AAAAAAH!!!

How's that for a title? That would be us both screaming in utter frustration. What an annoying afternoon. Of course, I say "afternoon" because it took us that long to hear anything. Yes, that means our lawyer didn't call us for two days (in the end I had to call him today). Am I bitter? Maybe a little.

Here's the deal. The judge received the fax and said it wasn't enough. He said he wanted a letter from the embassy saying that it was enough for them if he makes the decision (w/o Warsaw's involvement). So, I called the Embassy again and asked about another letter. Ewa, from the adoption office, told me that the judge has everything he needs and there is nothing else to be sent. It's just that he continues to be unsure of himself. Honestly I wonder (others seem to share this opinion) if he really knows what's going on or not. And it's extremely frustrating.

Another thing going on is our lawyer trying to get in touch with a different, higher-level judge for a consultation. This was suggested by the judge. What none of us, including the lawyer, can figure out is why the judge won't consult with her himself. After all, he's the one with the confusion!! I don't get it. But the lawyer tried several times today with no luck and will be trying tomorrow to catch her in her office. Hopefully he will make contact with her.

Finally I spoke with Sylwia again today. She confirmed that we will be meeting with that committee that will be advocating for the kids right on the 6th of June (next week). She said that there will be a lawyer there who is volunteering his time to fight for our kids. I guess we'll see what that does.

All in all we've gone from "it's going to be over today" at the hearing Monday to "we're never getting out of Poland" today. While I'm writing with some light-heartedness I can tell you that this is unbelievable taxing on us in every way. I called off a meeting tonight because honestly I just can't deal. There's just these enormous issues spinning around in our lives and we have absolutely z-e-r-o control over any of it. It's like this adoption has begun to own us. It's terrible and no one involved can understand it.

I don't know what more to say. Pray. Write your congressman. Pray. I don't know. As always we just thank you for being with us.

Update: 12:25pm

I called out to the children's home to speak with our kids' case worker, Sylwia. She let me know that the fax arrived yesterday but that she has not yet been able to speak with the judge. She will be doing that today and said she would call me ASAP when she heard something.

She has also been diligently working on "plan B". In a matter of two days she has organized a review board of sorts that will hold some interviews with us on June 6 @ 5:30pm. This board will include legal representatives of some sort (she said "lawyers" but I don't know any specifics about that) as well as herself and a few others that have had contact with the kids and our case. The point of all of this is that this group will be poised to fight for the kids to be with us...from specifically the kids' corner. So it's as if Sylwia is putting together a legal team to fight for them. It's awesome and I've got to hand it to her on this.

So, great news that the fax has made it to the court. Now we wait (more) to see how things unfold.

Friends and family

Today is a slow day here. We're going to try to get some of our boys together today for some hitting practice because we think there is an upcoming tournament that we might be able to take part in. It's cool to be able to input into these kids lives. And it's not like a Sunday School class or anything...it's just being with them, interjecting Biblical truths whenever possible given the context of whatever is going on, and doing what we can to be Jesus to them.

Sometimes...maybe even often...missionaries feel a sense of loneliness. It might come and go at times, while other times it sticks around and is tough to deal with. There are countless books written on the subject. I can say firsthand that it is extremely difficult being so far away from family. And that's just during the normal times of life...not mentioning how it feels when going through struggles.

An awesome thing that so often occurs, though, is God providing friends and "temporary family" for missionaries wherever they are. Maybe those will be nationals or other missionaries. We're not here with any team members but we do enjoy great friendships with some other American missionaries from different organizations. They are a great support and encouragement to us...especially as we've struggled with all of the adoption stuff.

From the national, Polish, side I'm sometimes amazed at the love we are shown by various people. Yesterday a Polish friend came over and just sat and talked with me for about 2.5 hours. He'd called the night before and just asked if he could stop by and hang out with me for awhile. He knew I needed it. He knew I needed to just talk and hang, get my mind off all the craziness. During that time he said so much to encourage me and to help me feel his love for me and my family, as well as conveying to me the love our church has for us. It was an incredibly loving gesture...one that didn't cost him much at all, yet meant a lot to me.

In the midst of everything God provides. He really does. He's faithful to His Word time and time again...maybe even especially in those times when it seems unlikely that everything He says can really be true. I'm thankful to Him for His care of me and my family...for the strength He gives...for the grace and mercy showered on us when we feel like we can't take another step...for the people He has placed in our lives (both in the states and here) that He uses to lift us up and support our shaky legs.

You all know that taking pictures is something that I love to do...something that calms my heart. So, I took a few shots of Cosmo this morning and thought I'd post one.

Hope to have some new today...we'll see!!

No news

It is 7:07pm here and just wanted to let you all know that since my last post we have heard nothing. I wish I had something to report. I know some of you have been checking, so just wanted you to know that you're not missing out on some juicy tidbit.

We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Hague Convention News

I spoke with someone today at the US Embassy (I couldn't wait for the lawyer's call) and got the official word that the US is not party to the terms of the Hague Convention. That is awesome news for us and alleviates the concern the judge had yesterday.

So what now...

The woman at the embassy said she needed to locate the document she prepared on this matter. Then she will be faxing it to the court and mailing off the original. We are not positive what the exact next step will be with the judge...if he is able to simply sign off on the adoption, if a hearing is necessary, or what.

I also spoke with the kids' case worker (Sylwia) today. After we left yesterday she spoke with the judge again. He evidently reiterated that he only needed this one document to clear the whole matter up. And it looks like we have it!!

