About DeoLink Association Ministry

It all began in 1973, with a young man named Henryk Krol and his trip to the United States. While there, Henryk had the opportunity to visit many churches and meet many leaders. His life and the developing nation of Poland have never been the same since.

Inspired by The Continental Singers concert and then some recordings of The Gaither Trio, Henryk returned to communist-controlled Poland, ready to bring live Christian music to his country. In 1975, together with his sister, brother and friends this big dream gave birth to DEOdecyma, a music group of ten young people sharing the Gospel in communist Poland using contemporary music.

DEOdecyma traveled the country of Poland singing and preaching in hundreds of churches, mainly Catholic, but also secular, rented venues. It was such a novelty in Polish culture that it drew crowds! Many thousands of people responded to the call of inviting Jesus to their life. As a continuation, they introduced a correspondence Bible course taken by hundreds.

Such an immediate reaction and great spiritual hunger and people led to a massive demand for Christian music recordings. Only God knows how DEOdecyma and friends managed to build a professional recording studio in Wisla, Poland. In 1986, an independent music recording studio in the communist-controlled country sounded like mission impossible, but it happened. So began the first ten-year-long saga of miracles and God’s exceptional guidance.

In 1989, freedom from Communism came to Poland, and DeoLink Association (also referred to as DeoLink) studio work was already established. There was a massive acceleration in many activities, translating many films and programs into Polish, distributing Western music. Additionally, a music label was launched in 1990.
Then, the leadership of DeoLink asked a powerful question. Are we reaching “the unsaved” with audio cassettes? The answer became clear–not effectively. So by 1997, we had broadened our efforts into Contemporary Christian Radio. One antenna was placed in un-famous the city of Oświęcim (Auschwitz) on a chimney of a chemical factory, where in WW II Nazi’s had produced poison gas to kill people in the nearby concentration camp. It became a voice of reconciliation from a place of horror! Also in Gliwice - our antenna was placed on a wooden, historical tower of Gliwice Radio Station, where German provocation had triggered WW II. God’s sense of irony! Over the years, we had established six FM transmitters in the south of Poland. Unfortunately, the reality of Christian radio was challenging. We couldn't seem to win out against the competition with all the new capitalist-style promotions for Polish People: colorful pop culture products, media formats, etc. It was a significant economic struggle to keep the radio alive, and we still questioned the effectiveness of reaching unbelieving audiences for Jesus.

In 2006 we decided to change the radio format into local, neutral programming with evening and Sunday bandwidths containing more Christian programs. This proved remarkably effective at finally reaching the broader audience, including those who do not yet know Jesus. There were twenty-five times more listeners than before. The record best result was 920,000 listeners of “weekly audience”. As a result, the radio became financially self-sustaining.

The next big step forward began with another “divine appointment” as we met the team developing the Jesus.net internet initiative. We agreed to become early adopters and co-creators with this as our first major online endeavor.

In 2008, on the 29th of July, a special day finally came – our internet outreach launched the first “Looking for God'' website. This started a new season for DEOrecordings. It has become evident that the real goal is to see people come to Christ and then lead new converts to the point of maturity and multiplication, becoming disciples of Jesus.

We define discipleship as a prioritized and intentional, social process of becoming more like Jesus—rooted in His Word, and walking in His Spirit— in all areas of life. As we could not find any suitable digital tool on the market, we decided to write our own software package: a Mentoring and Discipling Management System called GELE.

Over time, this essential component of our discipleship efforts transformed our work from simply answering questions via email to utilizing a custom-designed discipleship software created at our very own software house in 2014. It has been continuously improved and developed to our recent version 3.6.7. Our international partners also use it, including Jesus.net and ministries such as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, CRU, ILI, GDI, and many more. GELE is now available in twenty-five languages and serves over 400,000 people. We provide them with technology, service center, hosting, and training.
At the same time, we introduced off-line events that extend our virtual ministry, like JH Outback Poland weekends—family-oriented, evangelistic camps—and History Makers training of youth leaders. We have also become the European hub country for JH Outback - to expand the JH Outback experience around Europe, including seven countries so far.

In 2015 we added significant new partnerships with The Bible Project, CBN (SuperBook series), and the Global Discipleship Network.

The history of DeoLink contains many impossible moments that God made possible. The passion for evangelization that began with just one man in Henryk Krol has grown into an organization and movement including so many partners, all reaching people with the Gospel and discipline them to maturity and fruitfulness.

DeoLink has always been driven by Jesus' call to go and make disciples. From the very beginning, we simply wanted to use the best contemporary methods available, evaluate the results along the way, and keep growing to be more effective in the culture of Poland and beyond. While the tools have constantly been changing along with the political and economic circumstances, God’s fire in the hearts of the leaders and team members has never changed! And so it will be even further, by the Grace of the Lord Jesus.