RADOM, POLAND AND THE MISSION OF GENERATIONS
I want to thank everyone for their prayer support as our Mission Team from Wylie Baptist Church and other churches went to Radom, Poland earlier this month. God is at work in Poland, and in people’s hearts there! Some highlights from the trip were getting to preach at a brand-new church’s first Sunday Morning Service, working with the Senior Center one floor below the Church’s meeting space, seeing 15 people come to faith, and getting to know Pastor Michal and Pastor Czare….
One question I’ve been asked a lot over the last 12 months is: “Darrin, you went on your very first Foreign Mission Trip to England in 2018, you went on a Mission Trip to Mexico in 2022 but you’ve been to Poland 3 times in 12 months! What’s the deal?” Quite honestly, I don’t understand it myself- except to say that God has provided and made the way for me to go and in the process given me a real heart for this Nation. A heart that is tied closely to my upbringing and the way God reveals Himself to people over years and across the lifetimes and professions of not just one person but many people over time. What do I mean? Well…
My Dad was in active duty with the U.S. Air Force for 24 years and was a Cold Warrior. He and my mother both served their Country, and the highlight and major mission of their careers was the lifting of the Iron Curtain from Eastern Europe. When I was a young boy, we never dreamed that Eastern Europe would be free. We could not imagine getting to share the Gospel and the Hope of Jesus Christ openly in Poland, in what was then a closed Country, but God had other plans! The Curtain lifted and Revival swept the land, until apathy, division, and complacency (very real problems in any Free Country) set in. Yet, there is hope because of the Gospel and the True Freedom Jesus brings… Every time I have gone to Poland, I have been shocked and saddened by their tragic and long-suffering history, and encouraged by their perseverance, kindness, countenance, and generous hospitality while being amazed at the doors of ministry that have been opened amid the suffering around them. It is obvious God is at work.
When the season of spiritual soil is hard, it is then that you begin the development of confidence, of getting to KNOW that God is the one who tills people’s hearts and breaks up the hard ground- not yourself or your plans but simply being faithful, submissive and obedient to HIS Call and Commands as we WALK with Him- realizing and trusting that God is in the Missional work of “doing exceedingly, abundantly, above ALL we can ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20). It is “generational work” a spiritual like-mindedness that comes from the hope of the Gospel that is planted with the deep fertile soil of His love not just in one heart but in many, not just in one generation but several. A “like-mindedness” of HOPE that the Gospel brings across cultures, across seas, across nations, across lives, across families, across time and generations- and then one sees that you, and other Brothers and Sisters who follow Christ are ONE and the SAME because of Jesus. In that sense, there is no such thing as “Foreign Missions”; there is only Gospel Mission. One LORD, one Church, one Mission… That is what I saw this trip, that is what you will hear in the interview with Pastor Michal that follows…
Years ago, as a “Military Kid”- I asked my Dad WHY he had to be gone ALL the time, why he didn’t just quit the Air Force and get an ordinary job like other people… Dad told me that “Freedom” is not an American right, it is a God-given right of ALL people; it was God’s plan, it was His desire, and that is why Jesus came, and why Dad served. We build off the fruit of others’ labor (1st Cor 3:1-9). Going to Poland years later, I’ve gotten to build relationships and proclaim the Gospel because of Dad and others’ work and testimony (that great continuous chain of a “Cloud of Witnesses” {Heb 12:1-2}- God in action through His People) … Like the stained-glass windows perspective of my childhood (knowing we are small but critical pieces in the beautiful mosaic of God’s work and faithfulness), like the realization that as Believers we are just as much a part of Scripture’s pages as those who came before… I am convinced as Dad and the generations before mine that the Gospel is the only Hope for our world. Will the future generations after us be convinced of the same? They will when their horizons are broadened, when they see with eyes of faith God’s hand at work generationally, when they have a Kingdom perspective that is truer, greater, more powerful, more wonderful, and eternal-, than what they can possibly imagine on their own. That is why we Go and Serve! Thanks for praying for Poland, keep asking for workers in the harvest field, keep BELIEVING, keep TRUSTING and keep DEPENDING on JESUS! ALL THE BEST, GOD’S BEST TO AND FOR YOU… And… Oh, the places WE will GO!
Love in Christ,
Darrin