with children: Michelle, Pascal and Sarah

Marek is a graduate of the Warsaw Theological Seminary (1996). He once had a dream which set the course for his life and ministry. He saw himself serving out soup with a giant ladle to homeless children… His heart was filled with a desire to go east. His first venture took place in 1994 as part of a student internship. He joined a short missions trip to Irkutsk in Siberia, organized by brother Waldemar Sardaczuk and the AVC mission (Nidda, Germany). The team included Nathalie, a very special and enthusiastic Swiss girl with a zeal for ministry among children. Once there, they saw poor, tattered and neglected children with cigarette ends in their mouths and mean smiles on their faces, wandering around without a purpose or hope for the future. The impression was lasting. Sometime later Marek and Nathalie got married. Their mutual desire to bring hope to poor children was slowly taking shape. In 2000 they both went for a week to Kiev, Ukraine where they could see for themselves the lousy living conditions of a handful of children living on the streets. Deeply touched by their misfortune they returned in 2001, this time to stay for longer. They fed them, opened up their hearts for them but noticed that it wasn’t enough to change their lives. A year later with the help of friends and people of goodwill, they opened up the Sunshine Children’s Center in the vicinity of Kiev. It was to become a new home for the children who once used to live in underground heating pipe systems, begging and selling themselves in exchange for bread and glue which they sniffed to help them forget about their situation… Today they can learn anew how to live in a clean and warm home, follow sound rules, acquire Christian values and find their hope for a better life.