So, we do the all-too-familiar thing we have learned to do throughout the course of this last year...we wait and we pray. Thank you for being with us as we do so!

Something nice for today

So much stress and all today. I wanted to post something nice. Paulina was outside yesterday doing some chalk drawings on an adjacent wall and I wanted to try out some potrait techniques on her. I love willing participants! I really like the way it turned out. And since I'm so into the black-and-white thing, I couldn't resist dropping the boring color for the dramatic B&W!

News from today

I'm going to give you an overview of today's "festivities". To just let you know up front, no decision has been made. Our hope lies in a phone call that is going to be made tomorrow. It's been a tough day...yet we are optimistic about tomorrow. Now for the meat...

Paulina did awesome! She was petrified but had a good hour or so on the way to the hearing to prepare herself with our lawyer. He's a pretty funny guy...so he helped her understand the types of questions she would be asked and joked around with her a lot to lighten things up.

When we arrived at the court, she became increasingly more nervous...so much that when called on to stand up and speak she said, quite loudly, that she didn't want to! Quite nicely, the judge told her she could remain seated next to us and answer the questions from there. The questions were quite brief and to the point. She answered well and made us all extremely proud! Thank you...and she thanks you...for praying for her!

Following Paulina's testimony we were asked to leave the courtroom so the judicial panel (a judge and two other "judgey-type women" - no idea who they really are) could speak with our lawyer. It turned out that they decided that they would really like to solidify the case by having Piotrek come and speak. But the problem was that if we didn't go get him and bring him back within 3 hours then we would have to wait about another 3 weeks for another hearing. Obviously the decision was made to go get him.

At this point the judge comments that as long as Piotrek speaks positively about his experience with us and his desire to remain with us then he would give his decision to complete the adoption. As you can imagine we were ecstatic. I called my mom (5am her time, I think)...there was much rejoicing and thanking God.

One hour later, on the road back to Poznan to pickup Piotrek, the lawyer's phone rings. It's the judge. He informs our lawyer that he had taken some time to think about our case and decided that he would not be making the decision today. This detail that I mentioned at the top concerns some convention that many countries have been signing off on since 1994 which sets forth some fairly strict parameters/rules for inter-country adoptions. The question that was holding him back from making the decision is whether or not the U.S. is party to the rules of the convention.

As you can imagine that felt like getting nailed in the gut. I later told Vicki I just wanted to go home and crawl in bed. It's just so hard to keep fighting when it feels like you continue to get knocked down. And he had just told us an hour ago that the decision was going to be made!

So, I got back and picked up Piotrek and we headed back to the courthouse. He wasn't really too nervous and really did a stellar job as well. Funny how we had to make that 2.5 hour round trip for him to answer about 5 questions. The conversation that ensued, following Piotrek's testimony was grueling.

For about 20 we sat there (me, the judicial group, another lawyer - not ours, and the kids' case worker...our lawyer wasn't able to be there) discussing what to do next. These are the two options.

1. U.S. is not party to the rules set forth in the Hague Convention of 1994. If this is the case...and we will find out tomorrow morning for sure...then the judge said he could give the decision tomorrow! And get this...at travel.state.gov (some part of that site anyway) I found info that showed that the U.S. has not yet ratified that convention and that it does not get enforced until 3 months after it is ratified. That web page was updated March 19, 2007...so we should be good to go!!!!!!
2. U.S. is party to the convention rules. This is an ugly scenario and the one that has really got us stirring. If this occurs, the judge has decided he must send us back through Ms. Passini in Warsaw. I cannot imagine a worse option, an opinion supported by everyone to tell the truth. It will mean great expense...financial, emotional, time...and it is difficult to be positive thinking of the end result when the ball would be thrust back into her court. It was mentioned that if she "acts up" again then the court would go over her head. The judge also said that he was afraid that wouldn't end well either.

Folks, it's got to be option 1. It's got to be. Please pray with us today that when our lawyer calls the U.S. Embassy tomorrow in Warsaw that the doors that lead to a letter being sent from the Embassy to the court will be flung open...that the right person will answer the phone. That the right person will get the letter at the court.

It seems like this is going to happen. But we've been so sure about other things in the past and they haven't been realized. So, even though the evidence seems to be there it's still hard to be positive.

That's the scoop. Sorry for the long post but in actuality that's somewhat of a nutshell version! You all are incredible the way you lift us up. It was such an incredible encouragement to picture your faces while sitting there this morning, knowing how you have wrestled alongside us in this battle! We love you all!

Really? Too much photoshop??

This is a great post from a hot new blog out there in cyberland. While it's hard for me to imagine the concept of "over-photoshopped" this is more than a little startling. With a 13-year old daughter in the house I am becoming ever more sensitive to this issue of striving for beauty that really doesn't exist in the first place...a form of beauty that has been manufactured so companies can rake in the dough.

Click here to pop over there for a read.

Things today

Another great morning at church today. It seems that our group has been making some big steps, growing together and moving in a very inspiring direction. It's such an enormous encouragement for us all to see the sense of community, family developing among everyone. I think that the future holds many great things for Genesis as long as they continue with this focus on Christ...and on being him in our community.

It seems that we are going to begin having an invitation-type time at the end of our services, inviting people to come forward and meet with one of the leaders for special prayer. This time was offered again today and a few people came forward, asking to be lifted up in prayer for certain things they are going through. This is such a refreshing thing for me as I've so often felt that this was so lacking in Polish churches. People are being offered a chance to respond...and they are responding. I love to see the Spirit moving and people responding! It's exciting!!

