first public outreach

hello everyone,

thank you to those of you who are praying for me and this team...i could feel your prayers today and yesterday as well.

this was our first busy day...we did breakfast then we joined up in the basement room of the hotel for group devotions. this is a time of intimate worship and a devotion led by a chi alpha staff person. it is truly one of the best parts of missions trips. the holy spirit does some powerful things on our hearts and minds during these devotions. today was an incredible one. everyone was feeling a bit grouchy and tired when we assembled, but as we dove into worship, the whole mood changed and a beautful spriit of worship took hold...we sang and sang with a graet abandon...truly refreshing...

then later, the team worked on dramas and i ran around with the local missionary (curt) and tried to get some errands done. my goal was to find a music store that would have strings for my guitar and a mic stand for the outreach we were doing at 2pm.

curt's first choice of a shop was purely piano and guitar music, but it was nice because as the clerk was giving him directions to a better shop i found the sheet music to "help" by the beatles. i quickly caught all the chords used in the song. i will use it during the public outreaches to attract attention. i try to sing a few pop songs that the polish people will know before we start doing the worship songs. beatles are always a sure bet to be known. (speaking of them "let it be" just came on over the speakers here at the internet cafe...however it is version of the song done with irish whistles and an acoustic guitar...a bit odd...)

one of the local polish girls from curt's ministry met us in the square to find the elusive music store. she took us right to the place...i began to pick out the things to buy and got caught up with a few more things i thot we'd need. the girl said i was "trying to buy the whole store". i guess that's what happens when the team leader gives you 100 swortie (about $33) to spend on supplies.

we met back with the team and then took a long busride to the location. the bus was packed as it went through the center of town. the poles do not talk on the bus...they all are quiet...but not us americans. it kills us to be quiet...so of course we stand out and people look at us like animals in a zoo. however other than reinforcing some negative ideas about americans, it does help us meet people. we have been able to start up conversations with many poles because they will know english and since they hear us they start talking to us.

the location for the outreach was a bunch of high rise apartments (known as flats)...that the communists built in droves throughout eastern europe. they are bleak things, most of them are gray and made with unhealthy materials...(asbestos and such). they can make for quite a depressing existence.

we set up in this park area...that had bball, ping pong, volleyball and lots of people out soaking up the sun. we had a sound system to amplify our voices.

i sang a few pop songs with "jack" a guy on the team who is great. he is a true original and he makes me laugh constantly with his personality. he played guitar (which he can't really play) and looks like a rock star, while i play guitar (which i can play) and i wish i looked like a rock start, so we make a great team.

then a girl from the team with a really soulful voice sand a few worship songs together...followed by me and a polish girl Anka (the same girl who met us in the square) singing some more worship songs...however this time Anka would sing a few of the verses and chorus in polish...so the people could start knowing what we were talking about.

the team did a drama and one of the girls shared her testimony. finally a group of polish girls that included Anka (the polish girl who sang in polish who is also the same girl who the same girl who met us in the square :) performed a dance that was really fun to watch and made all of us look like we had some real talent. except for jack who has an incredible talent being a rock star!!!

well we got to have several good conversations with people there. i will hear some of the reports tomorrow during our group devotion time.

we all headed to kfc afterward and fed the polish members of our team. we finished up the day by meeting some students who are studying english to converse with them and help them improve their english.

my plan now is to head back to our hotel...balance my checkbook (a task i routinely put off until i'm scared i may be bouncing some checks or worse.), do some light reading and go to sleep...long blessed sleep. singing and running around in the hot sun really wears you out. the days have been absolutely beautiful here, which is great because people are out in droves...so we can meet them and talk to them about jesus!!!

tata...scott