ECM is currently doing church planting in the city of Rabka with a vision to do church planting in other cities in the Podhale region of Southern Poland as the Lord leads.

The Church in Rabka

The principle ministry is church planting. We want to see the Rabka church plant become an officially registered church, and need 25 baptized members (we now have 16) and Polish leadership in place.

Men's Breakfasts. One group that is very difficult to reach is middle-aged men. They are a key group because we want to see whole families coming to Christ, and to reach families we need to reach the heads of these families. One effective way we have found is American breakfasts for men. The men really enjoy the pancakes (with real maple syrup) and bacon and it is a great way to talk about spiritual things in a relaxed, natural way.

Children's Work. Lila Groth has a "Saturday school" each week and does day camps in the winter and summer. She also teaches Bible lessons at the new Christian grade school in Krakow.

At present there is one ECM family, Doug and Lila Groth, and their two children, who have helped establish the church in Rabka. The Lord has blessed the work richly: six people have come to know the Lord in the past couple of years.

Several years ago the fellowship in Rabka was able to purchase a building. We are waiting for building permission to be able to begin with the needed remodeling work. People have expressed their desire to help us in the remodeling work when the building project begins. We are looking to the Lord to provide the funds needed. Please pray for this project.

The Podhale Region Vision

The Podhale region encompasses the foothills of the Tatry Mountains in South Poland and their approaches from the north. Less than 300 km East to West, this area is intensely Catholic and conservative, but with cities and towns that are fast growing, on new highways and are also centers of industry, tourism and commuting.

ECM’s vision is to start other church planting work in the needy Podhale region of southern Poland. Currently there are a half dozen churches and several church plants in progress in this region.