After being converted and leaving Roman Catholicism, Adam joined an evangelical church in the area. He later attended a seminary in Poland, where he now ministers in a small but growing congregation in Krakow. He and his wife, Elisa, have three children. HeartCry supports Adam and his family partially so that he is able to finish his career as a police officer while pastoring.
Personal Testimony
I was born in Poland in 1987. Like almost every person in this country, I was a Roman Catholic since the beginning. My parents led me through all the Roman Catholic sacraments. Because of this, all my life I was convinced that I was a good person who was going to heaven. I saw my merits before God in going to the mass, participating in the Catholic festivals, and accepting in my heart the reality of a god the Roman Catholic doctrine was teaching me about.
When I was about 19 years old, my sinful lifestyle reached the apex. Yet, at that moment I was not aware of that because being a Roman Catholic gave me a false assurance that my merits before God were more than my sins. So at that time, I thought I was a good person in no need to be worried because even if there was sin in my life, God would not be displeased with me because I did everything the Roman Catholic church required of me to do. Before I was 20 years old I completed my first job application which was very important to me. Basically I didn’t have any doubts I would pass the application because of my high self-esteem at that time. Eventually, I failed to get that job which ignited in me a hatred against God. The Lord had put me among circumstances that deprived me of that high self-esteem. I started realizing that I did not actually have control over anything in my life. My family members were dying and I was helpless. My work application didn’t go through and I was helpless. These and other factors brought me to the point where I started thinking about the sense of my life. I was feeling highly disappointed and even angry at God because I thought that in return to my religious life He should have given me all I wanted. That didn’t happen so in the course of time my anger with God increased.
A few months passed and I was going to visit my family in a different part of Poland. Spontaneously, while driving, I decided to pull over in order to visit my friend that I had not seen for years. He lived in a town located on my way to the family I was driving to visit. The meeting with my friend took just 15 minutes and I believe that was a divinely orchestrated appointment in order to save me. During the conversation with my friend, I started complaining about God and offending Him telling my friend how much I expected Him to do for me and how much He didn’t do. In response to my complaints I heard from my friend: “Adam, just trust God. Trust Him and you will not die.”. It sounded simple — actually too simple to me. I had heard such a phrase all my life. But at that particular moment, the Lord used those words in a tremendous way. After I left my friend’s house and before I got into the car I was overwhelmed by those words. So I looked to the sky and really mindfully I said to God: “If this is so, if it is all about trusting you, then I trust you. I don’t depend on myself anymore because I don’t know anything and can’t do anything with my life. Please God, take over my life and do what you want to do with me.”
I started thinking and meditating on God waiting to see Him work in my life. Several weeks after, I was in my house and all of a sudden I thought to myself, “If I believe in God then I want to know more about the One who saved me.” I took the Bible in my hand and started looking at it. I thought that was a huge book. I quickly estimated that if I read about 10 chapters a day I would be able to read the Bible 4 times a year. So I started reading. I finished reading the Bible after about 3 months and my conclusion was that I didn’t understand anything. So I started over again. The more I kept reading the Bible the more inconsistencies I saw between the Roman Catholic church and the Word of God. Not being able to reconcile both I began to think of what to do. On the one hand, I was passionate for the Word and excited about how the Word was changing me and giving me a desire for the Lord. On the other hand, I was still officially in the Roman Catholic system. Eventually, as I saw the gross blasphemous teaching and the practices of the Roman Catholic system in light of the Word of God, I decided to officially leave that system by submitting the act of apostasy in the eyes of the Catholic authorities. I wanted simply to have nothing to do with their false gospel and practices.
As I look back to the past and see the Lord’s salvation of myself I can say that by His perfect will He led me to my friend whose words directed me to ask God for help and trust Him with all my heart. As a result, I started reading the Word which showed me the glory of the Lord, His holiness and my sinfulness. As a result of my desires, all my life started changing dramatically. I became a new creation in the Lord Jesus Christ and my life belongs to Him. “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”
Call to Ministry
After my conversion, The Lord gave me an unusual desire to read the Word. I read the Bible for hours every day. I did not consider that anything unusual. I was sure that reading the Word so much was a natural and normal thing in the life of every person that was amazingly saved by God’s grace. But now I see that the Lord had His purpose in giving me such a desire not only to study His Word but also to read and listen to different Christian materials.
At some moment, the Lord showed me the joy and the importance of being in a local church. I found an evangelical church in my town that seemed to be good. Actually, given the fact that the protestants constitute below 1 % of the people in Poland, finding any evangelical church within 60 miles is a kind of achievement. I went to visit that small church in my town. It was a conservative church with older people. There was one pastor who was zealous for the Lord but was not apt to preach. Because I didn’t see any choice I decided to stay with them and continue my personal studying of the Word.
In the midst of that, I was exposed to some clips on Youtube that showed some people hurt and cheated on by false teachers. I started being very angry at those false preachers and I thought to myself: “If only I could meet with those people I would tell them what the Bible really says”. This is how my desire to preach the Word started. I was motivated to speak the truth of the Word of God to the people so that they are not hurt and deceived by the false teachers. Somehow, at that moment, I found it necessary to study theology before I ever became a preacher. As so many people in Poland are Catholics who by default consider a Catholic priest the only person who can teach the Bible I thought to get a theological education in order to get the people’s hearing. So I searched for any evangelical seminary in Poland. I found just four. I joined the closest one and studied theology there for 4 years. During my studies, one of my professors told me that I would have to get engaged in practice in my local church. I didn’t understand that. So he explained to me that after I graduate I will be a theologian. So I need to practice being a theologian. I still didn’t get that. He then explained to me that I need to start practicing preaching in my local church. I was not apt and willing to do that as I didn’t think I was even ready. But the professor called my pastor and asked me if such a thing was possible. My pastor consented and allowed me to share a bit from the Word one Sunday morning. Now I see everything was terrible. I was not qualified at all to stand before the pulpit nor was I skilled to exegete the Scripture. My message was a compilation of what I heard on the internet from other preachers. But for some reason, the people were impressed and kept commending me. Because of that, the pastor started having me preach for the church longer and more frequently.
