New family member

Posted entries: from the most recent to the oldest. 

God's gift! New family member!

At the beginning of the year, Ivy became pregnant again. This time we are expecting a baby girl. We have already chosen a name for her, Aniela – she is due around October 15th, and we are eagerly awaiting her arrival!

Mission in Olkusz

It has already been two and a half years since I first went to Olkusz (a city about 30 miles away from Kraków). In these two and a half years, a lot has changed. From music rehearsals, to meetings at home, in a café, and finally gatherings in the city cultural center.

Here’s a short story of how it all started and where we are today.

Sometime at the end of 2022, inspired by a conversation with a friend from the community, I began traveling to Olkusz to start up a band that would play Christian music. That’s when I met the drummer, Mr. Stanisław, the pianist, Mr. Zbigniew, and the guitarist, Mr. Krzysztof. After two and a half years of rehearsals, we are doing quite well playing together.

In the meantime, Piotr Drząszcz, to whom God strongly placed the city of Olkusz in his heart, founded the Kefas foundation to promote Christian values there. The foundation also records short videos with a friend about the Bible, which they publish on Facebook. In addition, every Thursday Piotr organizes men’s meetings in a café, which I was also able to attend for some time. Over the past year, a group of converted people have also gathered, who decided to move their Sunday gatherings out of their homes.

In January 2025, the first public meeting took place in Olkusz. It’s amazing how God is moving there and how people’s hearts are opening not only to listen but also to follow Christ. At the end of September this year, we planned a worship concert in Olkusz, which would mark the end of my involvement in the music project. I want, as much as possible, to invest my time in preaching the gospel to men, investing in leaders, and helping with Sunday gatherings.

On the last Sunday of September, the concert finally took place. Quite a few people came, many of whom I had never seen before. Every seat in that modest hall was filled. During the concert, in the breaks between songs, I spoke about God’s creation, man’s fall, and how God carefully planned to save us through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ.

After the concert, we were all very happy, and many people also thanked us for our performance.

A photo from the concert with our team of musicians and vocalists, and in the middle at the back, Piotr, thanks to whom this concert could take place at all.

Meetings with Jehan

Project podcast

For some time now, Tomek (He is also a pastor in our church) and I have been feeling a sense of insufficiency in our outreach at the student campus. We were wondering how to reach a larger number of students. Actually, both of us came up with the same idea at about the same time—to move our conversations online.

Many of the students we passed on campus were busy watching something on their phones or listening to music or podcasts through their headphones. We concluded that going out onto the campus allows us to be physically closer to the students, but quite a large number of them spend most of their time online. Therefore, we also plan to take up that space.

It took us exactly two years to prepare—including setting up a studio and getting recording equipment. Soon, we will be publishing our first conversations.

Preparations of  preachers

Our Krakow community is also growing. Since Tomek and I are the main preachers and are also involved in other initiatives, we want to open the pulpit to those who feel God is calling them to it. I spent the summer months preparing the plan and program for such a course. I had tremendous help from people who had previously gone through this training, as well as from my own materials from Every Nation School of Ministry.

Currently, four people are being trained, and by mid-October, they should finish writing their first sermons. The next step will be delivering them on a Sunday.

Leading this course teaches me a lot of humility and shows me how much I still have to learn. I don’t feel like an expert in this area yet. Rather, I feel like someone a few steps ahead in the context of passing on His truths to others. This first edition of the training also shows me how I can improve it, and we already have three more people ready to train in the next semester!

Evangelism training in my home town

Songwriters gathering 

In July, a five-day nationwide gathering of songwriters took place. This camp was special because graduates of the New Psalm Study program, who completed it this year, joined us. Now, the group of songwriters is not just about 40 people from all over Poland, but over 80 people and among them artists, worship leaders, and musicians!

I encourage you to read more about the songwriters on this page :)

April - Valley of Sorrow & recording with songwriters

As part of the "Songwriters" initiative, I met and became friends with Pastor Mark Medley, whose personal story of grieving the sudden loss of his wife touched everyone who knows him even a little. Mark wrote a book about it, Walking Through Grief: Finding Hope and Healing in the Psalms of Lament, which was published this year (2025) in Polish translation as Dolina Smutku (“Valley of Sorrow”). I invited Mark to come to Krakow to share his story and to encourage everyone going through grief.

In the same month, I had the privilege of recording two songs together with the "Songwriters," which I co-created. You can find them here.

Every Nation conference in Prague

In March, the Every Nation European Conference took place in Prague—Every Nation is the global family of churches to which our Krakow community belongs. It was a time of training, inspiration, and also conversations with many friends who, like me, serve God full-time in other European countries. It was also the first time our whole family could attend such an event. Ivy and I had to plan who would take care of Julian during which sessions so that we could get the most out of the conference.

During the evangelism workshops, I was also able to share a brief testimony about how TeoTest works in Krakow and share stories of how God has been touching students through this survey.

My parents' house

God hears our prayers, even for a new car

Since our family will soon welcome a new member, Ivy and I talked about needing a bigger car. The Suzuki we were using belonged to my grandfather, who simply gave it to us for our needs. After a few months of searching and trying to sell the Suzuki, God opened the heavens for us.

I remember one day we were driving, packed to the roof, and I saw a bigger car on the highway. I felt a pang in my heart and thought, “It would be so nice to have a bigger car,” and I immediately stopped. I prayed to God something like this: “God, I don’t want to feel this way because of material things. You are the provider. If You think we need a bigger car, You will provide it for us.”

That same day, we went to my nephew’s baptism. My dad came up to me and asked, “Mateusz, don’t you want to buy my Volvo?” (This Volvo is about twice the size of the Suzuki.)

My dad sold us his car for about 50% of its market value, and on top of that, my grandfather put 100% of the money from selling the Suzuki toward buying the Volvo. To this day, every time I get into this bigger car, I thank God for this provision. The new car is very safe, and it brings me immense joy that my wife feels comfortable in it, even in the late stages of her pregnancy.