This year is off to a busy start, with several guests visiting us from the States. A Polish/American family from the Chicago area came to visit us here in Warsaw. They were coming to Poland to visit relatives. We met this family at Pastor Keith Gomez’s church years ago. It was wonderful, after all these years, to see again the man and his wife and one of their daughters, who traveled here with them. The man invited some of his friends to our church, so we got to meet his doctor friend and a few others who live here in Warsaw. The same weekend that this family was visiting, we had another visitor. Our mission field director, Brother Jeremy Snipes, was here with us for seven days. He came to encourage us and just to be a blessing. We enjoyed hosting him for several days in our home, and he also got to see some of the business of our lives here.
There is always much to do at the beginning of a year. One thing that we have to do is our bookkeeping. A Polish lady works for us, and we have to give her a year’s worth of receipts so that she can record what our foundation does to help people throughout the year. This year she asked us to get an online account in order to do our bookkeeping. We had to go to a government office to register our accounts, and then we had to fill out some documents and take them to another office. It took a lot of time to accomplish this business. I just got our vehicles inspected for another year. My main source of transportation needed a special part, which had to be ordered and shipped to Poland. Yesterday the part got put on the van, and then the inspection got completed. We are thankful our van has been useful for about 10 years now.
In our church, people are growing in the Lord. We have seen their faith increasing. One man got a job, and he has been asking about how to tithe. He knew he needed to do it, but he wasn’t sure if he had to give weekly or monthly or what was the best way. A lady who comes has been very good to us. She gave me an expensive watch as a gift recently. We do not want people to give us things, but I’m sharing this example to express how the people love us and are showing their love by giving.
From the song “Bringing in the Sheaves,” I am reminded of the words “sowing seeds of kindness.” During Communist times when people here were spied on all the time, they became Communist thinkers. Communist thinkers are people who question all good deeds because they are suspicious that you have an ulterior motive. Sometimes our ideas of showing kindness to people can be misunderstood. One man brought me some breakfast, and another man in the church said that the man gave me breakfast because he wanted something from me. Recently, some water bottles were delivered to our church. The man who brought the water was asked by one of our church members, “How are you?” The delivery man asked, “Why do you ask? What do you want to know this for?” The church member was just trying to be friendly. He invited the man to our church and told him he needed to come. The delivery man stated that he was an addict and that he presently worked with other people with addictions. He told us he was not religious and didn’t feel he needed to go to church. I told the man that he needed Jesus and that we wanted him to attend our services. He seemed very disinterested. Unfortunately, you cannot help addicted people truthfully without the Lord because He is the only One Who can change a sinful, dirty heart and make it new again.
More than conquerors,
Paul Sock
