Welcome to Warsaw

     In an effort not to bog you down with travel details, I will simply say that I arrived safely and quite soundly in Poland on Tuesday afternoon. Praise the Lord. Okay...I'd also like to mention that there's a new stamp in my passport that says "Canada", I had the entire row of three seats to myself on a very uncrowded overnight flight into the EU and I completed the journey (miraculously) without becoming ill. That's it.

     While the traveling got on with relative ease, the first few days here in Warsaw were kind of an insane whirlwind. Immediately after landing and collecting my luggage, the director of the school arrived at the airport to drive me straight to two different apartments to pick out a place of residence. It was a bit overwhelming, so I was very thankful for my skills in making quick decisions about major life changes (ask me which film I'd like to watch or what I'd like to have for lunch and we could be sitting in hesitant silence for an hour...). Anyway, with a myriad of thoughts stirring and a quickly discussed list of pros and cons, I chose the second apt that we viewed. It is a small flat in the Ursynow district of Warsaw (in case anyone would like to do some googling...it's a pretty neat neighborhood). I chose this particular apt because the inside felt comfortable and workable for me. I also really was surprised at just how much I liked this neighborhood. Originally, I had wanted to be much closer to the center of the city, but as we drove here I noticed that even this district is very full and busy with shops and people. There's also a small community park right across the street and I can walk to my favorite coffee shop and a decent grocery store. So really, basically, this neighborhood reminded me of small city/suburban New Jersey (families walking their dogs and pollution from public transit in tact).

Taken from the park-mine is the building on the left.

     After choosing the right place to live, I was given about a day and a half to settle in and rest before beginning work. Originally, I had assumed that I would have at least half a week to adjust. This was not the case. It did turn out okay, and it was a lot of fun to start right away and meet the students. This rapid settling in, cleaning, unpacking, getting groceries and beginning work served to help me immediately immerse (or re-immerse) myself into Polish culture. Even though it has been almost a full two years since I left Opole, Poland, I have been absolutely amazed, and so grateful, for the amount of little and big things that I automatically remembered about the culture and language here. I am no expert and I have so much to learn, but feeling a certain sense of familiarity has been enormously comforting the past few days. Needless to say, this crazy speed at which I was integrated into this new journey did leave me completely exhausted. I have also been struggling more than I expected to in regards to adjusting to the time difference. It's the weekend now and I am very thankful for a couple days to rest, walk outside and begin to get things back into balance before going into a full week.
     As far as work goes, I could not be more excited. The class I will be teaching in is a group of about 21 children between the ages of three and six. These children are expats from several counties including Sweden, Czech, Korea, Canada, America, Greece and a few others. The students are incredibly adorable and a lot of fun. They all speak fluently in English so it's been quite easy to get to know them. One thing that I've been reminded of is how children are such a fine example of the unity in humanity. These students are from all over the world, but they don't let their differences get in the way. They get on well with each other and mostly just enjoy learning, laughing and living life together. I am looking forward to seeing what the week ahead holds.
     My colleagues at the school have been very nice and welcoming to me as well. I have been able to speak with them a bit about my faith, but mostly just through answering questions on why I was in Poland the last time. I've been able to mention that I was here for mission work. When I was filling out some work documents, an office worker brought up that she had noticed my degree is in Religious Education, so that was an interesting conversation that I wasn't really sure how to navigate. If you are among the individuals praying for my time here, please be praying that as opportunities to speak about my faith come up, I will be able to clearly speak Christ into lives here. Also, please be praying that I will be able to find a local church to begin pursuing ministry and fellowship. The number of evangelical Christians in Poland is extremely small, which is a big part of why I would love to serve in full-time ministry here someday.

     Since arriving, I have begun reading the book in this photo. Excited to conquer my first Ravi book, I have been trying to make a little time each day for reading. God has already been using this book as a way for me to examine the story of my life and look for ways in which God has been weaving my journey throughout life. It's important for my own heart and mind to constantly remind myself that God has a purpose in each new adventure and that life is heading in a definite direction further and deeper into His story of grace, even when I have moments of exhaustion or doubt. Trusting God to be sovereign in my life is leading me on the greatest lesson in grace that I could never have imagined or designed myself.


