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A Rallying Cry for Poland
by Zygmunt Karel
As a boy, I was raised in a country that suffered under the boot of communism. I never knew anything else. In fact, the Polish people have struggled beneath the unjust and unwelcome rule of foreign nations for centuries — including Russia, Austria, and Prussia in the nineteenth century and Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in the twentieth century. I prayed that my own children might experience freedom at some point in their lives — the freedom I had never known. I also prayed for the people of Poland who had a desperate need to hear of the spiritual freedom found in Jesus Christ.
I never thought I would see it occur, but Poland has been free from communist rule for more than 20 years now. But the country still needs spiritual freedom. The people haven’t had nearly enough exposure to evangelical Christianity and the clear preaching of the gospel.
For this reason, it is such a blessing to be associated with Insight for Living Poland. The faithfulness of Chuck Swindoll to preach God’s Word with clarity and boldness over the airwaves has drawn many in other nations to Christ. I hope that in a few years we can say the same for Poland.
I am working now on translating and recording Chuck’s sermons into Polish, with the goal of beginning a broadcast this year. The radio broadcast is significant because it provides people in this predominantly Roman Catholic country a private and “safe” means to hear practical, in-depth Bible teaching.
With relatively few evangelical churches scattered throughout Poland, the broadcast also would offer the promise of getting the message of Jesus to villages and towns that have no other opportunity to hear the gospel of grace preached with clarity. Additionally, with Chuck’s messages translated into Polish, local pastors will be able to model Chuck’s approach to the Scriptures and his commitment to biblical preaching, thereby improving the preaching in Poland.
In the end, all my work on behalf of Insight for Living Poland comes back to getting the message about Jesus Christ out to the Polish people. Please pray for me and for the furtherance of the gospel in Poland. We will not accomplish God’s work without a willingness in His people to serve. The prophet Isaiah’s commitment before God to take His Word to a people in need of the Lord has been an inspiration to me for many years now. In response to God’s question, “Whom shall I send . . . who will go?” Isaiah offered a simple and powerful response that could be the rallying cry from Christians around the world: “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8).
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Zygmunt Karel is a graduate of Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw, Poland, where he earned a master of theology and doctor of philosophy. From 1990 to 2005, Zygmunt served as the founding president of Biblical Theological Seminary in Wroclaw, Poland. Currently he serves as pastor of Insight for Living Poland and is busy translating Chuck Swindoll’s sermons into the Polish language. He is prayerfully strategizing to broadcast the teaching on the radio and the Web. Zygmunt and his wife, Maria, have been married for 36 years, and all these years she has supported him as he has obeyed his call to serve Jesus Christ. |
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