Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Monday Night---UNO Night



Probably our biggest concern, as we moved into our apartment building, was the neighbors we would have. Who doesn't worry about potential neighbors? Sometimes Polish people live in apartment building like ours all of their lives. They were raised in this building and are now raising their children here. We know of a few apartments here that have housed three generations through the years. All that to say, sometimes outsiders (especially foreigners) are not welcome. This has not been our experience at all--we have found the people to be quite friendly, sympathetic towards our language deficiency, and extremely helpful. Ginger has done an excellent job at breaking down barriers. Almost immediately she went down to the park outside our kitchen window and began to talk with the different teenagers who watch their younger siblings. She began to help them with their English homework and invite them over to our apartment for American games and Starbucks coffee.
By now, the word has certainly been passed around that we are American missionaries working in a baptist church here in Siedlce and probably the biggest hurdle to reaching teenagers with the Gospel in Poland is the parents. They are extremely hesitant to allow their teens to attend any religious function unless sponsored by the Catholic church. In July our church was having a teen activity so with great skepticism we invited the teenagers from our building. To our suprise and God's glory three of them came. Since that activity they have come to three more activities and have clearly heard the Gospel multiple times. Their parents know what we believe and where we stand yet God has used those friendships we have formed. Every Monday night Ginger invites the girls over to play Uno and have coffee or hot chocolate and we are excited to see what God will do in their lives in the days and weeks to come. They have been a big encouragement to us as well by the way they have embraced Caleb, Bradey, and Aubrie. The teens constantly offer to take them to the park and play as well as work with them on their Polish. Ginger and I can not think of a better place to begin our life in Poland, thank you for praying specifically for this request. Finally, as you think of it pray specifically for Carolina, Ewa, Nicola, and Magda that they might soon come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

6 comments:

Carrie said...

How very cool - in so many ways! We keep you in our prayers and I'm so glad to hear you are not waiting around to learn the language before you can minister. Happy UNO playing!

Unknown said...

Praise the Lord for His provision for great neighbors and opportunities to share the gospel (not to mention a good testimony) to these teens - and their families! What a WONDERFUL way to outreach! Ginger dear, you have such a WONDEFUL heart! Great thinking of a good way to reach out to the youngins in the Polish community;) (I so wish I would have gotten to know you better at Northland.) Thankfully, I am blessed with a second opportunity, to pray for you and your family and read your blogs to get to know you a bit better:)
Blessings, Dana

Jamie said...

That's great Jason! Good introspective article on SharperIron the other day btw. Every once in a while I zip by there and this time I was surprised to see the author. :-)

Kim and Jon Kelsey said...

How exciting! Sounds like you are reaching a lot of people already.

Josh emailed my dad the other day and sent a picture. He looks soooo different!

Take care and tell Ben and Sarah we say hello! :)

Jon and Kim

The Stover Family said...

I must have hit some setting that kept all of your comments from posting until today. Anyways, I think I have it fixed now. Its hard to get people to comment sometimes so I definitely don't want to discourage that.

The Stover Family said...

The thing about the Uno nights is that Ginger is benefiting too by all the Polish conversation. However, the other day she tried to play Skip-bo with them and it was a miserable failure, so back to UNO. Personally, I prefer playing Candyland with my boys, because I can still cheat without them knowing.