Missions – Page 3 – No Small Talk

Persecution in Central Europe

This kind of stuff happens on smaller scales all the time throughout Central & Eastern Europe, and sometimes on larger scales but never reported. Poland, at least to this point, appears to be more tolerant, however, there is still resistance, mostly from the established church at this point. Legally it is very hard to register a protestant church in Poland, but many non-registered fellowships exist without any government intervention…

Persecution comes in many other forms though, such as propaganda from religious radio stations stating that protestant churches are running Bible camps to brain wash their children… We’ve been on the receiving end of that one… not too much of an affect though, praise God. When I lived in Poland my roommate lost his job at a college because he was simply accused of “converting” or “attempting to convert”, he simply was inviting people to our fellowship, but that was enough… poof he lost his job. Most people in Poland have begun looking other places, pray that they look at a relationship with Jesus.

Missions fundraising update.

Hi Everyone,

GREAT NEWS,

God is providing every bit, we’ve gone from needing $2,860 to just $650 for our airfare which is due at the end of this week. The next chunk is due by June 15th, which is our France piece, and we still need $1500 for that. Quick math, means we need just $22 from 100 people and we are done!

Mission fundraising update

About ten minutes ago I received an email from our travel agent, final payment for our airfare is due on May 18th (she says she can extend it, I would rather not). We’ll see what our faith in God looks like in the next week. We need about $2,050 more for the three of us. I am so happy to know that this is the last time we pay this much for airfare (since we’ll be going in the winter from now on), well maybe not the last time, but probably the last time we’ll have multiple destinations and an inflexible window. I know God will come through HE HAS ALWAYS come through. It’s my faith that is weak.

Father, give me the faith to believe in your provision. Give me the courage, and humble my pride, so that I may ask in your name for prayer from others. Thank you Lord for what you do, what you provide, and that we are 100% partners in all of this. In Jesus’ name – Amen.

Poland creating/embracing her true identity & removing past wounds

I hate it when blogger or my computer (in this case) freak out after I’ve typed at finely worded post. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. So this is take two.

I’ve been following Polish politics for a little bit, and I’m glad to see that Poland’s government is on the road to creating a real identity for their country. Poland has been lorded over, split up, been the battle field for other’s conflicts, had her people stolen, killed, mocked, and then “freed” by a regime that controlled her for nearly 50 years. It’s good to see that in these two articles that her new leaders, while not perfect, and at times overly proud, do see the importance of creating an identity that reflects Poland and not her past occupants (she’ll always have that, but moving forward with a fresh identity that embraces both history, yet removes the things that can are monuments to something which does not exsist anymore).

The first article explains what the government is doing with Nazi and Soviet monuments, the second one talks about Russia’s some-what negative reaction.

Perspective on Poland

Here is an article I found when I Googled “missions in Poland“, which gives you a huge amount of resources about missions in Poland. The article reflects much of what we have experienced, in my year of living there and our subsequent trips. Take a look, learn, and have God open your eyes to a completely different place, other than the “sexy” mission field of the 3rd world (which is in dire need of God, equally as much, just many people see it as “really” needing God, everyone needs God’s grace just as much, it’s the same Gospel for all, including the USA).

3 Min Poland Update!

I actually timed that it takes just under 3 min to read this, please do 🙂

Hello Everyone,

A quick update on our Poland & France mission trip this summer; we are experiencing God’s financial provision in his amazing ways, last month we raised another $1000 towards the trip, we now need just $2,860 (donation information below). We praise God for his work in all of this, and for the past two trips we have made with East Hill to the U-Turn summer camp to serve and disciple youth. Our excitement grows stronger with each trip, and our love for Poland, her people, and God’s heart for them, grows stronger and more compassionate with each step we take.

This is, to date, the most expensive trip we have made, and in light of this we have done some praying and thinking about future trips. We are currently in the process of applying to be mission team leaders sent out of East Hill. This means that we will be leading teams to Poland on our own, giving us much more flexibility and allowing us to dig in deeper with the relationships we are building. Please pray for us through this process, for discernment in choosing team members, and in casting our vision and passion for our future in Poland. The most exciting part is that we are tentatively building up for a much less expensive trip (currently looks like $1,200 per person, verses the $3,000 per person for this trip) in February/March of 2008. As we plan out the details of this trip we hope to communicate a more focused vision for all of you to tangibly partner in.

Blessings and thanks for your prayerful support,

If you would like to financially support us:
Just $30 from each recipient of this email would pave the way for both of us.

Look to the right for “Poland Mission Information” and click on the PayPal donation button. Sorry not tax-deductible.

For tax deductible donations:
Send a check made out to

Transparency

So last night and this morning I attended a Men

Going to Poland again… oh yeah, and a place called France.

Yes it’s that time of year again, Alexis and I are well on our way to going back to Poland again, this being our fourth time, for a total of almost 15 months now. Below you’ll find our support letter, with where are hearts are, and prayer/finanical support information. Oh yeah, we’re going with this year’s interns to France as well to serve at the European youth camp for our denomination. Our Polish friends will be there too!

You may read our support letter here.

Mission Fundraising

Okay, I’ve been such a slacker (but I don’t feel like it, it’s just there isn’t any proof otherwise, I think that’s what we call getting close to burnout)…

We need to raise $9,000 for three of us to go to France and Poland this summer (the cost seems way high to me as well, but when it’s broken down, there isn’t anything to cut out). At this point the rough estimate that we have is around $1,500.

We leave on July 26th, and return on August 17th. One week in France, the rest in Poland.

Donation info on the right!

I promise more info coming soon, and a real piece of tangible mail for those I have on file! 🙂 If you are interested let me know your address thanks!

Wish I had a secretary.

I know I can do the things that need to be done, but I just don’t want to do them, but I want them done. Things like writing support letters, printing them, stamping them, sending them, buying everything that needs to be done for them. Scheduling time with people to talk about missions. The list could go on and on, I had plenty of time to do it yesterday after work, but since it was after work I was fried and simply wanted to rest, and that I did, sort of, if you call investigating ATSC and QAM HDTV signals resting… Tonight is booked, date time with Alexis, but I feel under preasure to get this done!