Common Sense Reborn

Moving Mountains

²⁰He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20)

Greetings family. When I was getting ready for this deployment to Poland, I was hit by two surprising questions from a fellow soldier: where was I planning to visit while in Eastern Europe, and what did I really want to do while over there? This was surprising to me because my first deployment, to Afghanistan, there was no places to visit except where missions took you, and there was nothing to do except complete the mission and come back home safe. And being deployed to a country right next door to Ukraine, where the greatest peer-on-peer war is being waged in the last 40-years, I did not think Poland would be operating like this was not happening to their neighbor and ally. But once I got to the beautiful city of Boleslawiec back in September, I quickly realized this was exactly what Mrs. Z had jokingly coined this deployment: my European vacation.

So as I got settled, and the work week went from working everyday to a regular 9-1700 M-F, I began to think about three things to accomplish while stationed over here. And really, I could only come up with two that I could afford. Number 1 on the list was to visit Auschwitz, and thankfully, our command put together a trip for anyone interested as a historical research expedition, so I only had to pay for my ticket for the guided tour. I shared that sobering experience last month. You can read those posts here, and here, if you missed it the first time.

The second bucket list experience I set my sights on was to go skiing in Poland. So back in November, I started to do some research. I discovered that Poland has some potentially beautiful skiing locations in the Tatras mountains, but that mountain range is to the far east near the borders with Ukraine and Slovakia, which would mean I would have to put a pass in on a long weekend and pay for overnight accommodations. But then I discovered that there was a top recommended ski range just an hour and a half drive from Boles. That became my target. (Read about skiing in Poland by clicking here). I did more and more research, began to budget for the trip, and came up with a “Concept of Operations” (CONOP) to Ski Poland. This weekend, President’s Day weekend, was our last four-day weekend in the winter time, so it was the perfect opportunity. I prepared the CONOP, presented it to the soldiers in my section that had expressed interest in learning, or trying to learn, how to ski/snowboard, and we decided to attack the target.

Originally, the plan was to span two days, with the half of the first day being committed to traveling to the nearest major city by train where I would rent a car for the trip, then driving to Karpacz Ski Arena and spending about four hours getting the basics down on an off-peak weekday. Then we would return on Saturday (today) and get a full day of skiing in. The prices here are so cheap compared to skiing in the states. From estimates, we would only spend $60 total for minimum ski equipment rental and a full day pass on the lifts (that is dirt cheap compared to what I spent during my two previous skiing adventures in the Rockies in Colorado). Because I was taking only junior enlisted soldiers, my platoon sergeant blessed off on us utilizing our section’s civilian vehicle and coining this a morale trip, which saved us renting a vehicle and gave us all day yesterday to ski.

And so we made it happen. The four of us that went decided we would attempt snowboarding, as we would all be learning on our own. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos to try to teach myself, and I tried to get the younger soldiers to do the same. They did not. They all have this somewhat unhealthy arrogance that they can pick up any sport through trial and error. Well, that works sometimes. It did not play out in our favor yesterday.

We set off from Boles a little later than planned due to soldiers not properly planning their sleep schedule around a normal wake up call. As we were traveling south, we were not even fifteen minutes from the base when we crested the top of a hill and there in the distance were the Sudetes Mountain range. Seeing the mountains looming on the horizon got everyone excited, even this old man.

I had been doing some reconnaissance on the Karpacz Ski Arena, watching their live webcams to check for snow level and skier density, and last Friday, the lifts were empty. That was not the case yesterday. The Poles were on some sort of holiday and Karpacz was packed with people and families, so having the slopes all to ourselves did not go as planned. Needless to say, we still had an amazing time. I will also say, that trying to teach yourself to snowboard is 100 times harder than learning skiing, which I was not expecting. The YouTube videos did not help at all. Watching experienced snowboarders effortlessly carve a mountain makes their advice seem easy to pick up, but snowboarding is anything but easy. Adding to that were the conditions. While the top of the mountain still had snow from the winter season, the open runs had artificial snow, and it was so warm yesterday (the high was in the upper 40’s) that the snow was melting and was mostly ice. Skiing and snowboarding on ice is much different than doing the same on fresh powder. I felt that every time I would get to the edge of the run and just start sliding down to the outside, despite doing all I could to shift the direction of my travel. So I only made three runs down the mountain. After the third, still falling multiple times, and having no confidence I could control my direction, I called it. By then, the other three soldiers had done the same (although one soldier, while he took the longest to get down his first run, started to get a hang of it his second run, and if he had decided to do a third, might have come pretty close to getting the fundamentals down). We accepted partial defeat around 3 pm and set home, stopping for an early dinner at another beautiful Polish city (Jelenia Gora). I accomplished everything I had hoped and dreamed for in my deployment here. I spent a lot of time thanking God yesterday for affording me this opportunity.

I have spoken to another brother in Christ about the beauty and exhilaration of winter sports. There is no greater feeling than standing on top of a mountain, taking in the raw wonder of God’s majesty, and knowing that there is only one way down: by shredding some slopes. Well, yesterday, the slopes shredded us, and I can confidently say, snowboarding is not for me. I will be sticking to those old fashioned skis. But I am not alone in this. As this article plainly states: “skiing is easier to learn, but harder to master; whereas, snowboarding is harder to learn, but easier to master.” I lived that yesterday.

While I was praising God for this moment, I spent a lot of time in reflection on how everyone on earth should be afforded this opportunity, if they choose to. But just one country away, the young men and women in Ukraine continue to be murdered due to the madness of Putin and his quest to restore Russia’s borders to a bygone era. The landscape of Eastern Ukraine has been forever altered in this horrific campaign, and the world sits idly by, letting it happen. I know that if war ever came to Poland, I will be back to help these wonderful people fight for their peace, but the people of Ukraine deserve that same support from all the countries that surround them. Meanwhile, back in the states, our “leaders” are bickering over continuing to financially support their efforts to repel the much larger Russian army. This is despicable. We should be giving graciously to these heroes. They did not choose this war. Russia is the true villain of the world right now. And why? There is absolutely no reason the largest country in the world should be attempting to expand its borders. But Putin will stop at nothing to fulfill his agenda, as the world was witness to yesterday when the leading opposition figure “mysteriously” died in prison.

But what can we do to stop Putin’s madness? Well, for one, we can pray intensely for the people of Ukraine and for the citizens of Russia. For Ukraine’s protection and for Russia’s people to rise up against Putin and overthrow his regime. Second, we can demand that our representatives continue to send financial support to Ukraine. And third, keep talking about this war. Do not let the distractions of America dilute the severity of what is going on in the world. There is much more to this life than our little over-privileged bubble.

I will leave you with another amazing song that jumped out at me this morning. The new music coming out of the Christian genre continues to impress me. I hit a new milestone in my collection of favorite Christian music today, as my playlist that I began in 2011 hit 4,000 songs. If you are on Spotify, you can follow that set here. For today, I want to share the latest single from Kim Walker-Smith, whose lyrics, “I was born again to blaze a trail” really spoke to me as I set out to get a haircut this morning. Click on the image below to enjoy the new song. Be blessed and move mountains today!