Update to Mission to Poland Blog

Wednesday, November 17

Got back around midnight last night, the travel was very long and arduous both going and coming back I worked out that between long stop-offs and delays that the travel time was over 24 hours each way.
Besides this we had a great trip and the message of deliverance was well received by the polish church that we were visiting. We stayed at a great hotel and ate meals at their restaurant, fabulous.

After the school we traveled to Krakow a large city of 2 million people and spent 2 days doing some tourist type things, sightseeing and eating at good restaurants etc.

I travelled back to Canada with Israel and Elijah, Pastor Jozef’s sons and Pastor Jozef and Tim headed off to Ivory Coast to do another School of Deliverance there.

I have the 2 boys staying with me until next Thursday. In my little bachelor apartment that will require some tight organization and understanding. I have Dana and Amanda to help out and we are also using Tim’s apartment in the same building to spread out the living arrangements a bit

All is well though and I feel especially blessed by the Lord at this time

Here are some links to pictures from the Polish School and other stuff

Poland 2010 Photo Gallery No. 1

Poland 2010 Photo Gallery No. 2

 Monday November 8

The lead up to the mission was excellent although Pastor Jozef was still suffering with a lingering illness Tim Gardner and I enjoyed a smooth transitioning day from our daily business lives to focusing on the upcoming Mission. My technical preparations for the Mission had gone very well with deliveries of chargers and batteries happening in a timely manner and the purchases of other various video taping supplies completed uneventfully.

Tim and I enjoyed an excellent meal and returned to the MacDonald Lofts where we both live and packed for the trip. I had previously consolidated all the various video cameras, digital still cameras and laptops that we were taking into my place so I was able to pack efficiently with all the cords and peripheral devices in 1 large suitcases and the valuable items on smaller bags that I would take as carry-on luggage. Tim dropped by a couple of times to visit and we discussed plans of how the next day was going to go. We were planning to go for breakfast before taking the shuttle out to the Airport so the day was going to start early. Around 11pm Tim came over to share the good news that Blaine was joining us for breakfast and then taking us to the airport, Praise God. I was pleased that we didn’t have to lug our luggage 2 blocks to the Sutton Hotel and arrange for them to look after it while we had breakfast.

The rest of the evening was taken up with final packing and I tumbled into bed around 3am.

Blaine was knocking on our door at 7:30am and helped us finish up the packing and loaded the bags into his car. We headed off for breakfast at Ricki’s, I realized that I had forgotten my personal wash bag, fortunately we were ahead of schedule and headed back to pick it up before heading out to the airport. Charlene dropped off Jozef, Israel and Elijah minutes after we parked and we were able to get a group photo before heading into the airport. Pastor jozef was still feeling a lot of pain but we were all in good spirits for the trip.

Our first stop was in Montreal and we had a quick meal there before boarding the Luthansa plane that would take us to Munich, Germany. The flight was relatively uneventful and the weather excellent. After landing in Munich we were struck by how much more thorough the security was than Montreal, Time had to open his luggage to show them that it was only a FM radio in his bag. The Germans are very efficient and the airport was spotless with wide open corridors and moving sidewalks to help us along. Another feature of the airport was little automated stations that dispensed free coffee and tea something that we all really appreciated. We boarded the bus that transferred us to the regional Dash 8 airplane that was to take us to Poznan, Poland. This is where everything took a turn for the worst, the airport was closed due to heavy fog and we were diverted to Berlin. We sat on the tarmac at Berlin for some time as we were presented with 2 options:

1. Get off the plane at Berlin and find other transport to our destination – Krotoszyn, Poland by Bus,Train or Car
2. Stay on the plane and go back to Munich and hope that we could find another flight that would get us into Poland

We decided on the 2nd choice based on what Pastor Jozef and Tim felt was the best. So back to Munich it was.

We were guided to the Service Desk at Munich along with the other people that had chosen this option, after some discussion we were able to secure a connecting flight to Wroclaw, Poland via Frankfurt which is only a hour away from Krotoszyn our eventual destination. Our flight to Frankfurt was a business commuter so we were a bunch of odd Polish, English and Chinese men with 2 kids in tow amongst a bunch of German white collar workers, Tim struck up a conversation with one of the stewardesses in that way that only he can and had a very interesting conversation describing what we do in Promised Land Ministries. Towards the end of the conversation she asked him to sum up what we do with one word and Tim said “Jesus” such a elegant answer for all the questions in the world.

We were picked up at Frankfurt airport by the Polish Airlines bus and transported to the plane that we were to travel into Poland on our final leg. We must have traveled to the very edge of this large airport passing freight containers, other smaller terminals and other lesser used aircraft before pulling up in front of the Polish aircraft that would take us on our final leg. Although I was initially a bit concerned the aircraft turned out to be older but in good repair. On the way and as we were entering Polish territory I was listening to Jesus Culture’s “Love Never Fails” and the spirit of the Lord hit me and I began to weep, I prayed for Pastor Jozef and Tim and a great anointing on the Mission and a great acceptance for the message that we were bringing.

I was totally energized although we had been traveling for over 20 hours I felt no fatigue at all and when we discovered that neither Tim or my luggage had made it to Wroclaw I was not dismayed at all, I am thankful that Pastor Jozefs luggage was not affected though. We were picked up by Mark a brother from the Church in a large van and he transported us to the Hotel that we were to stay at for the duration of the school.

We arrived at the Hotel …… at around 2:00am local time. As usual Tim and I were in one room and Pastor Jozef and the boys were in another. We went over to the attached restaurant an were pleased to see that the restaurant cooked wonderful Polish and European cusine and was very reasonably priced. The meal was great the we heade back to our rooms. After a shower and changing into the XXL White T-Shirt that the airline supplied for me and the spare pair of underwear that Tim had in his carry-on Tim and I were in bed around 3:30am local time.

November 11, 2010

Our local contact Ryszard, in Krotoszyn arrived to pick us up on Thursday morning at 10:00am to take us to the 1st day of the school

November 12/2010

Although we had a very long journey getting Krotoszyn, Poland the effort and difficulties help bind us together as a Team. Along the way to Krotoszyn we travelled almost 12 hours longer than we had expected due to weather problems and lost over half of our luggage due to a re-routing problem. Both Tim and I were glad that it was our luggage that was missing rather than Pastor Jozef's as he has had more than his share of problems and we were in much better shape to handle such a problem. Between what the airline Luthansa and what Tim and I had in our carry-on luggage we were able to get through to the 1st day.

The Hotel we are staying at is very nice and has a wonderful restaurant attached to it so we are gradually making our way through the extensive menu, it is very reasonbly priced and most of the main courses are less than $10 CDN.

Free Coffee

We have met some wonderful Polish brothers and sisters here and the first day of the School wen very well. Pastor Jozef found that he could preach and teach in Polish with only a little help for his very helpful interpreter Pitre and the message was very well received.

I was able to improvise having only the raw camera and some connection items to be able to video in a adequate manner though I really missed my tripod (I used a chair and Pastor Jozef's case). I was a case of using what I had and borrowing whatever I could

We had almost a full house in the small meeting room probably about 150 people and they were a excellent audience. The Pastor of the church was running a Youth conference in the same time frame so he invited us to pop by and pray for the youth which we did.

Youth Conference - Krotoszyn

We have returned to the Hotel and after another excellent meal are all headed to bed

Lord Bless all the Brothers and Sisters, supporters and friends of PLM

Colin