“Great truths” from Warsaw

Posted by Bill on April 28, 2012

Small Groups at Christian Fellowship North in Warsaw Iza is the Small Groups Director of the Christian Fellowship North Church in Warsaw, Poland. I’ve had the privilege of visiting the church on five occasions, since 2004. My visits were to share with them CCI’s Church Plan, and Principles that undergird the formation and development of healthy small groups, and to identify a small groups champion among their membership. Iza is a humble, sincere, faithful, and teachable leader. The Lord is doing amazing things in her church through her sacrificial service to Him. Here is a recent testimony I received from her …

We had a meeting with our small group leaders on Saturday. It was a great time. First, we shared testimonies from our small groups: how they are growing, how people are becoming more spiritually mature, how your visit and your Small Groups Development material has helped our groups. People shared many wonderful thoughts and experiences. One leader encouraged other leaders to use the SGD material. I was very glad!

After some training with a few small groups, people started encouraging each others, not only me! That’s what I really wanted to see happen.
Later we had a prayer time, and coffee and cakes of course. Bill, we are building strong ties. Now we are planning a one day trip for our small group leaders. I was surprised to hear that most leaders want to go! We’ll go on the 20^th of April. We’ll have many activities, rest and just be together.

Here’s a few statistics:

We have ten small groups. It’s not a large number but I know that we have strong groups, and leaders who are sure that small groups work. .
After Easter we’ll start training three or four groups.
At the end July, we will contact all small groups by your support tools. Besides, now we have one group that is multiplying. A new leader – Ewa! We hope Ewa will start in May with her new group.
There are about two or three groups that have many members. They are planning to multiply in September.
We have three coaches. We have another coach but he needs time to give us an answer. We don’t push, just wait and pray. But we hope that he’ll be a coach before the end of this season. Every group leader has their own coach.

In summary: At the end of this season we hope that every small groups will undergo SGD. We will have four coaches. We will have one group multiplying, and maybe two groups will be ready to think about multiplying. Bill, I think these are a great statistics! Just a one year ago we didn’t know if our groups would stay alive. And now we think about multiplying more frequently.

Small Groups Momentum growing in Warsaw

Posted by Bill on February 25, 2012

Received from Iza, the Small Groups Director we worked with in Warsaw during our European “Vision of Visions” trip

Bill, the small groups presentation to our church family, last week, was more than amazing!

I couldn’t sleep afterwards, of course . I’m still excited, actually – everyone is. It’s hard to describe how I am feeling. I’m still in Heaven (not Coffee Heaven .

Our presentation included: Adam Dulinski speaking about following Jesus, later we had four people share testimonies. Martin spoke about how the pastors and elders supported God’s work at Ephesus. I then spoke about discipleship, saying …

“We want to follow Jesus, knowing His way of walking with His disciples. Twelve people (one small group) spent 3 years with each other, learning to accept and love each other, grow spiritually, and looked for lost people. This is called discipleship. In the small groups of our church, we are learning to do the same. We take on challenges of mutual love and acceptance, spiritual growth, and to lead people to Jesus. Jesus modeled this, so did the apostles. Then Paul and Timothy continued to do this. Through small group, we want discipleship to be a part of our lives and we want this pattern conveyed to future generations. Through discipleship, we want to follow Jesus.”

The Elders and Pastors of our church then prayed for us.

Bill, many people expressed sensing God’s Power and His Holy Spirit. After the presentation, telephone texts and emails were being circulated, expressing joy and happiness for the presentation! We thank the Lord for this ministry!

Bill, thank you for helping us.

Iza

Vision of Vision – a preview of 2012

Posted by Nick on December 3, 2011

Dear partners and friends,

Our wonder-filled “vision of visions” blossomed beautifully in 2011, and revealed new and exciting opportunities for us in Poland, Lithuania, and other places. I can understand the thrill the apostle Paul must have experienced as he returned to familiar places in Asia Minor to strengthen the work the Lord accomplished through him and Barnabus, and Titus, and other faithful servants (Acts, Chapters 13 -20).

