Warm greetings from Wisla, Poland. What a strange year we are having! It is summer, but not as we have always known it. We are beset by coronavirus and all the attendant rules and restrictions, some of which appear quite illogical. People are scared by the threat and uncertainty.
But life goes on. Two of our young staff had the virus and now are over it. We have had to make huge adjustments to many of our planned events. Large conferences, also Outback weekends, are suspended and have been replaced with on-line programs.
It has pushed many believers to familiarize themselves with the use of digital media, great news for us!
Online we may serve more people than in a physical format. For example, a “Women’s Breakfast” this year influenced 4,000 ladies, whereas in the past at a hotel the numbers were around 800.
Two of our Outback leaders, Jacek and Ela, organized “mini-Outbacks” on bicycles! A group of 30 participants traveled for a week along Polish Baltic sea coast riding some 30 km / 20 miles a day. It was so successful, that a next event is planned August 23 – 27 in the historic region of Kazimierz Dolny.
On August 28 – 29 our Annual e-Coach Conference will be held on-line. This is a special opportunity for many more people to attend now churches are waking up to, and want to do something more, using the Internet. We are always willing to share all our experience and tools.
Our IT team has developed and launched, in Polish, a new, comprehensive fundraising on-line platform to receive donations from friends. All our ministry offers are given out for free; we reach tens of thousands of people every month, operating on such a scale is expensive but, thankfully, an easy, transparent fundraising system has finally arrived. Soon we will be extending it to also accommodate International donations.
August is also a month of rolling out an important update to our flagship discipleship platform – GELE, with new mobile app, fresh new design and user-review features. After successful month of real-life test in Poland we’re ready to deploy to all partners globally in the coming week.
At the same time, we are working on a “White Book of Testimonials”, direct quotes we have received from over 5.000 people who went through one of our programs! We are currently looking for a satisfactory way to abridge it as the original is over 500 pages long!
But it is so important to document and encourage all the people who are conducting the work. Yes, we want to see results! Initially it will be just for internal distribution.
Bogusia and I have just returned from a vacation with our daughter, Paulina, and close friends who are the leaders of our Internet program, Norbert & Eva.
Our granddaughter, Miriam, prematurely born, daughter of Filip and Justyna, is finally with her parents, at home. She is very tiny, but seems to get stronger every day. Please, pray with us for little Miriam.
Friends, we deeply appreciate your Friendship! Together, we may change the World, in the power of Holy Spirit!
Henio
Progress on prayer requests:
August prayer requests: