Poland_Aushwitz and Birkenau

Have you ever just stopped and wondered what it must have been like when people were sent the the concentration camps?? Well, me either...not until we took a day trip to Poland. I read about it in school but never really stopped and soaked it all in.

The first concentration camp I visited was Aushwtiz, later on to Birkenau. After I entered the gate (pictured below) I tried over and over to put myself in the place of these people, I could not even come close. My heart began to cry out to the prisoners of this camp.

The sign below reads "Work Gives Freedom"






These train tracks are in Birkenau, the 2nd of 3 concentration camps in Aushwitz. The tracks lead people directly back to the gas chambers and crematoriums. The Germans would then tell people they were going to take them to large shower facilities to rinse them off to prevent disease. They even went as far as to install fake shower faucets in the gas chambers.






When I walked through the camp I became completely humbled...it started to rain on my friend Matt and I and we had no jackets or umbrellas, we looked at each other and said we have NOTHING to complain about and continued on our journey wet and all. I can't even begin to explain the feelings I had as I walked on the same grounds as these innocent people did.

I was talking to some friends afterwards and came to the conclusion that we are just as capable of these crimes as the men who did it. It just does not seem possible. When I stop to think about it, it is easy for me to forgive someone for lying or stealing and pray that they would know God but someone who commited such a huge genocide...no way. Why is that?

.....am I any less worthy then they are??

Historic Jewish Synagogue

I went to Lucenec for a week to help the interns promote camp. While we were there I noticed this really old run down building...I love the history on this side of the world. INCREDIBLE!

This building numbers among just four synagogues built by Hungarian architect Lipot Baumhorn (1860-1932), whose other structures grace Amsterdam, Brussels and Tel Aviv.
Built in 1924-1925, Baumhorn's synagogue housed religious services until 1944, when the Jews of Lucenec were transported to Nazi concentration camps in Poland and Germany.
Only 80 to 100 of the town's 2,200 Jews survived World War II.
In 1948, the synagogue's fate was sealed when Czechoslovakia's Communist authorities took the synagogue into state hands and used it to store artificial fertilizers, whose corrosive chemicals destroyed the walls.

overnight train to KRAKOW,POLAND

yeah yeah...so we had all been on the road for weeks and really getting worn out. After leaving Czech Republic in the middle of the night and getting to Slovakia in enought time to cat nap and grab the next trian at 6 am to Serbia, I was beat. (B.T.W- the trian ride to Serbia was 14 hours, in case you ever feel like taking the locamotive to Serbia.)

We had a great week in Serbia but I was ready to get back to Slovakia and do some laundry because I was leaving as soon as we got back for another week to go to another city, Lucenec, in Slovakia. Hence the only sleeping in my bed 5 times this month. I should start a list of all the places I have slept this summer....including the TRAIN STATION. That leads me to my little story here...

So, we were leaving Serbia to take the train back to Slovakia (14 hours, might I remind you). We had a 6 hour lay over in Budapest, which was a nice little break. We get back on the trian to head home...not much further to go. We knew we were suppossed to arrive in Presov, Slovakia around midnight and it got later and later...humm? Finally at 1:30 am we stopped in Poprad (an hour farther away from where we were suppossed to be). Come to find out they announced IN the train station, about 30 min from our destination, that the train was changing routes, but no one informed us ON the train so we ended up on the overnight train to Poland. That explains they people sleeping that we somehow disturbed with all our dilirious laughing as they changed wagoons and the reason we never went to our destination. UGH! So we get off at Poprad and the station is closed. Not even sure why the train stopped in the first place, no one got on or off the train. We debated on what to do and ended up sleeping/waiting in the train station for the next train back to Presov, which did not leave until 4:30 am.

All that to say, I love traveling in Europe. Never a dull moment.
These are some pictures that we took on the train...what else do you do after 22 hours of train travel?
We got to see the sun go down (picture below) and the sun come up...by the way, the sun comes up at 4:17am around here.

Isodora

Last year in Novi Sad, Serbia I had the honor to help pioneer their first English camp. It was great. This was our team..


During that week I really got to understand the Serbs and a little bit more and learn about their culture. Serbs are very differnt from Slovaks. It is amazing to me how you can cross the border into another country (state) over here and it is like entering a totally different world. It is not like driving from state to state in the U.S. and everyone speaks the same language and life is pretty much the same.

