A DIFFERENT KIND OF MEAL

This last week we attended a conference of the Humanitarian Division of the Area Welfare Department.  The meeting is referred to as a MEAL conference, an acronym for Measure, Evaluate, Assess and Learn.  These conferences are held maybe three times each year.  This was our first.  We had nine senior missionary couples attend, the eight from our Area plus Elder and Sister Ford who serve in Moldova.  Technically they are part of the Europe North Area; but since they are geographically closer to Frankfurt than London, they do quite a bit with our Area. The six employees associated with our division were also in attendance.  We covered a number of technical topics such as certain processes in CHaS (the Church Humanitarian (computer) System), a new NGO vetting process from HQ/SLC, and a new document for Church leaders outlining all of the welfare and self-reliance services that our department now has available to assist leaders and members in the Europe Central Area.  We have attached a copy of the Table of Contents page below.  The question now is how long will it take before the local church leaders utilize the services?  The need is there, and we have senior missionaries available to help provide the services, but acceptance of new programs can be challenging for already overstretched local church leaders.   

In addition to the scheduled meeting activities, we also participated as a group in the Frankfurt JP Morgan Chase sponsored 5k.  Most of the seniors walked with the other estimated 73,000 who ran/walked the race.  We also attended a temple session together on Thursday.  This weekend, like several others in May was marked by another religious holiday – Corpus Christi. We used the time off to visit Krakow and see Elder and Sister Jarvis, the WSRS couple in Poland.  Like us, they had previously served in Frankfurt, where Sister Jarvis was an Area Mental Health Advisor. 

E & S Johnson hosted the Humanitarian couples for dinner last Sunday. From L-R,  E & S Sutterfield, Muelleck, Johnson,  Dodgen and Healy 

Sister Johnson planned and organized the MEAL conference which was held in the Area Office. 

                                 

Dinner with the couples and employees. 

   

We were encouraged VERY strongly to do the 5k.  After an hour of standing and waiting to start a few of the seniors were already having difficulties. 

    

We have an acronym for this "fun run".  INDIA as in I will never do it again. I guess it is good to say we have done it once. Part of our 73,000 new best friends. 

The Wieliczka Salt Mine was pretty incredible. We had to go down 800 stairs to reach the base of the mine which is 1073 feet below ground level. There are 245 km of winding galleries in this mine. It was excavated from the 13th century. Numerous statues carved from salt adorn the mine, including this one of Jesus with the pope in the background. 

A chamber within the salt mine with many salt carvings of the life of Jesus

This was one of the original cars used to transport jews to Auschwitz and Birkenau. 75 people were crammed into these train cars with no windows or places to relieve themselves.

              

Auschwitz is a very sobering reminder of man's inhumanity to their fellow man.

Original gas chamber at Auschwitz. 1500 people were killed at a time. It took 25 minutes to kill that many people. 

One of the plaques at Auschwitz identifying the ethnicity of the 1,100,000 people killed there.

I was so done with all the gold embossed everything in the church at Wawel Castle. I told Russell we needed to leave, when I stumbled on a small side room with the statue of the Christus there. It didn't fit with the rest of the church but I was happy to see it. 

I (Eileen) found my happy place in a store which sold Polish pottery. 

E & S Healy and Jarvis at the meetinghouse in Krakow. It was on the third floor of a building on a strip mall. A large group of BYU study abroad students came and there wasn't room for them in the meeting.