The joke I was told in Katowice – a coal mining region of Poland – goes like this: “Why are miners making their tunnels under Catholic churches? – They are looking for a foundation of their faith.” I will definitely use this as an icebreaker next time I teach my “Historic Foundations of Christian Faith” class there. And I need to make that “next time” happen sometime soon – to take advantage of a whole number of invitations from their Christian and secular universities and churches.
It seems our material as well as the whole approach to faith from the point of view of historic evidence is not very common here. Even in the Warsaw seminary, I was the first one to teach it in many ears! It was definitely worth it to “walk an extra mile” (flying from MSP to WAW with a stop in SVO!) to make an extra effort of overcoming the culture barrier (including some Catholic traditional teaching) and to get into some expense (I had to pay for the PowerPoint® presentation translation into Polish)!
I praise the Lord for wonderful friends and ministry partners He was sending my way throughout my travel and stay in Poland! My train is now taking me East, towards the city of Brest on the Belarus side of the border.
Will see you later, Poland!
