Balancing the Need to Evangelise and build in Poland

BALANCING THE NEED TO EVANGELISE AND BUILD IN POLAND

I strongly believe that in our daily work in the church we cannot forget about what we have. Most important are the people

by Wieslaw Kamyszek

When we read in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2 and verses 41 to 47 we see that the first and primary task of Christians is to build up the church, and having the church in a healthy condition, to think about and do evangelism outside. Working in the Evangelical Christian Church in Lodz I can see that what is written is true, so because of that, I try in my daily work to do things in a balanced way. Recently I realised that there is a danger for the church; I mean, the church cannot be engaged in, evangelism only. The church, that is every member of the church, must take care of herself, whilst still evangelising. Those two things must go together. So, as I said before, I try to keep my work in balance.

Preaching

First and foremost what I do is preaching. I usually preach in the church three times a month, and at present I am preaching from Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. In my opinion (and not only mine), that epistle has incredible importance for the church today. Every time I preach from that Epistle I feel that we discover new things, and at the same time we are reminded of what we knew before. A good understanding of this Epistle will protect us as a church from different kinds of dangers. I strongly believe that it was a very good choice to preach from Ephesians. We study the same book in our home Bible study groups, but have now finished this and have started to read and study 1 John. As far as I know the people who have been studying Ephesians were satisfied. Praise the Lord! I hope it will be the same with 1 John. We have only one home Bible study group; but we meet twice a month. Usually we have a very good time together studying God’s Word.

Teaching
Another part of my work is meeting with people who are going to be baptised, to teach basic Christian doctrines. One such is Dawid, who lives in Glowno (30 km from Lodz). There is also a man called Janusz and some other people from Polesie, which is another district of Lodz where one of our elders is doing his evangelistic work. Please pray for all the catechumens and the baptismal service which we are going to have on the last weekend in June.

Glowno

Dawid is from Glowno. Sylwia, Ewa and Jasia are from the same place. Dawid is Sylwia’s brother. It is amazing how God does His great work; how He changes people. I meet with them and the rest of the group in Glowno twice a month for Bible study. The man who is mainly responsible for that mission station is Jan Puchacz and he also goes there twice a month. Different passages from the Bible are studied. Usually when I go there are 10-13 people. We read a passage, seek to understand the meaning and in our discussion try to apply it to our lives. We hope that more people will come to these meetings. Please pray for Glowno.

Konin

Speaking about Bible studies, I need to say something about Konin (100 km from Lodz). I try to go there every three or four months. There is only one family, but please pray for them. They are older people and it is not easy for them to do anything more apart from holding the meetings in their home. Anyway, we are always very blessed when we are together.

Visitation
As I said at the beginning, I strongly believe that in our daily work in the church we cannot forget about what we have. Most important are the people, of course. Believing that this is true, I try to visit our church members, not every one of them, but especially the older ones and those living alone. They need to be visited. To be honest, very often when I meet with these people I am very happy because the visits are of mutual encouragement. We build one another up. I believe that this is a very important element of our church life because this is the edifying of the church inside (see Eph. 4:16).

Widzew

Speaking about my work in the church in Lodz I want to add a few words about Widzew (a district of Lodz). My wife and I work there with American missionaries who were invited by our denomination a few years, ago to establish new churches. My engagement in Widzew is very fresh, but in spite of that I have become responsible for all the meetings and I used to lead three Bible studies there every month. Although it is a new work for me, the American missionaries had done a good work earlier. They have some contacts with people and try to invite them to our meetings, which are held every Sunday at 5 o’clock. We are studying the Book of Acts there.

for all the catechumens and the baptismal service which we are going to have on the last weekend in June. Please pray for Widzew, and especially for Monika and her husband Pawel (with their two children). They are converted people, but Pawel has some problems with baptism. He grew up in a Roman Catholic family and he cannot understand the proper difference between Roman Catholic infant baptism and believer’s baptism. We hope God will show him the truth. Generally speaking they are a very open and nice couple, so please; remember them in your prayers.

In the coming days I am going to do some evangelistic work in Widzew. I want to go from door, to door. Then in the summer time we hope to organise two English courses there with our American guests. As you see, we need God’s help.

Personal

In closing I want to say a few words about my personal work. I have started to write a commentary on Ephesians. I am also working on my Ph.D. on Puritanism and a few days ago I received permission from the government of our church denomination to write a book about the history, doctrine and everyday life of the Evangelical Christian Church in Poland. I tell you about this because I need your prayers. I hope this information will help you to know more about what I am doing in the church in Lodz, in Poland. "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace" (Acts 20:24). May God bless you and your work.

Wieslaw Kamyszek

Vision of Europe, July-September 2002, 6 Codicote Rd. Welwyn, AL6 9NB