New Washing Machine!

Posted on June 9, 2014

Today we said goodbye to our friends from Savannah as they headed back to Warsaw to catch an early morning flight home.  It was a sad farewell, but our lives are richer for having met them.  They led an amazing service last night where they spoke from the heart about the impact spending a week with Holocaust Survivors has had on them.  They also fed us a real Georgia-style BBQ last night – chicken on the grill with sauce from Savannah, green beans, mashed potatoes and banana pudding.  YUM!

The rest of the day was a “free day” because many of our Jewish friends had been invited to the homes of some people from the local church.  There was a little cleaning to be done, but it was a pretty low-key day.  Paula and I spent the majority of the day in the craft room preparing for the upcoming Narnia Children’s Camp.  We made examples/test runs of several crafts and made our shopping list.  It was a productive, but relaxed day.

I’ve been holding off on writing about the new washing machine because I wanted to wait until all the details were settled.  I asked in one of my early posts that you pray about an immediate need the camp had.  When we arrived we learned that the camp’s washing machine was broken and about to be sent out for repairs for the second time in just a couple of months.  Andrzej commented that Oksana thinks it needs to be replaced because it is old and they’ve already spent money to repair it once, but he said a new one costs over 1000 złoty and the camp just can’t afford to do that.  So he was warning us that there would be no washing machine for an undetermined number of days while it was out being fixed.  So I’m doing the quick mental divide by 3 estimate of how much that would be in US dollars and thinking that this is something we can make happen.  As I started talking it over with the other Americans, Cindy mentioned that her Sunday School class might be willing to help.  So I e-mailed Don Hatfield with all of the details to ask.  But we knew it would be a week before he could discuss it with the class.  That’s a long time for a camp full of people to be without a washing machine, so we went ahead and bought it on our credit card and figured this was no big thing for a big God.  The machine was installed the next day and we have been washing load after load since.  Yesterday, I received word from Don that the class was happy to cover the full cost of the machine and that there would be a check to pay off our credit charge when we got home.  SO…. on behalf of Ostróda Camp, Andrzej Kortykowski and all those who will benefit from clean clothes and linens… we want to sincerely thank the Basic Sunday School class of Rockville Christian Church!

On a side note… the new machine has a super high spin option, which means the clothes come out with much less water in them.  This is a life-changer if you ask me, since I have yet to meet anyone in Poland who has a dryer.