July 13, 2008

Russia is considering aiming nuclear weapons at Western Europe for the first time since the end of the cold war.

Defense sources in Moscow say among the schemes being discussed to counter US plans to station a missile defense shield in Europe is the possible deployment of ballistic missiles in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave between the EU countries of Lithuania and Poland, The Times Online reported.

A Russian parliamentary committee visited the enclave 10 days ago to look into how a new generation of nuclear missiles could be based there, the report added.

If a deployment does take place, then it would greatly increase tensions in Europe between Moscow and Washington.

Only last week, the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice signed an agreement in Prague to build a radar station in the Czech Republic.

A deal with Poland is in the works to host a base for 10 interceptor rockets on its border with Russia. The agreement is expected to be signed later this year.

Moscow is strongly opposed to the shield, saying that it is part of an aggressive US military expansion into its own backyard.

A source with close connections to the Russian defense ministry said, "One of the main steps under consideration is a redeployment of nuclear missiles to Kaliningrad and Belarus. These missiles would be pointed at Europe. It would be a perfectly legitimate step. If America wants to expand its military capabilities in Europe, then we have the right to act accordingly".

The source also went on to question the US claim that the shield was intended to intercept missiles only from the so-called rogue states. He said, "How would Washington feel if we placed interceptor missiles on Cuba or Venezuela?"

Experts said the threat of deploying missiles in Kaliningrad was largely aimed at strengthening the opposition to the shields in Poland and the Czech Republic. Experts went on to add that Russia would have to build new long-range ground-based ballistic missiles since it has destroyed most of its Soviet-era arsenal.

U.S. troops to hold exercises in Georgia, Ukraine

AFP
July 14, 2008


Georgian soldiers take part in war games with their US, Armenian, Azerbaijani and Ukrainean counterparts at the Vaziani training area on the outskirts of Tbilisi.

US troops on Monday began military exercises near the Russian border in ex-Soviet Ukraine and were poised to launch them in Georgia, amid tense relations between Moscow and Washington, officials said.

A ceremony inaugurating the Sea Breeze-2008 NATO exercise was held off Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, a Ukrainian defence ministry spokeswoman said, against anti-NATO protests and a hostile reaction from officials in Russia.

The NATO exercises "will increase political and military tensions in Europe as a whole," Sergei Mironov, speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency in Moscow.

Sea Breeze-2008, which lasts until July 26, will also include forces from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Macedonia and Turkey, officials said.

Separate military exercises dubbed Immediate Response-2008 are due to start in Georgia on Tuesday with Armenian, Azerbaijani, Ukrainian and US troops taking part, a Georgian defence ministry spokeswoman said.

"The US-Georgia joint exercises will be held at the Vaziani military base" less than 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Russian border with a total of 1,650 servicemen taking part, said the spokeswoman, Nana Intskirveli.

Russia to ‘neutralise’ US missile defence threat: report

AFP
July 14, 2008

Russia’s military is ready to “neutralise” any threat to its nuclear deterrent from US missile defence sites in Europe, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said Monday, according to Interfax news agency.

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Służewski Dom Kultury zaprasza serdecznie na „Noc z Herbertem” która odbędzie się 27. lipca o godz. 20:00 przy ul. J. S. Bacha 15. Bardzo duża część dzieła Poety poświęcona jest Grecji (wiersze, eseje, listy) – zachęcamy więc do obejrzenia spektaklu poetyckiego poświęconego kulturze helleńskiej. Grecja pojawi się w filmach, w koncercie muzycznym, tańcu. Zakończenie „Nocy z Herbertem” o 4 rano 28. lipca – dokładnie w dziesiątą rocznicę śmierci Autora „Labiryntu nad morzem”.  Dziękujemy za przybycie i wierzymy, że będziecie Państwo zadowoleni. Ewa Willmann – Dyrektor Służewskiego Domu Kultury

PHOTO: Herbert's draws of  Acropolis and part of text exposed in Warsaw  October 2006 (Photo of Betaki Lachtara)

James Kirkup
London Telegraph
July 18, 2008

Read Full Article Here

15 ΧΩΡΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΥΡΩΠΑΙΚΗΣ ΕΝΩΣΗΣ-ΟΧΙ ΟΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΟΙ ΑΛΛΕΣ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΠΑΡΘΕΝΕΣ- ΓΙΑ ΤΟ ΜΑΥΡΟ ΧΡΗΜΑ.

