The Fletcher Family

What's happened to those Fletchers???

2009-06-14T23:43:00.005+02:00

I cannot believe that I have not updated this blog since December! I sincerely apologize, and I thank all of you who have prayed for us even when you didn't know our specific needs. I know that you are all praying for us, because we could not make it one day without all the prayer support. We pray blessings on you all for continually praying for us.

I am not going to do a lengthy, in-depth update for the past 6 months (I hear cheers...). I'll give a brief summary and then share what's going on with us right now. So, since our last update, we...

celebrated Doyle's birthday
celebrated a wonderful Christmas (mainly by talking about next Christmas being in Texas!)
celebrated Tristyn's 13th birthday (2 teenagers in the house now...pray for us!)
had a volunteer team from Union University
Doyle completed his spring semester seminary course
welcomed 2 new families serving in Krakow
had our first baptism service with Compass International Fellowship
had a spring egg hunt outreach
celebrated Falyn's 15th birthday
travelled to Ukraine and back in one day for visa renewal (this was so crazy you all wouldn't believe it)
helped do a VBS program for Polish children
had about 80 Polish lessons (but it only seemed like 75)
celebrated Daegan's 11th birthday
welcomed 4 volunteer summer interns to work with us here in Krakow
had a volunteer team from Pioneer Baptist Church
celebrated that Tristyn and Daegan have finished school for the year
bought airline tickets to come back to Texas for stateside!

Now for the present...

We have many doctor appointments for all of us the next few weeks as we prepare to go back to Texas (kids and needles, need I say more?)

On Monday, Doyle will be seeing the doctor once again for his elbow. He has gone much longer this time, but it is painful. Please pray for him.

On Tuesday, Falyn will (much to her delight) be getting her braces off. She has endured so many different, painful procedures, and she is so excited to finally be finished before returning to the States. It's hard to believe that she will have been prepped for braces, received braces, and will have them removed without anyone from America ever seeing her with them. Seems like so long. Falyn is almost finished with school. This has been her toughest year ever! She must finish by Wednesday, and she still has quite a bit to do. She is working very hard, so please pray for her to complete her work quickly and finish well.

Tristyn has finished 7th grade and is enjoying his free time now. As a wonderful answer to prayer, God did provide a special friend for Tristyn here in Krakow. In April, we welcomed a new family that has a son a year younger than Tristyn. Their son is identical to Tristyn is so many ways that it kind of scares us and his parents a little. This was such an unexpected answer to prayer, and we are so thankful to God for always hearing our needs.

Daegan is ecstatic that school is over. I really worked the boys hard this year also. We had so many interruptions last year with all the travels and the move, so I didn't give them many breaks this year. Daegan loves being outside in the nice Krakow weather but sure does miss those Texas bugs.

On Friday, we will leave to go to Greece for a week for our annual mission conference. We are excited about seeing old friends from Russia, being spiritual refreshed, and seeing a beach for the first time in almost 4 years. And since our organization is occupying the entire resort, we won't have to see any Speedos or topless sunbathers. At least, I don't think we will see any? This will be Tristyn's first year in the youth program there. Please pray for our travels to and from Greece and for Falyn, Tristyn, and Daegan to be spiritually refreshed through their programs.

We return from Greece on the 27th, and then we leave for the States on July 5th. It has been over 3 1/2 years since we left the States, and we are so incredibly excited about our return. We miss our families, our church family, and all of our friends so much! We still have so many preparations to complete before our return. We have a "things to do" list everyday between now and then. Also, we will be bringing our little dog, Trixie, back with us. Please pray for all our preparations to go well between now and then.

As you may or may not know, the total giving for the IMB Lottie Moon Offering last year was significantly down, probably due to the poor economy in the States right now. The final total was somewhere around 30 million dollars short of the goal. This has had a huge impact on missions. The IMB has had to make some very difficult decisions. Some of those decisions include a restriction of new missionaries sent to the field for now. Also, the short-term missionaries (journeymen and ISC/Masters) now serving will be limited on renewing their terms. Personally, we have also seen a very big drop in the funds that are provided to us to help with personal expenses (food, clothes, etc...). Since January, we are in the midst of a decrease of 60% in these funds. However, please know that we also realize that every person reading this can probably say the same thing about their grocery money. Please pray that though the economy is troubled now, people will still contribute generously to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for 2009. 100% of these funds go for direct support of missionaries. Please share this need with all of your churches!

Thank you all, once again, for always remembering our family in your prayers. We truly survive through prayer! We are so excited about seeing you all very soon.

Fun at the Rynek (Old Town Market Square)

2008-12-11T15:44:00.001+01:00

Winter and Holiday Scenes

2008-12-02T21:12:00.008+01:00

Last week, we took off from school and language studies to have some fun family fellowship time together, celebrating my 40th birthday and Thanksgiving. I know, I know, you can't believe I'm 40. I just don't look it at all, right? For my birthday, I just wanted to spend some fun time with my family. So we took a day trip down to Zakopane, a city south of us in the mountains. It was beautifully covered with snow, and we had a great day. We walked the main street, threw some snowballs, had lunch, and then the kids sledded down a small ski slope (the lift up the hill was closed that we had wanted to ride). I sledded once also, but it was a pretty speedy ride, and I gave it up.

