Back in town; Background

We're back. We're invigorated. We're stretched. And we're excited to debrief with you.

My hope is that you were able to follow along with us during our adventure in Poland through the team blog. If not, then click that link to check it out and at least get a snippet. We had such a fun yet draining time. In the most recent post I pointed something out.

I mentioned and admitted that while telling you all about the who, what, when, and where, we forgot to tell you WHY. It will take me a couple posts, but I'd like to take some time to do that now, over here, on this blog. You can still read about more of our experiences in Poland at polandbacc.blogspot.com and hear about polish food, communicating across a language barrier, Catholic cathedrals, and how to stay involved with the Otrembas through our future posts.

To understand WHY we did what we did, we need to first paint the landscape of where.

The country of Poland we know today was only established in 1989. Before that there was Russian communist rule and before that there was a LOT of different borders, rulers, wars, and partitions. The people of Poland (generally of Slavic decent) have a history of living there for the last 1,500 years. One thousand five hundred years! That makes us here in the U.S. look so young...

Over the course of those 1500 years, Cieszyn, the town where Tomek and Damaris Otremba reside, was established. Around 810, actually. About a hundred years after that, Catholicism found a foothold throughout Poland. And since then, the only thing that has remained constant besides the people is the Catholic Church. So as the saying goes, "to be Polish is to be Catholic."

Well I'm Dutch. Never been there, but I bleed orange, so that makes me Dutch. Of course when someone asks where I'm from, I tell them I'm from the United States. If they inquire more (like "where is Hoekzema from?!"), then I tell them about the Netherlands. To be American is to simply live here. We all have many different origins.

Here's some hypothetical (yet historical) questions:
If you're Slavic, your ancestors have been there for over a thousand years, and the Poland you live in is no longer a country, then what are you?  Or if the Poland you live in is ruled by an oppressive force and you don't want to associate with them, then what are you? OR if you've been displaced from your Poland and your country no longer exists, then what are you?

You are what you've always been: Catholic (or Jewish...)

We went to Poland. A country where today 95% of the population belongs to the Roman Catholic Church. That means of the 38.5 million Pols, 36.5 million of them are Catholic. Poland used to have a large Jewish population but due to the Nazi movement, many of them were killed.

So why did we go to Poland?

Being Catholic in Poland is simply what you do. It does not necessarily mean that you believe in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. Tomek and Damaris wake up every morning hoping to have the opportunity to introduce people to Jesus as someone they can have a personal relationship with. 

We prayed for those people. We invited those people to parties. We went to Poland to simply help Tomek and Damaris in their mission to share Jesus. A mission that we strive for everyday in our lives as well.

The Depth We Desire

Hello dear friends and family. Thanks again for following along with us the last ten days. We had an invigorating yet draining time in Cieszyn. Our constant level of energy and spiritual readiness was much due to those of you back home who were actively praying for us. Thank you!

In looking over this blog and getting some feedback from close friends and family, I found out that we missed something. We missed telling all of you about the importance of why we did what we did and went where we went. We told you all about the fun and the facts but forgot about the depth of those experiences. And that's not necessarily a good thing.

This blog, Serving in Poland, is here to keep those of you up to date on our experience in Poland. Some of you already know the importance and intricacies of what our mission involved. This blog will continue to house those experiences as we recount them. I invite those of you who desire to know more and dig deeper into what we experienced over to my personal blog: trevinhoekzema.blogspot.com.

Over there, I'll take the next week while we reacclimate to give you a deeper insight into our experiences in Poland. Here's a couple things I plan to cover:

1. Brief background on Christianity in Poland
2. Tomek & Damaris: Believers in a Catholic Society
3. The Power of Prayer
4. Our Mission Restated
5. The Future of Jesus in Poland

At this blog, we'll share a couple more snippets with you. Some fun stuff like polish food, communicating across a language barrier, Catholic cathedral recap, and staying involved with the Otrembas.

Boarding Krakow to Frankfurt

All done! Almost. 

We had an experience here in Poland that is hard to describe through a blog. Long prayer walks, exciting outreach gatherings, and intimate time with the Otrembas soaked up our physical, spiritual, and emotional energy this past week- and we loved every second of it. 

The last day and a half we spent in Krakow where we were able to decompress and debrief before jumping back into the routine of life. Our personal prayers these last couple days have been that we would not simply return home. But that we would return home with a devoted commitment to living on mission. And not "our mission" but God's mission. 

When we weren't debriefing the week, we were experiencing the beautiful city of Krakow. Below are some pictures for your enjoyment. Wish you could have been there with us!!

St. Mary's church in the town square

The walk down to the "dragons den."

View from atop the Sandomierska Tower

The cathedral inside the Wawel castle

We partied too hard!

