Merry Christmas

 

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! From the Stevensons in Poland! Thanks for praying for us!

Christmas in Jemiołowo

 

Here is a picture of the kids in Jemiołowo. They are receiving thier presents on the 11th of January when we return from the states. However, it was our turn to be surpised, the brought us each small gifts! It was our turn for Christmas! Please continue to pray as we work in this village in the coming year. We have an open door with the Sołtys (village administrator) who invited us to come and visits with us each week.

Christmas in Platyny

 

Here is a picture of the group receiving Christmas gifts in Platyny last night. Continue to pray for our work in Platyny, we continue to have an open door there for teaching English and sharing the gospel.

Christmas in Nidzica

These are pictures from an Operation Christmas Child type of outreach in Nidzica, Poland that took place tonight! There were 20 kids and their parents along with two of us "missionary" types and the pastor of the Polish Baptist Church in Olsztynek. We had an awesome time and the kids had a blast. Continue to pray for our work in Nidzica, the groups that already meet should continue to grow after this outreach.

Santa Day (Dzien Mikołaj)

Today, we celebrated Santa Day here in Poland (actually it is celebrated Thursday but Sean will be in Prague). On this day kids put their shoes out and if they are good they might jut get a present. The girls received candy and a teddy bear making kit. They had fun stuffing their bears. We have been studying Christmas traditions from around the world, the confetti picture is from a Christmas cracker, a tradition from Great Britian. We also made straw ornaments from Sweden today. It has been interesting learning about different countries and their traditions. As we study more countries I will include pictures.

Please pray for Sean and for us as he tavels to Prague tomorrrow for a conference. He will return Saturday just in time (hopefully) to do an Operation Christmas Child outreach in Olsztynek. Pray for safe travel on the train (over 12 hours on trains) and pray for us girls while he is gone. Please pray for the outreach on Saturday that many lives would be touched as we give out presents, food and tell many families about Jesus.

English in Jemiołowo

Here is our team member Amber Dykes teaching English to some of the kids we work with on Wednesdays. This is in a small village of 400 near Olsztynek called Jemiołowo. Pray for us as we work in this small village.

Alethea had a B-day

Our newest team member, Alethea, had a birthday!!! Happy Birthday Alethea! Send her a greeting at... alethea_thomas@yahoo.com

If it's Thanksgiving Day then it must mean...

Bryan ate too much! WOW, did he eat the whole 32 pound turkey???

If it's Thanksgiving Day then it must be time for...

A GIANT TURKEY! This years bird weighed in at 32 pounds! It was awesome and tasty!

If it's Thanksgiving Day then it must be time for...

BUCKEYES!!! Yes, it's that hap, hap, happy time! Time for buckeyes! If you've never had one, they are wonderful. Chocolate and peanut butter, mmm... Here are the girls happily dipping and tasting! Happy Thanksgiving Day from Team NE Poland! Wish we could share them with you!

Cara in the Snow II

Here is Cara modeling her new winter coat during our snowy walk last week. Everything went geat last week in her testing and her medication has been reduced! Thank you for praying.

Cara in the snow

Here's Cara in the snow. Pray for her tomorrow. She is going to Warsaw for a check-up. We are hoping that we will be able to reduce her medication again and that soon she will be off of medication altogether.

Abby checking out the snowball plants

Here's another snowball plant picture... can you believe they grow like that here?

Snowball Plants Found Growing in Poland

I will bet you didn't know that snowball plants grew in Poland did you? Here's the proof! Sean and Abby captured this photo of the rare Snowball Plant (Iceuspherus Roshlinius) in it's natural habitat. It snowed last night and we all went for a walk today to see the snow. It was beautiful. We will post more pictures later this week. What's the weather like where you are?

Monday Bible Study

This is one of the ladies we meet with to study the Bible on Mondays. We meet in her shop for about an hour to discuss what she has been reading on her own and to study a weekly Bible study that Marcin and I write during the week. This week's study was about the Bible, what it is for, where it came from, etc. Pray for us on Mondays when we are out sharing the gospel.

All Saint's Day Photo Album

Check out the photo album that Bryan put together with the picture taken when we were prayerwalking on All Saint's Day. You can find the album on Bryan's blog here: http://web.mac.com/intemannx4/kojava/All_Saints_Day.html

Jemiołowo

 

Here is a picture of our first meeting in Jemiołowo (Yem-ee-oh-whoa-voh). It was taken with a cell phone so the quality is not that great but you can see Jessica and the kids she is working with! Everyone had a great time and it was a very good first meeting. Pray for our future work in this village.

First Snow

 

First snow of the year! It wasn't too much but it did snow and the kids were VERY excited!

