countries/poland

HOME IS WHEREVER
YOU FIND YOUR BREAD
By Briana Efta
BMW Missionary to Poland residing in Germany

If home were "where the heart is," a large chunk of the Polish people would never be at home. 1.3 million of them have found work outside of Poland. (Roughly comparable to the entire states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska packing up their bags and leaving to find work in Canada or Mexico…)They have left behind family, social recognition and acceptance, jobs, and security to try their luck in one of the other 26 European Union states. There is a saying in Polish, though, that "home is wherever you find your bread." In an effort to earn bread for their families and to escape the economic crisis in Poland, they are leaving behind who and what they were in search of a better life. Most immigrants tend to stay indefinitely in their new homes. Money is almost always the deciding factor. Poles in England working on factory lines and in unskilled labor earn many times the money they would earn at a more skilled job in Poland. Newscasts and government agencies are calling this exodus of Poland's workers the "brain drain" (see links at the bottom).

Despite hopes that member status in the EU (since 2004) would open doors to prosperity and economic growth, Poland's new status in the Union has made matters worse. Unemployment hovers at 15%, wages are extremely low, and the economy is suffering from a serious case of inflation. The government is struggling to keep up with intimidating EU standards which all members are required to keep. It is like trying to force a size 6 stiletto heel on a size 12 foot that needs heavy-duty footwear to slog through its problems.

Europe is becoming the proverbial melting pot. There are 336,448 registered immigrants from Europe in Berlin alone, plus 66,780 from Asia, 1,426 from Australia and the Pacific, 17,612 from Africa, and 23,460 from America - for a total immigrant population of 460,555 in the city of Berlin alone, which has a total population of just over 3 million (2005 census)! 41,000 of that number are Poles. Integration issues are key priorities for every country now. Whether he welcomes the immigrants or sponsors them, or whether he views them as assets or disadvantages, each European citizen is having to think about his own policy toward immigration.

Churches, mission agencies, and missionaries should also be thinking about it. The peoples of the world are literally being brought by God to the doorsteps of Europe. He is hand-selecting people to leave their country and is planting them elsewhere. Immigration is one of His ways to confront people with the fact that they are not paying attention to Him. Nothing shakes up our worldview as much as a little shake up of our security.

Christians all over the world should also start paying attention. If a "global village" is really what we can expect of the future, we will have to stop thinking about missions as a strictly geographical strategy. It will have to become a priority to reach people groups. We might end up having a ministry to Russians in Berlin, to Muslims in France, or to Poles in London, but what will matter is that Russia is being reached, the Middle East is being reached, and Poland is being reached.

Missionaries living in Europe are immigrants themselves. They are people who have reached outside their cultural borders and embraced a people who neither asked for them and most often doesn't want them. But just as our world didn't ask for Christ, God sent Him anyway - and the world has forever been changed. Just by coming - just by their giving up of who and what they were - missionaries bring a living replica of God's freely-given love. It gives everything it has and expects nothing in return. We need people over here who are willing to love people unconditionally.

There are practically innumerable ways in which love could be shown to immigrants. They have very practical needs. But one of my tasks in the coming years will be to understand how to meet the deeper needs which often lie hidden under protective facades. I will need to understand how to love them more fully, more progressively, more imaginatively, more passionately. We need people who will concentrate on wrapping the arms of their love around these immigrants - to continually model that one commodity which the world most desperately needs to value: God's love.

If you would like specifics about how you could possibly bring your life into the missionary picture over here, please contact either Paul Seger (European Director) at pseger@biblicalministries.org, or Briana Efta at befta@biblicalministries.org.

"Brain Drain" Newscasts:

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