Month: July 2003

Although Alexis, Justin, Ryan P, Leah A, and many other friends I would love to spend this time with, won’t be there. I will, and I’m excited!

Switchfoot, Newsboys, Michael W. Smith, Third Day, Audio Adrenaline, Sixpence, Mercy Me, Relient K, FFH, Paul Coleman Trio, Pax 217, Lincoln Brewster, Superchic[k], All Together Separate, Jeremy Camp, Sanctus Real, Kutless, The Elms, Tree 63, and Paul Baloche are all going to be there! Along w/ a lot of others, but those are all the ones I wana see. So, I’m ready? a little over a week and I’ll be takin in the light of Creation 2003 at the Gorge Amphitheater!

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice–the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

As God’s messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us has different work to do. And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others.

God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out when you have faith that God is speaking through you. If your gift is that of serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, do a good job of teaching. If your gift is to encourage others, do it! If you have money, share it generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

Don’t just pretend that you love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful. When God’s children are in need, be the one to help them out. And get into the habit of inviting guests home for dinner or, if they need lodging, for the night.

If people persecute you because you are a Christian, don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. When others are happy, be happy with them. If they are sad, share their sorrow. Live in harmony with each other. Don’t try to act important, but enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable.

I couldn’t say it better myself. So now i’m going to Matt’s house.

I’m bored and tired, and I’m not motivated to do what I should? I should go ride my bike, and I should read my bible (which I’m going to right now). Alexis is having a girl’s night out with her friend, so I’m just kind of here. I’ll see her tomorrow.

So there we were (Matt and I) sitting in my living room, and Mouse (the black cat) gets up on top of his bag. We think “Oh that silly cat, she’s always getting into bags”? then we think “Oh? hmm her ears are stuck back like she’s using the litter box or something, that’s weird”? “Umm? she just got off the bag and is turning around to sniff where she was just sitting”? Complete side-splitting laughter comes from our apartment, as Matt inspects his bag, and sure enough Mouse peed into his bag!! Mouse belongs to my roommate Eric… go figure.

So later on, after group and all that special stuff? Alexis, Eric (my roommate) and I are at her house, and her dad gets back from the airport. Apparently a friend of his had died, so the tickets he had for him and his girlfriend to the John Mayor/Counting Crows show tomorrow are now available, so he offers them to us. YEAH BABY! So? we will be driving to the gorge tomorrow, how fun is that! Awesome.

I’ve been reading a lot of Romans lately, I am loving it, and I’ve never read through Romans before. No wonder it’s a lot of people’s favorite books of the bible, its great! God is so good? So good.

So since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does this mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you have obeyed with all your heart the new teaching God has given you. Now you are free from sin, your old master, and you have become slaves to your new master, righteousness.

[Romans 6:15-18]

We get to choose how we live our lives, we can choose to sin, which leads to unhappiness, and the death of our spirit. Or we can choose to please God, which leads to joy and fills our spirit.

I just have to say that I am loving my quiet times, this is the first time in my life I have actually gone longer than a week of study quiet times? it is great. The exercise (spiritually and physically) is feeling great. I highly recommend something similar.

Hi there on the other side of the Big Pond Travis,

How are you doing? Are excited about spending a year in Poland? I bet you are.

Well, first let me introduce myself. My name’s Krzysztof (you can call me Chris) and if everything goes well we will have a chance to get to know each other pretty well (inside out frankly). Why? I’ll tell you in a sec.

