I was hungry, and you fed me…

As summer slowly is fading into autumn it’s time for another news update from the Nations Calling work here in Poland. The summer months has been great for us as a family, and this year we were also able to spend more time in Norway than we usually do.

But now things are getting back to the normal routine. The intentional church has started up again and Bible school is starting in a few weeks. Thanks to our cooperation with the Hosanna church, we have had Sunday services all through the summer and the Street Church has also partly been in activity the latest months. 

Kasia has started work again, Sebastian is a proud first grader and I think even Kamilla, deep inside, is happy to be back at school again.
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THE BIBLESCHOOL
As I just mentioned the Bible school is starting up again in a few weeks, but the second year has already had some evangelism weekends. 

Here the second year team, and some local people from Lublin are having a street meeting in Lublin sentrum.

​We were encouraged to see that several of last year’s students wanted to join the second year. Our idea is that it will be much more practical, visiting churches and arranging evangelisms.

​Since having a second year also means more work, we have arranged it so that me and Kasia, together with Damian and Justyna will be responsible for the first year. Michał and Robert will take the main responsibility for the second year even though all of us, in different ways, will be involved where it is needed.

STREET CHURCH
Some weeks ago I was preaching at the food distribution that Street Church does once a month in the centre of town. After having preached, I was looking at the people getting food and got really touched to see the gratitude many of them showed. 

PICTURE ON TOP: Here you can see the queue of people coming to get food. BOTTOM RIGHT: Kasia's mom and Tomek praying for one young man who came for more than just the food. Later I got a very good talk with this man.

​Even though we often help at the food distribution I got especially touched last time and was reminded of the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 25.

For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. (Verse 35).

Those of you are familiar with the story, know that Jesus here is dividing nations into sheep and goats. The sheep were surprised, because they were not aware that they had been feeding Jesus. They had been feeding a lot of people, but probably thought they would have known if suddenly Jesus was standing in the food line.

The goats were equally surprised. Even though feeding the hungry was not really “their calling”, they would of course not have denied Jesus some food, if He was knocking on their door.

​The big revelation came to both of them in a few simple words uttered by Jesus Himself. First to the sheep, who were in the hobbit of helping wherever they saw a need. And then to the goats, who probably thought that feeding the poor was a “sheep thing”. 

‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ (Verse 40).

‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’ (Verse 45).

Even though I had read these verses many times, they suddenly became more alive to me than before. As I was carrying boxes with food, to make sure everything was being distributed, I suddenly realised — this is really biblical.

Street Church also has Friday meetings, where the emphasis is more on worship and simple Bible teaching (even though food is also being distributed). Some might say that people are coming only for the food, but I don’t think that is true. During the worship you can clearly see people engaged and every time I preach there I also feel the word is being received. Now on the 27th of September Kasia is going to be there, sharing her testimony of turning from Hare Krishna to Christ.

NEW SEASON IN THE POLISH CHURCH
In our Polish church it is also a new season. During the summer months we have cooperated with the Hosanna Church when it comes to the Sunday meetings, and this has been a very positive experience. So when the summer months ended we decided to extend the cooperation.

We have not joined the two churches, but we have decided to extend the Sunday meeting cooperation until 2020. We will not rule out the possibility of joining the two churches in the future, but for now it’s only the Sunday meetings.

This also gives me more flexibility when it comes to teaching at the Bible school and ministering in other places. 

WHAT’S AHEAD?
During this second half of the year our schedule will be more packed than before, with both the Bible school, the Polish church, and the International Church — and on top of that we will also be helping with the Street Church as much as we can.

There are also some trips coming up, but I will be sharing more about that later.

God Bless
…and live with passion for Jesus!
— Kasia & Ronald Gabrielsen