Family reunion September 2012

God's Grace in 2011

Poland, Torun 2011 Pastor Tadeusz and Ewa, under the ‘Spotlight’.

1. Family background;
We have been married for 31 years now, having celebrated our wedding anniversary last April, and we met in the late 70’s while attending the same church. We are both from the Capital Warsaw, and both of us were brought up in godly Christian families, and we came to Christ at a similar time aged about 18. We are so thankful to God for a happy marriage and have been blessed with two fine boys, both are now young men, and both are following the Lord and worshipping and serving in the church of which I am pastor. Mateusz in now aged 26, and Lukasz 30, is married to a fine believing wife named Kasia, and they have two wonderful children, Jakub and Maja. We both have no parents now. Tadeusz’s mother went to be with the Lord on Good Friday at the age of 93. This godly women left a great testimony of being a Christian.

2.Why plant a church in Torun?
During the late 70’s my brother Jan, 17 years my senior and also a pastor and evangelist, had a burden to plant an evangelical church in another town where there was no or little evangelical witness. He shared this specifically with my mother, and they prayed independently about this matter, and individually the Holy Spirit impressed upon their hearts the same large town of Torun, which has about 200,000 citizens today. So my parents and I moved to Torun and brought the house where we still now live. Ewa, who I was engaged to at that time, joined us soon, and in the November of 1979 we began to worship in our house, using the living room and dining room, under the name of ‘Torun Evangelical Christian Fellowship’. We were really church planters in those days, and our home was like a mission station. Gradually, a few families joined us, and we continued church services in our home for seven years, but sometimes we hired the ‘Cultural Hall’ and University halls for special outreach meetings.

3. A few words about early years?
In the goodness of God the work gradually grew, and in 1982 I was asked by the people to lead the work. It was later, when numbers increased to about 20, we saw the need for larger premises, and we applied to the local authorities to purchase a plot of land to build a permanent meeting place. Soon, in God’s goodness, land was purchased and the new church building opened in 1990, after four hard years of work, having done much of the works ourselves, that is the church members and ourselves. Today, the Lord has been pleased to surround the church with many houses and new flats which gives great opportunities for evangelism. These were exciting times, as we saw God provide for our needs. Yes, it was hard on us as a family, my parents were on a pensioners income, and for the first four years, I worked in electrical engineering, and then as a taxi driver for a further ten years to help support our family. It wasn’t until the early nineties that the church could support us in a more meaningful partial way.

4.Some ministries we have been involved in?
Caravan Mission;
Those early years were mainly taken up with evangelism, and we concentrated out efforts in the town center which is about 5km from the church.
We thought that it would be a good idea to have a more permanent ‘mission station ‘ in the town, as a form of outreach, and we decided upon the idea of having a table and book stall for Christian literature which could be manned daily.
To do such things in those days required official approval from the local authorities, about every detail! At first the authorities opposed our application, insisting that professional plans be drawn of the table and book stall, so they could see what the table and bookstall would look like from different angles!!! So we persisted, and paid for drawings which were eventually passed.
Then there was another obstacle from another department, which would not allow us to have the table in our desired location, which was an historic part of the town in the main square where there were many passers-by. So I approached the problem like this, saying that if we could go where the people were, and if we could get them to read the Bible and obey it, I said the people would become better citizens and that this would benefit Torun! How could they refuse? So permission was granted. Then another problem arose, in that they would not grant our desired location. Yet, while I was meeting with the official, after the disappointing news, strangely, a few minutes of silence followed between us, at which point he began to write quietly, and then granted permission for our desired location? I can only say that in those few quiet minutes God changed his heart and had His way. Eventually we were also allowed to have a caravan, which we adapted into a Christian book shop, and this became a permanent part of the landscape of central Torun for many years. So, between the years 1985-1993 thousands of Bibles and tracts were given away.
Today the church has changed a great deal, and now we are a group of about 70 people of all ages, so my ministry has become much more pastoral. Other areas of ministry include a publishing ministry called ‘Evangelical Foundations’ Since its beginning, we have published about 25 Christian books and booklets. The church website is: www.ewangeliczni.pl

5.How can you pray for us?
Please pray on:
- as we try to explain the Gospel to a people who are very familiar with religious words, but don’t know the meaning of the words.
- Personally, I have had a number of health concerns and still I have some things which are a little worrying.
- our stay at the church flat which will make us more available to meet people.
- As a church we want to buy the 99yr old lease from the authorities on which our church was built.
- publishing ministry called ‘Evangelical Foundations’.
- leading a movement established 2,5 years ago called “Together for the Gospel”
June 6-8th 2012 there is planned a conference “Faith 2012”. An English page on this website: www.razemdlaewangelii.pl
- national leadership of Tadeusz as a chairman of Evagelical Christian Church in Poland (being reelected last November)


Finally; Ewa and I would like to thank you for your prayers and concern.