Scott's Euro Missions Journal #3

hello everyone:

I partied until 5am!!! A girl named Anka that i met on the missions trip to Poland last year, invited me to be her date for the wedding of her brother. I got to witness first hand a traditional Polish wedding. There was the beautiful Catholic church, lots of gifts, the Polka Band, tons of food (that just keep coming no matter how full you became), and the party literally goes all night long...the sun was coming up as i finally made it back to the student hotel where our team was staying.

I had an amazing time! It is not too often that you can fully experience something in another culture as important as a wedding from such a close position. All of Anka's family and friends were very kind to me, speaking to me often in whatever english they knew, and many knew quite a bit.

When I got back to the Zaczek hotel I only had three hours of sleep until i had to wake up...i had to go preach :)

Half the team came with me to a pentecostal/evangelical church in a small suburb of krakow called skovina. I was actually quite awake and excited to preach...my lack of sleep acting like a rush of adrenaline for me.

I preached about the need for us to be continually filled with Holy Spirit throughout our life...so that we can have his POWER, LOVE, and SELF-DISCIPLINE in our life, all our life. The prayer time afterward was really good, and many shared with us that this message was very timely for them as a church.

The last two days we have been doing music/skit outreach at a group of dorms in the eastern part of krakow. I sing most of the songs, but since we have more musicians than ever before, some of the others get a chance to sing a few songs as well. When we our done with our music and dramas (usually about 90 minutes) then we play sports and talk with anyone who is outside. Through this we have met many people and invited them to our university meeting on Thursday, called "Impact."

Tomorrow we will finish our last day at these dorms. Please pray for the students we've met and the students we will meet tomorrow, that many of them will come to the "Impact" Service on thursday night. I think I will be preaching...it will be a great opportunity to see many come of the people we've met to know Christ and to inspire the polish university believers.

One last story...we visited a homeless shelter for men last night. We had a full worship service with all the guys. We shared some music and then I preached a message about "wrestling with God". Afterward we offered to pray with anyone who wanted prayer. Many men stayed afterward to be prayed for.

The last man I prayed for was a guy named Andre. He said he wanted to serve Jesus better. When I asked him what was his biggest barrier to following Christ, his answer was, "I am the biggest barrier." So I began to pray the God would fill Andre with His Holy Spirit so that Andre could know him and know His love.

As I was praying for this...I had one of those moments, when the incredible beauty of this thing God is doing became so clear and powerful for me. The reality that the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, THE HOLY AND PERFECT ONE puts His very Spirit into man...screwed up, sinful, rebellious man...and that through this amazing gift we are made into men of God...beautiful, righteous and pleasing to God settled on my soul in a very profound way. It is truly amazing!!!!!!

When I finished praying for Andre, I was so filled up with the Holy Spirit, i needed someone else to pray for, but there were no more homeless guys to pray for...so i looked around and grabbed one of the polish university age believers there named Gregori and told him, "I've got to pray for someone...and you are going to have to be the one that gets all of the benefit of this extra filling of the Holy Spirit I just got!!!" :)

It just makes me loves Jesus so much, that He gives me these moments...these moments when He re-romances my heart to this incredible divine dance that He has invited us all into. I am so thankful that He called me and filled me...and that now He gives me the opportunity to be a part of Him calling and filling others!!

Thank you for all your prayers!!!!

Scott