You know, tomorrow is a big day for us...the hearing. So many of you have written great, encouraging notes to us to encourage us and specifically Paulina. She's doing great...just ready to get it over with, like the rest of us. I'll be sure to send out a note to everyone as soon as we hear something tomorrow afternoon. It's been crazy that we haven't heard one word from our lawyer about all of this. He was supposed to schedule a meeting with us last week...didn't happen. He isn't even answering his cell phone today...NOR can you even leave a message because his voicemail is full!! Another test of faith in and of itself!

That's about it. We'll see excitement tomorrow brings. To all of you on the other side of the world, enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

Slideshow: Baseball Practice Today

I'm a little slideshow happy today as you can see. This software is great, so I'm doing some things trying to figure it all out and put some good, useful stuff together.

Slideshow: Night shots from last night

We ventured out again last night and got some interesting shots. Wanted to share with y'all!

3+ years and still don't know anything!

That's the feeling I get sometimes when I spend time with someone (or people) that expand my understanding even further about Polish culture. Honestly, there are times that I feel like I've just arrived and that I'm having my first conversations about it all. That's what I was feeling last night.

It turned out that my friend Waldek was going to be late last night and that he would be coming with "Chris"..."Paul" wasn't able to make it at all. This was all ok with me. You know, you have to pretty much go with the punches around here. A lack of flexibility is a recipe for disaster (been there, done that, will sell YOU the t-shirt). I just didn't know what I was in for.

Chris is an older guy, about 54, and has an unreal history. I won't go into it all but he's pretty much seen things that you and I will hopefully never come close to seeing...let alone living. He decided long ago that life wasn't worth living if he didn't take a stand for his beliefs and convictions in all areas of life. In the beginning he suffered big time at the hands of the communists for voicing his own opinions and basically challenging the status quo, about as bad as it gets in socialism. The things I heard were unimaginable, almost as if they were being made up...but they weren't.

One of the things we talked about is how this nation has been taken advantage of and cheated repeatedly by surrounding countries throughout their history. This is stuff that goes back to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire days and beyond (I'm really on shaky ground in the history department). But, as the guys were talking last night, it seems clear that Poland is still being taken advantage of today. The word "raped" came up several times...both literally, as "special agents" and even police could get away with what they wanted, and figuratively, speaking of how the great resources of this nation have been plundered at the hands of both enemies and friends.

To expound on the present situation, let me share with you what they talked about with regard to the EU. Joining the EU was heralded as a monumental move for Poland (as well as several other post-communist nations). Western countries promoted this move as an end to many, if not all, of Poland's problems...bright future...economic growth...etc. But the guys began talking about example after example of how this move has had so many deep negative impacts on life here.

Over 1 million people have left Poland since the borders opened up in "Greater Europe". People, especially young people, are leaving as quickly as possible in search of better jobs and greater prospects for their future. But often what they run into is extremely low-pay and equally extreme long hours. My friends painted a picture of slavery...Poles enticed to come and work in a given place...they give up so much to leave their homeland in pursuit of a big pay day...and they find themselves trapped in a horrible job with hardly any income, bad living conditions, and a realization that their big dreams were merely a mirage in the desert.

My friends went on to talk about how Western businessmen have profited so greatly from this influx of cheap, Polish labor into their job markets (of course it has worsened the job availability for national workers in those countries...but capitalism doesn't care about that). And this is, again, the figurative raping of this country...albeit far more subtle than what occurred at the hands of the Nazis or Soviet Union. See what I (or they) am saying?

So, I listen to things like this...and over the course of those 2.5 hours there was much more...and I think about how much I don't know, how much I can't yet comprehend about the lives of the people around me every day. I think about how easy it is to come up with grand schemes, strategies to evangelize this nation. Yet on days like this I find myself wondering how that's possible when I (again, can't speak for other missionaries...but I wonder what they think about this) can't even begin -- after 3+ years to understand what is really going on at the core of this culture's existence -- to identify with the people to whom I'm trying to minister.

Ok, I'm not trying to give any excuses for a lack of doing something even when we don't understand or identify with our host culture 100%. That's definitely not what I'm advocating. What I'm talking about (in a sense with myself...just "out loud") is how much deeper I need to go. I need to have more meetings like last night. I need to have more conversations with people like Chris who could reveal that cultural core to me AND (this is important) take me alongside him, not the other way around, to see what he is doing to reach his people.

Oh man...I wish you could have heard him and his love, his passion for his people. He hurts for them. He begs God for their souls...as well as for the souls of people in the US as he is incredibly burdened for our country as well. He pours his heart out asking for God to use him...and God does in wonderful ways on both small and larger-sized scales.

There are a multitude of things that could be read into this post. I hope that none of those will be from a negative slant. That's certainly not my intent. Last night was so needed for me. Growth...transformation occurs from conversations like that one when we're sharing our hearts and watching others do the same. I'm encouraged and at the same time greatly burdened. I'm also humbled knowing that I, in and of myself, have nothing to offer. But through God's presence in me, combined with my deep desire to minister to people wisely, people can see Jesus through me.

As always I feel that this is yet another topic short-changed b/c of this imperfect delivery system. I know I've done a poor job at conveying this message...and certainly the atmosphere from last night's meeting...in its completion. Hopefully you're not left thinking, "uh....huh? What'd he say?"

Have a great weekend!!

Announcement!!!

We here at NorthwestPoland.org aim to please. Heard anything like that before? Well, we asked what you want. You said...

