2009 Conferences, Lectures, Workshops

EST hosted a mission study tour during the first week of September. There were fifteen men and women from five churches in the US who attended lectures presented by EST faculty and staff. The lectures included: EST’s past, present and future; personal testimony from Marek Kucharski, the Chancellor; two sessions on Dietrich Bonhoeffer; a missionary perspective on Poland and ministry; and Polish history (German occupation, communist rule and current situation). There were also tours that included: sites in Wroclaw, one of the Churches of Peace (built in the mid-1600’s after the 30 Years War), castles, and Auschwitz/Krakow. Also, the group spent time helping a local church with cleaning and painting projects.

Below are comments from two of the participants:

“My experience in Poland has made an indelible impression on me. I felt as if I lived a history lesson from one of the most important areas of our world.  I am so impressed with the transformation the people have brought the country through in the past 20 odd years. I enjoyed meeting everyone associated with EST.” 

“Each day of this adventure was so unique and amazing … the week felt like a worship service in many ways with praise, confession, learning, and fellowship. The trip may be over, but the journey with our new family in Poland is just beginning.”

EST cooperated with other Protestant/evangelical churches in Wroclaw to organize this event. More than 300 people participated in three days of meetings, music, film and discussions. People came to EST from various churches, universities/colleges as well as representatives of the local government. It was wonderful to see people we met during the Festival of Protestant Culture in May 2009. The lectures, including one on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, were very interesting.

A meeting was organized at EST with the topic “Christianity and Suffering”. There was also a concert by the youth choir “Angelus”, and we collected money for a children’s hospice in Wroclaw. The whole day went amazingly well.

On the second day, there was an ecumenical worship service at the Lutheran Church. The sermon was deep and thoughtful, the music was great, and the choir was marvelous and again, more about the hospice… it was difficult not to cry hearing about the ministry to sick children.

For the last day of the event, the movie Amazing Grace was shown at EST. Dr. Piotr Lorek (Academic Dean at EST) was the master of ceremonies and the pastor of a Baptist Church gave an introduction. At the conclusion of the film there was a panel discussion on the topic, “Christianity and contemporary slavery”.