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.