Once upon a time, actually a year ago I decided to spend a year in the south of Poland in order to find out God’s will for me. In Nowy Targ I met Carol and Denise and started working with them becoming more and more involved in projects, group meetings, Bible studies and so on. My spiritual side received a boost never seen before. God started working miracles with the circle of people grouped around Carol and Denise’s seven-year-long missionary work. Suddenly, within a year, a pretty loose group started acting as one body commiting their time and effort to something bigger than just regular meetings to study and pray. I looked with awe at the hand of God working in the midst of us. Through intimate meetings with God, spiritual growth, my ministry, confirmation from leaders, circumstances I came to believe that God wanted me to stay and help Carol and Denise. I struggled with that for quite a while, because from the purely worldly perspective it would have been against logic. However, God did not give up on molding my character towards reaching the right decision. Two weeks ago I announced my final decision to everyone: “I’m going back to the mountains for as long as God wants me to stay”. Right now I’m still in Bydgoszcz, which is roughly an eight-hour drive away from Nowy Targ. But in September I am moving into a place that God has for us because we’re gonna live together. I think it’s cool ‘cos we’re both gonna be missionaries working for the same church though we don’t know each other. I’ll do my best to save you the culture shock and to help you assimilate. I can cook a thing or two and I have an MA in English so you’ll be able to speak your lingo though in Poland. I spent a year in the US so I know your culture a bit too. I think it’s going to be an enriching experience I’m really looking forward to spending a year with you. By the way, I’m 62. I know you’re 24 so we may have some age discrepancy there, I’m kidding I’m 26 and I know quite a crowd of Christian friends our age around so your mission is not going to be only sweat and tears 🙂

Okey dokey, gotta go now. Take care and courage. Everything’s gonna be fine. We’re so looking forward to meeting and working with you. I would appreciate if you could drop me a line about your story. So far I know you’re Travis, 24, male, computer programmist, Christian, and cool-that’s all I know. You can also ask me any question and I’ll be more than happy to answer.

Ps. I have a car, Honda Civic (not a brand new one but with quite some character). It’s a stick. If you bring your driver’s licence I’ll share it with you.

God bless you friend

Chris

I corrected him, that i’m 21 not 24 and that i’m a system (network) engineer not a programmer… small details, nothing big.

CO DATE CITY-AIRPORT TIME FLIGHT NBR/CLASS ST SERV/AMNT

— —- ———— —- —————- — ———

A SA 06SEP LV SEATTLE 210P UNITED 938V OK LUNCH

AR CHICAGO-OHARE 754P 0STOP 767

ARRIVE TERMINAL 1

UA CONFO *X5RX6M

A SA 06SEP LV CHICAGO-OHARE 1000P LUFTHANSA 433V OK

07SEP AR FRANKFURT 125P 0STOP JET

DEPART TERMINAL 1

ARRIVE TERMINAL 1

LH CONFO *2RWD3F

A SU 07SEP LV FRANKFURT 620P LUFTHANSA 6968V OK BEVERAGE

AR KRAKOW 800P 0STOP 737

OPERATED BY LOT POLISH

DEPART TERMINAL 1

LH CONFO *2RWD3F

Basically I leave Seattle on the 6th of September, stop in Chicago at 7:54pm leave Chicago at 10pm arrive in Frankfurt, Germany at 1:25p on the 7th, then leave Frankfurt at 6:20pm, and finally arrive at Krakow, Poland at 8:00PM then drive an hour and a half to Nowytarg, Poland. My return flight is currently booked for March 24th, but I’ll have to change that when the time comes around, because Airlines don’t allow you to book a flight over 11months… so no biggy, it’s $100 to change, so my total cost (including taxes) comes to $1050 which is not bad at all, compared to the $1200 I was quoted, and that was before the change fee and the taxes.

I just read Hebrews eight and nine; and in my bible they are titled “The new covenant is greater than the old ? Christ is our High Priest” and “Old rules about worship”. Christ came to make the final sacrifice, so that in our hearts we could worship God instead of doing mindless sacrifices. Read it and know.

I believe it is so important to understand this, so that we can really show people who do not follow Christ, that we are called to live free lives, not lives full of religious rules, but lives which worship God because of his grace and mercy.

Dear Friend,

I would like to share with you something I’ve read recently?

She was sitting opposite me, head tipped back like mine. She had figured I wasn’t Polish and so said across the room “hi”. It was nice when my English bubble extended beyond myself, so I started talking with her – slowly and simply, as she struggled with her vocabulary.

