food for fish

This is just one of the many clock towers in Bern, the capitol city of Switzerland, it snowed the day we came in. Did you know that Switzerland has no president or prime minister; they have a group of seven people which act as the executive branch of their government.


Here we are in front another of the clock towers. From left to right � Annia (our children�s pastor), Denise (one of the missionaries from Seattle), Paulina (a Polish girl from our church, doing an internship in one of the Swiss foursquare churches), and me.


Just an upwards view at a typical Swiss (and most of western Europe) courtyard and style.


A view from one of the bridges crossing the river which goes through the city (I forget the name of the river), I loved the feel and look of the Swiss cities.


A church clock tower and residences in the �old town� of Bern.


More of the �old town�, the house we stayed in was about 230 years old, it was huge, and very beautiful, sorry I didn�t get any pictures of it.

One of the �Bern� Bears, the city was named after the first animal the founder killed in the area, which was a Bear; �Bern� is bear in Swiss-German.


A typical street view in the city of Bern, I can�t tell you enough how much I enjoyed Switzerland, I definitely want to visit again.


A statue in the city hall of �Basel� the second largest city in Switzerland, of about 480k people. Another very nice city, we were here just to visit some of the youth pastors in a Foursquare church there.


The �Poland� team standing in front of the Basel city hall. From left to right � Carol (the other Seattle missionary), Annia, Me, and Denise.


I guess the speed setting on my camera was wrong, and so this picture came out kinda funky, but I like it. The lady in black is Sylvia, she is one of the Swiss youth pastors in the Basel Foursquare church.


There was a city-wide carnival happening in Basel the day we visited (which was the same day we left Switzerland, the Ferris Wheel you see is one of the largest in the world, it is 160 feet high at its highest point. It is placed at the highest point in the city, so we took a ride, and the views were great�


Here is one of the pictures from the top of the city.


A church which was in the same square as the Ferris wheel.


Another picture from the Ferris wheel.


A view across the �old town� of Basel from the Ferris wheel.


A view looking down.


A picture overlooking the city and the �Rhine� river.


Another view down.


This is kind of a cool picture, in our workshop for Youth leaders back in Bern, for the conference, Denise talked about taming the wild horse in youth, and focusing that energy into a positive life changing energy, just as a horse trainer uses a choral to train the horse, the church should be an area for learning, teaching, and training for teenagers. Plus the trainer makes a relationship with the horse, just as we should invest the time and care as a horse trainer does for the youth. So, the picture is of a �wild horse� balloon which escaped the hands of some child, to meet heaven.


A picture on one of the ferries across the Rhine river. Left to right � Carol, Sylvia, and Prisca from the Basel foursquare church.


A picture from the ferry, I tweaked it because it didn�t turn out very good, so I made it look artistic.


A better picture of the same view.


From the ferry looking up at the Ferris wheel.


Sylvia and Prisca with the Ferris wheel in the background from the ferry.


A very cool water fountain in down-town Basel, I antiqued it, since it was too dark otherwise.


This is about 12 hours into our trip home, a view of the Tatr mountains in Slovakia.


There it is a glimpse of Switzerland! It was truly an amazing time, I truly thank God for the believers in Switzerland, they are so supporting� and I hate to say, but even more so than our connections in the States� (as for Carol and Denise that is, my connections still have time to prove themselves� j/k) The Swiss believers are incredibly dedicated to helping us plant our church, and providing us the ability to make relationships for our young people. I truly feel like there is a family here amongst the believers, even though they are separated by 15 hours (by car)� if that can happen here, it can happen anywhere, even around the world. Thank you for your prayers, support, and simply maintaining the communication with me.

Sorry not to mention to everyone that I was going to be in Switzerland the past couple of days. It�s been really busy around here. Anyway, GOD is so good. Switzerland was an amazing time, lots of fellowship, good things to hear, great worship (even though it was in German), and simply a great time of being spiritually fed. The reason we went to Switzerland was to join in on the Foursquare Switzerland National Conference, which was in Bern, the capitol city of Switzerland. I�ll post pictures as soon as I recover from the �driving lag�, it took us about 15 hours to drive.. First from Zakopane to Bern and back�. We drove straight through, first we went south from Zakopane Poland, to Bratislava Slovakia, then we headed west in Vienna Austria, then we cut through the southeast corner of Germany in Innsbruck, went through the southern portion of Austria and the Austrian Alps, which at one point we drove through a 14 KM tunnel, then we crossed into Switzerland and down southwest to Bern. Switzerland is a beautiful country, I felt very at home, especially since I was able to go to Starbucks, TWICE, while I was there, and I have a free drink waiting for me the next time (they forget about my drink, and so they gave me a free drink, but only in Switzerland, oh darn�). Well, like I said I�m recovering, so I�ll write more, and post pictures when I�m up to it.