• Some more pictures of the family. CHECK
• More updates on ministry. CHECK
• A monthly "print-outable" sheet. In the works
• A blog from Vicki -- well, here it is folks. Bringin' it to you live from Poznan, Poland. Give her a big shoutout at her new blog, Lost in Translation.

I'm a huge fan of my wife and if you don't already know her, you'll love to hear her thoughts on living in a foreign country...or at least this foreign country. Jump over there and let her feel the love!

Good night...and good luck.

What's up today?

Thought you'd enjoy seeing a picture of my resident tennis pro. This chick's for real folks! Instead of going to the gym, we've revised our exercise plan to include running three days a week and a couple of days of tennis, when possible. We've got to have that time or we start feeling so...how can I describe it...BLECH!! Know what I mean? Thankfully, we've got some ok courts nearby that are dirt cheap (unfortunately not free like so many nice spots in the states).

I've got a couple guys coming over tonight for our weekly guitar jam session (hold the jam). A new guy is supposed to be coming over tonight to play with us. I think I've mentioned something about him before...not sure if he's a believer or not. And Waldek and I have been hoping to have a chance to get to know him better to get to the point where we could share on a deeper level with him. These "guitar meeting things" will be great for that (we need to somehow name our meeting!).

Missionary life is pretty bizarre. I guess you've probably gathered that reading my blog! Everything seems to change from day to day and most of our ministry time seems to end up in the evenings. That's pretty strange coming from the 8a-5p grind in the U-S-of-A. There are times when that's still tough to handle...sometimes wanting to get to the end of the day and see a specific 8- or 9-hour block of time where you know you "worked". Here work oftentimes happens without you even knowing...although obviously it's not like we're constantly just flying by the seat of our pants...or are we? Haha.

I remember one time several years ago when my sister asked me what missionaries "really do". It's a great question...shown by the idea that she wasn't sure even though her own aunt had been serving on the mission field for well over 20 years! People just aren't sure. I really would like to do what I can to help people understand what this strange life is like. That deserves a whole series of posts...or maybe better yet a speaking engagement with your Bible Study class when we come home!!

Well, better run. Things startup in a few minutes and I need to put my stuff in order. You can be praying for us..me, Waldek (VAL-deck), and Pawel (or Paul). I'm praying that this is a time of encouragement for all of us...a time that we can sharpen each other in our faith (or introduce Pawel to our Savior if he hasn't made that choice yet!).

Some of my favorites

"I put my pants on the same way he does." That was a familiar refrain to me growing up and likely has become just as familiar to my kids. It was the response my mom gave...and the one I give now...when talking about not being intimidated by other people who would appear, at least to some, to be powerful, important, or famous.

Because of this understanding of all God's children being pretty much equal, I have never shied away from trying to contact people...experts in their fields...asking questions and generally trying to learn something from them personally. Somehow I always seem to get responses. And you know why? Because they really are just people...and oftentimes super friendly to boot!

Two people that immediately come to mind are Cole Thompson (I've about begged you all to check out his work and buy something) and most recently Forrest MacCormack. These are both awesome photogs and I love their work. Cole's B&Ws are amazing and Forrest's night shots blow my mind. Forrest does some things with light painting that I want to try, so I emailed him asking some more specific questions about his technique. I didn't know if he'd write back or not...you know, maybe he wants to keep everything he does a secret or something. Well, he wrote an extremely nice email back, shared several great tips, gave me some resources I didn't know about, and even asked if I had any photos to share with him. Awesome huh?!

I wrote him back today and told him that I laughed while telling Vicki about him asking if I had any shots I might share. I've gotta tell you that while I think I've taken some good photos, it's pretty darn intimidating to think about someone with that kind of talent (I'd feel the same way with Cole) looking at my stuff. It'd be like a high school trombone player playing a solo for a principal chair trombonist in the Chicago Symphony (oh yeah, did that too...and was petrified!).

Well, I did want to share a few of my shots with Forrest since he was so nice to ask. And I thought I'd share them with you. They were taken over the course of the last 1 1/2 years or so and I guess they are the shots that stand out in my mind (yes, the "no makeup" shot made the list...hehe). Several have hit the blog...but others should be new. If you'd like to see them, here's the link.

So, I guess this could be some encouragement to you to try to contact the people you admire...those who you think you might be able to learn from or who might be in a position to help you grow. You never know what kind of relationship might begin from that one simple email. And you definitely never know what you might be able to learn through the little effort it takes to type something up and hit send.

Group formerly known as "Alpha"

Well, it's been a long time coming but we finally met again last night. I think we've had to cancel our meetings for the last 4 weeks, so it was great to get together with our four friends last night to talk and share a bit together from God's Word.

I put together a study last night to talk about "Joy". This is a topic Vicki and I have been discussing off and on now for...uh, a long time. Specifically, we wanted to hit the idea of having joy no matter what is going on in our lives. That has been a huge test for us over this last year...one that we've had both successes and failures with.

One thing that both of us noticed is that it's very difficult for people to define joy. Can you? I know that it's been difficult for us at times as well. Ed Young, Jr. gives a great definition in his book, Outrageous and Contagious Joy: Five big questions to help you discover one great life. Here it is:

Joy can be defined as the positive confidence I possess by knowing and trusting God, regardless of the circumstances.

I think that's a great definition, and one that I need to keep in mind. I've come to realize, as I shared with the group last night, that having joy in our lives...that deep-down God joy...is dependent on our perspective in life. What am I focusing on? The incredible blessings God's given me or the mound of troubles and challenges that confront me? Am I living in a spirit of thankfulness or in a spirit of negativity? These things are clutch if we're going to experience the kind of joy God desires for us to have!

