Did somebody say "jet lag?"

We made it home safely, arriving at LAX on Friday night. These last two days have been a blurr since a certain little person in this family is severely jet-lagged. Once we get more than 3 consecutive hours of sleep, we'll post some reflections. Thanks for your prayers!!

Good things happen here

It's hard to believe that it's already Thursday night in Poland. We'll head home tomorrow. Last night's invitation was amazing. The speaker gave a message on the crucifixion from Barabbas' perspective (Mark 15). He illustrated that Jesus literally died in Barabbas' place and how he also died in our place. I don't know exactly how many campers accepted Christ last night, but at least 63 came forward to either accept Christ or to learn more about Him. Praise God! Today and tomorrow, their leaders are following up with them and beginning the next step of discipleship with them. As for today, we (Heather and the Soderlunds) went into Tomaszow to see Proem's new school. The former beauty salon and day spa is in the process of becoming the new home for students in kindergarten through second grade. Praise God! It is also worth mentioning that the school is located in the middle of a new booming development in the city where lots of young families congregate. Zaba, a camp leader and the principal at the new site is overjoyed with the prospects of being the first Christian school in all of Poland that welcomes non-Christian students as well as non-Christian teachers! What an amazing ministry opportunity.
(Above: First Floor Administration & Classrooms)

(Above: Basement P.E)


Oh and of course it was Kielbasa roast night and crazy hats were a must.

"Gangsta Brothers!!!" Here's David with his friend Samuel. Samuel is the son of Stephanie and Tomek, our friends who serve with PROeM.

Here's how you can pray/praise right now:

• Please pray for travel mercies. Tomorrow we fly from Warsaw to London, then London to LA. We depart Warsaw at noon and are scheduled to arrive in LA at 7pm California time (4am in Poland).
• Please pray for the campers who accepted Christ this week.
• Please pray for the campers who heard the gospel this week but have not had a heart change.
• Praise God for the wonderful things that are happening in His name here in Poland.
  

Tuesday/Wednesday

It's Wednesday morning in Poland. Tonight is invitation night, when the campers will have a formal opportunity to accept Christ. Will you please pray for them? I remember the story of Ola who was at camp last time we were here. She had been to this camp several times before. Every summer she would commit her life to Christ on Wednesday night of camp, then every Fall she would return to her home, her unbelieving family and her old ways. Last time we were here, she realized that she didn't need to make another commitment that she was going to break; she needed to change her life. And she did. Please pray that this year's campers see their need for Christ and, instead of making commitments that they won't keep, please pray that they allow Christ to radically change their lives.

Here's the beginning of the message on God's love from Monday night. When I get the rest of it up online, I'll put the link here.

Yesterday it was raining, so the activity time was inside. Heather (and friends) taught the kids some new dance moves:

Just in case you didn't get enough of David's moves in the previous video:

Last night's talk

It's Tuesday afternoon in Poland. Last night Larry gave a short message on God's love for us during the big meeting. We took a video of it, but it's too long to post on this blogsite. Once I figure out how to post it elsewhere, I'll put up a link.

It was a great message. First, he showed a bit of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfs1t-2rrOM and discussed just how big God is. Then he showed this picture:
He discussed just how big he is compared to David and then asked the campers "What are some ways that I could show David that I'm not big and scary, but that I love him?"

I could comfort him when he cries:
I could protect him from danger:
I could change his diaper:
He went on to discuss the ways God shows his love for us (sending his son to die for us, giving us life, mercy, loving us while we were still sinners). He included Romans 5:8, Titus 3:4-5 and I John 3:16. The point was that God is indeed big, but he's not big and scary. He loves you. I think the campers really got it.

Anyway, tonight's message is sin. (Larry is not speaking.) Tomorrow night is invitation night.

Here's how you can pray/praise right now:

• Pray for the hearts of these campers, ages 7-13, that they will understand and accept the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Praise God that we are all healthy. Chrissy's sore throat is gone and everyone is in good shape.
• Pray for Spirit-filled relationships between us and other believers here.
• We leave this Friday! Please pray that God uses us mightily in these last few days in Poland.

THANK YOU, Prayer Supporters!!!!

