Departure

Levi, enjoying (NOT!) that 'yummy' LOT Polish Airlines food!

"Are we there yet?" "No! We have 3,439 miles to go!"

The familiar screen on the airplane, telling us exactly where we were

Sam & Luke, somewhere over the Atlantic?

Levi, Luke & Sam ... waiting at the Warsaw airport ... and VERY happy to see I'd brought along a gift from Marysia & Irmina. Yes, peanut M&M's, our first 'glimpse' of re-entry into America!

Luke, Sam, Piotrek, Irmina, Natalia, Levi, Mikolaj & Agata

Of course, one last 'look to the left'

Mikolaj and Sam ... one last 'brotherly' wrestling match

Piotrek ... "Will these people EVER leave???!!"

(He did a lot of driving for us while we were in Radom, and we're extremely grateful.

Thanks, Piotrek!)

Natalia and Sherri

(Natalia, Irmina & Agata had ridden the train into Warsaw to surprise us at the airport, just as they had done for Ben, Joe & Jim's departure What sweet girls!)

Oh, dearest Tytus & Jola ... when will we see you again?

(Our goal is to learn Polish, so we're ready to sit down and have a real conversation with them.)

We FINALLY met back up with our dear friend, Iwona. We hadn't seen her since the very beginning of our trip! She came to the airport to say goodbye. She looked sparkling and happy back in her 'homeland'.
She slipped easily back into the saddle of translating.

Mikolaj with a mohawk? Actually, it was a neck pillow. We were waiting to go through security at the airport and dreading the 'goodbyes'.

Luke ... standing and gazing out the window one last time before we left. We would often stand at this window and look out upon the street in front of our apartment.

More from the Going Away Party

Filip & Piotrus being goofy

During the open sharing, Sherri expressed to the church how they had inspired us to be committed to fellowship. As the NewLife body increases in size, it becomes more difficult to remain close with each other. We need to work hard at it! Spending time with our friends in Radom rejuvenated our passion for 'Building relationships with God and one another'.

(pictured are Marek & Sherri)

At the end of the evening, there was a time for open sharing. Tytus shared with Dave (with Steve translating) from Colossians 1:3-8 and expressed how they'd heard of Dave's love for them, but now they'd all experienced it firsthand.

And then there's Steve ... doing a bit of self-photography!

One of our Polish "daughters" ... Irmina ... one of the photographers for the evening

Even after being in Poland for a month, we were still trying new foods the night before we left. Sam finally found a Polish food he DIDN'T like! It LOOKED like a white cheese puff (Cheetoh) ... but it tasted like ?????? ... Sherri was trying to maintain composure, but it was quite funny!