Today it down poured on my way to the English school. When I left it was okay, it looked like the rain had just stopped, but nope, it was just beginning. By the time I was 5 min into my walk, it was pouring, and I didn�t have an umbrella, because I couldn�t find it, and I wasn�t wearing my rain jacket because I was running late and had already put on to other jackets to stay warm. By the time I made it to the school I was drenched, water was dripping down my face into my eyes, my hair was completely soaked, but thankfully the Banana Republic jacket I bought just before I left worked very well at keeping me dry. The teaching time was okay, I had a little bit of trouble motivating the students to talk, or read, they don�t volunteer for anything, and I hate choosing someone to read. But I think things are getting better and they are realizing that I don�t think of them any less, just because they are students (which is something pretty normal in Poland and a lot of Europe, not just Eastern Europe either).

Then on my way back home (which is about a 30 min walk) the rain had thankfully stopped, but I was bothered by two drunk beggars, one of which seemed to get quite upset that I didn�t speak Polish, and tried to follow me, but I just walked faster. When I got home I was freezing, but at least the heat has been on, at who knows what cost to us, because we still don�t have coal so we are still using the electric furnace, which everyone says is going to cost us an arm and leg, but its not up to me to get the coal thing going, since I sorta don�t speak the language. So, I wasn�t in the best of moods, and I decided I wanted to eat something, like a meal. But I don�t want to upset Chris by eating something which is designated �dinner�, he�s been a little stressed lately and doesn�t like things to be out of �wack�, such as food that he thought was there, being gone. So, I decided I�ll just have some toast and whatever else I can find. Well I tried to cut myself a few slices, and it is the most frustrating thing when your hungry and you just can�t cut bread into slices with out them breaking apart into pieces which won�t go into a toaster. So I just took the pieces and put jam on them, I was very frustrated. So, now I�m making French fries, but because we don�t have a microwave, I�m using the oven, which is okay, but it takes a lot longer.

Basically I�m complaining, some things are beginning to get on my nerves. The way people think around here is so confusing to me. For instance, we are trying to reserve a hotel for this pastor�s retreat we are hosting� well the hotel receptionist on the first day didn�t seem to have any problem� then on the second day, the day we are suppose to make our deposit, another receptionist says, well I don�t know if this is going to work because we are painting some of the rooms. Then the receptionist looks at us, as if we are suppose to solve the problem. We tell them, well, if it isn�t going to work then just tell us� we are thinking �Do they want our business or not?�� The receptionist looks at us baffled, and says �I�ll need to call them and see if they can move your rooms around�� why? We don�t know. So we took the papers, didn�t make the deposit, and decided we�ll talk to the management ourselves. This is pretty typical business thinking� basically not being able to make a business decision, or accommodate the customer. Anyway, all of this is stretching me, my patience for one, I haven�t lost it, but surely it's being used.

So now, i'm enjoying my french fries and tarter sauce.

I don�t know how Carol and Denise do it, what do I mean by �do it�? Well, get enough fellowship, worship, and good Christian �food�. I�m feeling pretty low these days, some days are better than others, some moments are better than others, but overall, its just not what I�m use to. Which, that is exactly why I�m here, what I get here, is 100 times more than what other Christians in other parts of the world get, and what I got in Seattle was 1000 times more than what I get here� And you know what�s crazy? Seattle is one of the most �unchurched� cities in the USA, and by unchurched all that means is people who don�t attend any kind of �worship� or �religious� service, it�s doesn�t mean just �Christian�. But how to make it enough? How do I keep myself from going crazy with starvation? I�m not quite sure, but I have a good feeling God is going to show me. The hardest things for me are two of the most important things to me. One is worship, around here it is very hard for me to worship, one because it isn�t in English, and two, it just isn�t full of the same emotion I am use to, I want to express my love and adoration to God in ways which the environment just isn�t allowing. Some of it is me, being conservative around people I can�t communicate with, and the other part of it is, the language barrier, and songs I�m not use to. Worship just isn�t music though, thankfully. It is so much more, it�s my entire lifestyle, and musical worship is only 25% of the entire �worship� deal, and the other 75% I�m doing pretty well. The second thing I�m dealing with is a good message which speaks to my heart, the messages we share with others, have been helpful in reassuring me of who I am in Christ, but they are not helping me to grow in Christ. I�m very excited for me to receive some tapes from Mill Creek, that will be a huge blessing, hopefully they come before I go to Switzerland on Wednesday. Anyway, those are my current struggles.

But I do have some triumphs, they are not as clean cut as the struggles, but I�m sure in a few weeks, I�ll be able to clearly see them. I am beginning to clearly see the direction God is giving us, which is to personally make meaningful relationships with the people here. With these relationships, we can open their hearts to God, and to letting Jesus not only be there Savior, but also their Lord, and let him take their hardships. The young adults group is in a desperate need of understanding that Jesus will make them a new person, if they let him. They must let go of the things in their lives which keep them bound to sin, or to unhealthy feelings about themselves.

Please pray for the young men in our group, currently there are only three on a regular occasion, me, Chris (my awesome roommate), and Piotrek (not the one I asked for prayer earlier), and each of us are in a healthy growing relationship with God. Men play an important role in the Polish society, and if we can disciple some good strong Godly men, we can certainly help make a difference, especially when it comes to this strongly male dominated culture. Please pray that each of us (everyone here) are fed appropriately, can worship God freely in their own personal way, and is able to truly disciple others into a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. Thanks!

