Pa Pa Poland!
As I write this, my final blog update I am flying home after finishing a great 9 months in Poland. Although glad to be coming home to see friends and family and excited about new opportunities waiting in Germany I am very sad to leave.
My time in Poland was an amazing experience, I am so thankful that the lord gave me the courage to follow where he was calling me, and have truly felt that these past 9 months I have been exactly where I should have been. I didn’t know what to expect when coming to Poland and the work, language and sometimes culture was all very new to me but because of this I have learnt so much. And all the time God showed himself as a constant through out all the changes around me.
I am truly grateful for the people and relationships God built around me during my time in Tomaszow to support and encourage me. I made some great friends who really helped me while living away from home and things I was used to. I am also grateful for the support from people at home, the nice messages, prayers and encouragement while I was preparing to come here and while I’ve been here!
The past nine months taught me a great deal about what it means to serve God and how we can use our lives for him. With the language barriers I didn’t know where to start.. At first it was hard for me to understand how playing duck duck goose or changing dippers could really count as mission work, how doing this was meant to let me tell people about God. But I found just showing love to the people around us and being willing to serve them in any way needed is more powerful than words.
At work and even outreach events I was unable to tell people about Jesus but I aimed to show his love by taking the time to just be with the kids, listening, playing or just colouring with them, or always being available and encouraging for my older students if they were having a bad day or struggling with work. I hoped to show the people in the community that faith wasn’t something they read about or words they heard on a Sunday but a way of life.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
a few pics from the last month or so!
a beautiful park and lake near my flat
Easter party at preschool
Some good Polish food!
Funny photo due to my really poor aim at a family fun day!
A day at the lake
Birthday breakfast with my family in Krakow
Penultimate update!
With just under a month left in Poland I’m sad that my time here is soon coming to an end L But its been a great time and still lots more planned for this coming month!
Many things have happened since I last updated. My family came to Krakow to visit for my birthday. My parents then travelled down to Tomaszow and I was able to show them where I have been living, preschool, church etc. It was great to be able to take time out to spend with them, and show them what I've been doing.
At church during the build up to Easter there was a Labyrinth, with several different rooms allowing people to reflect on faith. It was very successful with many both churched and non churched people going through. It was very interesting to celebrate Easter in another country, the services at church had very good turn outs. All the volunteers gathered together for Easter lunch, which was a great time of fellowship!
The sun has come to Poland and the change in mood is obvious everywhere, Tomaszow has come alive with many more people outside enjoying the weather. It looks like a completely different place in the summer and there is lots to do outside with a beautiful lake close by for kayaking and bbqs, so it hasn’t been all work recently.
The camp ground of course is also very beautiful now. We recently had a family camp, the atmosphere was very different to winter camps more focused of relaxation and families spending quality time together. There was great Biblical and practical teaching for the families as well as many activities such as kayaking, climbing, walking allowing them to spend time as a family.
At preschool the sunshine has allowed us to take the kids outside a lot more often and they really enjoy being able to run around and let out some more energy. With my class (The butterflies) I set up a butterfly garden. We watched as the caterpillars grew and developed into butterflies and let them free a few days later. It was a lot of fun and nice to see the kids really enjoying it, and I was able to use it to teach colours, animals number etc.
Last week we organised a baby shower for one of the Polish teachers at preschool It was a very fun event with lots of good games and presents, but best was to see how happy and surprised she was by the gesture as baby showers are not very common in Poland.
Today we have just finished a family Olympics day for the preschoolers! It was raining a little but we still had a great turn out with many games and activities it was a great way to spend time with the families getting to know them.
The church has also started having regular block parties for the surrounding community with bbqs, dancing artwork and big outdoors games. Last night was the first one I attended, took a lot of effort with my Polish as majority of the families did not speak English J But they really enjoyed and appreciated the time we spent entertaining their children, I sure it will be another great outreach to the community who are so close to our church but still know little about us!
I'm sad that this is my last month but hoping to make the most of it, with lots of things planned. There are more camps planned and more of the block parties I mentioned as well as many activities with preschool and my English class! This evening I will pick up a friend from the airport who will help at preschool with me so I’m very excited to catch up and show her around the city and the work we are doing with proem!
Many things have happened since I last updated. My family came to Krakow to visit for my birthday. My parents then travelled down to Tomaszow and I was able to show them where I have been living, preschool, church etc. It was great to be able to take time out to spend with them, and show them what I've been doing.
At church during the build up to Easter there was a Labyrinth, with several different rooms allowing people to reflect on faith. It was very successful with many both churched and non churched people going through. It was very interesting to celebrate Easter in another country, the services at church had very good turn outs. All the volunteers gathered together for Easter lunch, which was a great time of fellowship!
