Trip to Poznan, Poland - Pt 3

On this day we took a venture outside of Poznan to the village of Kornik, where Kornik Castle lies.

It was very nice. The floors were magnificently puzzles of different types of wood. The furniture and architecture was great. The grounds were beautiful. In a few weeks, they'll be even more gorgeous as the azaleas and rhododendrums and all sorts of flowers come out in bloom. We saw a few white bell shaped flowers poking their heads through the snow.

Here is a picture of the grounds from inside the castle. I thought this would be a great shot because this window was aligned with the main path, some snow was still on the ground, and the glass of the window is old and wavy. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Click on the image for a larger view if you're interested.

Here's a picture of the family standing on that same path with the castle in the back ground.

On the next day, we went to the cathedral. It is the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. This is at least the 3rd version of the cathedral on this site over the ages. The first dates back to the year 968. The first King of Poland, Mieszko I, and another king just a few generations later, Bolesław I, are both buried here as well as several other historical characters. The crypt and an area that shows ruins and former foundations from the prior churches are open for viewing below this cathedral.

Here are the front doors. They tell the story of Peter. Sunni was having a home school moment and pointing out the story of Jesus walking on water and Peter attempting to walk out to him for our oldest. He identified the story and characters. What a genius!

Inside:

One of the painted domes. This isn't the main dome but from one of the side rooms of the cathedral. I liked the artistic style of the characters on this one, though. They're definitely different than the traditional painting style from that time.

I also liked the icons of the saints/apostles on this archway.

Here is the massive pipe organ in the back. There is a public chamber music event on Sunday, but that is the day we leave unfortunately. I'm sure it'll be beautiful. We heard the one in Westminster Abby of London played several years back. It was awesome. This one looks to be bigger.

Here is the back of the cathedral with all it's spires from across a bridge.

That afternoon we visited a park. Here's Seth and Gran swinging.

And E climbing to the crow's nest of the "ship"

This is one of the friends my parents know. Her name is Helka. She is thinking about going into modeling, if that wasn't obvious. The boys adore her, as you can see on Seth's face. She loves them too and brought them some toys to borrow from her niece during our visit. The picture is inside of the flat my parents (and we) are staying in.

Sunni and I had a date one evening. It was to the Opera House. We saw the Marriage of Figaro. It was good - great singers and live orchestra. The opera was in Polish as opposed to Italian, but it didn't matter since I don't understand either. It was fun.

Yesterday we visited the Old Zoo downtown. Here's a photo op with the grandparents.

Seth watching the Alpaca.

A walking street with shops downtown. We bought a few things here, including a Poznan team futbol jersey for me.

Anyone like the Beatles?

The other end of the street with a great statue. There are several statues around the city.

And a nice stop for a banana split and a cappucino. Afternoon coffee and snacks in cafes has been a nice tradition for this trip.

We have one more day of touring and then we head home. It's been a great trip.

Trip to Poznan, Poland - Pt 2

Here are some more highlights from the trip:

Getting ready to start another day touring the city with my beautiful family:

Here we are at the local market. This evening Sunni and I came back and bought foods for dinner. We bought fresh peirogi, which are Polish dumplings. These were filled with potato and cheese and a few had a meat mixture. They were excellent. To go along with this, we bought fresh mushrooms and onions that we grilled, some fruit, and beet slaw. The Polish love beets. Apparently they have a beet soup as well. Sunni wants to try it, but we haven't gotten there yet.

Sunni's been jibbing me about hat on facebook. It was a gift from my parents when we arrived here in Poland. Actually, not many people my age wear them here, but several of the middle aged and older gentlemen do. I kind of like it. It keeps my head warm anyway.

This is the inside of a Franciscan church we visited.

Most of this day it rained, which is what it's done mostly since we arrived in Poznan. So, for the afternoon I had the brillant idea of going to a mall. Of course, we had to walk to the mall so we got all wet anyway. The mall was neat, though. We don't usually seek them out when traveling but this one is in an old brewery here in Poznan, so it's sort of historic.

We stopped for a rest and refreshment. Here's my youngest enjoying the foam from Momma's cappucino.

The next day we went down to the Old Market Square. It's a beautiful area. There are a few museums and historic churches as well as shops and cafes. Here are the boys feeding the birds. They had fun.

The Town Hall is the centerpiece of the square. Every day at noon, a trumpeter plays a little tune and then these goats come out and butt heads 12 times. Everyone stops and watches. There was a local school on a field trip there yesterday. All the kids would cheer with each head bump.

Just down from the square is the Parish Church - a former Jesuit college. Here is the inside - also beautiful. There was lots of pink marble and paint in this one, plus the outside of the church was painted a salmon pink with white trim. Not your normal church colors, but it worked.

The ceiling in the Parish Church. Our oldest liked trying to find Mary and baby Jesus in the paintings. Sunni said it was like a spiritual "where's waldo". :)

Here are our little goats butting heads.

And then the snow came that afternoon. As you can see, it was blowing hard! The boys loved it. They've never been in snow like this!

My sweetie in the snow.

