Life in a country where you don't speak the language is filled with challenges. Most days seem to pass in a blur of confusion. As time goes on I have begun to celebrate the little victories. Somehow these victories all seem to have something to do with food or language skills. Food victories are those that are closely linked to language, i.e. actually getting what you thought you were ordering in a restaurant or buying something in a grocery store that turns out to be exactly what you thought it was. Failures seem to abound. I recently bought a cake mix to use as a base for a strawberry cake. I make this cake often and it's fool proof, or so I thought. I don't know if it was the cake mix or the Polish Jello, but after one bite the cake went in the trash, which from the looks of the cake should have happened before we tasted it.
Yesterday I got a haircut, fortunately this experience was more positive than negative. However try as I might I couldn't get the girl to schedule an appointment for me to return for a future cut. I told her I wanted to return next month. I asked her when could I return. I even touched her appointment book and said, "Please," but I left the shop without an appointment!
So far my favorite language victory has been translating a small joke from Polish into English between a woman I know from church and a volunteer from Oklahoma. Both people were doctors, and let's just say it was potty humor, which made it even funnier to me!
As much hope as these small victories bring, we didn't move to Poland to celebrate the small victories. We came to rejoice with the angels...That is exactly what we've been doing this week. On Saturday two men and a woman accepted Christ as Savior. I've gotten to know Dariusz and Mariola through Bible study and English club. They are wonderful people and I am thrilled to see them come to Christ. Dariusz lives in the same villiage as Maria (see previous blog), and he is now the only believer in that villiage.
Please be praying for these 3 new believers. They face many difficulties, but there is victory in Jesus!