The Rest of the Videos

Below are the rest of the short videos that we intended to post last night. Also thanks, Beth, for asking about everybody's health on yesterday's blog comments. Kenji's sore throat turned into a cold. He's home now in CA and hopefully recovering. Nothing came of Heather's sore throat; she's probably out of the woods! Chrissy developed a sore throat yesterday and still has it today. We're hoping nothing comes of it! Larry and David are healthy.

This first video is especially for David's Aunt Rhonda. It's his first view of horses!

Lots of Changes

It's Sunday night in Poland. Today was a day full of changes. First, Kenji left us. He is due back at work tomorrow morning, so as I write this, he's on a plane somewhere between London and Los Angeles. We're all a little sad that part of our team is missing now. Heather is especially saddened by his departure. She's stuck here for 5 more days with just us Soderlunds (yikes!) and the other new friends she's made.

Today is also the first day of the children's English camp. This place feels very different with 180 children running around! It's exciting to have them here and to see some familiar faces from 2 years ago.

Here's what we'll be doing this week:

• (Heather) Assisting with a small group of girls. This means sleeping in their cabin, eating with them, making sure they are where they're supposed to be, attending their devotional time, etc.
  
• (Larry) Lifeguarding at the river.
  
• (Larry and Chrissy) Leading morning devotionals for the staff every morning.
  
• (Larry and Chrissy) Speaking at Monday night's big meeting on God's love for us.
• (David) Eat, sleep, play.
  
• (All) Helping out at the Snack Shack when they need us.
• (All) Doing whatever else needs to be done.

Below are some more videos, for your viewing pleasure. These are from our last day at the Real Action Festival in Sandomierz and also from our day off on Friday, when we went to the ancient city of Krakow. But first...

Here's how you can pray/praise right now:

• Pray for travel mercies for Kenji who is flying home to LAX right now. (His plane is scheduled to land around 7:30pm, CA time, today.) Kenji was feeling a little sick when he left, so please also pray for his health.
• Pray for Heather as she adjusts to camp life without Kenji and to her new role as an assistant.
• Praise God for the 180 children who are going to hear the gospel this week! Please pray that their ears and hearts are open to the good news that Jesus loves them.
• Pray for Larry and Chrissy as we prepare the devotionals for this week. Since our community group at home just finished a study of Philippians, we are planning to take some ideas from that.
• Pray for Larry and Chrissy as we prepare for Monday night's talk on God's love. The evening lessons lead up to Wednesday night's invitation. Most of these kids fear God; few of them understand that God actually loves them. Please pray that God gives us the words to speak to the hearts of these kids.

A Man Without Hope

Today Kenji, Heather and Larry went into Inowlodz, a neighboring town to Zackosciele. They went there because Victor (a custodian at the camp) is moving into Inowlodz and his soon to be neighbor is in desperate need of help. You know that you are in for a treat when the leader (Daniel) tells you and your team, "if you get sick just go outside and everything will be o.k." Well we had no idea how trying it was going to be. We entered a house that smelled of rotting meat and body odor. The elderly man was sitting in his living room eating apples and bread that was inhabited with flies. Kenji and Larry cleaned out his refrigerator that was filled with gnats and what looked to be a decomposing chicken. Of course we came close to losing it but we kept reminding ourselves of Matt. 25:40 "And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’" In the end the house was in better shape than when we entered it, but it was still far from healthy. As we cleaned we learned that he recently lost his wife and that he was suffering from some physical handicap. This poor man is in his own personal nightmare of an existence without any sign of hope. I would like to think that we brought him some hope by our actions but more importantly, it is our prayer that the act of love that we conducted today translates into a stronger relationship between Victor and his new neighbor.

Recovering

It's Thursday afternoon in Poland. Sorry we didn't write anything yesterday. Chrissy slept most of the day and Larry was caring for Chrissy while also playing "Mr. Mom" and trying to help out around the camp.

We're happy to report that Chrissy is on the mend. The fever broke on Wednesday and the rest of the symptoms (headache, generally "woosiness" and dizziness) are fading today. David seems just fine too - no evidence of injuries from his fall. So thank you for all your prayers! We think we're finally recovering.