Imagine this: A kind of time lapse video, with dramatic music, sometimes fast, other times slow, it�s in color, but its not �real� coloring, it�s like someone did a water color, then oil painted, its colored by humans in some way.

The video starts out overlooking a huge prairie, with mountains on all sides of it, the grass is about knee high, and is lightly blowing in the breeze. There is a guy just walking through the grass, enjoying nature. From a distance comes the sound of drums, many of them, all drumming in sync. The drumming is getting closer, soon the sound of many people marching in sync is heard. He sees them aproaching, they are all dressed in black uniforms, their faces are covered, and not an inch of skin is showing. They move at a steady pace, not slowing, and not quickening.

He soon realizes it is an army. He starts to quickly walk the other direction, then out of the edge of the forest; more appear, this time on horse back. The army is surrounding him, but they are only moving at a walking pace. The guy starts to walk faster to an opening; the army begins to move faster, he moves faster, they move faster. Soon he is at a full run, he�s trying to get away, but he has no help. The army soon surrounds him, they are silent except for the sounds of their breathing, which is heavy and deep. The leader approaches the young man. He motions to him to step closer, with seemingly no way out, he does as instructed. He feels helpless, the leader tempts the man into going with them, where he can experience all kinds of great pleasures. The man knows these pleasures will never fully satisfy him. He remembers something his father once told him �ask in my name what you need, and you will receive�. So, the young man calls out his fathers name, and asks for him to rescue him. Soon a bright light comes from the heavens, trumpets are heard, and thousands of men on white horses wearing unimaginably white uniforms race out of the heavens, in full armor, prepared for war. The black army prepares for battle.

The leader drags the man off towards the mountains. The leader of the white army, the man�s father, suddenly appears in front of their path. The young man is full of joy, but his father gives tells him to make the choice, who to go with. His body tells him to go for the pleasures, his heart wants to be with his father. The father tells the man to be strong. The man fails, he is weak, he gives in to the temptations of his body, and evil desires to have pleasure now. His father sadly, lets the leader take him away to the mountains.

From the mountains, the man falls down in despair, screams out to his father �Come rescue me, for I have forsaken you�. The white army, comes gloriously into the mountain depths. The father approaches his son and says �are you going to fight for me now?� the son says �Yes Father, honor and glory to you forever�, �Then join my army and fight�. The son becomes a solider for his own father, he fights the black army side by side of all the others of the kingdom of his father. He cries out to his father �The cry of my heart is for all the nations to be with you, for you are good, you are compassionate, you are glorious�. From that day forward, the young man fought for the kingdom of his father, distant shores and the islands saw the light as it rose on his father�s kingdom.

Take a little tour of my site, please. I have all kinds of useful information on my sidebar... Visit some of the blogs I read under "departures", or jot down my contact information, maybe make a donation if you feel lead to. Anything, I�m just letting ya'll know its there.

In other news, Alexis called me today! If you want to, you can too, take note of the phone number on the sidebar, and the times.

Prayer requests:

Pray for our ministry here to always keep in mind the effect and love we must make on others, sometimes we can get caught up in the culture issues, and forget why we are here.

Also, pray for a guy named "Piotrek" or "Peter" he isn't a Jesus freak, yet, but he's asking all kinds of questions, and coming to our meetings, he said to us "I'm looking for God", and he's talked to the Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, etc., and he really feels welcomed and encouraged in our group, and he loves that we allow him to ask questions, and really see who God's character is. He's a intellectual, he has had a hard family life, and is having a hard time with understanding that Money and Success is not what Christianity is all about, he sees America as "Christian" and therefore our "riches" are because we are "Christian" and God is blessing is... which in some cases is true, but he also knows that the USA is dishonest in a lot of its actions, and that people are very greedy sometimes, and why don't Americans take care of the rest of the world... we are Christian, so this is what we should do... He doesn't quite understand that Americans are not all Christian... and the majority are not.

We truly want to see God's kingdom expanded, and his blessing on the people of Poland. We want these people to be free of the hurts of their pasts, and the bitterness which comes from being a "second world nation", they are proud people, but only by their own will, which is makes them stubborn. This is very general though, and many of them are also, open, and really looking outside of their culture. So thanks, and i'll have more to come later this week.

God Bless!

This was taken only five min. ago! And now we have big flakes, and lots of them. But the batteries in my camera have died... and the charger unit is fried... so i'll have to go buy new batteries.

Here I am sitting at my desk, in my little abode, in Zakopane, Poland. I finally have a phone line, so I now have dial-up internet access, hopefully with DSL coming soon. I wish my friends were online, but that�s okay� I don�t really expect them to be up in the middle of the night. So here I am, writing away, because frankly I just don�t know what else to do� well� I could go read a couple of the books I have, I could talk to my roommate but he�s correcting papers or something (he�s a prof at a local college), I could sit at my desk and write on my blog� yeah that�s what I�ll do. Oh I guess I�m already doing that� sorry I forgot.

