Friday, July 11, 2014

1 Pet. 3:15 -- "In your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."

Hiya! June has been and extremely blessed month as well as a packed month of ministry and traveling. I just returned from visiting Covenant Players in Germany less than a week ago and tonight I'm running away to Prague for the weekend to get some much need rest.  The Covenant Players visit will be covered in my next blog!

Blessings on you all!  Here's the June review up to June 25th.


Festival of Hope (14 June 2014) ...               











As mentioned in the February update, we've been involved in preparations for Festival of Hope -- an evangelistic crusade led by Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham).  Krzysiek was our church's coordinator and as such, had tons on his plate.  I tried to support him as best as I could.  It was a lot of work but well worth every minute spent in preparation.

Many Christian musicians/bands from the States took part.  Among them, the main headliner was Michael W. Smith.  

aboard the private bus we rented









We, along with a handful of others from our church, served as counselors (during the altar call). We also brought with us a group of 50 people from our church's evangelistic outreaches to Warsaw -- several hundred kilometers from Pruszcz Gdański.  Several of them experienced deep life transformation.





During the altar call, an overwhelming number of people came down to the field to give their lives to the Lord.


Bożena (on the R) & her daughter-in-law









Among them was a regular attender of our evangelizations, Bożena.  She was celebrating her 60th birthday and on that same day, she was spiritually reborn.  She has blessed me so much with the radiant joy she's been filled with.



Wanda (L side) experience God's awesome inner & outer healing

Another woman from our meetings, Wanda experienced an amazing story of forgiveness, redemption, and healing.  While at the stadium, Wanda felt the Lord prompting her to call her daughter -- to ask for forgiveness. Wanda and her daughter had had such a broken relationship full of hurt and bitterness. As she felt the Lord put this on her heart, she did not waste time in responding. She called her daughter there from the stadium and asked for forgiveness. Both her and her daughter were in tears. Forgiveness was extended and received. And in that moment of spiritual healing, Wanda also received a physical healing. She's had severe chronic hip problems for a long time she's been unable to walk without the aid of a crutch.  But she soon discovered she didn't need the crutch anymore.  Now she walks without the crutch in high heels!

These are just a few of the amazing stories.

Polish youth love Bonnie!

I was thrilled that Bonnie arrived in Poland in time to come with us to Festival of Hope.  Her presence was such a blessing to people. And as you can see, our youth fell in love with her.



More on Bonnie's Visit  (12-25 June) ...

I know I'm a bit partial, but I think my sister Bonnie is pretty incredible.  It was a blessing for me to see how she has matured in her giftings and to see how she continues to have a missionary heart.  I see how her work as a principal has exercised and increased her giftings of wisdom & exhortation and how she exercises her gifts with so much grace.


Bon sharing with our youth
Besides diving right into the Festival of Hope trip to Warsaw, she helped me take care of kids/teens during our Tuesday night evangelistic outreach, she shared a very transparent and impacting testimony of her walk with the Lord starting from the very beginning to the present, she shared during our Sun service words of exhortation and encouragement, and she took so much time to talk, listen, and care for one of the persons I've been discipling.
Her impact here was very strong.  One of the youth wrote a text to me the day after Bonnie left, saying that she missed Bonnie soooooo much.  And even today, her words have impact on people here. Today we fed 60 people (!) from a missions group that organizes "March For Jesus" in various towns throughout Poland (and they're all sleeping here in the church!).  During the event, Krzysiek was asked to share his story.  He turned to me and said, "Your sister said that any time God gives you an opportunity to share about Him, you take it!" So he did. :)

Here's a tiny little clip of Bonnie encouraging and uplifting our church.


Sight-Seeing in Warsaw, Hel (!), Gdańsk, Malbork and Sopot...

Lest you think I worked my sister death, I have evidence in the form of photos to show you that we did manage to have fun and do "touristy" things!  And she ate a lot of yummy Polish food! :)

we both like meat :)
scenic view of Old Town Warsaw







Beautiful as Hel *
(It's just the name of a peninsula in Poland!)








Bonnie visits Gdańsk, Sopot, and Malbork
Gdańsk

Sopot
Malbork Castle

I've included a lot of photos of Bonnie's visit because it was very significant to me. She was the first person from my family & friends outside of Poland to come and visit me and she acted as a bridge between two of my worlds. As you can see, Poland is really beautiful and Bonnie had a great time here. She thinks everyone should come and visit -- and so do I!  

Welcome!!! :)