European Commission Warns 15 Members

On Money-Launder Rules

BRUSSELS (AFP)--The European Commission is warning 15 member states that they face legal action for failing to adopt E.U. anti-money laundering rules into national law as part of the fight against terrorism.

Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy raised the warning in a letter to Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, France, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and Spain, a spokesman said.

Η ΣΥΝΕΧΕΙΑ ΕΔΩ

Here's what happened today.

9pm: Went to sleep early

3am: Woke up to pack up and get ready for taxi

4am: Taxi Arrives

5am: Arrived at Charles De Gaulle (Paris) airport

7am: Boarded flight to Krakow or "Cracovie" in Polish

9am: Arrived in Krakow

10am: Arrive at apartment

Then we had Lunch and wandered. And i posted this blog.

The way these agreements usually work is that they set up a series of visas, these can include:

• Working Holiday Visas
• Internship Visas
• Practicum Visas

The working holiday visas, or permits, are open to everyone - provided that they meet the age requirement.  What is often done with these visas in Eastern Europe though is that in order to apply for a visa, you need to have employment arranged in Canada before you go.  This isn't a problem if you're going to Alberta, where they'll hire anyone, but to get pre-arranged working holiday employment in Toronto and Vancouver - that's a different matter, and much more difficult to arrange.  This is where companies like ours come in.  We arrange the employment and the job offer letter, then provide orientation, accommodation, and other assistance once the working holiday makers arrive in Canada.

The other visas, the internship and practicum visas, those are for young workers and students respectively.  These work much the same as the working holiday visas but with one additional requirement for each.

For the practicum visa, you must be a current student and you must get an unpaid internship in your field of studies - arranged before you come to Canada.  For the internship visa, you must be a young worker or recent graduate and get a paid internship in your field of work - arranged before you come to Canada.

WISH, arranges these for students from accross Europe - so adding Poland to the mix should be quite easy.

Click on Internships or Programs at the top of the page to see what's available.

We expect to see the first of these visas available in January of 2009.

If you are a Polish student travel agency looking for a Canadian partner - feel free to contact us at info@wishtoronto.com

• Iran’s Fars New Agency Shahab-3 missile has a longer range than the reported 2,000km.
• The Iranian Photoshop skills missile developments made an impression on Republican presidential candidate John McCain who called for the United States to establish a missile defense shield in Europe to counter Iranian ambitions.
• The tentative deal that the United States and Poland have reached was not very long-lasting. Reuters reports that Poland rejected U.S. missile shield offer. ISN is more poignant: Rice misfires. However, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country could reach agreement with the United States within two weeks but indicated he would not compromise on tough conditions he has set for a deal.
• A few days after being snubbed by Poland, the United States and the Czech Republic signed a pact on Tuesday to build part of the U.S. missile defense shield southwest of Prague. While the treaty still awaits ratification by the parliament the position of the Czechs has not changed: 70 % of the Czech population are against building even “defensive” radar installations on their soil.
• It comes to no surprise that Russia announced that it will take appropriate steps over U.S. radar. The list of potential steps includes the withdrawal from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. It continued with its usual conspiracy theories warning that the U.S. may station intermediary and shorter-range ballistic missiles in Poland under the guise of interceptors.
• The Cutting Edge reports that Greece quietly provided the Israeli Air Force pivotal assistance on S-300 ground-to-air radar systems.
• India is going to flight-test its indigenously built air-to-air Astra missile by the end of July or early August.

Since she was living with us and our daughter was living with her family, the families visited each other and thus, all of our lives became intertwined.  We loved visiting Poland, a place that may have not been on our radar as a tourist destination if Rotary had not made it possible.

Our Polish daughter and I  have stayed in touch through the years.  She now has her bachelor's degree and plans to go on for her master's.  How she has matured!  Even though we haven't seen each other, I hear the maturity through her words.  Her English has gotten very strong.  Her sentence structure is accurate and her vocabulary extensive.  I think her personality has grown.  I hear a vibrant young lady through her writing.

I am confident that we will meet again.  And if we don't the memory of her visit will be with me forever.  I thought of her this past Christmas and made the Polish cookie recipe she made while at our house.  At Christmas we received a wonderful gift package from her.  She's still thinking about us too.  Thanks, Rotary!

