Sopot, POLAND

From my room overlooking the Baltic Sea, I reflected upon memories of this part of Poland. This city of Gdansk is where the Solidarity movement began, which was the beginning of the end for communism in Eastern Europe. On one of my visits here many years ago, I was asked if I would like to meet the Solidarity founder Lec Walesa. As he was under house arrest at the time, I thought better not, but now the airport is named after him.

The famous local amphitheater in the forest of Sopot is host to huge international stars like Whitney Houston and Elton John, but I told them tonight Jesus is the only star and they applauded enthusiastically! Noticeable was that the audience was made up mostly of young people and also a number of children, so they were not even born when my old songs were #1 in their country. That is good, because they were totally open to the newer songs about Jesus, and also many more of them understand English now.

For those older people who might have been expecting more songs from way back when, I explained that although other 80s bands reform, to me it would be like trying to put on baby clothes once again. None of us could fit into our baby clothes now, and in the same way, baby clothes of faith will not cover us if we do not develop our faith as we grow.

They recognized some of the well known worship songs, but were ready to participate throughout. They sang YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE in English and said the Our Father in Polish. One lady told me her 12 year old son was singing, and he never sings!

I had forgotten that an encore is usual in Poland, since I never give one at home, but after one extra song they continued to call out. The interpreter told me they were calling out for Jesus, so I told them I would teach them a song of praise they could sing to Him on the way home. We finished with a very long version of I'LL SING MY PRAISE TO YOU.

This festival was an unusual collaboration of the Church, and a highly professional music agency. Since Poland recently joined the European Community, there seems to be more investment of capital in their country, and many people hope that such ventures will become more common in future. The sound, lights, and facility were of the highest standard, all for the glory of God.

The day to day work of ACTS

I am sure many people imagine that when I am not active at some youth event, I am maybe relaxing, sunbathing, or generally doing not much of anything. Little do they know that during periods at home I am way more busy than I ever could be out on the road! When people see the Evang-a-Ganza, the Teen Mass, or indeed any of the other presentations, I wonder if they ever think about how much time and effort goes into making the videos, making the music, putting it all together? When they buy a CD which has been composed, recorded and produced on my computer do they ever wonder how long it took one man to do all that? Do they ever wonder how we make contact with the people who invite us to minister, or what materials we send them, and how much time goes into preparing them?

Let me give you an idea - recording a CD from start to finish takes an average of about 6 months, working 12 hour days. Some take more time, some less. That is not including any time writing the songs and working them out. Last year I made two new CDs, though the songs were not new. Also for the first time, I did the artwork for both, so more days work were spent on research, design, and then the boring technical details required for submitting the designs to a factory! A single video can take 2-4 weeks, and of course I have very many of them in my different presentations.

Why I am I telling you all this right now? Well, in the month of May I did not travel outside of Chicago, did not have any major youth events to report, and so I wrote no blogs. To be honest, I don't think it would be very interesting to you if I simply described all the technical details of creating the new videos I worked on over the past weeks, learning new software, or researching and ordering the new equipment needed!

This week I will leave for Poland, and will be back a couple of weeks before leaving for Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, and India. I do not plan to write any blogs while I am translating my songs into French, re-recording them, preparing teachings for Spain and other materials for India, but I do plan to be working 12 hour days right up to the time I depart!

By the grace of God, and the generous support of our various sponsors, we were able to buy a new Intel Mac last week, which will allow us to move our presentations and productions to the next level. Of course it does mean learning new software, and working out ways of doing the old presentations with totally different equipment, but that is part of the course in a ministry which is committed to the latest technology for the sake of the Gospel! So do not be alarmed if you do not see a new blog posted on the site, but rest assured the far less glamorous hidden work of ministry continues with a vengeance!