This is a picture of the girls standing in front of the Operation Christmas Child boxes last week. About 100 kids came to receive presents. The girls helped stack the boxes and had a good time watching the kids receive their presents. It was really neat for us to see this program from this end where the kids get the presents! 

Here is a picture of some of the folks from our Tuesday night English club. This picture was take on Friday at the Christmas Party. 

A fishy adventure

Well, I ate my first sledz tonight! We had our Christmas party with our students from English Club, and one family brought sledz. It's raw herring in sour cream. It was interesting. I was able to swallow it and I was very thankful for that! The party was lots of fun. We had 9 Poles come and we played games, ate lots of food and talked. They are such a fun group of people and so interesting. It's fun to see how different cultures spend Christmas! Check out the video of this adventure at http://www.kevin-emily-brooks.org/sledz.wmv

November Newsletter

Sunday in Olsztyn, there was a tree dressing ceremony in the town square. Different children from the public schools were invited to put ornaments on the tree. We went with the Brooks and our whole family. When we arrived, the director of the preschool where our two youngest daughters attend recognized us and asked if our girls would put ornaments on the tree! We said yes. Lydia and our two youngest daughters ended up on stage to show off the ornaments for Preschool number 14! Then, they got to go to the tree and hang the ornaments around the bottom. It was great fun! Something unexpected always seems to happen to us. Here is a picture of our daughter with the director (principal). 

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went out into the community and shared the abundance of our meal with some who have much less than us. We put together 15 meals with turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, mandarin oranges, and an orange juice. On the outside of the box was a message to the recipient and a scripture. I think that for all of us helping some needy folks was much better than any leftover turkey sandwich we could have ever eaten.
 

This man was sleeping in the train station and woke up to find a box of hot food lying next to him. He immediately opened the box and dug in.
 

Here I am talking to a man named Greg. I gave him one of the meal boxes and then got a chance with talk to him a little. I think seeing the smile on his face when I gave him the food and the thankfulness he had for it may have blessed me more than it blessed him.
 

Thanksgiving comes to Kentrzyn, Poland

This is an email that we received from the teachers of the English School meeting in the Baptist Church in Ketrzyn, Poland. This is in response to the evening we spent there sharing about what we are thankful for during the American thanksgiving season. We shared a thanksgiving dinner with them including two large turkeys! Some of you sent American food to make this party complete, thank you very much again. Here is a segment copied directly from the email...
__________________
Literally all of the people were very touched by the fact that, quote: "the Americans" came. Most of our students were pleased with the opportunity to speak English with or at least listen to the native speaker. Students noticed and greatly appreciated that You mingled in the crowd and spoke with them. They loved the pilgrims story and the sharing Sean did during that night. When I came to the class after the Thanksgiving they asked me for the history of the printed thanksgiving day , which we were to distribute. The most memorable dish was the gravy. All the students ask for the recipe for such delicious gravy. Well, what do you think. Is there any polish equivalent for the gravy-mix you added to the sauce? Second best was the turkey, which we are pleased about. :o) and the yams with marshmallows. Third was either cranberry causes and the casserole or the pumpkin pies. The candies you left we shared on the classes and people were so excited!

Here are some comments.

"I was amazed by the whole atmosphere, warmth, kindness. Those people (the Americans) were so nice and so kind. The food was great. I just loved the turkey and the gravy!!!!!"

"That cranberry jelly sauce was the most incredible thing I have ever eaten in my entire life. Frankly we hardly ever had such feasts at home. I liked everything; the people, the food."

"I was so afraid that I will not be able to speak at all and I did very well but I was all sweat" (a woman from the very beginners group)

"I enjoyed the atmosphere, those people (that means You) were so calm and peaceful. I liked what the man (Sean) shared about God and being thankful. I appreciate that the thanksgiving story was presented to us by the natives. It was extra special and it was so different from what I heard at school."

"Great food, great party, I enjoyed everything a lot!"

New English Club on Tuesdays

We started a new English Club on Tuesdays. Now we have English Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The Tuesday group is led by Kevin, Lydia and me. This is group speaks less English than the Wednesday group, so we get to practice our Polish too! Last week was our second meeting and almost everyone in the group brought a friend! It's very encouraging that people are bringing their friends! Please pray for us that we would be bold as we share the Truth with them!!

At 4:30 pm Poland Time I took this picture of our first snow of the season. Notice how dark it is. 

Thanksgiving Dinner

This is a picture from Thursday night, Nov. 18. This is one of the groups that shared in the Thanksgiving dinner that some of you helped us with. Thank you again for sending us food items for Thanksgiving that we can't get here in Poland. There were many comments on the food and the fellowship. These people are students in an English language school that meets in a church here in NE Poland. We had an opportunity to meet and talk with many of them. Thier teachers will be sending us more comments about the food and our time together soon and we will post them when they come in. Continue to pray for these teachers who are Polish missionaries as they share the gospel and thier lives with these people whom God loves and wants to save.

Ice!!!

