Tag: Poland Missions

Post Trip review

Pretty much I summed up my trip in my post called “well“. But a few afterthoughts have made their way to my head. The first real bit one hit me last night at church, we had a special children’s service called “The shared family experience”, during the worship time I cried a few tears because I realized that the joy of God and all his goodness was truly understood in these children, and that Alexis and I will be raising our child away from such an amazing ministry. We trust that God himself will be with Emma and that such a ministry is absolutely possible in Poland, it’s just that we have an amazing church here and leaving will be just that much harder now.

I uploaded new pictures to facebook (the albums are public), see part 1 and part 2.

That’s all for now! (my birthday is tomorrow, here’s my wish list).




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Well…

This has been one of the more interesting trips I’ve made, and quite an introduction for Jordan to missions and Poland. All of our flights went well, no trouble there, except for checking in in Portland (stupid “easy checkin” wasn’t so easy because it couldn’t process my passport for our international segments) and we had to wait over 20 min to get help. After the check in was complete everything was fine, we made it to Krakow with out any trouble, all our bags, everything was good.

We stayed in Krakow until about 9pm local time and ran a few errands with Denise, ate at KFC and gave Jordan a quick low-down on ministry, poland, and the week ahead.

Our first full day (Monday) was full of moving everything from the apartment the church here has been renting to Denise’s house (about 30 min away). This made for a long day, of multiple trips in her car, she stayed at her place cleaning while we drove back and fourth with all the stuff. On the last trip of the night we loaded up a desk and a table on top of the car and attached it to the rack.

We got a bit over half-way to Denise’s house and KABOOM…. something fell off… but it didn’t fall all the way off. After we finally reached a good place to pull over (about 1/2 a mile of dragging) we realized that the table had fallen partially off and we had dragged it, one of hte bungee chords we had used to hold it on had snapped. Not only did the table fall off, it busted the passenger side far rear window (not the door window but the one behind it) and at the same time gave a few scratches to the car. To this moment we don’t quite get how this all happened, especially the angle at which the table fell, it seems it woudl’ve taken out the passenger side-view mirror instead. Anyway it’s about $190 to repair it… ouch.

So today, I got the pleasure of going to the car dearler and figuring out how to make an appointment, find out the cost, and do all of this in Polish… yay me. Thankfully there was a guy who spoke English and understood my broken Polish when English wasn’t working. It was a little challenging but a good one.

Tonight I’m meeting with my old roommate from 2003/2004 who I lived with here in Poland, he’s now married and has a daughter as well, so I’m very excited to see them and have a good conversation. This is really what I thrive to do, serving physically is all great, but the relationships, the connections, and the truth that God brings out in all of it is amazing. So with the moving piece behind us (we have one last trip tomorrow, and we did one load today) and the retreat coming up, I’m excited to see Jesus in all of it.

Keep us in your prayers, the broken window I believe is a blessing in disguise for something, not sure what yet… but it will be good. The weather is yucky, it’s pretty much hanging around 32-35 making for a nice slushy mess.

Thanks for your prayers, support, and interest in all of this… I’ll have more pictures up soon, looks like I’ll have time tomorrow to upload some good ones.




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So it takes money… and some honey.

I have been struggling with the idea of fundraising for a long time now. One part of me would like to do some tent making after we move to Poland, or find some way of supporting our selves, the other part really does not want to take time away from ministry.

So I struggle with asking for funds because I am an independent person, I struggle with not asking because my heart wants to be available for full-time ministry. The truth is that we must find a balance between being funded from outside and doing tent-making. Full-time missions and ministry will certainly become much harder in the years ahead, and I’m sure that if we are anywhere near the end-times it won’t even be possible.

I’m glad that I have skills that can be used all around the world, who knows, maybe my company will expand to Europe, maybe it won’t, but maybe I can become the remote admin or something. There’s a lot of things I could do.

Thinking back though I should also hold onto a promise we heard God tell us a few years ago, that we would be sent, with full financial and authoritative support from our church body. Right now though, that’s just a glimmer, we haven’t started any formal process, except leading small teams on short trips. What does full financial support look like? I guess that is the real question. Is it a job? Is it committed donors?

We don’t want to be independent, we want to be inter-dependent on God and his body, and the gifts he’s given us. So the honey? It’s the sweet reasurance of God’s provision and hand in the unknown. With the knowledge and faith of all that he has given and continues to provide.




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Trip update and newsletter!

Czesc! Kazdy! (chesch kashzdy, y makes an i sound as in it)
Hi! Everyone!

Yep, I know, most of you are tired of reading letters, updates, etc… I know I have a hard time reading them as well. So here’s the scoop. Please read the letter, it’s much more interesting and has information on our FUTURE beyond the short trips, but if you truly don’t have the time AND you already know our hearts, and you just want the basic information then read below and skip the letter.

When: February 16-24
Who: Travis and a friend from Arizona (as Alexis is pregnant, and baby Emma is due on March 30th!)
What: A leaders retreat, to train and equip Polish leaders in doing ministry in their own country
Where: Poland, where else? 😛
Cost: Plane tickets are purchased, we still need about $2,000 Asking for only $30 from 80 more people.

Serving our Lord with your parnership,With love,
Travis & Alexis Mielonen

Enemy-occupied territory

February trip update….

Not sure who is actually reading this these days… But I know those that do will pray and spread the word.

We have raised about $1,000 out of the $3,200 that we need. We’ll be there for 10 days in late February serving at a retreat in the snow-covered mountains in the south. Essentially we just need $20 from the 120 people that recieve my updates… I haven’t sent out an update yet… but be praying for this. Thanks!




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