(In front of the statue of Pope John Paul at wawel castle in Krakow)

(Evangelical Christians singing and witnessing a Krakow park. Look at the faces!)

(Birkenau Concentration Camp near Auschwitz)

Poland is unique in several ways.

1. In the suffering that it has seen. It has been partitioned three times with Germany and Austria occupying part of its territory and Russia another part. During WW II it was attacked by both German Nazis and Russia at the same time before the Nazi turned on the Russians. Three millions Poles died in WW II; as many as the Jews who were killed. Then at the end of the war the Communists under Stalin took control.
   
   
2. In its welcome to the Jews. Though they were oppressed at times, for the most part they were allowed to live in peace and develop their own communities from the early Middle Ages. Many settled during the inquisition in the 15^th Century. When Nazism arose the greatest concentration of Jews in Europe was found in Poland. Our tour guide at Auschwitz said that one reason they were not able to protect them was that they had not rebuilt their army from WW I. There were many other work camps in Poland Auschwitz was unique in that it was built ten years into the Nazi persecution of Jews as a "death camp" to bring about the final solution.
   


3. In the resilience of their Catholicism. We saw churches filled in Krakow. Some had seven services a day and more on weekends. Poland is unique in Europe in that 40% still go to mass. But attendance has declined by 6% since 2003. One of their theologians commented "Polish religiousness tends to be based on turning to God to escape distress. When that disappears, so may God." There is still a window of opportunity before secularism takes hold. Poland is following the path that other traditional Catholic peoples like Quebec and Ireland have followed. Yet the church is alive as we witnessed while walking downtown in a park. We pray that many will be reached before indifference sets in.
   

Church Planting in Europe

Our reason for going to Poland was to meet with church planters gathering from all over Greater Europe as far as Cappadocia, Turkey and Kiev, Ukraine. We had appointments for every meal and some during our breaks and free time. There was good participation in the church planter forums. We discussed "best practices" in several areas. The 3 issues/challenges that stand out in Europe are:

1) The difficulty of evangelism in secular, post-modern countries,

2) the challenge of finding local church planters to work with, and

3) the danger of missionaries slipping into a pastoral role and how to avoid that.

As we spoke with church planters we saw that the further west on worked in Europe (Portugal, Spain being the extreme) the harder the soil was for the gospel. Some central European countries, though the curiosity has eased, are still experiencing solid church growth. We spoke with several teams working with Muslim Ministry background people. God is doing a work among Iranians in Europe. Friends who have been sowing among the Turks in Germany for almost three decades are seeing more fruit among Iranians in the last few years. There is an encouraging work in Berlin that is raising up new workers and resulting in multiple church plants. We talked about how to sustain the momentum and keep it from becoming resource dependent.

I believe God wants us to invest in Europe in spite of the challenges. Why?

The invitations of the planters themselves. We had several invite us to spend time with them, especially teams beginning their ministry and teams transitioning to a partnership with local workers now that a foundation has been laid.

Then one day Linda spoke with me about a sense that we should visit church planters on site right after I had had the same thought. Could this be the leading of the Holy Spirit? Later I met with our Mission's associate executive director and he encouraged us to explore this further.

"No church planter left alone" is one of our mottos. Although we have several experienced church planters who could coach others locally, none of them are ready to take on the role of Point Person for all of Europe at this point. Until God raises up that person it seems that direct coaching is a valuable and needed investment.

Yet the needs are great and resources limited. Where should we go Cappadocia Turkey, Berlin, Lisbon, Birmingham England, and Toulouse, France? We would love to help workers in all these places we need God's word about this. In March 2010 there will be a Church Planter Training Institute in Amsterdam with national planters from all over Europe. Gene has been asked to participate. We did our church planting internship in Paris. We understand the challenges first hand. Who would have thought that God would call us to come alongside so many church planters in Europe twenty-five years later?

To those of you who know Europe much better than I do, I invite your comments and counsel.

picture 1: Carlos, Gene, Guillermo, Giovanni, Mike and Jhollman

Picture 2: Giovanni the national leader prays for Guillermo

picture 3: church plant that had 7 people 3 years ago when Guillermo arrivedpicture

Hot in Colombia! It was 104 degrees in Cartagena so we struggled with the heat but at least had a simple room with AC to sleep. No toilet seats but who cares when you have AC and can get a good night’s sleep! J The people were as warm and hospitable as the weather. One highlight was traveling by bus for the first time to Sincelejo on a road which had been controlled by the FARC guerrillas for years. There we (four Colombian national leaders, Mike Gunderson and I) encouraged the saints and ordained their church planter Guillermo.

Church Planting Advance in Colombia

The first time I tried to go to Colombia, Linda didn't want me to go. Crime and kidnappings were at an all time high. We checked with someone in the country and they said the day we planned to arrive was election day and trouble was expected. We postponed.

A few months later we went and we were restricted to the major cities. The only way to drive from Bogota to Cartagena was in a caravan with military escorts. We went to the cities.
This time (July 09) for the first time we could travel freely outisde the cities. One church plant in Sincelejo had not been visited in years. The plan was to visit, encourage the brothers and sisters and ordain the church planter. Three other goals had been set:

1. Help them with church planting plans and strategies using lay church planting teams
   
2. Encourage and advise all the workers
   
3. Introduce Mike my replacement as church planting coach for Latin America
   

It was so encouraging to find out that our Colombian friends didn’t wait for us to make their CPing plans. They chose three new sites in Monteria, Bogota and Baranquilla and had already discussed who would be interested in planting the churches. Most of the pastors would love to leave their pastoral ministry to evangelize and start a new church. One pastor has already made an exploratory trip to one of the new sites on his own. The real challenge we discussed was raising up new workers and pastors in the churches to replace the pastors who want to go out. Our colleague Omar Rodriguez will be going in a few weeks to launch a new Church Based Training ministry that comes from Spain. We see so clearly how Missions and Leadership Development must go hand in hand. Please pray for Omar’s ministry and the facilitators he will be training from each region.

In Bogota

The last 2 ½ days were much cooler - about 65-70 during the day and cold at night. Bogota is a mile high and the people are more reserved and professional. There is less interest in church planting but the pastors we met want to plant a church together. Two of them feel God’s call to be missionaries one day. It is so encouraging to see how God is tugging at the hearts of Latin Americans to reach Post-Christian Europeans and Muslims. Anoth highlight personally was spending the entire week (including flights) with Mike Gunderson who is replacing me as Latin America Church Planting Coach. He is a joy to work with and an able equipper and coach with 20 years of experience in Brazil. Please pray for Mike as he transitions to this role and builds on what God has already done to raise up church planting leaders and coaches.
Soon after I got home Orlando, one of the pastor who was away during our visit called me on skype. He asked about my new role. I assured him that roles change but friendships remain. Some relationships last for time and eternity. What a joy to work with these fine men.