POLAND 2009 - Knowing, Being, Doing

Radomsko, Poland
Sunday, May 31, 2009
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Knowing, Being, Doing
Today I had the chance to come along side of the wonderful believers at the Pentecostal Church in Radomsko once again to minister. I was asked to come out on a Sunday this time and sing a couple of songs and actually give the message at their Sunday morning service. I was glad to do so. I spent quite a bit of time in prayer on what I should speak on. The message I gave was called, “Knowing, Being, Doing.”

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We didn’t get this message on video, but the gist of it had to do with the holy order in which we are to operate as believers. I started in Genesis 1:26 and 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and talked about how we were created in God’s image, and how God is triune in nature, being Father, Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ, and that we were also created as triune beings being soul (mind, will and emotions), spirit and body, in conjunction with the nature of God. We studied about this holy order in heaven, and how this holy order should be manifest in our lives here on earth. We looked at how each person of the Trinity was present at creation in Genesis 1:1-3; that the Father knew what He would create, the Holy Spirit was hovering over the face of the waters, and then as the Father spoke, Jesus, the Word in John 1:3 went to work creating. This is the holy order: First knowing, then being, then doing. We looked at how each person in the Trinity was present at the baptism of Jesus, as well.
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Then we got into what this holy order means in our life. We studied how we must first know God, looking at John 17:3. This has to do with our souls. We looked at the difference between knowing about God and knowing God intimately. Then we studied what it means to be. This has to do with our spirits. Being flows out of knowing. We looked at the Holy Spirit’s three-fold ministry” (1) The One who dwells within, (2) The One who comes alongside, and (3) The One who comes upon. We used Matthew 3:8 and Galations 5:22-23 as references to the fruit of the Spirit that should begin to be evident in our lives after conversion. We also looked at the baptism of the Holy Spirit from various places in Acts as well as fresh fillings of the Holy Spirit, using Ephesians 5:18. Then we looked at doing. This has to do with our bodies, as we partner with God to further His kingdom as tools in His hands. It is so important that doing flows out of knowing and being. We looked at the story of Mary and Martha from Luke 10:38-42, and how our doing must flow out of our times sitting at the feet of Jesus.

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After the message, we had a time when people could come forward for prayer. I received a word from God about some people being in the congregation being distracted, like Martha, by the busyness of life, hindering them from spending time at the feet of Jesus. Those who this word applied to came up first. Christopher (my translator), his wife and I prayed for them and many others who came forward for prayer. Many were healed of physical, emotional and spiritual infirmities. There were many words of knowledge and prophetic words given as well. The power of the Holy Spirit was so very evident in the service as we spent around and hour and a half praying for those who came forward. Praise the Lord for the amazing things He is doing here in Poland.
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Christian Young

POLAND 2009 - Men's Conference

Zakościele, Poland
Saturday, May 30, 2009
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Men’s Conference
There is an awesome Christian camp near us here in Poland at a place called Zakościele. Daniel actually took Christy, the kids and I on a tour of the camp last Thursday before we headed to Tomaszów-Mazowiecki. I have heard that it is probably the best Christian camp in Poland.

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I have been so blessed in my life to rub shoulders with so many awesome men and women of God. A month ago or so, I connected with the guys from the band, Eungelion, at the concert our church put on here in Piotrków-Trybunalski. The drummer, Michał and his wife, Karolina, both work at the camp in Zakościele. They asked if I could come and play bass guitar in their worship team this Saturday as they were having a men’s conference for around 150 men from all over Poland. I was happy to serve in this way. The camp is only a 30 minute drive east from our home.

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So Jonas and I got to the camp around 9:00 am. We listen to the morning sessions, where a guest speaker from Georgia spoke. Then I got to practice with the worship team. Wow! That is one talented group of Jesus followers. Many of the people on the worship team drove in from Warsawa to be a part of the worship team. I believe they are among the most talented Christian musicians and vocalists in Poland. The camp has some seriously awesome sound equipment and instruments, as well. It was very easy for me to fit in with them. And most of the songs that we did were familiar worship songs translated from English to Polish. In fact, check out the video clip below of what some of the songs we sing in our churches in the States sound like in the Polish language.