Today we're still filling in the gaps at the camp. We've been mopping floors (Chrissy and Larry), raking leaves and apples (Heather), cleaning out creepy storage closets (Kenji), and unloading 10 tons of donated food (Larry, Kenji and Heather). Not to be outdone, David has done a stellar job of eating, playing and sleeping today. In fact, he's peacefully sleeping right now. (Of course he is! That's the only time we ever blog!)

Tomorrow is our day off and it looks like we'll be able to take a little day trip to Krakow and Auscwitz. We (Soderlunds) went there 2 years ago, but this will be the first time for Heather and Kenji. They are very excited. Well, let me rephrase that. They're as excited as someone can be about visiting a former Nazi torture/death camp. Obviously we want to respect the 1.1 million people who were murdered there and it's a rare opportunity to pay our respects at the actual site.

We really need to take some pictures here at the camp. Sorry we've slacked on the pictures ever since we got back from Real Action. We'll post some soon!

Here's how you can pray/praise right now:

• Praise God that David seems fine after his fall (see Tuesday's blog) and please continue pray that no lasting symptoms arise.
• Praise God that Chrissy is recovering from her fever. Please pray that she is back to 100% by tomorrow.
• Both Kenji and Heather have sore throats today. Please pray for their health, that these sore throats don't lead to any more sickness.
• Pray for the hearts of the campers who will come to next week's English camp. They'll arrive on Sunday and will be ages 7-13. Pray that God prepares their hearts for the truth of the gospel.
• Pray for travel mercies for tomorrow's trip to Krakow. It's a 4 hour drive from Zakosciele.
  

A no good, very bad day

It's Tuesday evening in Poland. Don't let the title of this post deceive you. While it was a no good, very bad day for the Soderlunds (see next paragraph), it was also Kenji's birthday and we think he had a very good day! There was an ice cream party for him and Larry this afternoon. What could be better than that?


This morning Chrissy felt achy all over as she woke up. "Bad bed?" she thought. So she took some ibuprofen but it didn't seem to do much. In the meantime, David had his first meal of the day and then vomited all over Chrissy. He's not sick; he just does this sometimes after his breakfast. Maybe he eats too much? Lucky us got to experience it here in Poland. After our breakfast (no more vomiting), we learned that we were going to spend the day helping at the preschool and the church in Tomaszow. That's an answer to yesterday's prayer request; we filled in the gaps!


So we got to Tomoszow and Chrissy was still feeling achy. The ibuprofen had worn off (not that it was doing much to begin with), so she tried Tylenol. As the Tylenol worked its magic, she started to get super clammy and sweaty. That means one thing: fever. So she and David went back to camp earlier than the others and, sure enough, she had a fever of 100.5. More tylenol, please! We're not sure what's wrong. We thought it might be Mastitis, but there's no pain or red spots. We haven't ruled out Mastitis, but we're hoping it's something else. Maybe just a bug that will be gone tomorrow?


To cap off the day, David took a fall. He rolled right off the bed (about the height of a low sofa) onto the floor (carpeted, thankfully, but still not very soft). We heard that sound every parent hates to hear: the head bonk. He was upset and crying, but calmed down after a few minutes. Many of you know our history with head injuries, and so we're taking this very seriously. Would you please pray for healing for his head, for no headaches and no long-term effects?


The day's not over, but we're praying it gets better after this!


Here's how you can pray/praise right now:

• Pray for David's head (see above).


• Pray for Chrissy's health, that the fever would pass quickly and that no one else would get it.


• Pray for productivity tomorrow. If Chrissy is out of commission, Larry will have to care for David and it will be hard for him to do much else.

