Polish evening in Alabama

OWENS CROSS ROADS, Alabama -- Even before a person entered the fellowship hall Tuesday evening atRivertree Church, which members call the Treehouse, the Polish decorations were evident: The scent of sauerkraut and sausage filled the air from crockpots of bigos, traditional Polish hunter’s stew, and energetic strains of Chopin dancing from the loudspeaker.

Rivertree Church members made pots of bigos, the sauerkraut-and-sausage traditional hunter's stew of Poland, and other traditional treats from Poland for the Dec. 6 Zabawa (festival) led by Greg and Erin Skrobarczyk. Information about King's Kids Poland is posted online. (The Huntsville Times/Kay Campbell)

Bigos, a tart and satisfying mixture, is a taste of what life is like in Poland for missionaries Greg and Erin Skrobarczyk, pronounced “skro-bar-chek.”

“Here’s a word you’ll need before you eat,” said Erin Skrobarczyk as members of the church headed to the buffet line. “Smacznego! Try to say it!”

Children and adults filled their mouths with the consonant-enriched shapes of Polish, shouting out together “smaz-neh-go!” to wish each other “good appetite.”

The Skrobarczyks brought Poland to Hampton Cove for members of Rivertree, several of whom have helped with short-term mission projects in Poland with the Skrobarczyks at their ministry,King’s Kids Poland. The evening was part mission report and fundraising tour – Rivertree members are among King’s Kids supporters – but also just to have a good time as the couple took members through the typical elements of a King’s Kids club meeting.

Erin Rymer Skrobarczyk, who is a North Alabama native, met Greg, a native of Poland, when they were both at a disciple training in Hungary in 2004, and they married soon afterwards. Every since, they have served together in Poland through Youth with a Mission. The ministry isn’t so much about starting a new church in the country where most people consider being Catholic to be inseparable from being Polish, Greg said, but about bringing people to a closer, more vital relationship with God. Many people in Poland haven’t given much thought to their spiritual life, which seems to them to be isolated from their day-to-day struggles.

Erin and Greg Skrobarczyk, with their daughters Hannah, left, and Abigail, work with the youth in Poland as national directors of King's Kids International. (The Huntsville Times/Kay Campbell)

“I would love to see friends in my old neighborhood more happy, enjoying life and knowing who they are in Christ,” Greg said, describing their work. 

“My friends thought I was crazy, but I keep this in my heart. I want to see the change.”

Dreaming of change

It was not only a thought. Greg also had a dream in which he saw a playground in his old neighborhood filled with children whose faces radiated happiness, not hopelessness. Little by little, he and Erin are working to fulfill that dream. When they return to Poland at the end of their furlough in the spring, they will shoulder responsibility for training and coordinated Youth with a Mission Work across Poland based on the success of their club in Ruda Slaska, Poland.

King’s Kids sponsor classes for youth such as dance and spoken English, as well as assisting single mothers and helping families with resources to fight alcoholism, child abuse and poverty.

North Alabama native Erin Rymer Skrobarczyk, who works with the youth in Poland with her husband, Greg, as national directors of King's Kids International, gives away one of the 1,000 shoeboxes that other children in Ruda Slaska packed for their neighbors. (Courtesy of Erin Skrobarczyk)

Their efforts were noticed by school officials. They have been asked to take their program into all the schools in their city. Even the Catholic priest, at first wary of their motives, has called them to partner on fighting graffiti together.

“We are not trying to start a church,” Erin said. “We are just trying to provide good things, to open the Word of God and help them to enjoy a relationship with God.”

“It’s more about living how Jesus has called us to live,” Erin said. “That’s a little different than how the world lives.”

Poland’s expanding economy is doing better than some of the countries hit harder by the current economic crisis. But the cost of living still outpaces average wages by a huge margin.

Even so, one year as Greg handed out gift shoeboxes from Samaritan’s Purse’s Operation Christmas Child, he looked around the room, watching the children at King’s Kids open boxes packed by Christians in Germany and the U.S.

“I realized I would love to teach the Polish people that we can give, not only receive,” Greg said.

Children from King's Kids Poland stand together last Christmas after helping to deliver some 1,000 shoeboxes they and other children of Ruda Slaska packed for their neighbors in need. (Courtesy of Erin Skrobarczyk)

That was five years ago. They started small, getting classrooms to pack a few boxes together so that there wasn’t a huge burden on any one child. The sports department of the city helped to collect the boxes and then Erin and Greg and some other volunteers went through them, making sure they were even.

That first year? They were able to collect and re-distribute 1,000 boxes to children whose names they received from the social department of their city and also to children of Checheyna who live in a refugee camp near Ruda Slaska. They piled the boxes into cars and 30 volunteers took them directly to the homes of the children who needed them.

“There were home situations that were very, very sub-standard,” Erin said. “It was really neat how things came together.”

“We could teach them they can bless others, even when they don’t have so much,” Greg said.