Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku

Happy New Year!
Uwaga: Caution this email is long. Feel free to skip to prayer requests!

We want to thank you for praying for us during the Holiday Season. God gave us family and friends to share in our days, hopes and dreams during the holiday season. We enjoyed family worship time: lighting candles, singing carols and reading scripture. God also gave us the wonderful technology of SKYPE to share Christmas day with our stateside family and friends. I know you are all wondering if we had carp in the bathtub. We opted for a pig in the refrigerator that transformed into a pork roast! God is our provider.

We also celebrated the season by learning about Christmas customs in Poland. We attended a Christmas party hosted by our language teacher and visited a museum displaying handmade Nativity scenes. We enjoyed a special worship service at our church complete with Polish carols. Someone recently asked us, “Why have you come to a country that already knows about Jesus?” Our answer....We pray that people would understand that Jesus is more than a baby in a manger and a man on a cross. We pray they would understand that He is alive today and wants to have a relationship with them.” Our desire is to see people in Poland come to know Jesus in a personal way, study His word and have fellowship with our Father in Heaven. Join us in this prayer.

Our Polish church participated in the Samaritan’s Purse Project. We attended a party where 45 needy children received shoe boxes filled with surprises. A small group from our church performed a play for the children and their parents. While the children played games, the parents were treated to coffee, cake and they heard the gospel message presented by our pastor. After games and fellowship, each child was presented with a gift prepared by our congregation.
Our family watched in anticipation as our gift was given to a small girl named Victoria. Please join us in praying for Victoria. We pray that this small act of kindness will lead her one step closer to claiming Jesus as Lord.

One of the highlights of our holiday was a visit to a nearby Roma Village. We visited in a home of a family who recently experienced the death of a child. We heard how their faith in God has sustained them and influenced others. We shared scripture and prayed for this family. Andrzej, the father, asked us to pray that God would allow he and his wife to adopt a child. From a human standpoint, it will be a miracle if this family will be given a child to adopt because they belong to the Roma population. Please join us in praying for the miracle of adoption for this family. If your church had youth or children who attended a FUGE camp: Centri-Kid, Mission-Fuge or Crosspoint last summer, our missionary friend and this family were highlighted during the missions emphasis. Missions offerings taken at these camps were given directly to the Roma Ministries in Eastern Europe. We can see your gifts transforming lives of people through the gospel message of Jesus Christ. (find out more about ROMA in Europe- http://teamromapoland.blogspot.com/)

We ask for your prayers as our family joins Henryk Podsiadiły to help with a Bible Camp for orphan and needy children, January 18-23 in Wisła, Poland. Pray that we can be used of God to share the message of salvation and hope to these children.

Our experiences during the holidays and the upcoming camp, give us a renewed sense of urgency for our language lessons. God has given us a life-changing message for the people of Poland. After our first week of language 2009, Beverly concluded, “That was not so bad.” God is a God of miracles! We appreciate your prayers for our language studies.

We are also enjoying WINTER. We received about 6 inches of snow last week. Bev and Megan enjoyed a day of sledding. UWAGA! (Attention, Watch Out!) Of course this amount of snow did cause a problem driving up a hill in front of Megan’s school. Megan Beverly, Jacob and a taxi driver pushed Ted (and the car) up the hill! Ted bought snow tires that afternoon. Temperatures have been below zero F but today we experienced a heat wave of 32 F!

Megan also started back to school with a good week. She finished the week by saying, “This week went by fast!” YEAH God.

We celebrated 28 years of marriage on December 27. We are praising God for allowing us to celebrate 28 years of marriage in a romantic European city! AHHH!

All this to say, God is Amazing. He loved us so much He sent His Son to be our Savior. He loved us so much He allowed His Son to die for our sins. He loved us so much He raised His Son from the grave and gave us eternal life. If that was not enough, He has given us the blessings of a wonderful family, caring friends, daily bread, His word and His church. He has also provides us with snow tires, educational expenses , a warm cozy apartment, warm clothes and good food. All of our physical needs are being met through gifts of Southern Baptists Churches through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Thank You for giving!

Thank You for enduring to the end of this email! Your continued love and support are so encouraging to us. We also want to thank everyone who sent holiday cards and goody boxes. We received so many cards and packages, our postal clerk was wondering what was going on in our apartment! Each item is greatly appreciated. We also enjoyed loving emails, prayer-grams and phone calls. Most of all we felt A PEACE THAT PASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING as God’s people lifted prayers for our family. Each of you are a blessing to our family.

Beverly, Ted and Megan

We praise our Father for
a wonderful holiday season
supplying all of our needs
good days for Megan at school and Beverly at language lessons
28 years of marriage and three wonderful, amazing children

Please join us in praying for:
Andrzej and Ola as they begin the adoption process. Pray God will give them a child.
Salvation of small girl named Victoria.
Continued progress in language learning.
Bible Camp in Wisła, January 18-23.
Megan as she shares Christ with teachers and students at ISK (International School of Krakow)
Megan’s residency card to be approved. (We need one more document from Richmond)

Beverly, Ted and Megan