Wisla Winter Bible Camp

Dear Friends,                                      

After the Wisla Winter Bible Camp all the children love me and behave themselves when they see me at the after school club in Otwock or at the Sunday school class at our Church. I love them all. They are great kids. All of them want to go to the camp next winter and also in the summer. Regularly, because of the the ministry through the Christian Tabita Foundation, I meet new needy families and new children. I will invite some of them to the summer camp in Barycz 2-9 July 2005. I have got a commitment of help from one Church in Kentucky. They are coming to help with scholarships for 50 people. We need 50 more scholarships for this camp. Last year we had over 80 people and there was still room for more. Because of the bad exchange rate one scholarship is now $120. With cooperation with Churches and Mission organizations we want to organize 6-7 camps, day camps, and hiking camps for orphans and poor children this summer. We want them to have fun, enough to eat and they will have the chance to hear the Gospel. If you had been on one of our camps you would know that that is the best thing we can offer to these children. Please pray and see if you would like to help me and maybe join another Church and come together. 

Until a week ago we had 140 people on our list that we were regularly helping. Now we have 317. On Monday from the food bank I received rice (317 kilos) powdered milk, cheese, and sweets from the food bank and I delivered it to all but three families. Tomorrow I will receive 317 x 15 liters of UHT milk = 4755 liters of milk, that's plenty isn't it? They always give some more food on top of what we should get so I expect some nice food for Easter. I will deliver all the milk before Good Friday. The number that we help are going to grow even more because I see the great need, but I have to encourage more Churches, more people - volunteers to help me. I need your prayers and financial support because even when we get the food for free we need to have money to run the Foundation. Attached is a photo of myself and 3 Pastors with the load of milk for poor families.

On Tuesday I was driving the main road along the rail truck and I saw two men pulling a trailer with some metal objects that they wanted to sell. That is the poorest people's business. I stooped the car approached them and I asked them if they wanted to receive some food monthly. Yes, they replied so I took their names and addresses and put them on my list, yesterday they received some and will get the milk tomorrow.

Thursday is my day that I go with Dan to the after-school club in Otwock. So we went, I loaded the car full of food and off we went. Dan was teaching English and three of the older boys: Lukasz, Jozef and Adrian were helping me deliver the food in Otwock. Today I also visited three new families of the children that started to come to our club and put them on my list, the father asked me if I had a lob for him he said he was a truck driver and had no job for quite a time. He is younger than me, looked good, but had no job. Three daughters were at home, the youngest Agnieszka (6) was too young to go to the camp, maybe next year, but she goes to our club, the middle one Karolina is paralyzed in a wheelchair and the oldest one Ania is 16, she helps her mother a lot. This is how I "delivered" the pairs of extra shoes, one by one, two by two. I had them in my car and was trying if they fit comfortably on the children’s feet. Four pairs went to Barycz, where we are building the orphanage, to the four little girls that live there. Quite a few other children really enjoyed the shoes and the mothers were so happy to have them for their children.

I have invited 7 kids from the other orphanage in Marwica for Easter. We are going to have four girls that Kamila picked because she visits then often and others will go to my neighbor and a friend. I wish more people invited more orphans home because many will just be stuck there with no hope for some love and quite a few of them received Jesus into their hearts on our previous camps. We need to do the follow-up work. Maybe one day we will have a budget to cover all our projects, small and big, but until then we need to ask you every time to help us. Maybe God wants us to pray more each time before we start every single project, even a small one. I will pray and invite you to pray with me. God is good and He provides.

Last week I saw Mrs. Michalina, an old lady going home. She lives 200 meters from my home in a little wooden hut. She was carrying heavy shopping and the distance to go was still over 1 kilometer. I picked her up and we talked. She mentioned about having no more coal or wood for heating and the winter is very strong this year . It has been snowing a lot and the temperatures are still below 0 degrees Celsius. It is amazing even for us that in the middle of March we have had such a severe winter here in Poland.

I know a place where they give away old furniture. I took advantage of this possibility and I went there quite a few times with my trailer and loaded a lot of wooden furniture and brought it to people who asked me for help. Mrs. Michalina did not ask me for help but I knew that she needed it. You can imagine how surprised she was when the next day I arrived at her home with two volunteers and a trailer full of wood. She was so happy and thankful, she said this amount of wood will do till the end of the heating season this year.

I love helping others and not only children, although I love them the most, but all people who God puts in my path. I know this is my call and I love the Lord and I love my neighbors. I am so grateful to the Lord that He provides. Attached is a photo of myself and two volunteers with the wooden furniture for heating on the trailer. Barbara Wojciechowska, Little Peter's mother who received a stove for heating a few years ago, financial assistance when the electricity was cut off, I helped her many times with food, and now another load of old furniture for heating last week.

Yesterday on TV they said that Poland is the country in Europe with the fastest growing rate of poor children. The average unemployment rate is 18 %, but in Otwock it is over 30%. I can tell you this is the truth because I see it daily. In many cases the children have only one meal and this is the one they get at school or somewhere outside home. That is why I strongly believe in our ministry to the poor. I am so happy to see the smiling faces when they get the food from the food bank.

All the chilren at the camp received new Bibles and new shoes, there were over 40 pairs of shoes left. Now I have given away all of them to the children in Otwock and all over Warsaw. I know that many children and youth read their Bibles everyday. My daughter Kamila (22) who was one of the leaders on the camp met Ania - one of the campers - on the bus today and she said that she and her sister Dorota read their Bibles daily. Please pray for all the kids. I received good clothes and shoes and toys and other things from you to forward to the poor children. I am doing it with great joy. I wish I had even more of them to give away, but I am thankful for all your prayers and support. It is great to have people like you who really care. I told the kids on the camp one evening that all I do for them is because of Jesus. If I hadn't known Jesus I wouldn't have cared for people that much. It is Him and His love that He gave me in my heart to love others and help them. I love Jesus and I know that He loves me because He loved me first and He loves all the people that we help. God gives me strength everyday, He provides, God is good to me. Praise the Lord!

Yours in service for Him,

Henryk Podsiadly

Christian Tabita Foundation

ul. Przylesna 3

04-807 Warsaw, Poland

Bank Details:

BISE II Oddzial w Warszawie

31127010110000170140773400

Swift Code: BISPPLPW