Thanks to one of our team member's home church in the States, we were able to have some of our favorite Thanksgiving ingredients and dishes. Our team had one BIG dinner for Thanksgiving. We are so thankful to have such a wonderful family here.

For the first time in 3 years, we were able to get a REAL Christmas tree. The kids were so excited, so we put it up pretty early (possibly too early, we'll see). They love to smell the Christmas tree smell when we come into the apartment. Along with our Christmas decorations, we put out our nativity set that our church sent us a few years ago. Much to my surprise the next day, we had some additions to our nativity set. They sell these hollow chocolate eggs here with small toys inside called Kinder Eggs. Daegan and a friend had just enjoyed two of these, and Daegan decided to add his toys to the manger scene. If you look closely in the picture, you can see a rather angry looking horse and a baby dinosaur in half an egg shell. Don't ask me where they come up with the ideas for these toys for the eggs.

With my birthday and Thanksgiving behind us and all the Christmas decorations out, we are back to studying Polish. Please keep us in your prayers. Though this is a joyful time of year with all the holiday trimmings, it does make us miss friends and family back home even more.

Please send us your Christmas pictures, so we can keep up with your changing families! Also, don't forget that Doyle's birthday is Dec. 20th!

Quick Update...I promise!

2008-11-18T23:14:00.002+01:00

Thank you once again for your prayers. We are all healthy at last! Nothing much new to report for now. We are looking forward to some fun fellowship time for Thanksgiving next week with our team, though we desperately miss our familes back home.

Please pray as our team has begun making plans for the volunteer teams for next summer. And please continue praying for our language studies. Also, we had a new journeygirl arrive last month to work with the Roma people here. Just days after arriving, she learned her grandfather had passed away back home. And then, this past week, her apartment was completely flooded from the apartment above, and she lost everything (including her cherished guitar). Please pray for Lindsay during this most difficult time. She is currently searching for a new apartment, but she has been unsuccessful so far.

Also, please read below what Tristyn wrote one day for an assignment a few weeks ago. We are quickly moving on to winter here in Krakow and expect our first snow within hours. The kids are excited.

Through the Eyes of a Child

2008-11-18T23:12:00.000+01:00

Shining in the light of the sun, the fallen leaves turn red, then orange, then yellow, then finally brown. They gently sway in the wind, until now. Eventually, they fall off the tree until it looks bare. Just twigs and bark. The trees are nothing but wood now. Leaves litter the soil and concrete ground all around the once beautiful trees that held them to their branches. The trees that once bloomed with color, now standing bare. We should still see them as beautiful, although we don’t usually come to that thought when we look only a second or two at a wonderful piece of nature that God has given us to admire.

-Tristyn Fletcher

Studying...Studying...Studying!

2008-10-27T10:16:00.007+01:00

Going for a walk by our neighborhood
Our building

Louise and Valerie from Ireland

It has, of course, been a while since our last post. We really do not have much to share, though. For those of you not in the path of Hurricane Ike, but you prayed for those who were, we thank you. Our families (and many of our friends) were all in the path of the hurricane, but everyone is well. Some had no electricity for quite some time, some had property damage, but overall, everyone seems to feel blessed that they did not experience worse damage.

Thank you all for continually praying for us even when you do not know our needs. Our language studies are going very well. We are very pleased with both of our teachers. We study with one teacher for 3 hours/day two days a week and with a different teacher for 3 hours/day the other three days a week. We have been going at a very good pace, and the teachers have made the learning motivational. We know that the further we go along, the more difficult the material will be, but we thank you all for praying for our studies. The kids are all taking some Polish language lessons as well. Please continue to pray for us all as we try to learn the language of the people we are trying to reach.

Please continue to pray for the kids' schooling. They are doing very well, especially considering my time to help them is so limited with language studies. Falyn is enjoying her change this year to Northstar Academy. She especially likes it because it is an online school, and it has required her to have control of the computer for almost 24 hours a day. She loves that! -haha-

Several weeks ago, we were happy to have some guests over from Ireland. Two young ladies from northern Ireland (they put a lot of emphasis on "northern") were visiting Krakow for a few days for "holiday" (ie. vacation). They were looking online for evangelical churches to visit while they were here and found our blog. They contacted us, came to visit our international church on Sunday night, and even came to have dinner with us. We treated them to, none other than, Tex-Mex for the night. And Tristyn proceeded to teach them Dance Revolution, which they seemed to enjoy. Thank you, Louise and Val, for brightening our lives with some Irish culture (we still find ourselves calling things "wee" instead of small). Doyle says that now we can speak English, Russian, Polish, and a "wee bita Irish".

Thank you for praying for Doyle's seminary studies. His extension course finished up a few weeks ago. He made a week-long trip to Budapest, Hungary to finish up. We missed him while he was gone, but he did really well on all the tests and the term paper. He will return for another course in the spring. Please pray for him as he continues his studies with another course.

