Blessings from the Lord

We have some great news!  Since our flight was cancelled in Berlin, there is a EU law that compensation is awarded in the amount of 600Euros to each passenger if the delay was under the airlines control and no other flights were offered.  So I ''sent in'' my request for compensation and they agree and we'll be getting paid 600 euros/USD equivalent in cash back!  Thank you Lord!
This is especially welcomed right now since our bank balance is about $100.00!  It will help us to put down deposits on a new place when we know where we are going in the near future.
I will post some pictures of my family home and surroundings soon on Picasa, so check back soon!
Happy New Year to everyone.

Christmas at my brother's house

My sister Chris and her family

We are home!

We are home in NY!  We got here late on Christmas Eve.  The flight went well without any problems.  We had dinner with my brother John and his family at his house on Christmas Day.  My sister and her family were also there.  It was a great time.  Now we are just readjusting to being back in the States and getting settled in for the next couple of months.
We went grocery shopping and the food prices didn't seem as high as they had been in NY before.  Even my sister thought the prices had come down lately.  This is Sunday and the weather is predicted to be 55 degrees today!  Got to get out and do something fun.  Really cold weather is coming in later this week.

Heading to family home in NY

We are in Berlin.  Our flight was cancelled yesterday due to trouble with the engine.  So Delta put us up at the Holiday Inn and has been feeding us well here.  We had a good night's sleep.  We also met a very nice lady named Sue who is an ex-patriot living in Germany for the last 50 years.  She lives in Berlin now and invited us to go to a Christmas Market with her.  What a fun day we had getting out and riding on the U-bahn and sight-seeing.  We will be leaving Berlin tonight at 8pm and will get to NY at 1130pm tonight. My brother, John will pick us up.  I will do another update once we get to NY.

Merry Christmas!

We are in Lipa, a small village about 1 hour north of Poznan.  It has been snowing here on and off for the last 2 days.  We left Glogow on December 19th.  Our neighbor, Jurek, gave us a ride to Poznan where Mark, Alex's dad picked us up.  We have a lot of luggage---4 large bags plus a duffle bag and 4 carry-ons!  Whew!  And we still have to send another box to the States.
We are looking forward to spending some time in NY at my brother Tom's house.  My brother John and sister, Chris and their families live nearby as well.
Our plane leaves on December 23rd and we should be landing at JFK around 3pm or so.  I think we will miss all the bad weather.  We will catch a ''window'' period where the weather looks good in NY.  Hopefully, flying out of Berlin won't be a problem.  Mark and his friend will drive us there in the friend's large van to accomodate all our luggage.
We have been taking it ''easy'' here at Mark and Lucyna's house.  Alex is done with school and will be here tonight.  Also, the grandchildren are coming over by train tonight.  They are 14 and 10 years old.  Their mom will come later on the 23rd.  We will just miss meeting her.
We are wishing you all a very Merry Christmas this year with your loved ones.  May God bless you all!

Trip to Berlin

Hi Everyone,
We took Sebastian to Berlin this past weekend to fly back to the States.  He made it fine and is now on his way on Jet Blue to Florida after spending a couple of days with my sister and her family.  We were only in Berlin for essentially 24 hours but made the most of it, tried to see some of the major sights.  We took the train from Poznan, a city 2 hours north of us.  It was fun and only took 3 hours on the train.  It was COLD when we got there and were walking around.  But I was bundled up!

 

Was able to go to a couple of Christmas Markets as well.  There were usually a lot of people, eating, drinking and shopping!  

Pottery from Jerusulem

That's about all for now.  Just winding down our time here in Glogow.  Looking forward to flying back to the States ourselves about 2 weeks and spending the holidays with my family.  See more photos by going to the Fraser Picasa Web Album link on the right.

