1 Thessalonians 3:9 --"For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God...?"

Personal note...  

Photo of our wedding video which we watched on Oct 20th
to celebrate 4 months of marriage! :)

We want to express our deep-felt hearty gratitude to those of you who have blessed us with your support -- whether through prayers, words of encouragement, your friendship, or generosity -- we would not have been able to make it to this point without you. 

The wedding itself was poignant, unforgettable, and many called it a "fairy-tale wedding". Some posted on Facebook "the best wedding ever!" We are humbled. Yes, it was beautiful -- even more beautiful than I imagined.  But the thing that made it truly beautiful was the love we were bathed in. The people we were surrounded by were evidence of God's love for us. It was a grand celebration of His love for us and His presence with us. That was our deepest hope for that day and I think that's what people experienced. 

Ukraine, Nov 2015

As expected, there have been a lot of personal adjustments we've had to make. Perhaps one of the most challenging ones is time management.  It's been a struggle to adapt to a new rhythm in a new place with a new lifetime commitment. And although I don't regret my decision to get married one bit and I would even say that in our marriage we help to strengthen and support each other in ministry -- I cannot deny that what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7 is not without grounds -- that is, celibacy lends itself more easily to single-mindedness in service. 

In addition to these challenges, I've had some very challenging health set-backs which have required me to make some major adjustments in eating and our lifestyle. For over three weeks in September, my eczema and allergic rashes flared so badly that I couldn't sleep through the nights. I averaged a very broken 3 hours of sleep each night and nothing I tried helped. Finally, I underwent a new type of allergy/intolerance test and the results were both shocking and yet, considering the state of my skin, not surprising. My newly-discovered list of food intolerances is very very long. Among other things, I'm on a gluten-free, potato-free, egg-free, nut-free, dairy-limited diet -- which makes food shopping, eating out, and being a polite guest a huge challenge. But I feel better and I see that it's made a difference. Shortly after, I discovered that I have a problem with my thyroid as well but I'm taking medicine for that and the last blood test showed improvement. 

Ministry continues to keep us on our toes. It's not possible to catch you up on everything in one blog post but at this time, the one area I would really like to share about is one I haven't written about in a long time.   It also happens to be central to why I ended up at this church in Pruszcz.  So here it is...

Youth Ministry in Pruszcz Gdański, Poland

The past three years have been focused on building a strong foundation of faith in our youth. The first academic year (2012-2013), we went through "Stomping Out Darkness" (the youth version of Neil Anderson's "Victory Over the Darkness"). It included solid teaching on our identity in Christ as well as keys to understanding and living victoriously in our everyday lives and the reality of the spiritual battle we're engaged in as believers. The second school (2013-2014) we did series on The Armor of God (Eph. 6) and had guest speakers.  Last year (2014-2015) we continued inviting guest speakers to teach on Heroes of Faith.

Here we are with some of our wonderful youth past and present.
Armia Pana helped out at our wedding reception with serving and washing dishes. :)

As we entered into a new school year, I felt strongly in my heart that it was time to launch a new vision & mission for our youth.  And that vision & mission is : SERVICE -- Faith in Action.  Obviously, it's not enough to just know our identity in Christ, nor is it enough to just know about the Armor of God. Neither do we want to just listen to stories about faith heroes. We want our youth to BE faith heroes, to LIVE their identity as salt and light in this world, to be engaged in spiritual battle and marching forward rather than just lingering behind.

A secondary vision & plan we have is to renovate an area on upper floor of the church building that is not being used at present --  and transform it into a youth room. We envision it to be like a lounge room with comfortable sofas as well as another area with a counter & stools (like a non-alcoholic bar).  The youth will choose the colors and will paint the walls. And we hope it will be an inviting friendly environment for their school friends to come and join us for special activities like movie night, game day, perhaps occasionally a sleepover, etc. For me, it's obviously not about the room itself but rather, helping to provide an environment conducive to encouraging deeper relationships amongst our youth as well as building bridges in reaching their friends who have not yet experienced the love of Christ in their lives. 

Here's a look at some of the service activities our youth have immersed themselves in:

  -- Cleaning the church:

Zuzia & Noemi -- Polish polishing :)

Don't let his sitting fool you --
this was after a lot of work cleaning the restrooms!