After having relatively no illnesses for so long, our family has been under attack lately. We have gone through sinus/allergy stuff, sore throats, coughing (my coughing lasted for 4 weeks), and fever. Tristyn is still feeling pretty miserable, and now Daegan has a fever. Please pray for their recovery and for better health for us all. Some of you may remember praying about Falyn's feet issues. It appears now that her feet are finally healed (after 9 months of different treatments)! Thank you so much for praying for her!

Though Doyle and I are deep into our language studies and our ministry is quite limited right now, Team Krakow ministries are pressing on. We have even welcomed new team members, one family and one single girl, in the past two weeks. They are studying language as well now. Please continue praying for the ministry of Krakow. Our team is involved in several new home Bible studies, some campus ministries, coffee house, ESL classes, new sports ministry opportunities, family Bible studies, and even a cooking class outreach. The IMB is also going through some structural changes, many of which will be announced at the next trustee meeting which will be in November in Houston! Please pray for our leadership and all those involved in making decisions worldwide.

I love checking out people's blogs or facebooks from time to time to get caught up on everyone's lives and see how everyone's kids are growing and changing. Please send us pictures, updates, blog sites, or add me on facebook (Karen Fletcher), so that we may stay in touch. We are counting down... nine months to go!

Endings and Beginnings

2008-09-07T22:43:00.016+02:00

Solvay Day Camp

Zabiniec Day Camp

Falyn with her friend, Jacqui

Tristyn and Daegan at CSU Basketeball Camp
Charleston Southern Basketball Team

Daegan finds bugs (or spiders) wherever we go!
Wawal Castle
Married for 20 years!

Wisla River in Krakow

Doyle with his Big Girl

Falyn feeding a donkey (that bit her leg after this shot)
Daegan with a bunny

Doyle trying on a hat in Wisla
Kids having fun on bumper cars in Wisla

I keep telling myself that I'm going to be better at keeping updates regular and short on our blog, but it just hasn't happened. So, for the latest details, here goes...

At the time of our last update, we were in the middle of our Solvay day camp with the volunteer team here from Forestville Baptist. The week went pretty well. We had reserved a room at a culture house for this day camp, instead of having it outside in a park. We weren't sure exactly how the turnout would be, since we couldn't catch the attention of people just walking by. As it turns out, the weather was terrible that week, and we would have had to cancel the whole thing if we had planned it outside. Though the turnout was a little lower, God was sovereign and in control of the planning. One mom actually came to our coffee house that Friday night as well. Thanks so much, Forestville, for helping us out that week.

While that day camp was going on, Doyle and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary (and yes, we did get married young!). We were too busy with the camp to really go out, but our kids surprised us by making us a board game all by themselves. The next week, Doyle surprised me by making all the arrangements and taking me to a nice hotel overlooking the river. What a sweet hubby I have!

We then had our last day camp of the summer in our neighborhood, Zabiniec. We had a team here from Tennessee to lead that camp, and we had a wonderful turnout.

During that camp, Falyn was gone to the annual MK retreat, which was in Budapest, Hungary this year. She had a great time reconnecting with her friends from Russia and other countries. Sadly, during that week we lost a dear friend from our Russia field. Ed Tarleton, who is the leader over the entire Russia Field, lost his wife, Teri, due to a heart problem. Teri was 46 years old and a very dear friend of ours from Moscow. The Tarletons have Adam and Anna, who are in college in the States, and twins, Rebecca and Rachel, who are seniors in Moscow this year. Rebecca and Rachel were with Falyn at the MK retreat when Teri suddenly passed away. They have returned to Moscow after having the funeral in Oklahoma, but please keep the Tarleton family in your prayers during this difficult time of adjustment. If you are on Facebook, you can see more of this family in a public group entitled "Praying for Tarleton Family."

At the end of July, we had to say good-bye to our summer missionaries, Kate and Stacy. We miss them so much! We have made them pledge to come back (hopefully for a longer stay). We had a surprise farewell party for them, and they shared their summer memories with us. You two better stay in touch. You know you will miss Trixie (that's our dog).

In August, we decided to have a surprise birthday party for Falyn. Yes, her birthday is in April, but when her birthday was here, all her friends were gone, and once they were back, we were swamped with day camps. Plus, we've never done a surprise party for her. Let me just say, that we will NEVER plan another surprise party for her again. You know, there are those that you can do surprises for, and things just go smoothly. And then, there are those that just make surprising pretty much impossible. Falyn is the latter. Every detail we planned to pull off the surprise, she did not cooperate with. She was supposed to go to the mall with friends (so I could make the cake), but then decided at the last minute, she didn't feel like going to the mall. (Since when does she ever not feel like going to the mall with friends?!) Anyway, that's the way things went. Though it was complete torture for us, she was in the end, quite surprised and had a good time. You're worth it, Falyn. We love you!

