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It’s official! In her July 2006 newsletter, Colonel Vibeke Krommenhoek, Project Warsaw team leader, announced that Poland has been added to the register of churches in Poland, and requests further prayer for practical concerns and for outreach ministry.
Here are excerpts from her newsletter…
Hallelujah! We finally got it: the registration of The Salvation Army in Poland.
On 21 June the name of The Salvation Army was added to the register of churches in Poland, and on 12 July the authorities officially informed us of this.
We knew that this would not be an easy task, because of all the strict legal requirements, but we believed that this was what we needed to do: to register as a church and not as anything else. The reason for this, as we see it, is that we are fundamentally a church with a social profile, and not a humanitarian organization with church activities. Secondly, we believed the registration was a priority in order to be effective in our mission and an equal partner with other Christian churches in Poland.
Many people both inside and outside of The Salvation Army have worked and prayed hard to accomplish this. It has been amazing and wonderful to discover several important people both in politics, such as President Chirac (France), and religion, such as several Roman Catholic bishops (both in- and outside Poland), who have been willing, on our request, to question the Polish authorities on their refusal to register us the first time.
Moving on
While we pause to give thanks for this victory, we also look ahead to new challenges.
Next month we will hold vacation Bible school with the help of some young people from Nottingham Arnold Corps (United Kingdom Territory). Hopefully this will take place in the neighborhood where we will be located in the future, and be an opportunity for effective outreach that will give us many contacts that we can build on for some time. Please pray for the preparation of this event and its realization.
Colonel Krommenhoek also requests prayer for Captains Olga and Andrei Iniutocichin, Warsaw corps officers from Moldova, who require a visa to return to Warsaw, after having to leave in May. Pray also for Major Denise McGarvey, who is holding down the fort and looking into areas of Warsaw where the Army can best serve God and the neighborhood.
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