You could call Ginda an accidental football evangelist.<\/p>\n \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t look at the things that this world tells you to look at,\u201d Ginda, 46, said in an interview in Poland\u2019s capital, Warsaw, this week. \u201cYou will only have those things for a few seconds and then they will go away. You must focus on God and having a good relationship with Him. That lasts forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Ginda, known to friends and sports fans as Darek, is not only a football player but also a Christian musician and the Sabbath School superintendent at the Adventist church near his hometown of Chojn\u00f3w in southwest Poland. The father of two daughters aged 15 and 23, he works full-time as a company driver and coaches and plays for a fifth-league football team, Skora Jadwisin, three days a week.<\/p>\n But he is known across Poland for refusing to play on Sabbath since becoming a professional football player in 1989 at the age of 19.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is a very dedicated Adventist,\u201d said Jaroslaw Dziegielewski, president of the Adventist Church in Poland. \u201cHe could have had a really great career in football.\u201d<\/p>\n He was echoed by Ryszard Jankowski, president of the Adventist Church\u2019s West Polish Conference, whose territory includes Ginda\u2019s hometown.<\/p>\n \u201cDarek is a very nice person, and he has a lovely Christian family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Darek\u2019s Only Saturday Match<\/strong><\/p>\n Ginda, raised by an Adventist mother, remembers being an obedient child. While classmates may have gotten into trouble, he could be found at home doing his homework and in church on Sabbaths. He also spent hours on the football field.<\/p>\n \u201cI could have looked for another career, but I quickly realized that football was my passion,\u201d said Ginda, a soft-spoken man with a kind face.<\/p>\n Ginda\u2019s first contract, with Chojnowianka, a fourth-league team, stipulated that he would not be required to play during the Sabbath hours from sunset Friday through sunset Saturday. Remarkably, the team made the exception for the young striker just a month before Poland\u2019s Communist government collapsed in parliamentary elections in June 1989.<\/p>\n \u201cI was baptized when I was 16, and I knew that I would never break the Sabbath law,\u201d Ginda said. \u201cAt the time I kept the Sabbath because I wanted to be obedient. As my faith matured over the years, my reason for keeping the Sabbath became because I love God.\u201d<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t until two years later that Ginda started to think about football evangelism. It happened in October 1991 when he agreed to play a match on Saturday for the first time.<\/p>\n The Chojnowianka team, in line with its contract with Ginda, usually played on Sundays and rescheduled Saturday matches to another day. But rival teams soon saw that Ginda was a formidable opponent on the field and that his team refused to play on Sabbath because of him. Pressure grew to hold matches on Sabbath, Ginda said.<\/p>\n Chojnowianka played well during the first 45 minutes, scoring a goal. Then halftime arrived. The players sought to stretch the break beyond the customary 15 minutes as they waited for Ginda to arrive. They tied their shoes, checked their shorts, and carefully tied their shoes again, Ginda said. They kept glancing at their watches, waiting for sunset at 5:10 p.m.<\/p>\n Then the Sabbath ended, and Ginda bounded onto the field.<\/p>\n Shortly into the second half, Ginda passed the ball to a teammate for an easy goal. The score stood at 2-0.<\/p>\n A few minutes later, that same teammate passed the ball back to Ginda.<\/p>\n \u201cI scored the most beautiful goal of my entire career,\u201d said Ginda, his mouth widening into a warm smile and laugh wrinkles forming around his eyes as he recalled the moment. \u201cI kicked the ball from 16 meters, and it flew under the centre of the crossbar, directly into the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t the final score that mattered, Ginda said. It was what happened next.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important thing that day was people\u2019s questions when they saw what I believe,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was great to see all those people there asking: \u2018Who is this Darek that we have to wait for him to show up so he can then pass the ball to this guy and score a goal himself? What is the Sabbath? Why does he believe in it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The 400 fans in the stadium had seen the football players anxiously looking at their watches during halftime, Ginda said. Some teammates had even wondered whether he would come.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a big evangelistic event for those who watched me play and for my team members,\u201d Ginda said. \u201cThat was the most important thing that day.\u201d<\/p>\n A Lucrative Offer<\/strong><\/p>\n Two years passed. Football scouts from top-tier team Zag\u0142ebie Lubin approached Ginda, then 23, after a match with the opportunity of a lifetime. They wanted him to try out for the premier league. Ginda said he decided to try out \u201csimply to find out my value as a player.\u201d Of nine players invited to the try-outs, only he and one other received an offer.<\/p>\n \u201cRight after the try-outs, they took me to a table and gave me a pen to sign the contract,\u201d Ginda said.