Week #60 of our 78-week humanitarian mission to Slovakia and Poland is in the books.
- slovakia7
- Oct 3, 2023
- 4 min read
"And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." - 1 Corinthians 13:2.

Poland fact of the week . . . Marie Curie, the woman who discovered Polonium and Radium, wasn’t French, but Polish. Her name was Marie Sklodowska before she married a Frenchman named Pierre Curie. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences.
When World War I broke out, Curie realized that the radiation of X-rays could help doctors see the bullets and shrapnel embedded in soldiers’ bodies. Battlefield X-rays became commonplace and helped to save countless lives.

We want to thank two of our best friends of more than 30 years, Bill and Shelley Moats. They travelled to Europe not to vacation but to work with us to gain a better understanding how Latter-day Saint Charities is blessing the lives of those in need and to, as they say, "get their hands dirty." We visited numerous projects in both Slovakia and Poland. We cherish our relationship with the Moats family.

We travelled to the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, to attend District Conference. District Conference occurs twice a year when all of the members of our church in Slovakia are invited to join together for a special meeting on Saturday night and then church services on Sunday. We had a wonderful time fellowshipping with members from all over the country, young and senior missionaries, and our mission leaders, President and Sister Skousen.

We experienced another 'God works in mysterious ways' and 'there is no such thing as a coincidence' this week. The story gets a little complicated but I will do my best to simplify it.
As I have blogged before, we are implementing an exciting project in Krakow with Fundacja Faros Elpidas Poland. The project is to renovate a commercial kitchen which will provide meals for 150 people per day and will train Ukraine refugees in food and restaurant related skills so they can gain employment. We will also provide Polish language classes to enable refugees to more easily assimilate into their local communities.
The location of this project was recently changed to a new center, Fundacja Freedom Space, which is closer to the refugee community and offers a much lower monthly rent. As we had our first visit on Friday with the center's director, Barbara Psiuk, she mentioned they were hosting an event the next day with another charity where they would be providing food and hygiene kits to 350 refugees. I asked Barbara if, by chance, the other charity was On-Life, a food pantry charity we have supported on numerous occasions over the past year.
She said, "How did you know?" I said because we are the charity who provided the funds for the 350 kits, and part of the reason we are in Krakow is to attend the event and volunteer.

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