Krakow Poland, Part 2

Bro. Glass took us to the old airstrip...this was remnants of what was there.

 

Our second week in Poland was more laid back and relaxing.  We had already seen everything we wanted, except for the Schindler's museum.  This was a great time for us to spend much more time in our Bible's and in prayer.  We knew when we got back to Ukraine, we will be facing much spiritual opposition.  The oppression in Kharkov is like nothing I have ever experienced.  In Poland, it was like to were released from prison, and we felt almost,...relieved to be there.  Even many of my physical ailments I was dealing with went away, not swollen ankles, no pain.

Briana and Orion enjoying their favorite pastime.

I believe God allowed this down time for us, for it may be the last on we get for a long time! 

We did have to switch apartments mid-stay.  The apartments we were in were reserved for other people, but the apartment manager was awesome and helped us as much as she could.  She even gave us a huge is discount on the 2 times we had to extend our stay there.  Praise God!! The second apartment we got was a 2 bedroom apartment, so we were all able to fit in one.  It also had 1 1/2 bath, which is great with 4 kids!!!!

We very much enjoyed our time with the Glass family and their church there in Poland.  Sweet people, many of them knew english, so we were able to fellowship!

 

Here is Briana and their youngest daughter :) She is the same age as Corey.

 

We were invited twice to their BBQ Bible Study. Great Kielbasa and fellowship!

 

 

Briana was able to spend some time with the Glasses teenage daughter.  Briana really needed this time to fellowship with someone of like faith her same age!

The Schindler factory steps made famous by the movie "Schindler's List"

During that last week, we went to the Schindler museum.  It was one of the nicest museums I have seen in a long time.  It takes you on a journey of German occupation during WWII in Krakow.  Many of you may have seen the Schindler list (I have not) but we seen the list on his office wall.  What scary time's that was.  I know God blessed that man for helping the Jews like he did! 

Finally, on Sept. 3, we received the paperwork we needed to get our Visa's.  Bro. Glass drove us to the embassy and took us wherever we needed to go, what a blessing.  We went to the embassy on Wednesday afternoon to see if they could start our paperwork, they said they did not take paperwork for visas but in the morning, but they did allow us to go ahead and pay for our insurance.  So we walked to the bank, paid for the insurance, and walked back to the embassy with our receipts.  The next morning, we went to the embassy again with all our paperwork...they said they could process it in one hour.  Praise God.  Normally it take the whole day, but God allowed us to find favor, and they processed it very quickly!  Bro. Glass helps many missionaries from Ukraine that come to renew their visa's, and he said he has never seen them process visas so fast before.  Praise God!!!  Now we have our Visas, the next step is to get our residency.  The University will take care of most of that for us!!!  Now with Visa's in hand, it was time to get back to Kharkov....

Bro. Peterson took us to McDonalds for supper!  This had to have been the fanciest McDonalds I have ever been in.  The boys really like the tablets they had set up for the kids :)

Trip to Warsaw from Krakow by train....Bro. Peterson, a missionary there in Warsaw, let us stay the night with him since our train got in late!  What a blessing, he also took us to the airport the next morning so we could fly to Kiev!  The only thing I was dreading was that 8 hour bus ride to Kharkov....but....at 1am....we were finally home after 2 1/2 weeks!!! 



Only 234 Kilometers left till we get to Kharkov....

Pictures from our trip to Krakow, Poland

Krakow Poland Part 1

Today I am coming to you LIVE from Krakow, Poland.  This city is over 1000 years old and has a ton of history.  But tourism is not the reason we are here.  In order to get our Visas, we had to leave Ukraine and come to Poland.  Since Brian and Briana are going to the University we are getting student Visas.  They will be studying Russian.  

 

We are having to stay here a little longer than we intended to stay.  We had to leave Ukraine on August 21 because our 90 days to stay in the country without a Visa where expired.  But because of circumstances beyond our control, the paperwork that we needed from the University are a little late getting to us.  So now we are waiting for that paperwork to turn in with all of our Visa paperwork.  As soon as we get our Visa stamp, we will have 72 hours to get back to Ukraine to start our Residency paperwork.  (Lots of paperwork :))

 

 

 

We started our trip on a bus from Kharkov to Kiev Boryspil Airport.  It takes about 8 hours to get there.  We took the overnight bus, so it didn't seem quite so long.  Afterwards, we flew to Warsaw then on to Krakow by train.  It was a new experience taking the train.  I've rode on a train before (we took an Amtrak train from NC to PA and Brian I & took an overnight train from Kharkov to Kiev), but it was nice having our own personal cabin to ride in.  It make the 3 1/2 hours trip more bearable! :)

 

 

 

 My favorite things was getting a taste of home.  Some of the restaurants that they had in Poland, we do not have in Ukraine, such as....Subway, Pizza Hut, and KFC.  We didn't realize how much we missed these little things from the states so much!

