good day

at first, it was quite hard for me to open up and talk with Polish folk. most of those my age and younger speak English, so the language barrier is not as big a problem as the fact that they are introverts and so am i. anyway, Saturday my team broke intsmall groups and we spent the afternoon touring the city with a handful of Poilsh university students and so i got more comfortable. what did we do? well, we ate "pancakes", more like crepes, for lunch and then toured the main Krakow attraction, the Wawol castle, which dates from the 13th century. beautiful. before meeting up with the rest of the big group for supper we behaved like the locals and strolled along the Wisla, the river that runs through the center of Krakow. unlike the locals, we taught our Polish guides how to play cribbage. :)
while it is still not easy for me to walk up to people and chat, today i was able to overcome some fear and talked with a lovely young lady, Ange, at our first outreach at her university apartment complex, what they call a "student hostel". my teammate Crystal had been talking with her and a few of her friends for awhile before i joined them. after i asked them where i could find a "toalety" - public bathrooms are scarce in Krakow - she lead Crystal and i up to her dorm room. over the tea and small sandwiches she offered us - gotta love European hospitality! :) - we continued our conversation through broken English, French, German, Polish and gestures. Ange is in the midst of studying for exams - ten of them! - and said yes when i asked if we could pray for her about these. Crystal told me that she and Ange had talked earlier about the Pope (big dude here!) and Jesus, and that Ange said that the old pope was in her heart while the new one is in her head. And Jesus? he is in here heart. hmmm.... there was a sweet presence in the room when we prayed and after we finished she placed her hand on her heart and smiled at us. i did too. i felt like we had found a sister...
more to share, but gotta run. paying to use the internet so need to keep it short. hope ya'll are well. blessings from the other side of the world. and thanks to all of you who helped me get here. :)