church, a wall is being refurbished as agreed to by the City of Tomaszow and PROeM. This wall may be used for some Christian artwork, and there is talk of using a projector from the Church to display services, especially holiday services on this wall.
When the mission team arrived, there was loose paint on the wall that needed to be scrapped and weak spots in the underlying outdoor plaster that had to be removed before a hired worker could begin resurfacing the wall. The first coat of new plaster has been applied and a second will be applied in the morning. Painting will come later in the week.
While that work had been occurring, a number of piles of rubble in an outdoor common area needed to be removed so that this area could be remodeled. The piles consisted of bricks, excess tiling from indoor tiling projects and other "junk" that had been tossed out the side door of the former theater.
A considerable volume had been moved by the end of the work day revealing the promise of the common area envisioned by the church staff. There will be more work done in this area in the morning.Rounding out the day, six people from the mission team went to a Tomaszow primary school and taught english for a couple of hours.
God is at work in Poland. He provides us with everything we need to do good work in His name.
From Michael Hensley:
Today was a very humbling experience to me to get my hands dirty while serving Him. And I met new people and was reaquainted with people I'd met before. Not to mention my body is in pain for all the work it did...
Sunday, March 30, 2008
2008 Starting in Poland
Made the trip without fanfare. All are well and eager. Southport Presbyterian folks are here, too! Getting ready for breakfast, devotions and our first day of service. I hear it's going to be painting (don't know what) and a possible visit to a school.
More later!!
More later!!
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