Konrad: A New Creature

I’ve had a lesson on what II Corinthians 5:17 means. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. I’ve known the verse for years and often quoted it, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a graphic demonstration of that new creation as I saw last month in Konrad. Remember Konrad? He’s the young boy that terrorized the camp I went to last summer. When Konrad entered a room everyone went on alert. He amazed me the last morning at camp with his announcement that he had accepted Christ the night before as he thought about all he’d experienced that week.

Last month I had the absolute joy of seeing Konrad again. When I first saw him he was bundled up from head to toe, so I asked him his name. He responded with a big smile and said, “Konrad, you know me.” He’s 12 years old and is now living in an orphanage where he also attends school. His entire grade from this school came to the camp sponsored by a Polish Christian foundation (Chrześcijańska Fundacja Radość). I must admit that in spite of his profession of faith I didn’t know what to expect from Konrad after the week I’d spent with him this summer.
I still smile when I think of all the comments I heard from others who had worked with Konrad over the years, but hadn’t seen him in a year or so. “What happened to Konrad?” “Konrad has been so good this week.” This sort of statement was repeated several times, and each time I was excited to tell them what I had witnessed this summer. At one point someone said that Konrad must be on medication to which a colleague replied, “Konrad’s on Jesus.”

Seeing Konrad has probably been the best experience I’ve had since being in Poland. Being able to talk to him and see the new man he has become makes all the language study worthwhile. What an amazing testimony his young life is to the transforming power of the love of Jesus! Wow!

You can check out our week at camp at www.fundacja-radosc.pl under Winter Camp in Wisla. There’s also a slide show. Just click video.

Missions is Hard

Missions is hard is a phrase that Marcin, a national pastor often quotes as he chuckles when asking us to do something we may not be prepared to do. One afternoon we visited with a woman who offered us coffee, which I politely declined. Marcin just smiled at me and told our hostess that we would drink some coffee. Now I have to say that I have never been a coffee drinker. I don’t even like the smell of it. I see no reason to drink it, and other than tasting it a few times to be sure that I in fact truly dislike the stuff, I have managed to avoid drinking it. That is until we moved to Poland. Polish coffee is often served with the grounds. I didn’t remember this. So after adding as much sugar and cream to my coffee as I felt I politely could, I stirred it well and took a sip. This sip reminded me of two things-I really, really dislike coffee, and you must let the grounds settle before drinking! Later that afternoon Marcin commented that we’d had a good time chatting and drinking coffee. I told him then that I hated the taste of coffee. He laughed and said, “Yes, but missions is hard.”

Marcin is the kind of person you can learn a lot from. He is definitely right about missions. There are many different things that make missions hard. Seeking God’s direction and following where He leads are very difficult at times. Right now our team is in a time of transition. When we arrived on the field we joined a team of 18 people. By the end of the month we will be a team of 7, and by the end of the year we will be a team of 5. People have left for various reasons, but ultimately all are pursuing God’s call on their lives, and we are thankful for this. On the other hand we are sorry to say good-bye to friends with whom we’ve spent so much time. These are people we’ve spent holidays with, people we’ve prayed with, people we’ve worked with in an effort to make Christ known. Even though we know they will be doing these very things with other people in other locations seeing them leave is one of the hard things about missions.

We ask you to pray that we will be alert and open to what God is leading us to do. We want to stay focused and deliberate in our efforts to share the gospel.