The Taylors’ Year 2011 in Poznań, Poland

Traditionally, New Life Fellowship welcomed the New Year with a midnight ‘party’ : thanksgiving for the passing year and praying for the coming one.

January 6 saw the first public concert of Cithara Sanctorum http://www.citharasanctorum.pl/ – a medieval music group specializing in digging out old Christian songs and hymns, singing them accompanied by historical instruments. They started with Advent and Christmas songs and carols, followed by resurrection songs concerts around Easter and Luther’s hymns on Reformation Day (31 October). Dale and Hannah are actively involved with their Irish drums.

In February we were joined by David Cave – a young lad seeking experience in teaching English. He spent 3 months with us, mainly helping Dale teach conversation business classes. He landed in deep snow and Poland said goodbye to him with a heavy snow fall at the beginning of May.

In April we had another big celebration of the Passover, joined by our friends from the Reformed Church, followed by Easter song concerts by Cithara Sanctorum and the 'New Life' Easter weekend away.

Another severe winter made us look closer at the house... We got a loan to put the insulation on the building and in May/June a rapid and radical change took place on Kordeckiego Street. We felt the difference in summer – while it was hot outside, it was cool inside. And now, with winter in full blow, we can finally enjoy a warm house with reasonable heating bills. 

Deaf people continue to meet in our fellowship, and the work on translating portions of the New Testament into modern evangelical sign language goes on slowly... along with recording ‘sign songs’, published online http://dobry-znak.pl/ . In May, we hosted a Christian conference for deaf people from all over Poland, organised by ‘our’ deaf guys. It was a time of great encouragement for all of them and an occasion to wonder on God’s great works.

June – another school year finished. As usual, we were more than happy with our children’s school results, both – those home educated (Hannah and Sarah) and ‘regular’ school pupils (Abi, Ben and Reuben). This year was Asia’s last one with her class who moved on from primary to secondary school. Their 11+ exams were smashing and their farewell gift to Asia was ... an IKEA present card which equipped our bathroom with new cupboards.

The Summer holiday was not a time of rest....

It started with the Military Zone weekend away – a popular event for I and II World War re-enactment groups and fans. Dale and his friends acted as army chaplains running a field chapel and distributing Gideon’s New Testaments to interested ‘soldiers’ and visitors.

While the children were at Royal Rangers Scout Camp, Dale was getting ready for the English Summer Clubs. The first one was run by our American friends. The following 3 weeks of July/August we hosted 2 groups of young people from Lincoln Baptist Church, who worked very hard on teaching English to Polish teenagers. They spent mornings socialising and visiting interesting places around Poznań and afternoons and evenings on language activities and classes at Kordeckiego. The theme of these camps was “Heroes”, pointing to the greatest Hero of all time – the Lord Jesus.

After 3 weeks of Christian heavy metal background music by “Skillet” during the camps we decided our family deserved a week of silence in the Sudeten mountains. We stayed at a XVII century castle run by a Christian Foundation and enjoyed beautiful mountain views, including the Kamieńczyk waterfall – one of the filming sites for “Prince Caspian” (Narnia), we spent time with Asia’s relatives in the area, and took the children to one mountain top full of romantic memories from the beginning of our relationship...

The last week of August we spent in Warsaw at a Christian school teachers’ conference, important especially for Dale, as from September he took on teaching English in King David’s School http://www.dawid.edu.pl/ – with the 11 – 14 year olds. Apart from school, Dale continued teaching business English in Wrigley till December. From the new year the company changed the rules about English lessons so that nearly all his students had to resign from classes. Teaching teenagers at King David's School is a nice change for Dale, although administration related to it is overwhelming.

Dale continues contact with some of young people from summer camps in a weekly English club. Also his Friday model club is overflowing again with a whole new generation of young enthusiasts of figures painting and diorama building.

This year’s Polish Independence Day on 11th November was accompanied by another exhibition by Dale and his gang from the model club – this time focussing on the Navy at War, shown in our house and in schools.

Christmas we spent in Poznań, celebrating Polish Christmas Eve on December 24 with our American friends, including a midnight carol service with 'New Life' at Kordeckiego, and enjoying the rest of Christmas time at home. This was followed by another New Year’s Eve 'New Life' celebration... 