This Week's NATIONAL ETIQUETTE AWARD goes to... Poland!

Poland- Wikipedia

Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Poland.com

Poland Online

I hereby grant the National Etiquette Award to Poland, as it is customary in that country to remove shoes when entering homes.

We have a temporary worker in our warehouse who is from Poland. One of my colleagues told me that he had said he was earning more money for just a few days work there than he would earn in a month back home. Apparently he plans to remain in the country for three years.

There are huge numbers of Polish people coming to the United Kingdom. As Poland is part of the European Union, Poles can freely come to the UK to seek employment.
I am very glad that these people are coming. I think Polish people are very hard-working, respectable and conservative. The increase in Poles and other East Europeans also provides a demographic counterbalance against the growth in the number of Muslims here (interestingly, there is a tiny minority of Muslims in Poland of Tartar origin).

I have met two Poles.

The first was a student at university. He was not a believing Catholic. He was a deeply intellectual young man. We had many long discussions about religion and God. I rather wish that I had been better practised at sharing the Gospel back then. He even visited the Reformed Baptist church I was attending at the time.

This student deeply detested the Roman Catholic hierarchy. He said that he had once been punched at a shrine to Mary. He had not been sure whether he was supposed to kneel or stand at a particular point in the service and a man there thought he was being disrespectful and punched him!

He was expecting to be conscripted into the army after completing his studies. As Poland had joined NATO, he might have served anywhere in the world.

The other Pole I met was a Pentecostal who was working in Britain. He attended the Pentecostal church I was going to about three years ago. The parents of my ex-fiance invited him to dinner. He took off his shoes, of course. He was also very intellectual; he was doing a doctorate in the philosophy of science. He claimed to have the gift of healing. He abandoned his job in Britain so he could go back to Poland to lay hands on his sick father.

I know an American who served as a missionary to Albania with one of my best friends. He is now serving in Poland.

Poland has had a very turbulent history. It has been chopped up and divided amongst a number of European empires. Int he Twentieth century, Poland experienced some of the most terrible atrocities ever.

The entry of Poland into the European Union is probably the best thing that ever happened to this wretched organisation. Poland, having experienced Communism is far more pro-market, pro-American and defensive of its national sovereignty than a lot of European countries.

Poland is probably the most devoutly Roman Catholic country of Europe. It is tragic that having escaped Communism, it remains under the bondage of the ritualism and idolatry of Popery.

For more information about Roman Catholicism, please visit:

Chick Publications

For the work of the Slavic Gospel Association in Eastern Europe, please visit:

Slavic Gospel Association