Daily Bible school begins its 10th year!
This year we have nine students enrolled in the full time program. Once again we have students from Ukraine. This year we invited a young family from Żytomierz who are involved in children’s ministry there in the public school (club) and in Sunday School. Genadij and Iryna came with their two daughters (15 and 9). We praise God we were able to find an apartment for them at the newly remodeled parish house in Dzięgielów. Our congregation is “adopting” them in that way. And we were able to enroll their daughters in the local public schools. Fortunately, they have Polish background and so language is not a problem for their family. It has been a great answer to prayer as God has provided for them in so many ways. People have provided needed books, furniture, and made them feel at home at church and in school. God also provided them with a visa to stay in Poland for their whole family. God is good!Weekend Bible school
It was absolutely overwhelming to interview 22 new students this year for the Saturday course. Most of them are coming from the Katowice area about an hour away and as usual ages and church backgrounds vary widely. We are thankful that our ministry is reaching out beyond church barriers because it is really the goal to bless all of Poland and not just the Lutheran church with the teaching of God’s Word. It has been great to see five married couples take part in the school. Over the summer two of our couples from last year had newborns so we rejoice in that kind of growth too. Actually, the fact that we have some young couples also means that we have had to employ a babysitter at the school on Saturdays.
Another surprise has been the educational background of these students. They keep us on our toes as we have doctors and engineers and even the founder and president of a large company. Please pray for us and for all the teachers in the Bible school as we continue to bear a great responsibility for God’s kingdom in this part of the world. Our faculty consists of around 10 volunteers (as from the beginning) coming from various congregations in the area, both pastors and laypeople.
One of our most faithful teachers through the years has been Pastor Adam Podżorski. He is the head pastor of one of the largest and most active congregations of the Lutheran church here. For nine years he has given up his day off on Mondays to come and teach the New Testament all morning to our students (8:00-12:30). He also teaches now for 5 more hours on our Saturday classes. He is a man who has a great passion for “equipping the saints.” It is for people like Pastor Adam that we thank and praise God! What a great provider we have.
Internet Branches
As mentioned last year, we opened an internet branch in NE Poland (Mrągowo). This has gone really well and all seven of those students have returned for another year and we also added one more to that group. This year we opened up another branch in Zgierz which is in central Poland. We drove up there, interviewed students, set up a classroom in the church facility there and are set to go with 6 students ready to take part in the Bible school. We are still having some technical difficulties getting all the connections to work and timing but we pray the Lord will work it out so that on Saturdays we can broadcast this year to two parts of Poland.An open door in Kraków
As you know, we’ve been leading meetings in Cieszyn called „English Worship” in which we gather in the High School in Cieszyn once a month to worship the Lord in English. We are continuing this ministry and almost have completed three years already. We usually see anywhere from 30 to 40 people attend this meeting and so it’s been encouraging to see God bless in this way. Many foreigners regularly come as well as Polish people who are able to understand.Recently we were invited to start these meetings also in Kraków (Cracow). Pastor Pracki is very open to using his church (St. Martin’s Lutheran) to reach out to the city. The ancient church is located right in the middle of the old town of Kraków. In fact the doors of the church are on one of the busiest streets in the old town so there are constantly people interested in seeing the church or attending anything that is going on inside such as a concert. So now we have the opportunity once a month to present an evangelistic service in this church utilizing the young people who will help us lead the singing.
On October 21st we met for the first time. Although there weren’t very many in attendance (20-25), the potential is very large. During my message people were continually walking in and out from off the streets for example. So in some ways this outreach has a “street ministry” flavor. You just never know who can be impacted or touched. Please continue to pray for us as we lead this new effort and especially that we are able to put a regular team together which will work with us. We pray that the word would get out among university students as well as foreigners living in the city.
Financial concerns
As we mentioned in our last newsletter, we’ve been struggling to make ends meet here over the last several months. The dollar continues to go down in value which means things are more expensive for us. Our plans are to return for furlough this coming summer (2008) and raise support for our ministry here. In fact, it would be good if we could do that now, but with the Bible school ministry, we just cannot leave during the school year. To be honest we are several hundred dollars short of the monthly support that we need to continue here. We are incredibly thankful to several who have responded in helping us in the last 2 months. Please pray with us for God’s provision. We are so much more thankful now as we see God providing in small ways here and there. Attached to this newsletter is Pastor Bill Moberly’s letter which explains this whole situation. We feel that this is God’s calling for us to serve here for at least a couple more years before we are able to pass the ministry of the Bible school into the hands of the Polish Lutheran Church. So we just have to trust in his provision to provide during this fruitful and critical time. Thank you for your partnership with us in prayer!
Tim, Renata and Peter Hinrichs
Link to Bill Moberly's Letter
