I remember him well.
He sat close to the front and had a lot of questions…
His name Artur Kalicki, and he was a part of our Leading Stewards Course in Poland. The goal of Leading Stewards is to raise up local leaders who can become the speakers, authors, trainers and writers for their culture on the subject of stewardship.
It looks like it’s working.
A couple days ago I received an email from Artur. As it turns out he was invited to speak on one of the local TV stations in Krakow, Poland-reaching thousands upon thousands with God’s truth about money. How cool is it to know that people all over the world are influencing those around them, helping to turn the tide from consumerism to contributorism in their nations.
I’m praying for you, Artur. Keep changing your world.
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17 years ago, this nation began the transition from Communism to Capitalism. I’m reminded of the words of my old Economics professor, Dr. Pangrasic (who grew up under Communism), “The wrong economic system kills people!” When the old red guard was finally defeated, very few of the people had ever experienced personal financial responsibility. They went headfirst into Capitalism.
As you can imagine, the pendulum swung the complete opposite direction, with people serving money and assuming this was the solution to all their past problems.
Today, Crown Financial Ministries is happy to be playing a key role in the financial education of this nation. We are certainly being welcomed with open arms. Both the Catholic and Protestants here are warmly receiving us (Poland is the most churched nation in the world, with over 95% belonging to the Catholic church).
Our teaching is seen as revolutionary, and even mainstream secular organizations are encouraging their constituents to attend. One of these, the European Academy of Financial Planning even sent two of their employees.
Pray for Zdzichu Miara as he leads the work here.
Am sitting in the Leading Stewards Course that Andy and I are leading here in Warsaw. Trying to type instead of sleep…
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Just finished our third night in Poland…this five hour time difference is killing me! This is typical of international travel, but it’s something I haven’t quite gotten use to yet. Two nights ago I slept from 11pm-1am and from 6-10:30am. Last night I slept from 10-1am and 5-6:30. Ouch.
We had to be up early this morning to take the 40 minute metro/walking combo that got us to the place we are holding our training.
Thinking about taking a sleeping pill tonight. I still have some strong ones left from my trip to Turkey…
Just met several of the leaders Andy and I will be training over the next three days. These people are sharp. Many of them have dedicated their lives and their careers to training people about money.
It’s easy for me to get intimidated amongst such leaders. Not only have I studied less about finances and financial systems then many of them, I am also largely unaware of their cultural nuances about finances.
What’s amazing to me, is that while many of these people are passionate about God and passionate about money, this is largely the first time they have decided to connect the two. This is a good reminder of how important it is to mobilize people for God’s work.
How we have to trust others.
Andy and I can’t train the masses of people here with our languages, cultures and customs. If it were up to us we would fail miserably.
These local leaders are the hope, perhaps the only hope, for the people of Poland. It has to be them. There is simply no other way. And so may the Lord make these next three days about passing the torch. May the Holy Spirit convince a few of these 36 leaders to not …
