Ashes, flowers and backpacks...
Here I am at Poznan Glowny (means 'main' and say it with the 'w' as a 'v' of course!). It is right by the main bus/train, thus the reason for 'glowny'. There is a mall right here and it has everything...really. My backpack fell apart this past week and that was noooo good - so I headed to TK Max (nope...not a typo...not TJ Max here). Sitting outside Toys R Us sipping on a fruit smoothy from a little kiosk thing since my cold seems to keep coming back! Yuck. My next stop is the Piotr and Pawel (Peter and Paul) grocery store. Cooking up a bit of chicken for dinner tonight...yummm!
This past week has been great - and I did get to go to an Ash Wednesday service at a church here in town. Ada from the shop took me with her so that was awesome. The priest put ashes in my hair...not with oil and not on my forehead or hand. Ada said he spoke of the oil in his homily or sermon but they do not use it. Ash Wednesday - the ashes used this year are to be from the palm branches from last years Palm Sunday. Not sure if that really happens but I like the concept anyway. So the Lenten season has begun and I love that....mostly because I love spring and Easter is the most amazing holiday! Such a 'renewing' day - literally, what could be better than knowing the reason for this holy holiday?
The Nazarene Church (who I am volunteering for here in Poland) have an opportunity for people from all over the world to sign up for 'Work and Witness Teams'. Groups of people that spend approximately 2 weeks going to the different countries doing work for the ministry going on there. Well, this week we learned that 3 groups are coming to Poznan this summer/fall! Pretty awesome actually - they will be working at odd jobs around the shop and we have a big project of putting in new windows at the coffee shop. The cool part of this is that I get to work on arranging things for these groups as they come to Poznan. And the even more cool part about is that the first group in June is from my home town in Oregon - John Day! The not so cool part is that I will be gone already but its fun to prepare things for them knowing that they will be right here where I am now:). So fun with that finding places to stay, places to eat, some 'touristy' things etc. Good times. The other 2 teams are from Texas and Michigan.
Oh...I finally opened up a bank account here in Poland. I had to pay some bills for items in Krakow and it just became quite the hassle so...I bit the bullet. I had heard it was very complicated when I first got here but I walked in and about 15 minutes later walked out with an account. Easy peasy....so that was nice. Anybody want to make an international transfer of money?...hit me up - my account is open!
Yesterday was International Women's Day...and our Saturday morning group walked around the block handing out flowers (tulips and daffodils) to young, old and in between ladies. It was fun. There were 4 of us handing them out and some people actually refused them. That surprised me but there were some ladies that were just soooo grateful and seemed really touched that somebody gave them something. It was awesome, I loved it.
Before the breakfast and flowers; Marybeth and I got up early and headed out to the antique market. It is held outside by the old slaughter house here in Poznan every second Saturday and every Sunday. Oh man - I loved it all. You could tell some of the stuff was really old and antique - not fake. I could have spent all day there and furnished a house - but, alas...we bought an old suitcase that we will use to display magazines in the coffee shop. We got a deal too...that is part of the fun! 10 zloty...so about $3.30.
I must say that I like this Saturday night church thing. Makes Sunday a true day of rest...I woke up at about 6:40 this morning like normal and then went back to bed and sleep and the next thing I knew it was 11:40. Now that is awesome. I do like sleeping:).
So - I guess that is all I know for now. This next week brings a trip to an orphanage in the Poznan area. That should be interesting. We are going with a lady that has been going there each week for a while so it should be good, I am looking forward to it. Work at the shop as usual and getting to know more folks. Life is good, God is still proving himself waaaaay better:). Take care to you all.
This past week has been great - and I did get to go to an Ash Wednesday service at a church here in town. Ada from the shop took me with her so that was awesome. The priest put ashes in my hair...not with oil and not on my forehead or hand. Ada said he spoke of the oil in his homily or sermon but they do not use it. Ash Wednesday - the ashes used this year are to be from the palm branches from last years Palm Sunday. Not sure if that really happens but I like the concept anyway. So the Lenten season has begun and I love that....mostly because I love spring and Easter is the most amazing holiday! Such a 'renewing' day - literally, what could be better than knowing the reason for this holy holiday?
The Nazarene Church (who I am volunteering for here in Poland) have an opportunity for people from all over the world to sign up for 'Work and Witness Teams'. Groups of people that spend approximately 2 weeks going to the different countries doing work for the ministry going on there. Well, this week we learned that 3 groups are coming to Poznan this summer/fall! Pretty awesome actually - they will be working at odd jobs around the shop and we have a big project of putting in new windows at the coffee shop. The cool part of this is that I get to work on arranging things for these groups as they come to Poznan. And the even more cool part about is that the first group in June is from my home town in Oregon - John Day! The not so cool part is that I will be gone already but its fun to prepare things for them knowing that they will be right here where I am now:). So fun with that finding places to stay, places to eat, some 'touristy' things etc. Good times. The other 2 teams are from Texas and Michigan.
Oh...I finally opened up a bank account here in Poland. I had to pay some bills for items in Krakow and it just became quite the hassle so...I bit the bullet. I had heard it was very complicated when I first got here but I walked in and about 15 minutes later walked out with an account. Easy peasy....so that was nice. Anybody want to make an international transfer of money?...hit me up - my account is open!
Yesterday was International Women's Day...and our Saturday morning group walked around the block handing out flowers (tulips and daffodils) to young, old and in between ladies. It was fun. There were 4 of us handing them out and some people actually refused them. That surprised me but there were some ladies that were just soooo grateful and seemed really touched that somebody gave them something. It was awesome, I loved it.
Before the breakfast and flowers; Marybeth and I got up early and headed out to the antique market. It is held outside by the old slaughter house here in Poznan every second Saturday and every Sunday. Oh man - I loved it all. You could tell some of the stuff was really old and antique - not fake. I could have spent all day there and furnished a house - but, alas...we bought an old suitcase that we will use to display magazines in the coffee shop. We got a deal too...that is part of the fun! 10 zloty...so about $3.30.
I must say that I like this Saturday night church thing. Makes Sunday a true day of rest...I woke up at about 6:40 this morning like normal and then went back to bed and sleep and the next thing I knew it was 11:40. Now that is awesome. I do like sleeping:).
So - I guess that is all I know for now. This next week brings a trip to an orphanage in the Poznan area. That should be interesting. We are going with a lady that has been going there each week for a while so it should be good, I am looking forward to it. Work at the shop as usual and getting to know more folks. Life is good, God is still proving himself waaaaay better:). Take care to you all.
Sunday as a day of rest is something we're trying to stick with too! Not sleeping in rest, but not running around all crazy doing errands and chores.
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