And me: artic man!

After the snow stopped, we had a couple of inches so we went back out and played some more. Snow angels, snowmen, snowball fights. It was all a good time!

Next on the list is a visit to a local castle. Stay tuned!

Trip to Poznan, Poland - Pt 1

My parents have been house sitting for missionary friends in Poznan, Poland since January. When they told us late last year about their plans, we were of course very excited for them and told them we'd bring the boys to visit while they were there. Well, that time has come. So on Friday afternoon, we set off on our great adventure - the first trip "across the pond" for our boys.

The flight went reasonably well. It was a 13 hour journey with one short layover in Frankfurt, Germany. Here's a picture of the boys rocking out to German children's music on the airplane station. The one catchy line from the song that they boys loved and sang out at the top of their lungs:
"Mella mella mac mac!"

We arrived in Poznan on Saturday at 12:30 in the afternoon. After settling into their "flat" in this great art-nouveau town home, we walked down to the neigborhood park to stretch our legs. Our oldest is sliding down the slide with my mom watching. Check out the homes behind us. The architecture is great here! It's been very interesting because a good portion of the city is the old Soviet block cube buildings - very plain and drab. But much of the city remained in tact during the Soviet control so there remains a great deal of the beautiful historic buildings.

This is the Opera House. Sunni, Grandma, and my Mom are posing with the boys. Mom and Dad have been to a couple of ballets here at the house. We may go see Madame Butterfly later this week if we can get tickets.

Here you see the Medical school with one of the cathedrals off in the distance.

We walked on down to the Old Market Square where we found a little tea shop and stopped for tea and hot chocolate! It was delicious.

Here's a picture of the family in the Old Market Square. Behind me on the right is Town Hall. Apparently the bell clock has 2 goats that come out and butt heads on the hour. I'll have to try and get a picture next time we're down there.

That night we all went to bed about 9 PM (which is 3 PM Texas time). We slept until noon the next day. That was Sunday morning, so we missed church, but opefully we're all caught up on our sleep and will be adjusted for the rest of the week. That evening my folks had their Polish friends over for pizza. We had a great time visiting with them all.

It's Monday morning now. I wonder what today will bring!

Disney World

Last week, my family and I returned from a Walt Disney World "Grand Gathering" vacation. There were 10 of us there:
Nathan, Sunni, Ethan, Seth
Nick, Pepper, Aaron, Jude (Sunni's sister and family)
Stephen, Britt (Sunni & Pepper's parents)

It was a good time for all, especially the 4 pirates who committed mutiny and took over the trip!

For many more pictures, check out the album on my family home page here:
http://bearspace.baylor.edu/Nathan_Atkinson/www/Disney%20World%202008/index.html

Or for those of you on facebook, you can find the album there as well.

Romania, Day 6

Today was the last day of clinic. We split the teams up again. Sunni, Pepper, Larry, and Debbie stayed at the clinic here and saw Gyn patients while the rest of us went to a little village just next to the town we were in yesterday. The team that stayed here said they saw 54 patients - that's with one doc. So, they were very busy. We say 112+ with 2 docs and 2 nurses that were seeing patients on their own at times during the day, so we were busy, too. Both teams seemed to have had good days.

Sunni and Pepper said that in the two days of Gyn clinic, the total number of abortions by the women they saw was over 200. It's mind boggling how often that is used as birth control here. I asked if we were just losing something in translation and if those could have also been miscarriages, but they were not. It's very sad. However, today was not need as dark with oppression as they felt on Tuesday. Many of the women who came in today and had had several abortions in their past have since become Christians and serve faithfully in the local church. It was encouraging to the team to see the forgiveness and renewal in these ladies' lives.

In our group, we again had a good day full of patients who were eager to see us and continued to ask when we'll be coming back next year. That was nice. As has happened each day of clinic, at least one person brings us grapes plucked straight from the vines in their yard. Today it was a whole bunch of green grapes. Here's Kerfoot enjoying one:

There are two stories I want to tell about today...or maybe 3.

While I was serving in the pharmacy, several children came up to get stickers we were giving out and to play around with us. Two in particular were cute because they were wearing their school uniforms and were brother and sister. So, I had to take their picture. Then they had another liitle boy with them who I assumed was a younger brother. In fact, he was their uncle. His mother was their grandmother. She seemed very pleased with all of her children and was excited for me to take all of their pictures. Later I heard the rest of the story. That woman had mothered 6 (I believe) children in the past who were all older. Her youngest son came later in life and she tried to abort him. He survived. He seems perfectly normal physically. However, she told this to Johnny in triage and pointed at him standing next to her as she told the story. So, he had to have heard it. So, we're praying extra for him and the great plans God must have for his life.

