How was my trip to Poland? LIFECHANGING!! “How so?” Where do I begin?

Late March, I received an email from some of my team members regarding the work project in Poland that really concerned me. The organization of this event was beginning to look like a bad case of roadkill. I thought, “what have I got myself into?” Since I was going over to lead about 25 kids in a building project planning is pretty important. What were we building? Benches. Any plans? Not yet. When do you need my lumber list? (Recalling the previous year that I had my lumber list in 6-8 weeks prior to the event). “Uhm…..we’re just going to work it out when we get there.” I thought, “this is a disaster.” But in my spirit there was a very different conversation. “When things seem out of your control it is often then, that I have opportunity to do my greatest work” He did.

Classic God-style was prevalent on multiple fronts. Just a week before the event, the Polish nationals seemed have a real antagonistic attitude toward any kind of relational ministry. Polish schools were not allowing us to do sports camps & English classes. These are the bread & butter of our relational ministry and we were being stymied. Yet, as our students began to show up on site to build our projects God began to work miracles. Relational opportunities with schools seem to fly open. This sent our adult leaders into a small panic on how to meet the demand for our students. He met the demand.

Another front for me, unlike the previous year was that I was going to be leading a small group of guys from Kaiserslautern Military Community (KMC) The youth groups name is Destiny. Here I was, a 45 year old youth pastor who had not had much contact with teens in the last year and half stepping into a group of kids I had never met. Talk about

feeling like I was getting fed to the Lions. But He showed up. Within less than 24 hours these guys pulled me into their group. We roomed together, worked together, laughed together, pranked together and wrestled with God. He joined us.

At our particular site we had the opportunity to meet with an English teacher. She often had to interpret for the principal so relationship with her

was natural. She had a hard time understanding why our young people were there, giving up their vacation to build benches and to dig out a basement from a pre-world war II school. We had the opportunity to talk about the Father to her. She confessed she knew of Him but her logical side

was having a hard time reconciling the existence of a God. She was not antagonistic toward us, but because of the kids’ attitude her heart was listening. We did have an opportunity to share the good news of a relationship with God but with tears in her eyes she said, “I’m not ready”. He’s watering seed.

The last front I wanted to share with you comes more from a corporate point of view. Overall we had about 850-900 students, volunteers and leaders spread out all over Poland and the Czech Republic. Many experienced hard times like rain,

Czech thievery, getting lost and tons of other difficult circumstances. In spite of these things 150 American kids came to know Jesus. Many committed to serving on the mission field. Lives were eternally impacted on many different levels. One Czech newspaper editor wrote:

“Although I will take a risk that I will be called an agent of the USA, I would like to thank those 200 American students. Instead of taking drugs or

drinking alcohol or loitering on the streets they did something that would make their ancestors proud. We needn’t be professional historians to know that their grandfathers laid their necks on the block in their fight against Nazism in occupied Europe. However, in a different way they follow their ancestors. If only we could say the same about ourselves …”

He worked…amazingly.

What am I doing now? Recruiting youth pastors to go into a very ripe harvest field and have the time of their lives loving on students and sharing His love with them. Because of this trip

I am more energized and excited to tell the story to whoever will listen
I am even more persuaded than ever that the role I play here is an instrumental and key role in forwarding the mission of reaching & teaching military young people for Christ.
I am more convinced that this is a

team effort. As I am a help to my coworkers both future and present you too are a part of a mission that impacts those coworkers and the young people with whom they work.

Another question often surfaces, “How’s Kerry?” Much better. Though we are not out of the woods we have seen a dramatic decrease in the severity and frequency of her headaches. She continues to make progress on the emotional an

d spiritual front that leaves me in awe of the depth to which she is going with Him. Thank you for your continued prayers for her.

.