I started writing this on Saturday night and fall asleep halfway through. My apologies!

---

Wow I'm tired. It's midnight here and we only just recently got back from the party we helped host. One of the Otremba's good friends, Derek and Gabriella, invited about 100 people to their home for a party. The party didn't have any special reason except to eat food. 

And we ate food. 

About half of the people showed up that he invited so for a large portion of the day we had a lot of people to meet and greet- all through a decent language barrier.  

I've found, through the many different cultures I've experienced, that soccer is the international language. So I saw a kid with a soccer ball and started a game! 

As more people showed up to the party, we all dispersed into our natural "roles."

Tracy was a manager of a restaurant in a past life so she got the ladies motivated and prepared in the kitchen. Tracy, we found, is also the most talented communicator across the language barrier. She's going to post about her tactics later.

After everyone had been mingling for awhile, Tomek rounded people up to thank Derek and Gabriella, our team, and to have the opportunity to share some personal stories (code word for testimonies). 

Since us Americans were kind of the attraction, Tomek asked me to share first. I shared a recent life story that I was able to compare to the Gospel. I'll tell you more in depth about what I shared in a later post since it requires a cultural back drop. 

Then Tomek's son Kristian shared as well as Derek and Tomek. It was encouraging to see all 30+ adults totally attentive for all 30+ minutes of our stories. 

(Above is Tomek and Kristian)

(Above is Tomek and Derek)

After our story time, Derek's brother organized a big battmitton tournament. All ages were able to get involved and have a fun time together. He put us in teams of 3, so we gathered our "best chance at winning." We won 2 games out of 9... But they were two glorious games! ;)

The night grew tired and so did the guests. A slow exit started and we took that as the cue to start cleaning up. All in all it was a fabulous day!

Oh and we celebrated a 50th birthday, too :)

A packed couple days...

The days are flying by now. We began Thursday with our Bible study and then stopped at the Otremba’s house to praise God in song and prepare for the day. Then our prayer walk took us to the Silesia University with special focus on the art department where Damaris is working on her Master’s degree. 

 We had lunch just off the town square at the Bistro side of the same building where we had our first dinner. Pizza!

In the afternoon we had a chance to do a little bit of manual labor. A few of us dropped in on a neighbor to the Otremba’s with gardening gloves and tools in hand. We were allowed to weed at first. Within twenty minutes we felt warmly welcomed as the homeowner shared her priorities for trimming and clipping vines and we had some time to sweat a bit. 

 We were sent home with apples from this beautiful garden, which is typical of the area. Every inch is filled with flowers, herbs, and fruits, like raspberries, strawberries and apples.

Meanwhile, Beth and Nicole were unpacking books in Tomek’s office, a job he was hesitant to share, but finally agreed that it was something he could not find time for. Tracy focused on updating the data-base for future communication.

Thursday evening took us in four different directions. If the blog has been quiet for a day it is because we have been using our free moments to share among ourselves the blessings of Thursday evening. Our paths took us into family homes, and walks through the town with dinner on the square. Each family had no more than two people from our team as guests and it gave us all a wonderful time to tell our stories, and to listen and learn with Christians in Poland

Kudos to Tracy. She used charades and pictures to communicate successfully into the night. The rest of us had the pleasure of communicating with hosts in English.

I am sure there will be pictures inserted of some of the food. There are some serious foodies on the team. So far, everything has been delicious. The presentation is never wasted as it is memorialized with photography.

Friday morning we gathered again in the dining room of Hotel Liburnia. The breakfast buffet had been getting a bit sparse the last couple of days. But there were busloads of people that arrived last night and the buffet was plentiful again. We each selected one of the Psalms for our study.

Tomek and Jacek took us to Jacek and Kasia’s house for our daily walk. We divided into two groups to walk through the neighborhood and pray. Tracy and Clancy stayed with the children during our walk so Jacek and Kasia could each lead a group. There were many buildings and flats that date back to a time of communism. The people we passed did not seem to notice us. 

 The Jehovah’s witnesses populate a lot of this neighborhood and make it difficult for Rymosz’s to share with the families.

We also had the pleasure to see the possible future site for the Otremba’s ministry. If God provides the means, the family hopes to buy and build a home and ministry center within a 10-minute walk from the Rymosz’s home. 

After our walk we had lunch at what is now one of our favorite Polish restaurants specializing in pierogies. Jake will share about our food adventures soon!

After lunch we returned to the Otremba’s, using a taxi for part of the team. The distances to be traveled have not been far and taxi service has been readily available.

The Friday afternoon activities are in full swing now. There are teenage boys playing in the yard, more unpacking of books going on, shopping for the men’s gathering (grill food) tonight, as well as kitchen prep for this evening. I (Mary) am needed in the kitchen now-so signing off.