Julia bit her lip as she caught sight of the front row where her mother should be sitting. Quickly she dipped her head so the sad expression that crossed her face couldn’t be seen. 

Closing her eyes for just a moment, she breathed a prayer for strength and for her parents’ salvation. She gave her sorrow to Jesus and determinedly put her disappointment aside. 

This was her wedding day. She was truly happy, and she resolved not to let her parents’ decision not to attend shadow her joy. 

The 21-year-old bride had received Christ when she was 19. 

When Julia’s father heard of her new faith, he had given her an ultimatum: Jesus Christ and her new church or her family. To her family, Julia’s decision to join an evangelical church was a decision to join an obscure cult. 

The Polish Catholic church is deeply ingrained in Polish culture. Most simply grow up believing that to be Polish is to be Catholic. All of the Protestant denominations together make up 0.4% of the population, and are feared and avoided by the general population. 

Though the majority of Poles self identify as Catholic and 40% attend mass regularly on Sundays, a relationship with Jesus isn’t something most are familiar with. 

What did Julia do? She chose Christ.

Barely an adult, she was kicked out of her parents’ home. She faced the transition to womanhood, engagement and marriage without their support. 

There was no contact between Julia and her parents at all during her first years of marriage, as she adjusted to married life, learned to be a godly wife and navigated the road of starting a family. 

She had no communication with her parents until her first child was born. 

But then something began to change. 

Slowly, over the course of many years, Julia’s parents were drawn closer to the Lord, drop by drop. Finally, they came to faith in Jesus at an evangelistic event!

Julia’s story isn’t an uncommon one for Poles coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ. 

That’s why this next piece of news is so exciting. 

It comes from our partner in Poland, Andrew Gorski. 

At the end of last year, 700 Polish people, from 50+ churches shared their conversion stories on Facebook and Instagram in an event organized by Andrew and Evangelical Poland. Many good conversations were started, and Andrew passed along this testimony from one believer, Claudia, who participated in the event and shared her story.

Beloved, I’d like to share with you, for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and for building us up, brothers and sisters, how good our Lord is… Yesterday, a few hours after I posted my “Before and After” [spiritual conversation] pictures on my Facebook post, my friend from elementary school reached out to me and she said she had been watching my Facebook page for a long time, but this post touched her in a special way… We spoke for a long time about the Lord, and at the end she decided she didn’t want to live her life on her own and GAVE HER LIFE TO JESUS CHRIST… Alleluia!

Entire heaven is rejoicing because when only one sinner turns to God… Great project, which is led by God.

I encourage  you to share your pictures on your Facebook pages, because people see what you post, and one never knows who, in a given moment, is waiting for rescue and salvation… I bless you all in Jesus name! Glory to God!

These believers risked ostracization, persecution, and disownment from their families, but took a step to share their faith online. 

Evangelical Poland is a movement Andrew is leading to unify followers of Jesus in Poland for the purpose of making disciples. Andrew wants to equip believers to “go to the world” where people are, and one place people are is social media: 18 million Poles are on Facebook and Instagram. 

Andrew and his team have a strategic plan to unify and equip God’s people in Poland for evangelism and discipleship and to share the Gospel with as many as possible. 

Evangelical Poland has identified one barrier to the spread of the Gospel in the post-communist country is the sparse resources within each denomination. 

With a tiny sliver of the Polish population that is Evangelical divided among several denominations, leaders need to disciple new believers and train them to share their faith with meager resources and manpower. 

Always the visionary, Andrew’s plan is to make resources from the various denominations available to the rest by coming together. He’s already gotten 57 churches and organizations involved. 

This kind of unity among Protestant churches is rare. Historically, Protestant denominations have remained suspicious of each other, unable to leave the mindset of the Communist era behind. 

But now, these believers are coming together to contribute to this project, unify with their brothers and sisters in Christ, develop training resources and extend Jesus’ love to their neighbors!

This is the exciting kingdom work you are involved in when you support our national partners. This is the exciting kingdom work Andrew’s supporters have been a crucial part of!