Over the last few days we have been at the Steiger Gathering here in a small town (the name of which I don't dare spell). This is a time for Steiger missionaries from Poland and around the world to get together and share what God is doing and pray and encourage each other. This has been a very refreshing time as we prepare for the next step of the tour.

On Monday, we leave for Lebanon. We have no idea what to expect and we are praying that God will allow us to present the Gospel to many people in that hurting country. Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare to go to Lebanon. 

Speaking of that, we received the following email about a week ago from David Wilson, the organizer for Turkey and Lebanon.  He explains (as you can see below) that there are some difficulties in organizing this tour, but It is common for us to have battles prior to a tour, especially in the Muslim world. We know that nothing worth while will come without a significant fight. So please pray! 

 
Well, Turkey seemed to be going like clock work and Lebanon was the greater concern but I should know from experience that we will have battles on our hands and now Turkey seemingly now has the greater battle going on...although that could change again tomorrow(-:

Presently we have a band touring Turkey...actually our TACO band plus a few added musicians.  The fellow who organized some of their gigs in the Izmir area, and has been reliable for us in the past, messed up some of their gigs and possibly stole some money from them and at least presently has disappeared...So, how does that relate to NLM?  Well, he is also the one who has been arranging 2-3 of the NLM gigs in the Greater Izmir area (Aydin area).  The last news I had from him is that we had 3 gigs that were basically set but he has now disappeared, probably from losing face because of the money thing.  Pray that he reconnects with his church leadership and myself in the coming days.  I will be heading off to Lebanon in a few days but Kati will be making sure we have the promised venues in this area.

In Istanbul we are still waiting for replies to applications we have made for various venues.  The Istanbul Municipality rejected our bid for the city square of the most populated area of Istanbul because of security and terrorism issues.  Pray that they may give us at least one other area that will still are waiting for.

Blessings,

Aaron

Yet another project I took a part in - Bacardi "Original mojito" is one of the recent projects that our Ars Thanea crew has just released. It's a part of the global Bacardi campaign named "Elixir".

Take a look please! (it's in Polish but you still should be able to figure out how to get in. Simply type in some email and password and check the boxes..)

You can also read it at AT Blog

What do Warsaw and Tehran have in common?

Poland is one of the most stalwart European allies of the United States, supporting Washington not only diplomatically, but where it matters most - by placing boots on the ground in dangerous places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran on the other hand is, for all intents and purposes, the archenemy of the U.S. - and arguably after the fall of Iraq and apparent progress in North Korea, the only part of the Axis of evil still standing (a point of evil?).

And yet, just as Turkey did not hesitate to deepen its strategic relationship with Iran, Poland may find its need for energy security paramount to keeping Washington content in its efforts to isolate Tehran.

This subject is thoroughly and succinctly explored by Adrian J. Erlinger (the guy who runs Leopolis) in World Politics Review commentary: Poland Balances U.S. Missile Defense Plans and Energy from Iran.

So without further ado, the first in a two-part series of charts outlining the nitty-gritty of how, how much and how much longer, today in Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Italy, UK and Poland:

If you have a request for information about a mystery airport, send it along post-haste, via comment or email, and I'll include it in the next chart.

We were due to hit a third country on that first day (Germany), however, something happened with our Motor Coach driver (that was never fully divulged to us, but we "back of the bussers" speculated that he had gone the wrong way and we had to circle back around or something).  By the time we finally hit the German border, we were actually kind of giddy, being so over-tired.  Just before we crossed through the border crossing, we learned that it was no longer necessary to stop and show passports and this was a great thing for tourism, etc.  Well, we pulled across that border and promptly got stopped by the Polizien!  We all had to show our passports, it was kind of spooky a little bit but hey, after the trip we were having, what else could happen?  I almost asked if I could get a picture of the police officer but decided against it at the last minute (though it would've been great to have had one to go with this post!)

So, to sum it up, the bus ride that was supposed to land us there at 1am ended up getting us there at 5am!  It seemed like our trip was 1/2 over before it began - here it was Wednesday already and we'd just arrived at our first hotel.  To be honest, I began to wonder what I'd gotten myself into.  Granted, we had some fun getting to know each other on the bus and it seemed like I was with a bunch of really nice folks, but I had serious concerns about what we would be able to accomplish with seemingly little time.  I would later discover that this was nothing to worry about - these guys can pack a LOT into a little time and it was absolutely amazing, but more on that later.