It was good talking about all of these things last night. Everyone struggles with this issue at one point or another. Joy seems so elusive at times. But there is hope! As we move our focus further and further heavenward our perspective becomes changed, transformed...and we begin finding ourselves at peace and full of joy, even when the life is pushing us to fall apart.

Our group is planning on continuing to meet each Tuesday. I'm thankful that God has been working in these peoples' lives...revealing Himself to them more and more as they open themselves up to His teaching.

Mom's and Dad's Day

I decided to give the slideshow program another go today. I'd like to know what you think of this "technology". Keep in mind this is my second go at this. I'm thinking it would really be cool to have something like this from time to time to show pictures of an event (or even a "week in pictures") along with some kind of narration, interview with event participant, or who knows.

More from Genesis

Yesterday morning was really encouraging at church. My blogging cylinders are all firing today so I wanted to share a few words about that with you.

Generally Baptist churches in Poland don't give alter calls at the end of services. Actually I've never seen that happen before. But yesterday, Mateo ended our service by saying that if people wanted to be prayed for...or if they wanted to speak with someone about what God was doing in their lives they could come forward and talk with one of the guys on the side. I was really excited to see three folks come up: one young boy with his dad, a young woman (I think college age), and another young man (I believe he's still in high school).

In the states we see people "come forward" often, although we wish it was more frequent than it is. But it happens...and we love to see it. But here, really I'm serious, I've never seen it happen. So, to see those folks head over to speak with someone...tears flowing...is HUGE! I don't yet know if they made decisions to become disciples of Christ (remember that discussion?), asked for prayer, or whatever. But it is extremely apparent, as I said a few posts ago, that God is moving in a big way in our group.

I'm thankful to God for the times when we can see His movement in such visible ways. And I'm thankful to so many of you who have been continuously praying for that movement to occur.

When is Mother's Day anyway??

This pictures in the post beneath this one were taken on the American Mother's Day a week ago. But what's interesting is that Poland has a different Mother's Day. We always laugh about how Vicki gets to celebrate twice...extra gifts, two special meals, etc. Well the family got all geared up again yesterday to celebrate the Polish date...I bought my wife flowers, the kids gave her some gifts, Vicki made an incredible cheesecake. Everyone showed their appreciation to mom.

So, we head out as usual to church yesterday morning. We get there and the service starts...we sing...we talk...there is NO talk whatsoever about mothers! I'm thinking that maybe Mateo is forgetting something. Did he possibly forget to call his mom?? NO! It's us that got the date wrong!!

So, as it turns out, Vicki will actually get to celebrate three Mother's Days this year: the American date, our own special family date, and the Polish date. Fun huh? And us dads get one measly date a year. Can you say inequality???

Testing possible new feature

I really like the look of these web photo slideshows, so I'm toying around with how to put something like this on the blog. Honestly, I had no idea how much work went into these things. Check out this workflow:

• Take this pictures (of course)
  
• Export them in appropriate sizes (actually I think I can ditch this step in the future)
  
• Find a program, preferably for free but no such luck, that will simply take your image files and construct the slideshow with a nice look. This step took the longest today...seemingly lots of these kinds of programs out there but I don't like the look of the others too much. Also wanted a program on my computer as opposed to always having to upload images to online image banks.
  
• Create the project in the newly downloaded software.
  
• Create a blank audio file using Apple's GarageBand software. [This slideshow software requires audio. So, while I didn't want to find some cornball 30-second sound byte I decided to make my own blank mp3 file.]
  
• Import new GarageBand file into iTunes and convert to mp3 format.
  
• Import blank mp3 file into slideshow application.
  
• Compile the slideshow and setup overall look.
  
• Upload the files created by the slideshow application to my ftp server (it is a flash-based slideshow which means there has to be a .swf flash file, a html file, and the accompanying images).
  
• Create a new blog entry and edit the html code to show my slideshow.
• [Added after first posting] I thought that would be it. But it turned out that the format was bigger than my blog page. So, I had to re-create the slideshow...re-upload to my ftp site...and re-enter the html code on the blog post to reflect the changes....TWICE!! Man, that's frustrating!!
  

Not bad, eh?? Whoa. If I'm going to do this I'm definitely going to have to work on streamlining the workflow. But, as a first go I've already learned a lot and can either see where I can save time or know what to look for when browsing the web for different software.

How's that for a technical post?! :-)

Couple of stories from yesterday

I told you I'd let you know how our day o' baseball went yesterday...and here you have it...live (at least for me) from Poznan, Poland!

We had a good morning with about 15 kids. Don't know what happened to all of the parents, but our group of adults was super slim. Really the coolest part of the practice was a chance we had to talk to the kids about learning to listen to their coaches when they're running the bases. We explained how they would be bombarded with other voices and noises as they were running...but how they needed to learn to block all of that out to listen to the coach's instruction.

Trying to do exactly what we've been praying for...keeping the ministry focus...we continued on, explaining how that baseball lesson corresponds perfectly our lives in Christ. All to often we go through our days bowing to all of the other voices, all screaming their own instructions. God's voice gets washed over and we sometimes give up listening to Him altogether. So, we have to fight...train ourselves...to focus on Him.

The kids seemed to get this...at least they nodded (what more can we ask for?). This was a victory. Not huge, but a victory nonetheless. We pray for more of those teaching moments in the kids' lives.