I got in on the action, too, of course. ;)

 -- Preparing food & games for a grill which parents were invited to:

Rain poured down for nearly the whole day but when it came time for the grill, God kept it down to a light drizzle long enough for us to go through with the plans for a little campfire. :)

Zuzia with her lovely parents

Mateusz's dad (in black) doesn't usually come to our church but he had a great time
as did my brother-in-law, Tomek (in the grey hoodie) and his family who were visiting that weekend.
The grill was actually Tomek's idea. :)

The rain outside didn't stop us from having fun inside ...

-- Helping the Trybała family paint Małgosia & Piotr’s rooms:

The Trybała Family's beautiful new home

a happy Małgosia :)

Małgosia's dream of having her own room has come true!  

She and her family lived in a tiny one-bedroom apartment 

for years. They took a leap of faith, took a loan, began building a house, sold their apartment and had a very tight deadline to meet in completing the move. We were so happy to be able to help this wonderful family -- especially since Małgosia is one of our active and very precious youth members.

Krzysiek prep'ing

Paweł painting Piotr's room

all hands on deck!

Mateusz hard at work

-- Making Ukrainian barszcz/borscht      
   (beetroot soup) :


Polish, Russians and Ukrainians all have their own version of beetroot soup. Polish call a heartier version of beetroot soup (fortified by potatoes, carrots, and sometimes meat) "Ukranian" (although Ukrainians probably wouldn't call this Ukranian!)  Inspired by our trip, we made this with our youth the Sunday we returned from visiting friends there.

Every Sunday after church, we've been offering coffee, hot cocoa, and "oreo drinks" from our personal espresso machine as well as some other goodies and strategically placing an offering plate by it. Proceeds go toward their future youth room! We're happy to see that people have been giving generously toward this.  :)



Now you are a bit more caught up on what we've been doing with our youth! I hope you've caught a taste of our vision and can support us in prayer!  

Love,
Amy, Krzysiek and "Armia Pana" :)

Ecclesiastes 4:12 -- "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."

MARRIED …  June 20th, 2015   :)

    and off to our honeymoon … June 30th, 2015  :)

Sorry for the hiatus in keeping this blog up to date!  As you know I’ve been a little preoccupied with a wedding!  :)

Thank you for all the emails, cards, well wishes, prayers and generous gifts Krzysiek and I have received from so many of you. We were really overwhelmed by the kindness and love you should us. Thank you for rejoicing with us in spirit even though most of you (especially those in the States) could not attend the wedding.  And to those of you who were able to come and travelled hundreds — even thousands —  of miles/kilometers to do so — a HUGE THANK YOU to you.  

I won’t write much right now.  But I will say that it was an incredibly blessed day for us and our hearts overflowed with so much joy. We felt so deeply loved not only by each other, but by the people surrounding us from the local church/community, from Covenant Players, and from back home — and above all, we felt so deeply loved and rejoiced over by the Lord.

Many of you are waiting for photos so here are a few!  (Photos here taken by my sisters, Daryl Han, and Aron Nogaczewski. 

And now we’re about to board our plane!  More photos to come in the next few weeks!

With Lots of Love,

Amy & Krzysiek

with our church community

Prov. 3:5-6 -- "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

Amy & Krzysiek (at Zola)

Dear Beloved friends, family and supporters,

This isn't my usual review of what's been happening in ministry. It's a bit more of a personal reflection as well as a request for God's guidance and provision as

Krzysiek and I are just one month away from our big day!

Forgive me for not keeping this blog up-to-date. It's not that there hasn't been ministry happening.  In fact, we've been able to keep up our normal pace of ministry and haven't backed out of any ministry commitments.  I've just not been able to keep this blog up-to-date on top of ministry and preparing for the wedding.  In fact, we can't even keep on top of our wedding preparations. 

As is the norm, we usually have our own idea of how things ought to be and when they should happen -- and very rarely do things happen according to our own timeline.  We were just reflecting today on how we wanted to get married a long time ago.  And yet, I know today that this waiting time was necessary for us. There is a time element involved in testing one's faithfulness.  And there is a blessing that comes when one has been proven faithful. I'm not talking about Krzysiek being faithful to me or vice versa, although that is of course one of the major elements of the marriage commitment we will be entering into in one month.  I'm talking about putting our faith, hope, and trust in the Lord -- and in His perfect timing.