December Update

Hi Friends and Family,
As some of you already know, Bob and I had a very difficult decision to make recently.  After carefully keeping track of our expenses, we realized that we are not making enough money to sustain ourselves till June of 2010.  We had sent an email out asking everyone to pray about this with us and we believe God has given us the answer to return home to the States at the end of December.  We might have planned for 10 months but God was planning for us to remain only 4 months.  We did a lot of praying about this ourselves and feel that it is God's will that we return.  We look at our coming to Poland as a blessing.  Many good things have come out of our being here.  We've made new friends, and got to know some old friends better.  We also now have another ''sister'' church to pray for.  We've learned how to teach ESL much better and can do a better job when we start up an ESL ministry at a church again.
We got to know Sebastian's family better and for that alone, we wish could stay longer.  I think that Bob and I have grown closer to each other and Sebastian to us as well.  Even though some of the things I had hoped to happen between Sebastian's family and him did not materialize, I think we planted seeds----of hope, love and importance of family ties. 
The Pastor was able to go with us to our last visit with his family to translate.  He is very loquaious and sets people at ease readily.  He was able to stress the importance of the kids learning English as a tool for getting employment opportunities in the future as well as to communicate with their brother.  The important thing is that Pastor Z says he will keep in touch with Sebastian's family and will do his best to visit them in the future and minister to them with things they might need, like clothes and other items.  Since we are not bringing items back that we bought here, we donated them to the family.  This included bed linens, towels and a kitchen stuff.  We were able to give them a microwave which they have never owned.  We take these things for granted, don't we?  Bed linens and towels are expensive here so we are happy to be able to give them what we had.  I had also brought the dress that I married Bob in----why I don't know.....it was a very simple type dress with an underslip and a lacy long sleeve outer garment/dress that goes over it.  I decided to leave it for Marzena, the older sister for the future.  I also still had the headpiece I wore!  Amazing that they still look pretty good after almost 15 years! 
We will be coming back and staying with my brother, Tom in New York for a couple of months, [rent free], which we had planned to do in July.  As it turns out, going back in December will be a Godsend  b/c he is needing surgery to remove his right kidney due to damage from chronic kidney stones. He lives alone, so will need us to help him in his recovery. God probably knew this all along!
We will have Bob's unemployment which while not much will keep us afloat till we can see where God wants us in the next few months and where both of us can find employment again.
Please continue to pray for God's will and what he wants for our future and where we should live.  Pray for a safe flight on December 23rd from Berlin to JFK Airport and then to my home.
Merry Christmas  and God bless you all.  Barbara and Bob

Thanksgiving and Other Things

Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to give you an update on what's happening here in Poland.  We celebrated Thanksgiving with our Polish friends yesterday on Sunday.  We couldn't find pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce but I think the meal came out great anyway.  We had turkey breasts/legs, mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing [since they don't have it in the stores], carrots, broccoli, cucumber salad and a dessert called "apple crunch" which I found online.  This was the first time I have cooked for 15 people!  Thank goodness for Bob's and Sebastian's help with peeling the cucumbers, apples, potatoes,etc....As some of you know, I have been terribly sick this past week [and had to start antibiotics near the end], so wasn't sure I'd feel better by this past weekend.  But Saturday, I felt better and we decided to cook some of the meal ahead of time so we didn't have to rush after church the next day.  Everybody seemed to like the "American-made" food!

See our link to the Picasa Web Album for other pictures and videos.

Last Friday we were able to go to visit Sebastian's family again.  It was his youngest sister's 8th birthday.  We gave her a Barbie with some ''accesories" like a walking dog.  See video.  She really liked it and never had a "real" Barbie before. 

Sebastian has decided to go back to Florida and will be staying with a family friend in Panama City, FL.  His cats are there with our friend, Diane so he is happy about seeing them again.  He wants to get back to working and is going to try to find a job while he is there, do some fishing and also help Diane around the house with some projects.  There just wasn't enough for him to do here in Poland.  He found relearning the language was difficult and couldn't get a job unless he knew Polish.  He did help the pastor's father-in-law do some outside projects at the Pastor's house and learned a lot doing that.  Mietek and Krystyna, the pastor's wife's parents were very good to Sebastian.  They knew a little English to get by and otherwise used a lot of ''sign" language.  Some things Sebastian could guess what they were saying.  It was funny to watch.  Krystyna would cook the 2pm meal for her husband and Sebastian and it was always something good, starting with homemade soup every day!  When the Pastor told the congregation that Sebastian was leaving, he thanked Krystyna and Mietek for "allowing" him to work with him for the last 6-8 weeks and teaching him everything.  It about made me cry!

