How a deeply damaged and angry man found healing, hope and new life through experiencing Alpha in prison.
Krzysztof’s life started to derail when was only around eight years old. His father, a miner, died in an accident at work, leaving his mother to bring up their four children alone. Angry at the world, Krzysztof started skipping school and stealing. With his mother unable to cope, he ended up in an orphanage and then in and out of juvenile and correctional institutions where he experienced violence and cruelty.
“My childhood ended in the correctional facility,” he reflects. “My understanding of good and evil vanished. I did bad things, hurt people but felt no emotions.”
My childhood ended in the correctional facility. My understanding of good and evil vanished.
From the age of 17, he spent 30 years in and out of prison, escalating from petty theft to serious and violent crimes. He was greatly feared for his ruthlessness, both in and out of prison.
There was one soft spot in his heart, reserved for Agnieszka who he met as a 10-month-old baby, when he dated and later married her mother in a civil ceremony in prison. “When I held that baby, I felt for the first time that someone could truly love me,” he smiles. “It was thanks to the love I felt for her that I turned to God for the first time.”
Although his marriage fell apart, he and Agnieszka remained close. While he was serving a 10-year sentence for attempted murder (“a period of total madness fuelled by hatred”, as he describes it), Agnieszka, now 20, didn’t show up for one of her regular visits. Worried, he learned that she’d gone to a city known for human trafficking. He asked his criminal associates to make sure she was safe.
Increasingly desperate
Months went by with no news. Increasingly desperate, Krzysztof turned to God. “I used to mock and insult people who talked about God,” he admits, “so I was ashamed someone might catch me calling out to someone I said didn’t exist. I got up at 3am so no one would see me, and I cried out to Him in the only way I knew how (in my world, everything was about bargaining): ‘If you exist, take my life so she can live.’ And then again the next day. And again.”
He eventually found out that Agnieszka was safe but in prison, too. The whole experience shifted something in Krzysztof: he was no longer angry and aggressive, and felt drawn to joining a wood carving workshop – something he’d never done before. The prison director initially refused his request due to his violent background but eventually allowed him to try it for a week.
“That was one of the key divine moments in my life,” he reflects. Taking a damaged piece of wood from the trash, he found himself carving an image of Jesus into it. Carving became his passion, a way for him to be creative and to connect with and mentor other prisoners.
Wanted to explore faith
Although he had begun reading the Bible and wanted to explore faith, he remained distrustful of the church, refusing invitations to attend chapel or Alpha. But then he noticed changes in some young inmates who he was teaching to carve and who were attending Alpha.
I understood that I was imprisoned by hatred, the desire to possess, to dominate. God healed me completely, took the prisons out of me. I was a free man.
“They started smiling at each other and talking, and their problems seemed smaller. I asked them, ‘What’s going on at this Alpha?’” When they described the kindness and openness they were experiencing there, Krzysztof decided to join, but cautiously. He soon felt completely accepted. “I noticed that they weren’t pushing one truth – they actually listened to what others had to say. That’s what convinced me to listen and try to understand.”
It was while being prayed for at Alpha that Krzysztof experienced true transformation. “During that prayer I experienced such immense love from God and understood that I was imprisoned by hatred, the desire to possess, to dominate. God healed me completely, took the prisons out of me. I was a free man.”
Noticeable change
Krzysztof spent the rest of his sentence helping to lead Alpha among his fellow prisoners. There was such a noticeable change in him that the prison director suggested applying for early release. “I told him I didn’t even want early release because I felt so good where I was,” he comments. “I felt like I was no longer in prison at all.”
The very day after his release from prison, he returned as an Alpha volunteer. He later married Iwona, a woman with much trauma who had also spent several years in prison. Together, they have healed from their troubled pasts, and Iwona, her daughter and Agnieszka have all given their lives to Christ.
Today, as well as earning a living through his passion for carving, Krzysztof runs a retreat house, takes Alpha into prisons and detention centres, and uses Alpha to minister to addicts and homeless people. “I try to give them the love I received from God,” he says simply.
He also occasionally runs wood carving workshops for children and young people – a group who occupy an important place in his heart and who he feels blessed to work with.
“People entrust me, not just with youth but with children. That’s the difference between the old Krzysztof, who was completely lost as a child, and the man God found at the worst possible moment, full of hatred, and filled me with love and healing.
“Thanks to Alpha, I got to know the Lord Jesus. And that’s why I can work with children and youth today. I want to help them, to stop them going down the same road I did.”
