So it seems that on a rainy day just outside of Warsaw that good things can happen and people are not bound by the weather to determine the type of day they will have. Today we headed out from Radosc to deliver presents to children in the area. This Monday is Children's Day in Poland and 120 presents had been wrapped and loaded into a van for delivery.

Some of the children knew what day it was and were eagerly waiting by their gates by the road for the big blue van that would bring them a present. Like a modern day Santa Clause, Henryk, Jim, Dorota Hury and me (a visiting friend from Krakow) flew from one house to the next delivering presents.

Some roads were paved. Some roads were mud holes. Some looked more like swimming pools from the rain than drivable town streets. Henryk took his rear wheel drive van through places that I never knew a rear wheel drive vehicle could get through. At one point, it started to rain pretty hard. There was the question of whether or not to head back home and wait for it to pass, but we weren't so easily deterred from our task.

Motivated by the eagerly awaiting kids, we delivered presents in the rain and through the mud. We even had the opportunity to meet a group of Roma people living in the Radosc area. This was a highlight for me because I have been working with the Roma in the Krakow area. Henryk immediately asked for all the names of the children living there. I think there were about 15 Roma children in this one building complex.

I, also, had the privilege of getting to meet some of the kids at the Wisla winter camp this past January. It was very eye-opening to see these kids in their homes with their parents or parent. Knowing where someone comes from changes the way you see people and how you respond to how they act. Some of the pictures we took today reminded me of pictures from a village in the middle of nowhere that you might see in a third-world country. Some of the families seemed to take pride in their homes, and it made a difference in the appearance of the home. Some didn't seem to care much about cleanliness or had given up on it a long time ago.

To me, as a middle class American, these homes seemed so far away from what I've always known as home. But I find myself realizing that my life could've been the same, and I could've lived in a home like these. And I wonder what I would've done with my life. I wonder what things I would value and what things I would take pride in. I wonder how I would respond to life if I were a single 20 yr old with a 2 year old and a baby asleep in the crib, and if I lived in a clubhouse type house with a ladder instead of a stairwell. I believe that we are more than what we have. The types of people we will become and are depends on how we relate to others and how we relate to God. We are so much more than the sum of our parts.

One of the boys we visited lived in a tiny house with several siblings and young parents. He opened his present and was so excited about what he had received, but then he started to offer us his chocolate bars that he had gotten in the gift bag. We all teach by our actions. A child with not much to give offered us his newly acquired chocolate bars. It's humbling to receive gifts from those whom you feel you should be giving to. But that's a picture of how it is and how we should be.

We are blessed to be a blessing and today was definitely a blessing to me. Just being able to work alongside my Polish brother and sister in Christ to serve the children of the Radosc area was a blessing and such a learning experience. I'm so thankful to have been a part of this ministry and to have been able to see how God is working in this part of the world.

Lindsay Cade