Post From Poland

Arrived yesterday (though my luggage didn’t) and got to spend some time in Warsaw before heading to the town where the conferences are that I’m speaking at.

Today we went to Aushwitz and then to Krackow.

Aushwitz was a Nazi concentration camp, where over 1.1 million people were killed. It was unbelievably disturbing to walk through the around the camp, through the barracks, and in the gas chamber. So many of the stories our guide told us were revolting. And not just the stories of the torture that happened there. For instance, there was a Nazi official who lived right next door to the concentration camps with his wife and four kids. Later he was transferred to England. His wife, however, would not go with him. Why? Because she would have people get her things that had been confiscated from incoming Jews every day. She had a constant source of new furniture, clothes, bottles of wine. She called it, “Paradise on Earth.” Isn’t it unbelievable that someone could live in Hell … and think it’s paradise?

Krackow was one of the very few towns that wasn’t destroyed in World War II, so it didn’t need to be rebuilt, and therefore still has many of the very old buildings still standing. It’s a totally charming small European city. While we were there, the goalie for Real Madrid (who happens to be Polish) walked right past us.

Tomorrow the first of the two conferences I’m speaking at starts. I’ll be preaching 10 times in the next four days. Two times on Sunday and Monday to teenagers, and then three times a day Tuesday and Wednesday to Polish pastors. Want to hear some sad stats? In the entire nation of Poland (which has about 40 million people) there are only about 500 (non-Catholic) churches. In the entire country, only about 40,000 people attend (non-Catholic) churches. In America, we have one church that has 40,000 people attending it…

– featured on newchurches.com