So for real now. My roommate joked how �it was nice to meet you�, because since we�ve gotten our phone line, I�ve been at the computer, but I needed to do some important things� like get Alexis cell phone working again, post my newsletter, and read all my friend�s blogs� of which I didn�t quite finish because there is too much to read on some of them, so I decided to just start from today, and I�ll keep track from now on.

Some thoughts: One � Seattle is absolutely the nicest city I know� even still after traveling all around Poland and Slovakia� there have been some cool cities, of which I�ve taken some cool pictures, of which I�ll post some today, and the rest later when we have DSL. Two � It is hard to be fed (as in being fed the word of God), when you are one of the leaders in a church, in a foreign land, where you don�t speak the language, and compared to home this place is like a planet with no atmosphere in terms of spirituality. Three � I think I�ve grown a lot since I got here, so I know I have a lot more to do. I don�t thin I�m necessarily growing more than I would have at home, but I have more time too grow here, so that�s what�s happening. Seattle is a great city, believe me.


This is our "backyard"... and that's my housemate, Chris.


Another picture of our "backyard"... it's really about a half mile away... but its close enough.


This is Wrotzlaw, a city of about 300,000, and about 5 hours away from us, to the west, nearly to Germany. That is Denise in the left-hand corner, one of the missionaries here to plant the church.


More of Wrotzlaw. We were hear to talk to some other Foursquare missionaries from Holland.


More of Wrotzlaw, I think its a cool city, but not as cool as Seattle.


And more buildings in Wortzlaw in the city square or "Rynek". I don't know if you can see it, but there is a McDonalds in the lower right-hand corner.


This is the building we hope to be our church building, it is right off the main street or center street in Zakopane. We feel pretty strongly that we will be in it, we don't knwo when, but we sure hope soon. It is a little expensive for us right now... at 40 Euros (which is slightly better than a dollar) a sq meter, and being it's 2,700 sq meters, that's a little expensive. The prices here are comparable to something in Seattle, because its a tourist city... but we hope the owner will lower the price, and possibly sell the buidling. There have been many confirmations about this building, and so we pray, and I ask you to pray... for this building.

The idea is to have the church in the middle floor, the childrens church, and other rooms in the top, and the bottom could be Christian counseling (which is unheard of here) and an internet cafe/coffee cafe. Its a vision, and a will... we know what that can do. It's a perfect location. Right now we are meeting in our place, and soon should be in another building, but it's really too small for any growth.

Hello all,

Just incase you didn't recieve the email, which I hope you did, but if you didn't please let me know, and i'll add you to the list. Click here for my first newsletter (it includes pictures!). Thanks to everyone for your prayers, and other support.

So, we finally have a phone. The number is: 011-48-18-20-14-538. Best times to call: Between 1am and 3pm pacific time. There are some good phone cards out there, like Costco's. I would love to hear your voice... please. Thanks.

Yes that�s right you are a warrior, and you, and you, and all of us who call Jesus our Lord and Savior. But you know what else Jesus is to us? Our commander, he directs us to fight the fight, yes that�s right we are at war. The enemy is here, the Earth is his territory. We are in the enemy�s territory. No I�m not just talking about Poland; I�m talking about this life. But there is good news, we are only here temporarily. Our seemingly unanswered prayers, unfulfilled promises and unfair circumstances will all be answered, fulfilled, and made fair in the next life, in heaven!

I hope this does not fall on deaf ears (or blind eyes I guess in this medium). I hope this is not clich� or stale. I pray that everyone who reads these words will be enlightened, and empowered, because Jesus Christ has all authority. We are planned for God�s pleasure, God wants us to be in an intimate relationship with him, he has entrusted us with everything here on earth, and have it be little or a lot in the world�s eyes. We must take care of what God has trusted us with. 1 Corinthians 4:2 says: Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful. God has put us in charge, of our lives, and everything in it is his, we must be faithful in taking care of those things. Worship is not music, worship is what we give glory and honor to. Music is just a part of worship, but if that is the only time you worship, then something is missing, and you probably can feel that. We must give glory and honor to God in our WHOLE lives.

It feels good to be wanted right? It feels good to be praised? Why? Because God made us that way, we are made in the image of God, God wants to be praised and wanted. He wants us to worship him in everything. Musical worship is awesome, I find myself the closest to God when I�m singing to God, but ever since I heard about having a �lifestyle of worship�, my life has been much fuller, more enjoyable and I am closer to God than ever before.

Where is this fire coming from? Well three books, �The Purpose Driven Life� by Rick Warren, �Wild at Heart� by John Eldredge, and God�s word � The Bible. In the last week I�ve read the gospels of Mark and John, and the book of Acts. And of course the Holy fire of God is burning like a blow-torch. A lot of this I already knew, but I didn�t have a way to put it into words, and I realized that I had let the enemy take my doubts, and my confidence away, Satan didn�t take my salvation but he took my ability to extend the kingdom. No longer will that happen; I am joining the front lines, I am a warrior, and Jesus Christ is my commander. I love God, and I love people, and I will do my best to be God�s servant, and to serve the needs of other people.

This is my message for the young adults on Saturday. Sorry for the strange formatting, I copy and pasted it from word.

