Ian's visit to GCW's partner church in Siedlce, Poland

Here's the WhatsaApp message I sent to the church on returning from Poland.

" Dear friends. It has been really good to visit the the evangelical church in Siedlce, where Adam and Dagmara serve alongside Ben and Sarah (American missionaries who planted the church) and the rest of the church members. Harry came along for the ride. They are GCWs gospel partners.

On the Sunday morning we met with the main Siedlce church. The weather was exceptionally hot, thankfully the building was cooler inside. I preached on The Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6, Adam interpreting. It was my first time doing this. Adam kindly said I did well (short sentences), but it all felt a bit light on colour and application to daily life, because I needed to really limit what I said [don't get any ideas...] and stick firmly to a script.

We were warmly welcomed, especially by Ben his wife Sarah, who have one daughter still at home, Aleyna. Aleyna seems American, but says she feels very Polish. She was born and raised in Siedlce. I suggested she should think about serving on MaD Camp next year! Ben was perhaps what you'd expect from an American pastor! He gave time through the day to Harry which encouraged me.

It was good to both try to sing along to familiar songs in Polish language, as well as ones which I imagine are Polish Christian songs. The church provide simultaneous English language translation. We shared the Lord's supper. There was time for open prayer, and many did pray.

I'd have said we were around 50, all together. A mix of ages. They like us have been blessed with an African woman joining. And they have a good number of Ukrainians, as you might imagine. Indeed, Adam said there was a new man there, a Ukrainian.

The church rent the floor of a building which is theirs to use all week round. It's a fairly useful space, and could probably seat about 70 or 80 in the main room. No disabled access is a downside. The landlady is not a believer, and, being divorced, something of an outsider herself in conservative Poland - she perhaps has less to lose therefore in renting to a group that many in Poland would equate with a cult.

That's an area where we can be praying for our brothers and sisters there. The evangelicals are often seen as a sect. Outsiders. They really do live their lives as "aliens and strangers" (1 Peter 2) in a way more keenly felt than we do (Adam himself isn't quite so sure of this, but the others I spoke to felt this way).

After the service it was back to Adam and Dagmara's home for lunch. Sorrell soup with boiled egg for starters. A new one on me, but pleasant. It was nice to meet Dagmara, who seemed full of energy, as did young Frank who is doing so well considering his heart condition.

We then set off for Lukow and the service-that-they-hope-will-become-a-church. Sound familiar? It was quite a long drive, about 40 minutes, through nice countryside (though, does any countryside compare with ours? 😉).

When we got out of the air-conditioned car, it felt like we were stepping into an oven, or being slapped with a hot pan! I had been asked to wear trousers rather than shorts, and no problem, personally I think there's probably something right about that. Thankfully, the rented meeting space (they take it for a few hours on a Sunday) had an air con unit. Several from the main church were there, inc Ben, Sarah and Yelana. But Adam was clearly a bit disappointed that several couples and families were not there. We can synpathsise. We so want people to be stregthened by the word. The fact the preacher had come 900 miles might have added to that feeling. But, I wasn't overly worried on a personal level. We were perhaps a dozen people, four of them from Lukov. I tried to encourage Adam to just keep going, and that in places outside the big student cities, churches grow slowly and sometimes look like they're going backwards. Keep preaching Christ and his word!

The service was an exact repeat of the morning. I did suggest to Adam that I try preaching a different sermon, but he insisted we continue with the original plan! It was strange preaching basically EXACTLY the same sermon to mostly the same people just a few hours later, but I was under orders.

A highlight here was speaking to a father, Stanislav, ('Stanley' he kept saying in a sort-of-British accent) who is I around 80 I would guess, and his son, Marius. They live in Lukov. We communicated for a while through Google translate. Marius especially seemed solid in his faith in Christ, despite the fact that people thought he had joined a cult. It was great to meet him, having heard of him. He came to faith through reading the scriptures with a JW. But he thought what the JW was saying about Jesus didn't match up with what the Gospels were showing him - that Jesus is God!

Then it was back to Siedlce with Adam, along with one of the women Gosha, who had come to support, and Aleyna, so I could badger her about MaD Camp 2028! (Due to the heat Dagmara and Frank had stayed at home. They are conscious of his health ).

I did strike me that Adam and Dagmara live a long way out of Lukov. Adam says that it's not really feasible for them to move at present. So I don't know how it will go for them taking on leadership of the church there, and stepping away from the much healthier and solid church in Siedlce. One thinks that it might be hard for the church to get off the ground. But, it is what it is and we can pray with them that the Lord is pleased to work nevertheless. It would be difficult/"impossible" here, but perhaps things work differently there. A prayer request is that local leadership can be trained. Perhaps Marius...?

It was a real blessing and privilege to go on behalf of our church. I hope others will consider it. A day out in Warsaw is to be recommended. Harry and I went in the museum of history of Polish Jews museum. Air con! Warsaw had been home to 350k+ Jews before the Second World War. The Nazis, who destroyed the city's buildings and infastructure in spite against a local uprising, also rounded the Jews up in a ghetto and then systematically murdered them in their tens of thousands out in the death camps. Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus.

But if you do go, hopefully a 38 degree heat dome won't follow you across the sky..."