Photo: The Church of Christ assembles in Wrocław, Poland April 30, 2023
The brethren in Wrocław, Poland have been wonderful in their hospitality and kindnesses shown to their Ukrainian brothers and sisters who evacuated to their nation after the Russian invasion. This wonderful kindness has also been seen in Romania, Germany, France, Switzerland, and many other nations.
The Wrocław brethren have embraced a number of Christians from the Ivano-Frankivsk area. It was a year ago that I first met these brethren and have loved them from the beginning. As I was leaving Ukraine I wanted to stop in Wrocław and spend time with these brethren. I am reminded of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14:22. As they were returning from the first missionary journey, one of their objectives was to visit established congregations “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith.”
The Church here is small and a three-day holiday in Poland (Monday-Wednesday to commemorate May Day—Labor Workers; Constitution Day; Flag Day) has a number of members out of town. But those who remained joined in a wonderful period of worship and fellowship. The Scripture text of the days was read in Ukrainian, English and Polish! Szczepan (Stephan) presented the lesson and he gave me an opportunity to speak and tell about the Church in Ukraine and the USA.
The worship was edifying. Here is a brief snippet of a song that you will recognize (although it is in Polish)
By the way for those interested in knowing…the proper pronunciation of Wrocław is “ROSS-LOV”!
As we were assembling in Wrocław our brothers and sisters were assembling in Ivano-Frankivsk. Since Poland is one-hour behind Ukraine I was able to hear Jared’s good lesson on why God permits evil to exist. Here are the reports from the team there.
Activities continue full throttle on Monday. The Ugorniky schools will be open and the team will be involved in that good work. The Church in Wrocław has planned a congregational activity and I will be enjoying their fellowship in that event.
From Gif
A bit of a slower weekend but we did do a few things! I’m adding a couple of other photos from Whitney as well as the ones I texted you. Perry has some pictures from the youth group class yesterday but I haven’t gotten them yet; I texted him to send them to you as well.
We hit the ground running as soon as we got into town last weekend and stayed busy throughout the week, but Saturday we finally got a couple of hours to relax, so we used them to walk around the city as well as play a little Ukrainian disc golf (Jared won in case anyone doubted). In the afternoon though, we went back to work meeting with a sizable group of young people, some of whom are studying at the Biblical Institute with Denis Sopelnik, some who are local college students, and some who are high school students. They had some very good questions relating to the Bible and spiritual life, as well as how to use what God has given you anywhere in the Church. It was a rewarding evening, followed by a great worship led by Jared’s sermon. Sunday afternoon was the only time we would have to go to the mountains and since Jared and Whitney have never been we wanted to make sure they got the opportunity, but even during this time we had some opportunities to talk with the Biblical Institute students before they returned to school in the evening. It was a positive weekend that gave us enough rest to get into our busy final week here tomorrow! We did get one more great opportunity as a last-minute meeting came up with Vlad and Oksana Paziy who are staying in Ivano-Frankivsk currently. We had a wonderful time getting to know them better and exchanging some thoughts about ministry and the Bible.
From Whitney
The weekend was more restful than the rest of the week. We woke up, and since there was no school we walked around town to see the sights, I saw two black swans which is very cool. It is a very beautiful city full of happy people even in this time of adversity. After that, we went to a young adult Bible study with the young Christians at Church. They are such wonderful people. We had a great discussion and answered many of their questions. It went so well they took us to a Georgian restaurant and attempted to teach me how to eat Georgian dumplings. Then we went back to the building and Gif, Marizza, and I stayed to play board games with the younger members of the Church until 10:00 pm. It was a great day. The next day, we all went to Church and Jared preached. Almost all of the young adults from the night before were there and we even exchanged contacts with some who want to know more about the Bible. Right after that, Dalraida team, Ivan and his family, and the young adults all went up to Yaremche to sightsee there. The Church in Ivano-Frankivsk even gifted us traditional Ukrainian shirts which are made by hand. It was such a sweet and thoughtful gesture. Afterwards, we ate lunch/dinner at this incredible restaurant that had the best salo (lard) and we even tried a gelatinous meat dish which was pretty good. We had such a great time together and it will be hard to leave these people and this country behind. Also, there are now ZERO buckets left at the church building and they’ve been out for a couple of days. Please send additional support to Ivan-Frankivsk!
From Jared
Over the weekend we have had a lot of meaningful fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We met with some of Anya’s friends and were able to have spiritual discussions with them. We also answered many questions they had about living in faith. Today at Church I had the opportunity to preach to the brethren and I really enjoyed it. Our lesson was about how God cares about our suffering and is compassionate towards us. We have been really blessed by our brothers and sisters in Ivano Frankivsk during our time here. Tomorrow we are excited go back to the schools and teach some more!
Continue praying for our efforts! “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way that I ought to proclaim it.” (Colossians 4:2-4)
John L. Kachelman, Jr.
Wrocław, Poland (Dalraida Church of Christ, Ukraine Missions, P. O. Box 3085, Montgomery, AL 36109)
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