From the January-March 2008 Issue
The Lord is His Name
Zbigniew and Elzbieta Modnicki
Church building at LodzWhen we look around we tend to think that spiritually the world is a vast desert, with human souls dying from starvation and lack of water, like trees and plants in a time of drought. Yet God’s chosen people are still being watered, nourished and kept alive! Most of the time we are exceedingly grateful to our God who sustains us constantly. However, there are moments when we go into deep despair and we start to think that we are so small in number, so insignificant, not influential at all, etc., etc. How can we feed and water this huge amount of ‘trees and plants’? It seems to us that all the investment God has put in us, all his blessings and the teaching he provides us with so abundantly, are a failure according to the world’s economy. How wonderful is the fact that his ways are not like ours, his thoughts are not like ours, and his economy is not at all like the human one! He keeps giving us all kinds of blessings – spiritual, emotional, intellectual, physical and material, with such love and generosity that we feel ashamed, especially in the light of our uselessness and ineffectiveness.
Showing love
We are trying different ways to reach people. The Lord provides us with some unexpected and most unusual opportunities to share the Good News. There are university students who come just because they are supposed to do some scientific research, or simply out of curiosity, yet some of them keep on coming because they want to listen to the Word of God being preached, which they emphasized very strongly! We have noticed they seem to appreciate mainly two facts: that it is the Word of God which is preached and not social or political sermons, and that they are welcomed, accepted and cared for, in spite of obvious differences as far as doctrine and belief are concerned. We praise God for the opinion they express so graciously, as we are aware of the fact that it must be Almighty God, the One who is able both to make the blind see and also, so to speak, make these dear friends ‘blind’ to our shortcomings in terms of showing love among us. It is our great desire and fervent prayer that our church may be identified and recognized as people who belong to the Lord by the love seen among us.
Varied ministry
Of course, as Christ’s followers we would like to direct this very love to all the souls that God trusts us with. Among them there are the homeless and the addicts, to whom Zbigniew is allowed to preach a few times a month in a special centre. He has been carrying out this ministry for some time and again there are moments we feel it could be more effective. However, on the other hand, the grace of the Lord has changed some lives dramatically. People who had been totally written off have obtained very good jobs, completed their schooling and started to study at university! God restored their family life! Their lives confirm the promise given by our Lord: ‘I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten…’ (Joel 2:25). Those who have been converted meet regularly for Bible study. Most of the time the attendance at the service is over a hundred people; but sometimes there are only seventy present.
Once a month we hold women’s meetings. We praise God for all the women who attend. Some of them are those who also listen to the Word preached for the homeless and the addicts. They are so willing to share their burdens, as well as to seek some advice concerning the practical application of the Christian faith. Generally mothers come with their daughters, so we have ladies of various ages. All generations participate in the meetings. This includes prayer, discussion, crafts and snacks. It’s amazing how much we can learn from one another! The Spirit really speaks to this assembly, as ladies testify: ‘We have found what we needed!’ It is obvious that all the glory for these blessings belongs to God alone.
Last year I (Elzbieta) had the privilege to lecture at two women’s conferences. The first one was in May. The ladies who gathered there were the wives of pastors and ministers of Evangelical and Brethren Churches from all over the country. The subject of the lecture was: ‘The Cleansing Process’, based on Psalm 51. It was a great encouragement to see women praying in different corners of the building, as well as in the park surrounding the place!
The second conference took place more recently. It was for all ladies, mainly from the Evangelical Church, but the Lord blessed us again in fellowship with women from the Brethren church and also from other groups, some from really remote parts of Poland. This time the subject was: ‘Holy Habits’ and I was asked to give two talks on ‘Forgiveness and Forgiving – passing on the gift of forgiveness’. The response to the simple, yet most precious words from the Bible, made me praise God Almighty, who is able to use such means as Balaam’s donkey and even myself to reach women with his message of grace, forgiveness and love!
Local congregation
We have two groups in the Sunday school. One for teenagers (they are carefully taught by Wieslaw Kamyszek), and the other one for children. At present there are six teachers (one more than a year ago!) and we teach in turn. We would love to have more children, but more teachers we consider to be a blessing as well. We would appreciate, dear friends, your prayers for more children.
Please pray as well for some people who have come back to the Lord and have come to our church. Pray for wisdom for us, so that we can be tools in the Lord’s hands for healing their souls and emotions.
In October we celebrated the Harvest Festival, when we were giving thanks to the Lord particularly for his provision. All the members of our church family and a good number of guests (students, friends, etc.) were sitting around the table, singing joyfully as if we were Welsh by origin! Treasures of autumn food were generously served. We all emphasized the fact that the Lord’s provision is not only for our daily needs, but it is much broader and covers all aspects of our spiritual, emotional, intellectual, social and physical life.
Extension to building
We wanted to extend our building, but suddenly the project faced opposition. One of the neighbours was very much concerned about the ‘potential danger’ which might be a result of our enlarged church building. ‘What if’, asked the lady who loves peace and quiet, ‘they started to build a belfry?’ Some of us felt inspired! But seriously, we are praying about this extension and of course about that dear lady. The Lord has shown his mercy and power, so now we have almost all the required permissions. What we are still trying to obtain is the friendship of this lady.
Nevertheless, this problem showed us how many friends we have in our neighbourhood! People we didn’t even know approached us with very warm words of assurance that they want our church to be here. They were ready to demonstrate on our behalf! Needless to say it has increased interest and given us more opportunities of witnessing. But I must confess that I tend to think there are so many signs of interest (curiosity?) and no results that we are looking forward to.
Spiritual visibility
However, our Lord is the Sovereign Lord. We may move too slowly, too carefully, in a dilatory way – or it may seem so for us. This always happens to drivers when they can’t see very clearly, with poor visibility in the field of vision. So, we keep moving and we pray for better spiritual visibility, that we may move quicker and more decisively where God sends or pushes us. We ask ourselves: ‘Is it a lack of vision, or a lack of obedience to the vision already so clearly presented in the Bible?’ The Lord is his name. He will give us clear vision, obedience and courage to ‘go and make disciples’. He it is who gives us more disciples, and he will teach us to wait patiently for the fulfilment of his promise, which we believe is also for our little church: ‘The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do it swiftly’ (Isaiah 60:22).