In January and February, one of the Lighthouse pastors, Erik Pattison, went to Poland and Romania to do some preaching and help with two conferences for pastors in Romania.

The connection with eastern Europe started when a former Lighthouse minister, Roy Scarsbrook, began working as a missionary there about six years ago. In 2004 with a few friends and his wife, Monah, Roy founded a new church in the industrial Polish town of Radom . God has given them a number of people and the congregation now numbers about 30. They hope to formally join the Baptist denomination in Poland in the next few months.

Roy has many contacts and friends in Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. He subsidises an annual pastors conference and has been the main speaker at the conference for the last few years. He asked Erik to help in 2005 and that went well enough for Erik to have a repeat invitation in 2006.

It may seem strange to have missionaries in "Christian" countries like Poland and Romania but the truth is that, just as in "Christian" Britain, most people have no strong faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even churchgoers may be more enthusiastic worshippers of Mary and the saints than Christ himself.

Read “Erik’s Story” to find out about his trip in Jan/Feb 2006.