Continuation of the October White Wing Article pg. 19
Bishop Clayton Endecott | General Presbyter Europe, CIS and the Middle East
Petr: Yes, but we also had much help along the way. Just at the right time, when we had no alternatives, God would use someone to help us. As a new church, we had begun to give 10% of our tithes to the International accounts. This was a great sacrifice, particularly during the time of our building. But when we thought we had no alternatives and nowhere to go, you asked the International Offices if we could make use of some of that money for the windows in the first floor that were so greatly needed. The International Offices granted us the opportunity to use those funds as well as giving us more; it was such a great blessing at that time. We found out who our friends were during our greatest times of need. I remember Bishop Clayton, while you were here one time, your father died and went to be with the Lord. We were all brokenhearted with you. In your next visit, you brought an offering that was collected in memory of your father and was given to our church for this project. It was an amazing encouragement. Also, Mauriusz and Agnieszka gave from their life and ministry towards this project. These gifts of love were so encouraging and helped us through. This building is a huge blessing. I actually see it as a renewal of my calling and the calling for this Church. One of the greatest miracles is the growth of our youth group. It is directly related to our building. Most recently, our children’s minister moved away, which was sad for us. But now we have Halina, who is our translator for this meeting today as we speak, and she has a real calling and much experience as a children’s worker. She is building an amazing children’s ministry here, which is our vision. Our day care center was one way for us to raise funds to pay for this building, and we invested a lot of time and money to renovate our state of the art rooms for child care. The ministry struggled financially initially, but now we have many children who are part of this day care and the government is even supporting this work, which opens many doors for us.
CE: This weekend you had a very creative ministry that Halina conceived of to reach the many children of the city park. Halina, along with some adults and many of the youth, made such creative games and activities for the children, each centered around specific stories in the Bible. Many children registered for the program and can be contacted for future events. It was amazing to see the stories of David and Goliath, Abraham, the spies going into the Promised Land, and many other activities for children where they not only played and laughed, but learned about God along the way. Halina, this was so creative; I need you to write a report on this explaining the idea and the many stations that you created for this event. I believe many churches in diverse nations can use this kind of event to reach out to families and children.
Halina: I had this on my heart to work with the children here. I studied in the United States for a while and have worked with children. A year ago, I offered to help the ministry here with children. There was a recalling for me into this ministry, and with it came a refreshing of the Holy Spirit and many good ideas for the work.
CE: So, we have new churches, we have youth and children’s ministries going on. What is the future for reaching youth, children, and planting churches in Poland and Czech Republic?
Mauriusz: We had a very good youth work for a number of years, now they are grown and married, and we are ministering to their children. We believe this is the right moment for this work and for church planting in Poland.
Petr: Children and youth are a gift of God to us. Our own children, mine and Dana’s, as well as Pastor Mauriusz and Angenietzka´s children, are huge parts of our local ministries. We believe God wants us to reach our children and youth in our countries, and He is providing many ways. I think the bi-annual youth leadership Conference that COGOP does, in cooperation with your Euro team and Brother Kirk Rising, is an ingenious idea to help us build this ministry. We are so privileged that you are hosting this in our country again this year. We see this as an ingenious way to recognize and to train our youth, and to network them globally. It is so wonderful to see nearly 20 nations gather for this event. Pastor Mauriusz has joined us in this project and is working hard to bring youth from Poland as we are from our churches. These youth conferences (Get Plugged In) are great ways to strengthen our youth in Europe and to teach them about their calling, their gifts, youth ministry, children’s ministry, and evangelism. It is a way to “plug them in” to the Holy Spirit, their local churches, the COGOP, and to ministry in their own communities. The most important thing we can do is raise up our children and youth. I know the church in Poland and here in the Czech Republic, as we also have seen in Germany, are very lively, full of children and youth. This is God’s time for this generation in our churches in Europe, CIS, and the Middle East, and is one of our great challenges and opportunities.
CE: Thanks so much for this interview. Friends in faith make amazing ministry teams. I am so happy to have you as friends and to join your teams in this part of the world for such a time as this.
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