Welcome to MissionPoland
In May 2012 I returned from four weeks of ministry in ten cities, including: Cracow, Warsaw, Szczecin, Bielsko-Biala, Tychy, Cieszyn, Wisła, Palowice, Bochnia, Kroscienko and London. In transit I also spent time in Paris, New York, Atlanta, Poznan and Katowice.
The main purpose of this trip was to serve the ministry of Howard Ball who is the national director for Church Ministry at CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ) ministries USA.
Howard has been a blessing to thousands of American Churches in areas of personal evangelism and discipleship. His messages in Poland were recorded in Polish and English and have been made available to Pastors all over Poland with an introductory letter and handbook written by Howard and translated by our ministry into Polish. We hope Howard can return to pilot one or two key local churches in developing a complete discipleship ministry to all church members. Pastor and Bishop Mieczyslaw Czajko who has led Poland’s largest evangelical denomination was our primary host. Other Pastors involved in organizing the conferences included Pastor Mariusz Sand in Warsaw. While in Szczecin Howard and I visited the former site of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s illegal seminary “Finkenwalde” which is being memorialized with a park. It was destroyed by the nazis so nothing remains of the seminary.
In Cieszyn, Howard and I visited the Ark Publishing house directed by Korneliusz Kaleta who printed up Howard’s handbook for Church ministry. Korneliusz and the Publishing house have already published over 1500 Christian titles as they publish 60% of all Christian literature in Poland. Finally, we visited one of my old friends who continue to serve at the Catholic Youth Center in Kroscienko known as OAZA – The Light and Life Movement. The Roman Catholic Church by all accounts with our many Catholic connections have finally come to the realization again, that Christian faith cannot be imparted by the sacraments, but by grace through personal faith. The youth in Poland have very little to do with the church once they get past their 13th birthday. The Oaza movement was founded by Roman Catholic Priest Franciszek Blachnicki who flatly stated that the Protestants were right about salvation by grace through faith and not of works, confession directly to God and using evangelical materials for basic Christian growth. The four Spiritual laws tract printed by Bill Bright will be used again and the Gospel, like a good virus will lead a true believer to overcome traditions and teachings contrary to those of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Church does not save people from their sins. No church does. WE, the believers are the church and we cannot save ourselves. The Church is the one who believes, not the one to believe in. The Church is the saved not the one who saves. The Church is the one who must be faithful , not the one to be faithful to. We are the Church and Jesus our Lord and God gave it the message, name, structure and the faith before the Church was even in existence. Jesus also points to churches in the last book of the Bible who have already deviated from His plan. The two churches praised among the seven were praised for their faithfulness in persecution and for sticking to the Word given to us faithfully. The Bible remains the only book in history that has the words, examples, commands, instructions and teachings of Jesus, the Apostles He Himself chose and the Holy Prophets. You cannot improve upon God and woe to those who think they can.
In Warsaw we were also able to speak at the Sunday morning Worship Service at the ARC II Church with Pastor Stanislaw Solanikow and the Jarosz Family whose father founded the Church. Daniel and Lydia Jarosz founded the ARC 1 Camp and again invited us to speak to the young people there. Campus Crusade for Christ in Poland supplied us with basic evangelism and discipleship materials in Polish through national director and close friend Zdzichu Miara. Finally I met alone with Justyna Plonska who has been trained by us and others and is a voluntary staff member of MissionPoland as she and the leaders of her team met with me in the Warsaw Train Station where they stopped to meet with me. Thirty of them will go together to the Olympics in London this summer to witness and establish contacts as Justyna is the National Polish Coordinator for the Interdenominational “MORE THAN GOLD” outreach.
I spent one more week in Poland after Howard left, preaching at the 800 member Philadelphia Church in Bielsko- Biala where the Pastor is Edward Lorek and many of his members were involved with me over 35 years ago in ministry. I also visited another old friend in Palowice who is running the camps where our Students will minister –Marian Pawlas and had lunch in Bochnia with Anna’s family whom we have been witnessing to for years. Marian asked me to speak to the church in Tychy right next to Katowice and we went through the Scriptures on matters of importance for them. Before I left the area I met with yet another old friend of 38 years who is the founder and director of Christian Radio in Poland and deeply involved in production of hundreds of Christian albums. His radio station serves Upper Silesia and operates commercially during 90% of the day with an evening block of Christian programming. Henryk Krol is also the leading evangelist in Internet ministries among Poles throughout the country. We talked about the possibility of producing a CD for Howard Ball, but in London with our voluntary staff we came upon the idea that the messages who be better served through the internet.
Howard Ball’s messages are now available through the link I sent to Pastors all over Poland on our London server. Robert Jankowski is in charge of translation, logistics and computer services for our ministry and is discipling men in London for the ministry of the Gospel to the Poles now living in England. On the Sunday before I left Poland I spoke at the Lazarus House Church in Cracow during to a group of fifty men who have been rejected by society for alcoholism, drug use and other personal problems. Some of them are now Pastors and all extremely responsive to the Gospel. Pastors Jurek Konieczny and Wojtech Wloch emailed me this morning about a homeless shelter they are now building in Krakow which will need beds purchased. I will be contacting missions for direct aid to them as there are hundreds of thousands of Polish men in this struggle who are coming to Christ as this ministry is growing in Poland. These are by and large young men.
OUR PURPOSE: To reach all Poles with a clear presentation of the Gospel and to disciple them to obey the Lord by a living faith that is in motion for His purposes stated by Him and His chosen ones in the Scriptures.
OUR STRATEGY: To help the churches to grow in grace and knowledge with the equipping of every member for the ministry; that the Spirit of Love and Truth both prevail in the Church. Presently this is done through a variety of group and individual ministries at churches, camps and conferences. This summer, Anna and the teens along with MissionPoland Partner Barbara Herron will minister to young people in Poland as I recover from Hip surgery.
OUR HISTORY: Our contacts remain to be thousands we have ministered to directly or indirectly over 38 years of ministry in Poland which are recognized by all evangelical churches as having borne great fruit to the glory of our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.