Insight for Living Ministries Poland
In 2008, Zygmunt Karel met Pastor Chuck and Cynthia Swindoll at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). Shortly thereafter, Insight for Living Ministries (IFLM) Poland was born. He immediately started translating Pastor Chuck’s sermons into Polish, and by 2009, the office was open. Then, in 2011, Pelnia Zycia aired, being the first Polish Bible-teaching radio program broadcast from within Poland. In 2013, Jakub Cieslar became executive director of IFLM Poland to handle office logistics, freeing Zygmunt to translate Pastor Chuck’s messages and prepare for Searching the Scriptures pastor-training sessions. In 2021, Zygmunt’s son, Marcin, was handed the baton of executive director, building on the foundation that Jakub laid.
More than 41 million people from 46 different countries speak Polish as their primary language. But wherever they live, they can receive solid, practical Bible teaching in their heart language through IFLM Poland’s media channels.
Zygmunt and Maria Karel
Zygmunt, who at age five witnessed communists beat his father for preaching the gospel in Poland, will never forget gathering with his family afterward and lifting their voices in prayer for their persecutors. His father’s inextinguishable faith remains aflame in Zygmunt. He has pastored churches since 1971 and holds multiple advanced degrees in theology.
In 1990, while Poland was still under communism, he helped establish Biblical Theological Seminary in Wrocław with Mark Young. Zygmunt served as the seminary’s president until 2005. Today, Biblical Theological Seminary is the only fully accredited evangelical, interdenominational seminary in Poland. After a stint pastoring Polish speakers in Brooklyn, New York, Zygmunt returned to Poland to found IFLM Poland, and considers it a privilege to introduce Polish-speakers to God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
Zygmunt and his wife, Maria, have been married more than fifty years. They relish time with their children and grandchildren. He says of IFLM Poland: “We exist for one reason: we want people to get to know the Bible and, through the Bible, to get to know Christ.”