A New Week

It's Monday afternoon in Poland. Today is the first full day at the camp in Zakosciele. In addition to the 5 of us, there are 4 other Americans here, most of whom are new college graduates (just to give you an idea of their age range). We had a meeting with the camp director this morning to learn about what we'll need to do this week. They have us ironing tablecloths and sheets (yep, they iron their sheets here), cleaning, working the Snack Shack, and doing other miscellaneous tasks. Since the conference taking place here this week is fairly self-sufficient (compared to the children's camps), we've got more downtime than we want. We hope to find more ways to contribute as the week goes on. I am noticing, though, that the "feel" of the camp is very different this week, compared to the children's camp. Usually when the camps take place, there are a couple of large teams from U.S. churches that come to help. The camp may have up to 40 Americans with high spirits, excited for a short-term mission experience. I don't think the larger US teams want to come when something like this conference is taking place. This makes sense because most of the conference attendees are already believers and don't need very much compared to the kids at the camps. We Americans feel like we can make a bigger impact during the camps, so that's when we like to send our teams. Consequently, when these conferences arise, those we are here can feel short-staffed fairly quickly. We're glad to fill in the gaps in those moments this week.

Here's how you can pray/praise right now:

• Pray that we will recognize how to fill in the gaps (see above) this week.
• Pray for the relationships we're building with fellow Americans and Polish folks.
• Praise God that his name is being exalted through the conference this week. It's the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) Europe meeting (http://www.ifeseurope.org/). In the US, IFES is InterVarsity. College students from all over the world (not just Europe) are here to learn, grow and fellowship.
  

Happy Birthday, Larry!

It’s Sunday night in Poland. Happy Birthday, Larry!! Today he turned 36. This is his second birthday celebrated in Poland. Last time we had a big party with a cake and everything. This year it’s a little more low-key. We hope to go out to dinner tomorrow night to celebrate. One great thing about celebrating here is that his birthday is 9 hours longer. Since Poland is 9 hours ahead of California, his birthday doesn’t end until 9am on Monday here! (Don’t ask us to apply the same rule on the beginning of the day, not starting his birthday until 9am Sunday; it just doesn’t work that way!)

Anyway, we are finally back at the PROeM camp in Zakosciele where internet is far more accessible.

Yesterday was our last day at the Real Action Festival in Sandomierz. In total, our groups renovated 4 preschools, painted 2 full-size tanks at the entrance to the town cemetery, renovated 4 apartments, painted a railing (I hear it was a very long railing), and ran the Indian camp for children. Real Action is a partnership between the Real Hope organization and the city. Real Hope supplied the manpower and the city provided the equipment. I just learned about the official Real Action blogsite. Check it out: http://www.realnaakcjapoland.blogspot.com/!

Last night we had a large worship meeting/concert in the town square. Hundreds of people attended. They heard about what we did all week long and (more importantly) why we did it. PROeM’s worship band (Exodus 15 http://www.exodus15.pl/) and a gospel choir from Poznan performed. Thanks to a tired baby, we had to walk back to our dorm before the gospel choir sang. Oh well, we heard it was very good.

We left Sandomierz this morning and made the 3 hour drive back to Tomoszow in time for church. You can imagine how excited David was to wake up at 5am. We survived, though. We are so encouraged by what we see at the church plant in Tomoszow! Last time we were in Poland, the building was a dusty old movie theater under construction. Now it’s a beautiful place of worship. We’ll try to take some pictures next week so you can see it too!

Tomorrow morning we’ll find out what our role at the camp will be this week. There’s a conference going on here this week (not a PROeM children’s camp), so we don’t know quite what to expect.

Below are some pictures of Thursday night’s kielbasa roast, more kids at the Indian camp, and some of the work we did at the preschool. But first, …

Here’s how you can pray/praise right now:

• Praise God that we are all still mostly healthy. David has a bit of a stuffy nose, so please pray that it doesn’t turn into anything more serious. We’re also all pretty dirty and covered in mosquito bites, but I guess that just comes with the territory. As strange as it may sound, it’s nice to be back at camp!
• Please pray for our relationships with our PROeM brothers and sisters who are serving here. We long to develop community with them, to encourage them and to find ways to support them. Pray that God will give us wisdom as we relate to them.
• Thank you for your prayers and encouragement for me (Chrissy) regarding my role as a mommy on this trip. I’m keeping my eyes open for opportunities I have to relate to people and to help in unique ways.
  
  

Most of the other pictures speak for themselves, but the one below merits a quick note. Larry is working with a Polish 18-year-old named Thomas here. Thomas accepted Christ at the PROeM camp 2 years ago when we were here. Now he's serving alongside us to reach this city for Christ.

One week down!

Polish kid games