Camp Day 3 as told by Emily

Cześć! Today was full of learning, teaching, and furthering our relationship with the campers. Before us Americans went to the school to prepare for English lessons, Lilli lead us in a devotion based off of 2 Timothy 1:6-14. We discussed how fear does not come from God because he has given us a spirit of self-control, love, and power. This was the perfect way to start our morning, as several of us have been feeling nervous about teaching English lessons and leading group activities. Throughout the entire day this verse was able to remind us that we have no reason to be afraid.

            Today in English class Randi, Ben, Joel and I practiced English with our students by playing games with them to teach them new words. It has been exciting getting to connect with our campers as they are continuing to open up to us! We have been praying for campers by name and God is already answering our prayers. This evening, a camper named Lidia (whom I met last year) shared her faith story with me as we were walking after camp. This was very encouraging, as earlier this morning I prayed that I would be able to connect with Lidia on a deeper level. Please continue to pray that us leaders would be able to have these deep conversations with the campers during our time here. It is one of the most important elements of English Camp. 

            Since today was our first full day of English Camp, we had several different workshops for the campers to participate in. In these workshops we did everything from painting to playing board games. We also had a giant field game of Ultimate Frisbee. Of course, my team (the pink team) won, but if you know me you would probably be able to guess that I did not catch the Frisbee once! It was thanks to my polish teammates that the pink team won! 

            After games and a snack was my favorite part of English Camp, the evening program. I have been leading worship with Kyle, Will, and our Polish friends Maciek and Michał. While singing the songs oceans I could hear the campers worshiping loudly in Polish while I sang in English. It is so special to me that we are able to come together and worship God even if everyone in the room speaks different languages. Abby then shared a message about David and Bathsheba. It was a very important reminder that even the “heroes” mess up too.

            We had a chocolate theme night after camp tonight. Which meant that after camp was over all of the campers and leaders played games involving chocolate. It was as amazing as it sounds!  

            I cannot thank you enough for all of your prayers for our team. Please continue to pray that we would be able to have a spirit of power, love, and self-control. 

Sunday in Poland- as told by Patti P

Greetings to you dear Timberwood family on this wonderful Sunday.  It is about 11 p.m. in the evening and we have enjoyed a very full day. 

The church bells were ringing early this morning and seemed to be calling all of us to come, come, come. We attended services in the church that we partner with here in Skoczów.  What a very special morning of worship it was.  There were some familiar faces there from camp and it was wonderful to see them with their families.  I am always drawn to the precious little ones that are being held or toddling around as all adults have time to socialize before the service.  Oh…as I write the bells of town are again ringing.  It is just such a pleasant sound and one that brings joy to my heart. The service was conducted in Polish with Domi translating. It was powerful to hear a message delivered here in this place so far away from the very same Word that we hear from. This just made me pause and think about how big our God is.  The songs were sung in Polish and English at the same time. It gave me the chills to hear all our voices joined together to sing our praises to our great God. After church we went out for ice cream at a local shop.  It was delicious indeed!

Today was day 2 of English camp.  The students seemed more comfortable today in class as well in activities as a group. They are eager to have a chance to practice their English with us and it is so fun to see their faces light up when they are able to put new words into a sentence. We have introduced a new game to camp this year.  It is called Tenzi and it has become a HIT!!  

After supper and having a chance to debrief about our day, our attention was turned to a very important matter.  The Polish people love their soccer.  Their team was playing in the World Cup game tonight in Russia.  We all gathered together at Domi and Ania’s parents home. Gathered around the T.V. with chips and soda and stripes of red and white paint on our cheeks we joined this lovely family in cheering on their team. But, sorry to say that the Polish team lost to the Columbian team.  It certainly wasn’t for lack of support from our cheering section!!!

It has been a very full and wonderful day.  Despite any obstacles we may have encountered throughout our day, our God has been there for us.  He called each one of us here and He continues everyday to give us what we need for the tasks He has for us.  We are so blessed here with the love and support from the local church.  Their kindness and caring is incredible.  I really wish you could meet all of these dear folks.  