1. How do you picture life?
a. Is life like a game of cards, you have to play what is dealt to you�?
b. Is life like a carousel going up and down, and sometimes just around and around�?
c. Or is life like a ten-speed bicycle, with gears we never use.

2. During worship think of your life metaphor, picture, be prepared to share it with the group.

3. Each one of you; tell me what picture or metaphor comes into your mind when asked; how do you picture your life?

4. When I was asked this question, I really couldn�t think of a picture or metaphor�
a. Then I got a picture of a mountain
i. You can stand at the bottom, and look up at it in all its glory, or in its intimidating might.
ii. You can choose to climb up it
1. You can attack it from different sides
2. You can stop and decide to camp out only part way
3. You can push your self to the top and see what view it has to offer
4. You can explore all parts of the mountain, and see what it has to offer
iii. You can choose to come down
1. Either slowly or quickly.
2. Sometimes you will fall, and someone will catch you, sometimes you�ll catch yourself, and sometimes you fall and hit rock bottom
iv. Or you can choose to stay at the bottom and wonder what the mountain has to offer, and be stuck always wondering. But if you decide to climb, you need the right equipment to get their safely.

5. What do you think God�s picture or metaphor is of our lives?
a. God�s word says our life on Earth is
i. a test,
ii. a trust,
iii. and a temporary assignment

6. Life is a test: What kind of test do you think God is talking about?
i. My faith has been tested through problems, problems with needs like; money, car, job, school, and questions like: What am I going to do with the rest of my life?
ii. My hope has been tested through how I handle my wants like: a dream job, a nice car, clothes, a nice house, good friends, good family life, and good things.
iii. My love has been tested through people, how I treat them, how I create relationships, and how I maintain those relationships

b. Sometimes God will draw away, you won�t feel close to him, although most of the time it is because we have drawn ourselves away from God. But when God draws away from us is testing to see where our hearts are, is our heart with God or with other things of this world. For instance in 2 Chronicles 32:31 God with drew himself from King Hezekiah, a very wealthy, respected king, who became deathly ill, he prayed to God for healing, and was healed, but became over-proud and self centered, he repented and changed. When the Babylonian�s came to ask of all the wonders happening in Hezekiah�s kingdom, God withdrew himself to test Hezekiah�s heart, unfortunately Hezekiah claimed all the wonder for himself, and not for God.

7. Life is a trust: What has God entrusted to us in our lives?
a. Our time on Earth
b. Our relationships
c. All of our resources and provisions
d. Everything we enjoy, or have is to be treated as a trust that God has placed in our hands.

e. How are we suppose to treat the things we�ve been entrusted?
i. God�s word in 1 Corinthians 4:2 says: Those who are trusted with something valuable must show they are worthy of that trust.
ii. Someone read Mathew 25:14-30
iii. Someone else read Mathew 25:21
1. What else besides the money did the master entrust to each servant and what did he expect on his return? What were his instructions to the servants?
a. He trusted each servant to invest their hard work into what he had given them.
2. How does this story apply to our lives?
a. God entrusts sometimes a lot, sometimes a little to each of us, but we must work hard at taking care and improving those things he has trusted us to take care of, it is all his to begin with.

8. Life is a temporary assignment�
a. Why do you think we are here on Earth?
b. What is the purpose of life?
c. Why does it seem like God�s promises are unfulfilled, he leaves prayers unanswered, and we end up in unfair circumstances?
i. Because we are not meant to be here, forever.
ii. We are only part way through our climb, or through our story.
iii. This life, Earth, and everything in it is not the end of the story � It is all temporary, the story of your climb, of your life, does not end here.
iv. Our lives are meant to continue on to heaven for eternity, forever.
1. Where the unfulfilled promises are fulfilled
2. Where the unanswered prayers are answered
3. Where the unfair circumstances, are made fair

d. We, you, and I will never be completely satisfied here on Earth and in this life. A fish is not satisfied on land, it was meant to swim in the water. An eagle can not be satisfied if it not allowed to fly. We, you, and I will never be satisfied on Earth, because were meant to live for so much more.

9. For our present troubles are quite small and won�t last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! So we don�t look at the trouble we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever. [2nd Corinthians 4:17-18]

10. God is testing and trusting us with this temporary assignment to see our hearts. Not if we are only good to others, or the number of good deeds we can/will do. He wants us to be genuinely real in our love with him.

This life is the tip of the ice burg; of something MUCH better and greater then we can even imagine; let�s give and show God our trust and love for him.

So, I finished day three of �The Purpose Driven Life� today. I finished it at about 4:30pm, and now its 9:20pm. You know what I�ve been doing since? Finding my focus, the focus of my life�

I called my parents and talked to my mom for the first time since I arrived, it was good, but we got cut off because my phone card ran out. I then checked my email, which included a couple of emails to Alexis, my parents, and Joel who is taking over CRU at Cascadia this year.

