Kolczyk Kronicals, December 2008
Emmanuel, God with Us
We are so excited about our new grandchild, due in March! God’s Word says to “fill your quiver”. Being past that part of our lives we, as grandparents, are instead filling our arms and hearts with the blessing of little ones who call us “Omi and Opi”. We’re also excited to once again celebrate our Lord’s birth, remembering that only through Him are we saved! Two babies, two births. The one, our grandchild, will be a living, breathing baby that we can see and hold in our arms. The second, the Christ child, was also a living, breathing baby to be held and loved but a baby we have not seen with our own eyes. Yet we hold and love Him in our heart. We have not seen Him but we have and continue to see Him working in our lives and changing us. Praise our Lord – He reigns!
As we grow older, our anticipations of the coming holidays have changed, we’ve somewhat mellowed, loving to hear time and again the wonderful story of our Savior’s birth, about Mary and Joseph, the star in the East, and the Wisemen. Gifts are no longer a priority. Not so with our grandkids! The excitement builds as Christmas Eve gets closer and closer. But, before anyone receives a single gift, we read aloud the Christmas story, and they know the true meaning of the joy and happiness we celebrate. How quiet it is during the reading, even the littlest one knows how special and blessed this night and the following day is. Gifts, the Christmas tree, baked goods and candies are put aside to remember and rejoice.
We had the privilege to minister to many young and older people this year. It is a blessing to see that in some Bible Colleges older folks want to study and learn more about God’s Word. Freshmen entering college and even those already in the second, third or fourth year, or some who finished college years before are often fully wired for ministry but need the training to “take it on the road”. This is what makes all those miles worth driving! God’s people desiring to learn about Him and serve Him. Inviting three mission’s Profs to our family conference this summer was very profitable. They got to know and trust us and now share SEND’s recruitment needs with their students. Martin is also spending more time in their class rooms and at the schools’ mission conferences. Visiting every campus four times a year gives great exposure and it helps to throw a pizza party or haul dessert in for missionary fellowship prayer meetings. If it’s announced ahead of time, participation often more then doubles, and that is great because prayer is needed on all the fields!
Russia passed bad visa requirements forcing us to close the Far East Russian ministries and turn them over to the nationals. However, we’re seeing some three year residence permits come through in Western Russia - yea! In Spain, young people are finding in Christ what they are looking for - and they are growing in numbers. The same is happening in Poland through our coffee house ministry with 80 young people taking part in Bible studies. In the Philippines, we’ve been asked to teach Christian ethics in the public schools! Wouldn’t it be great if we could do that in this country? Youth ministry is also going very well in Japan and Taiwan. New ministries have started in East Asia and they’ve requested many new missionaries. Teaching English is a hot button everywhere. Some are even church based bringing in people who would not even consider getting close to anything Christian! In the coming year, we look forward to the expansion of areas rapidly growing spiritually and adding new missionaries. Even though debt is the biggest hindrance for young people going on the mission field, the Lord is adding to our numbers in amazing ways. It’s great to be in the center of God’s will and see Him pulling all the stops.
We’re so grateful for your ministry to us both in prayer and finances. We can’t wait to get a sound basement under our home and not have to worry about whether or not it’s getting weaker and will collapse. We also look forward to the extra warmth it will create. We’ve been forewarned we’ll have to install a new water line as it will be damaged when they begin to dig. Gas and sewer will be OK; they’re on the other side of the house! It will be an intense two weeks of construction, but Martin will be around as the colleges are on Christmas break! The first week in December, he’s teaching a workshop for student mobilizers at the Southern Baptist training center in Virginia. Many missions are sending their recruiters for continuous education and getting information on how to best minister to the students.
We are also in the planning stage for our May ministry trip to Europe. Spain and Slovenia are looking forward to showing us around and talk about ministries, what it will take in recruitment and adding to their ranks. We’ll also talk about new ways to reach high school and college students. That generation is looking for truth. A ministry that has been very fruitful is HiBa or High School Born Againers where they disciple each other; two grow to four, then eight, sixteen and so on. Numbers grow very fast that way and Japan and Western Russia have used this system successfully. We have implemented HiBa in all of our countries now and make it cross cultural relevant.
Our daughters and their families are doing very well! The grandkids enjoy school and we see them many times a week. Tracy now has her job so structured that she can run most of it from home, using the internet. That will be great once her baby arrives. Both husbands are very busy with their jobs, one with computers and one with airplanes.
Many of you have been in contact with us because of our flooding problem and Judy’s wrist infection. Thank you so much for praying us through these times and helping us financially as well. It’s great to know the Lord’s financial system functions differently then the world’s! We praise Him for His faithfulness and your standing in the gap for us. It makes it so much easier to do our ministry and do all we can to serve our students. We’ve told them how you’ve blessed us and they are also very grateful! Again, as so many times before, we can say we leave part of you with those we minister to. We hope you don’t get tired of hearing this, but we want you to know how grateful we are.
Now from our house to yours, we wish you a blessed Christmas season and New Year, 2009!
Until His Return,
Martin & Judy Kolczyk
SEND International, PO Box 513,
Farmington, MI 48332