I would like to humbly apologize for not posting many photos as of yet. The past few days have been somewhat of a blur. Exciting and happy, but draining and very full at the same time. Yesterday, I did take a quick afternoon walk through the park on my way to see a film. The theaters here show many American and British films, which was a great source of home-like comfort on my last trip here so I knew exactly where to head on a Saturday evening. Anyway, I did take a few pictures on my phone of a large church building inside the park. I am assuming it is Catholic. The building itself it beautiful and I can hear the church bells from inside my apartment. Hopefully, I will eventually find out some more details about this building and also take more photographs of the city to share, but for now, please enjoy these photos!  

The Time In Between Here And There

     As of late yesterday afternoon, I am completely moved out of my apartment and living in a state of semi-organized limbo. Moving day was surprisingly simple and uncomplicated and for this, I am extremely grateful. Of course, the most difficult part was probably the moving of my very infamous desk (infamous amongst my family members, at least). This wonderful, sturdy and incredibly heavy desk was being given away by a neighbor several years ago and has served me well ever since. The one problem being that I have moved quite a lot these past few years so, various close family members have had the misery of aiding me in moving the traveling desk from Jersey to New York to Pennsylvania and then back to Jersey (where it moved twice). Yesterday, the desk made one more move out of my central Jersey apartment and into a bedroom at my parents' house where it will live in the Poconos for the foreseeable future. It will be missed in Poland. The frequent moving of the traveling desk has become so comically loathsome that one of my brothers has requested a family bonfire in the future in which this desk is used for kindling. We'll see about that (as if a day will ever come where I will be ready to discard this wonderful piece of furniture). 
     Even though all this moving around has felt overwhelming on occasion, it has always been with the purpose of taking the next step in my faith journey and figuring out this whole life-thing. It's been nice to look back and see how God has been weaving an overarching story amidst all the changes and transition. This move from New Jersey to Warsaw has actually been a little different from each of my past moves in that I have had almost continuous peace throughout the whole process. I know God has used past transitions to help prepare me for this one. I am starting to feel as though I am a bit of an expert when it comes to moving, but that's great because it will make the flight landing and setting up next week a lot easier. It's not that I don't anticipate struggles or stressful moments, it's more that God has brought me through so much that I have slowly learned a bit of just how much He can be trusted if I just take a deep breath and rely on His leading and protection.

     The time between making the final decision about teaching in Poland to the day my flight takes off has only been about six weeks. Somehow, this transition has not felt too rushed and I am so grateful to have spent some precious time with several friends and family members (even a few who live 4hrs away!). God has blessed these weeks with so much joy and new memories with those I love. One of my very favorite of these times was one last big fun day I planned for one of my nieces (my other two nieces live far away). I count it as quite a successful day as we had so much fun and so many laughs. Yes, I don't think my niece will ever forget the day we braved the beach in March and it was so windy, she had to keep hiding against me to avoid the blowing sand from stinging her face and eyes. The perfect day. In all seriousness, each of the days/evenings spent with family and friends during this time has felt like extra gifts of grace.

     The next few days will be doubtless be full of lots of laundry, organizing and attempting to squeeze as many books as possible into my luggage. The pile I already have is making me a little nervous (but how can I leave them behind when spring is coming and there is reading to be done outside?). Thank you to each of you reading this for all the love and support you've offered along the way. All of you have helped me through this time in your own unique way. I am so grateful for the part you've each played in these last six weeks. I feel very blessed.