Here is the little boy:
And his niece and nephew:

Later, Dr Kerfoot was making a house call and I got to go with him. It was just around the corner to the home of a woman we saw in the clinic. She wanted us to come see her dad. This man is 92 years old. He was in the Russian army back in WWII. During his time in the army, he would trade cigarettes for bread to get enough food. After the war, he and his battalion were just dismissed from the army. They weren't returned home - just dismissed. So, he and 10 others began the walk back home to Romania from Slovia - about 1500 miles. They started in February. It took them 3 months. This was through the snow at times and all the harsh conditions and without boots as they had worn out apparently. Before he left for the war, he was married and had one son. When he got home, he stayed faithful to his wife and they had 3 more children. He continued working as a farmer in this village of Romania. It was quite a story. We went to see the man because he had an infected place between his nose and eye that really needs surgery to be removed. He doesn't want to go to the hospital. In fact, he doesn't want to walk at all now. He fell 4 years ago outside and hasn't been out again since. Dr. Kerfoot talked with them a long time about his need to get up and stay moving. He gave him some anti-inflammatories to help with the pain so he can try to start standing again. Who knows if he'll do it or not. The story was really interesting, though, just to think about all this man has been through.

Vicky, the soldier, and Dr. Kerfoot:

The other story is about our time tonight once we got back to the dorms. All the Romanian people that we've been working with all week shared dinner with us, as they normally do. Then they pulled out a keyboard and we had a time of celebration for what God has accomplished this week. We sang many songs together, each in our own tongue, from Awesome God and Above All to How Great Thou Art and Amazing Grace as well as a few Romanian songs we didn't know but were blessed to hear. God's presence was awesome in the room. It was so great to hear voices of multiple languages singing in unity. It was a foreshadowing of a bit of the heaven we have to look forward to. What a great way to end this week.



Pastor Lucian, Pastor Peter, Leslie, and Johnny. At the end of the evening, we said our thank yous to each other and Johnny gave each of the pastors an offering from the mission team

Tomorrow we take it easy, do a little touring, a little shopping, a little eating. Then it's back to rest before a midnight ride back to Bucharest for a 6 am flight back home on Saturday morning. So, this will probably be my last post until I get home. It's been fun journaling the trip.

Romania, Day 5

Today felt almost like normal. It was much more like the mission trip days I'm used to from my past trips. We saw 147+ patients in about 10 hours of work. People were happy we were there and were asking us to come back again. They were loving and gracious, or shoving and jealous - but at least they wanted us there. What a difference a few miles make. The town today was much bigger than the village we were in yesterday. So I guess because it was big enough that not everyone was in everyone else's business that the town wasn't as controlled by the powerful few in the same way. Or maybe it was something else. Maybe it was just purely God's mercy on us knowing the last two days we had been through. By the end of the day we were physically and mentally drained, but not spiritually. It was a good day.

Not to say that all was roses. We saw an outlandish amount of people with sky high blood pressure - people that the docs would have escorted directly to the hospital had they been in the States. Sunni saw a woman who was 45 and had an abortion a few days ago. She was very sad about it, but had felt helpless to do anything else at the time after having 6 grown children and not having gotten pregnant for years. Sunni and Stephanie were able to pray with her and counsel her.

At the end of the day, Sunni and Johnny saw a 75 year old woman whose daughter had died 14 years ago. She was alone in the world and by the way she was grieving, you would have thought the daughter had just died yesterday. For 14 years, she had let her grief overwhelm to the point that she had had a stroke not long ago. Johnny said her grief really touched him - the fact that in the past 14 years she had not heard anyone tell her that God also lost his only child and that he knew her pain and was there for her. That in fact, a whole family of God was there for her. He did share that with her today, and hopefully she took it in.

We did see several Christians today - many who go to the local pastor's church in this town. This pastor has been working with us all week and he now has over 100 new contacts that he can connect with in the coming days from the seeds we planted today. There were also 6 people who received salvation, which I believe brings our known total to around 12-15. I'm never big with numbers because it's often hard to define a truly changed life in the few moments we spend with these precious people. I am trusting God to continue to move in lives and bring forth a harvest that these local pastors and church leaders are able to reap soon. I don't think I mentioned that in Sunday service a woman testified in church that she had come to a medical outreach through that church a couple of years ago and was witnessed to that day. Over the course of the next year God watered and cultivated that seed and she came to Christ. She's now a faithful member of church, but it took a whole year - long after the team of medical missionaries left - for God to complete the work that began that day. So, hope is in the air. I'm very happy about having come on this trip. It has been very different from all the other mission experiences I have had but it has been rewarding in its own way. I know I will not forget much of what happened this week for a long time.

We have one more day of ministry tomorrow. We'll be splitting up again so that Sunni and her team can do gynecology one place while the rest of us visit another spot. We expect tomorrow to be just as busy today, so we need strength for this final day with the teams split. I know God will give it.

Here are some scenes from the day:

these kids loved one another. They were either hugging or dancing a vast majority of their time in line.

Brother Bullet, Vicky, and Lucian (translator and local pastor) with a patient in triage

Pepper and Wayne guard the door to triage. These people were pushy!

One of our patients today

Alex (translator), John Mark, and Alise tie balloon shapes for the kids....yes, we saw many more kids and young people today, which was nice.

Stephanie and Sunni with a patient

Today's team in Pastor Peter's church, which was just down the road from the community building we served in today.