Then I sat down in our living room, with my bible and journal, and started to read, first the last few chapters of Mathew, and then I read the entire gospel of Mark, which I�ve never read all the way through before. God gave me my focus, it may seem obvious to some, or even clich�, but I need to focus on being with sinners, the sick people. This all roots from this passage I read:

The Pharisees ask Jesus� disciples � Why does he eat with such scum? Jesus hears them and replies: �Healthy people don�t need a doctor � sick people do. I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough.� [Mark 2:17]

I see three points here: first, I need to go to the sick people and dine with them, simply make relationships with people who do not know Christ. Second, spending time only with healthy people won�t do anything to further God�s kingdom, they already know Christ. Thirdly, if a person or people do not think they need God, or �religion� I can�t do anything, and I shouldn�t get frustrated over it. Jesus called sinners, the people who knew they needed help and were not �good enough�, that is my focus.

Helllo all. I should be getting a DSL line sometime next week, so that is great news... but as I have learned the key word is "should". I will post a lot more regularly once I get online at home. Last Monday was Alexis and I's 3 month... its hard to believe... we both forgot... but that's okay. I'm going to call her tomorrow... I've been able to call her about once a week, but next week w/ the DSL line i'm also getting a phone, so that's more good news. We are finally getting into a regular schedule around here, and I start next week "teaching" conversational English at a local language school, hopefully this will be a time to get to know some of the young locals, and possibly make some relationships and invite some of them to our church meetings. Anyway, I hope everything is going great for everyone back home, and I promise to have more details in the coming weeks. Lova ya all.

Well� I have a big update finally� still no permanent internet connection, but that�s okay�. I should have it in a month or so. God is so good. Some of these may not actually be finished� but I�ll just leave them that way for now. Feel free to browse through them and take a look, comment, whatever. Thanks for your support� of which financial support is still needed� I�ll have a detailed report soon. Thanks!

Feel free to print this and give it to whoever would be interested�

I�ve been here for 20 days now, something should have happened by now right? Well here�s the scoop�

I arrived here on the 7th just two days shy of Alexis� birthday, I had no problems traveling halfway around the world. I really love the landscape here, although the mountains are not as high, and the rivers not as big, and the trees not as tall; God is the same. When I arrived in Krakow (pronounced Crakoof in Polish) I sat in the Airport for about 30 min waiting to be picked up by the missionaries I have joined here, at first I was little scared that I may have told them the wrong date or something, but everything was fine.

I spent two nights in my new room in Zakopane (pronounced Zok-o-pon-e) before I left for Bratislava, Slovakia for a seven day conference on the Holocaust and how that has affected Eastern and Central Europe. What I learned was that even today we need to not forget what happened here, if we do something like the Holocaust could easily happen again. People of all races and religions need to understand each other, but not hate the person for what they believe or for who they are. We should always be looking to make relationships with people outside of our �culture�, we should never seclude ourselves to the point that was have no contact with people who believe differently than us, otherwise how would Christianity ever be seen for what it truly is. Christ left us the responsibility to do as he did, and frankly we have screwed that up quite a bit, but his Grace and Mercy has also let us continue to open up to him.

So, what am I doing here? Specifically I�m working with the young adults of our church plant here, the first Foursquare church in Poland. My roommate (Chris, who is Polish) and I are going to make relationships, and be examples of men following Christ. This means that both of us will be sharing messages and our hearts with these people of our age, to show and guide them in their walks with Christ, and our own walks with Christ.

We are currently looking for a church meeting location, other than the apartment Chris and I are living in. We have three possibilities, one of which we are bidding on this coming week, but it is our third choice, but currently the most possible, and the smallest, at the most we would fit in it for the next six months. Last night we had dinner with a British guy who has had Zakopane on his heart for the last 15 years, he is hoping to start an �Alpha course� here, which is a discipleship type of program being used by protestant and catholic churches. It was a great encouragement to talk to this man, he�s a business man so he was able to tell us what we can do to maybe get the rent prices of the other sites down to something we can afford, especially since they are just empty locations which are not being used, but have to be heated which is extremely expensive around here. Please pray that we get what we have dubbed �the dream place�, it is a three story building w/ plenty of room for the ministries we would like to start. Including a caf�, Christian counseling, and of course whatever events we can plan.

Another ministry opportunity I�m starting next week is, conversational English at a local English school here in Zakopane. Its going to be a stretch for me, since I don�t speak Polish, but they do speak �enough� English, please pray that I can be effective in showing the gospel and being a light for Christ.

Please remember that I only have four months of support, which may end up being less because of some unexpected costs (like needing to buy a desk, stuff for our bathroom, the apartment deposit, and we need to get a washing machine). Chris is working for a local college, but only gets paid once a month and it doesn�t start until next week, so that means no paycheck for the next month. So if you have something left over, please send it to the address on the right! God bless.

Today we toured the Jewish district of Krakow, well what use to be the Jewish district, today it is mostly pubs and restraints with only a hint of what use to be a thriving Jewish district of Krakow. We saw some of the Synagogues, the old Jewish market and square, but in this entire district, we saw only one Jew and he was in one of the Synagogues which was closed to the public. Learning more and more about what has happened to the Jews has taught me to never take my Christian walk for granite, and certainly I shouldn�t �cheapen� it. �Never take anything for granite, always be thankful and grateful for what you have� is not a clich� to me anymore, it is what I�m going to pray for each day, and at those moments when I�ve realized I�ve forgotten who is providing this life to me.