One thing I wanted to talk about was the drive through the countryside of Poland.  It was quite nice while the sun was still up in most parts, and for those who were still coherent at that point, we were rewarded with the most amazing sunset.  By the time we arrived at the Berlin Excelsior Hotel, there were some mighty stinky & sleepy people but again, we made it.  When you think of the other "transports" we learned about throughout the trip, in particular from Bill, we were traveling in the lap of luxury for sure on the big, air-conditioned bus, each of us with our own seat (and some with a double seat all to themselves!).   

Determined not to let neither body odour nor sleep deprivation hold us down, Holly and I decided not to sleep for the four hours we had until our next meeting time, but to shower and get ourselves into some type of order.  Now, Holly and I are not world-travellers by any stretch of the imagination, however, I must say I wasn't expecting a lot to be really different.  There were, however, a few things that were a little surprising, which we discovered  from the good ol' Excelsior Hotel:

 1. No facecloths.  (as you can imagine, after the lengthy travel we did, we were eager to wash the grime off of our faces).  "No, you do not get facecloths unless you are in the 'luxury suites'," said the nice front desk man when I asked. He looked at me like I was quite nuts when I asked actually. We were allowed extra towels so we improvised using the ends of towels as facecloths.  When in Rome and all that...  I did also ask how people washed their faces - and not in an ignorant way, I REALLY wanted to know—he didn't answer me on that one.   

2. Apparently people like to watch themselves shower  in Germany, if those showers were of any indication - they just have a curtain that goes down one side and the end of the tub is open, facing the mirror.  It was...rather odd!  Frankly, at that point, I probably would've showered in the hotel lobby fountain (had there been one) so it wasn't a big deal, just different.

3. People like to be cosy in hotel rooms - when Holly and I walked in, I looked at those two tiny twin beds pushed exactly together and said, "Holly, you're a great girl and all, but we are pulling those suckers apart."  We laughed thinking about how some of the big guys on the trip would react to walking into the small rooms and seeing those two beds pushed together like that. 

4.  This really has nothing to do with the hotel, other than the fact that this was the place I discovered it: my ankles can swell to the size of baseballs!  I'd heard about this type of thing before after sitting for a long time in the plane, how blood can pool down there.  I moved around some on the plane, but didn't figure on a super-long bus ride after the eight hour flight.  I must say, the size of my ankles was pretty darn impressive; I know I've never seen anything like it, even after having had three children.  They did continue to go up and down throughout the trip but it didn't really hurt (well, didn't hurt me, I can't speak for the others who had to actually LOOK at them, though) so no biggie. 

We ended up having a great breakfast before heading out for the day...first stop: Wannsee Conference Villa.

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EN PAPPA UTAN FAMILJ

Mitt arbete tog mig nyligen till Warszawa för en skolavslutning på ett religionsinstitut jag ansvarar för. Som resekamrat hade jag med mig min äldsta son, som nu fick se Polen för första gången. Eftersom resan var förlagd över en helg hade vi möjlighet att på söndagen besöka vår kyrkas församling i västra Warszawa. Där kände jag igen många vänliga ansikten från mina tidigare besök. Men den jag bäst kände igen var mannen från Zimbabwe - han med det varma leendet.

För hans egen säkerhet vill jag inte namnge honom. För fyra år sedan blev han politisk flykting när han lyckats undfly klorna på president Mugabes hejdukar. Efter ankomsten till Polen har mannen gjort otaliga försök att återförenas med sin familj, men till dags dato utan framgång.

När han såg oss sken han upp, och han omfamnade mig. Sedan strök han ena handen över huvudet på pojken bredvid mig och log brett.

”Åh, det här måste vara din son!”

”Ja, det här är Johannes,” svarade jag.

”Han är verkligen en fin pojke!” sa mannen.

Jag tittade in i hans ögon. De log fortfarande, men hade vattnats en aning. Jag undrade om inte en del av honom tänkte på sina egna fyra barn. Med en växande klump i halsen svarade jag: ”Ja… det är han.”

Den afrikanska mannen och jag har haft många samtal tidigare. Jag minns att jag en gång frågade: ”Hur klarar du det? Jag menar… att leva så här?”

”Egentligen är det inte möjligt,” svarade han lugnt, ”men Gud tröstar mig. Bönen har varit min kraft, och kyrkan mitt stöd. Min himmelske fader har gett mig så mycket, och på något sätt kommer han att hjälpa mig med detta också. En dag ska jag få se min familj igen!”