I thought I was asking her a question with one of those girly answers: “So, what are you having done here today?” Her eyes welled up in tears; she wasn’t at the hairdressers for the same reason as me. Her friend had been killed in a drink-driving car crash and she wanted to look her best as a pallbearer that afternoon. She wanted to have coffee with me the next day and talk some more.

We ended up having coffee, dessert and McDonald’s lots of times together over the next few weeks. She enjoyed my company, and loved practicing her English. It seemed she had it all: young, tall, slim, gorgeous, deeply tanned, access to loads of money, beauty treatments, stacks of friends in fast cars… you name it. All along, I kept asking God what he was wanting me to do. I don’t recall him saying much at all, which was quite frustrating.

Until one cool summer’s day over lunch…

I happened to be wearing my favorite grey polar fleece vest, one of my two warm tops I had in Poland, and she remarked on how nice it was. We continued with small talk for a while, and I remember clearly God saying to me to give her the top. I sat there, squirming, mind racing — I loved that top and she had plenty more nice clothes than me. But I knew I needed to do this, somehow God was in this and he knew more than I did.

So I asked her to try the top on and she fit it perfectly. Once she had it on, I said it was hers to keep. For a while she protested and I insisted. And then the tears began falling from her face, and I had no clue why.

We hugged goodbye later that day. She was desperate to go out and buy me something in return and meet up with me the next day to explain some things to me with the aid of a translator friend of mine.

When we met up again, she was obviously still deeply moved by the gift. And for the first time since we met, she wanted to talk about something of real substance. She wanted to share her inner sadness and pain, her story and her anger at God for allowing things to happen. An 18 year old girl who seemed to have lived through so much.

All this opening up because of one grey polar fleece vest?

She told me why she was so emotional, “you are the first person to give me something without first wanting something from me.” She told me how her friends, lovers, everyone, used her for her money, or her body. She couldn’t believe I wanted to be her friend and give her something; it was totally foreign to her. We talked about God and how much he cares for her, and my Polish friend shared her testimony in Polish, with obvious similarities. I got to pray with her and give her a bible, but most importantly, I know for sure that God was working in her life, and would continue to pursue her and get past her perfect image she portrayed. I think about her often, look at the photos of us together and remember that moment when God asked me to do something seemingly ridiculous.

I desperately need to keep listening for those moments.

[Source: cre8d Journal]

Stories like this one help me understand why God is calling me to Poland. The doors are opening, and anxiety grows stronger, but I will be leaving on September 6th to live in Poland for a year. During my time there I will be leading a young men’s bible study, and helping with a young adults group for a newly starting church in Nowytarg, Poland. While I’m away I will be celebrating holidays for the first time away from Seattle, this is huge in my life. But I know it is where God wants me to be, it is going to be a time of growth, physically, emotionally, and spiritually where I can learn to depend on God, and learn to serve him and people. My heart is incredibly anxious to show, live, and tell about God’s awesome plan for our lives, known as the good news of Jesus Christ.



For me to live there, it will cost roughly $750/month; which is pennies compared to how much I need to survive here at home. If you do the math, it comes out to just 75 people faithfully donating $10/month for a year, or 37.5 people donating $20/month for a year. That’s like not going to Red Robin once or twice a month. Out of all ways of supporting though, your prayers are the most important. Thank you for your time, prayers, and support.

For Him,

Travis

———————————————————–

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Monthly Contribution amount: $_______

Contribution start date: ____/______/______

Contribution end date: _____/_____/_______

Day of month contribution will be sent: _______

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Travis Mielonen

C/O Mission Dispatch

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Edmunds, WA 98020

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So, Leah pops up online, in a username I didn?t know was her?s, but that?s okay. She suggests I look at Travel Cuts, which is a travel agency for students and youth (under 26). Well I look it up, do a little research and call them, and I now have a ticket (pending my deposit into my Poland account) for Krakow, Poland for a mere $799 which is way better compared to the $1200 I was told a while back by an airline. So, praise God. Thank you Leah!