I remember the first trip we made to Poland. We were teaching in a small Bible school in eastern Poland and the class was full of young Bible school students who would finish and return to their churches to become church leaders. As I watched them that weekend I did not see future pastors and leaders. I saw young men and women who simply needed a father.

The Apostle Paul said in 1 Cor. 4:15, “For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.” Today, we see an emphasis on mentoring and this takes on many forms. However, we like to use the word “fathering” because it entails a much deeper relationship than mentoring.

Six years ago when I stood in front of those young people I had no clear picture of what my role would become in the lives of so many young leaders here in Poland. I had no idea of the dearth of fathers in the lives of so many Polish young people. But six years later, I have an appreciation of what it is to stand in the role of a spiritual father who does not just give spiritual advice, but actually stands in the gap left behind by men who have deserted their children. These children need a real father but in his absence they need someone who will love them, encourage them and give them the fatherly advice that they never got. These children are now grown men and women who desperately desire a man who will give them what they missed as children.

Karen and I were sent here with a strange “calling” and that was to become a mom and a dad to the next generation of men and women who will lead this country into deeper spiritual truths. Our “sons and daughters” range from senior pastors and their wives to university students who frequent our home every week. We give them love and hugs. We cry with them. We praise them for the achievements in their lives. And we tell them, “you are special,” or “you can do it. I believe in you.” Our reward is to see a fearful person become a warrior; tears of loneliness become tears of joy; failures become victors. And in the end, to see a face light up so bright when they hear those three words that they most probably have never heard before, “I love you.”

Since I wrote these words two years ago, God has moved us from Poland to the World. However, the process continues of being a mom and dad to countless sons and daughters who are still searching for that one who will listen, love and accept. Every month we receive word that another son or daughter has caught the vision and is now fathering one of their own. The Apostle Paul's words still ring true, "you have not many fathers..."