Michal “Mike” Dawidow, Memorial
From 1978 until 1991, Mike and Molly lived in Vienna, Austria, where Mike published a periodical in the Polish language, began a local work with Eastern European refugees, facilitated Bible distribution efforts behind the Iron Curtain, was speaker for a weekly “World Radio Poland” program and did itinerant preaching in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania.
In 1981, Mike, Bill McDonough and Don Yelton spearheaded the Polish Relief effort that delivered more than $2 million worth of food, clothing and medical supplies to churches, hospitals and orphanages over a period of three years. During this time Mike negotiated with officials in Warsaw for Churches of Christ to be given legal rights to exist within the borders of the then-Polish People’s Republic.
After the fall of communism, because of his experience in relief work, Churches of Christ called on Mike to organize convoys of humanitarian aid to Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and the former Soviet republics. Tons of food, supplies, medicine and Bibles were transported to these nations, paving the way for the establishment of permanent works on the heels of his relief efforts.
Bible distribution efforts that Mike organized in Czechoslovakia were the basis of several works that continue there today.
In 1991, Mike and Molly moved to Poland to work with the Sopot Church of Christ until the present time. Mike oversaw the construction of a multi-functional church center which today is a hub of activity in Sopot, providing meeting space for the church, a children’s Bible program, two full semesters of Bible classes in English each year and the hosting of various community activities.
Mike was a dedicated servant, a powerful preacher and a faithful minister of the Word.
He is survived by his wife, Molly, whom he loved with all his heart, his adoring daughter, Annabelle, and two brothers, Boguslaw of Sopot and Warsaw, Poland, and Marek of Bartlett, Tenn. He was preceded in death by his beloved son, Michael Ray “Mikey,” in 2011.
Funeral services were at the Sopot Church of Christ on July 20, with Ed Wharton of Lubbock and Marek Dawidow of Bartlett, Tenn., officiating. Burial was in the family crypt in Sopot alongside his paternal grandparents, his parents and his son, Mikey.
Molly and Annabelle plan to remain in Poland and continue the work of the Sopot English Bible School.