Hur kan en människa, tänkte jag, ha så stora utmaningar i livet och fortfarande vara fylld av sådan tacksamhet och tro? Han hade verkligen rört vid mitt hjärta, och fått mig att tänka på vad som är viktigt; mannen skulle säkert ge vad som helst för att kunna se sina egna familjemedlemmar i ansiktet och tala om för dem hur fina de är.

Jag har chansen varje dag. Tar jag vara på den?

När det var dags att ta farväl svingar mannen upp min son i luften. När jag ser bilden framför mig känner jag återigen sorg för mannen med det varma leendet som längtar efter sin familj, och med viss skam erkänner jag för mig själv: Jag vet inte hur bra jag har det.

”Vi hoppas att du snart kommer tillbaka,” säger han till mig, ”men då får du lova att ta med dig Johannes också!”

”Jag följer gärna med!” svarar pojken glatt.

Du är alltid välkommen, tänker jag, samtidigt som jag denna bild.

I look at the new material things I've gathered recently. I am the hunter and the gatherer. I like to collect things. It pleasures me to imagine giving my thing a name, a story, a gender or a personality.

Remember I told you about this talented girl named Lou, known as Art & Ghosts? Well, I bought a picture from her, quite long ago. I bought this girl named Samantha... apparently the artist's favourite. She is so perfect in her little black frame. My kind of dark angel.

I even got a fairytale surprise gift from her. A Storm in a teapot. It is so lovely! I'd frame this tea fairy later and put it in our new kitchen. Near where we make tea.

Then we bought Wesele. We were at this flea market not long ago and saw this wonderful poster.

A Polish lady, the seller, began telling us the story of the poster, dating back in 1901. Wesele, which means The Wedding Reception, is a play written by Stanisław Wyspiański, a famous Polish artist, playwright, and poet. Wesele had a significant meaning to the Polish people, the lady seller told us.

"The play made us look back at our unsuccessful uprisings against the Russians."

We paid 200kr and brought it home since then. The guy who designed the poster is apparently famous too. His name is Adam Kilian. If you're bored and looking for a dance, try googling for Adam Kilian with double "l". *w*

Oh I bought a little red bag today. I paid only 175kr for it at a vintage store. He is too cute. A little Aigner in warm wine red colour, he really cheers me up. Oh and he apparently likes books too.

*Hugs*

Poland's Underground State (Click to enlarge).

[credit: War and Game]

I found this scan of a hierarchical diagram of Poland's mechanics of government and resistance during the Second World War.  Surely, this was designed to assuage Poland's allies that its resistance was a capable force against Axis powers.

(Note the second row on the right-and side, showing the swift movement of Justice:  Civil Courts->Verdict->Executions)

- Choose a treatment

- Choose a region or country

- Choose a health care option

Depending on your preferences, you will be pointed to places as far away as India and Thailand for procedures that include open-heart surgery and total hip replacement.

The Castle Rock businessman's startup is just the latest stage in the evolution of medical tourism, a booming industry in which sightseeing and surgery collide - or, as his Web site characterizes it, "Exotic journeys to wellness."

For years, Americans have been traveling out of the country to get less costly treatment, most notably to Central and South America for elective procedures such as cosmetic surgery. These days, changes in health care - rising costs at home and higher-quality care abroad - have made medical tourism increasingly mainstream. Not only are more people going, but they are going for medically necessary procedures. Some employers are even offering insurance benefits to employees who seek treatment in other countries.

In 2006, about 150,000 Americans traveled overseas for health care, nearly half of them for medically necessary surgeries, according to the American Medical Association. Jonathan Edelheit, president of the Medical Tourism Association, said as many as a million people worldwide will travel out of their home country for medical care by 2010. A May 2008 study by McKinsey & Company, a corporate research firm, came up with a much smaller number - about 60,000 to 85,000 inpatient medical travelers a year internationally - but still acknowledged the likelihood of growth.

Responding to the trend, the AMA on June 16 approved new guidelines regarding medical tourism: "Until there is significant action at home, patients with limited resources may turn elsewhere for care," said AMA Board Member Dr. J. James Rohack, in a news release. "It is important that U.S. patients have access to credible information and resources so that the care they receive abroad is safe and effective."