Because He is,
Mark for the Family

•    Honestly- I worked in the stateside church for 8 years before joining Malachi. The corporate church is really hard to work with. I often got sucked into so much administration and politics that I had little time for students. Church leadership often did not look out for me and coach me in ministry other than when I was falling down on the job. But instead of telling you my bad experience let me tell you what I did have in Malachi. I had a ministry that was committed to my success. I was challenged and encouraged to grow as a youth pastor and after 12 years with Malachi I am continuing to grow in my understanding of youth ministry. I have friends in youth ministry that I can rely on for encouragement, ideas and real heart felt friendship. Some of my deepest friendships are ones that have been formed in Malachi though I am separated by thousands of miles. The parents that I got to work with were incredible. I rarely had to deal with parent complaints. In the 8 years overseas easily under 10 parent complaints about what we did with their kids. More often than not I had chaplains in the military that I worked for and with who were Godly men and set me free to do ministry. Words that were often said to me were, “Go do what you do best, work with and love on kids, let me know if you need anything” That does not mean that there were not bumps and sometime hard things with Chaplains but I found my experience to be a great one.  The chaplains reeeeeally supported our ministry.  I rarely had to work so hard to get them to support what we did. I was given thousands of dollars to sponsor kids to different retreats. Though the days of that kind of money are slowing down it is still much larger than when I worked in a church and had to fight and scrimp to get a few hundred dollars for different things.  If you have been through a difficult church situation I know that these things that I write a breath of fresh air. But the working conditions don’t hold a candle to the students. But that will have to wait for Parts 2,3,4.

An quote from a recent letter from a Malachi Intern

WHAT HAS GOD DONE?

  This Last weekend was our Jr.Higher winter retreat.  “What has God done?” He has brought me back alive:-)  Any retreat that involves Jr.High boys is always a trial and a blessing.  My biggest trial was that of authority.  Because of a great lack of consistency in many of these kid’s lives it is very hard for them to recognize and respect authority.  Think about it…they are moved at least every 2 to 3 years and their father is usually gone for 1 1/2 of those years.  That, my friends, is a recipe for rebellion.
  Than comes Matt.  A 20 year old intern with one year of Bible School under His belt, and a wicked naive perspective of the military…what does that spell to Jr.High boys…Fresh Meat:-)  I have come to find out that there is something worse than chinese water torture…girl crazy, sugar loaded, Jr.High boys:-)  I was strangled with a curtain, nearly drowned in a whirl pool, and in all ways verbally abused…but you know what; it was all worth it.
  “Why?”, you ask.  Because in spite of my frustration and their disobedience God decided to Bless eternally.  The Spirit moved in a mighty way this last Sunday.  After the Gospel presentation that night I felt lead to slide a seat forward and talk to Joey.  I asked where He thought He was going?…just in the next year.  Being a military kid that was very hard for him to answer, because frankly, in the military you never really know.  I know that exact feeling (I was in his shoes once before), and the spirit gave me the exact solution.  The Idea of having a home that you can always call home is a very surreal thing for a military kid.  It can almost become a fantasy.  That dream became a reality for Joey that night.  
  I told him how God was offering him an eternal home in heaven.  I told him how Jesus wanted to be His forever friend.  I told him what Jesus did in order to make all of that possible.  It was truly amazing to experience what happened next.  The Holy Spirit pricked Joey’s soul, drained out the sin, and the Lord flooded in.  PRAISE GOD!  
  It is so awesome to see immediate fruit.  His immediate reaction was a victorious fist pump and a Napoleon Dynamite “yesssssss”:-)  This was fallowed by immediate understanding of the scriptures and spiritual things.  Stories and illustrations that the speaker had given earlier suddenly became clear.  The theme verse of the week end finally made sense.  “Walk the plank to save your life” Lk 9:24 (We had a pirate theme
  Funny thing about that verse is God made me practice what He preached.  I was already spent a half hour into that trip.  It took me about a day of being pushed to my wits end, but I finally realized I couldn’t do anything and I had to hand over everything.  What a blessing it was to walk that plank and take that step of surrender and faith into the sea of blessing the Lord had waiting beneath.  God is always good.
  My new nephew David John Kolarik is a picture of what I yearn for: peace, rest, and total trust in my eternal, loving Father.  To God be the Glory.  -MAN
  Praise:  Loving Family, Faithful God, Awesome Opportunity, Joey
  Prayer: Rest, Wisdom, Faith
  MAN MINISTRY
  WHO: MATTHEW A NORTON 
  WHERE: ARMY BASE BAUMHOLDER, GERMANY
  WHAT: I AM WORKING WITH THE JR. AND SR. HIGH YOUTH GROUP
  WHY: I AM CONSIDERING A MILITARY CAREER. (AS A YOUTH WORKER?
  CHAPLAIN? TEACHER? COACH? I’M HERE TO SEE WHERE THE LORD LEADS
 

This blog thing is new to me but I am excited to share the many amazing things about doing ministry with the American military teenager. They are amazing. If you are interested in keeping up with what is happening within Malachi then be sure and subscribe.

Peace Out,

Mark