The days are going by quickly.  We will be back home before we know it. But we will be forever changed from this experience.  

Hugs to you all.

Patti P

Camp Day 1 as told by Will Just

Cześć, Will here.

            Soon I will fall asleep only to be awakened by angry polish drunks and the inflow of cigarette smoke through my window. Besides that and the fact that Joel snores like a freight train, life is good here on the other side of the pond. I mean its like day five and I have yet to discover this terrible thing called jet lag everyone keeps complaining about. Honestly if anyone could tell me what it is I would appreciate it. In addition the food is amazing and I could eat the breakfasts here for the rest of my life.  Such is the life in Poland. Walking the cobblestone streets, being the loudest in a mile radius, we have fun here. Unfortunately they have yet to discover the joy of a multi-shot espresso beverage and the magical, medicinal qualities such a drink entails. Guess I’ll stick to caffeinated tea. I’m sorry but I have to mention it again; Joel really does snore loud. I’m glad I have my music to drown it out

But to take a more serious note the times here have been great.  Today we have experienced our first day of English camp, which was a lot of fun. I am teaching the intermediates and in doing so I discovered how hard it is to teach it really is. As I watched of the blank, bored faces, I thought to myself do they get it, do they understand. But as they slowly warmed up to Patti and I, I began to see the value. The fun. The fruits of our labor were slowly revealing themselves. As we ate lunch and then had another lesson with our class I found myself enjoying it. Then closer to the end we had a praise and worship session in which I played along with several members of my team and the Polish team. We sang praises in English and Polish and prayed in both as well. Then we had a theme night; America night. This particular theme night we the American classic- PB&J. And it was a blast. We ended with having dinner and discussion with the Polish side of our team. 

And that’s about it. 

Catch you on the flippity flip

Will

Friday in Skoczów from the eyes of Samuel Hardy

Hello All!

            In life we are often confronted by challenges that demand an immediate response. It is at this point that we must make a decision. Do we use that moment of difficulty to fulfill our own notions and desires or do we instead wage war against our self-serving natures in order to respond to those tasks in a matter that is in accordance with God’s call on our lives. This has been a continually reinforced point that I have been frequently reminded of over the past several days. However, I want to diverge from this thought for a moment in order to catch you up to speed on the most recent actions of our team.

            Today has been a constant process of preparation as we gear up for the first day of English camp, which starts at 10:30 tomorrow morning Polish time. We began the morning with a study of 1 Corinthians. From there, we met with a few members of the Polish youth group in order to decorate the classrooms where the English classes will be held. Everyone worked as a team and we accomplished our objective within a short amount of time. After that we met the rest of our counter-parts from the Polish youth group so that we could further coordinate our resources. I have to say that this was one of my favorite parts of the day because it gave me the opportunity to work and talk with a couple of wonderful youth. This helped me to really appreciate the opportunity that I have had to be apart of this trip and serve along side our Christian family in Poland. God is most definitely at work within the hearts of the Poles. 

            These experiences have also brought the afore mentioned reality to mind. I must set my own personal expectations aside if I am to truly finish well in the tasks that God has given me. His plans are greater than my plans and all I have to do is trade my worldly viewpoint for the option of completely trusting that God will guide me on the path that He has set before me. 

            Thank you all for your prayers—their effects are clearly being observed by both myself and the rest of the team as we strive to impact the lives of those around us through the work that is yet to be accomplished. 

