August 12, 2002

Winnsboro church sponsors reverse
missions trip to aid Polish Baptists
___By Orville Scott
___Texas Baptist Communications
___WINNSBORO--Long a missions-sending congregation, First Baptist Church of Winnsboro has opened a new dimension in missions by bringing the mission field to its front door.
___For the second year, the 1,000-member East Texas church has hosted six Baptist Christians from a new church in

JOLA GENOWEFA WODZINKSKA of Poland discovers the joy of East Texas watermelon in Winnsboro.

Czestochowa, Poland, in a three-week discipleship training program.
___"It cost the same--$7,500 total--to bring them here as it would to send the same number of partnership missions volunteers to Poland," said Jim Barrett, Missions Service Corps coordinator for the Baptist General Convention of Texas in Northeast Texas.
___"Members of our church have served as missions volunteers in Poland, but there are some major advantages in bringing the Polish Baptists here for discipleship training," he explained. "Besides better equipping them to be on mission with God in Poland, they've had an impact on First Baptist Church by bringing the foreign mission field right into our own community.
___"Church members opened up their homes and hearts to our guests from Poland and gained a new worldview and appreciation for what it means to be a Christian in another country," he said.
___Inspired by what they have witnessed in their missions projects, First Baptist Church voted this year to increase gifts through the Texas Baptist Cooperative Program to 13 percent of the church budget and contributed more than $46,000 for the annual special offerings for Texas, home and foreign missions.
___Jim and Patti Barrett first went to Poland with a partnership missions team from First Baptist Church in 1998 to teach English for two weeks. He is a retired executive with Southland Corp., and she is a retired public school administrator.
___The Barretts were so touched by the missions needs and opportunities they found in Poland, where there are 5,000 Baptists among 40 million people, that they returned to Czestochowa to serve for more than two years.
___Supporting themselves as professors of English at a university in Czestochowa, they started a weekly Bible study in their apartment that averaged 25. They also started a Sunday School for a new church.
___The Texans served with the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board for a year, coordinating teaching events with short-term volunteers, conducting coffee houses and leading numerous discipleship and evangelism Bible studies.
___The church where they began Sunday School has grown from an average attendance of seven to 29. Six of the members were in this year's discipleship training program at Winnsboro.
___During their Texas visit, the Polish Baptists were encouraged to return home with a renewed commitment to share the gospel with millions of Poles who do not know Jesus Christ as Savior.
___From July 17 to Aug. 5, they participated in training sessions, including "Experiencing God," effective prayer life, sharing their faith with others, determining and using their spiritual gifts and developing ministries in Poland.
___Besides discipleship training, they took part in church activities and visited ministries and sites of interest in the area.
___So many members of First Baptist wanted to serve as hosts for the Poles that the guests were moved to different homes at the midpoint of their stay.
___"I wouldn't miss this opportunity," said Joan Gannaway, who now has been both host and guest. She stayed in the homes of Polish Baptists while serving as a missions volunteer teaching English in Czestochowa.
___"These people truly are committed to Christ," Gannaway said. "We learn from them, and we hope they learn from us."
___Ewa Lucja Strzelczyk, Polish coordinator for this year's discipleship training, said the experience was like "drinking the spirit of Christianity. As a result of this program, I can see in our people the great desire to go and make disciples."
___

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