To Poland with Love
To Danuta (Dasia) Zipser, God was always important.
Born in Wisła, Poland, on November 19, 1961, Dasia grew up in the nearby village of Harbutowice. Poland was a Communist regime at the time. While believers were often harassed and persecuted, established denominations were allowed to practice their faith openly. Most churches are Catholic, a dominant influence on Polish society. The combined Protestant churches make up less than point-five percent of the population.
Dasia attended an evangelical church, going to Sunday school, reading the Bible, hearing about God from family. But though from childhood she’d been exposed to the basic gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, she does not remember being discipled on how to live the Christian life.
“I remember many times when our Sunday school teacher asked us to pray and to ask Jesus Christ for forgiveness of our sins,” Dasia shares. “Many times I prayed, ‘Dear Lord Jesus, please clean my heart.’ But after this prayer nobody talked to me and taught me what I had to do next.”
Attending college in Opole about 180 kilometers from her home, Dasia visited a local evangelical church, where she was invited to teach Sunday school. That was when she realized she neither knew how to teach children, nor was she even sure Jesus was her Savior.
“I prayed, and asked my Lord: ‘I need you and I want to live for you and serve you.’”
The experience left Dasia with a lifelong conviction of how important it is to disciple children solidly in God’s Word and the Christian life. Dasia began teaching Sunday school, learning along with the children as she studied her Bible and prepared lessons. Returning to her home town after college, Dasia continued working as a volunteer with children and simultaneously attending teacher training courses. She also became a public high school teacher.
Four years later the Soviet empire started to crumble. In 1989, under pressure of the independent labor movement Solidarity, led by electrician Lech Walesa, the Polish Communist regime collapsed. This began a domino effect of peaceful transitions from Communist Party rule in Central and Eastern Europe. In 1990 a free democratic election chose Lech Walesa as Poland’s first post-communist president.
The fall of communism opened doors as well for expanded Christian ministry. In 1990 Dasia became a full-time home missionary with the Polish MED children’s ministry “Misja Evangelizacyjna wśród Dzieci” (English translation: Evangelizaion Mission among Children), later to become “Miłość Edukacja Dojrzałość” (English translation: Love, Education, Maturity). She taught Bible Clubs for children, conducted teacher training courses, did office work, and was involved in youth work, women’s ministries, and seasonal camps. In 1992 Dasia became the director of MED.
Meanwhile across the Atlantic Ocean, John Abramovich was born on February 11, 1956, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. At the age of 10 he moved with his family to New Jersey, where he also grew up attending an evangelical church. He came to Christ as a young teenager—not in one dramatic moment, but simply in the process of realizing that all he knew about Jesus Christ applied to him personally. By the time he finished high school, he knew he wanted to serve God in any way he could.
Graduating from the university with a degree in Mathematics, he got a full-time job as a computer programmer and continued leading volunteer youth and young adult ministries in local churches and para-church organizations in the South Jersey area.
“I had thought about missions or pastoral service,” John elucidates, “but as I grew older and more settled in my current ministries, I gave up these considerations. God had placed me in good and needed local ministries, and I was content to serve out the rest of my days in inner city ministry as a volunteer.”
But God had plans for John beyond New Jersey borders. During the 1980s Dasia and many others in Poland had received training from Child Evangelism Fellowship workers from abroad, most notably Sam Doherty, then CEF European Director. Full-time mission work outside of a church or denomination was still something new in Poland, financial help from the local church scarce. While speaking in the USA, Sam Doherty raised prayer and financial support for the MED ministry.
John Abramovich came across MED director Dasia Zipser’s picture and a description of her ministry on his church’s Missions Bulletin Board. John began financially supporting Dasia and MED. Then a MED newsletter came with an invitation to visit the ministry. In September 1994 John traveled to Poland to see for himself what MED was doing.
When Dasia came to the airport to pick up the ministry’s foreign visitor, she brought a friend to interpret, concerned that her six years of English language studies would not be enough to communicate. However, to her own surprise (and everyone else’s), she found herself able to communicate with John better than her interpreter! Over the next two weeks of showing John around Poland and the MED ministry, Dasia’s English improved with lightning speed.
John found himself very much impressed with the Polish MED ministry workers, their commitment to God, and the opportunities they had to proclaim the gospel, even in public schools. At the end of two weeks John said goodbye to Poland and Dasia, but he promised he’d be back. Sure enough, John returned two months later in November, during which time he was given opportunity to speak at meetings for children and teenagers. By the end of another two weeks John sensed that God was leading him into full-time ministry in Poland—and with Dasia.
John and Dasia were married October 28, 1995, in Dasia’s home church in Skoczow, Poland. The couple then moved to John’s home in New Jersey. But they were already praying about and preparing to serve God together in Poland. Prior to this time God had brought John into contact with Bob Evans, then BCM European Director. BCM had no missionaries in Poland, but the board quickly authorized opening up a new field there affiliated with MED.
In August 1996 John and Dasia Abramovich attended BCM Missionary Candidate School, where they were approved for BCM ministry in Poland. After almost 19 years as a computer programmer, John resigned from his full-time job in May, 1998. A month later, he and Dasia relocated to Poland where they have been ministering ever since with BCM International in partnership with the Polish MED ministry.
‘Miłość Edukacja Dojrzałość focuses on children’s ministry through Bible Clubs, Vacation Bible Clubs, Summer Bible Camps (three for children, one for the mentally handicapped, and a Climbing/English Camp for Teenagers), along with various other youth outreaches. MED conducts meetings in public schools, hosts events for parents and church workers, and prints Christian teaching material. MED has also developed teacher training courses for children’s workers and Sunday school teachers.
“The Communists did not approve of teaching the Christian faith to children,” explain John and Dasia. “In addition, some people think you should not evangelize children because they cannot understand the gospel. MED and BCM do what they can to reach the 10 million children in Poland with a clear presentation of the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
Dasia served as director of MED from 1992-2004, then was reappointed as director in January, 2010. She is involved in their teacher training program and directs Summer Bible Camps for children and the mentally challeneged. She helps with a local Bible Club for children, disciples some of her former Sunday school students, and counsels women. She assists other MED workers in meetings for children, the annual MED Winter Bible Conference for children’s workers and parents, and two yearly workers retreats.
John leads Bible studies for teenagers, teaches in Bible Clubs and summer camps, and conducts English Conversation meetings for students in the community. He teaches God’s Word in four different local churches, a Home Fellowship Bible Study group, and two Community Bible studies.
Some of the churches that we have contact with have no full-time pastor and few trained lay leaders, so whenever possible, John accepts other invitations to preach and teach, including in the nearby Czech Republic. He assists the Polish MED workers to prepare English versions of their correspondence, publications, and newsletters. John also serves as BCM’s Eastern Europe Regional Coordinator.
John and Dasia are only two people, and sometimes the days don’t seem to hold enough hours to accomplish their work. But as John expresses, “We do not have a ‘solo’ ministry but cooperate with many other servants who love the Lord and His people in order to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to unbelievers.”
How can you become a part of God’s team in Poland?
John and Dasia Abramovich summarize: “Pray for us, BCM International, and our Polish MED co-workers. Pray that the people in Poland will open their hearts and lives to the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ, and that God will raise up others in Poland to work with children and young people. Financial support can also be given to this ministry through BCM. If you would like to receive our quarterly newsletter or to find out more about us, please write to us and let us know at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).”