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From the organization of everything, to the media used on stage, everything at the camp was done very well. Giving God your best is so important. And these people really do things with excellence. I was blown away. The worship time was amazing. It was neat to see all of those men there to connect with Jesus as they sang the songs our team ked them in. And something else that was so cool to me was that they had an auction for some prints of pictures taken in Afganistan. I mean, not only does this camp do everything with excellence, but they are missions-minded. I also got a chance to do some fishing in the afternoon, as Jonas and I hung out with the guitarist, Arthur, who is also from the band Euangelion. We were trying to catch carp, but didn’t catch anything. Oh well. It was still fun just relaxing and developing more relationships with more lovely Polish believers. I hope to be able to come back and assist in the worship team again as they have need.

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Christian Young

POLAND 2009 - Christian Pre-School and Coffee Shop

Tomaszów-Mazowiecki, Poland
Thursday, May 28, 2009
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Christian Pre-School
The evangelical church in Tomaszów-Mazowiecki truly is making a difference in their community (Tomaszów-Mazowiecki is a city with a population of near 70,000 and is about 30 minutes east of Piotrków-Trybunalski). Americans are used to evangelical churches running preschools, but this is something new in Poland which the church there has started. We had the opportunity to have a tour of their beautiful and bright facility, each room decorated imaginatively with creativity and an eye for the interests of young children. From the breakfast room to the gymnasium, it was obvious that that the directors and teachers put their all into everything that they do. They offer all the basics of a normal pre-school as well as extras such as English and German lessons. This preschool has been revolutionary in their community for a couple of reasons. The first is that there are few preschools for people to choose from in Tomaszów-Mazowiecki, and the church is offering a quality education for a reasonable price to parents who need it for their children. The preschool is also accomplishing something else. In a very catholic community which often looks down on evangelicals as belonging to a “sect” and doesn’t trust them, the school has opened people’s hearts. As more and more families enroll children in the school and find that the evangelicals are normal people just sharing the love of Jesus, word has spread, enrollment is growing, and they have grown to offer even first grade classes. Teachers at the school who were not believers when they began working there have been saved and families from the community have begun attending the church due to this wonderful outreach. It was such a blessing to see the believers loving their community in this practical way.

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Christian Coffee Shop
After we left the preschool we drove over to the church building (This church, called, “TOMY,” is the only evangelical church in Tomaszów-Mazowiecki). This beautiful yellow and white building used to house an old run-down movie theater which the church was able to purchase. With a lot of money and hard work the useless cinema was transformed into a beautiful facility which includes a main sanctuary, a youth room, classrooms and an elegant coffee shop. Over delicious lattes, cappuccinos, and hot chocolates we were able to enjoy fellowship with some of the believers from the church there as well as other missionaries. This coffee shop has also opened doors into the community as people from outside their church come in to enjoy coffee and they are able to chat with the believers who work there. Many people are simply curious about what has been done to this old building and want to come in and see it. As these physical doors of the coffee shop are opened to the community, God is opening the spiritual doors as well and people are hearing the message of Christ.

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BEFORE........................................AFTER

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BEFORE.......................................AFTER

POLAND 2009 - Prayer Meeting at the Charismatic Church

Łódź, Poland
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
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Prayer Meeting at the Charismatic Church
A friend of ours from Piotrków-Trybunalski asked if I wanted to get involved in some evangelism and outreach at a charismatic church in Łódź. Łódź is one of the biggest cities in Poland and is more of an industrial city. The church meets in one of these industrial buildings, renting a room twice a week. To be honest, it has been nice getting invitations to speak, sing and do outreach in many of the surrounding cities. So I felt honored to even be asked to do so. Our friend wanted me to meet the pastor of this charismatic church, who is originally from Ukraine, and whose name is Andriew. He is an awesome man of God. It was great to connect with him. The meeting I attended was actually their mid-week prayer meeting. There was a time of prayer, worship, encouragement and an openness to prophetic words. I was asked toward the end of the meeting to get up and share a short testimony, so I did. Of course, when you are in an environment like that, where all of the people are pouring out their hearts to God in the Spirit, it seems that the Holy Spirit brings many impressions, so I was able to share some of them with the church, as well. God is so good. After the meeting, we met with pastor Andriew and began to schedule a time in July when I will come back to Łódź, perhaps share at the Sunday morning meeting, and then with the entire local church body, hit the streets where we will evangelize through music, speaking and praying for people. Thank you God for all of these great opportunities!