For those who know me, tell me what I can do. What do you think I�m good at, where I excel, and where I have ability? What do you think I need to work on, what areas am I weak in, or what do I need to change?

I want to be as effective as I can be while I�m here, and to do that, I need to have a clear picture of who I am to the outsider, that would be anyone who isn�t me. I like hearing feedback, criticism, and basically I am open to anything. I believe that to be effective in ministry (which all of �us� are) we must all realize our strengths and weaknesses, and hold onto what is true and good.

I still don�t have a phone or internet access, but its getting better. Things are not as fast as they are in the states. But God is awesome, I�ve been hearing about the stories of what is happening here. Healing is starting, many of these people have a bad mentality of things just don�t get better. They go about their days, like robots, and do not understand the grace and mercy and redemption we get from Jesus Christ.

The Polish language does not have two key words, which the English language does� Accountability, which is translated �responsibility�, instead of personal responsibility to God or another person, and efficiency, it�s translated �economical� instead of �doing something in a timely manner, and/or with as little loss as possible. So, for most Poles, they do not understand that we have to be responsible for our own actions, and that God will meet us, be we must do our part.

Hopefully in the next few weeks I should have internet access and a phone. I need to remind everyone that I still need support money, I have had a few expenses which were unexpected� I first needed to buy a desk to keep my stuff in, and for a place to do my work. The conference I was on (which was expected) cost me about $600, so it would be nice to get that back. The bathroom didn�t have a shower curtain, and so we had to buy the things to set that up, which was interesting, I�ll have to take a picture and show you� PVC pipe and lots of brain storming helped. I will be posting a detailed list of my monthly costs, and if you feel the spirit moving you to support me in one area, that would be greatly appreciated. Oh yeah, I also needed to spot Chris for his part of the rent and deposit, so that was a rather large expense, plus I need to replenish my �home� money, which was unexpectedly depleted by travel costs. Thanks! God bless. And thanks for your prayers and support!

Today we toured Auswitz. The past few days have an experience which is going to effect me the rest of my life, in fact, I�m going to go as far as to compare it with meeting Christ for the first time. I would say that this experience has opened my eyes, to the horrible things humans can do. As the leader of this seminar has put it, you can look at the Holocaust as the �torah� of humanity, a torah is the �law� book of Judaism, it is what the Jews use for learning right and wrong, and viewing their lives. The Holocaust was a horrible event in history, but when you study it you see the horrible side of humanity and the most amazing human acts of kindness anyone could imagine, and not imagine.

As I was walking through some of the barracks of Auswitz I (there are actually three parts to Auswitz) I could sense the evil which took place, the humanity, and the death which happened. I was overwhelmed with the images which entered my mind. In a number of places I could smell an odor which was of a dark death. As I walked around I was compelled to pray, sometimes for a family which has been affected by this, other times just for the hearts of people around me to be strengthened by this event in their lives, and for this to never happen again. But I know something similar will happen again, this time to Christians, I�m ready, and prepared, and I have no fear, in fact maybe I�m crazy, but I am not afraid to endure something similar or worse. Why should I want anything less horrible, why do I deserve to be treated any better, I don�t.

UPDATE: click here for pictures.

In the United States we have had our tragedies, Pearl Harbor, September 11, Civil War, etc. Each of these events have left their mark, or scar, but as Americans we have the mentality, that it gets better, life goes on, and we will get stronger because of these tragedies. We have overcome, we will overcome, and we have hope.

In Eastern and Central Europe, they have had more than their fare share of tragedies, starting with hundreds of wars over the last 1000 years, nations and kingdoms constantly fighting and breaking apart each other, fighting even among them selves, both world wars, the holocaust, communism. No wonder these people do not see hope, are not optimistic, can�t see how to overcome anything, nor can they solve a problem because they haven�t had to, or haven�t been able to. Eastern/Central Europe has always been a conquered land and people, always being taken over by some other influence, have it be the Nazi�s, the Soviet�s or anything else, only until recently has each people group been able to claim their own, and even then, they can�t agree on it.

We (as Americans) have nothing compared to this, we (as Christians) must realize we have an endless amount of hope available through Jesus Christ. We (as Humans) need to do our best to fight against things like those mentioned above, from happening again. The atrocities which have happened in the US are horrible, and to Americans, are tragic, but at least we have the ability to overcome, and the history to know we can, other places in the world do not have that, we (Christians, and Americans, along with Western Europe and other 1st world nations) should do our best to provide the correct help to people in the same situation as Eastern and Central Europe (such as the middle-east, Africa, etc). But I believe it is the Church�s number one priority to first care for these people�

[Mathew 25:31-46]
�But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. Then the King will say to those on the right, �Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visted me.�

�Then these righteous ones will reply, �Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?� And the king will tell them, �I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!�

�Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, �Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his demons! For I was hungry, and you didn�t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn�t give me anything to drink. I was a stranger, and you didn�t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me no clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn�t visit me.�

�Then they will reply, �Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?� And he will answer, �I assure you, when you refused to help the last of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.� And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.�

So, I�ve been here for three and half days now (I arrived on Sunday at 8pm). In those three days I�ve learned that for the most part life isn�t too different. But there are some differences� First, driving here is not a Sunday drive, on any day. Second, Toilets work as many different ways, as there are different people, and sometimes you have to pay someone, or something to use one. Thirdly, God is in everything. Thanks for your prayers, and comments.

