Poland Menu

Where do you wish to go from here?

• The Preparations
• The Journey (8/28/02m-10/9/02m)
• The Beginning (10/14/02m-12/4/02m)
• The Holidays (12/6/02m-2/9/03m)
• Winter and Spring (2/10/03m-5/14/03m)
• The Journey's End (5/23/03m-3/30/04m)
• Marion's Journey
• Return Trips

• Untypable Polish Letters

Every summer, the United Methodist Volunteers In Mission gathered at Lake Junaluska in North Carolina for a Rally. This was a chance to gather with other UMVIMers, to compare notes, and to learn of new opportunities for service. It was a time of refreshing our spirits and gaining new enthusiasm.

One of the features of 2002's Rally was the World Walk. The participants were divided into groups and took turns visiting representatives of twelve mission fields. We learned of the need for volunteers in such places as Sierra Leone, Jamaica, Ghana, Latin America, and Poland. The General Superintendent of the United Methodist Church of Poland told of the need for people to teach English as a second language in his country.

This sounded interesting to me, so I went back after the World Walk and spoke with Rev. Dr. Edward Pus'lecki about the prospect of going. I asked some questions and listened to the information he gave me.

Then, when I came home, I spent time thinking and praying. I waited a long time, thinking and praying all along, before I was confident that this is where God wants me.

Since then, life has gotten rather hectic, for me. I'm setting items aside to be packed, gathering needed documents, books, and other supplies, and preparing the life I have here for a year without me in it. In other words, I'm teaching my mother how to operate the electronic equipment in the house. Progress is slow, but I have faith that all will be ready when I leave.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and my first step in this journey is a trip to Lineville, Alabama, to attend training for individual volunteers. I'll be gone from the fifth of August to the eleventh. I covet your prayers during this training.

I finally got around to starting my Poland section. When I come back from SIFAT (the location of the training), I should have more to say. I'll try to write down some thoughts each day of training.

So, here they are. I hope everyone likes the layout and the colors. I've tried to choose colors for easy reading. If you are viewing this with Opera (you can get it here), you can increase the size of the font on any page by pressing the plus (+) key, or decrease its size with the minus (-) key. If you are using MS Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher, you can select View from your menu bar, Text Size from that menu, and the size you desire from the menu that produces. If you are using Netscape, you can choose View from your menu bar, Text Size from that menu, and the size you desire from the menu that produces.

I need to pack tomorrow for the training week.

I started a bank account for my mission. Unless you wish to donate through the church, you can just go to Compass Bank and make a deposit. All you will need to deposit money is my name. If you donate this way, please let me know by phone or email so I can send you a note of thanks.

Thank you all for your generosity, your prayers, and your good wishes for this endeavor. God bless you.

If you wish to send me letters, care packages, or money, please email me for the address.

If you haven't heard from me by email, I don't have yours. My email files didn't make it into my computer, apparently.

Some of the Polish letters have diacritical marks on them (e.g. ó). While the example (o with an acute accent) is displayable with universal HTML code, some of them aren't.

Here is a key to my conventions regarding Polish letters not in the universal keymap:

I will use these conventions throughout my Poland pages.

[Edit: I've tried to replace these with their actual Unicode characters. If you're viewing this site with MSIE6 or lower, they may not display correctly... but why would anyone still be using MSIE6? Sorry, but it really is time to upgrade.]