From the April-June 2009 Issue
Continuing the ministry in Wodzislaw
Henryk and Daniela Karzelek
Church at WodzislawDear readers of the Vision of Europe, it is my privilege to share with you something of the present situation in the Wodzislaw Church and also from my personal life. The end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 marked a change in my activity in the work among the churches, and also in my own church. That change was due to a diagnosis and later major surgery. I hadn’t been a patient in hospital for more than thirty years, but then I had to stay there four times. It was a very new experience for me, but at the same time an opportunity for witnessing about the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. I could not only speak with people, but also offer good Christian literature.
At present I am under the care of a cardiologist, but my present health condition allows me to continue my pastoral responsibilities, which in our situation involves also supervising and practical help during the major overhaul of our church building. Apart from the regular church services the building is also used for the Children’s Club. That ministry with children, which is still relatively new for us, caused us to adapt the ground floor of the building for the purposes of that club, for example: lectures, games and also some administrative use. We cannot afford to hire a professional company, so almost all the work is being done by volunteers from the church.
Besides this, we haven’t enough places in our car park, so work is continuing on that too. We have extended and hardened a field that is destined for the purpose of parking. Everyone in the church is glad when they see each step of improvement to our meeting place. I would like to use this opportunity to thank all of you who pray and support us in these plans. May our good God reward you for all your kindness towards us.
The Children’s Club
Within the confines of our work with children from poor and very often disturbed families, we are helping children in their school education. We have learnt that many children have problems at school because in their homes they have no opportunity to study. One of our sisters in the church (Justyna Sz.) has pedagogical training and she is helping these children on a regular basis. They also receive food during their stay in our club, have time for Bible lessons, singing and games.
The good thing is that some of them have integrated with children from our church and they are doing things together. During the time of school holidays or long weekends we organize daily meetings and this work in the club seems to be going in the proper direction. What especially encourages us is that some of the children are occasionally coming to our services. There is one girl who is coming to nearly every service. We pray that more will be interested in our church.
Our involvement in children’s work is not limited to the Children’s Club. This year we have also organized meetings for the Samaritan’s Purse project. Together we were able to contact two hundred and fifty children who were recommended by the Social Services. Altogether we have had three meetings, two of them in our church building. These were two groups, each of fifty children with their parents. These meetings gave us the opportunity to share with more than a hundred people the message of the joyful Gospel about our Lord. The third meeting took place in a rented building in the nearby town. That meeting attracted around one hundred children and their parents. It was encouraging to see the children from our church and from the Children’s Club working together during those meetings and sharing the programme.
We have also visited children in their homes, distributing gift boxes individually. We are very thankful to our God for this opportunity of sharing the Gospel with the children.
Our church was also able to organize a meeting for the children from other churches similar to ours. It was so good to see the little ones hearing the message and enjoying the time together. We pray that the future generation may grow in the knowledge of our Lord.
The youth work
Our young people are also a very important group in the church. We are glad that we can organize regular meetings for them, and occasionally joint excursions with an evangelistic purpose. The last such trip was early in December, when our group met with other youth groups, friends and AK (the youth leader). There in the mountains they concentrated on the subject: ‘Me and my world’. Apart from the lectures they enjoyed mountain walking and discussions.
After that trip we had an evangelistic meeting to which the young people were encouraged to invite their friends. We spent a very good time in fellowship with the young people and were particularly thankful for the few who came for the first time to our church.
Hindrances
When we have organized similar meetings for the people in our area we have noticed a kind of fear when they are invited to come to our meeting place. One reason why people are not interested in evangelistic meetings is the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church. The priests are against all other churches and they try to discourage people when they are looking for another fellowship. They do not see the diversity of the churches as an advantage, rather the other way around. When we add to that situation the lack of a clear and precise definition of a sect, and the freedom of the media and church officials to call all that is not Catholic a sect, we probably have the reason why people are so afraid to attend Protestant churches.
Another obstacle is the attitude that the things of this world are more important than their spiritual needs. That attitude is caused by the situation that we face now in Poland. After a short period of economic growth our country has gone back to a state which around the world is being called ‘the economic crisis’. Those who have work are afraid of losing their jobs; those who have already lost them (and that number is growing fast) are concerned mostly about how they can survive. Many people’s energy is focused on temporal things. They are not concerned about the everlasting spiritual truths and they don’t know the One who gives everlasting peace. Our prayer today is that this confusion will soon end, and that people will focus on spiritual rather than material issues.
The wider congregation
Apart from the regular meetings for children and young people, we also have meetings for young couples, for ladies and for men. We would like to introduce meetings for elderly people, which would be new for our church. We don’t have any experience with this particular group, but hope such meetings will become a blessing both for them and for the congregation as a whole.
The churches in our denomination cooperate within regional districts. We have five regional districts and our church is part of the Southern District. The pastors of this district have chosen me to be President. Within the confines of this cooperation we organized a conference entitled ‘You are the salt of the earth’. It was a very blessed time as we were able to meet with other like-minded people.
I trust that this short report will help you to know us better and to pray for our varied ministry. May God richly bless you.