24 November 2016 | St Albans, UK [Victor Hulbert with Michal Rakowski and Robert Csizmadia]
Karolina and Monika, from Krakow, Poland have spent a lot of time this last month at their local cinema. Recently baptised teenage twins, you will find them there, dressed in World-War II look-alike T-shirts similar to the uniform Desmond Doss would have worn. On the back is written, “Desmond Doss saved 75. Jesus saved all. I’m an Adventist like Desmond Doss – ask me more.”
They are not alone. Over 100 Adventist youth in cities across Poland have spent the month of November volunteering at cinemas, on the street, at a book fair and at special screenings of the Desmond Doss documentary film, ‘The Conscientious Objector’ in their local churches.
The result? People are already having Bible studies with pastors after watching Gibson’s film and at least 100 have attended an Adventist Church for the first time.
All this did not happen by accident. Marek Micyk, Youth director for the Adventist Church in Poland, joined with PR consultant Michal Rakowski and a group of youth to formulate a plan that could maximise the witness of the church during the time of the cinema release.
Hope Channel Poland gained permission to voice over and distribute Terry Benedict’s 2004 documentary “The Conscientious Objector”. Screenings were organised in five cities and 1,000 DVD’s were sold.
‘Szeregowiec Doss’, a book about the life of Doss, a printed preparation for the film release, was given as a gift to journalists during the Polish premiere. Another 3,200 copies have been sold since, including at the Krakow International Book Fair visited by 70,000 people. Znaki Czasu hosted a stand there for the first time in their history. Karolina and Monika were among the volunteers, wearing the same original American US military uniforms that Doss would have worn.
“It’s fantastic,” states pastor Marek Rakowski, Executive Secretary of the Adventist Church in Poland. “A strange paradox is that in a country that is one of the most Catholic in Europe, to talk about spirituality and other religions is generally ‘taboo’. This film has broken the taboo and given the church a voice.”
That ‘voice’ has come at higher levels than expected both in Poland and in near-by Hungary. In both countries, the film distributor contacted the Adventist Church asking for help to check the accuracy of the translation.
Not only were they able to help with accurate translation and understanding of theological concepts such as the Sabbath, but the Church in Hungary has been offered a 15 second ‘media partner’ spot before the showing of the film in every cinema in the country, plus an option of an Adventist web address on every poster.
Church leaders will also be present at two special Press and VIP screenings before the Hungarian release date of 29 December. These will both include discussion time where the Adventist representatives will be able to talk about issues of religious freedom and tolerance.
“This is all at their cost,” Csizmadia states, “leaving us free to spend our resources translating and printing the ‘It is Written’ booklet, ‘The Faith of Desmond Doss’, Dos’s biography, the UK produced FOCUS magazine, and to prepare programmes that will run in local churches including showing Benedict’s 2004 documentary, and running violence prevention day and associated programmes.
The same is true in Poland where Hacksaw Ridge is already on release. “In my entire life as a Seventh-day Adventist I have never seen our church gain such good media coverage,” says Marek Rakowski, the Secretary of the Adventist Church in Poland.
During a special pre-screening in Poland designed just for press, YouTubers and other influencers, Adventist spokesman, Pastor Andrzej Siciński, joined two other specialists (a retired elite counter-terrorism unit commander and a Catholic priest), who reflected on the film during a discussion panel.
Working in PR, Michal Rakowski is impressed. “If the Church had paid for an advertising campaign of this kind of extent, using the same media, we estimate it would cost 180,700 Euros! That is a price that is totally unaffordable for Adventists in Poland where there are just 5,820 members in a population of 38.5 million.” Rakowski concludes, “This was pretty spectacular – especially the amount and the fact that we did it for free!”
For Micyk, an active presence on the Internet was a key factor to success. His team translated the Polish Doss Wikipedia page. It was viewed 33,000 times in November, the third highest Wikipedia result globally – just after English and French. They designed a Church-owned website, www.DesmondDoss.pl. It was viewed 35,000 times by 8,500 users. Micyk is most proud of the Desmond Doss PL Facebook fan-page where the most popular infographic was seen by 209,000 users, others by 140 and 120 thousand, he says. Many Polish Adventist youth changed their Facebook cover pictures for film poster images and a sentence “I’m an Adventist like Desmond Doss.”
“The movie was great, but above all, we admire Doss’s moral rigidity. We are proud to be Adventists”, the twins admit.
Poland has done it. For Hungary the deadline looms. “We are actually a bit overtaken by this opportunity,” Csizmadia says. “It is now giving us much more work than we expected, but it is worth it. We are genuinely surprised by God!” [tedNEWS]
Hope Channel Poland’s Desmond Doss book and documentary film promotion
tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, director; Esti Pujic, editor
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