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“... if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in Heaven ”
Matthew 18:19
I am very impressed with what God is doing in Otwock. Paster Marek Budzinski from the First Baptist Church of Warsaw and I have a dream wnd we have been praying for one town half an hour drive from Warsaw called Otwock. We pray that one day in the near future a new Baptist Church will be planted there and an after-school program for disadvantaged children will be started in September 2004. Throughout the whole past week we had a wonderful team of Christian volunteers – young people from Nevada who came to help us organize the first Christian day camp for the children of Otwock. On the first day – Monday we had 14 kids, on Tuesday over 20 kids came along, on Wednesday we had 40 kids who enjoyed being with us very much.
We divided the children into four groups: sport, music, crafts and Bible. I was the translator for the Bible group and I saw how the children listened about how Jesus called the disciples, how He walked on water, how He fed and healed people and how He had to die. The last lesion today will be on why Jesus had to die. Children came to us because there is nothing like this in the area so parents bring their children and we have the chance to meet plenty of new people. Apart from the after-school program for the children we have a coffee house for the youth in the evenings. The American youth can make very good coffee and the Polish young people enjoyed the coffee and long conversations.
The First Baptist Church of Warsaw is renting two rooms for the new Church in Otwock and our Foundation plans to rent another room or two for the Christian after-school club to support the mission project. We are praying to God for the resources to cover the rent and we need to employ at least one person half-time. We will get the volunteers to help but there must be someone every day on site who will be responsible for the project.
In ten days there is another day camp starting in my Church at the Baptist Seminary in Warsaw – Radosc. Our Christian friends from Nashville, Tennessee are coming for the eighth time in a row to help us with the Day Camp. This is a wonderful commitment. I wish every Baptist Church in Poland had such an opportunity to do mission.
There will be tow other Day Camps in Otwock in July and this will be a very good thing to start the after-school program with. In the beginning of July we are also organizing a Christian Orphan Camp in Barycz. We invited 45 children from a state run orphanage in Marwica and other poor children. We have a team of ten young people from Kentucky who come to help us with the Camp. It is so wonderful to have all the partners in mission. We praise the Lord for them. In August we plan to do the last Day camp this summer and we still could do more projects especially during the school year because the summer seems to be ery busy this year.
God continues to bless us and we are grateful for His help in raising our own children. Our daughter Kamila completed her second year at University, our son Mateusz has graduated from High School and wants to go to University, too. But what we are the most grateful for is that both of them belong to Jesus. Now, with God’s blessings, we are able to help other children who have not experienced so much loe and care at home and need us.
Please join us in prayers for Otwock. May the Good Lord bless you.
Yours in Service for Him,
Henryk Podsiadly
Foundation President
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