I would like to share with you how I came to know Jesus Christ…
I would like to share with you how I came to know Jesus Christ, how my life has been changed by meeting Jesus who is alive. It wasn’t necessarily a dramatic encounter, but rather a step by step journey. However, even if the encounter wasn’t dramatic, the changes in my life have been.
I wasn’t brought up a Christian at all, but for some reason at the age of about fourteen I decided to start going to my local sleepy Anglican parish in a small quiet nondescript English town. Shortly after, there was a Billy Graham mission in the parish and after the preaching there was a call to come forward for those who wanted to give their lives to Jesus. I went forward, and a team lead me in a prayer giving my life to Jesus. If God had been scripting a Hollywood film, then this would have been the cue for a dramatic life changing moment. Instead, seemingly, nothing altered in my life. I continued to go along once a week to the sleepy church without actually knowing why. In fact I still didn’t even believe in God – for me everything could be explained by logic and science.
Fr Jan Kruczyński – My testimony
I was born at the end of WW II. in a small Polish town, called Zywiec near Krakow.
My childhood was ordinary and despite the hard times, I have a lot of nice memories..
When I was 12, during the service at church, I saw Jesus and he said to me: ” John, you will be a priest. ” and I replied: ” Yes, but there are three conditions:
1. I will be a holy priest.
2. I will preach as well as the priest who is now preaching
3. I want to meet extraordinary people, who will help me to become one.
At the end Jesus said: “I agree and I am giving you a 4th gift: You will be breaking the boundaries which keep people from reaching God’s Kingdom.”
At the age of 14 I had the first problem: to choose the right school for me.
I didn’t know whether go to High School in my town or to a different school in further region. While I was praying I heard Jesus again. He said: ” I know that you love the High School in your town, but you will commute to the other town and listen to unpleasant words about your region, but I want you to forgive these people. ” I was doing that with joy for 5 years. At that time I recognized that all the prejudices that my region had about the people from Silesia (the region I studied in) were not true, because also in that region I found people who were ready to help me to finish my studies at High School and to prepare me for my future life.
Back in Oxford
Oxford, a beautiful city where we live and minister, and where I study, is the place where God planted us 2 ½ years ago. Is it my nature to never be satisfied with what I have? I have 4 months to go until I finish my degree course and I am thinking about what to do and where to go next. Every week there is a career fair at our university where potential employers (big players) make presentations to recruit the next generation of general managers and managing directors. “Pass”, my heart is telling me “it is not for you”. My mind tries to fight – thousands of pounds I’ve spent on this education and it is not for me? My heart is determined… Consequently, I am deleting all the emails about career options as soon as they appear in my mailbox, just so I’m not tempted.
God, if you are there…
God, if you are there,
give me a new life!
– Henryk Krzosek
Henryk comes from Poland where his dramatic story begins….His desire to be admired by others led him to become a delinquent.He passed through hell. He found himself on the street, abandoned, desperate, with only one decision, to take his own life…….
I can’t boast of a happy childhood. Because of my father’s alcoholism we lived a tragedy in our house. In order to maintain me and my two sisters, my mother had to work from morning to night and I, taking advantage if this “liberty”, did what I wanted. I came in contact with the criminal world at a young age and I was ‘fascinated’ by it. I admired the courage of the young thieves and wanted to be as courageous as them, thinking that in this way I would attract the attention of these companions and thus be accepted by them. I thought I had made it. However my cleverness and my courage led me to being arrested and sent to reform school. While my companions enjoyed their liberty, I had to remain shut inside. I had really wanted to become someone in their eyes but… I lost ‘points’ because I had let myself be caught. Finally, after seven years in prison, I decided to start a new life and got to know a girl who soon after became my wife. When our first son was born I wanted to dedicate myself totally to my family. Being already a husband and a father, I found myself in front of a new challenge: what did it mean to take care of my family concretely? No one had ever taught me. I had never had an example. This duty weighed me down, crushed me to the point where more and more often I chose to spend time with my mates instead of my family. Alcohol helped me not to think about my responsibilities. Unfortunately this destroyed my family. When our second son was born, I decided to take myself in hand once again and the chance was given to us to leave for Germany. My imagination began to go wild: the West, money, an appartment, a car. We would be able to start all over again. We had great expectations but, unexpectedly, my wife left to go abroad with our oldest son leaving me in Poland with the other son. Seven months later I left too but soon after my arrival in Hamburg all hope vanished. My wife and I realised that we couldn’t live together anymore. We got divorced.
Oxford – and that’s how it all started
That´s none of your business! Just follow me!
(Jn 21, 22)
The sun rose with words in my heart that confirmed that Jesus knew my thoughts and had called me into a new life with Him. It happened at the meeting with people interested in joining KOINONIA, it was May 27, 2000.
There are words that touch your heart and even though you don’t understand them, you know for sure they are for you and just you and to say “Yes, Lord” means to leave everything behind and walk with faith. I kept nagging the Lord with the questions, “How do you want me to do it Lord?” “What should I do?” “Will I know how to do it?” But His reply didn´t change: “You just follow me. I am your Lord, your God, who is teaching you to be successful, who leads you along the way you are supposed to follow” (Is 48, 17). “From now on I shall announce to you new things and hidden things of which you don´t know. They are being created now…” (Is 48, 6-7).