Also, in August we had the basketball team from Charleston Southern University here to do a basketball camp. Tristyn really enjoyed the camp, and we made a ton of contacts. Every night they played a game in a gym here with a Polish team. It was really neat getting to go to a basketball game again. Doyle even had buzzer duty a few of the nights. I especially enjoyed visiting with the coaches' wives, Hope and Kari. Thank you so much, Hope, for sending me some women's Bible study materials! I actually get to do a Beth Moore study again (and with the audio CDs)! On the last day of the basketball camp, all of the campers and the basketball team went swimming in a pool next to the gym. Our kids haven't just swam in a pool since I don't remember when. They were pretty excited, but the water was really cold. Unfortunately, Daegan slipped getting in the pool, hit his head on the side of the pool, and had to get stitches. He handled it so well! And though we complain about the price of things here (our gas is around $9/gallon!), Daegan's entire bill (emergency room, doctor, local anesthetic, etc.) was less than $60. And the surgeon let us come to his house (free) to remove the stitches, since he lives closer to us than the hospital.

After finishing up with all the summer volunteer teams, we had a Team Krakow team retreat in Wisla (a small town in the mountains just southwest of us). We stayed at the baptist church's conference center there. It was a nice time to meet as a team and reflect on the ministries and discuss some changes and additions to our ministry. It was so beautiful there! One morning we were able to go to the indoor water park at a resort in the town for a few hours.

Just before starting school (while we were still waiting on our school supplies to make it over from the States), we took some time to do some fun, touristy stuff. We went to the indoor water park here in Krakow for a couple of hours (you pay by the hour), to the zoo, to the Wawel castle here in Krakow, and went on a boat ride on the Wisla river. This weekend we also went to a lake nearby and got to go swimming at the beachy area. The kids loved it (wish we had thought of this before the end of the summer)! We did stand out there, however. Our males were the only males not wearing Speedos, and I stood out for not wearing a bikini. Oh well! That's one way we will NOT try to blend in here.

Last weekend, we had the privilege to go to a small church in a small town just south of us, Rabka. Doyle was invited to preach there that Sunday, and it was such a blessing to see the faithful worshippers who met in a tiny room of a school building. Doyle had prepared his sermon on the holiness of God and was prepared to deliver it with the translator. The neat thing, which we didn't find out till the end of the service, was that during the first part of the service, the pastor read a passage aloud and reflected on God's holiness. Another member prayed out loud during the prayer time remarking on God's holiness. Of course, we didn't understand any of this. So, when Doyle got up and said what his topic was, the pastor was just amazed. God does not work in coincidences. He had prearranged that all along!

Well, now that we finished up a summer full of ministry, our lives will now take a dramatic change. On September 15th, Doyle and I will begin full-time language study (5 days a week). Due to this schedule and our dedication to learn the language, our part in the ministry of the team will be severely limited. Doyle and I both have a hard time saying no to something that we really want to be a part of, so please pray for us-- that we won't let ourselves be distracted from the focus of learning the Polish language. The kids will also begin that same day taking some Polish lessons with a tutor that will come to teach them twice a week. Please pray for their language acquisition as well. Daegan wants desperately to speak the language and make Polish friends. Please also continue to pray for Doyle, as he is taking a seminary extension course and trying to manage those studies as well.

Please pray for the kids as they begin their school year. The boys will start on Monday, but Falyn actually started last week. Falyn has switched this year from the Bob Jones DVDs to Northstar Academy, which is an online Christian school. It has taken a lot of time and effort on both of our parts to navigate the whole system, but I think things are running smoothly now. She is very excited about doing Northstar this year, but she just feels a little overwhelmed right now. The school started officially one week before, but since we didn't have our materials yet, she started a week late. Northstar has extension time, so there is no pressure, but she just wants to be on schedule. So, she will work hard to try to get caught up to the calendar. The boys are excited about starting, but it can be difficult for them to adjust from total freedom to sitting and learning. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, to Russell and Heather Boyter in Chicago, for receiving all our homeschool materials and getting all 200 pounds of it sent over for us! You guys are incredible!

And, I've saved the good news for last (depending on how you look at it). We have begun the countdown now to come back for our stateside time. We have officially planned to return at the end of July 2009 and stay until mid-January 2010. We will be staying at a mission house in Kingwood, Texas. We are all very excited and can't help but visualize ourselves there everyday greeting all of you once again. We miss you all so incredibly much! If we could just have a calendar sign-up, and have you all take turns visiting us over here, life would just be grand! We will be doing some travelling while we are there (conferences, speaking at churches, etc.), but we just wanted to let you all know because several have asked us when? when? when? Now, you know!

Here's our current list of things (in no certain order) that the kids want to do in America:

go to Disney World
go to Fiesta Texas
go camping
eat honey buns
eat at Casa Ole (big kid put that one)
go swimming at Uncle Darren and Aunt Shawntil's pool (and any other pool available)
see everyone!
see Nala and Pixie (our dogs we left in the States)
go to WalMart
see friends from volunteer teams
go to our home church (Grace Community Church)
eat at Luby's
play outside at Nana and Papa's
go fishing
have a Wendy's frosty
have a snowcone
eat a grilled cheese from Sonic
eat donuts from Shipley's

I'm sure there will be more to come! What would you miss if you left America for 3 1/2 years? Something to think about.

Busy Summer!

