5 October 2013 Warsaw, Poland Micha? Rakowski and Zofia W?odarczyk] From 21-24 July 2013, a group of 30 people went on a canoeing mission trip on the Nida River in Poland. The group, which was comprised of adults, young people and children, stopped in small villages and towns to distribute Adventist books and magazines.
The Nida canoe trip in the Swietokrzyskie region was the sixth event of this kind. Each trip had a mission goal and this year’s goal was to distribute 2,500 copies of ‘ESCAPE’ magazine.
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“Great respect and thanks to the youth! Their involvement was so inspiring,” said one of the organisers, Marek Kroczyk. In fact, about 15 young people went out and distributed material donated by the Polish Union Conference, which included about 60 copies of The Great Controversy as well as other books and DVDs.
The involvement of the youngest participants was particularly emphasized by Pastor Piotr Stachurski, the organiser of all six canoeing mission trips: “On the first day there was nobody who wanted to stay with the equipment – everybody wanted to ‘do mission’ from door to door. It is so wonderful that our children are showing so much interest in doing evangelism!” For the majority of these young people it was their first time experiencing these activities. One of the youngest participants said, “It’s cool! We are having a real, but safe, adventure. It’s cool we could hand in so many copies of ‘Escape’. It’s cool to realise, thanks to this canoeing trip, that we live for a purpose…”
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Every morning, after a devotional and breakfast, the canoes would start their day’s journey of over a dozen kilometres. One has to say that the countryside along the Nida River is exceptionally beautiful. From time to time, the group stopped to visit nearby villages. Participants of the canoeing trip were impressed by the openness of the inhabitants in this area; people so often expressed a will to pray together!
One particular man kept crossing the path of the canoers. At first he came across the group at the most dangerous section of the river, where he was given some brochures. Then he rode on his bike to see the group again and wave to them from nearby bridge. The next day, one of the participants knocked on a door, and there he was, again. With enthusiasm, this gentleman said, “Sir, last night I read everything I got from you, and I want to stay in touch with you and discuss a few things.”
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On another occasion, a group of young people were sitting at the entrance of a small village shop when the missionaries stopped by to sell the books. The young people found a book they desperately wanted to buy, but between them they only had 27 pennies. The missionaries decided to ‘sell’ the book anyway! A few moments later, the young people were completely engrossed in the book, one of them reading aloud and the other listening intently.
“Such a canoeing trip is a great time for both recreation and mission. We really experienced God’s guidance,” admitted Stachurski. As there has been such a great interest in this kind of holiday this year, two canoeing mission trips are being for 2014. [tedNEWS]
tedNEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
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