Kolczyk Kronicals, June 2010
Psalm 8:1 - O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
We are back from our vision trip to Europe and are so glad we went. We learned about the work in Poland and Czech Republic and were able to encourage our missionaries. We saw locations first hand where some of our students will be ministering this summer and during the year, visited new church plants, meeting with national pastors and leaders and learning what potential these countries have for future ministry. First, it needs to be said that both countries have less than 2% of evangelical Christians and Czech Republic is known to be the most secular country in all of Europe! Needless to say, we’d like to place many new missionaries in those two countries alone! Teaching English, English summer camps and sports camps seem to be the best and most rewarding ways of evangelism. We also have two locations in Poland where you can get certified in ESL and TESL for around $ 1,200! This is a real find at a great price and this certification is recognized everywhere in the world! It is a very intense four weeks of study but, what makes it so unique, is that you actually teach every day in the afternoon what you’ve spent your morning learning! And, remember, this is done in a non English speaking country! What adds to the certification is that you could get plugged into summer English camps after the schooling or stay a couple of years to be part of our ministry teams. Our prayer is that this will open the doors for more career missionaries!
It was great to sit down with national pastors to talk about their vision on how to reach their people for Christ and how we could help! What came out of these discussions is that all of them are willing to welcome co-workers from the US and interns that come with experiences and schooling they don’t have. When Americans join their team, this brings in people that otherwise would not darken the door of a church or Bible camp. But wanting to speak English to a native American is the draw! So, Martin encourages his students to go back to their ethnic roots to minister. Two of them are going this summer with one staying for a year to test the waters.
We had a great time with Martin’s family visiting over coffees and meals. Martin’s cousin and husband took us to Salzburg and Innsbruck, Austria. Driving through the Alps was a beautiful sight to see. The weather was perfect and the volcano in Iceland did not affect us at all! We saw a lot and sampled many good foods. One note on the volcano – on our flight home, our pilot called our attention to the fact that we were flying over it and we were able to see it huffing and puffing away below us.
Cleaning up his student data base has been a project Martin’s been working on. SEND uses this to keep track of all our students. He has gone through, one by one, well over 1,000 contacts, sending out e-mails, encouraging them, offering ministry ops and just keeping in contact. Some he’s lost track of, they’ve changed e-mail addresses or just moved on in life but, many have replied saying they are now married, finishing seminary or looking for ministry opportunities. It’s refreshing to renew friendships, give council, and encourage them to keep their eyes on the Lord and step out in faith. It’s been very fruitful and an encouragement to us to see them grow and get out of debt.
The two biggest obstacles for young people to get to a mission field are family and debt! We deal with that a lot and try to give council to both parents and students. Often when talking to a student through facebook, parents chime in and we have a three way discussion that changes minds and hearts. But one needs to be very careful what is put onto a social network for everyone to see! We don’t get in-depth in a conversation and set up a more private time to chat.
This summer we are working on the traveling calendar for the upcoming college year and reconnecting with our supporting churches and individuals. Martin is also composing sermons and information to share when invited to mission conferences in the upcoming school year. He also loves to keep up with his students and work out opportunities for them in SEND’s different fields.
The way we can do missions in today’s world is changing! Obtaining visas is getting much tougher in many areas. Some countries that cut ties with Russia in the past are “coming back” and pattern their visa policies after Russia. This means, in some cases, our missionaries can only be in a country for up to six months, have to leave the rest of the year and then re-apply with no guaranties for a new visa. This also means they need two residencies, and every six months, must pack up most of their belongings, take their children to different schools, pay a lot of money for airline tickets and visas to the new country, visas for the country to which they wish to return, and often must learn another language! On top of that is the exchange rate between the US and those countries and, if you are dealing with the Euro, that has been very tough as it has been falling because of the Greece, Spain and Portugal fiasco and their insolvency. We even see that in our own stock markets. This shows you just how “small” the world is, and not only financially. News can be seen worldwide within seconds - live! So you are making changes on how to do “business” in some countries in order to stay and do ministry long term. Unless we change with the world, sooner or later we’ll be dead in the water! But our biblical stands do not change! We are incorporating nationals much more and seek missionaries from other countries then the US to join us and our ministry teams are becoming much more international now! That is working very well and we are working hard to add more new missionaries from outside the US.
We want to thank you for your ongoing ministry to us. We know that some of you are giving very sacrificially and want you to know that we appreciate your ministry to us! We also value the partnership of our 19 supporting churches that have been on our team for many years. We will attempt to visit more often to discover how SEND can minister to you with opportunities and projects you can get involved with. This has been a very fruitful partnership and we pray it will go on for many more years. So we want to make sure you all will know that we are not slowing down in any way! Lord willing we will keep going until the Lord pulls the plug, calls us home or brings this age to an end! We committed ourselves to Him in 1986 to serve Him unconditionally and that commitment has not changed!
If you have access to the internet, we would invite you to see SEND’s website at www.send.org . It will give you much information about our countries, our recruitment needs, meeting our missionaries, many stories of salvation experiences and so much more. It has a daily prayer calendar and you can also give financial gifts through this website. We encourage you to use direct drafts if you are giving regularly to save on postage and check printing. It is a safe way to do so. You may also use your credit card.
We value your partnership more then you can imagine! It has been such a blessing to us to have you on our team! We are partners in the Gospel of Christ, making a difference for eternity, something that will last forever! We get goosebumps just thinking about it! What on earth will last forever? Nothing! The only thing that will last forever is God’s word and the souls of men! And that is what we are engaged in. It’s a battle, a battle using the word of God to save souls for eternity! And, can you believe it? He called you and us and made us a team!
Martin & Judy Kolczyk
Our contact information:
Martin & Judy Kolczyk, 695 West Washington Street, Marengo, IA 52301
Martin’s cell: 319-551-6332
Our webpage: www.kolczyk.org
E-mail: sendmidwest@send.org
Our blog: http://sendmidwest.blogspot.com/
Please send your support to: SEND International, P.O. Box 513 Farmington, MI 48332
Attn: support for Martin & Judy Kolczyk