Yesterday evening we went over to the Bozydajs' house to have our first baseball "thing". There were just a few kids that showed up...but again, victory. The thing that I'm excited about is how we got to bring the Bozydajs together with another family that's lived in their neighborhood for over 2 years. Even though they live about 5 houses away from each other they've never met. Here's how it went down...

As we were playing ball in the Bozydajs' yard, this woman (Ela) saw me somehow. While thinking, "Is that Michael?" she saw Vicki walk by. She grabbed her phone and sent us a sms saying that she'd like to come over. So, Vicki told her to come on over with her son (who played baseball with us last year). And to make a long story short, this lady and Ewa Bozydaj hit it off and began talking about having each other over to their respective houses for tea or coffee or something. These are exactly the kinds of things we have prayed to see happen!! Who better to reach their neighbors then the Polish believers who live there??!!

So, it was a great day. Even in the small things we can see God working...and it's super exciting to be a part of it!

Daily Shot

Ok, don't really have a "daily" thing going here...but sounds good. Maybe someday. I'd need to get out with the camera much more to give you a good shot everyday.

This is another pic from my night out with Piotrek the other night. Click on it to see the bigger version. The brightest stars are the big dipper, upside-down (stars are streaked because of the 10-minute exposure). The shadows at the bottom are trees.

A Day of Baseball

Today's looking to be a great day with our baseball ministry. We leave in a few minutes to head over to the park where we play (any millionaires out there who'd like to build us our own "field of dreams"??). The really cool thing about today is that we've got a double-header, so to speak, planned. This morning we'll be playing at the Cytadel Park...our normal practice area, where we'll hopefully see some big numbers (numbers are VERY important when each represents a heart!) because of the beautiful day we've got today. And then this evening we're going to head over to some friends from Genesis who have been advertising a baseball "exhibition" for the kids in their neighborhood.

I don't know how many times I've said it both to you all and to my friends/colleagues here, but I'm here to tell you that baseball just flat out works right now in Poland. It's sprouting up all over the country...new coaches are being trained, new teams formed, and even some fields being built. And this is what makes it the perfect time to begin baseball ministries! You've got to get in while the pickins' good (or something like that...did I even say that right???). The longer we wait to develop this type of ministry, the less appeal it will have to kids and parents because of it being old news.

Of course therein lies a whole series of prayer motives for us all to consider. The biggest of these is leadership...and further, national leadership. You've got to have coaches and other volunteers to build a baseball program (or any program for that matter). The training is free, thanks to Little League International. But the motivation is seemingly pretty hard to come by. And while missionaries are great to put to work, they are not what's needed to build continuity and longevity into any ministry. Nationals, the Poles, are required.

You can be praying with us that our national friends will get the itch to get further and deeper involved. They are needed both for the sport AND especially for the ministry aspect. Pray for all of our focus. Pray that this will be used as a tool to bring these kids and their folks closer to Christ. I know I've said this before, even recently, but I do need to continue to remind myself and you all about that so we can be vigilant in prayer for these things. I love playing and coaching...but that's not the heart of what we're doing.

It's a beautiful day and we're about ready to go. Man...what a job!

Dad's always watching

My oldest son has taken a real interest in photography. And after seeing the star shot I made the other night he began asking when we could go out at night together to try to get some more cool shots. So, I showed him around the basics of the camera yesterday evening. But, being cloudy, we figured we wouldn't be able to go out and get any decent shots.

'Round about 10pm Vicki and I decided to head toward bed and I took a last look at the sky...perfectly clear! I went up and checked to see if Piotrek was sleeping and found him laying in bed playing Gameboy. Making a camera motion, he pumped his arm as if he'd scored a goal or something and threw some clothes on to go out.

I've got to tell you, this boys loves his dad. It was great spending a bit of time in those late hours together...time with definitely just us as even the bustle on the streets was more or less gone. We played with some different photo ideas and I let him think up some shots and even mess with the camera settings to get an idea of what works and what doesn't. And in the spirit of Cole Thompson we crudely shot this B&W (ok, technically it began as color but was later processed) long exposure shot that I decided to call "Dad is always watching".

Definitely more about the time with my son than the pictures. But what bliss to bring both of those worlds together!!

Night Photography (test shot)

Wouldn't feel good about not posting a picture today!! Ok, this is not a great shot by any means but the concept is way cool and I wanted to share. See the little white lines (might have to click on the picture to see the larger version)? They're stars. The blur pattern is created because of the earth's rotation. And since this was a 5-minute that is quite obvious.

Again, I shot this last night before going to bed just outside our place because I wanted to try it. Unfortunately the light from the city doesn't lead to the best lighting conditions for long exposures like this...but again, the idea is cool. If you want to see some unreal night shots, hop over to this site. Seriously, they're all night-time shots....at like 2am! Hard to believe huh!! You can also scroll through this page to see some cool star shots and read a bit about the technical side of things.

Genesis church...a great encouragement

For the majority of our time here (going on 3 1/2 years now) I could be heard saying the same word over and over to describe the state of ministry here in Poznan...potential. Really, I said it all the time and with good reason. We spent our first two years working with about three main different groups, all of which were brimming with potential....dynamic leaders, great vision, contacts outside of the church. But the potential never seemed to go anywhere.

There comes a time in any project that evaluation is necessary as you just can't continue working for work's sake. If nothing is happening...if you're not seeing any fruit then there has to be a reason. Or it's even sometimes possible that there is fruit although it's of a different nature than that which you thought was going to be produced (maybe a different post?). But in the case of each of those projects it was determined that the strategy was pretty much the issue in the end. And upon that realization all participants seemed to agree that there was not much point in continuing. So, we sought what else God had for us.