2008-07-22T16:39:00.013+02:00

Doyle and Karen

Bronowice Day Camp

Can you tell what story this was? (hint: house on the rock)
These may look like simple necklaces, but they are made with FRUIT LOOPS! Yum!

Oatmeal Cream Pies!

Podgorza Day Camp

Falyn with Rebecca and Emi from the Georgia team

Myslenice Day Camp

Karen with Olga and Alicia

Finland

Daegan studying his lines for his part in the program.

This is midnight in Finland.

That's my boys!
Goofy Daegan!

I apologize now for the lengthy catch-up. We have had so much to share, but we have been so busy with ministry--which has been wonderful! So, since our last post, we have finished school, gone to Finland, finished 3 day camps, and had Falyn's feet worked on again. Now for the details...

We finally finished school (and by finish, I don't mean completed everything, I mean we said we were finished!) one week before we left for Finland. To celebrate the kids' accomplishments (completing the year well despite trips to Czech Republic, Ukraine, and the move from Russia to Poland), we took the kids to an indoor water park here in Krakow. They loved it and cannot wait to go back. It was only $15 per person for 2 hours of fun, so we will be going back real soon! (sarcasm from Doyle). They do not have regular opportunities to go swimming, and they really miss it. We also went to see Prince Caspian at the movies. It was showing here in English one time each day. They loved seeing a movie at a theatre. It was only $15 per person for 2 hours of fun, so we will be going back real soon! (sarcasm from Doyle).

We went to Finland for a week at the end of June for our annual mission meeting. It was quite a trip--5 hour bus ride to Warsaw, 2 hours at the airport, 2 hour flight to Helsinki, then 4 hour bus ride to the camp we stayed at. It was absolutely beautiful there! We stayed at a church camp that is situated on a peninsula of a lake. We all loved being out in the nature. We also experienced 24 hours of daylight. During the summer there, it never gets dark. It gets a little less light but never dark. We had a wonderful time fellowshipping with fellow colleagues, meeting new people (since we are now in a new region), and having English worship. Because this was a field only AGM, Falyn experienced a smaller youth group, but she loved hanging out with her girlfriends. Tristyn and Daegan each had special parts in the music program the children do each year at AGM. Tristyn played the judge, and Daegan played the Bailiff. Daegan especially enjoyed this because he really loves to act. I hope we can get him in some kind of drama for the short time we are back in the States. We returned home on the Fourth of July and had a volunteer team waiting here for us.

We had a group from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina come to help us with a music concert at our coffee house and with our Bronowice day camp. The camp went wonderful! We had it outside in a neighborhood park, setting up tables and canopy tents. We made many contacts there. Please pray for Anna and David. Anna walked by the day camp one day with her son, Kuba. She is Polish, and her husband is American. They just moved back to Poland, they are not believers, and her husband is really missing America. She stayed and translated our Bible story for us that day. Since then, their family has been coming to our Sunday night International worship service. Thank you so much, Hilton Head, for helping us that week. You were all wonderful. And thanks, Eric (our volunteer who is a veterinarian surgeon) for checking out our dog that week.)

As soon as the Hilton Head group left, we had a group from Georgia come. This was a group of 16 young people and 4 adults. They were awesome! During that week, we did two day camps each day. We would leave around 10am, drive to Myslenice (a city about 1-2 hours away depending on traffic), have a 2 hour day camp there, then drive back to Krakow, eat a late lunch, and have another day camp in the Podgorza neighborhood in the evening. The camp in Myslenice had a low turnout. We weren't able to go down there ahead of time to promote the day camp, and the weather was rainy, so we had to have it inside the church building all but one day. However, our volunteers made handmade signs and went around the small city trying to tell people about the camp when we got there one morning. Because of this, one woman came with her two daughters and continued to come each day. Long after we left, she stayed and talked with Bozena, one of the ladies from the church there. Please pray for Ania and her two daughters, Olga and Alicia.

The Podgorza day camp that we did in the evening had a huge turnout. We did it in the middle of a busy play area. Once kids saw us handing out things free, they joined right in. The parents stayed and visited with us as well. Please pray for Aneta. She walked by with her son, Igor, and returned each day. She even translated our Bible story for us one day.

Thank you so much, Georgia team, for being so flexible. You guys were incredible! Thank you so much for the goodies that you brought each of us. And, thank you so much for loving on Falyn. She loved staying out late with you guys, and she cried after you left coffee house. We hope to see you guys again--either here next summer or there when we come visit!

Right now, we are doing a camp in the Solvay area of Krakow. This one is in a rented room, so we aren't getting many walk-ups. Doyle and some others are having a little success walking out and bringing folks in and today there were 16 kids who participated. We have a team here from Forestville in South Carolina helping us. Please pray for contacts to be made through this camp. And please pray for me, Karen, as I have missed both days so far with a stomach bug. Hopefully, I will be able to join them tomorrow.

Thank you once again for praying for Falyn's feet. She still has one stubborn wart that is not completely gone. She had it frozen again, I think for the 7th time. She is doing a series of medications on it for now, and if it is not gone in 3 weeks, she will see a surgeon about cutting it out. Please continue to pray for healing.

