LEADERSHIP LETTER ARCHIVES

 

A MONTHLY READING

FOR ALL ARC LEADERS
November 2005

 

HIGHLIGHTS FROM POLAND

 

I greet you all on this day after Thanksgiving (Nov. 25) with gratitude in my heart for all of you.  God is doing something fresh in my heart in the discipline of prayer—I'm simply finding more grace in the realm of carrying people on my heart and asking/seeking/ knocking for God's will to unfold in your lives.  Perhaps some of you have asked God to help me in this area.  Thank you.  The Helper is helping me.

 

My trip to Poland (Nov. 3-14) was excellent.  Here are a few highlights:

 

  • Daniel Yang, an ARC pastor from São Paulo, Brazil was able to be part of this trip with me.  He ministered in three different venues with grace.  I loved having him there.  It was the beginning of a vision for international cross-pollination in the ARC.

 

  • The Gryfow ARC church (Pastors Marek Kiewra and Andrew Kurzawski) continues to effectively reach out to the surrounding area especially to the poor, alcoholics/addicts, former prisoners and the homeless.  Their church continues to grow with these converts.

 

  • With the help of Janek Barzillinski (ARC pastor in Bogatynia), Marek has overseen the renovation of a 52-bed conference center.  The initial purchase was funded by a Lutheran couple in Texas and the renovation funds have been coming from numbers of ARC churches and personally secured by Marek with a loan.  He would gladly accept any contributions to retire his debt!  Please consider that.

 

  • We held the first of many leadership conferences at the center in Karovice ( 2 kilometers from Gryfow) and it went quite well.  Leaders from about eight different cities and churches attended (about 35 in all) and it was a blessed time. 

 

  • I spoke on leadership principles from the life of Jacob during the conference and also did a good bit of pastoral counseling and teaching in various groups in the church.

 

  • After the conference I traveled down to Swidnica to talk to the leaders of a church pastored by Darek Souszek, a former Catholic priest.  They are quite interested in pursuing a relationship with the ARC and we will most likely formally receive them next fall.  Darek pastors the only evangelical church in a town of 70,000.  This is a charming European city.  As I walked through its center, I looked at a beautiful monument depicting the Trinity and remarked that Swidnica needed four more churches like his in the next five years.  Darek has had this same vision.  So, may God help us to help them with prayer, leadership training and focused mission trips.  They also have a wonderful outreach (and 20-bed hostel) for the poor, homeless and addicted.  This is led by a dynamic young woman named Anie.

 

  • The potential for the conference center in Gryfow/Karovice is enormous.  Marek is appealing for mission teams to come (groups up to 12) who would come for 8-10 days to work on the building of a perimeter fence (and also provide the materials for each 100 meters) during the day and learning outreach ministry to the poor, along with fellowship with your Polish brethren, during the evening.  I believe this center will help to develop leaders for all of Europe as the Lord awakens this former center of the Christian faith.

 

  • I know that Daniel Yang sensed the same grace in Poland and is hoping to assemble and send some Brazilian teams over there.  Teams from ARC churches in St. Paul MN, Toledo OH and Mansfield OH have already conducted trips there and would be glad to confirm my perspectives.  Marek's strong suggestion would include 5-6 days of physical labor (with ministry opportunities at night), a weekend retreat with Polish believers and a final two days to see Auschwitz (a sober "must") and Krakow (one of the most beautiful cities in Europe).

 

Please consider a mission trip to Poland.  They're very good at receiving teams and connecting them to meaningful projects and good cultural experiences.  And the food is great!

 

Thanks for your prayers.  I mean this sincerely.  I regularly perceive help on these trips that I attribute to God's grace and pray-ers.  I don't get the mystery of it all, but I am so grateful for the reality of it.

 

In the love of Christ,

 

Ned

 

P.S. Also, would you make it a special point to connect to this next year's annual Assembly and ARC Conference (April 27-29, 2006)?  Doug and Charlene Fike from Warm Springs VA will be leading us to a fresh understanding of leadership development and care.  Sue and I met with them in October in Virginia and saw the very gracious ministry that they were extending to our missionaries to China (Mark and Bockhee Stevenson) who are in the U.S. on furlough and in Virginia for some renewal.  The conference starts on Friday night (4-28), but if you can make it by 2 p.m. on that Friday afternoon, Charlene will be ministering to women leaders and Doug to the men.  I'm quite sure this will be a very seminal time.

 

Finally, this vision for helping the Swidnica, Poland church (Darek Souszek) to plant four more churches is real but will require coordinated efforts from the U.S., Brazil and Poland.  Pray and be open to the input and compulsions of the Holy Spirit.

  

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