David's dad and mom are visiting from the U.S. this week.  Earlier this week we took the train down to Krakow to show them one of Poland's most beautiful cities.  The whole family came along, and we had a great time exploring the down town area together.  Below pictures of our excursion.

I (David) gained 15 pounds when we were back in the US last year.  I had been warned that this could happen, but all that time away from some of my favorite fattening foods caused me to eat too much garbage.  Realizing that I was at an unhealthy weight I have been working hard since our return to loose the gut and I am now down about 30 pounds since Christmas.  As our city team leader says, "I don't want to have to carry all that extra weight everywhere I go."  We are all going to die some day, and it could be today for all we know, but a life without the fat is a better life and takes less effort to live.

Of course, body fat is not the only extra weight we carry.  It is so easy to get involved in projects and plans that are a poor use of our time. These poorly chosen uses of our time can feel like an extra weight we carry around with us everywhere we go.  We only have so much time in every day, and not every use of our time is the best use.  Ask God for the wisdom to use your time in the best way possible.  We only get so much of it, so why burden ourselves by putting extra effort into things that are not worth it.

I was sitting at my computer chatting with my brother over skype when little Sophie strategically placed herself next to my right arm.  She does this a lot.  It is a good way of getting my attention.  You see, it is very difficult to type with a four year old standing in such a position as to block your dominant arm.  She does this when she wants her Daddy to do something with her, and how I respond depends on how busy I am at the time and what she wants me to do with her.
Today I did not want to get off the computer.  I don't often get good conversations with this particular brother due to time zone differences, and I knew he would soon go to bed, but then I saw what she had in her hand.  It was a big book of Bible stories, and she requested in her sweet irresistible tone, "Daddy, please read me a Bible story."
How can I turn down such a request?

Friday we had two new people join our house church.  We are going to combine with another group to make one large group.  We are also changing our meeting location.  We will now be meeting in one of the student dorms.  Hopefully this will give us broader exposure to the students in Lodz and more opportunities to talk about Jesus.
Next week we will be finishing up our study of Philippians.  Over the past month we have been going through this short book.  It is amazing how deep it is and how much it applies to our lives.  It is hard to believe this little 4 page letter written by a guy in jail almost 2000 years ago can still carry such applicability today.

We recently started homeschooling Sophie for preschool using the Sonlight curriculum. This is a Christian based program and every week we memorize a Bible verse. Well, I was never sure if she was understanding what she was memorizing until yesterday. After her sister didn't want to share a toy with her she turned to her and said "Veronica, God loves a cheerful giver, 2 Cor.9:7"
I just about died laughing, not only did she knew the verse with the reference but she applied it to her life

This week we had a great house church meeting.  We were discussing Philippians 2 which is one of my favorite Bible chapters.  We had gotten pretty deep into the whole concept of being willing to serve without complaining and not looking out for our own selfish desires (v. 14 and 21) when one of the group members said, "I have a problem with verse 3."  When asked to explain he told of his fellow students who cheat in class.  He studies and gets good grades, but they cheat and his class rank suffers even though he actually knows more.  He asked, "Am I supposed to think of them as better than me?"

This is a hard question to answer.  Most of us would say like the soldier from the movie Gettysburg, “There are a great many men worse than me, and some better.”  It is easy to consider people better than ourselves when it is unquestionable that they are, but who wants to consider a cheater from school or the neighborhood drunk or the landlord we know is cheating us to be better?  We work hard to earn our places of stature.  Are we just supposed to ignore our well earned positions?  I do not want to do that!

Why should we help the cheaters in class or at work?  They will likely never recognize the good we did for them.  In all likelihood they will laugh at our foolishness and stupidity, and boast about taking advantage of us suckers.  Most will never even recognize what we do for them, so why even bother?

As we read on in chapter 2 we read about someone who is better than us.  Jesus is better than us because he is God, but He was not concerned about his “godness.”  He did not consider His stature something to be held on to.  Rather he became a servant.  He washed the feat of His disciples and placed them in a position above Himself.  He even died for the worst of sinners.  Jesus placed Himself in a position of service to all of humanity.  From the evil dictators to the lazy drunks, from the haughty priest to the lowly ditch digger, He placed Himself below all of them in service to them, and most of humanity will never recognize what He did for them.

In fact, He even placed Himself below us.  Even the most devout follower of Christ cannot realize how much He gave up for us.  Yet He did it anyway out of love for us.  How can we not turn around and do that for others?  How can we not consider our well earned positions to be nothing when Jesus considered His devine position to of minimal importance?  It is not about what is fair.  It is about what is right.

When we find ourselves fighting for our own rights and getting what we deserve, let us stop and consider what that really is.  I do not want to be treated as I deserve because what I deserve is far worse than what I have and will get.  If I desire the mercy, grace, and love of God, how can I deny others that same grace, mercy, and love?

This week I (David) am hoping to meet with a missionary who works with international students here in Lodz.  One of the international student groups here is largely made up of African students, and we may end up working with them this year.  I know that there have been students from Congo (DRC) here in the past, and they may be a part of this group.  I was thinking how cool it would be if I end up putting the little bit of Lingala my mom taught me as a kid into use here in Poland.
For those of you who don't know, my Mom grew up in the Belgian Congo/Zaire (currently the Democratic Republic of Congo).  As a kid I learned some basic phrases in Lingala which is one of many languages used there.  Actually, as I think about it, our family is a very good picture of the American melting pot.  Our family is American/Bulgarian.  We live in Poland.  My mom grew up in Congo.  In our family we have at least 6 languages that someone speaks fluently, and that does not even include my multi-lingual extended family.
I guess it was just a matter of time before some of those languages started bumping into each other.

Wednesday is the big annual planning meeting for team Lodz.  Charles and Dave will be meeting for several hours to review what we have been doing over the past year and plan what we hope to do in the year to come.  Of course, like in everything we do here, we want God to be the one actually making the plans.  Please pray that we would seek His will as we plan for the future.

David will be spending some time over the next couple of days reflecting on his role here in Lodz so that he will be in line with God's will for us as we plan during this important meeting.

Over the summer, our house church stopped meeting because most of us were on vacation at different points and when we were not there were other big projects going on.  With most of us back, we are going to start meeting again this Friday.  It will be nice to get together again.  Please pray that God would bless our meetings and that more people would start coming.

In other news, Sophie has begun her homeschooling.  Really, you can hardly call it schooling.  It is pre-schooling to get her ready for kindergarten.  We found great pre-schooling material that consists mostly of reading to her, but it also includes some simple projects to help teach her to follow instructions and prepare her coordination and listening skills for writing and reading.  There is also a weekly memory verse to begin teaching the Bible.  Sasha's going through the lessons every day with her.  Veronica likes getting in on the action as well, though she is still a little young for some of the concepts.

For those of you who check this blog on a regular basis, you have probably been disappointed in the lack of posts over the last three weeks.  Then again, if you are a regular reader you probably also remembered that we were on vacation in Bulgaria these past three weeks.
It was great to see family.  Sophia and Veronica loved Bulgaria as usual.  Sophie was even pleading with Mom by the end to, "Please teach me Bulgarian.  Please."  The loved their cousin Maxi and their Aunt, Grandma, Grandpa and Great Grandpa.  They were sad to leave, but they were also excited to wake up this morning and be back home in the "Lodz house."
Being rested and relaxed we are ready to plunge back into ministry here in Lodz, and it should be pretty easy to have a productive day as the girls all woke up at 5am because of the time difference, so David is already up working, and well into his day.
It is good to be home.