We were out the other night driving home from somewhere and we stopped at a gas station for some ice cream for Lydia and I found this! Yes... It is a bag of ice. Do you know how long it has been since we have seen a bag of ice? Almost 2 years. I was so shocked that I bought it even though we didn't need it. We went to our home with the Brooks and we all had a cold diet coke with ice. Ahhh....

This is us and our friend Michelle in Rzeszow, Poland on my birthday. We went down to Rzeszow to celebrate my 26th birthday with Michelle. We had a great time, and got the opportunity to spend over 18 hours on Polish trains.
 

October Newsletter

Check out the Brooks October Newsletter

Last Weekend

This last weekend, we were invited to eat in the home of a believer who has adopted us and calls us her family.  She was telling us that on Monday, she would go to the cemetery with friends of her dead husband.  These men go every year at this time and clean the grave, leave flowers, light candles and pray for him as they do all the deceased in their own families.  She feels that she has to go and be there because if she didn’t go, it would be perceived by these men that she didn’t love her husband.  So every year she goes with them to the cemetery.  The men ask her, will you pray for your husband, and she tells them, “I don’t need to pray for him, I already know where he is!  He is in heaven with Jesus.”  So while the men clean and pray, she prays for these old friends of her husband.  Pray for her as she witnesses to these people through her life and words.

Polish Folk Traditions - All Souls' Day

Here is a description of some All Soul's Day Traditions written by a Polish American. It is a little strange, but goes a long with what my Polish friend told me about the day. Polish Folk Traditions - All Souls' Day - Zaduszki & Dziady - Polish Culture As you can read from the title of the website, this site gives a lot of insight into Polish folk traditions and culture. Though it doesn’t necessarily portray all of Polish culture, it dose give some background into where modern culture has come from.

All Soul's Day

One of my Polish friends sent me this the other day.

In Poland All Saint's day is very, very important, these are the days when the most people travel, even at Christmas Poles do not travel that much. People would come from Germany to visit their relatives' graves. The sad thing about this time is the second day (November 2nd) when people pray for the souls of the dead, this is big in Poland. It originates form pagan times when people where visiting their dead relatives, and having dinners at the graves. The next step is contacting your dead family members which is occultism and The Church says nothing about that.

Here is a picture from Sean's and my trip to the cemetery tonight. Today is All Saint's Day. It is celebrated differently all around the world (you may be more familiar with the day of the dead in Mexico) but here in Poland it is a day to visit the cemetery, clean off family members graves, and light candles. Over the next few days we will publish more about this holiday, some stories about it, and of course more pictures.
 

Here'a a picture of our team! We spent the our oldest daughter's birthday in Olsztynek (see the next entry down for details). It was a beautiful day and we had a great time together. Look for more pictures from this day trip in the near future!  

Saturday was our oldest daughter's birthday. She turned 8 !! We made a Barbie cake with two cake mixes from the States. On the web we found an icing reciepe that said it was just like cake stores in the U.S. And oh it was! All the adults were practically in a diabetic state. The girls said it was too sweet. There are no sweet desserts like this in Poland, so the girls aren't used to it anymore. Yum is all we can say. We had a great day hanging with Kevin and Emily in Olstynek, a town near here. It is an ethnographic museum that has Polish buldings, furniture and clothing from as long as 300 years ago. It was neat. The girls have been three times already so they were our tour guides. They had a blast showing the Brooks around. They even learned some new things like where the saying raining cats and dogs comes from. Do you know??? It was a great birthday. I just can't believe she is 8. 

English Club Begins

Greeting from Poland! Our team is cooperating with the local Baptist church and pastor here in Olsztyn to offer an English Club. Learning to speak English is a high priority among young people here in Poland so we are both meeting a need and meeting new people! We are gathering for two hours, once a week for ten weeks with Poles who are interested in a conversational English class. The first hour is topic based English conversation on a variety of subjects, family, work, etc. The second hour is a Bible discussion/conversation time also on a variety of topics, who is Jesus, God’s love, is there life after death, etc. Tonight was our first meeting and we had five people come; one was a young man from our church and four others from Olsztyn. We had a great time getting to know each other and speaking English together. As we spend time in the next weeks before Christmas sharing the hope of Christ with these whom God already loves, pray that they will come to understand the real reason we celebrate this season. Pray that they will come to know this Christ who loves them! Pray also for us as we labor to see a life changing movement of God begin in NE Poland. From small beginnings come great things!

I realized this morning that I wake up to church bells every morning. I remember having several friends that visited Muslim countries and upon returning one of the first things that they told about was waking up every morning to the call to prayer. Today that is how I felt. The church bells were calling people to Mass. This culture felt so foreign. I started to feel badly that I didn't have the kind of devotion that some here have, the kind that drives you to wake up early in the morning to go to church for prayer and Mass. Then I remembered, we are called to be devoted to a relationship with Christ, worshiping Him and bringing glory to His name, not rights and rituals. Our spiritual act of worship is presenting our bodies as holy living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) and we are to pray not is specific places and times, but all the time (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Here is the first picture from the big sleepover! We just finished our very beautiful turkeys and wanted you to see them. 