Last summer the opportunity presented itself to begin working again with our friends Tomek and Damaris Otremba from Genesis Church (link's in Polish...but at least you can check it out). These guys were/are good friends and actually the first Poles we ever had contact with...even before we arrived here. So, it was great to get back together with them and begin working with them to see their church develop to the point of being able to plant more churches, a strong vision God has given Tomek. Well, we're not there yet, but...

God has been working deeply in the hearts of the people who are involved with Genesis. There is evident growth both in believers and seekers (although we're all seekers in a way, huh?). It's extremely encouraging seeing many young believers growing and maturing and beginning to see the need to explore ways to share The Message with others around them. Here are some specifics that we're seeing:

• One family who has been attending Genesis for several years now has been feeling God leading them into full-time missions! How incredible is that?! It is a dream of ours to see the need for foreign missionaries in Poland to come to end because of the number of Polish missionaries taking the Gospel to their people. They continue to seek out God's specifics with this because it would involve some rather drastic changes in career tract and family life.
• There are a couple guys who are part of a core group of leaders which are about to open a coffeehouse ministry geared toward helping the homeless and others in need to social help. The coffeehouse will be a first point of contact for people to come and speak with trained listeners (they are not counselors). As they gain insight into the visitors' needs, they will be able to offer them assistance through partnerships with other organizations in town. They are passionate about making a difference in these peoples lives...meeting their physical AND spiritual needs.
• Several I have talked to personally recently are feeling like God is calling them to "more" in life. It is no coincidence that this is happening in more than just one person...and even separately they are hearing the same direction from the Father. God is taking these willing hearts and molding them...not as individuals but as His Church...in order to make a difference in this city.
• There are three small groups that have been meeting. One is studying Experiencing God (of course in Polish), another is following their own course of study and growing vibrantly together, and our group recently finished working through the Alpha Course (our friends' schedules haven't allowed them to meet recently but they continue to want to study the Word together as time allows).
  
• Tomek and his wife have been in the states for awhile and will not be back for a few more months. We anticipated that this would be a difficult time for the church as there would not be a consistent leader. However, again, we have seen God taking that possible dire situation and completely turning it around. In Tomek's place has been a very godly man, Chris (his English equivalent). He has been leading the church ever closer in their service and "followship" of Christ and showing us that God is the true leader of the church. Growth does not depend on us, thankfully. But, as now, when His followers seek Him with open hearts they will find Him...and He will lead them to the lush pastures that He promises.

This is a long post but I wanted to share these things with you all as they are extremely encouraging. We are fortunate to be working alongside many of these people, doing what we can to encourage them to even greater commitment. Of course, the incredible thing is that all too often we are the ones being encouraged, lifted up by our brothers and sisters here. That is a beautiful thing. It's The Family...serving one another...working together to be Christ to those around us.

Meeting at Children's Home

We were invited to attend a meeting today at the children's home concerning the general "state" of the kids. These meetings take place about twice a year and involve a child's case worker, the directors of the home, and any adoption agency representatives which can come from the agencies that handle the child's file (generally from their home town). We weren't too concerned with this meeting because we know almost all involved and each of these folks are quite positive about our case.

Things turned out a little better than we'd planned, actually. The bulk of the meeting went really well, as Sylwia (the kids' case worker) explained everything in great depth...how at home the kids are here...where we are in the legal process...etc. Everyone was encouraged and expressed great interest in seeing things wrapped up on the 28th, at our hearing.

The unexpected thing came when we passed around a photo slideshow on our iPod for everyone to look at. We got many big smiles, laughs, oohs and aahs as they saw the kids at home here. After the short slideshow ended one of the woman began to tell us how thankful she was to have been there to speak with us. She told us about how she had been very discouraged for awhile recently and had been wondering if there was any sense to her job at all. She thanked us for encouraging her so much with our story and for the joy that she felt hearing about (and seeing) our kids! What a blessing that was for us to hear!!

Another great thing is that the notes taken today, including signatures from everyone present, will now be sent on to the court. As we move ever closer to the hearing that will be helpful to have even more positive opinions for the judge to read as he is thinking about how to proceed.

The all new Apple Spotlight

Apple has been working on a new feature for its laptops. When you apply their new software patch you can take advantage of their spotlight feature. No, I'm not talking about the one that searches your hard drive for files you're trying to locate. I'm talking about turning the laptop into a genuine spotlight!! Corneas beware!!!

Help us connect!

I really need to get something on the blog as to push the "no makeup" post down. The past few days I've been a bit blank...haven't had much to talk/write about. Life is normal -- well, whatever that means here.

With the impending court date we've begun trying to set a fresh time line. That's always dangerous as our plans have never seemed to work out the way we thought they would. Of course there's a good bit of spiritual application in that thought...however, we do need to get some things lined up so that when the time comes we'll be prepared to go on stateside assignment (aka STAS). The date we're groovin' with right now is July 14. Yeah, it's sort of pulled out of a hat, but it looks good to us. I expect all of you at the airport when that time comes!!

I'd like to somehow get your thoughts on a big question that has interested me for a very long time...what do YOU want from US? What helps you connect with us? Do you feel connected? What would help? What doesn't help? What could we do better? What should we stop doing completely? And I'm serious about this. Frankly I think we, as missionaries, just do the things we're used to doing in hopes that it works. But we know that generally the "folks back home" aren't going to be completely open to share when something isn't quite working.

