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!

The past few weeks have for the most part gone very quickly as there have been quite a few events going on giving a break from the usual routine.  There has also been quite a bit of time to relax to some national holidays allowing for long weekends.

Although Halloween is not a very big holiday in Poland it has became more popular in the past few years, so the church hosted an alternative Halloween party for the youth. It was a great night with the usual funny fancy dress costumes and party games and lots of dancing, everyone looked great in their costumes and seemed to have a great night!

The more popular holiday in Poland is the Catholic tradition of All saints day the day after Halloween. On this day everything is shut and no one has work as the families gather together travelling all over the country to remember and pray for family members who have passed away, with Catholics praying for the souls of those they believe to be in purgatory, while non catholic Christians do not believe in purgatory they often still visit to remember loved ones and pray prayer of thanks for that person. The cemeteries were filled with people visiting, decorating the graves with beautiful flowers and many many candles filing the cemeteries with colour and light, which was beautiful and interesting to see.

In the preschool children put on a concert for their parents singing songs they learnt in both Polish and English and there they each had a little initiation into their classes and were given a present. The concert went well and was incredibly cute to watch even if it was quite stressful transporting so many little kids and getting them to sit still for so long J

This weekend was the November 11^th holiday, everything shut again on the Thursday as Poland celebrated independence. We took advantage of the long weekend and took the youth to a conference in Warsaw, with a large group of around 25 people going from our church. Though it was a few days of sleeping on the coldest most uncomfortable floor in a room with some of the loudest snorers ever it was a good time.  Around 400 young people attended there were large group meetings and smaller optional seminars teaching on issues such as relationships, bible reading and serving others. At first i didn’t realise that one seminar was being led by a Welsh man from Cardiff, but when he suddenly switched from Polish to Welsh mid talk, it was a nice change for a few moments to be the only person in the room to understand and not need translation! J

I’ve been in Poland now for nearly two months. On training we learnt about something called the culture shock curve (must admit I wasn’t really listening so it’s probably called something else) but anyway it’s said that this is normally the time when living in a foreign culture becomes hard. And though I have been missing home a little bit and still struggling to get a hold of the language, this weekend I felt God has been encouraging me to remember that whether I’m in Wales or Warsaw he is unchanging, yesterday, today, tomorrow the same.  While everything else; the climate (the cold and rain is like home but darkness by 4o’clock is just weird), surroundings, language and culture maybe different I know I can always find familiarity in God, which is a great help while here.

Sooo finally a blog update! I’ve just got my new laptop and after a few weeks of no internet its nice to be in contact again J

There’s been quite a lot going on here...for one as I write this I’m sitting in my new flat (watching an extremely badly Polish dubbed high school musical!)The flat is close to the schools, the church and shops and although quite simple I’ve had some help making it look pretty!  It’s great to be a bit more central now living in the town, means mornings are not so early and there’s a lot more to do and people to seeJ  in a couple of weeks I will also have a housemate!  I now feel like I know my way around the town and haven’t been feeling lost all the time which is nice haha!

It has been teachers’ day here recently and my class brought me some chocolate to celebrate and there was a dinner for the teachers of both the elementary school and preschool. Was a great night to socialise with the other staff but did get rather confusing when we played sharards not understanding the language and all!  Speeches and stories told during the night also reminded us of the positive impact this part of the church’s outreach is having in the community!

The preschool kids are really great to work with and a lot of fun! One little girl refused to talk to those of us who don’t speak Polish at first but now she’s decided she likes us and that she will teach us Polish! (my actual Polish teacher has also been a great help too but is making me work hard!) Its amazing to see how much the children are absorbing at such a young age responding to English words and often asking what the English name for things are...but so far the favourite English sentence still seems to be duck, duck, goose!

My English class with 11 and 12 year olds is also very encouraging! The kids always surprise me with how well they get involved with activities and are starting to be very talkative and interactive during class so great to work with.

The youth had a trip to Warsaw for a Hillsong London concert that was a lot of fun, encouraging to see so many young people at a worship event and also great to be able to take part in worship in English haha! I will be back in Warsaw for a week starting tomorrow for a conference and arrival training through the EVS organisation, so I’m quite excited to get to see the city and to meet other volunteers new to Poland!

