From Grandma Theresa:
I have finally wrested Charlie's computer from him to get in the FIRST word on our LAST night in Warsaw!! We want to say how grateful we are to you who have been keeping up with our Poland adventure story and we are sure praying for us each day.
Today was a bitter sweet day knowing it was the last we would spend in this truly alive and vibrant NEW POLAND and having to say goodbye to most of our group who were returning to the US, England, Canada and Israel. Then 7 of us stayed behind because our flights don't leave until tomorrow morning. We have a 5 AM wake up call, so our message will be brief tonight.
"He gives marvelous comrades to me" from the Psalms has a double meaning to us being so close to the Russian border! We have been blessed to pray together in large and small groups each morning. Today we had a brief prayer meeting and Communion service at the foot of a medieval castle. We sat on boards around the ashes of a camp fire in a field below the castle. The time of wishing each other "Peace of the Lord" was warm and genuine as we knew we were wishing each other safe travel and saying our goodbyes. Then we stopped at McDonald's outside of Warsaw before getting to the airport!!
Shalmi our Israeli professor and expert on the Holocaust regaled us with stories on the bus about his family's stories (his father was born in Warsaw and returned as a member of the diplomatic corps from Israel when Shalmi was in grade school in the 50s.) Kris our Polish guide was a retired colonel in the Polish Army and had his share of stories - living through the Soviet occupation of Poland and then working for the UN since 1989. They had worked together on several trips and were good complements to each other. Kris kept us in shape and on time and Shalmi was the Hasidic Jewish story teller par excellence. It was a good combination.
Charlie and I have had a great time. I am sure I over-functioned more than once making sure that I got him home in one piece. We loved trying the new foods here. Charlie loved the perogies (filled dumplings) and mine were the soups: sauerkraut with ribs and horseradish being totally new to me.
When the history of a people, the Jewish people, in a particular place can only be studied by visiting cemeteries, museums and no longer used synagogues, you know that something has gone terribly wrong. Millions of people and an entire was of life and culture that lasted in this place for 800 years simply is no more. everyone involved: the Germans, the Poles, the Russians and the Jewish people are working through what this means to each one of them. There is nervousness about Russia beginning to make noises on the east again. Poland has suffered so many invasions, this almost 20 year respite is still a dream world for them. The EU membership has brought unprecedented prosperity to them. We pray peace over this land as we leave.
From Charlie
Well, these two weeks have probably been some of the most exciting in my entire life. It is a very different place that one enters upon leaving the Charlotte, NC, USA. Some differences you expect- I couldn't undersand anything I heard or read anything I saw. The food was different. But things I didn't expect were strange road signs such as one that apparently banned "thumbs-up." Another was a hamburger that neither looked or tasted anything like one. Other examples are showers that require stretching beforehand to step into (and sometimes leak). Toilets that have two different flush pressures. Paying to use the toilet. Ice cream shops on every corner.
A final suprise to me was how quickly I adapted to all of this. I think I may step over an imaginary wall to get into the shower or look for the economy flush on my toilet the first time. But I feel very comfortable here. I have much, much more confidence now for travelling and have learned things that will help me immensely during next spring's trip to Spain. But I still have much to learn and get used to, as today's crazy bus ride into center Warsaw showed me. A bus stop in Warsaw is not a lesiurely affair like in Charlotte, NC, let me tell you. I came very close to being pinned between the rapidly slamming doors and then nearly flew to the back of the bus when the driver floored it out of the stop. It was a close shave each time to get off at the proper stop.
There are moments on this trip I will never forget (hopefully): Getting served two pieces of Kelbasa and two soups by confused waiters at lunch one day (plus a basket of bread), spending half-an-hour trying to find each other on Facebook, standing before a gigantic pile of human cremated remains at Majdanek, standing in the rain listening to our guide in Bialystok, comparing my British accent to the Brit's southern accent, driving past row after row of barracks at Aushwitz and praying together for the last time in the morning light this morning with our Jewish guide looking on. These are the moments that will stick out in my memory when I think about these weeks.
What I have realized is that I still have so much to learn about the world. There are so many assumptions that I make as an American that are well, foreign, to others. Things that I operate under every day such as what I judge as rationality seem totally irrational to others. It is enough to make one think, hard. But evidence of God's nature inside each person are still there. A human connection can still be made with anyone here, even through language barriers. Grandma can relate to anybody! I praise the Lord for the Christian tradition He has established in Poland that contributes to a friendly, optimistic climate one finds here. Please pray for this country that God would bring His spirit to fill these people who have been "with" Him their entire lives.
Also revealing is hearing the perspectives of other Christians, united in love for our Savior but with very differing opinions on where our emphasis should be. It is good for me to to revaluate my beliefs from time to time, and some have been strengthened, some slightly altered. In the end I know that God never changes, and that is where I have nailed my hope.
Well, we will arrive back in the States at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon and I will resume normal life immeaditely. I am looking forward to it, but I know it will be difficult. So please pray for me! Thanks to all of you who read my blog and took an interest in our trip. I hope you were able to travel vicariously through us.
Thank you Grace for allowing me to use your camera. It took wonderful photos and this blog wouldn't have been possible without you. Thanks for your unselfishness!
Love to all of you!
- Charlie
And finally, some pictures of the beauty of Poland; modern, quaint, rustic and ancient:
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