We reflected on how much good has come out of this.  Time and faithfulness proven over time was also a very vital part of gaining the support of family and friends. Today, we're so blessed to see how much love and support my family has shown us (in addition to Krzysiek's family, our church, and friends all over the world). 

There are still so many things that have yet to fall into place -- from minor little details to major hurdles we still have to leap over (including matters concerning the fact that I'm a foreigner getting married in Poland).  But we are constantly reminding ourselves to put it all in God's hands and to not go crazy trying to control things that are out of our control.

The Proverbs verse has been a life verse for me and it is very much relevant to this time of our lives.  As we enter this last lap of what sometimes feels like a marathon in preparing for the big day, we look to God for His strength, stamina, wisdom, and guidance. We trust Him and we thank Him for His promise that when we acknowledge Him in our ways, He will make our path straight. 

We look forward to celebrating with many of you soon! We will also miss many of you who understandably cannot make it because of the distance as well as other commitments and considerations.  We'll celebrate together in spirit! :)

Love and blessings in Christ,

Amy

www.weddingwire.com/amykrzysiek

(Our wedding website)

"We love because He first loved us." -- 1 John 4:19

       ***********       SAVE THE DATE        **********       

  

              and that date is ...                                             

                                                        June 20th, 2015 !!!               

Great news! We've nailed down a date! And we would love for as many of you faithful supporters, friends, and family to rejoice with us as we proclaim our vows and enter into the covenant of marriage before the Lord as well as our friends, family, and church community as witnesses.  

We regret that we're unable to hold two weddings on two different continents as we had initially hoped for (due to visa issues for Polish people).  Thus, the wedding will be held on the grounds of our church here in Pruszcz Gdański, Poland* where we met and continue to serve in. 

We understand that an overseas wedding makes it difficult for most of you to come. If you think that there might be a chance you'll be able to come, do let me know! Your presence would be a very welcome honor. 

  *** Wedding website coming to you soon!  Currently under construction! ***  

Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible,

Amy & Krzysiek**

* Pruszcz (pronounced "Prooshch") Gdański is located in the north of Poland, near the Baltic Coast. Its neighbor city is the beautiful and historic town of Gdańsk, part of the Tri-Cities (Gdańsk, Sopot, and Gdynia) which attracts many visitors year-round. 

** Krzysiek is pronounced "Kshish-ek".  

I Thes. 5:16-18 -- "Always rejoice, constantly pray, in everything give thanks. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. " (NET)

So sorry for the delay... This post was 90% complete when I got sick a month ago and was confined to my room for over two weeks, lying in my bed for most of the day. Only since last week have I been feeling better and now, I'm back in the full swing of things desperately trying to play catch-up!!!  Thank you for your encouragement and prayers while I was sick!

Here's old, but hopefully still interesting "news"...     :)


My time back home in the States (Part Two)...
There was a whole lot of celebrating while I was home this past break.  Although flying home earlier (in November rather than December) meant that I wouldn't be staying over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, I have no regrets about the decision I made to come home earlier.  Not only did it mean I was home in time to celebrate my church's 50th anniversary (see the post below which is actually Part One of this update), but I was also home for other very important occasions which I'd missed out on for a long long time. To start off with...

1)  It was the first time in 15 years I was home for American Thanksgiving!
Yes, you read that right.  First time in 15 years! In  January 2000, I joined Covenant Players and for the 12 1/2 years I served with them full-time, we were always on the road during Thankgiving.  After completing my full-time service with CP, I was only home for three months during the summer time and moved to Poland in Sep 2012 to serve as a missionary here.  So yes, 1999 was the last time I was home for Thanksgiving until this past Thanksgiving.

checking on the turkey

My dad unfortunately was not feeling well that day so my mom and dad stayed home while the rest of us went to my Auntie Pansy and Uncle Tim's house -- a long-time tradition for celebrating Thanksgivings and Christmases.  My cousin Clarice and her family moved to Georgia in July so we really missed their presence.  But it was still great to be with my aunt & uncle, my cousin Randy and his wife, Amy and their kids, and of course Bonnie and Sharon and Sharon's family.  Watching the kids play reminded me of all the crazy fun my cousins and I had whenever we got together.

very UN-traditional Thanksgiving sashimi  :)
It was a huge hit!

