With the help of teens and adults from my home church in Lublin, Pojednanie Christian Fellowship, I recently had the opportunity to hold a 5-Day Club (Bible club for children) in the area near my apartment. When I invited the children from my neighborhood, they seemed very excited to come. Later, however, their parents forbid them from attending, since the club was not associated with the Roman Catholic Church (it actually was associated with Child Evangelism Fellowship, which isn't a church at all). So the first day we had one little girl, the daughter of some born-again friends of mine. Bad weather forced us to shorten the meeting. The next day, several children from my neighborhood were spotted sneaking around the building, hiding behind trees, and eventually they came out and sat on some nearby steps, observing what was going on. how cold it be that a group of adults and teenagers (and one very little girl) were having so much fun playing games, singing songs, and listening to Bible lessons? They weren't on the steps long, though. One by one, their parents came and took them away. Nevertheless, they had heard a bit of the Gospel message when I was teaching the song. By the end of the week, though, one of the girls from my neighborhood was given permission to come, and a few other children and even adults were sitting on their balconies and observing. On Friday we had another visitor. An older man from the area, who is either always drunk, or has had so much alcohol in the past that it has badly damaged his mind, came by and wanted to participate. There were enough adults there, and he was "well-behaved", so he wasn't a danger to anyone. I was nervous about it, but in the end it was actually a lot like having another child there. By the end he was even able to recite the Bible verse from memory.
While we can't see the results of our efforts right now, we pray that God's Word will continue to work in the hearts of the people who heard it. Already several girls from my neighborhood have asked when the next club will be, so I am thinking of possibly starting something slightly less-threatening to parents, maybe an English Club, with the understanding that I would use Christian songs and the Bible. To parents here, anything not associated with their church is perceived as a cult--and of course you wouldn't send your children to something like that! So please pray that God would break down those barriers and allow the children, and their parents, to hear what the Bible says about Jesus!