The sun has come to Poland and the change in mood is obvious everywhere, Tomaszow has come alive with many more people outside enjoying the weather. It looks like a completely different place in the summer and there is lots to do outside with a beautiful lake close by for kayaking and bbqs, so it hasn’t been all work recently.
The camp ground of course is also very beautiful now. We recently had a family camp, the atmosphere was very different to winter camps more focused of relaxation and families spending quality time together. There was great Biblical and practical teaching for the families as well as many activities such as kayaking, climbing, walking allowing them to spend time as a family.
At preschool the sunshine has allowed us to take the kids outside a lot more often and they really enjoy being able to run around and let out some more energy. With my class (The butterflies) I set up a butterfly garden. We watched as the caterpillars grew and developed into butterflies and let them free a few days later. It was a lot of fun and nice to see the kids really enjoying it, and I was able to use it to teach colours, animals number etc.
Last week we organised a baby shower for one of the Polish teachers at preschool It was a very fun event with lots of good games and presents, but best was to see how happy and surprised she was by the gesture as baby showers are not very common in Poland.
Today we have just finished a family Olympics day for the preschoolers! It was raining a little but we still had a great turn out with many games and activities it was a great way to spend time with the families getting to know them.
The church has also started having regular block parties for the surrounding community with bbqs, dancing artwork and big outdoors games. Last night was the first one I attended, took a lot of effort with my Polish as majority of the families did not speak English J But they really enjoyed and appreciated the time we spent entertaining their children, I sure it will be another great outreach to the community who are so close to our church but still know little about us!
I'm sad that this is my last month but hoping to make the most of it, with lots of things planned. There are more camps planned and more of the block parties I mentioned as well as many activities with preschool and my English class! This evening I will pick up a friend from the airport who will help at preschool with me so I’m very excited to catch up and show her around the city and the work we are doing with proem!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
The girls working hard at camp
The children at preschool hunting for a message from santa
He learnt the words for shapes after just one lesson and still remembers them a week later :) makes clean up time fun when you can play games with colours, numbers and shapes!
It was hard to get them all to smile at the same time haha! after a while this was the result! This is most of the Moltyki (butterfly) class that i work with in mornings
The youth doing their version of the lifehouse everything skit at camp! it was a very emotional performace
Some of the kids during the songs of the evening camp meetings! great to see them all ages getting involved!
dobra jest dobra :)
Yet again I forgot about the blog, but heres another update!
Preschool and the after school English lessons have been going well :) I have taken some photos recently so hopefully you will be able to see a few of my class etc :) There has been many great moments recently in the preschool where I've noticed the kids picking up more English, which is very encouraging. It's simple things like finding the pink circle from a group of blocks, or when using the slide telling me if they want to go fast or slow and they can tell me the English names for many things I show them and its great to see their understanding delvelop and even better when some come and ask me the English word for something :).
In the afterschool lessons with older kids there have been many changes with numbers some new students some not coming as often but with the ones who are coming we are building better relationships and having alot of fun in the lessons!
In Feb we had winter camps! They were English and art camps for ages 7-14, while there was also older youth training to be leaders themselves. I had a dayily English class of 18 students which was alot more than I was used to but it went really well. The level of English was much better than expected so the initial lesson plans for Good morning and introductions etc was scraped and replaced with group projects requiring the kids to research, design, premote and explain new products like chocolate bars or clothing. The kids were great and got involved and really worked hard. Besides from English lessons there were drama, craft, music, dance and photography workshops. I sat in on the drama workshop and was very proud of the work they produced (the lifehouse everything skit). It was great to get to work with youth more again and be able to talk more deeply with them, and share my faith, while I couldn't lead quiet times etc I was able to share with them throughout the week. The evening meetings were very encouraging to see all the young people hearing and reacting to the Gospel, many made commitments that week! It was however a sleepless week as I was in a dorm with 5, 13 year old diehard biber fans :) apparently our room was the beiber fan club headquarters!
On camp we had a group of Americans who came for a missions week who were great to work with! This week there is another group o Americans who have come to help and preschool/school and English lessons so should be alot of fun getting to work with them and getting help from them in classes!
Beside from work I've done a bit of traveling visiting friends from conference in different cities and didnt get lost! Was nice to spend time with friends again and see more of Poland. Another friend from conference will come to me this week so I will be playing tour guide in Tomaszow!
I booked flights home yesterday I will be flying home on the 21st of June before going to Germany in August (but thats a different story) Its crazy to think I only have 3 months left here but I plan to make the most of it! And I appreciate your continued support and prayers!
p.s
please pray for my English class for sharing with the kids and numbers become more stable soon so planning lessons and activities is easier!