The vast majority of Serbia's 8 million people belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church. Among the Protestant minority of 170,000, about 130,000 belong to the Slovak Lutheran and the Hungarian Reformed churches. The other 40,000 belong to evangelical churches. With these statistics you can see that the majority of Serbia is Orthodox.
Most Serbs believe that if you are Serbian then you are Orthodox...they go hand in hand.

This leads me to Isodora. She is a 17 year old girl that I got to spend a lot of time with last year. She kept me up most hours of the night and asked me many questions about life and about God. She is not afraid to come right out and say how she feels, she is very forward. Which most Serbs are. After camp was over I was not really sure where she was but knew she still had plenty of questions. Over the past year I have stayed in touch with her by email and SMS (text messaging). We would have the basic conversations of; "How are you, What is new in life, What are you doing this summer, Are you still with the same boyfriend....?"
Along with all of this I continue to pray for her because I knew she was hungary and searching, as is most of Serbia.

This year I had the opportunity to go back to Serbia to help promote camp again for another summer of English camps. I contacted Isodora to let her know I was in town. She and I met up for coffee along with my friend Anka from Slovakia. It was great! We sat with Isodora for well over an hour. We started off with the basics..."What have you been doing, How is school going...?" These questions lead into something much deeper.
Over the years in ministry I have often wondered and asked God, "How do I just come right out and tell people about you?" I feel like my life has relfected Christ when I work with these students but for some reason any time I try to come straight out with the REASON for life...aka, God, I feel like my toungue gets all twisted and then I get attacked by Satan with words such as, "you are too pushy, don't mention God, let them figure it out..."

Well, NOT THIS TIME! It was great. Isodora and I began talking and the next thing I knew I was sharing the Gospel. Telling her exactly what I believed and challanged her with a lot of questions in her own life. And the great thing was, I was not even nervous (when we left Anka told me she was praying the entire time I was talking...no wonder I was not nervous).
Isodora made the comment to me that in her religion class (Orthodox) in school, her teacher is pushy and it makes her not want to understand God. Humm? But then she said to me in the same breath, "I like listening to you because you challenge me to think about things." :) That was good, and my point. *wink
Isodora is seeking and reaching. She is at that point in her life where she knows there is a God but is not ready to let go of her life. She is not ready to let God be in control.
When we finished I asked her if she wanted to hang out again before I left Serbia that week. She said, "YES." Wow, after a conversation like we had, I would have thought she would not want to hang out with me. I knew she was hungry for God and wanted more information.
That night I went home, or back to the flat I was staying in for the week, and could not believe that this is my life. I got to sit in a small coffee shop in the middle of Novi Sad, Serbia, surrounded by buildings that were destroyed by bombs not to long ago and people who are lost and hungry. INCREDIBLE!
What a blessing it is to share the Lord with students around the world.

(this is Isodora on the left and Anka to my right)

In case you were wondering...Isordora and I got to hang out again, at church. Yes, she came with me to church on Sunday morning and I got to spend some time with her. When the service was over I walked her to her bus and gave her my Bible.

When you get the chance if you could please pray for her...she is reaching and just needs to grab.

On your mark, get set, GO!

This is how the summer has been so far. Literally a race from one city to the next then one country to the next...
I am so sorry, I am aware that it has been a month since I updated my blog last. What a busy summer so far. I have been on the go for a month now. By the end of June I will have slept in my own bed only 5 times. I literally have been living out of a bag.
When the interns arrived we literally began our race...an "Amazing Race". We started in Prague where they got off the planes. They were handed a clue and off they went. We had to go from clue to clue to find our final destination...Malenovice. It was a 2 day race. Our team went from last to first. Way to go team Serbia!




One of the obstacles consisted of us rowing a boat down the river and accomplishing tasks as we went...rowing backwards, jumping out of the boat and going over a bridge to then jump back in the boat..it was rainy and fun!





After the race we ended up at our trianing center in Malenovice. It was a great time to spend with all the interns from all the different countries...Slovenia, Czech, Serbia, Slovakia, Latvia, Poland, Croatia and Ukraine. It led to great conversations about different cultures, lives, experiences and interests. What an amazing week of training.