Dear Friends,
How are you doing? It’s been a while since we wrote. That is why we want to update you on our ministry and family. This blog will be longer than usual but we have so much to share with you! Hope you are keeping well in these uncertain times. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. As a family, we are doing well, we are safe and stay healthy while more and more friends, pastors and their families and co- workers are becoming infected.
It took us quite a lot of time and effort to adjust doing ministry in a pandemic. We have realized even more that we are “people people” and we do not like online as much as personal meetings. These months have stretched us quite a bit, but in a good way. We are so happy that we decided to homeschool Dawid this year so he does not need to spend more time in front of a computer screen.
From the picture, you can see he is getting so tall. You may not be able to recognize him! Our ongoing prayer for him is that Dawid will grow to be a man after God’s own heart.
Ministry-wise the last seven months have been a time of transition in many ways. However, Golden Apple Institute continues growing in terms of our impact. Because of Covid restrictions we needed to cancel some of our live events and trainings. Our calendar was fully booked and we needed to readjust to the new circumstances. Imagine working on a project for six months and then cancel it all, not knowing when you can try to do it again. So hard. I am sure you have had similar experiences. So sorry.
We went partially online with the School of Biblical Discipleship and recruited 28 new students for the 2020-2021 academic year. That is a miracle. We are truly excited about the new class and are planning to expand the School to Lodz in 2021. Going online allowed us to to have students from five different cities and three different nations – Poland, Ukraine and Czech Republic. We celebrated the inauguration of the year in September! So thankful for our brave students who are willing to study despite of all circumstances.
We also launched Mentoring Academy in partnership with the project Evangelical Poland in which we are deeply involved. We helped in training and paired 40 mentoring couples all over Poland. The project is the first Christian program like this on this large scale where 15 Christian organizations will work together and invest in next generation leaders. What an honor and blessing!
We are also involved in launching a national discipleship movement called Polish Discipleship Forum. The aim of the forum is to connect key influencers who promote discipleship in our nation and create a platform to share resources and equip leaders to be disciple makers.
We continue with the Year-Round Mentoring for Disciple-Making Leaders which is part of European Leadership Forum. This is intense discipleship training. We have monthly webinars with nine leaders from Poland, Romania, Serbia, Australia and USA. It’s amazing to see how God is using this time to instill a practical vision for discipleship.
What drives us even more is that we decided to get involved locally in leading a new church plant here in Wroclaw called LIGHT Cafe. Our vision is to create a space where people can hear the Good News and be truly transformed. We started with seven people and already have 25 who are regular participants. We are so excited to see how God is moving! We truly love this Church and the people.
More great news is that after months of intense work, I just completed my book which will be published by early December. In May, Agnieszka put a note on my desk: “Time to write a book (deadline November)”. With God’s help, I managed to complete this task. The book is called “Life-Changing Questions. A Journey Into Your Heart”. Our prayer is that it will reach the hearts of many people.
In the meantime Agnieszka worked on book project with Bozena Ciechanowska who is one of the most popular women’s speakers in Poland. Agnieszka encouraged Bozena to write her first book and coordinated the entire project. This will be an amazing book to be released this November. Bozena’s book is titled, “Someone More“. I am super proud of my wife. Agnieszka will write more on this exciting project soon.
As you can see, we remain very active despite the times of uncertainty and different limitations. We serve an amazing God who is the certain hope and never fails! We would not be able to do our ministry without your loving support. Please know that we are praying for you all and missed seeing you this summer. Hope to see you next year in person, but before that we can meet on Zoom. We would love to catch up with you and hear what is happening in your life. We can definitely pray for you as you pray for us.
Blessings,
Wojtek