November Update

We are going into our 13th week here in Glogow, Poland.  We've gotten our routine down with teaching ESL.  We have been so thankful for the borrowed car for our transportation, especially when it has been very cold.  November is supposed to be a very cold, rainy month but so far we had a mixture of of cloudy and sunny days so we are thankful for that.  We will be participating in an English Bible Study later today.  It is the same one that we met with last month.
A week or so ago, we went to the town of Boleslawiec.  This town is famous for their pottery which is world renown.  Prices in the US are 3-7 times as much as you can buy a piece here!  I wish I had the money to get a complete set of dishes!  See the pictures below.
Addendum: I found an online site called "bluerosepottery.com" that orders from the same factories as we visited.  Prices didn't look too expensive for some pieces!

Tea Anyone?

Special Prayer Request

We need you to urgently join us in praying about our financial situation here in Poland. After carefully keeping track of expenses for the month of October, we are realizing that we will be about $500 short of income every month. One main reason that this has come about is because we did not get the number of teaching hours that we hoped would be available to us.
In September, when we learned how many hours we would have, we were somewhat concerned, but felt that the projected income plus financial gifts would be enough to see us through, depending of course on what our living expenses would turn out to be. Also, we still had some savings that we could rely on but these are now very low.
We know that God had called us to come to Poland and that if it's His will that we remain here that He will provide for us. We are asking you to pray fervently for this situation in the next few days. Pray that we will receive the financial support we need to sustain us monthly till the end of our commitment period which is the end of June.
We know that this situation is in God's Hands. Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future"

ESL Classes at LOGOS English School in Glogow, Poland

Here's some pictures of Bob teaching his ESL classes.

Here's a few shots of Barb's class of 16 year olds.

October update

Hi Everyone,
Just thought I'd bring you up to date on what's been going on here in Poland.  The weather has been decidely cold!  We've had pretty good weather up till now with a few chilly days, but I think winter has definitely set in!  What happened to Fall?  One of the nearby cities even has snow forcasted for later this week!  That's kind of early even for this part of Poland.

We've been settling in with our ESL lessons and have gotten it down to a ''science" of sorts.  We can plan for the week's lessons in just several hours now.  We still haven't started the English Bible study of our own just yet but did participate in one at another church member's house with several other people last week on a Sunday night.  A dessert and kava [coffee] and herbata [tea] are always offered!   See picture below.

The guy in the purple colored sweater on the right is Shawn.  He's from New Zealand.  He was here about 10 years ago and stayed several years but left, then decided to come back in February of this year.  It sounds like he wants to stay now.  He has picked up the Polish language very quickly and can understand and converse fairly fluently.  He plays guitar in the church occasionally and puts on christian music concerts also.  This is his way of working for Christ.  He also collaborates with the Pastor and Tomek [in the dark sweater] on musical CDs.  They are currently working on a Christmas CD.  We've heard part of it and it sounds very nice.  They put together CDs to supplement their income.  Tomek plays the keyboard at church and also preaches from time to time.  He is finishing up at the seminary in Prague.  Besides Sean, [who speaks English as native language in New Zealand], Tomek has very good English skills also.

 Last week we also went to see our friends in Wroclaw----Piotr and Grazyna and Artur their son.  Piotr has been the one to help me translate letters and emails back and forth to Sebastian's family for the last couple of years.  We had met them when Sebastian was around 10 years old and we hired Grazyna to keep up Sebastian's Polish language for a couple of years while they were in the US.  Piotr was at the University of Florida Physics Department.  Artur was a playmate for Sebastian back then. Artur is in his last year of High School now and is a very nice young man. His English is very good! [as is Piotr's and Grazyna's]  Artur has a dream of becoming a heart surgeon and wants to study later on in Italy after medical school in Poland.