Daegan and Tristyn are hanging in there. They have been to almost every day camp so far. Tristyn did meet one boy his age whose parents are Polish/American. We hope to connect with them sometime soon. Doyle is trying to work on a seminary course while doing all these camps. Please pray for him as he tries to find time to study and read. We love you all and want to hear from you as well. Drop us a line or send us some pictures.

Daegan Turns 10!

2008-06-05T00:40:00.004+02:00

Last Sunday, Daegan turned 10 years old! My baby is growing up so much. His birthday was quite busy. During the middle of the day, we went to the Krakow Tigers football game to serve water to guests and pass out flyers for our ministry events. But at church that evening, we sang Happy Birthday to him and had cupcakes. We decided to take Monday off school, since the weekend had been so busy to do whatever Daegan wanted for his birthday (go bowling, go to a mall gameroom, go hiking, etc.). He decided he wanted us to all stay home and play games together all day. So, that's what we did. We played Monopoly and Settlers and had a great day.

The night before his birthday was quite funny. As I was tucking the boys into bed, I told Daegan that would be my last 9 year old hugs and kisses. Tristyn chimed in with, "You never know, Mom. Sarah was 100 when God gave her a baby." I followed with, "Yeah, but first of all, that was Bible times, and second of all, I'm not 100!" He then came back with, "Yeah, but God never changes." What could I say?

Day Camp at Uczen School

2008-06-04T23:53:00.011+02:00

David and Goliath

Doyle and Joe preparing posters for carnival

Day Camp Carnival

Our team with LA Tech

Day Camp Carnival

Our new banner

McKenna and Falyn with their face paintings

Ophanage Party

Eva and Falyn

With much help from the LA Tech volunteer group, we finished up our week long day camp at Uczen (pronounced oo-chen) school, a polish school here. We had a wonderful week and so much fun building relationships with the kids there. A few of the girls from there are already emailing us. Our end-of-the-week festival went wonderful as well. We had booths set up for bowling, ping pong ball toss, football throw, baseball, bubble blowing, crafts, and many more. Though we weren't able to solicit contact information (because it was at a public school), we did have some conversations with some of the parents. We also learned so much from this day camp to help us with the others we will be doing in July. It was a good practice run for us.

Also, during the week of the day camp, we took the LA Tech team to an orphanage to have a little party with the kids there. The team was incredible. They got on the floor and played silly games with the kids (most of them spoke no English), did magic tricks, made balloon animals, and did the Hokey Pokey.

This week the LA Tech group is helping with our student ministries. They have organized a student blitz this week and have some wonderful activities planned for each evening this week on one of the university campuses here. Please pray for relationships to be started through these events.

We are currently planning 6 day camps in July (yes, 6 in 4 weeks!). We are very excited about the volunteer groups that will be coming to help with each one of them, and we are anticipating making some new relationships through ech of these. With each one, we will have a party in a nearby park on the Saturday before to promote the day camp. Please be in prayer for all the preparations for these camps, including the volunteers that are making arrangements now.

Thank you so much for your prayers for Falyn's feet. We saw the doctor again today. She feels that one on each foot are still barely there. At first, she recommended the freezing treatment again, but then she said we could do the liquid treatment at home for two weeks and see if that takes care of them because they are so much smaller now. So, Falyn was thrilled with that option, since the freezing is so painful. She really isn't in any pain now, so that is a HUGE answer to prayer.

Please continue to pray for the kids schooling. They are working hard to finish soon. Please also continue to pray for Tristyn, as he so desperately wants to have friends here his age. He had an unpleasant experience on the playground today with some national boys that was very discouraging for him. Thank you all so much for faithfully praying!

Now Onto Ministry

2008-05-25T23:26:00.008+02:00

Having Fun at the Park

Hiking at Ojcow National Forest

Daegan, Falyn, and Tristyn (with Liz and Will Dowdy)

Beaver Dam

See Daegan's bug cage in his hand?

American-Style Picnic...
Karen doing some face painting

We've been quite busy over the past two months. We know that we have REALLY been out of touch with everyone, but we REALLY do have some good excuses. Want to hear them? We finished up our crash course in Polish language at the beginning of May. The kids were doing their school lessons at home, while Doyle and I went to a language school each day. The kids did very well considering they were doing school half the time with no supervision. It got just a little crazy at the end, though, as it got to be very difficult for them to do their lessons without help while we were gone, and it got difficult for me to manage it all also. With language studies, helping with schoolwork, household duties, some serious allergy issues, doctors appointments for Falyn, and ministry, I just felt like every spare minute that I had, I needed to spend with the kids. So, I got really behind on emails. I have been trying to catch up, but if I have missed something you have sent, PLEASE email me again. I will try not to let my inbox get so loaded again. Okay, were those enough excuses? Please forgive me!

After being in Krakow now for a few months, getting a feel for the team and ministry here, and much prayer, we feel that God is calling us to stay in Krakow for ministry. When He brought us here from Russia, we weren't quite sure if it was a temporary place or if this was where He wanted us to stay, but we feel quite certain now this is the place. So, after our first term ends, and we return to the field after our stateside time, we will return to Krakow. As of now, our stateside time is set to begin in August 2009. Since we will be staying in Krakow, we will continue studying Polish, but we will not begin again until the fall due to the huge ministry needs of the summer.

