Well we thought it was vacation... then we found out we were supposed to be speaking "only Polish" all week. It didn't really turn out that way, though. While hiking, walking through the tourist market, eating ewe cheese (very yummy), ice skating, playing games, etc., we used Polish, English, sometimes even German to communicate with our fellow students from language school... but definitely Polish whenever our director was within hearing!
Many times, though, the conversation turned to spiritual things. Everything from "Did God really create the universe in 7 literal days?" to "What are the differences between Catholic & Protestant beliefs" was brought out for discussion. Along with two other girls in my class who are American missionaries, we tried to keep bringing the focus back to Christ and what the Bible says about Him. It was very interesting to hear the different ways that people described their faith and its importance in their lives--and also very interesting to see how they put it into practice in their day-to-day vacation life. It seems we had an entire range of people who called themselves "committed believers"--some who cheerfully made sure they'd be able to go to church first thing Sunday morning and spoke out against the immoral actions of a few others... to others who were too hung-over from the night before to make it in the morning, but managed to get to an evening service before the day was over. People who give themselves a religious "label" but say they never attend church. People with great knowledge about their church doctrines--who read books and study and attend church regularly and who say that their faith is important to them--who then make fun of the week's "Jesus talks" in their drunken stupor the next day.
I returned home with a heavy heart for some of my friends & aquaintances. They've heard God's word, but do they really know Him? And what about me? If I'm going to go around telling people I'm a Christian, am I living in such a way as to back up that claim? Just because I left behind a fiance and moved to Poland to be a "missionary" doesn't put me on a higher level than anyone. Can people see from my life that Jesus has really made a difference in me--that I don't just "behave myself" for the sake of being a good person, that it's out of the love He has for me and my love for Him?
It's a lot to think about... would you join me in praying for my friends and the people I met on last week's trip? And pray that God would speak through my life and words, that He would use me for His benefit.