Fun with Friends

Last night Kevin and I went out with some college-aged people from church, Pawel, Ewalina, and Michal. They took us to Old Town and showed us part of "their city." We had a great time hanging out and talking. They told us their stories of how they came to Christ and we shared our stories. It was an interesting mix of Polish and English all night! :) We are so thankful for these new friends. Please pray for them as they are a witness in their classes and to their families. Pawel and Ewalina have been married for 6 months. Pray that their marriage would draw them closer together and closer to God. Please also pray that Kevin and I would be an encouragement to them!

Life in Poland – I’m sure some of you remember coal chutes that were used to deliver coal to home basements so it could be burned for heating during the winter.  Well they have those in Poland too but have you every heard of a potato chute?  Today at our daughter’s school, we observed the potato truck (yes there is such a thing) delivering potatoes to the school cafeteria by means of a chute running into the basement of the building!  It was one of the strangest sites.  It was one of the many times in Poland that I have said to myself, “I wish I had the camera!”

Thanksgiving

Friends and Family,

We just wanted to remind you about our Thanksgiving project
coming up. We will be sharing about Thanksgiving in the United
States to an English school about an hour from where we live.
Part of this will be sharing some "traditional" Thanksgiving
food. There are many things that we can get here, but there are
also many that we can't. So here is your chance to get involved
with our ministry here in Poland. Here are some things that we
need pumpkin pie filling, pumpkin pie spice, Crisco sticks,
canned cranberry sauce, cream of mushroom soup, or anything else
that you can think of that we may need. If you would like to help
us please send us an email at kbrooks@go2.pl or Stevenson@pobox.com and we
will send you our mailing information.


We would also like to use some real life stories so if you would
email us stories about your family traditions, funny memories, or
favorite memories that would help us tremendously.


We need these things as soon as possible so we can finalize our
planning for this event. Thank you for all your help!

On Friday October 17 we went to the "Wolf's Lair". This was Hitler’s bunker and headquarters during WWII. Here is Sean, Lydia, the girls, Emily, our tour guide, and the dog in front of one of the bunkers. I am still amazed at the history that is around us. Yesterday Emily and I went to Old town and walked past the castle that Nichols Copernicus lived in. Sometimes we as Americans forget that history started before 1776. Anyway, we had a great time together at the “Wolf’s Lair” and getting to see some of the other cities in Northeast Poland. There are still many cities in Northeast Poland that we haven’t visited yet but would like to. We are praying that God will show us how and where He is already at work. Please pray for our tour guide, I don’t think she is a believer, but she has contact with the Baptist church in her area.
 

This last Sunday, October 10th, we had worship at our house. Sean and Lydia and their girls, and Michal and Ania came over for a time of prayer, singing and reading of the Word. We had a wonderful time. It's so nice to be able to worship in a larger group in English. I have missed that. Kevin read and shared from Hebrews 10. Sean led us in songs. This time was such an encouragement to me. It really fills me up and gets me ready for the week ahead. I pray that we will continue to do this throughout or time in Olsztyn! :)

A look at history

Sean and I have spent the past few days going around Olsztyn visiting cemeteries, monuments, important buildings, and landmarks, and researching some of the history of this area of Poland in order get a better understanding of where the people here. We can see, in these physical reminders, what was important enough, in history, to memorialize it in stone. Through this we hope to see where these people have come from and to try to figure out if and how these events have shaped and are shaping their reality and way of thinking today. Some of these structures are beautiful, like to castle and the column of the white eagle and some seem to be scars of past occupiers like the many Soviet monuments, and the Communist style buildings and Block apartments. We are praying for wisdom from God about how to reach the people of Northeast Poland with the Gospel. We know that if we ask God he will give it to us, James 1:5.

Hi again!  Thanks for praying for us this past week.  We traveled to visit some missionaries who live in Lithuania this weekend.  It was a very nice break for all of us.  The part of Lithuania they live in used to be Poland, which is interesting because the part of Poland we live in used to be Germany!  Do you sense a theme here?  It was a beautiful fall drive and we traveled through a part of Poland we have not yet seen.  The area is the extreme NE corner of Poland including the cities of Gizycko, Suwalki, Agustow, Orzel, Mragowo and several other large cities that have no Baptist churches.  This NE part of Poland that we drove through is huge and full of so many people who need to have an opportunity to hear the gospel.  Pray with us as and for us as we pray, plan, travel and work in this area.  Pray that the people that live in these cities will have an opportunity to meet Christ!  Pray that we can bring the good news to them!

 

Check out Kevin and Emily's September 2004 Newsletter

Today in NE Poland: Our middle daughter is going to a birthday party for a boy in her class in Polish school. Lydia will be there with her visiting with the Moms. This is a good opportunity to make some contacts with people in our neighborhood.

Hi and thanks for visiting our blog.  Come back often, we will be adding comments and observations from our daily life in NE Poland.  Send us an email and let us know you visited!

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:: Northeast Poland ::

We hope that through posting our experiences here that you will be encouraged to pray for us and the work that is being done here in Northeast Poland. Our desire is to see that all of the people of an opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.