Preschool and the after school English lessons have been going well :) I have taken some photos recently so hopefully you will be able to see a few of my class etc :) There has been many great moments recently in the preschool where I've noticed the kids picking up more English, which is very encouraging. It's simple things like finding the pink circle from a group of blocks, or when using the slide telling me if they want to go fast or slow and they can tell me the English names for many things I show them and its great to see their understanding delvelop and even better when some come and ask me the English word for something :).
In the afterschool lessons with older kids there have been many changes with numbers some new students some not coming as often but with the ones who are coming we are building better relationships and having alot of fun in the lessons!
In Feb we had winter camps! They were English and art camps for ages 7-14, while there was also older youth training to be leaders themselves. I had a dayily English class of 18 students which was alot more than I was used to but it went really well. The level of English was much better than expected so the initial lesson plans for Good morning and introductions etc was scraped and replaced with group projects requiring the kids to research, design, premote and explain new products like chocolate bars or clothing. The kids were great and got involved and really worked hard. Besides from English lessons there were drama, craft, music, dance and photography workshops. I sat in on the drama workshop and was very proud of the work they produced (the lifehouse everything skit). It was great to get to work with youth more again and be able to talk more deeply with them, and share my faith, while I couldn't lead quiet times etc I was able to share with them throughout the week. The evening meetings were very encouraging to see all the young people hearing and reacting to the Gospel, many made commitments that week! It was however a sleepless week as I was in a dorm with 5, 13 year old diehard biber fans :) apparently our room was the beiber fan club headquarters!
On camp we had a group of Americans who came for a missions week who were great to work with! This week there is another group o Americans who have come to help and preschool/school and English lessons so should be alot of fun getting to work with them and getting help from them in classes!
Beside from work I've done a bit of traveling visiting friends from conference in different cities and didnt get lost! Was nice to spend time with friends again and see more of Poland. Another friend from conference will come to me this week so I will be playing tour guide in Tomaszow!
I booked flights home yesterday I will be flying home on the 21st of June before going to Germany in August (but thats a different story) Its crazy to think I only have 3 months left here but I plan to make the most of it! And I appreciate your continued support and prayers!
p.s
please pray for my English class for sharing with the kids and numbers become more stable soon so planning lessons and activities is easier!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Hey!
So I'm back in Poland and starting work again today after some lovely trips away.
I had a great two weeks back at home catching up and spending Christmas with everyone there, so thank you to everyone who made it so special :)
I was only back in Poland for a few days before heading off to a conference in a really pretty town called Torun (famous for perniki/ gingerbread) for my mid term European Volunteer Service training. It was another great week where I got the chance to meet many different people from all over Europe who are also working as volunteers in Poland, and will hopefully give us the chance to discover more of Poland as we travel round to visit each other in our different projects! The training was very useful to allow us to share experices and ideas which gave me alot of inspirtion for things I can do in my project, new teaching methods games for the kids etc. It was also interesting to see the different levels of Polish as we had all been in the country for about the same amount of time, some were almost fluent while others were just able to make polite itnroductions...I was glad to be somewhere in the middle (my book entitled Polish in 4 weeks was a little optimistic!). I havent had a Polish lesson for about a month now though due to different things getting in the way but will start back soon and hope to improve... I laughed at a Polish joke the other day before it was translated so thats a good sign :) While there are a large number of volunteers here in Poland I am as far as I know the only Brit but luckily for me everyone on these trainings commuicate in English.
After this week I had only one night back before joining the Proem ski trip to Czech! I was a really great week to spend time with the people I work with after a long time away. It was a very relaxing trip...after one day of snowboarding the rest of the week for me consisted of walking, watching movies and sauna so cant complain! I'm now fully relaxed and ready to get back to work :)
I spent the weekend planning crafts to do with my preschoolers and am excited to get back into my work with them, and also have some fresh ideas for my English class which I am excited to try when lessons start back next week (they have holidays at the moment).
Also me and my housemate Kasia hope to be starting a small weekly house group for people within our church in the next week or so. It will be led in both Polish and English looking at the book of Romans. I am excited about this as will be a great way to fellowship with people during the week and share together so please pray for that!
I Think thats all for now I'l update again soon once i've got back to work and have something more to tell you :)
So I'm back in Poland and starting work again today after some lovely trips away.