As you can see, we had the traditional Thanksgiving fare with the main dish being, of course, turkey.  However, we also had some rather untraditional international food ranging from starters like nachos & salsa to sashimi (raw yellowfin tuna) proudly caught and prepared by Uncle Tim. Oh yes, and Chinese dumplings as a side dish.  Crazy, huh? Welcome to our family get-togethers! They're always special!

There always plenty of food to choose from when we get together.  

If you starve, it's your own fault!

Can't have a feast without ice-cream!

One of the highlights of the evening was Skype-ing with Clarice and Ian and the kids. Of course it's not the same as having them present -- there is no substitute for presence.  But seeing their faces and hearing their voices did our hearts good.

2)  It was the first time in 15 years I was home for Daddy's Birthday!

For daddy's birthday, we took a short trip to San Diego where we arrived just in time for a two-hour sunset harbor cruise.  I'm so thankful God gave my dad enough strength to go on this trip. He had a pretty serious leg wound but by this time, God did a miraculous work of healing. It was a very special trip and we had a great time together as you can see from the photos! 

Daddy & his girls :) 

Grandkids bring big smiles to grandma & grandpa!

Grandpa gets a birthday gift from
his very loving grandson














After the sunset harbor cruise, we went to
Pier Cafe for daddy's birthday dinner.

(We helped him eat the dessert, of course!)

After a wonderful day of celebrating, grandpa along with his grand-daughters still had enough energy to entertain us.  Sharon's youngest daughter loves reciting a Chinese verse he's taught her, complete with hand-motions. Here they are -- a wonderful finish to the day!

3)  It was the first time EVER I was home for Aaron's Birthday!

The only reason I can't say it was the first time in 15 years is because Aaron just turned 11. :)

a pre-birthday trip to Magic Mountain

"Tia Bonnie" and "Yiyi" (that's me... his auntie in Chinese) along with our brother-in-law, Irving fulfilled his wish to go to Magic Mountain. Aaron's a roller-coaster maniac!!! He has no fear!!!  I couldn't go on half the rides because I get so motion-sick, but it was fun anyway.  And for his birthday we got him an annual pass. He was a very happy boy and it was a very special day -- not just for him but for his aunties, too because we love him so much. :)

Numbers 6:24-26 -- “'The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”’

My time back home in the States  -- Part One

Sorry this is a really overdue post.  I think I have bride-to-be brain (...wedding date soon to be announced...).   I'm finding focusing on one thing & completing tasks to be continually more challenging.  :(

Anyway... I hope you've all had a good start to the new year. Late November 2014, as most of you know, I flew home to spend time with my family and also re-connect with my home church.  One of the main reasons I chose to fly in November was because of a very momentous event -- the 50 year milestone of God guiding and blessing our home church.  

I want to devote Part One exclusively to this because it was to me, a very significant event. I am very thankful for the strong roots of faith and Biblical grounding that I owe in great part to my home church --  all the pastors, Sunday School teachers, fellowship counselors, and Godly friends, "aunties" and "uncles" I had growing up there.  

CEFC's (Chinese Evangelical Free Church's) focus on missions opened my eyes, even as a child to the needs around the world and prepared my heart early on to say "Yes, Lord. Wherever You want to me go, whatever You want me to do.  Here I am. Send me." Today the church continues to support me in financial generosity and in prayer -- both of which are needed for a missionary to continue on the field.  So-- thank you CEFC! And I thank God for calling together this body of believers in Monterey Park, CA to further His Kingdom work.  

Happy Birthday/Anniversary CEFC!

Love,

Amy

CEFC celebrates her 50th birthday!  

CEFC Los Angeles located in Monterey Park, CA

CEFC Choir/Orchestra rehearsal

Less than 48 hours after landing on American soil, On Saturday morning, Nov. 21st, I jumped into a final rehearsal (my first rehearsal) with the special choir & orchestra put together for the celebration.  It's not so easy playing flute (or any other musical instrument) again after a long hiatus -- but it wasn't too too traumatic.  And in fact, it was a joy to make music to the Lord.  :)   In addition to adding a flute part to the choir, I had a chance to play flute with the worship team again led by my good friend, Danette. :)

The celebration reunited many old friends together.
Here's Bonnie and I with Jeff Ho, another very gifted musician
we grew up. We all sang in youth choir together too.

