Mission impossible…but for the grace of God
At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory […] Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near [….] Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.
Excerpted from Luke 21:25-36 (NIV)
LETTERKENNY, IRELAND – When the Methodist Church of Ireland asked for a Polish church planter, it relied on a census from several years before, where Letterkenny’s Polish population was the largest ethnic minority here. In 2024, one can’t help but feel it’s the Irish who are becoming the largest minority. Unlike in Dublin, which has seen violent demonstrations under the “Ireland-is-full” banner, life here, on the far Northwestern edge of the island, is quite peaceful, but it may well be a calm before the storm.
The migratory trends are bound to continue: the war in Ukraine shows no signs of easing; post-Brexit migration through Northern Ireland, which has no border with the Republic, is on the increase; and the numbers of boats crossing the Mediterranean into Europe are also increasing. New wars break out all over the globe. In Northern Ireland, the police stations look like fortresses, with tensions rising.
Yet, in the midst of it all, God is at work, and if you keep your eyes open, you will see clear signs of this. At the exoteric, apparent level, this town of about 25,000 boasts a growing number of faith communities, chiefly Baptist, Jehovah’s Witnesses and charismatic faith groups. Things have been happening at the unseen level, too. In this land of beer and whisky, the Alcoholics Anonymous movement has been growing. Many claim to have been saved from untold misery and premature death by the intervention of a Higher Power. For economic reasons, pub attendance and alcohol consumption are apparently going down, too.
And here I am, a Methodist missionary on a “mission impossible.” The local Poles either remain Catholic or want to have nothing to do with organized religion, whereas Ukrainians are attracted to very conservative denominations or are getting organized by themselves into charismatic groups. Before I can start church planting, I need to go home hunting, which is a tall order, given the influx of migrants, the start of a new academic year and the “faulty cement scandal,” a manufacturing fault in the mineral content of cement building blocks, which has left thousands in Donegal County homeless and on the lookout for places to rent. And yet, within 10 days, I found an apartment.
In another 10 days, I found a restaurant run by two Polish women. They have a venue, I have ideas. They are open to extending their offer, and they are … spiritual, with both in one way or another coming from an alcoholic background and, though anticlerical, believing in a Higher Power. I am a layperson rather than clergy. When people salvaged and transformed by God meet a missionary to walk the path of post-recovery with them, anything is possible! We can create a community of faith for the transformation of ourselves and our wider community…for starters.
I pray that Methodists see this situation as a universal call and a spiritual opportunity.
Lord, help us discern ways in which we can walk with people who have just experienced your powerful liberation from their forms of enslavement, old and new! Help all involved to make sense of your intervention, come together and get involved, adding meaning to a newfound life.
Leslaw Olgierd Kawalec is a Global Missionary and layperson from Poland serving as a church developer in Letterkenny, Republic of Ireland, with the Methodist Church of Ireland, a denomination that spans both Ireland and Northern Ireland. He is a church planter in Polish and Eastern European communities. He has a degree in English Language and Letters and has also studied theology and archaeology.
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