Mondays with Sean

Hi all. Here is a short slide show of my typical Monday. I start out in the morning in Olsztynek working with Pastor Marcin, writing and translating our Bible studies for the day. Then we move to the local market (targowisko) to meet with a young lady who runs the clothing store you will see in the pictures. Next we drive 30 kilometers to Nidzica to do two more Bible studies with two different extended families. We often move on from there to Platyny to lead one last Bible study, however, today we stayed in Nidzica to visit with two poor families and leave them with some food and an invitation to Operation Christmas Child. These families were very poor and living in squalid conditions. You will see a picture of the block building they live in at the end of the slide show as well as photos of the other homes and pictures of the cities of Olsztynek and Nidzica.

New Link Added

Take a minute to check out the links! There are links to teammate blogs and webpages, current weather in Olsztyn and the NEW LINK: Webcam - Olsztyn Oldtown. See a live webcam picture of the oldtown here available 24 hours a day! Want to know what the weather looks like this winter? Check it out here!

All Soul's Day

 

All Saint's Day (Nov. 1) has given way to All Soul's Day (Nov. 2). This is a picture from our prayerwalking last night, it was a cool, cloudy and gloomy evening ending in rain. Today is sunny, windy and cold. Today is the day that Poles go to Mass to have the names of their dead loved ones read by the priest. The hope is that enough prayer and devotion will be made by living family to somehow procure the release of the loved one from purgatory and entrance into heaven. Please pray with us on this day again for the living. Pray that they would set their sights on Christ and what can be accomplished through His sacrifice for their own lives. Pray that many Poles would come to know the living Christ in their lives now!

All Saint's Day 2008

 

Today is All Saint's day, the day when Poles go to the cemetaries to place flowers, light candles and pray for their dead loved ones. We will join them today in the cemetaries and pray for the living. Will you join us?

What happened in Jemiołowo?

 

Marcin and I meet with the village administrator for about two hours. She is a very open and warm individual. We are looking forward to working there and have been warmly received. The village administrator is very excited about having us come to here village and work with them. We will start going there next Wednesday, the same day we meet in Platyny! Thanks for praying for our meeting today!

Jemiołowo

 

Tomorrow (10.30.2007) Marcin and I will be going to Jemiołowo (Yem-ee-oh-woh-voh) to meet with the village administrator. She would like to talk to us about doing some work in her village teaching English like we do in Platyny. Currently, we are going to Platyny on Wednesdays to teach English to children and adults. We have already started one group there and hope to start more in the future. Pray for us that we might find favor in the village of Jemiołowo tomorrow. This might be an opportunity for us to expand our work in the area around Olsztynek. I took the above picture last spring when we were visiting Marcin one Sunday. We walked to the lake after church and I took the picture because the village across the lake looked so pretty. It turned out that it was this village!

Abby's Birthday

Happy Birthday Abby! Here's a short slideshow!

Volcanoes in Poland?

Volcanoes and lava in Poland? Yes it's true. This is a slide show of the girls making those classic vinegar and baking soda volcanoes. Enjoy, they sure did!

Cat in the Box

 

We received a box in the mail the other day and Rebecca made it into a nest for herself. Missy decided to join her for the fun!

Studying Egypt

 

The girls were studying Egypt a week ago and they made these really cool pyramids out of brown sugar cubes.

Fall is Here!

 

Here is a picture of the fall foliage behind our house, it's a beautiful, cool fall here this year.

Youth Meeting in Godki

Hi all. The Baptist Church in Olsztyn held a youth meeting for the kids that came to camp this summer. Here are some of the pictures. About 20 kids came to have a bonfire, roast kielbasa, watch a presentation from the pictures of camp and have an all around, good time. The church is planning a whole host of followup events this fall including Bible studies.

Misja Polska

Hi all! We just spent the week in Olsztynek working with the Baptist Church there and Pastor Marcin. Here are some pictures of the NEP team out witnessing, a Polish Christian rapper who was awesome, and some pictures of the Polish Baptists singing and witnessing too. We had a great time and lots of opportunities to witness, give out tracts and Bibles and spend time working along side Polish believers. Please pray for those who recieved a witness, Bible and or tract this week.

Olsztynek

We will be working with the Baptist churches in Olsztyn and Olsztynek this week to hold different evangelistic events all over the city of Olsztynek. Please pray with and for us in this work. In the slide show above, you will see a picture with a young man standing in front of a church. This young man's name is Marcin and he is the pastor in Olsztynek. Please pray for him and his work there during this week. The other pictures are from Olsztynek and show different places we will be working this week.

Geocaching???

This is Bryan and Stacey posing with a statue where we found a geocache this week. Don't they look good?

American Day at camp

Here is Patsy making "American " food for the kids at camp. They served hot dogs, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hamburgers and red, white and blue cupcakes. Earlier in the day the team made the kids a traditional breakfast of bacon, eggs and pancakes. Aparently it all went over so well that the Americans did not have much left to eat!!! Camp was wonderful. We have fourteen new brothers and sisters. Thanks CBC Jonesboro!!! It was an awesome camp!!!!

Summertime!

Summer finally came again today after 2 or 3 weeks of cold rainy weather. We went geocaching with the Intemanns and found this beautiful hidden lake.