From the voice and heart of Alex Tangen

Hello all! So in all seriousness, this is not supposed to be my blog night, but the most amazing God moment of my life thus far just so happened to take place today! So I asked Carol if I could just take the blog tonight and switch with her for later this week and (thanks to Carol) here I am! However, before I get into this amazing God moment, I would like to first talk about the rest of our day here in Skoczów first.

The day here started off as usual, promptly 5 minutes late to breakfast at 8:20 this morning (1:20 A.M.for our friends back home), where our team enjoyed a rather traditional Polish breakfast and some very good fellowship. At around 8:40 this morning, our team met in the 1^st floor lobby of our hotel to discuss the day’s agenda and what we’d be doing, along with a morning devotional of which I got the privilege of doing. While I was nervous coming into the devo, I actually had a pretty enjoyable time doing it! And, after all of our preparations were complete, we set off for English Camp.

Upon arrival at English Camp I was met by my Polish friend, Kamil. He and I do a lot of things together here, and while there is a small language barrier between us, I am happy to call him a good friend of mine. I didn’t quite think he was a good enough friend to get me to dance with him in front of the whole camp, but what do you know, I did that today as well.. Who would’ve guessed you could have such a good time while not being in your comfort zone?! Let me tell you something I have witnessed first-hand this week, our God IS crazy.. and I absolutely  love it.

I’m kind of running short of time, so I will give a very brief outline of the middle of my day here. The middle of the day went well!  I did some English lessons, played some games, played a little soccer, taught some Polish kids how to play dodge ball with Ollie (side note RED TEAM took 1^st place in the dodge ball tourney!), and I enjoyed a nice evening program. Now on a typical day the day would be over, but tonight was a theme night.. Cowboy night! It was awesome! We played some “old west” games, and even got to do a sweet dance!

When all of that was said and done, our team got to sit down and eat dinner with our Polish team mates. Tonight was hot dogs, and I proceeded to have 2, foot long hot dogs on some of the most amazing bread I have ever tasted in my life. After dinner we debriefed for the day and came back to our hotel to finish up some last minute planning, and hopefully get some sleep. Pretty easy right? Turns out our God had a different plan..

I was walking to my room tonight when I saw Jordan standing in the hall talking to a strange man.. rather than walk away, what did I do? I joined him. Best. Decision. Ever. Upon my arrival, Jordan was struggling to understand anything this man said (he knew no English), but neither of them were walking away. So naturally I began to listen. I tried to talk to the man along with Jordan, but nothing stood out, until I heard one word from the man..  Bóg, literal translation, God.

                From that point on it was an intense session of trying to communicate with a huge language barrier, we had team members going everywhere, Kyle grabbed his iPad with google translate, Josh ran across the street to grab a Polish bible, Abby went and got a translator, and all the while Jordan, Kyle and I were attempting to communicate with this man. Well what do you know, google translate didn’t work, and we weren’t getting anywhere. A few minutes passed and then we heard steps coming up the stairs, and we knew it was Abby. With her was our Polish team mate and friend, Ala. I have a new found respect for people who can speak two languages fluently, as she translated everything between us and the man without fail. As the man told Ala what he wanted to say, we began to hear his story. Eric, as we later learned was his name, had been very sick and he saw no hope. One day he decided to try giving it to God.. He had never done it before, but he tried it none the less. He was healed! He came to God not long ago, and now he has faith! Praise be to God!

                I know not how this man knew what our group was about, and I know not why we crossed paths, but all I do know is that I have another brother in Christ. We prayed together with Iric at the end of our conversation, and gave him a Polish bible. Iric was teary eyed as we hugged and said our goodbyes tonight, and it made me realize how great, how worthy, and how big our God really is!

 I can not wait to see what God has in store for the rest of this missions trip after an experience like this one. I thank you so much for all of the support you have given us already and I ask that you would please keep us in your prayers! Goodnight from Skoczów! God bless.