I'm so glad Bonnie took dusted off
her French Horn (which she has a music degree in)
and blessed us with the beautiful sound of her horn.

The Celebration Service -- November 23rd, 2014

Founding Pastor Samuel Lo (aka: my daddy) offers a prayer of thanksgiving.

First, a bit of our church history... In 1964, a group of Chinese believers in the Los Angeles area who'd been faithfully meeting together, decided to take a leap of faith and start a church.  With some help from the Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton in the early stages of getting started, this small but faithful body of believers grew into what has now become for over 800 people, their regular place of worship.  My dad, Rev. Samuel N. Lo was the founding pastor, so this celebration had on top of everything else, deeply sentimental meaning for us as a family.  I'm so glad I was able to celebrate this Ebenezer moment with him, with my family, and with the body of believers at CEFC.

The celebration service was very moving from start to finish. Some thought it was rather long, but being used to worshipping in a Polish Pentecostal church where our services are typically two hours, the 1 1/2 hour service did not at all feel long to me -- especially since it was such a momentous event and it was filled with many special acts of service & celebration.  And nowadays, we don't do line-by-line spoken translation into Mandarin, Cantonese, and English -- in which case it would have been much much longer! (We alternated between the languages and subtitles were projected onto the wall.)

For me, some of the highlights of the service were: the glorious sound of the choir/orchestra; all the pastors being honored from past to present; communion together as three congregations and yet, one church body; a special video capturing the history of our church (which included a lot of old photos that tugged on my sentimental strings and left me teary); and an encouraging word given by one of our regional representatives on behalf of our national denomination, EFCA (Evangelical Free Church of America). I love that he highlighted church planting as one of the most effective ways of unifying and growing the church.  He challenged us in this area and I hope that we will pray and seek God's direction seriously in incorporating this into our church's missional vision. 

After the service  in the fellowship hall in addition to cookies and refreshments ...

A table was set up to promote veteran missionary, Doris Ekblad-Olson's new book. It was an honor have her visiting us for this joyous event. In a sense, she is a spiritual mother and grandmother to hundreds. Hong Kong was among many other countries she faithfully served in and there, the Lord used her to impact the lives of many-- including some who would later become founding members of CEFC. My mom was among those in the youth group whose faith was nurtured by her.  

available at: 

http://www.entrustsourcepublishers.com/available-any-bush-will-do.html

She is a spiritual giant in my eyes and it's all because she made herself available to the Lord -- to be at His disposal -- as we all should be.  She's written an inspiring book about her experiences as a servant of God.  And you can find her giving a powerful talk -- in Cantonese (gasp!) on you tube: Doris Ekblad talk (part 1) (You can easily find the other parts after that.)  One of her main messages/themes is that if we just make ourselves available to the Lord, He can do extraordinary things with ordinary people. 

The Celebration Banquet 

Seated at the VIP table (hah hah!) ...
My sisters and I shared a table with Richard & Danette, Tammy & Jesse,
plus the Mayor and the Chief of Police of Monterey Park!  (They were really nice.)

my very happy parents

The Celebration Banquet took place at Ocean Star, A Chinese seafood restaurant.  The place was packed and the event completely SOLD OUT.  Over 600 people filled the restaurant and many others who wanted to come couldn't because the tickets sold very quickly.

The Cantonese congregation took a huge part in organizing the festivities. There were games, trivia, presentations, and testimonies.  It was as you can imagine, a long evening and very very loud (which made it unfortunately difficult to talk to people -- even at my own table unless they were sitting up to two spaces away from me).  But all in all, I had a great time.  And it was nice to sit with my sisters at a CEFC event.  Sharon now goes to another church and Bonnie lives in San Francisco and is active in Cornerstone Church there and obviously, I'm only home 1-2 times a year.  So... even just sitting together at the event with my sisters was special.  

And of course, we had tons of delicious Chinese food! Yum!!!

The very happy Lo Family

24 

“'The Lord bless you and keep you;

25 

The Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

26 

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.”’

Numbers 6:24-26 (NKJV)