From the October-December 2006 Issue
Careful not to spoil God's Work
Zbigniew and Elzbieta Modnicki
Church building at LodzThe longer we live the stronger our conviction that a matter of great importance is not to spoil God’s work. This seems to be true in the majority of situations in which we live. Having said this, I remind myself that I need to resist the strong temptation of making this statement too general, but before I turn to details of the life of this church where we serve in Lódz, let me express my belief that the total depravity of human hearts causes nearly all our deeds to lead to destruction, damage and harm. Yet, by God’s sovereign choice, we are supposed to be followers of Jesus as well as followers of God. In the light of the initial statement it seems unthinkable! But these are the thoughts of God Almighty, which the Bible says are not like our thoughts.
When we see the new people that God sends to us we are filled with various feelings. Joy, thankfulness, but also a sort of awe. Joy – because we are allowed to watch the work of the Holy Spirit and the irresistible grace of God; we can admire the power of the Word of God, its depth and simplicity, while it is performing the radical changes in people’s lives. Thankfulness – because we are so grateful to God who is faithful in listening to our prayers and answering them; to the great God who honours us by providing more and more opportunities to proclaim his gospel. Yet at the same time we tremble at the very thought that we could be the ones who either by our laziness or by our hyperactivity may do any harm to those God wants us to care for. The only source of peace and comfort for us in the midst of such a mixture of feelings is the thought that we can and we must entirely trust our Lord, and the best way to avoid confusion and maintain the balance is to come to the point where we can, relatively clearly, see what is His sovereign will and what is our responsibility.
Local reaction
Our Lord has blessed us also by turning the hearts of our neighbours towards us. This is not a small thing, since we moved to an estate where the majority of the inhabitants have lived together for many years. They have the reputation of being a rather closed society. Most of them consider us to be “young” and treat us in a slightly patronizing way, but they are friendly and try to be helpful. Just after Christmas the Roman Catholic priest paid us a short visit while he was doing visitation amongst his parishioners (according to his annual routine). We took advantage of this and were able to tell him what we preach. He left, wishing us God’s blessing. Some time later two neighbours reported that the priest had spoken very highly of our church and encouraged them to go to our meetings when they have some spare time and to listen to the Word of God. The only thing the neighbours said they had been warned about was that they shouldn’t take part in Holy Communion in our church.
We appreciated both the encouragement and warning. Unfortunately it doesn’t mean we have experienced a massive growth in the number of newcomers. Nevertheless, the absence of the usual, more common reluctancy, if not hatred, which occurs in most places, particularly when a new work is being started, we accept as a miracle performed by the gracious hand of the Lord. To be painfully honest, I must admit, that as far as I know the mentality of our Polish people, we could have had more coming if the visit to our church had been strictly forbidden. Thankfully, this comes to my mind only occasionally, perhaps due to the fact we grew up under Communism and still tend to look for a hidden agenda everywhere.
Evangelistic opportunities
Some ladies from the neighbourhood come both on Wednesdays and on Sundays. They stay after the service and want to talk about the things which they have heard. One of them (Danuta, a retired lawyer who is over eighty) said recently: “The sermon was so full of precious thoughts I wish I had asked the preacher to stop for a while so that I could absorb all of them lest I lose anything.” The other one is middle-aged, unemployed until quite recently, and believes it is God who has given her a job. She was moved in her heart, and during the time of prayer she joined in with a few simple words: “Dear God, thank you very much that I could take part in such a wonderful mass”!
Our Lord has also been so gracious to us as far as the work among the children is concerned. At the very beginning there was only one teacher, but immediately God moved the hearts of a few people and, after a time of short but intensive training, we now have five teachers (four ladies and one gentleman). This is real abundance. We pray for an increase in the number of children, at least in the same proportion! (There are currently seven children who come regularly.) God has shown his grace in the hearts of the children and K and O have been converted. Another girl came to the Lord and made her mother come to church. Her mother is now coming to church regularly and reading the Bible. We pray that God will help us to have two groups for Sunday School from September.
The ladies’ meetings are other God-given opportunities for witnessing of His salvation. We praise God as we see how he prepares ahead of time the hearts and minds of those invited, so that they can receive the message of the Word of God.
Every third month, we organize special events which are targeted at people who don’t go to church, but who are our friends, co-workers, students or relatives. We choose a particular theme, print decorated cards with verses from the Bible and songs which correspond to the verses. The songs are willingly sung and the verses are read aloud by everybody, as everyone gets cards. At the beginning and at the end of the meeting Wieslaw provides the short talks. Light refreshments are served afterwards. The people always regard the talks and the entire meeting as very instructive and interesting. The seed is sown; we pray for growth.
One more opportunity that the Lord has provided is the ministry at a centre for the homeless and people who are addicted to various things. It seems that God is expanding this ministry. Zbigniew is asked to preach there four or five times a month. The audience is between seventy and one hundred people. The Holy Spirit speaks to their hearts and it is such a joy to see what God is able to do with their broken lives and how he restores them.
God sends us also people who have been backsliding for some time. They come in repentance, usually together with their partners and/or children, and again we can marvel at the immensity of his love and praise him for his goodness.
God creates for us a lot of circumstances to be used for his glory and to proclaim the gospel. Those mentioned above are just a few examples. He has put us in a very friendly environment. We pray for wisdom, so that we will recognize all the “gates of bronze” God has opened and all the “bars of iron” he has cut through. We pray God will keep us from spoiling his wonderful gifts and provision. But the most glorious and the most important thing is that He is with us – his face, his presence – and this is actually what matters. He will go before us!