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Christian Young

POLAND 2009 - Praying at Historic Sites

Piotrków-Trybunalski, Poland
Sunday, May 24, 2009
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First Jewish Ghetto in Poland
Our warfare prayer team went to lunch together at Tina’s Pizza right after the church service today. Then we chose another couple of historic sites to pray at. If you remember from a previous post on our blog that there was a revelation given to someone a while back while they were praying in Piotrków-Trybunalski about two events that had taken place in the history of this city that had saddened God; (1) The counter-Reformation that began at the Church of Saint James [which our team had previously prayed at], and (2) The anti-Semitism that began in a certain part of town here in Piotrków-Trybunalski. If you take a look at the close-up photo [below] of our spiritual map of the city, you will see the approximate area of Poland’s first Jewish ghetto in a green circle. I find it is very significant that, once again, Piotrków-Trybunalski, the city that God has drawn us to as missionaries in Poland, was the city that had the first Jewish ghetto in all of Poland. So in a sense, you could say that the open door to mass anti-Semitism in the rest of Poland had its’ roots here in this city.

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As we walked and prayed around this area, the sense of despair and hopelessness were in the air. The buildings are run down and inhabited by some of the poorest people of the city. The streets are blocked off in many places. Anti-Semitist graffiti is all around. If you close your eyes you could imagine yourself being in that very place about 70 years ago. The sights and sounds of what must have been happening then are haunting to think about.

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Some impressions that I had as we walked and prayed: An image from something I have read in the Scriptures had come to me. It had to do with the fall of Babylon. Revelation 8:2 says, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!” (NKJV) I know that this isn’t the context of what is happening here in Revelation. But as I walked and prayed through what was the Jewish ghetto, on one hand I saw a place of desolation. There were tons of birds making their homes in run-down buildings. I think about the demonic spirits that must have been running rampant in this area in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s due to the mass hatred of God’s chosen people and the horrible things done to them. I wonder how many of those demons are still hanging out here today. On the other hand, I saw a small cement canal going directly through the center of once was the Jewish ghetto. I heard that this was once a beautiful river that the queen would even travel on by boat. Then I thought of another passage from Revelation about the New Jerusalem which descends from heaven to earth at the end of time. Revelation 22:1-2 says, “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (NKJV) I thought about the fact that this entire area had to do with Jews. And the symbolism between the New Jerusalem, its’ river flowing through the middle, and the healing of the nations became overwhelming to me. On one hand, I saw the desolation, and on the other hand, I felt that the heart of God was to restore what had been made desolate. In fact, there are other evidences in this place that this restoration is taking place.

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In the natural, you will see on the far side of this area, giant back-hoes and tractors carving out a channel in the middle of the street. When I asked what was going on, I was told that for the first time ever, the city is putting in a sewer system for all of the buildings in the area. I totally see what was taking place 70 years ago as an “ethnic cleansing” of the Jewish race in this area. As I prayed more about this, I felt as though the Lord wanted a cleansing to take place of all the spiritual garbage that had taken place in the past. In the natural, the sewer system being installed in this area is a literal removal of garbage and filth. I believe that God would want this to be manifest in the spiritual, and this is how we prayed. We were also near a field that was the main part of the ghetto. There were many trees there. As we prayed, I looked up because a strong breeze began to blow the tops of these trees. I thought of the Holy Spirit wanting to blow through this place. As the wind picked up, it carried a ton of pollen through the air that is visible to the eye (of course this didn’t do my allergies any good). I then thought about the new life that God wants to bring to this place that has been known for death. Hope is in the air. And God is in the business of redeeming all things back to Himself. May it be so at this historic place. Also noteworthy is the fact that the film, “Jakub the Liar,” with Robin Williams was filmed here.

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Jewish Synagogue
After we walked around what was once the first Jewish ghetto in Poland, we ended our prayer walk at the Jewish synagogue which is at the outer edge of the ghetto area. It is actually amazing that this synagogue still stands today, as most of them were destroyed by the Germans during their occupation of Poland. Interesting enough, the synagogue is on “Jerusalem Street” (remember what I mentioned earlier about the New Jerusalem). Currently, the public library for Piotrków-Trybunalski is housed here in the synagogue. But another interesting thing about what is taking place at this time is that the city is finding another location to build a library so that the synagogue can be given back to the Jews. In my opinion, this is yet another sign of the times. Perhaps in the natural, all that is happening is a building being given back to its’ people. But I believe that what could take place in the spiritual is a transference of kingdoms and the possibility of redemption and reconciliation, which is so near to the heart of God. I told the Lord that I was so sorry for what had taken place to His people so many years ago. I hope that more public humility and repentance on behalf of the people here in this city will take place, and that God would cause His face to shine upon this city.
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Christian Young