With the encouraging outcomes of 2011 behind us, we eagerly look ahead to the opportunities that abound for CCI in 2012. Here’s a taste of the things we are believing the Lord wants to do through us next year:

Continue to coach and mentor small groups champions (Iza, Andrew, Maciej, and Vaclovas) in Warsaw, Gdynia, and Lithuania
Translate our new “Relational Evangelism” book into the Polish and Lithuanian languages (to be free downloads on the website)
Translate our “Growing Up Into His Likeness” book (foundation-level discipleship for new and old believers) in Polish and Lithuanian languages (to be free downloads on the website)
Translate our “Small Groups Development” manual into Greek, German, Sweedish, and Spanish languages (pushing steadily towards our goal of 40 translations)
Continuing to support Dave and Jess Quak in their “Living Temple” small groups church plant on the Gold Coast in Australia
Continuing to support Gary and Aline Douglas in their small groups consultancy work at Llanelli, Wales
Continuing to support Elijah Samuel in his small groups training and development work in Nigeria, and the rest of Africa
Support Wale and Emma Oladipo in their exciting vision to plant a small groups based church in England (look out for more news soon)
A return visit to Poland and Lithuania next April-May with a focus on developing small group skills in “evangelism” and “discipleship”
Ministry with an “interested to know more about small groups” church in Germany! – initial discussions are just starting!
Possible visit to Wale and Emma in England, Gary and Aline in Wales and Monica in Finland as part of our visit to Poland, Lithuania and perhaps Germany.

Nick Truscott, our Senior Associate Director, continues to do a cracker job from Abu Dhabi in the UAE in providing CCI with the finest communications support – without Nick, his technical expertise and firm friendship, CCI would only be a figment of my imagination.

Beryl and I continue to commit all that we are and have to building a universally accessible small groups, evangelism, and discipleship resource facility – that offers its resources in many languages to God’s global harvest workers at no charge.

Lastly, Beryl and I say to you … we could not have travelled this far without your love, encouragement, and kind support – “Thank You”. Do you have it in you to stay with us for one more year? I believe I have enough energy in me to reach out and seize the opportunities the Lord will grant us in 2012.

Wishing you and your family a blessing-filled Christmas and New Year.

Bill & Beryl

Vision of Visions – Debrief

Posted by Bill on November 16, 2011

Dear Friends,

It has taken seven days for Beryl and me to feel revived and refreshed from our wonder-filled assignments in Europe. Our seven-weeks stint in the harvest fields of Poland and Lithuania is by far the greatest investment we have made so far in empowering the Lord’s people in the work of expanding His Kingdom.

Although this 7-weeks assignment demanded more from us than any other previous assignment, it bore more fruit than we could imagine. In true fashion, the Lord lead us along new paths, transformed the darkness into light before us, and made the rough places smooth … He did not forsake us! (Isaiah 42:16.)

We returned to Australia “looking” the same, but we’ve been stretched a lot more! We are more excited, and more willing, than ever to say “yes” up-front to the Lord, long before He reveals to us the next assignment He has in store for us. Without hesitation, we are willing to sacrifice and invest everything within our control to go out further on the limb of faith with Him.

: Headed for Riga Airport, Latvia

: Foot crunching time at Changi Airport, Singapore

: Gout affected fossil, but not defeated!

Our Vision of Visions is expanding into new frontiers. The churches we visited in Gdynia in Poland, and Mazeikiai in Lithuania, have asked us/me to return in the Spring of 2012 to help in strengthening their efforts to establish networks of healthy small groups in their churches. Pastor Adam of the Gdynia church also informed me that the leadership of the local Catholic church has expressed interest to learn more of our small groups church plan. The Lord has also placed Helsinki (Finland) in my mind. Monica, a former teammate of our Cairo years has been promoting small groups there with encouraging results. I believe it would be a great opportunity to cross the Baltic Sea, from Lithuania, to connect the small groups work at Helsinki with the network in Poland and Lithuania.

One important matter that needs our attention at this time is to express our heartfelt “thanks” to the Lord, and to you. What took place in the past seven-weeks was made possible through our partnership with you and the Lord. With partners like you, our Vision of Visions can continue to expand throughout the many countries of Europe.

