One of the busiest times of year for our team in Warsaw is the summer volunteer season. School is out, families take vacation and we are blessed to get a few groups in to help continue our work in reaching Warsaw. However busy we may be, the reward is always great. We want to let you know a little of what we did this summer and how those weeks turned out.

First, we have a couple who have been coming every summer for 6 years staying anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months. Bruce and Jane Mussey with First Baptist Church in Liberty, Texas and Trinity Baptist Association, arrived late May and stayed to assist with incoming groups through the end of August. Jane has also been assisting from the States in sending out our team prayer updates. Shortly after their arrival, Robin Park from Parkway Baptist Church in St. Louis, Missouri came for a week. Jane and Robin spent the time prayer walking through various areas of Warsaw asking God to meet the needs of local residents and how we might honor Him by serving them.

In July, Randy and Chance Roth, a father-son team from Legacy Family Church in Oklahoma came for two weeks to help with two of our summer events. Initially, they worked in Gora Kalwaria (goo-RAH kal-VA-reeya) teaching American sports during a kids’ camp, working with 10-15 children and youth each day. The last day of the camp was held at a nearby castle, Czersk (chersk), where the children acted out various fairy tales and played some of the newly learned sports with their parents. They also had a chance to dress up in real American football and baseball pads and have their picture taken. We will continue working with the Gora Kalwaria culture center this winter, and hope to involve more volunteers next summer.

Following this work in Gora Kalwaria, we took a group to the Southern mountains in Poland where we hiked in and around Zakopane (zah KOE pah neigh) for a week. There were 20 in the group, including students, parents with children and Americans. After hiking in smaller groups based on ability, each evening we gathered for meals, games and social time. We had a chance to get to know some new faces and continue bonding with others. Two weeks after our return, we had a reunion where we swapped pictures and enjoyed seeing each other.

Our last project for the summer was with a group from Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood, Tennessee. The project was 3-fold. The team worked to help finish clearing part of the Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa, interacted culturally with Poles and prayer walked in Praga. Each day the team would clear jungle-like brush from around headstones in order for others to catalog information on each stone. During the evening, the team would meet with various Poles who showed them parts of Warsaw and helped them learn some of the history and culture in the city. Others would take time after dinner to prayer walk through areas of Praga asking God to reveal needs of the people, much as Robin and Jane did at the beginning of the summer.

Although summer ended, and volunteers returned home, we have been fortunate to continue meeting with the many nationals we know. We are thankful for those who have given their summer and vacation time to help us serve the community in which we live. We are also thankful for the churches that supported each group by sending them here.

Team Warsaw would also like to thank First Baptist Church, Pecos, TX for their contribution to our work that has and is enabling some longer-term volunteers to partner on site with us.

For photos of our summer projects, please click here or check Photos under our Media tab.

Carl and Carol Brown from Ketchikan, Alaska, spent 12 weeks serving with Team Warsaw. The Browns, both retired, were looking for something to do as a long-term volunteer project, when God dropped Poland into their laps. God used a number of people to lead them to Poland, including two Polish boys who worked with their son at a fish processing plant. After a few meals together and hearing the boys tell how Poland needed Christ, a series of events started leading them to ask, “Lord, are you trying to tell us something?”

The Browns came as team support and helped in on-going work. “We prepared lessons for English Club, prepared the volunteer apartment and user manual, helped with the Christmas, New Years and a pumpkin pie party among other things,” said Carol. After working in disaster relief efforts in Gulfport, Mississippi, painting and minor repairs to an apartment was an easy task.

However, their time was not without its challenges. Their main task was to build relationships with whomever they came in contact. “Carl and I have given as a couple in this experience,” said Carol. “It’s been very humbling.”

Preparing English lessons and then spending 2 hours talking with Poles about those topics was one way they worked to build relationships with nationals. “The point was to build relationships and that takes time,” said Carl. “We want to build on those we started when we come back.”

The Browns plan to return to Warsaw and continue working with the team this September for another 12 weeks. They agree that staying 12 weeks is perfect because you don’t need a visa, but you need more than a week to meet and get to know some of the Polish people.

As the Browns returned home, they not only took a love for the Polish people but many blessings and a new understanding of God’s love as well. When they prayer walked with Team Warsaw and their national partners, “some would be praying in Polish and others in English and I kind of wondered, ‘God are you still with us?’” said Carol. “I’m almost embarrassed to admit, but God is much more universal than before I came here. I kind of thought God only spoke English, but I got a whole different picture of who He is.”

Although the Browns didn’t understand the language, while they experienced worship in a different culture, God still moved in their hearts. “I worshipped God better in Poland than in my home Church,” said Carl. “And I can’t even understand what the pastor says but I’ve heard some of the most moving services here. Their worship is true.” Because they had an open heart and listened to God’s calling through two Polish boys in Alaska, the Browns have found a place God can use them.