International Youth Meeting in Karpacz
On Friday, August 9th, a service in the Wang Church in Karpacz ended a special meeting of high school and student youth.
The "International Youth Meeting" lasted 5 days and gathered more than 20 participants from Poland, Czech Republic, Germany and the United States.
Apart from singing, praying and reading the Holy Scriptures, the time was filled with conversations and various activities, such as going out into the mountains and canoeing. During one of the trips we went together to the top of the Sniezka Mountain. We walked along a charming trail among old trees to the Boiler of the Great and Small Pond. Then we went towards the summit. The weather was good and although it was supposed to rain, we managed to return to the centre before the storm.
During this week we focused on the story of the creation of the world, written in the Book of Genesis. Reverend Paweł Mikołajczyk prepared for us a Bible study and questions to the text. We were wondering how to take care of the creation and climate, which is warming up faster and faster, causing weather anomalies.
During one of the social evenings, each of the four groups prepared a presentation about the country they came from. Participants from Germany presented one of the fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers in a theatre scene. Jan, a pastor from the Czech Brethern Church, sang the song "Tesinska" by Jaromir Nohavica. Participants from Poland presented the outline of Polish history and taught the audience how to dance the polonaise. The Americans, on the other hand, prepared a presentation on the differences between the United States and Europe they had noticed so far and taught us how to dance to R&B music.
It is worth mentioning the great cuisine we had the pleasure to try in the center "By the forest". Cooks included in the menu an offer for vegetarians and spoiled us with tasty meats, dumplings, crispy bread and healthy salads. Our guests from abroad will surely remember for a long time Polish hospitality and the taste of dishes prepared for them.
I hope that in the future there will be reeditions of that meeting and more people will be able to benefit from spiritual inspiration in such an international context.
Sebastian Madejski, participant