It is only in God’s timing and in His way that one comes to a personal saving faith in Christ. Parents can do everything possible to teach a child the way to go, but God alone softens and calls a heart to Himself. Sometimes our children end up on different paths than the ones we have planned for them, but we can trust that God is still leading. He uses people, circumstances, and like in the story below, even scary sounds that make the darkness feel darker. When He changes a heart though, it is for good. As people move into the light, their desire changes from serving self to serving others. Please pray for Mateusz and his family as God continues to lead them into the future.
“My name is Mateusz and I’m 22 years old. I was born into a Christian family. My parents are first-generation believers, which makes me, as a second-generation believer, part of a rather small group of people in our country.
My parents wanted to take care of my spiritual growth as a child, so they would send me to different
camps and vacation Bible schools. However, I didn’t find anything meaningful there apart from friendships and fun. At some point, I decided to give up on “Christian camps” and became a scout instead. I felt good there, but spiritually I was dead. I had no personal relationship with God, and I thought that when I got older, “closer to death,” then it would be the right time to think about God.
But I was wrong. When I was 15, I went on a scout camp deep in the wilderness of the mountains. There, God reminded me of Himself. The camp was great, but our leaders were worried. On the third night, wolves came near our tents and dragged out a girl’s backpack, searching for a sandwich. The backpack was torn to pieces. What made things worse was that, before we had arrived, the campsite had been the den of bears. We were even shown a video of a brown bear sharpening its claws on a tree. All this was revealed to us—the oldest group—“as a secret.”
Around the seventh day came my turn for the “night watch.” A scout on duty is responsible for keeping the camp safe, listening to the forest, and checking that everything is in order. In the middle of my watch, I began to hear noises and movements, but I couldn’t see what was sneaking around, how big it was, or whether it might eat me. Filled with fear for my life, I began to pray: “God, if I die, I want to be with You. Forgive me for my sins. If I live, I will live for You.” In the end, nothing bad happened, but that prayer became real in my life. It was the first step toward building a relationship with God.
The second step came later that same year, when I “accidentally” ended up at a Christian sports camp called The Winners. During one of the sermons, after years of hearing the Gospel, it finally reached my heart. I had heard it thousands of times before, but this time it pierced me to the core. The preacher used Romans 3:21–24, and I heard that in Christ all our sins are forgiven and that we are given a new righteousness. I believed it, and I began to live by it.
And that’s how it has been to this day. God is using me in my local church for preaching and in building up young adults. By God’s grace I graduated from our Baptist Seminary, by God’s grace I found a wife with a heart similar to mine, and by God’s grace we are expecting a child.
I desire to serve the Lord as a pastor—in His service and for His glory. Please pray for me, my wife, our child and future that God has for us.”
Slavic Gospel Association is a faithful partner of The Bolick Foundation