So that’s about all for the moment (for those who bothered to read to the end of this longer blog I feel the love) I’ll probably post again after the conference! For now please pray for me travelling to Warsaw as I haven’t got the best sense of directions and whatever the week ahead holds with the conference! And let me know how you are getting on I’m sure you all have some interesting news to tell me!!!

prayer points

Please pray for...

energy during the long days and the early mornings when its cold and wet outside and I dont to leave my bed :)

the English lessons that I will be teaching, that the kids will have fun but also learn something!


...also send me your prayer requests if any...i'm starting a prayer diary so let me know if you want anything in there :)

End of first week

It's now been a week since I arrived, and I'm happy to say its been a good week! :) I've now had a taste of the work I'll be doing and I' really enjoying it! I've met some great people and am beginning to find my way around a bit more, with things starting to look a bit more familiar and not so new!

The language is obviously still very hard but I've started Polish lessons and I'm beginning to recognise a few words and phrases! In my lessons I'm back to basics learning the alphabet as some Polish sounds are very different to English but its beginning to make sense! I'm also learning from the kids at preschool...it maybe the vocabulary of toddlers usually referring to wanting to toilet or their mummy but at least its in Polish :)

I've taught two English lessons so far and really enjoyed it, its a small class with a nice group of students who are happy to do their work and seemed to have fun (maybe because I bribed them with chocolate) so its a good class to have! Tomorrow I will teach short English lessons at the preschool, filling in for the regular teacher so it will be interesting to see if I can hold the attention of toddlers for long enough to teach them something!

Church on Sunday was really good, thankfully I had a translator :). Its a very active church with a mix of age ranges, good music and good teaching so I think I will be happy there! Everyone was very welcoming and I was taken to lunch with some other volunteers so got a home-made Polish meal :)

That's about all I have to bore you with at the moment...time for bed as I have early mornings and longs days to look forward to!

Today I had a day off, its very quiet here as camps have finished but i got to go exploring a little bit. I walked into the local village and got some lunch ( played it safe with food that i recognised)  and then had a walk around the camp grounds...all without getting lost, which should impress those of you who know how bad my sense of direction is!

I am now trying to teach myself some Polish, which is needed after sitting at a three hour long teachers meating last night during which all i could understand were the days of the week! not sure what was happening on those days though haha! Polish lessons start on monday so hopefully I should improve soon! :)

Then tomorrow will be the first Sunday i attend a service at the church so im looking forward to that!

so this wasnt a very interesting post but i had some spare time so i thought i'd tell you  things :)

prayer points

please pray that...

I can start to get used to the language...polish lessons start on monday!

I will settle into the new surroundings and roles and connect well with the kids.

first day!

This is my first post for the blog I will try to keep it updated whilst here in Poland, so here it goes....

First of all, Thanks to everyone for the support and prayers in me getting here :)I am so glad to finally be here and excited to get stuck in with the many different opportunities here.

I am working with an organisation called Proem which includes a camp ground, a church (converted from an old cinema) as well as elementary and preschools. The church building also includes a café open to the public. Proem's focus as one of the few evangelical churches in the mainly Catholic area is to reach out to, connect with and serve the surrounding community.

I arrived yesterday evening and am settling in at the camp site, which is very busy and very beautiful, with large grounds including a lake and wooded areas (when I figure out how I will add pictures). There is a probability that I will move from the camp site to an apartment in the town closer to the schools where I will be working...but more on that when it happens.

Today I was introduced at the elementary school where I will be teaching English to a small class of 10-12 year old students a few times a week, it will be an after school class for children who have already learnt some English in their main school. While the focus in the Polish school is usually on grammar the lessons at the school will focus on the spoken language.

I then had my first day helping at the pre-school where I will be most of the day during the week. They are very sweet kids, today was spent getting to know them and the other workers. I'm there to entertain and talk English to the children so they get used to the English at a young age.

There is also a chance that I can get involved with some media work at either the church or the camp site which has recently installed a new media room!

And hopefully I will be able to have some Polish lessons as at the moment the language seems very strange but I'm sure it will improve as I am here longer and pick up more words.

That is it so far, I will try to keep this updated.

Hope everyone is well!

P.S get Skype!