James 1:2-3
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many
kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Life is all about perspective. I just got home from a trip to the beach with
my friend Ewa. One day while we were
there, Ewa said, ‘I love the beach so much!
I love finding sand in my suitcase when I get home.’ I’ve never heard anyone say they loved
finding sand anywhere away from the beach.
But I started thinking. Why does
it have to be so bad? It’s going to be
there, no matter what. Why can’t I see
it as a lovely reminder of everything I love about the seaside? The smell and sound of the ocean, the way the
water and sand feel on my toes. How it’s
the only place I go without a care about how I look or how dirty I get.
When we read James’ words, ‘consider
it joy when you face trials’, it sounds like a joke. And I think it takes a lot of spiritual maturity
to look at tough times as joyful ones while we’re going through them. When I look back at most of the last 7 years,
I don’t see much joy. I see a lot of
pain, loneliness, and confusion. But I
know, without a doubt, that I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am if I hadn’t
gone through those times. Those were
hard lessons that I didn’t seem to able to learn an easier way. It was a fire burning away the ugly parts of
me that I was blind to. Did I like
it? NO.
But I have thanked God over and over for loving me enough to come and
find me and do what was necessary to bring me back to Him. And I have told Him that if I ever start to
get that far from Him again, to please do what He needs to do. I would gladly go through it again. I find joy in the fact that it served such a
joyful purpose.
Take a look around you. Do you feel like you’re going through
trials? We all go through them eventually – sometimes those
trials seem to last a long time. But
there’s a reason for the trials. And one
day, you’ll understand why. As for me; I’m
starting to like the sand in my suitcase.
From
Katowice to Hel
Yes, there really is a Hel,
Poland. But of course, in Polish it
doesn’t have the same meaning. Ewa and I
took a night train from Warsaw up to the very north part of Poland to a little
peninsula that is the farthest northern point of the country. This is Ewa:
We stayed in Jastarnia, a
beautiful old fishing village. It’s
really tiny and picturesque. We spent a
lot of time being lazy on the beach, which was really pretty. A pine forest runs all along the beach.
Our little hotel had bicycles for
free use, so we rode them a lot. We took
rides through the trail in the pine woods and all through Jastarnia.
One afternoon, we took a bus to
the end of the peninsula, to Hel. It’s a
pretty little town. We walked out to the
beach on the very tip of Hel, and I took my picture so I can say I stood on the
edge of Poland. When I looked at the map
later, I was amazed at where I was.
One night we met an old man named
Miroslaw who had lived in Jastarnia for a long time. He owned the building where the restaurant
was where we were eating. The next night
we met him for tea and just to hear his memories. Born in 1932, you can only imagine what he’s
seen in Poland in his lifetime. The last
night, we met him again and he brought some of his old photographs. He was so sweet, and has no family left. I talked him into taking a picture with me.
On our way back home, we stopped
very briefly in Sopot. Then we spent a
few hours in Gdansk before our train left for Katowice. Gdansk was on the top of my list of cities to
see this year. It’s so famous and I’ve
never been to the northern part of the country before. I got to see the shipyards, which are so
famous from the 1980’s. You may remember
Lech Walesa, a shipyard worker who helped start the Solidarity movement which
eventually led to the fall of communism in Poland, then Europe. Walesa went on to be elected the first
President of Poland after the fall of communism. Gdansk is really old and beautiful. We walked around the Old Town and had dinner
on the canal.
Now, one of the things I have
dearly wanted to take home from Poland is a piece of amber jewelry. Poland is known for mining amber and it’s
fairly inexpensive here, but not something I’ve been able to afford so
far. I read that on the north coast, it
used to be common to find amber on the beach.
Now it’s rare, but I was pretty excited.
I searched every day; but no amber.
I was so disappointed. The night
we were walking in Gdansk, we passed a jewelry shop and stopped to look at the
amber jewelry. The man came out of the
shop and started talking to us. Ewa told
him that I was American and we had just been on vacation. She laughed and said all the money we had
left we had spent on train tickets (this was true; we ate soup for supper), so
we had nothing to buy his nice jewelry with.
He talked a couple of minutes and then said to wait, he would get
something. Ewa said, ‘Oh no, he’s going
to get something’. So we thought he was
going to try to sell us something cheaper.
He came out with a little blue envelope and poured out 7 uncut amber
stones. He said something and Ewa just
looked at me. She said, ‘He said they’re
for you.’ I have no idea why he gave me
some of his amber. Even if he had given
me one piece, it would have been an amazing gift. I got tears in my eyes. I told Ewa to tell him how much I love Poland
and how much I had wanted some amber.
Prayer Requests:
First, a thank you: I mentioned wanting a bicycle in the last
blog, and two of you offered money so I have enough to buy a bicycle, and a
lock (and maybe a basket)! Thank you!
Continuing financial support.
My preparation as we go into Fall
English classes. I’ve realized there are
a couple of things I’m doing wrong, so I need to adjust my teaching. It’s difficult for me not to be hard on
myself when that happens. Sometimes I’m
too much of a perfectionist. I want to
learn from mistakes and just move ahead and do better.
For new challenges ahead; the
English classes for neighborhood youth, a couple of new private students, and
the new flyers going out soon.
Teresa, one of my sweet students
who is having some health problems.
