SPECKA

I wanted to share with you some lessons we have been learning before going to Poland. One of our challenges is to teach people how to read the Bible for themselves instead of depending on a preacher (or even a missionary). We practice doing this ourselves by using an acronym called SPECKA. The way it works is that we read a chapter of the Bible and look for the following: ...a Sin to confess ....a Promise to keep ...an Example to follow ...a Command to Keep ... Knowledge to learn ...an Application to make in our lives. Every Sunday we have churches in our dorms as you can see in the picture. We sing some and pray but no one preaches. We just take a chapter of the Bible and share with each other what we found using our SPECKA method. I challenge you guys to try it. Take one of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) and read a chapter and see if you can find anything using SPECKA. It has worked well for us and I hope it does for you too.

Shot Day...

Yesterday was our first round of shots...we got three each. We will have two more days of shots while we are here at ILC. I was surprised how quick and painless they were....but the same didn't hold true for Seba. YIKES!!! Yesterday while we were eating lunch, I looked up and saw Marshall Kitron. I had the same look on my face that my students had when they saw me at Walmart and not in the classroom-he wasn't in the right place...but it was a great surprise!! He was traveling through Virginia and stopped by to say hello! We got to visit and go to Dairy Queen for some much needed dessert! Marshall was our youth pastor at South Haltom Community Church and is now serving in Peru as a missionary. Last Friday was my birthday so we went to an outdoor mall called Short Pump. They have live music every weekend during the summer and we got to hear some JAZZ. Seba wasn't feeling very well that evening so we are going out tonight to "recelebrate" my birthday and to celebrate his birthday which is this Monday.

Learning so much

Erin and I have had a great week of learning at the ILC. The president of the International Mission Board, Jerry Rankin, spoke to us all this last week about the spiritual, physical and emotional challenges that we are going to face on the field. It was inspiring when we considered how many missionaries before us sacrificed so much for the cause of Christ. It made us realize that going without a few creature comforts like air conditioning and living on the 4th floor with no elevators was really no big deal. It sort of put us in the right mindset that we are not doing this for us but for God. Our comfort is not really the goal, but Christ being worshipped around the world is. Our supervisor, Mark, asked us to write out a two minute testimony of how we came to follow Jesus. He and his wife then translated that testimony into Polish on paper and on cassette tape. Erin and I are now working on learning our testimony in Polish so that we can start to tell people our story immediately. Its hard because we really have no idea what we are saying and only know our colors and numbers in Polish. But we'll get it. I also received a copy of my great grandfather's testimony he wrote for a Russian magazine. We had it translated and read about how he tried to start churches in north east Poland in the 1920's. His message was so unpopular that they burned down his house while his family slept. They escaped and continued to do their work. His mother-in-law asked him why he didn't just pray in a room by himself and stop trying to hold meetings and start churches. He replied that his life was all about trying to please God not men. This was a reminder and a challenge to Erin and I that times will be tough but we are working for God not for men. Below is a picture of my great-grandfather in front of a Baptist Polish seminary. He is the one in the middle. We love and miss you and we thank you for your prayers. Please look at the prayer requests to the right and don't forget to leave a comment, it lets us know that you are reading. Peace, Seba and Erin

We Made It...

...To Virginia, not Poland yet. Erin and I arrived at the ILC (International Learning Center) for two months of training. Amazingly but not surprisingly, all that we asked you to pray for came to pass. We sold both vehicles (the Honda on the last day before we left), packed all our posessions into 6 footlockers and two suitcases and spent good time with our family and friends. Thank you so much for your prayers. We want to especially thank Erin's mom and dad (Ron and Kay) for housing us the last week and giving us all that we needed to prepare to go. We also want to thank Pastor Ryan of Grace Baptist Church for putting this blogspot in their bulletin and mentioning us during their service. We miss all of you already (except for Chris Sheppard) but we are extremely busy here learning all kinds of details of our assignment. Please pray for us to be able to retain all that we are learning and also for us to build meaningful relationships with other missionaries here. God Bless, Seba and Erin Here we are with Rachel and Shea Massengale (our team members) and Mark and Susie Edworthy (our supervisors).