Refugee Begins Ukrainian Awana Club in Poland

More than 1 million Ukrainians are currently living in Poland as refugees. One of these refugees is an  Awana leader from Ukraine named Bogdan. He and his family have settled in the Polish city of Łódź, where he established an Awana club. He sent us this report:  

April 28, 2023

Greetings Brothers and Sisters,

I want to tell you a little about the birth of the Awana club in the city of Łódź, Poland. When Ukraine was invaded in February 2022, my family, seven children and my wife, moved to Łódź. We found a Polish church to attend, but we were surprised that there were very few children at the church. Since we served in Awana in Ukraine, I immediately offered to help with children’s ministry. The pastor of the church was not familiar with Awana, so we had to wait a year to start the program. Also, we needed time to adjust to living in a new country.

My children kept saying, “Dad, it was cool in Ukraine, because Awana was there. It would be really cool if we had it here!” We needed a program for our children and their friends, so I asked the brothers in Ukraine to bring us Awana equipment. We had started some children and youth ministry at the church, but we needed Awana to share the Gospel with more children in the city! I suggested this to parents in the church, and we began to pray for a place for children and youth to meet.

God blessed us with a sports hall at the school, so we began holding the first Awana meetings — training leaders and serving children! We were doing everything by ourselves, but we didn’t have a lot of money; so we reached out to Awana Ukraine, and they provided us with support. Thank you to the Awana team from Ukraine who supported us with prayer and the necessary materials for the Gospel to be spread effectively to all the people here in Łódź.

We are running our club in Ukrainian, but we’ve also invited Poles to join our team in order to train them so they can run Awana with their own children too. This ministry is so important for Ukrainian refugee children since their fathers are in Ukraine and their mothers are forced to work. These children are growing up by themselves, and that is why there is a great need for someone to spend time with them and tell them the Gospel.

After the first club meeting, I was even more inspired to do Awana because I saw my son Samuel explaining to other children and leaders how to use the handbooks. In Ukraine, he was very shy and never volunteered to serve. Here in Poland there is a need, so he is involved! He learned while going to Awana in Ukraine, and now it is his time to share the Gospel of grace with others! I thank God that this fruit is visible in my son’s life over time.

I believe that many more children will believe in Christ through this ministry and become super leaders! I saw that our other children were not interested in church until they came to Awana. My youngest son (age six) did not really like to learn Bible verses, but after starting in Łódź, he follows all of us around the house with his handbook and says, “Help me learn a verse in Awana!” In this short period of time, up to 40 children are coming to our club. And then we plan to open new clubs all over Poland with God’s help.

Please join us in praying for this club and others we hope to start in Poland!

To read previous Ukraine updates, go to the Ukraine updates category at awana.org/blog. If you would like to provide financial assistance to the work our teams our doing, please click the donate button, below. To learn how your financial gift will be used, go to awana.org/ukraine.

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