POLAND 2009 - Trip Across Eastern Europe DAY #1

Piotrków-Trybunalski, Poland
Monday, June 15, 2009
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Trip Across Eastern Europe DAY #1
The time has come for us to once again leave Poland, and specifically the Schengen Territory in order to have our passports stamped, enabling us to remain in Poland until we leave for Mozambique in September. We have been wanting to connect with a friend of ours from YWAM in Latvia, Cheryl Harrison, for quite a while. So things have sort of fallen into place, once again, for us to stay in Latvia for a week and a half, spending time together as a family, and doing some ministry as well.

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We ended up leaving a little later than we had hoped this morning. Then when we got to the main road that goes to Warsaw, traffic was stopped on it, as though a really bad accident had happened. Since we were already behind, we decided to trust our GPS and start navigating through side roads through forests to try to get ahead of the accident. Not a great idea after one full day of non-stop rain. Our little Audi is just not fit for the kind of roads we took it on. I am really surprised that we didn’t get stuck in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, after about an hour of nail-biting four-wheel driving in a European two-wheel drive station wagon, we made it past the accident and headed toward Warsaw.

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We have been to Warsaw a few times in the past, but never really traveled north of Warsaw. So as we journeyed out of Warsaw toward the Lithuanian border, we notices that the scenery changed a little from the part of Poland we have spent most of our time in. One thing we noticed in this area were women in very skimpy clothes waiting on the side of the road every so often. At first we thought it was just a coincidence, but then we realized that these were more than likely prostitutes. In such a Catholic country, we never thought that this sort of thing would be so out in the open. We prayed for these girls and for Poland as we continued on.

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Christian Young