Well, let me finish with a fun story.  A few weeks ago, when coming back from Wroclaw and taking care of our Visa paperwork, the Pastor says "let's stop for something to eat".  So he pulls into a large parking lot where there are a bunch of stores and "lo and behold" a Pizza Hut.  The sign outside is very familiar to all of us.  So I told Sebastian, jokingly, "Look, he's taking us to Pizza Hut".  Sebastian, who loves the Polish food, says "No Way, I don't want to go there".  The Pastor, who is known for his joking says "No really, you'll like it, it's very good.  People in business attire eat here".  And sure enough, just then, a man in a business suit and briefcase was walking up to the front door.  Well, the sign is the only similarity to the Pizza Huts back home.  At least the one's we know!  Take a look at the pictures below.  The food was very good.  Good salad bar---although strange selections, lots of different type coleslaws plus beets and maybe a bean salad.  The Pizza was actually really good and they also served pasta dishes that looked really good.  Pizza Hut in Poland is FINE DINING at its best!!  I did try a pasta dish at a different Pizza Hut in the Mall near here and it was very tasty.  Until next time....

Danish Church in partnerhsip with Polish Baptist Christian Church

Two weekends ago, the Polish Baptist Christian Church in Glogow had a visit by a "sister" church in Denmark. A relationship was formed many years ago between the 2 churches. The Danish church had the idea to form a relationship with a church somewhere else in Europe and at first found it difficult in finding a church that was willing to form this partnership! But then they sent out another letter to this church in Glogow and a partnership was formed. Since then they have helped the Glogow church in raising money and adding on the addition to the church amongst other things.


Polish and Danish Flags to show
relationship between the 2 churches.


The Danish people singing a song
to the rest of the congregation.

Visit with Americans in Lubin

Yesterday we went to Lubin about 40mins away with the Pastor and his family. Our purpose was for the Pastor to preach at a church that was started by a husband and wife team from the US, named Paul and Carlene. They are part of an organization called "SEND". The church was started about 4 years ago and is housed in a building that is a coffeehouse during the day, English school in the afternoons and evenings and a church on Sundays!
Paul and Carlene have been in Poland for about 8 years and have 3 children. The Coffeehouse English School has about 116 students and has to meet in 2 different buildings. The church is wanting and needing to move into a larger building sometime in the near future. Some good food and fellowship followed the church service.

Fraser Family Update

We have been in Poland now for 6 weeks. It is amazing how comfortable we feel here already. The first few weeks were spent getting our apartment set up and taking care of the paperwork for the Visa papers. We were also able to do some sightseeing and visiting our former exchange student Aleksandra and her parents.
This week we are starting our 3rd week of teaching ESL. It is going very well. There was a learning curve in how to best teach the students but we are finding out that they need a lot more practice in speaking English in conversations with each other [which is usually the case]. They can read and comprehend fairly well.
Bob has about 6 classes and I have 4 classes. Some classes meet twice weekly while others are only once weekly. We usually teach Monday through Thursday from about 3pm to 6:30pm or so. The mornings are usually saved for preparing our lessons each day.
This past Saturday, we visited Sebastian's biological family. It was his sister Marzena's 18th birthday. We took a young 16yr old friend with us to translate since they don't speak any English. This can be frustrating but we are able to communicate fairly well. Sebastian and Bob showed Sebastian's brothers how to throw an American football. There was a learning curve for them with that! Then they got out the soccer ball and kicked it around for awhile. It was fun watching them. Marzena's cake looked and tasted delicious. We've only seen pictures in the past and wondered how good they must be since they looked so good! We've been praying and seeking answers from God on how to communicate better with Sebastian's family and to show God's love for them.
We have been so blessed since being here.
The latest blessing came in the form of getting a car to use while we are here. We had planned on taking the city bus and walking a lot [which we've already done!]. But the Pastor knew someone near the church who wanted to loan us an older car that they had. Its maintenance is up to date and it runs well. We can use it to visit Sebastian's family and get us back and forth to the school.