Thanks Kids

     This school year I have had the incredible opportunity to work for a nonprofit organization on a new state program which seeks to teach high school students with developmental disabilities about transitioning into adult life. I can easily say this has been the best job I have held thus far in life. From a very kind boss to enthusiastic colleagues to amazing students, it has been an experience I will never forget. Even though I am super excited to be taking the next step in moving to Poland this spring, a part of me is sad to be leaving such a great position.
     Interestingly enough,  teaching was exactly the one job I always said I did not want to ever do. Ever. Like, ever. Teaching always sounded really overwhelming and stressful to me. Really, I also just didn't think I would fit into this work very well. When I interviewed for the position last summer, I originally thought it was a position similar to case management. I thought I would be working with individual students and their families by meeting them in their homes. I do not remember exactly when I found out more details, but somewhere along the way I was told I would be teaching a total of eight bi-monthly life transition classes in public high schools across Northwest Jersey. Fantastic. The program also includes a few other projects and a lot of my time has been spent working from home; but somehow ironically, the teaching piece is what I have loved the most about this job. I remember calling someone after teaching my first class in October and saying things like "Yea, I mean, it went better than I thought it would and everyone was really nice, but I just really don't have a desire to teach and I don't want to keep this job for long." Well, several months later brings me to last Friday as I was teaching my last class in that very same school when I had a moment while writing answers from the students on the board where I thought to myself  "I wish I could just do this everyday."
     How does God do that? It is like He just reaches into your heart and molds it all around into desiring exactly what He has planned for you. Incredible. It's still a bit of a mystery to me, but somehow, God knows exactly which circumstances to place in my life to change my will right into His. I am so thankful that He has given me the opportunity to go teach in Warsaw. After these past few months, I feel so excited to bring the lessons I've learned in the classroom here to the students at the preschool. I am not saying that I will be teaching for the rest of my life, but this certainly makes my brain spin thinking of all the new doors this opens. It even inspires me to what I might be able to work on in terms of missions and ministry down the road. God is so good in that in each step of my journey, He carries me along and prepares me for the next step, even when I sometimes don't quite know what the next step will look like. It is just more proof in my heart and mind that God never leaves me, but is always, always working in my life.
     As I wrote at the beginning of this post, it has been such an honor to work with (about 60 in total) high school students. So, would you mind if I took a moment to brag on them? Okay, yea, good because I'm going to either way.
     So, there's this one young lady who is severely visually impaired, but is somehow an absolute computer wizard. On top of being one of the sweetest girls I have ever met, she does things with her computer that I can't being to wrap my old-fashioned brain around. She wants to go into editing. Incredible. Then there's this one young man who from the very first day and every class since then has walked me from his classroom, out across the yard, back into the main building, through the long hall and all the way up to the lobby when it is time for me to leave. It has never mattered to him if the day is cold, wet and miserable or warm and sunny.Why? Ummm, yea just because he loves to be a helper and a gentleman. You'll go far in life, kid. Then there's one student who is secretly such a genius that he has to shyly pretend he isn't. This kid remembers absolutely everything. He asks questions like a detective and absorbs everything anyone says. Then, when I need information like "where is your teacher?", he deliberately pretends to be unsure "um, I think she's over in that room in the black t-shirt?" Okay, yea, like you haven't been tracking her every move...I know you know everything, kiddo. If there's anything like a real-life Sherlock Holmes, it is this student. There's two students at separate schools who both really struggle to use their words out loud to communicate, but these two can somehow communicate their exact emotions better than almost anyone I know. They know exactly how to let you know what's up. Then there's this one student who will help his classmate on assignments if the aide is out of the room for some reason. He will do his own assignment and take the time to make sure his classmate is able to keep up with the class. There are so many more I could talk about, but I think you're getting the point. Amazing is the word. It has been an honor to get to know each and everyone of these students.
     Another ridiculously cool thing about these students is that although several of my lessons for them have been about working on social skills at school, work and home, the truth is that we could all be taking lessons from them about social interactions and relationships. For many of these students, complete and total honesty is their mother tongue...and bluntness (yea, they're from Jersey...we prefer directness here). They know no other way to communicate except to tell you exactly what's on their mind and exactly what they think. I love every minute of it. What seems to come alongside this blatant honesty is also an unmatched acceptance of and deep concern for others. I suspect these students may have experienced what it feels like to be put down by others and maybe this is what makes them so caring. Whatever the reason is, they hold their hearts right out in their hands for you and then just hope you'll care for it. Total honesty and total acceptance. Yea, I really think they should be the ones teaching the rest of us.
     I am so grateful for these students. Someday, I'll have to find a way to say "thank you so much for putting up with me stumbling along through learning to teach and thanks for just sharing your inspiring lives with me." I am looking forward to hopefully somehow seeing glimpses of the awesome adults these kids are sure to become. Down the road, I know exactly where to find a good mechanic, daycare teacher, hair stylist, baker, and even a phlebotomist (but actually, Nelson, I really, really don't like getting blood drawn, so can we maybe just meet for coffee some afternoon? K, thanks, buddy).