Update 10

Update 10- July 16, 2007

Today we got up early for breakfast at 5:00am so that we could leave at 5:30 for our trip to Auschwitz and Krakow. It was about a three and half to four hour drive from Lubin to Auschwitz. We were blessed to have Kamas and Ann come with us. Ann is a student at Moody Bible Institute that has been teaching English here in Poland for two months. She will be heading back to the states in a couple days and had not had a chance to visit those places yet so we had her come with us. Kamas is one of the guys from the coffeehouse and a regular at the Bible study that Rich and ZB run. He heard that we were going on a trip and asked if he could come. This was a great opportunity to share our faith with him. Paul and Rich feel he is very close to understanding and accepting the Gospel, because he has been asking seeking questions. Please pray for Kamas and us as we talk with him about our faith.
Visiting Auschwitz was a sobering experience. It was eerie to walk in a place where such evil took place. The atmosphere takes all words away. You can only think why? How? Going to Auschwitz was a very emotional experience for everyone. Its very hard for us to find words to express what we saw and felt.
Before we left Auschwitz for Krakow, we at lunch picnic style. It was about an hour drive, but it felt much longer because of the blazing heat. It got to 33° Celsius, which we learned means really hot. As we got to Krakow, we parked and got more water, then walked to the castle. Wawel Castle was absolutely beautiful! It was in great condition. We went down to the famous Dragon’s Lair. It was our favorite part of the castle because it was underground and very cool. The walk from the castle to the Renic was filled with tons of laughter. We saw banners saying that Krakow was celebrating its 750th anniversary as a city this year. Now that is just amazing. What was even more amazing was St. Mary’s Basilica, the church where Pope John Paul II was a priest before he was Pope. The inside was gorgeous. We all just sat there in awe looking at the intricate paintings and carvings that were done without the help of modern technology. Then off to dinner at another Polish restaurant. It was so good to sit down and cool off and the food was good too. Then we hit the tourist shopping spots for souvenirs. One really funny story that happened is when we all met in the Renic we sat down for awhile. Andrew then felt something on his neck and just assumed it was Matt P. messing with him. So Andrew said something to Matt about it and Matt yelled out that Andrew had got pooped on by a pigeon. J (Don’t worry we have pictures) It was also cool to see the city transform as more street performers came out. It was like what we tried to recreate at our Poland banquet. Then we left to go back to Lubin. We got back at 2:15am Tuesday morning. So as you can tell we had a busy day and have another one tomorrow. So please pray that we would have energy to keep being effective in our ministry. Also pray for Rich, he is not feeling well at all.