January 5, 2009

Christmas bells, creamed herring and gefilte fish

New Year's blessings to all!

We're just winding down after the holidays. Mick returned to the United States yesterday from Warsaw, and Mackenzie is taking the GRE in Warsaw this morning. We return home tonight—return to language study and planning for winter camp in Lodz.

The avant-garde angel.

The Saturday before Christmas, we attended the Wroclaw (pronounced “Vrotswahf”) Christmas service. It was their first Christmas Eve service, because they are a church planting that has only monthly services as yet. The sanctuary had a little heat, yet the thirty or so faithful who attended wore their coats through the service. It was a good turn-out for this gradually developing congregation.

During the service of lessons and carols, lay people read from Isaiah and the gospels, and there was beautiful organ and vocal music. The congregation sang "Lo, How a Rose," "O Come All Ye Faithful," and "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (in Polish of course),and some traditional Polish carols that we'd not heard before.

After the service we received and shared with others a large square Christmas wafer, kind of like passing the peace. Everyone went around wishing others a blessed Christmas and breaking off a small piece of each other's wafer. By the end, everyone had a moment of sharing with just about everyone else in the group.

After sharing Christmas wafers, we shared a traditional Polish Christmas Eve meal. People had brought herring salads, gefilte fish, borscht (beet soup), and baked things. We stayed for over an hour to fellowship and enjoy the food.

In the new Wroclaw congregation, seven or eight who attend are under 30. Everyone hopes that soon there will be enough children for a church school class, and that the church will continue to grow. In Poland, it takes courage to declare that you are a Reformed believer. In the family, parents may refuse to cross the threshold of a Reformed church even for a child's wedding or a grandchild's baptism. In the marketplace, there may be repercussions as well.

Ringing new bells in Lodz.

It's a four- or five-hour drive to Wroclaw from our home in Lodz, but we love to support their desire to "be church" by attending and connecting. We got home at midnight. The next day, Sunday, we worshiped in Lodz. After the service, the children rang bells (thanks to Iowa churches who sent them), and the youth performed a stunning avant-garde play about questioning old assumptions about God and faith, and how God continues to make all things new. The director had professional theatre experience and incorporated great special effects and stunning physical use of the sanctuary space. We were in awe!

During our first Polish Christmas, we naturally missed worshiping and singing in our own traditional ways and in our own language. Yet we are feeling blessed by our new relationships and the commitment of Reformed believers. In Lodz, after the early Christmas Eve service, we were honored to share a traditional Christmas Eve meal with Pastor Semko Koroza and his family. In Poland, churches have a service Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, and again on the "second day of Christmas"—the day after. Similarly, there are services on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Mick and Mack's first Christmas in Poland.

Coming "home" to Poland has been a bit difficult for our kids, who've never lived here. It's not the same as coming home to a community where you grew up, and we are still missing our lives together in China. Still, Mackenzie and Mick helped with the bell ringers in Lodz, and the four of us sang in four-part harmony at the Christmas Day service.

Thanks for keeping in touch with us, and for praying for and thinking about believers in Poland. We always love to hear your news, and we hope your churches will continue to commit resources to mission, even during these hard times.

Peace and joy in the New Year !

Liz and Doug (and Mackenzie and Mick) in Lodz, Poland

The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 175

To direct gifts, please use: PC(USA) ECO #E051723. Contributions from individuals may be sent to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Individual Remittance Processing, PO Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700. Contributions from churches should be sent to the normal receiving site or: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Church Remittance Processing, PO Box 643678, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3678. Write the title, "Mobility for Mission, Poland, and the ECO number, E051723, on the subject line of the check. to give online, click on the "give" button below.