Read complete story at PlacidWay.com

Leaders of 43 countries from the European Union and the Mediterranean region met in Paris on Sunday for a first summit of the Union for the Mediterranean, an initiative launched by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The project is aimed at breathing new life into the existing Euro-Mediterranean partnership, known as the Barcelona process, and will create a more equal dialogue between the wealthy EU and the poorer states that line the Mediterranean.

Membership of the project is open to all states that border the Mediterranean, all members of the European Union, and some others. They represent a total of nearly one billion people.

The only national leaders who were invited but did not attend were Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, a vocal critic of the project and whose country did not send an envoy at all, and the kings of Jordan and Morocco, who both said they could not come for personal reasons.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa also attended.

The new organisation will have co-presidents from each side of the Mediterranean, initially France and Egypt, and a small secretariat, the location of which remains to be decided.

One of the main aims of the Mediterranean Union, which carries the official name "The Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean", is to work on a series of practical projects, with each member state free to work on a project if it chooses.

These projects, outlined in an annex to the final joint declaration, includes:

* Civil protection -- cooperating on the prevention, preparation and response to natural and man-made disasters

* Alternative energy -- exploring the feasibility of a "Mediterranean Solar Plan" to develop solar power as an energy source, and supporting research and development into energy sources other than oil and gas. Lebanon offered at the summit to host the project's headquarters.

* Education -- setting up a Euro-Mediterranean University, based in Slovenia, promoting academic mobility and joint degrees between member states' universities. French officials frequently refer to setting up an "Erasmus of the Mediterranean", referring to a popular EU student exchange programme.

* Mediterranean business initiative -- setting up a body to help small and medium-sized companies by providing them with technical assistance and "financial instruments", using voluntary contributions from member states.

To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

To download the joint declaration (as a pdf file), click here.

Over 300 people responded to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior after our concert at the SLOT Art Festival. Below are the stories of three of those people:

Luke, our drummer, met with two young guys after the NLM concert. At first, he felt that he had sat down with the wrong people because they seemed very against anything related to God. However, as he continued to talk to them, it seemed that there barriers began to drop and they began to ask honest questions. Luke spent an hour answering questions and seemingly breaking down barriers. Finally, the two young guys decided that they wanted to follow Jesus and so Luke lead them through the sinner’s prayer. Interestingly, they seemed to understand that it wouldn’t be easy being a Christian, but they were prepared to pay the price. They said that they needed help because they knew that at home they would be on their own. So Luke was able to connect them with a local Polish guy called Filip, who lived in their town and could connect them to a local church.

Nate, who runs our sampler and is an actor in the show, talked to a guy named Kamil that was standing off to the corner. Nate asked him why he had responded. He said that he knew that he was very lost, but that he wasn’t sure why he was there. Kamil explained that he had felt betrayed by Christians in the past and not been to church for many years. Nate explained that man will inevitably fail him and that he could only find his identity in God. Nate senses that Kamil has spent much of his life as an island separated from people and so he shared Psalm 23, which says that God’s goodness and loving kindness will follow after you all the days of your live. At the end, Kamil said that he felt new and so Nate gave him a big hug and told him that God loved him. Kamil said that this realization was going to change his life.

Thank you for all your prayers!

Aaron

In a lifetime of enormous achievement, Mr. Geremek’s greatest contribution may have been as one of the leaders of the round-table negotiations that helped pave the way for elections in 1989 that eventually brought the Solidarity movement to power, initiating a peaceful end to Communist control of Poland.

This negotiated change of power provided a template for other countries in the Warsaw Pact and, in the years since, far beyond.

Twenty-seven years ago this month, I personally witnessed a portion of the exodus of Polish citizens during the brief flowering of liberty before Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski imposed martial law that fall.  On a tourist bus, in transit across East Germany on the autobahn leading to Hamburg, I did not suspect that the families I saw in overloaded Polski-Fiats were but the first sign of a crack that would split apart the Soviet bloc and end Communism less than ten years later.  As a child of the Cold War, it was something I never expected to see in my lifetime.

As Americans, we like to think that we "won" the Cold War under the leadership of Ronald Reagan. But without the bravery of men like Bronislaw Geremek, who had the courage to stand up to tyranny in whatever form it presented itself, we would still be facing Soviet troops across the Iron Curtain. His life stands as testimony to the fact that freedom cannot be imposed from without, it must be fought for from within.

Godspeed, Bronislaw.