Reality is always more stubborn…

“We’ll keep you informed. The radio silence is over,” I wrote at the end of December… But also: “The coming three months will be a challenge.”

Well, that’s a bit of a difficult combination. Announcing good intentions while it was already obvious that the coming period would not be simple. With too much on our minds to calmly sit down and write. With too many loose ends to see the complete picture.

Fortunately, we are now further along, and by the end of March Tatiana and I started at Evangelical Poland. After a process of months of letting go, handing over responsibilities, and building new connections, the picture now finally seems complete enough to tell more about it.

At Bread of Life we have, for the most part, been able to conclude a period of more than three months of detaching and handing things over. Since March 21 I am no longer in function there, and as of April 1 Tatiana’s formal role has also ended, but… that does not mean there is no contact about anything at all anymore. Sometimes questions still come up that I can answer easily, but there are also situations in which I formally have my hands tight.

But despite all the challenges of bringing everything to a harmonious conclusion, what prevails above all is gratitude for 8 years at Bread of Life!

And in the middle of all that, we quickly began “warming up” for Evangelical Poland. Hardly had we announced our departure from Bread of Life at the end of December when we received an urgent request — both from my good friend Andrzej Górski, initiator and leader of Evangelical Poland (or EP), as from from several foreign ministry partners who know both Bread of Life and EP — to dedicate ourselves (together!) fully to EP.

I had already known EP from the inside since 2020 as project leader, on behalf of Bread of Life, for cooperation amongst social ministries. And in several conversations during January, it quickly became clear how, in a new role as full-time COO (operational director) of EP, I could truly give expression to my passion for cooperation and partnership! And how Tatiana would suddenly be able to use her expertise, experience, and network even more effectively! More about our roles within EP in a separate blog.

So yes, warming up indeed. With exploratory conversations and online meetings, but of course the real work had to wait until the end of March and beginning of April, when we would actually start. And we certainly noticed it! A bit like returning to work after a (too long) vacation — facing an oversized pile of correspondence and too many meetings that all had to wait until you were back again…

But now we have come through that as well and… we’re more and more grateful for the new opportunities within EP, and anticipation for the beautiful things we hope to experience!

And we have finally found the time to write again… 😊