food for fish

Hey everyone,

Well Alexis and I are almost packed, just a few things to put away before we head to the airport tomorrow morning! Thanks for all of your prayers, financial support, and simply being our friends! While we are in France and Poland we'll be seeing many of our friends there, many whom we only see about once a year. Our hearts are to encourage them in their faith and walk with God. As Paul says in Romans 1:12 (NLT) - "I'm eager to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. In this way, each of us will be a blessing to the other."

We are still in need of financial support, all of the bare minimum things are paid for, such as transportation and lodging, and food for most of the trip. However, due to a strong Euro and weaker US Dollar, and an unanticipated two night hotel stay in Lyon (due to overbooking at the camp's location) our team is short by about 1,000 Euros (that's $1,370.8996). We know God will provide for us, if it's through people's donations or through provisions in other ways we are confident that God's will is at hand. Any amount would help us in offsetting this deficit for the rest of the team.

Thanks again!

To donate please send a check payable to "Mission Dispatch" and put "Mielonen" on the memo line. OR donate via PayPal on the right!

Mission Dispatch
RE: Travis & Alexis Mielonen
21911 76th Ave W., Suite 211
Edmonds, WA 98026

Thanks!

For everyone who hasn't seen our house, we've uploaded a tour to You Tube. It's a mega blessing, that I'll post the story to soon.



In other news, we leave for our mission trip on Thursday!

In spring of 2004 I had the opportunity to go to our denominational meeting for Europe, it just so happened to be in Emmeton (I think I butchered the spelling), Switzerland (near Luzerne). During that time I was privileged to hear from the outgoing European leadership, who were Americans living in Frankfurt, Germany. The Shaws had been living in Germany for 16 years, first as missionaries to plant churches in Germany, than as the head of Foursquare Europe.

I was driving to the next town, about 20 minutes from where I lived in Zakopane, Poland and listening to a CD that a friend had sent me, of this group that at the time I had never heard of called "Casting Crowns". Then it happened, track three came on "Voice of truth".

You see I was by my self that week, the missionaries I was helping were off in Switzerland for a sabbatical. I was on my way to pick up a couple of people for our Wednesday night meeting with young adults. Earlier in the day a number of people had pretty much cancled, and the two I was going to pick up weren't even really sure they wanted to be there. I was very upset, and when that song came on it's like a flood gate of emotions came out. I so badly wanted these friends of mine to understand the relationship that Jesus wants with them. I also was feeling rejection, unqualified, and not so motivated to be in a place that seemed so dray, so unforgiving, and uninteretsed in the ONE that I love without condition.

On that day I learned a valuable lesson, that Jesus is the voice of truth, I can not let the opinions, actions, and words of people sway the calling on my life. In the short year that I was there I went from being very excited and optimistic, to down right depressed. Yet God was quietly spoke the truth of who he was calling me to be. Although I ranted and raved and told God I hated the country, He created an even bigger passion than I thought I could ever have, and I love Poland, her people, her history, and everything about her in a way that only God could ever lay on a person's heart. Alexis is right here with me in the same boat reading the same page, it's a journey and a promise bigger than us, keeping us humble for his service.

Hello everyone,

I am now on facebook.com, so much better than MySpace, I never enjoyed being subjected to random pictures of human anatomy. I'm not abandoning this thing at all, in fact, I'm just enhancing this blogs presence by joining facebook. It is here, and here alone where I will write my thoughts, share our stories about Poland and missions, and continue to encourage others.

Our online presence is growing, we're now on blogger, MySpace, Facebook, and You Tube... Our you tube profile doesn't have much in it yet, but soon it will have our wedding video, a tour of our place here in Gresham, and when we return, tid bits from our upcoming trip.

So stand by....

I've noticed something about people, we either react to choices or we respond. Those who react, normally leave a wake of "drama drama drama" behind them, and those who respond, leave a trail of wisdom.

We all know that life throws crazy things at us, deaths, divorces, unmet expectations. We all know the people that have reacted or do react poorly to these kinds of things. These are the ones that have the tendency to get up and leave, they drop their commitments, never to be heard of again, if so it's long afterwards and "as if it never happened" they are hard to trust, and even harder to know.

Then we have the people who respond, they take these crazy times, and yes maybe they react at first, but then they take the opportunity to grow through it. They stick it through with patient endurance and cling onto the promises in life that God has given them. It is these people who can be trusted when nothing else makes sense, when life is falling apart, even around them, they can minister to the heart of another broken person, because they've put their faith in the Lord.

I've been on both sides of the fence, many times. When life gets rocky, I dig in, but sometimes I just want to run. However, these past four years have taught me an invaluable lesson, always move forward with what God has told me. The second I stop, is the second that I lose motivation, and meaning. Sure, if I react and do a quick "course correction" in order to gain stability, life seems okay, but soon I realize that my calling is to be in his grace and not in my own works.

Alexis and I are slowing gaining momentum in our missions plans. This coming March/February we'll be going back to Poland, and only Poland, with possibly 8 others. This is great because it allows us to begin creating a network of people, to serve, and to serve with. As more people begin to see our vision for Poland the momentum will gain.

There is another couple who have been instrumental in the entire Poland process since day one, they have created a new initiative called "12x12" which is to have 12 new church plants by the year 2012 in Europe, specifically Germany, Poland, and Holland. They want to help build up leaders, train, equip, and release them to do ministry in their homelands... sounds familiar, it is, this is what Alexis and I have been saying all along about Poland. This couple is teaming up with us right here in our home church, along with their vision and skills, we can see that God is bringing all kinds of people together to build His church.

We will soon be fundraising year round, it's huge, it's way bigger than us. Best of all it is so exciting and we know and are confident in our direction, the details are coming into place, and the support base is building. Thanks for all your prayers and support, in both finances, and in wisdom.

Sometimes I get stuck on coming up with a title for these blog posts... which then detours me from even starting a post. Anyway, recently I have been feeling a lot of "wow" moments, moments where God is very real. As real as if He were right there with me giving me a picture of his perspective. The funny thing is that I can't recall a single one of those right now.... it's frustrating, but I'm okay with it too because I know He's there.

There is a lot that I could say wow too, but when God gives you his perspectiv, there isn't much to say, except "wow".

Alexis and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary this past weekend (yesterday was the actual day), it was great! We went to Seaside and Cannon Beach both in Oregon and loved it, the weather was pretty good, although a little overcast (while Portland was baking, today it's reaching 100!). I'll post pictures as soon as I think about it, I didn't even think of using my phone to post pictures and videos, we were just having that much fun :P



Thanks for all your prayers and support, see you later!



PS. We leave for France/Poland on the 26th, just a couple of weeks! We've fund raised $8,000 of the $9,000 we need, the rest is coming out of our own pockets, hopefully a few more donations come in so our time in Poland is free of money stress. Thanks again!