As we are trying to take stock of the past year, we can boldly say – another year of life has gone by, another milestone was reached and is left behind. It is a great joy to realize that the grace of God never gets exhausted but instead being renewed for our church God’s Grace (Boża Łaska) in Warsaw.
One boy and one girl – members of our teen club repented in 2020, as they testified in the church. Then, we were engaged in one-on-one disciple-making process with them, so they both became even more rooted in their faith. The fruit of their repentance is vividly seen in their lives by those around them. It was especially evident in their families. As a result, on March 1, we had a holiday in our church – these two young souls entered into a covenant with the Lord through the water baptism!
It is a joy to see God’s Word sprout and bear fruit once it has been sown in the good soil. It is a great encouragement for me personally to continue to preach the gospel in a timely and untimely manner, using all available means. The Lord gave me a good relationship with these young people, and I would even dare to say that we became friends. And of course, it took time. In my opinion, our weekly youth meetings for breakfast in our home also made a big difference! A bunch of teens had a great opportunity to spend their time in a relaxed setting, not being glued to the smartphones, but rather learning how to fellowship as we get together. In fact, this is not the main thing we do. Reading and going through the Bible has become favorite pastime for many guys. Praying aloud no longer confuses them as it once did. Praise be to God only! The Almighty King and the Lord can save souls without us, but He has given us the privilege of being His co-workers. I pray for the other boys and girls from our youth that the Lord will extend His mercy and all of them will also be baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, once they come to saving faith!
Another joyful event, that excites me the most, is that the unbelieving husband of one of our sisters, a Pole, turned to God. Hallelujah! The Lord has been working in the heart of this sinner, though he did not express any signs of that… There was a time when I was ready to give up on him as I lost heart. Their family was on the rocks as we all saw it falling apart because of his wild and godless lifestyle. His wife was completely devastated and confused… But God did something that is absolutely beyond our comprehension. At some point, something has happened to him and he just switched… It was something that he can’t explain himself. That was the day when he cried out to God for rescuing him from the despair and hopelessness while sitting in his car. And the Lord answered! Praise be to Him! After a short while I came by his house and I got to talk with him face to face. So, we talked for more than two hours, and then I realized that he was dramatically changed from the inside out – so I couldn’t recognize him. I pray that it was not just emotions. Instead, I wish everything he said was authentic and irreversible. He kept sharing that day about God’s forgiveness, about his faith in Jesus, and about the desire to dedicate his life to God, as well as about his love for people. Surely, he doesn’t understand yet a lot of things from the Bible, but he is pretty zealous already to reach out to his friends and share with them about Christ. His face is so lit up with joy! He tries to read his Bible diligently and keeps bringing up a ton of questions. He is eager to go to church so his believing wife offered him to go to Polish church together. But he said that he wants to attend our services. So, his wife went to him, “You won’t understand anything at all in that church.” “Well,” he replied, “but they love me there!” The following Sunday he showed up at our worship service. What a great our God is!
A great blessing for our church was an opportunity to travel together out of town to a recreation center for two days. It is always a good time to fellowship, rest, and serve each other. It’s so nice to see brothers and sisters build friendships with each other. And it’s probably worth mentioning that we had this get-together at the resort when it was forbidden to gather in our church building. So we give thanks to God for our Polish friends who gladly hosted us at their resort in this disturbing time!
Our community is slowly growing in numbers. There are already 24 adult members on our church list. Plus, we have about 15 regular visitors to our services. There’s also about a dozen teenagers and about the same number of children.
I recently started preaching in Polish. From the very beginning, it was our vision to assimilate into the culture of the country in which we live. Our goal is to reach out to this pious people with the gospel since the majority of them do not know God. Our whole community has a good grasp of what we are after and works hard to achieve this goal. Thank God for that!
This summer, the Lord allowed us to begin evangelizing the lost with the help of the paintings on a regular basis. It seems that people are very excited since they show their interest in it by watching, listening, and taking pictures. But most important thing is that they’re willing to listen to the gospel. Although none of those we have invited have yet come to church or to a small group, I am still glad that our people are wrestling to overcome their inner struggles and fears, and are learning to share with Poles, actually, not only with Poles, the Good News of our Savior Jesus Christ. Today, if someone wants to organize such activities, no special permit is required. It is quite simple, you just need to notify the city authorities by e-mail with brief information about the place and time of the event. All this is done by God’s grace!
This year, our church was again blessed with many gifts. However, due to quarantine, we were not able to organize a Christmas event for children, as it was in previous years. So we decided to visit our unbelieving friends who have children, going straight to their homes with gifts and Christmas carols to express them our Merry Christmas. To be honest, I did not expect such a warm reception on their part! People were inviting us over to their places, and were excitingly listening to the Good news of the born Savior and songs in His honor. I think that these children will gladly agree to go to our camp, and maybe, after the camp will settle down in church. God forbids!
In the summertime, we plan, if God’s willing, to hold a camp for children and teenagers, as we did it two years ago. There is a team of volunteers already who want to serve in the camp. We have a group of young people who are eager to help the leaders, too. And of course, there is a good getaway spot by the lake. We have many friends and acquaintances who have children. So, we want to gather about 100 children to have a productive time and conversations with them later. Who knows, maybe some of them will want to visit our youth and children’s club. One girl, who was in our last camp, regularly visits these youth meetings. This is a real fruit, so it’s worth making the efforts. May the Lord be glorified in all these endeavors, too!
We gather in small groups every Friday – thank God, and we already have two of them in different parts of Warsaw. Every Saturday, we have youth meetings that are attended by about 10 teenagers. Sunday services are held at our house with a simultaneous online broadcast on YouTube.
We continue to pray for a church building since we do not have one yet, but now it seems that we have a hope. In a prestigious area of Warsaw, we have laid our eye on good premises recently, so I ended up filing a request for permission to the officials of the city! It is located near the subway station, not far from our usual spot where we evangelize people – just perfect! The only thing is that we will have to do some basic renovation in it, but this is not a problem at all. I think some problems may arise in different areas. Firstly, we’re worried about the permission from authorities, and secondly, we’re worried about the price for the building would be not so high, because the area of the city is pretty rich. Well, if we had this building, we could realize our old dreams by organizing – Polish and English courses for non-believers, a sports club, a Sunday school and much more… We believe that the Lord will take care of this deal, although there is no answer from the authorities yet. I believe if we received such a place, our church would be able to be more effective in preaching the gospel. May the Lord be glorified in all things!
Thank you for your prayers and for your participation!
May God bless you all!
Your brother in Christ,
Alexander Ilyin
