Afternoon Fun at Spring Conference

There are so many meaningful aspects to a JV spring conference: being with amazing teammates, learning from Dave's teaching, worshipping the Lord, hearing stories of what God's doing, praying for each other, looking forward into the future of JV and oh so much more.

But then. BUT THEN! There is this.

Yes, the JV team loves its Polish pottery!

It's been a "thing" for a lot of years now, having our Polish friends bring their store in Katowice to us at JV spring conference. In fact, they bring a whole lot more than they have in their store!

They actually go the factory in Boleslawiec and stock up on hundreds of items so they can bless us with the opportunity to shop for these beautiful dishes.

"Hey Kristi, you made the blog again!" :) Along with my beautiful nieces, Becca and Kendra.

For some, it's the best afternoon activity of conference! We mingle, shop, talk, decide, talk some more, buy and talk again. What could be a better way to spend an afternoon?!

I saw my friend Kevin sitting there with his calculator app open on his phone, adding up his wife's purchases. It was a picture I couldn't pass up! We all do the same thing, making sure we're within our budgets! :)

My niece, Becca, is graduating from high school in Slovenia this year so I let her pick out a few pieces of Polish pottery to take to college in California with her in the fall.

Yeah, I'm kind of excited when I get to give some pottery away!

And these are the friends that make it possible for us to enjoy those beautiful hand painted dishes that we all love so much.

I like to call them my long lost Polish aunt and uncle! They don't speak English, and I don't speak Polish. But through my Czech, their Polish and lots of hugs, we communicate just fine.

They have blessed us for many years by their willingness to pack up a whole lot of pottery and bring it all the way to our conference. But they tell us it's one of the highlights of their year, coming to see us all. And it's certainly one of our highlights too, getting to browse and buy a little bit more Polish pottery!