Once we finished language, we felt that we needed to take some time off of school and have some good family fun. Poland celebrated holidays on a Thursday and Friday, so we took off, too. On Thursday, we decided to visit the Krakow Zoo, but, unfortunately, so did everyone else. We couldn't even make it to the parking lot. So, we found a nearby park to explore (with some trees to climb) and picnic in. The next day we were able to go to Ojcow, a national forest about 45 minutes from Krakow, with our good friends and team leaders, Joe and Becca (and their 3 children). It was so wonderful getting out into nature again, with creeks, hills, fields, hiking trails, and BUGS! Yes, Daegan was in heaven again, catching all kinds of creatures. We saw some deer on a trail, and we even saw a beaver dam.

Since then, we have been busy with ministry. Team Krakow consists of several families who all have different strengths and work with different areas of ministry. We have sports ministry, student/campus ministry, ESL ministry, and Roma ministry. We are going to be working with Joe and Becca as we have started a new aspect of ministry called Family Ministries. The idea is to try to have family activities to reach families with the Gospel. A week ago, we had a big "American style" picnic in a park to try to make new contacts with families. We served 300 hot dogs, painted a hundred faces, made hundreds of balloon animals, played frisbee, and lots of other things. In all, we made about 50 new contacts. Now we have a volunteer team of 18 here from Louisiana Tech to help us for a few weeks. This week, half of the group will be helping us do a day camp at a school. The other half will be doing university campus ministries. Doyle has had some opportunities to do some street evangelism with the team and passing out a ton of flyers for different events (which he loves to do). At the end of the week, we will have a carnival (with game booths) for the kids to come to with their parents. Please pray for the day camp this week as we present Bible stories and Scripture verses to these kids, and pray also for the carnival next Saturday and the contacts we make there.

We have at least 10 volunteer teams coming this summer, and we plan on doing at least 5 more day camps. The others will hopefully be in different parks. Please pray as we make plans for these camps, as volunteers make preparations to come, and for the Lord to lead us in all we do for His name's sake.

Normally we finish up schooling with the kids by the end of May or so. This year, though, we will have to go into June. The kids have missed so much school with our trips this year (one week to Prague, one week to Ukraine, and the move to Poland). They really want to be done (and so does Mom and Dad), but they really need to press on a little farther. Please pray for us all as we try to finish up the school year and finish well.

We are STILL struggling over Falyn's feet. If you haven't kept up with us, we have been dealing with a wart problem with Falyn's feet since December. She had 2 different treatments before leaving Moscow, and when we got to Poland, she still had one wart (the one that won't go away). Since we have been here, she has had 2 new ones. We have seen 3 different doctors at 3 different locations now (at least 6 visits), she has had the freezing procedure done 4 times (extremely painful!), and she is now down to one (the original one) very painful wart. We had the last procedure done over a week ago, and the doctor felt that should be the last time, that she shouldn't have any more pain after that day, and it would be gone in 10-14 days. Ever since that treatment, she has had sharp shooting pains with any movement of her foot. It is obviously not gone yet, but the soonest we could see the doctor again is this Wednesday. Please pray for healing of her feet. She is so discouraged by all that she has been through. She has tolerated so much pain, and endured more pain to participate in some activities. But she has had to miss out on many opportunities because she simply couldn't walk. (Remember we live on the fifth floor with no elevator, and our apartment is a 2-story apartment also.) I am very frustrated as well, but I do feel so sorry for her.

Though Tristyn really does like living in Krakow, he has had some difficulty adjusting to not having any friends here his age. He has recently had a change in his outlook, and though he is praying fervently for a good friend, he is waiting patiently on the Lord's timing. He has played with some Polish boys outside a few times. Please pray for Tristyn as he waits for answered prayers for a friend.

Daegan is loving being outside here. He has always loved outdoors and is especially loving the weather and opportunity for outdoor activities now. He is glad that language has ended for now, but he still asks each day, "Do you have to go anywhere today?" He will have his 10th birthday on June 1st. I can't believe my baby is growing up!

The kids saved their money and they all have scooters now. They love to ride scooters around the neighborhood. Falyn has already had one knee-scraping wipeout (when she tried her first jump). Daegan had one elbow-scraping wipeout. Then, yesterday he fell again and said that he scraped his elbow in the same place just as soon as it had healed. Tristyn (Mr. Cautious) hasn't had a wipeout yet, but Falyn says it is because he doesn't go as fast. As their grandparents all say, "It's good for 'em."

Thank you all for praying for us and for, once again, enduring a rather lengthy update. Enjoy the photos!

Life Goes on in Krakow

2008-04-13T11:04:00.003+02:00

Our clown for the Spring Egg Hunt

Some face painting

Egg Toss

We are really feeling settled in Krakow now. We have been going to a language school 3 days a week, while the kids are home doing their school lessons. Language study has been going well. The Russian studies have made it a little less difficult. The challenging thing for me (Karen) has been managing the kids' schoolwork and being gone from home for language. We will be finishing this language course at the end of April, but we know there is so much more to come later. Please pray for our language studies.

