LWF member church in Poland gives home to refugees
(LWI) - "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
The Bible quote from Joshua 24:15, on an inside archway of Betania house in the Wapienica area of Bielsko-Biała is worn. It had strengthened it’s the house’s visitors through communist times when it was unpopular to declare one’s affiliation with the church, and the house was a holiday home for Lutheran children in Silesia. Three years ago, the Cieszyn Diocese of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland bought the house for a similar purpose. in March 2022, Betania became the home of people who fled the war in Ukraine – seven families now.
One of them joined the Lutheran Sunday service at the small chapel: Nataliia Bakumenko and her son. Natalia comes form Pryluky, and now works with Ukrainian refugees at the LWF community center in Bielsko-Biała. Ten-year-old Artem prefers to stay with his mother rather than join the other children in Sunday school. The family is orthodox, and attending the Lutheran services every second Sunday was Artem's wish. "He tells me that he does not have nightmares after church," Nataliia says.