Case in point...email newsletters. Do you all read them? We're not able to track that like we can visits to a website or blog. [Actually we could but it seems that might just be mean and all big-brotherly...don't want to go there.] I mean, I realize that many of you probably get umpteen newsletters a month to go along with your normal inbox assault including work- and personal-related messages, solicited informational messages, and the occasional junk mail (right!...if every 5 minutes constitutes occasional). I know that not everyone is going to read the newsletters...but what about those that do not?

This question leads me to think about other forms of communication and whether or not these could be more effective. Of course along with each form comes more questions. Blogs...(1) how often to update, (2) keep it only ministry-related or include everything from life, (3) add video or audio/podcasts, (4) use freaked out makeup looking pictures that cause some to lose sleep??? Similar questions can be found when considering other tools we use to connect with everyone.

So, I'd really like to hear from you. What, in your opinion, could I/we be doing to better communicate with you? Would you like to see/hear about more specifics from ministry? More pictures of the place where we live? Video? A blog from Vicki (realize she's like anti-technology...but she could be persuaded)? More emails...less emails? Anything you might be thinking, please feel free to either comment here or send me an email. If I actually do hear from you all, I'll post again with some of the general impressions I've received. And don't worry about encouraging me by telling me that everything we do is perfect...that my blog is by far the best one out there in cyberspace...and that I enrich your life with my words and visual art (ha!!). I, of course, already know those things.

I love y'all and always think of you as I'm writing. Let me hear from you on this!!

No, that's not makeup!!

If you haven't noticed around here already, I'm somewhat of a photography nut. I was talking to Vicki about it the other day and told her that there's something almost musical in it for me...the concept of evoking emotion from someone (if just myself) by what is happening in that one frame. It's really beautiful. I'm no pro...but I deeply enjoy the science/art of photography. And so it's easy to end up sitting here late at night after the "busyness" of the day has come to an end, playing (maybe a better word would be "learning").

I've got to say that earlier I really didn't anticipate posting this image...for obvious reasons (but you remember that we share our lives with you here on the NWPoland Blog...the good, the bad, and the ugly!). But it's interesting to me. Let me explain.

It's obviously processed...you knew that. But while it seems that I've added certain elements, for example makeup, that isn't the case. What you're looking at is a complicated blend of a couple different Black & White color modes which have been in a sense molded together using layer masks (talking Photoshop here). Basically this just means that the eyes, eye brows, and lips are in one mode while the rest is in yet another.

Why's that interesting and not just goofy? Well....for me, the "I Heart Light" guy, it's really interesting what can happen in an image just by playing with the light that is already there. We're not adding new light in the software...just adjusting the light that was originally captured....things that would be extremely complicated to see when peering through the viewfinder in your camera.

There are, as usual, spiritual implications to this. They abound. Things are not always as they seem at first glance. Sometimes a fair amount of time is needed to process a situation (much like an image from your camera) in order to really understand all of the nuances and details which might have been missed originally. Sometimes that processing time can lead to some amazing discoveries about ourselves, others, or even about God Himself. I guess you might say that there is more to "the light" than just what we see at first glance.

Resting

You all don't get to see this beauty too much.
So, I wanted to share this one with you.

Guitars and answered prayers

Back a few months ago I went on a crazy one day trip with some of my Polish friends from Genesis. I don't remember if I blogged about it or not. I thought they were taking me out to the country to kill me or something....no water (which translates - no toilets), "evidence" of major mouse activity in the place where we stayed, deep mud that tried repeatedly to devour my van. It was like something out of National Lampoon's Vacation series.

We did get to spend some great time together talking, praying, singing, laughing. At one point we were talking about our spiritual desires and I mentioned how I crave intimate community with a small group of guys. One of them, Waldek, mentioned how maybe God was bringing that into my life through them. Eventually we wrapped things up and headed back home...and time went on.

A few weeks ago I was talking to Waldek again and we came up with the idea of meeting every week to play guitars together and basically work on worship music so that if anyone ever called on Saturday night needing a fill-in for Sunday we'd be ready (that actually happened to him the same week we started meeting). We figured it would be a good chance to worship together and generally spend a little time together.

Tonight is actually going to be our 2nd meeting and already we're growing! There'll be a new guy coming...one who supposedly studies guitar so I'm a little intimidated. But it's awesome that God is answering that desire I have through something informal and stress-free like this. That's what we mean when we say that "God is faithful". Our Heavenly Father loves us so deeply and only wants the best for us. And even though life gets tough and is full of bumps, scrapes, and bruises...there are also the sweet times when God lovingly says to us, "yeah, I was listening...here you go...."

Virtual Christians?

My mind is really moving with this idea so I figured better write it down before the cobwebs cover up all the good stuff! What could be done with a virtual Christian presence in an online alternate universe, aka a place like Second Life?

• Virtual missionaries. After about 30 minutes of trying to figure out where I was I happened upon two extremely fruitful conversations. I was just imaging how people could set aside on hour or whatever daily (maybe even just once a week) to go online and seek out people to share the Gospel with. Seemingly, relationships can be built with people...you can make it so that you talk with the same people often. You can also just do "street evangelism", going to the seedier sides of the virtual world to share Christ with passer-bys. Could the International Mission Board be sending missionaries to the virtual mission field someday??
  
• Small group meetings. If you find yourself with a few friends, you could schedule a time to meet and talk about a passage of Scripture together. There are places all over where such a meeting could take place...for example the Christian coffeehouse pictured in the post below this one. It wouldn't need to take a long time...you could talk about what's going on in each other's lives. People walking through would hear (see) your conversations and be exposed to Truth.
  
• Church services. Like the virtual church in the post below churches could actually