Poland - Great Success and Blessed Beyond Measure

HiS PRINT Blog – July 11 and 12

Hello Folks, Greetings from Poland. Sorry about the length of this update, but since I have not been able to contact you for awhile, I want to share all that has gone on these past two days. Well there is no way to describe what we are going through here in Poland other than we are overwhelmed by the experience and the people that have embraced us from the moment we got here! Our trip to the village, Czernikowo, was a bit of an adventure, but we finally made it despite the traffic of Warsaw. By the time we had gotten to the village and stopped at the restaurant DeVinici, where we were to meet Coach Robert, I was as sick as a dog, with a horrible headache and sick to my stomach. Finally, got enough in my stomach that my head stopped throbbing and by the time Coach Robert and his daughter, Nelka arrived I was much better. She came over to me right away and gave me an enduring hug. She called me uncle and it touched me to the point of tears.  We finished eating and Robert lead us to the school. When I was here last year to scout out the school and area for a camp, I never got a chance to see the inside. I  knew the outside area would work but had no idea what we were in for when it came to the inside.

We left the restaurant and took these small skinny village roads back off the main highway through the hills and farmland. When we rounded the corner of a forest and saw the school in distance the other coaches couldn't believe their eyes. Out here in the middle of a small village is a large school that looked pristine surrounded by rolling hills. When we got inside and saw the condition of the rooms, showers, restrooms, gym and cafeteria we were all utterly floored. We could not ask for a better situation and the hospitality of Robert and the parents was heart warming. We are all staying in individual classrooms, with the HiS PRINT staff staying together and the campers broken up by age and in other rooms. That evening we sat in our room and had a time of prayer and we asked Coach Robert to join us, which he was overjoyed to do so. We talked a few moments and then asked each coach to pray for the camp, campers, family, sharing our faith as well as anything else that came to mind. As our coaches each prayed and before I could close us, Coach Robert prayed. In his prayer he revealed that he was uncomfortable praying out loud and not in church and that this was unusual here in Poland, but that he was thankful to do so and being taught that he could by our willingness to do so and included him. When I finished I told them all that this is exactly what the body of Christ represents, different people from different nations, all praying to one God!

 

 Now if I mention the food we are having brought in to eat I will not have any problem having more of you wanting to come back with us next summer, especially if you are hunters.  It has been an authentic Polish dish meal after meal and none have been disappointing or have left us walking away from the table hungry.  To know what those meals are, you will have to ask Robert, Joe or myself to find out. Don't want to make anyone jealous!

Campers rolled in this morning, most before 10:00 when they were supposed to come and all were here and in the gym ready to start by 10:06. Incredible display of dedication and desire to get started playing ball and eager to camp started.  We have 24 campers, ranging from the ages of 7 to 13 and 3 helpers, all older players 18 and older, all anxious and excited to play and we have had a ball with them from the get go. The weather was rainy all day today and we were not able to get outside, but that didn't stop us. Coach Robert introduced us and I shared with them about what we would do and why we were there. This was the first time most of them had ever met an American and this was their first camp they ever had with foreign coaches and their attention was impeccable.  We did a speed and agility camp Saturday morning, broken down into 4 stations so they got a lot of reps in and was not a lot of standing around. In the afternoon session we split up into a defensive session for an hour, defensive session for an hour and finished with team games, devotional and motivational talk in the evening camp. After the morning session we stopped for lunch, some free time to do what ever they wished and this gave us the opportunity to get to know one another. After the evening incredible meal and fellowship time, we offered a pitching and throwing session for anyone interested and every single camper came down to the gym and participated.  So for another hour all the campers worked on their throwing and the improvement was fabulous. God has opened an incredible opportunity to be here and Coach Robert invited us back after the practice this evening and is already planning on it! We did have one young girl who wanted to go home because she was missing home and family. She spent the evening in tears and Coach Robert called her folks to come and pick her up. She said she wanted to come back to the camp and made sure she had her new baseball cap to take home to tell her family about the footprint that was on it. Coach Robert surprised us when we got here with some baseball caps he had printed up for the campers and us. On the back of the cap was the footprint of HiS PRINT with the cross. I had explained that footprint to them in the introduction and she told Coach Robert she wanted to go home and tell her family about that.  Blessed my heart to hear that she had listened and was excited to go home and share about what she heard.

Let me take a moment to describe the first experience I spent talking to the campers sharing the gospel and talking about God and His love He has for us through His son Jesus Christ. They sat with open eyes, mouths and ears. They seemed so open and receptive to listening to what I was saying, but were unfamiliar with what they were hearing. Not so much the information, but where they were hearing it. Coach Robert had told me last year when I prayed, that was the first time any of them heard a prayer out on a field, by someone who was not a priest. This has been an incredible experience to share the good news of Jesus Christ, because that is why we are here and that is the reason God opened this opportunity to be His shining light, by loving these people from Poland where they are and loving them till they ask why!

Blessings

David