 

Pizza Hut :)

We were able to get an apartment near the Old Town, which was a huge blessing.  We had to walk most everywhere we went, so being close to the embassy and town was a must.  We originally reserved a 2 bedroom apartment that all of us could stay in, but when we got here, we found out there was a glitch in the website in which we reserved our room, and that room was not available for several more days.  But PTL!  They offered us 2 apartments for the price of one!  So Brian and I stayed in the 2 person apartment while Briana and the boys stayed in the 4 person apartment one floor up.  It has been soooo nice, it's almost like a mini honeymoon for Brian and I :)  The picture below is the view from one of our windows :)

 

The day after we arrived, we just started exploring the Old Town.  In the picture below is a Catholic building.  The story behind the two towers is very interesting.  The legend tells of 2 brothers who were assigned to build the tower for the building.  The older brother finished first and was praised to the heavens for the great job he had done.  But soon after, they noticed that the younger brother had exceeded his brothers work in making his tower taller and more elaborate.  The younger brother was praised and honored even more that the older brother.  The story goes on to tell of the envy of the older brother, and how envy turned to anger, and that anger led the older brother to kill his younger brother in one of the towers, then went to the other tower and killed himself.  They say that the murder weapon still hangs in the tower as a reminder of what happened.

 

 

 

Here we are at the Wawel Castle.  Beautiful place to see.  We were not able to go inside, for the all the indoor exhibits you had to pay for.  And we are trying to site see as cheap as we can. :)

 

 

We also went and explored the Jewish Quarter in Krakow.  It made me think of what happened during WWII, and all the Jewish families that were taken and separated from each other on those very streets. Below is a picture of an old Jewish Temple/Synagogue.  It was used for this purpose prior to the war, but during the war, the Germans used it as a horse stable.  Now it is just a museum with pictures and quotes from Jews during the war.  There are not many Jews living in Krakow anymore.  Most of the ones who survived, left after the war.

 

See more pictures of our trip to Krakow Here!

 

 

 

Krakow Poland -Part 2

 

I feel like traveling...to Ukraine :)

Getting packed up for our ride to Charlotte International Airport

 



At the airport saying our good-byes.  This had to be the hardest part!!

 



 

Saying Good-Bye to my mom was very hard for me,

but God gave me grace and strength not to completely fall apart in the middle of the airport! :)

 

Kids are ready, with passports and tickets in hand!

 

This was the boys first flight ever!  They were so excited!!

More excitement and anticipation, not knowing what to expect...

 



 

Our Lord was so kind to my boys.  As we were entering the plane, my boys were picked (out of all the children on the flight) to come meet the pilot and see the cockpit of the plane.  They were in there for a good while....the pilot even let them speak over the loud speaker :) 

They all said, "Hey MOM" :)

 

Our first flight was from CLT (Charlotte) to JFK (New York)...we finally arrived in the Big Apple :)

Waiting for the airline to allow us to start checking in our baggage....(FYI...we purchased 3 separate flights because it was much cheaper to do it this way...so we had to pick up our luggage when we got to NYC and check it back in...)

 

 

The plane that will take us from NYC to Kiev :)

 

Another great blessing from the Lord.  We purchased regular economy class tickets....but ended up with Premium economy class seats :)  Our seats were bigger and wider than normal economy... just another way our God showed us His tender mercies!!

 

I have no pictures from our stop in Kiev...we only had 2 hours to get though passport control, get our bags, travel to another terminal 15 away, and then get checked back in.  We made it to the gate just in time...I think we sat down for 2 minutes before getting back up to board the plane.  Another first for the boys...to get on this plane, we had to take a bus out to the plane and enter from the tarmac...

 

Finally in Kharkov, Ukraine

 

Bro. John O'Brien brought deaf Sasha, and Bro. Sasha to pick us up at the airport. :)  It's late, and we were tired, but we made it!!!

Long Time, No Blog

It has been awhile since I’ve had a chance just to sit down and update my blog. A lot has happened in the last year. We took our survey trip to Ukraine in June….I tuned another year older in July….we took a respite at the beach for a couple of days in August….our family “officially” surrendered to be missionaries to Ukraine in September….in October was the first time Brian stood in a church to present our burden for Ukraine and also we received our first support check this month =)….and November was a busy month…we visited 2 other churches and was privileged to hear Stinnett Ballew in a missions conference at our home church. In December through March, we were able to present our burden to many churches, including one in Baton Rouge Louisiana. That is the single longest trip we have taken so far!!! We have also had several more churches take us on for support!!!  PTL!!!!! 

My husband’s last day of work is today, April 1, 2011. We are praying that our schedule will soon be full… We would love to be in Ukraine by next summer!!!!


We now have a Facebook page….http://www.facebook.com/faulkners2ukraine

And a web site….http://www.faulkners2ukraine.com

You can see our survey trip pictures from our trip to Ukraine. It’s amazing how different it is…but how much the same it is. Their manner of life is so much simpler in many ways. But how they need the Lord…they don’t have a Baptist Church on every street corner like we do here in the south. They need the truth…not tradition (which they have a lot of). Please pray that we will do the Lord’s will in Ukraine, and also while we are on deputation!!!

You can also see on our web site and on our Facebook page, “Our Journey on Deputation”. I have tried to get pictures of every church we go to. Hopefully, I will be more consistent on my blog posting, and not wait a year before I post again…lol….