It's 8pm on Saturday and we're lounging in a Polish family's living room
drinking tea and watching the Simpsons on their 40-inch flatscreen... How did I
end up here?! Images from the last day float through my head... bright stars at
4am, an endless line of cars, Egyptian Ratslap, a towtruck, the Polish
countryside... in a lot of ways, nothing happened in the last 24 hours: rather
than arriving back at the castle as planned, we spent 16 hours moving less than
200 km... And yet getting stuck in Poland transformed the trip.
Here's how the the day unfolded:
We woke up at 4am and after sleepy goodbyes to Mimi and the daycare center, we began the supposed 17-hour drive back to Herrnhut. We were driving steady down the road with heavy metal pounding (ha), when we saw a long still line of cars in front of some guards- it appeared that we were approaching the Ukraine-Poland border. We stopped in the back of the line of cars and tried to stay patient- an hour passed.. drivers were out of their cars to have a smoke and stretch their legs... two hours... four... five hours… we played Egyptian Ratslap to pass the time... six hours... NINE hours later we finally were into Poland and on our way once again!
Or so we thought.
We drove less than 100 km when.. dreaded silence... the engine stalled! So, after our 9-hour wait to cross the border, we found ourselves stopped on the side of the road in an unknown town in Poland. We spent the next several hours searching for someone who could fix the van as Ryan made phone calls. We finally got a hold of the insurance company and by 7:30pm, a tow truck had arrived to drag the van to the repair shop. We climbed aboard began the ride. Seated on the flatbed, we drove through the Polish countryside… the sun had just set and the sky was still orange over the rolling hills- the delay was not so bad after all. 40 km later, we stopped in front of a house with an unusually large garage and a sign that told us it was the auto shop. Out of this house in the middle of no where, a young girl welcomed us in to her chandelier-clad home and offered us tea and cookies. She handed us a remote and thus, we found ourselves sipping tea and watching the Simpsons..
The whole ordeal blew me away. We'd spent nearly the whole day waiting- to cross the border, to get a tow truck, to fix the van.. and yet it hadn't seemed so bad. We got to see Poland, we had more time together as a team, we had some snacks and the sun was out... and now, the generosity of this family was amazing- tea, coffee, cookies, a cozy place to stay for a while.. It seemed that after two weeks of outreach this Polish family was the one reminding us to live out the gospel.. Matthew 10:40 says, “Whoever receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me… if anyone gives gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will surely not lose his reward.” We were blessed in so many ways by these strangers: food, hospitality, rest..
And as the evening went on, it only became more clear how blessed we were...
By 10pm, the van still wasn’t fixed and we didn’t have money for a hotel. The ten of us were stranded in Poland, exhausted from the 4am wake-up, hungry from having no real meal all day.. and yet later that night we somehow found ourselves in a 4-star hotel, had some powerful prayer time and group sharing, and in the next morning, had a breakfast waiting and a new van to drive back to the castle. The insurance company provided all. At last, the trip felt complete. The unexpected last day taught me the most important lesson of the entire two weeks: G-d takes care of us. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear… If…G-d clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more care for you? …Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” Matthew 6:25-34.
Here's how the the day unfolded:
We woke up at 4am and after sleepy goodbyes to Mimi and the daycare center, we began the supposed 17-hour drive back to Herrnhut. We were driving steady down the road with heavy metal pounding (ha), when we saw a long still line of cars in front of some guards- it appeared that we were approaching the Ukraine-Poland border. We stopped in the back of the line of cars and tried to stay patient- an hour passed.. drivers were out of their cars to have a smoke and stretch their legs... two hours... four... five hours… we played Egyptian Ratslap to pass the time... six hours... NINE hours later we finally were into Poland and on our way once again!
Or so we thought.
We drove less than 100 km when.. dreaded silence... the engine stalled! So, after our 9-hour wait to cross the border, we found ourselves stopped on the side of the road in an unknown town in Poland. We spent the next several hours searching for someone who could fix the van as Ryan made phone calls. We finally got a hold of the insurance company and by 7:30pm, a tow truck had arrived to drag the van to the repair shop. We climbed aboard began the ride. Seated on the flatbed, we drove through the Polish countryside… the sun had just set and the sky was still orange over the rolling hills- the delay was not so bad after all. 40 km later, we stopped in front of a house with an unusually large garage and a sign that told us it was the auto shop. Out of this house in the middle of no where, a young girl welcomed us in to her chandelier-clad home and offered us tea and cookies. She handed us a remote and thus, we found ourselves sipping tea and watching the Simpsons..
The whole ordeal blew me away. We'd spent nearly the whole day waiting- to cross the border, to get a tow truck, to fix the van.. and yet it hadn't seemed so bad. We got to see Poland, we had more time together as a team, we had some snacks and the sun was out... and now, the generosity of this family was amazing- tea, coffee, cookies, a cozy place to stay for a while.. It seemed that after two weeks of outreach this Polish family was the one reminding us to live out the gospel.. Matthew 10:40 says, “Whoever receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me… if anyone gives gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will surely not lose his reward.” We were blessed in so many ways by these strangers: food, hospitality, rest..
And as the evening went on, it only became more clear how blessed we were...
By 10pm, the van still wasn’t fixed and we didn’t have money for a hotel. The ten of us were stranded in Poland, exhausted from the 4am wake-up, hungry from having no real meal all day.. and yet later that night we somehow found ourselves in a 4-star hotel, had some powerful prayer time and group sharing, and in the next morning, had a breakfast waiting and a new van to drive back to the castle. The insurance company provided all. At last, the trip felt complete. The unexpected last day taught me the most important lesson of the entire two weeks: G-d takes care of us. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear… If…G-d clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more care for you? …Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” Matthew 6:25-34.
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