I had a great two weeks back at home catching up and spending Christmas with everyone there, so thank you to everyone who made it so special :)
I was only back in Poland for a few days before heading off to a conference in a really pretty town called Torun (famous for perniki/ gingerbread) for my mid term European Volunteer Service training. It was another great week where I got the chance to meet many different people from all over Europe who are also working as volunteers in Poland, and will hopefully give us the chance to discover more of Poland as we travel round to visit each other in our different projects! The training was very useful to allow us to share experices and ideas which gave me alot of inspirtion for things I can do in my project, new teaching methods games for the kids etc. It was also interesting to see the different levels of Polish as we had all been in the country for about the same amount of time, some were almost fluent while others were just able to make polite itnroductions...I was glad to be somewhere in the middle (my book entitled Polish in 4 weeks was a little optimistic!). I havent had a Polish lesson for about a month now though due to different things getting in the way but will start back soon and hope to improve... I laughed at a Polish joke the other day before it was translated so thats a good sign :) While there are a large number of volunteers here in Poland I am as far as I know the only Brit but luckily for me everyone on these trainings commuicate in English.
After this week I had only one night back before joining the Proem ski trip to Czech! I was a really great week to spend time with the people I work with after a long time away. It was a very relaxing trip...after one day of snowboarding the rest of the week for me consisted of walking, watching movies and sauna so cant complain! I'm now fully relaxed and ready to get back to work :)
I spent the weekend planning crafts to do with my preschoolers and am excited to get back into my work with them, and also have some fresh ideas for my English class which I am excited to try when lessons start back next week (they have holidays at the moment).
Also me and my housemate Kasia hope to be starting a small weekly house group for people within our church in the next week or so. It will be led in both Polish and English looking at the book of Romans. I am excited about this as will be a great way to fellowship with people during the week and share together so please pray for that!
I Think thats all for now I'l update again soon once i've got back to work and have something more to tell you :)
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
last post before home for Christmas :)
Again i have forgotten about the blog and not been updating opps! but here is a quick sum up before i come home :)
December has been crazy busy with all the christmas activities, but has been a very fun and exciting busy! (today was gingerbread day-lots of sugar= lots of crazy kids to look after) There is a huge amount of snow so i have been like a little child and very happy to be having a white Christmas, but its been so cold I'm actually looking forward to British weather :)
We spent alot of time preparing the kids in both preschool and elementary school for their christmas concerts teaching them carols in both polish and english and they also did a short nativity. they were all very cute and had a great time. it was also great for us to be able to teach them about Christmas and the nativity story, and to be able to meet and interact with the parents! (a few of who speak good english so i was able to get to know them a little bit). Santa has also been to visit a few times to give presents to the children, each class was given a big present so teaching them to share was fun haha!
Presents and gifts have also been given out from the church to families in the surrounding community with big packages and food parcels being given to families and smaller shoeboxes of presents made up by people from the church given to the kids. there was a great event this weekend where the families came to the church often for the first time we shared food together, sang carols and played games with the kids! was a great outreach event to share Christmas with the community :)
outside of work i am enjoying living in Poland language is improving i can now go to a resturaunt and know what im ordering, so all the important things are sorted :) And i I have a new housemate kasia! she is 21 from Belarus and she speaks very good english! We are getting on very well and its great to have someone else in the house :)
everything i have told you in this blog i can hopefuly tell most of you face to face soon as i will be traveling home on friday for two weeks (very excited) cant wait to see everyone and catch up with how you are doing
see you soon!
December has been crazy busy with all the christmas activities, but has been a very fun and exciting busy! (today was gingerbread day-lots of sugar= lots of crazy kids to look after) There is a huge amount of snow so i have been like a little child and very happy to be having a white Christmas, but its been so cold I'm actually looking forward to British weather :)
We spent alot of time preparing the kids in both preschool and elementary school for their christmas concerts teaching them carols in both polish and english and they also did a short nativity. they were all very cute and had a great time. it was also great for us to be able to teach them about Christmas and the nativity story, and to be able to meet and interact with the parents! (a few of who speak good english so i was able to get to know them a little bit). Santa has also been to visit a few times to give presents to the children, each class was given a big present so teaching them to share was fun haha!
Presents and gifts have also been given out from the church to families in the surrounding community with big packages and food parcels being given to families and smaller shoeboxes of presents made up by people from the church given to the kids. there was a great event this weekend where the families came to the church often for the first time we shared food together, sang carols and played games with the kids! was a great outreach event to share Christmas with the community :)
outside of work i am enjoying living in Poland language is improving i can now go to a resturaunt and know what im ordering, so all the important things are sorted :) And i I have a new housemate kasia! she is 21 from Belarus and she speaks very good english! We are getting on very well and its great to have someone else in the house :)
everything i have told you in this blog i can hopefuly tell most of you face to face soon as i will be traveling home on friday for two weeks (very excited) cant wait to see everyone and catch up with how you are doing
see you soon!
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