One among millions

Let me tell you about Robert.

Robert is from Poland, not far from the German border. In the early Noughties he emigrated to the United Kingdom and began work as a kitchen porter and labourer in London. He tells me he was a hard worker but not always a good worker – he often struggled to properly comprehend instructions.

Robert, who was christened as a newborn into the Roman Catholic Church, became involved in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) – popularly known as the Hari Krishnas. He left his job and took up a post at the temple as an accountant, which he enjoyed. He left the Hari Krishnas, and with it his job, when he came under the YouTube influence of the unfortunately self-identifying Baptist hate-preacher Steven Anderson.

For two years, Robert would have called himself a born-again Christian but he had not publically professed his faith in Christ, had not been biblically baptised, and was not a part of a church of any kind. He may have possessed an abstract belief, but not, it would seem a living faith. It was then only a matter of time before he fell away.

Ironically, even as it was Steven Anderson who persuaded Robert away from Hari Krishna to at least Anderson’s version of Christ, it was Steven Anderson who pushed Robert away. The anger and hatred of Anderson’s messages became too much. Robert became an atheist.

Around the time Robert left his accounting job, he lost his motivation to work. Nothing was hindering him – he just didn’t feel like it. He lived off of his savings for a while. Eventually he could no longer afford rent so moved to the streets and spent the last of his savings on various items, including an iPad that he uses to watch videos and play games in the local library. He walked about 5 miles to a shelter once but didn’t like being surrounded by so many people so walked the 5 miles back to Wood Green. Help has been made available but he is choosing to sleep rough.

This past winter was Robert’s first on the streets and he found it very difficult. He lost the will to live. Unwilling to choose more immediate options, he decided he would take the more natural course of starving himself to death. It was about that time that a Christian woman on my street began bringing him food. Not just once. Every morning, he would awaken to a bag with sandwiches, juice, a milkshake, fruit, and snacks. He wanted to continue with his plan of suicide by starvation but did not want to be ungrateful so took the food and ate it.

Not long ago, I was approached by this woman, who I really don’t know at all well about helping her feed Robert while she was away on holiday. Such a sense of conscientious civic responsibility – never-mind Christian compassion! – is rare indeed. I leapt at the opportunity, so for a week prepared food early in the morning to give to Robert before he awakened from his cardboard bed in a backstreet doorway and moved elsewhere.  One day, I was able to persuade him to join me for coffee at a local café. We had a fascinating chat, and he was attentive and respectful as I sought to challenge and encourage him, and pointed him to the gospel of Christ. I wish I could say he was filled with hope when I left, but that remains to be seen. His English is very good, and he said he likes to read, so at the end of the week I gave him a copy of “Who Made God?” by Edgar Andrews.

Robert is one of just under 1,000,000 Polish-born residents living in the UK. This does not include hundreds of thousands of descendants of Polish-born immigrants. Then of course there is Poland itself: population almost 38 million. Don’t be blinded by these statistics. Each of these is a person, like Robert, and each one of them has a different story – none of which are identical to Robert’s. But only one Story can actually save them from their sins, make them right with God, and send them out to live and love to the glory of God and advance of the gospel. That is the story of Jesus Christ.

Robert is one among millions. He has heard the gospel of Christ and met born-again Christians who have showed him love and care. But again, he is one among millions. Many of these millions cannot say either of these things, and so continue in the false hope of wrong belief or the hopelessness of unbelief. 

Pray for the advance of the gospel in Poland and among Poles in the UK. Pray for local pastors, church planters, and missionaries labouring to make Christ known. Some that I am, through Grace Baptist Church Wood Green and Grace Baptists in Europe, connected to are mentioned below:

Pray for Mariusz Bartkowski. Mariusz and his family are seeking to plant a church in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Pray for the Lord’s blessing on Kościoła Baptystów Łaska and the evangelistic work that is being done to, by the Lord’s power, build it.

Pray for Jaroslaw Krukowski and the New Life Polish Gospel Church that meets in his house in Dublin. Pray that they would be nourished by, built up in, and united by the truth of the gospel. Pray that God would bless their evangelistic efforts to reach Dublin’s culturally homogenous and socially distinct Polish population with the good news of Jesus. Pray for Ryan King as he and a handful of other team-members go to teach and train a core group in the basics of biblical exegesis, exposition, and evangelism.

Pray for Artur Piotrowski. Artur is from Poland, but working as an evangelist in the very English environs of Kent labouring alongside Kevin Felix-Hollington in Halling, Ryarsh, and the surrounding villages. Pray that the Lord would bless and help him and that he would see fruit from his labours.