My blog hasn't been working lately. Here's the rest of the last post ... I'll add a new one soon I promise!
Wednesday, 4/5: Thank goodness for luggage drop-offs in the train station so I didn't have to haul my suitcase all around Zagreb. Nice seven hour train ride back to Vienna. Got to sleep and read a lot. Chris and Anne Frank's son, Cole, looks a lot like a sheep when dressed up in his white wool one-piece coat.
Thursday, 4/6: Deja vu. I'm back at the Oasis and Altenmarkt, playing with the kids! It isn't as strange as I thought it might be to be back. Though many friends are gone, many others remain, and I feel at home. Had a lovely kebab and a heuriger outing with the whole team which made up for having missed my own party on my 24th birthday.
Friday, 4/7: Met the PIONEERS couple working in Vienna and with the guy under whose authority they work. Great vision for reaching not only the city but the whole country. There are still great needs in Austria. Also spent time with my friends, the Dossetts, and had dinner with my former teammate, Miriam, and Kathy Marsh, who is well known in both I.T. and PIONEERS circles.
Saturday, 4/8: The day of crises and running out of steam. My hectic schedule finally caught up with me today and I ran out of gas. I also had my bank card cancelled on me and spent a half hour and about $23 in cell phone charges trying to get it to work again since I was down to 5 euros! Managed that finally by being more forward and pushy than I normally am with the bank people. Also had my cell phone (which has been vital) run out of battery power and had to macgyver an adaptor before I could charge it back up. In the end, crises averted and I was in for the night by 9, which was great but required me cancelling a meeting. Also got to my friend Ares' wedding, which appeared to be a great coincidence but was really just a great blessing from the Lord.
Sunday, 4/9: Made my AM train only because the driver had pity on me running and dragging two suitcases behind me. Flew to Poland where I had to figure out how to get to a city two hours to the southeast. Barely missed the bus there, had to wait for two hours for the next one so I went back into the terminal to change some money and wait and ran into the guy I was supposed to be seeing in the other city. He'd come to pick me up but I didn't know it. It's a minor miracle that we found each other. He was relieved and I was grateful. We went to downtown Warsaw, coming face to face with a lot of tragic history, I had sushi for the first time and then we drove down to Lublin.
Monday, 4/10. So far, attended an English class and saw the city. Poland has, at most, 150 missionary units (couples or singles) and 40 million people! Evangelical believers are about .05% of the population. This is why, two years ago, an article in "Evangelical Missions Quarterly" said Poland was, by one count, the least reached country in the world.
Who knows what other adventures lie ahead in the remaining three days?
In summary, I can say this: there's surely a great darkness in this continent. To the people of Europe Christianity is, at best, misunderstood, and at worst, completely irrelevant. The need here is great, which is why we call the people here "Forgotten Peoples". And, secondly, I definitely feel a great yearning to be here again and hope it'll come to pass soon that Naomi and I can come back.
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