Thursday May 19th 2005
The early start 3.40am meant for a very tiring day, which involved a lot of travelling. This would be a sign of things to come as each day other than Sunday, included at least a 3-hour car journey.
We arrived in Sochaczew and were greeted by Swavek with a group of his people. Many were very poor from tough backgrounds. The people were touched by the word and it was felt that it was the right word for them. Praise the Lord!
The church service itself was held in a very poor house that had been broken into and damaged in the past. It had no windows and no heating. Near the end of the evening Steve played ‘What a friend I’ve found’ and people seemed to respond well.
After the service we had fellowship together. We ate together and we gave some soft toys and clothes to the Polish people. They were so enthusiastic about the service. The preaching, the music, the prayers meant everything to them.

Friday
Steve and I travelled by train to our next destination Kolo where we would stay the night. God provided a lady called Hannah to be with us on the journey. She knew Andrzej, and with her husband, has an important ministry to Jews. It was not planned, well not by people anyway, but Hannah knew that journey well and could guide us so we could just relax. On arrival Pastor Julian and Peter the translator took us for lunch in a nice restaurant. We then went to the evening service.
The word was about Joseph and about God bringing good out of everything. It was clear that many people needed to hear this talk. The need in this ministry to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit is paramount and Praise the Lord He has given me the confidence to wait even to the last minute to know what to share. The church seemed very encouraged and Pastor Julian leads them very well.

Saturday
We had an early morning breakfast meeting with 7 leaders. The possibility of holding a LHM European conference in Poland in May 2006 had been mentioned Friday and this meeting we discovered was to talk more about that. All the leaders representing LHM from Bosnia, Romania and Poland would meet together on an annual basis to pray together, have fellowship and to be taught. We used the analogy of a football team. The Lord is the manager of the group and I would be like a team captain. During the year the leaders would work for their clubs (home churches) and occasionally they would play for their international team (LHM).

All 7 leaders were very enthusiastic about this idea and agreed to begin preparations for the initial conference next year.
There were three seminars.
1.Discipleship and following up God’s word in the lives of His people. 2. Presenting a gospel that is truly life-changing, based on Isaiah 61.
3. Having a world vision and leading people to Christ.

Overall this went well. Seven churches were represented from this part of Poland.I would like to have notes in Polish to leave in future.

Sunday
Andrzej has a very good church in Warsaw, which is well run with a good worship team. Preaching from Luke’s gospel ch 9 about the costs of being a Christian was well received. Steve sang well and had later a good time of fellowship with Andrzej’s sons and daughters who were near to his age. Phillip and his brother Peter have had great difficulty finding full-time work. Please pray that God will provide good jobs for them both. Many responded to the message and felt again it was a timely word.

The evening meeting was aimed to open people’s minds to the idea of mission and to participate in missionary work. It was a chance to share how LHM began and many seemed encouraged that God could use them if they stepped out and trusted Him.

Monday
We arrived at Gostynin and had lunch with a very kind family who paid for the evening’s accommodation, which was a very good hotel. Robert, our host directed us to Plock. Some of the in the region had started to gather and hearing of my visit to Poland, were keen to meet me. I felt this was a very significant time and there was a good sense of unity. I pray they continue to meet because this will really see huge benefits in Poland. Andrzej’s churches have excellent fellowship but the others seem isolated. This gathering was from different streams.
We went straight from this meeting into the evening service. One sensed this was a night for healing and after sharing Jesus in Capernaum from Mark ch. 1 & 2, we prayed for several people. Two people responded to the gospel and we left them with a local pastor to follow them up.

Steve writes, “ What was significant about this night was an obvious presence of God as He spoke to His people. There is no way that man could have planned that service and any healing that took place was from God”.

We distributed LHM magazines and gave a guitar (kindly donated from Worthing) to one of the pastors visiting the Plock church.
 

Tuesday
We had an early start as we prepared to leave for England. We went to visit a few tourist spots in Warsaw and we had dinner with Andrzej and his wife, which was very pleasant, and then we went to the airport in the afternoon.

It was very good to visit Andrzej, his family and the some of the pastors and churches he cares for. There is a real opportunity in Poland for church planting and the gospel. It is a great privilege to have a small part in supporting God’s servants in this land.

God bless and thank you for praying.

Living Hope Ministries
 4 Carisbrooke close, Lancing West Sussex. United Kingdom BN15 0HF
Tel: +44 (0) 1903 522694