Contact is the key!
The number of people we can help through Bread of Life is increasing rapidly. We can build relationships with more and more people, who finally can tell their story to someone, and who are more and more open to the good news we have to tell them! We enjoy it and are grateful for it!
But what also happens constantly is that we receive requests for help from people from (far) outside the region where we are active. Well, then we could offer some remote help, but… we can’t provide the most important thing, a personal relationship. What about similar organizations in that region? Led by evangelical Christians with a similar calling? They are definitely somewhere out there, more or less professionally organized, but… We don’t know them!
More than three years ago, the project Evangelical Poland was launched, with the aim of integrating the diverse activities of Evangelical Christians in the country, to become much more visible and effective. Then I, Reinier, immediately expressed my interest to Andrzej Górski, the coordinator of this project and an old friend of mine in Poznań. And as often happens with relations, since the end of last year I have the privilege to lead the then started workgroup, which manages projects in the field of social/humanitarian aid.
And what emerged, already during the first meetings via Zoom with various representatives of evangelical aid organizations? Exactly…! We do not know each other!
Lately, the last weekend of September, the first major, nationwide conference organized by Evangelical Poland, was held in Warsaw. More than 200 pastors and leaders from all denominations in Poland, with 40 speakers, 6 different “tracks” and 35 different sessions and workshops. With the responsibility for the social/humanitarian aid track, I was particularly busy… Getting to know others!
A fantastic weekend, with various festive elements, one of which I was allowed to present: the official start of the project “Katalog DOBRA”, (“dobra” = “the good”). In the spring of 2022, we hope to publish a full inventory, both in print and online, of all evangelical aid organizations in the country. In recent months, with great enthusiasm from many involved parties, we have been working on the definition of 57 questions in 6 sections, which organizations will fill out over the next two months. Work to be done, but then we can no longer say: “We don’t know each other!”
