CEE Story From The Mission Field
Coffee Anyone?
September 9, 2002
How do you reach young people for Christ in a country where everyone thinks he is a Christian, Mary is worshipped as the Queen of Heaven, the Pope is a native son, and Baptists are suspiciously viewed as a sect? IMB missionaries in Poland envisioned a place where college students can gather with their friends, listen to music, drink coffee, hear testimonies from people just like them, and ask questions.
They would call it a coffee house and pray that students would come. And they are coming! They say that what impresses them most is the joy and love that is apparent in the music, conversation and atmosphere. Recently a BSU team from Virginia Tech came to help in the coffee house in Kielce and they were thrilled to see God work in their midst.
The missionaries in Poland and the VT team began each day by prayer walking different areas of the city. Throughout the world, IMB missionaries have prioritized prayer walking as part of any evangelism effort. In CEE, this focus serves to tear down Satanic strongholds built up under the atheistic Communist regime.
ISC Missionary Rhonda Fleming commented on the times of prayer, "Throughout the week we could feel a difference as God moved in the city."
One result of God moving was the number of people that showed up at a concert given at a local university campus. A Polish student gave his testimony there and everyone listened with rapt attention. Another evidence of God's moving was a breakthrough with a girl named Dorota. She spent a lot of time with the team during their weeklong stay and was curious and bewildered that they were so "happy." This curiosity led her to begin reading the Bible for the first time. Although she was initially afraid that Baptists were a cult, and although the Catholic culture encourages total reliance on the church for Scripture's interpretation, Dorota agreed to begin a study of the book of John in order to find the truth for herself.
Another fascinating movement of God is that one of the volunteers from UT was convinced during the week that he needed to baptized -- in Poland. This provided for a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel with many Polish students. His BSU leader baptized him after English club one afternoon and many of the students stayed to watch and learn. In a culture where each child is baptized as a baby and where making a personal decision for Christ is unheard of, the baptism and what it signified made a huge impression.
There are twelve IMB workers involved in the coffee house ministries in Poland. In Czestochowa, Poland the coffee house is called "The well," and also serves as a church building on Sunday mornings. They are open every day during the summer and on weekend throughout the rest of the year. They sell drinks and every Friday night they have live music.
In Kielce, the coffee house meets at the local church building twice a month. In addition to mingling and engaging students in conversation, the workers also hold English clubs. All of these activities are ways to open doors so that the gospel will be received. The IMB teams in these two cities have joined together with other Great Commission Christian workers and local Polish believers to make the coffee house ministry a success.