UPDATE FROM PRZEMYŚL, POLAND #21
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Dear Friends!
Greetings from Poland!
Another month is going by and every day we move closer to spring in full bloom which is a reason for great joy. Brilliant sunshine, returning after many weeks of bleak midwinter weather, carries with it fresh hope that in the end all things will come together well.
We try to organize meetings for the residents of our center on a regular basis. Due to the changing legal regulations, rules for obtaining documents or financial assistance, it is necessary to keep our guests informed about their situation. One meeting of this kind took place recently under the leadership of Fr. Marek.
The dining room at our center is a unique place. It is used not only for meals, but also for various celebrations. Most often the occasions are the birthdays of our youngest ones, but sometimes the dining room becomes a “thanksgiving room”. This was the case recently when our guests wanted to express their gratitude to one of our volunteers, Rafał – for the way he made sure the center was adequately heated throughout the winter (whose reign – as we hope – is coming to an end). Thank you!!! 👏❤️
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” says the popular proverb. But we want to have both apples and doctors! 😂🍎🍏 🧑⚕️We continue our series of helloes and goodbyes to American doctors who take turns and fly all the way to Poland to help the Ukrainians staying with us. We are very grateful for your presence and your service!
At our reception center in the mountains, where most of our guests are ladies, we could not do without celebrating International Women’s Day! It was a day of good wishes, flowers, sweet treats, and a general happy atmosphere. The evening brought more events: a concert prepared by the youngsters, plus a lot of dancing and small gifts!
While in our reception centers we try to offer our sisters and brothers from Ukraine a peaceful daily life and provide them with many opportunities to celebrate, in their country a terrible war is still taking its toll. We saw it now also through the eyes of Fr. Marek, who went to Kiev with humanitarian aid. We supported him spiritually in this dangerous journey, remembering at the same time to pray for peace in Ukraine and all over the world.
Dr. Brian, whose volunteering visits are so frequent that he has practically become part of our team, is always looking for ways to keep our guests’ minds from dwelling on sad matters. This time, he offered them an outing to a movie theater. Thank you for being our doctor and our friend!
We are trying to make sure that our guests lack nothing – since the last delivery of very tasty apples was welcomed with enthusiasm, we felt encouraged to repeat it for the families staying with us.
Here is one more outing proposed by Dr. Brian before he leaves for the US. This time, the destination was Myczkowce with its special attractions: a miniature park presenting over 100 models of wooden Catholic and Orthodox churches from the borderlands (Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia), a Biblical Garden with vegetation typical to the Middle East region, as well as a mini zoo. Even the rain could not dampen the spirits! ⛪️🌳🪴🦌🦙
We close this update with a few glimpses from our centers. In Przemyśl, two of our young residents showed their creative side: after doing some cleaning, they prepared a pizza and cut up fruit to go with it, set the table very nicely and invited everyone to tea. Meanwhile in our larger center in the mountains, creativity took a different angle and other young people staying with us spent their day crafting all sorts of colorful things.
