Mirek and Ania joined our home group last night. Since it was their first time, Greg asked if they could share how they met and married. They met at a youth retreat in 1983 and had a conversation. Afterward Mirek kept thinking about Ania and so he wrote her 2 letters. He didn’t know her last name and knew only that she lived in the city Bielsko Biala (about 45 miles from his home). After asking around, he got her address and traveled by train to her city. However, at that time in Poland, under martial law, he needed permission to travel out of his county into the next county, which he didn’t have. Did you read that correctly? From county to county, not country, traveling papers were needed. At each train stop militia asked for identification and traveling papers. Somehow he made it to Ania’s house, dropped the letters in her mailbox and returned home; he didn’t even knock on her door.
Their story goes on and of course they got married, but what struck me was that was only 25 years ago! So much has changed here in Poland. It’s no wonder there is such a huge gap between parents in their 40s/50s and their children. Today Poles can travel Europe with only legal identification (like a drivers license or social security card) without permission or checkpoints.
Oh may this generation of young people who have freedom their parents never had at their ages know that their true freedom can be found only in Jesus.
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