<\/p>\n The base contract was worth $20,000 a month, plus at least another $16,000 in bonuses for goals and won games. The sum, significant by any standard, was especially impressive in 1993 when newly democratic Poland was struggling amid economic upheaval.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a good amount of money,\u201d Ginda said.<\/p>\n Zag\u0142ebie Lubin\u2019s star player, Radoslaw Kaluzny, took a liking to Ginda and urged him to sign.<\/p>\n \u201cDarek, you really need to sign this contract because I really want to play with you,\u201d Kaluzny told him. \u201cYou are such a good person. Come on, sign the contract and we will go for a team camp in Croatia ahead of the next season.\u201d<\/p>\n Ginda said he nearly signed.<\/p>\n \u201cI picked up the pen, but then I looked at the contract, and I didn\u2019t sign it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Startled, the team managers asked what was wrong.<\/p>\n Ginda replied: \u201cI am a Seventh-day Adventist, and I don\u2019t work on Sabbath. When there are matches on Sabbath, I won\u2019t be able to play. I am trying to obey God\u2019s Ten Commandments.\u201d<\/p>\n The team managers expressed regret and said good-bye.<\/p>\n \u201cI decided not to sign because I knew something was more important than money and a career as a football player,\u201d Ginda said. \u201cMaybe all the matches would be on Sabbath, or maybe I would be injured on the field and couldn\u2019t play anymore. There were too many questions and not enough answers. For me, it was best to be faithful to God.\u201d<\/p>\n Surprise Media Coverage<\/strong><\/p>\n He returned to the Chojnowianka team. His salary was small in the fourth league, so he also worked in a dirty factory, making hydraulic pumps. Then in 1998 a prominent Polish sports journalist asked to interview him.The resulting article about how he had turned down the lucrative football contract five years earlier was published in one of the country\u2019s biggest newspapers. The report caused a large splash. Fifteen other newspapers and several television channels picked up the story, interviewing Ginda in his home, at his factory workplace, and in his church.<\/p>\n \u201cI had no idea what God had planned for me,\u201d Ginda said. \u201cThis was an opportunity to talk about the Seventh-day Adventist Church, our beliefs, and the fact that my relationship with God is the most important thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n It was at that point that Ginda realized that he had become a football evangelist.<\/p>\n \u201cI think God\u2019s plan for me was not that I would be successful as a football player but to give those interviews so other people would know about God,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The news reports and television programs about Ginda remain online, and he receives letters from strangers almost daily.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone is contacting me by mail or e-mail all the time to ask about God and why I didn\u2019t do this or that,\u201d Ginda said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity for me to tell my story. So my story has never ended, even though it happened more than 10 years ago. It remains relevant because it concerns the same issues that people have today.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of those who had earlier had called Ginda foolish changed their minds once the media started reporting his story.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen all those articles were published, they began to think that there was something to this,\u201d he said. \u201cEven those who are not in the church write to me, \u2018You did a good thing because you did not say yes to the money and instead focused on the things that you believe in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Ginda\u2019s current team, Skora Jadwisin, never plays on Sabbath, and the players are happy with that arrangement.<\/p>\n \u201cMy players say they want to follow the coach\u2019s lead,\u201d Ginda said. \u201cThey don\u2019t even want to play on Saturday. They know I worship on Sabbath, and they are fine with Sunday games.\u201d<\/p>\n He is not aware of anyone who has been baptized because of his influence. But his team members have regularly asked him about God for years. Several have attended church with him.<\/p>\n \u201cYou never know who will be invited by the Holy Spirit to be baptized,\u201d Ginda said. [ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n Editor’s note: Adventist Review news editor, Andrew McChesney, is currently traveling in Europe with Trans-European Division Communication director Victor Hulbert and reporting on Adventist work in the region. For a list of others stories, follow the links below. Stories first published in Adventist Review.<\/p>\n Prayer and Faith Stop Rain at Pathfinder Camporee in Latvia<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/images_news-2_Adventist-Dariusz-Ginda-1.jpg\" "\\"Polish")
<\/a><\/a>Finally, the day came that a crucial match fell on a Saturday and the team could not make other arrangements. The best it could do was schedule the first half of the game during the Sabbath hours and the second half after sunset. Ginda agreed to show up at the stadium after sunset.<\/p>\n
Stories of Faithfulness as Latvia celebrates 120 years of Adventism<\/a>
Polish Youth gear up for release of Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge film<\/a>
Helping refugees \u2018as important as preaching the Second Coming\u2019<\/a>
I am ready to be a bear in Serbia<\/a>
Adventist lectures are bigger draw than theatre for some in Serbia<\/a>
Adventists, spurned by Serbia’s bookstores, set up shop near Orthodox church<\/a><\/p>\n
\n