Answered Prayers in Poland

Dearest Warriors, You must have huge muscles from praying so hard!!! Thank you dear Jesus. Thank you all! 1st Baptist Church finally voted on the weekend of December 6th and 7th. The voting process was two days, and it was by ballot. In the end, the victory for the souls of the needy kept it's head above water and survived! We can't tell you how happy this makes us. If you have ever lived in another country with a different culture and poured all of your heart and soul into helping these people through God in great and unimaginable ways...and then you turn into this vicious enemy simply by a few words of a slanderous man...Yikes, it's extremely tough! But, what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger! That's what happened with us here in Poland. We are lean, mean, buff praying machines! If I may now indulge you in our marriage scripture Lamentations 3:22-24 Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassons never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait on him." I am glad that we wait upon the Lord, because here are the results of his compassions, faithfulness and portions!

Thanksgiving 2003: Richard with Robert and Wanda, the mother/son Christians of Bogdon's family Thanksgiving 2003: Brooke and Krzysiek (the one who is now rooming with Christian men) Thanksgiving 2003: Mateusz (our Bread of Life Polish Missionary), Pastor Grzegosz (of 1st Baptist Church), and Pastor Piotr O. (of 2nd Baptist)

God is moving and shakin' in Bread of Life:

• We have been able to move our next Bread of Lifer, Krzysiek, into an apartment where he is thriving! (As of November 30)
• We are able to help purchase a breathing machine for one of our Bread of Life babies, Roxanna. (As of December 4th)
• We are able to deliver boxes of Christmas Cheer to the orphanage that Bread of Life is now involved with in Kalisz thanks to donations from the Nazarene Church Europe. (To be delivered before Christmas)
• We are planning our Bread of Life Christmas Celebration for December the 19th. It will be in the late afternoon and a wonderful time to celebrate the Reason for the Season, Jesus!
• Our Thanksgiving Celebration was a wonderful time where people shared their hearts and their prayer requests. All of the local Christian churches contributed and 3 of the local pastors were there to help us celebrate with our homeless 'Thankfulness'! As a result of this dinner, four of our younger homeless have started attending the youth meetings with 1st Baptist Church of Poznan. (November 28th)
• We delivered over 10 industrial-sized garbage sacks to a woman's shelter filled with clothing and feminine hygiene products. (As of November 25th)
• We gave 2 different orphanages over 5 large bags of clothing for infants to late teens. (As of December 2nd)
• We received over 300 pounds of canned meat. (As of November 25th)
• We were able to collect 6 carts full of groceries at a local grocery store (As of November 7th-9th)

Honey, these are just a few items that Bread of Life has been up to...Don't ever forget that Bread of Life is running twice a week with its traditional Holy Start and Growing Giants God's Way programs and through these programs helping on average 200 people a month.

We're so glad that we're on God's team and you are our fellow teammates!

Well, these still aren't all the facets of Bread of Life...but we'll move on. We hope that you've been encouraged by what you've read as we're encouraged by you.

Poznan International Church

Boy, it's such a blessing! Rich continues to do a super job as my pastor (and that of others). One lady told me after church the other week how much she appreciates Richard's sermons---straight and forward and Biblical and relevant!

Our drama team is still a hit! We hope that although we have fun, that others will hear the words and apply them to their hearts.

We have also gone for our second month now to Gniezno to worship and fellowship with the believers there. Rich preached again there, and this time it was a visual- interactive sermon. There was a little karate kicking going on...you'll have to ask him about it.

This Sunday is our biggest event of the semester for Poznan International Church---it's the annual Carols by Candlelight Christmas Program. We hope to pack out the theater that we'll have it in. We are working closely with K5N in this event, but we are also including the help of the other local Christian churches. It should be quite a carol-ing merry time! Please keep it in your prayers!

Richard will be marrying one of our precious couples from PIC come May! We'll make sure that you get plenty of pictures of this EXCITING event! He is very honored for these upcoming nuptials!

Poznan International Church has been able to give 2 tons of coal to a local orphanage, Dom Dziecka, that one of our members is greatly involved in. This orphanage has to burn 90 tons of coal a year to keep the place heated. We are so glad that the church, through its tithes, has been able to help in this venue. May the little children come unto Him!

Well, I must say, this is a long-er of a letter, and it doesn't even include our English Evangelism...but, for the sakes of your eyes...we will postpone that until later!

We love and appreciate and pray for you all! Hope that you enjoyed reading about what YOU are doing in POLAND!

You're super-athletes!!! Keep on keepin' on!

xo

Brooke and Rich

By the way, if you are interested in the news of the shelter, Rich is about to head out the door at this moment for continued talks. We sent a revised contract that they're not thrilled with...So, we continue to ask for discernment with these talks. We are waiting upon the Lord for his BEST provision for us! Please continue to pray, as well! Thanks!