The kids are doing very well. It has been difficult for them with us being gone from home so much with language, but they have, for the most part, been very disciplined with their work. Falyn has been having fun with the other MK teen girls here and enjoying her weekly Bible study with the group on Tuesdays. Tristyn and Daegan have made some Polish friends outside. Daegan said he learned how to say, "You're it!" in Polish. Doyle and Daegan went out Saturday looking for bugs (which he couldn't find in Moscow), and came in with snails, millipedes, beetles, and who knows what else. The weather has been so nice lately, and we've had the windows open during the days. Falyn woke up one day with a bee on her covers close to her face. She said she slid out of bed carefully and ran to get Daegan. So, he's pretty excited to have a bee in his collection now as well. Wherever there's bugs, Daegan is happy. Please pray for them to continue making friends with nationals.

We would like to give you all a general overview of the ministry here with Team Krakow. We have sports ministry, which currently includes football and volleyball. Hopefully, we will start up some baseball this summer. We also have English lessons and a conversation time on Friday nights called the Coffee House, where we sometimes have live music or games. On Sunday nights, we have an international worship service, which has been wonderful for our family to worship in English again. We have many Polish people that have been coming to that because they want to improve their English. We also each take turns sharing our testimonies during this service. And, the newest part of the ministry is family ministries. We had our first event for this a week ago. We hosted a Spring Egg Hunt with fun activities for kids, an egg hunt, and a children's message. We had a large volunteer group from Harvest Baptist Church in Covington, Georgia that were a huge help with this event. In each of these areas of ministry, there are outreach events coming up. Please pray for each of these ministries.

And, let's not forget those cultural days. Just when we think we are in the swing of things, and life is running relatively smoothly, we are once again reminded that we are living in a foreign country. Last week we had a few of those days. Last Sunday we were walking to the tram stop to go to church. We had to walk a little slow because of Falyn's feet (I'll explain later). As we were walking, we realized we only had 2 tram tickets. No problem, we would stop at the little booth on the way and buy some more. We didn't know they were closed on Sundays. Okay, no problem. We would buy some on the tram from the little machine that's on the tram. Well, because of the slower pace walking, it took us about 20 minutes to get to the tram instead of 12, so we missed our tram. This meant we had to wait another 20 minutes for the next one and would be a little late for church. When we did finally get on the tram, we realized that the machine only takes coins. We only had enough coins for 2 more tickets. We couldn't do anything, so we just sat down with our 4 tickets (instead of 5). Let me just say, that we had never rode without tickets before, and in our two months here, Doyle and I were checked once by a controller on the tram. Of course, this day, the controller approached us. My heart started pounding like crazy. I pulled out the 4 tickets, he motioned to all of us as if to ask if these were for all of us, and we said yes, and he went on his way. Fun, fun fun!

Thank you all for praying for us even when we haven't been good at communicating our needs. We know in times like above, that you are all praying for us! Please join with us in praying for the following needs.

We have completed all our paperwork (and trust me, it is A LOT of paperwork) to apply for our residency cards (sort of like a visa). Please pray that it is processed smoothly and quickly.

We are all battling some seasonal allergies right now. Please pray for comfort from itchy eyes and stuffy noses and coughs.

We have many spring and summer volunteer teams coming to help with the different ministries. Please pray for their planning and safety and for the ministry service they will do.

As you may recall, we have been struggling with Falyn's feet with the wart problem. Since December, Falyn has been battling warts on her feet and different treatments. She has been in severe pain walking for 4 months now. We had some treatments done in Moscow, but it did not completely remedy it. Two weeks ago, we took her to another clinic where they did the freezing treatment on 3 spots. We returned there on Monday to repeat it. She is in quite a bit of pain now. Please pray that this virus will be killed and her body with fight it. She has definitely developed a higher threshold for pain lately, but she is being stretched to her limits now I believe.

Thank you all for being our prayer warriors!

The View From Our Balcony

2008-03-24T22:42:00.005+01:00

Holy Cow We're In Krakow Now!

2008-03-13T14:36:00.024+01:00

Karen and the kids walking to church

Our neighborhood store, post office, and bank

Our apartment building

We made it!!! We are in Krakow Poland and we are so thankful for all of you and your prayers as our family transitioned from Moscow. Our prayers continue to be answered in ways that go so far beyond our asking!

We are so excited about the city, all of our team members, and the great ministry opportunities here. We are enjoying helping in ministry such as the English coffee' house, sports outreach, and the worship services at Compass International Fellowship every Sunday evening. We have also started taking Polish language classes, and our Russian is coming in handy. The kids are also very excited to be living in this beautiful city. They love the apartment and the very nice play area just outside our apartment is making life grand for them. They are enjoying playing with the other MK's that live in our neighborhood as well as making new friends. They are all doing very well homeschooling as they just picked right up where they left off in Moscow. We continue to be so very proud of them!

More pictures to come very soon and along with this new blog, we also have a new Skype name. It is fletcherfive. Please keep in touch as we continue to pray and serve Him together!