Bill and Beryl

God of the second, third, fourth, fifth …. chance

Posted by Bill on October 29, 2011

Ania Wisniewska - Christian Fellowship South

Ania Wisniewska and daughters

Ania Świątczak, was one of the members of the small groups development training groups that took place recently at the Christian Fellowship South church, in Warsaw. With unusual attentiveness and keen interest, Ania stood out from others in the group. During a short recess in our second week of training I had the opportunity to hear from Ania her amazing testimony of God who did not give up on her. This is her story …

My name is Ania Świątczak. I was born in Katowice, Poland, in 1977. I’m a professional musician and singer.

In January 1999, my friend, Agnes Bellon, caught me on the street and invited to her church (Warsaw Church of Christ). In my search for God I was a little skeptical because many, many churches began to operate in Poland. I went everywhere to experience them. Agnes was a member of a small group of Christian university students who met once a week to study the Bible, worship God, and spend time with each other.

On the Wednesday before I went with her to her church, we had a Bible discussion, followed by a party on Friday. The party is called Mrożonka’s Party (means cooking with only convenience food). It was an amazing experience. I already knew a little of the Bible, but such relationships I had never experienced before! I was sure that the people I had met were not from this planet. There were no forced smiles or irrelevant discussions … there was friendship, openness, willingness to help, listen, and laugh. Life with this group was so different from the one that I had known (even from people who claimed to know and love God). After two weeks of building my convictions from the Bible, I was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and He became my Lord!

Over the following three years, I started with my friend, Radek, to lead a small group at Warsaw University, and shortly thereafter began to work full time for the church on their worship team and the university students in church. All of this probably would have lasted until today had it not turned out that I had exhausted my physical and emotional strength. I protested to God that I had done so much for Him, and He did little or nothing for me. Like a huge balloon that had burst open … air escaped from me. I left God, disappointed and tired.

Friends in my group, and the church, wanted to help but because I had for so long hidden from them my unhappiness I could not listen to anyone … and then I slept a full two weeks. After that time, my professional life had peaked. I travelled the world and performed at concerts. I met a man who became my husband. Our wedding was a transmitted ”live” by the broadcasting media in Poland.

Our daughter, Eti, was born in 2006, and one and a half years later, our second daughter, Vivi, was born. From time to time, I would look at the sky and wonder where I was, and where God was. In my mind, I would ask God, Do you see me? Do you hear me? I felt a great emptiness. It was at this time I decided to leave my profession as I believed I was on a road to hell. I wanted to escape far away because of my failures and mistakes – I believed I was a disappointment to God. I did not fulfil my promise to Him. I let Him down.

After 6 years my marriage ended. I moved out with my girls, with no idea of what tommorow would bring. As I had worked with my husband, I also said good-bye to my job. I was too ashamed of my life to look up to God , but His desire for me remained – I felt His hands upon me. After eight years, God sent “His people” to me J. At my first church service at Christian Fellowship North (SchPółnoc) I met many people from the former church and they told me how persistently they prayed for me … eight years! God heard their prayers – He accepted me, even though I had rejected Him.

It was last year (2010) when I returned to my Father. Today I am part of Christian Fellowship South church (SchPołudnie). I am actively involved in building our church through small groups and I am amazed as to how God is teaching me. The Lord used Beryl and Bill to help me experience the best that comes from walking with God. Their hearts of “celebrating honest mistakes”, openness, patience and love for us has become for me the essence of what Christ taught. From them, I learnt to rely on the Lord; learn from His source ”that never dries up”, to honestly admit mistakes, and a most important theme of their teaching: by working together, lives can change (Building the Kingdom is the real work).

I think that in a world where people every day use empty words (and who are completely lost in their personal lives), God teaches us that loving others, sacrificing for them, and helping them is our priority in life … giving hope to our friends who don’t know Jesus. What touched me the most in Bill’s book (Small Groups Development) is learning the importance of ”doing life together”.

I now want to teach others how to be actively involved in building Christian community: to trust, serve, support, and learn from each other.

Thank you Lord for Your greatness and faithfullness in loving me as You do. Our God is ”the” God of second, third, fourth, fifth … chance. His love changes us, and, through us, He changes the world!

What an amazing testimony!!