            

God Bless,

Samuel 

Visiting Death Camps as told by Jannah

Greetings all! We made it to Skoczów safe and sound! (minus a random nose bleed of course). Today has been a wild ride. We started off at H20, which is a place of ministry that I would describe as a parent organization of smaller organizations that reaches out to the young Polish community. This morning we all woke up, we had breakfast, a meeting, some free time, another meeting and then the Timberwood team, as well as a couple of other teams we met at H20, left to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau. I believe the best word we could collectively come up with from the experience was ‘sobering.’ We chose this adjective partly because we aren’t really knowledgeable of many synonyms (lol) and because that was simply the one emotion/feeling we all felt collectively. I overheard Kyle (one of the leaders that is a part of this endeavor) mention how he didn’t feel right with himself taking pictures in some places that people were allowed to take pictures during the tour. That got me to wonder, how could someone have so much hatred towards a race or religion that they would take such elaborate and destructive actions to remove what they did not see eye to eye on? Off of that, while we were taking a tour of Auschwitz, we came to the point where they had saved some original items from the actual event. They were all safely stowed away behind glass and as you approached to look inside you would see a reflection of yourself. That just reminded me that we are all a part of the same race that did such an unspeakable thing to its own race (the human race), furthermore that we have the potential to do it again. That was very interesting to me since at one of the meetings I mentioned earlier we were also placed in front of some mirrors to face ourselves. I have a feeling like this will be repeated theme coming up during this trip and I am anxiously awaiting the opportunity to face myself again and learn from my mistakes.

                                                                        As always,

                                                                        Jannah           

Training Day as told by Joel Lemberg

We made it safely to Poland! Thank you for the prayers of safe travel.  Some of us were awake for more than twenty-four hours, but the excitement of being here overruled our fatigue for at least two hours.  We are currently at H2O, a retreat/training center that is owned by Josiah Venture (the organization that we are here with). 

Yesterday after we arrived, we had supper upon arrival and then had the rest of the night off.  It was great to unwind and to get to know the campus.  With this being my first time to Poland, I was amazed at how similar the country’s appearance is to Minnesota.  Yes the cities and towns are very different, but the types of agriculture and forests are very similar. As a Forester, I really am geeking out at the trees and shrubs on our walks.

Today was our training day. We started the day with an informational presentation on the history, mission and countries that Josiah Venture is active in, and where their English camps are located within Poland. We were also trained on the differences between Polish and American cultures. Each group of missionaries was also asked to do a mock English teaching exercise. Sam and Jannah did a great job of representing our group! After lunch we had three hours of free time, and then we met as a group for an evening program presented by the Josiah Venture interns.  Many of us went for a walk down a walking trail along the river while others just rested.

Tomorrow we will complete some training in the morning before going to tour the Auschwitz concentration camp.  After that we will move to our hotel in Skoczow to prepare for English Camp!

Please pray for our team and our Polish team as well that we may stay healthy and be spreading the Gospel to our students the way God has planned. Please pray for the local your in that many would be moved to come and participate in English Camp.

Made it to Germany! 2018 Team

Hello all back home!

We have a little less than an hour before we board our last flight so I thought I would let you all know we have made it this far! Everyone seems to be in good spirits and excited to have only one flight remaining. Other than some delays and having to speed walk through the Newark airport, everything has been incredibly smooth.

We were blessed by the group who came to send us off this morning! (or was that yesterday morning? ) The days all blend together at this point. It's 10am here but our bodies think it is 3am. We will definitely be working through the jet lag in the first few days.

The last of our team shared their faith stories, some journaling, reading and getting a chance to walk and stretch our legs after the long flight is how we've spent our time in Munich.

A few shout outs::

Thank you to the makers of MyPillow, for giving Emily Espeseth 9 full hours of sleep so far in our travels.  (while the majority of us is functioning on between 1 to 2)

Thank you to the makers of Immodium, Pepcid, Ibuprofen and essential oils- which have gotten multiple team members through our travel days so far.

Thank you to German Sandwhiches in the Munich airport- they have been a tangible blessing to those of us who weren't able to eat the airline food due to turbulence causing motion sickness.

In all seriousness, thank you to all of you- for supporting us this far, for encouraging us and for most of all- for all your prayers. We covet them and we are blessed by them. I have already seen them at work and I ask that you would continue to be in prayer whenever you think of us. More specific ways of how to pray to come- for now, pray that we would be open to the Holy Spirit at work in each moment of our days- whatever comes our way.