The Simple Things

I can't believe that we have been here for almost 2 weeks! The days have gone fast and slow all at the same time. We have kept fairly busy with mostly just getting situated and learning the in's and out's of Poznań. Eric has already started working on the computers here and helping the "flaky" internet connection. I have been meeting with fellow christians in the community and seeing how we can partner together. We have found a lot of the staple restraunts and grocery stores. We've been to 4 malls, ikea and I don't know how many other random stores. We feel pretty confident walking around by ourselves and getting around on the trams without help. The missionaries here (Ev and Rhonda Tustin) have been amazing. They have been extremely helpful and made us feel very at home.



We have already gone through what people call culture shock. I'm not sure what it is but whenever people go over seas it causes them to stop and think about what's going on in your life. It can be a difficult time and somewhat depressing. We are doing good though. Like I mentioned above, we have a good support system here and they have been a huge help.


So that the title of this post isn't totally random I wanted to share with you a few of the simple things that have come to my attention that I took for granted while living in the states. Here are just a FEW:



1. Eavesdropping. You just can't do this here. There's no hearing about a random persons best friends boyfriend that broke up with so and so's sister. I guess that's what happens when they all speak Polish.

2. Asking to borrow a chair. Eric and I went to KFC (yes, they have KFC here) and there was only 1 chair at our table so normally not a big deal, right? WRONG.. I had to sit there for like 20 minutes deciding which charade skit would work best to act out asking for a chair.

3. Cooking. I can't even believe that I brought this up. I've already blown things up, caught things on fire, made hamburgers... no wait turkey burgers, ate pickled canned kiwi... It's been crazy. I miss the days of easy mac.

These are just a few of the things that we have learned while here. I will sure more later. Have a great evening! Love and miss you all!

Dzien Dobry!

Twelve hours and three planes after we left on Wednesday afternoon, we arrived in Poznan without any problems at all. Every one of our bags arrived, we didn't get hassled at customs, and we even managed to sleep a little bit on the flight(s) over.

The past couple of days since we arrived we have been sight-seeing and unpacking into our apartment. We feel so blessed to be here in Poznan and to have such a wonderful opportunity to share God's love with the people here.

I wanted to share a few pictures of our apartment with you all.Unfortunately the Internet connection here in our apartment isn't the strongest so it is hard to download pictures. If you check out our website you can see a few pictures that Eric downloaded last night of our apartment.

Well, I'm going to be off. Time to start getting reading for a new day! :)

Love and miss you all!
Shelly

listen.

Have you ever had those moments where you sit back and actually listen. You get rid of all the craziness and head noise and you sit in silence. You drown out the cars outside or the neighbors voice that you hear creeping through your walls. I try to do this often, except most of the time this type of listening ends up with to-do lists and me racing off to finish something that I had forgotten about earlier.

However, tonight I listened. I stopped, and I listened.

I was able to forget about the past few hours, days, weeks and listen. I felt so blessed. I felt so unworthy. I felt so loved.