Poland Informational Blog

Witaj! (Polish for Hello)
At the moment I type this, I am less than a week away from leaving the country with a group from my church. We will be traveling to a small village located in the foothills of the Tatra Mountains of Poland. The village is half a world away, but as I learned during our trip last year, the people are the same as they are in every other place in the world.
As this trip draws closer, I can barely contain my excitement. What a great privilege and opportunity it is to travel across the world to work with people that otherwise I would have no chance of meeting in my life, and share with them a life changing gift. As Doug (our youth pastor) has emphasized several times, this is a beautiful picture of the love of Christ. That people from half a world away would give up valuable time and resources to come visit, and share Christ with a specific group of people.
So, a little bit of background about the trip: On this trip, we will fly to Poland with the specific intent of sharing the love of Christ with the inhabitants of a small village of about 100 people located in the mountainous region of southern Poland.
Other goals for the trip include:
To be a blessing and encouragement to the Goss family (IMB missionaries that we are coordinating with) and further their mission efforts.
To be a witnesses of Christ as we travel and interact with people that come into our paths.
And, to experience a deeper level of community with our own team from Franklin Heights Baptist Church.
These are our stated goals, but we know that the nature of missions is that things can and do change. So, an unstated, but very important goal for us on this trip, is to be flexible in all that we do. I must confess that although I feel as though I can adapt to change fairly well, it does jar me a bit whenever things do change. My personality is one that likes to know what’s going on and why, almost all the time. I hate getting in a car and just riding. I want to know where we’re going. I’m OK if plans change, as long as we have another plan, and we know what it is. The one thing I hate is “Just winging it”.
So, who’s going? Well, here’s the list (in no particular order):

Doug Hayes
Courtney Taylor
Pate Doherty
Meg Carter
Amanda Carter
Claire Guilliams
Ricky Wampler
Tanya Wampler
Joseph Wampler
Fran Wampler
Kateleigh Wampler
Shana Kohnen
Amy Layman
Eryn Layman
Matt Mays
Ezra Richards
Mark Andersen
Beth Andersen
Katie Andersen
Dillon Andersen
Melissa Andersen
Ian Andersen

I apologize in advance if I misspelled anyone’s name.
You can tell just by looking at the list that the group dynamic is a bit different this year. We have several families going, and not quite as many youth as in previous years. Although this is different, I’m actually looking forward to it. I think the unique mix of students, adults, and children will make for an exciting and interesting trip. I also think it will be a lot of fun!
During the trip, I will be doing my best to keep everyone informed on how the trip is progressing, so that you can know what’s going on with our team, and will know how to pray. My goal is to write one blog post a day, as well as post occasional photos and videos.
There are several places on the web where you can check for these updates:
First (and most important) this blog: mrzchuck.blogspot.com
Second: My YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/MrZchuck
Also: My Facebook and Twitter pages
I will be posting updates on the youth group Twitter and Facebook pages as well:
www.twitter.com/fhbcimpact
www.facebook.com/fhbcimpact
So, if you haven’t already, go like/follow the youth group pages!
Do Widzenia! (Goodbye)