Poland

     In the last several months I have received a new and growing interest in Poland. As a life long history "nut', I have read four or five books about the country to augment my prior knowledge of its history. The twentieth century history is particularly agonizing. After the third partition of Poland in 1795, the entire country was divided up between the German, Russian, and Austrian empires until 1919 with the conclusion of the first World War, which left the country devastated. Independence and recovery during the next twenty years was brutally halted with the Nazi invasion of 1939. It is estimated that Poland lost 21%, more than one in five of its population during the war years. The city of Warsaw alone suffered more dead than the US & Britain combined. Three million Polish Jews and three million other Poles died in the concentration death camps. The Soviet domination of the next fifty years ravaged the country further. It is a testimony to the mercy of God that the Poles have survived.
   Operation World, probably the best resource for what God is doing in the countries of the world, states that in a population of thirty-eight million, there are only about 95,000 evangelicals, and that the  people following various cults is a far larger number. Finally, one of the features of this blog is that it tells me what countries the readers come from. To date, over the four years that I have posted, people from over fifty countries have logged in. The other day, for the first time, someone from Poland accessed the blog.
   I'm not sure what all this is leading towards. I do know that God is speaking to me about going overseas and making disciples.  May I seek Him diligently and follow Jesus.
     Shortly after I posted this I received an invitation to go to a gathering in Poland in the fall, which, God willing, I hope to attend.