The last couple of days I�ve been in Bratislava (I spelled it wrong earlier) at a conference on how the Holocaust effected Central/Eastern and the rest of the world, and how this effects missions in these areas. We�ve talked about many different things, from anti-Jewish rhetoric, to post-modernism which stemmed from some of the Germanic ideals. The discussions have been good, especially the discussions on tolerance, prejudice, and stereotypes. It�s cool getting a truly global view from Christians from around the world, USA, Australia, Brittan, Slovakia, and Poland. The majority of us agree on just about everything, slightly different view points, but it goes to prove how united the body of Christ and be, and it�s exciting.

A couple of prayer requests: The church here in Zakopane (the one I�ll be working with when I return from this conference) has been meeting in a hotel conference room, but in this hotel, they don�t really stick to their word (along w/ a lot of Polish organizations), apparently we pay them 200zl per use (which we use once a week for the church meetings) and with that we are suppose to get the room for 12 hours, we normally ask for it at 6:30, well this week they said we can�t use it until 7:30, even though we already paid and they know we use it at 6:30. This is a problem, so please pray for us to find a semi-permanent location where we could create our own identity.

The second prayer request would be for my friend Josh Newton�s niece, she has whooping cough and she�s only one month old, so she�s in critical care.

Here is just a quick update.

1 � Wireless internet in the airports does not work right, at least my experience thus far has been unsuccessful.

2 � If you would like to send me something here is my mailing address in Poland.
Travis Mielonen
ul. Andrzeja Struga 3/6
34-500 Zakopane
Poland

3 � Tell everybody I�m okay, I made it safely, and I�ll have some pictures posted as soon as I can.

4 � I am very excited, but at the moment I�m tired (I�m actually on the plane from Chicago to Frankfurt right now), as soon as I get an internet connection I�ll be posting this.

5 � Thanks for all of your prayers, support, and friendships� if you couldn�t go, or didn�t hear about the surprise party, it was amazing, sorry if you didn�t hear about, they tried Alexis and Matt are amazing.

6 � I have lot more to say, but I�ll wait when I get the time to actually think straight, which might be a while.

If you are going to send us/me any packages please send them via Air mail, and when you "declare" what is in it, put general contents (IE, if it is CDs and other "valuables" put "Information packets" or something more general than specific"), otherwise it may be stolen, and if it goes surface it could take up to 4 or more months! Thanks!

Just a quick update...

I'm in Wratsclaw, Poland which is about 5 hours northwest of Zakopane. Pray for wisdome and guidance as we meet with other church leaders. I should have regular access to the internet in two weeks. God is good, all the time.

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the delays... but have no fear the internet is here... but at a cost, so i'm afraid this is going to be short. I have quite a few "offline" entries I will post, but they will have to wait until I have an internet connection at my place... right now i'm using the "pastors" computer and internet/phone line, which is costly... and I just checked my email and it took almost an hour for 24 messages to read and respond... Anyway I love you all... keep the Poles in your prayers... more to come soon (I hope). God bless. Tell Alexis I love her!

Hello everybody, these posts are not going to be the clean kind that your use to. I'm not using word to write this, and probably won't for a while. Anyway, i'm in Bratslava, Slovakia for a conference, the town i'm actually living in is Zakopane, Poland, which is about five hours away from here. The apartment i'm living in is great, it has two large rooms, a nice sized bathroom (w/o a shower curtin, this is normal here), and a very small kitchen, when I can i'll post pictures. My roommate is awesome, his name is Chris (when translated to English). On Monday they offically named the first foursquare church here, and it is "Tree of life" foursquare, the idea or picture is Christ is the roots of our lives, and so on... in english the picture is easier, but for the Polish its not as easy. Life here is negative, and the majority of Pole's don't understand the hope which Christ gives, because they've never had that before. Please pray for God's awesome power and might in the lives here.

If you have any questions just post them in the comments section. I'll be happy to respond. I think that's it for now, it's a little crazy around here, thanks!

So, I left Seattle yesterday at 2:00pm, it was bitter sweet, bitter because I really am going to miss all of my friends, and of course Alexis. I would have lost it and balled right there in the airport but, I�m a man, and men don�t do that in public� right�. Anyway� the sweet part is I�m so excited to do work for the Lord!

I called Alexis from the terminal at Seattle, she had just gotten home, and I could tell she had just gotten done crying. Then I called her in Chicago, and just an hour or so ago, I called her from here in Frankfurt, and it cost me something like 16 euros� and it was 5am in Seattle� woops. Anyway, she�s doing great, and she�s excited to hear what is happening with me. God is good, and I think I like the traveling life.

The culture here isn�t too different from the states, except that the majority of the people actually speak two languages, and most of them speak English. I�ve noticed some people starring at me, apparently I�m an obvious American, oh well. I don�t mind all the drinking that people are doing, but I do mind all the smoking areas, there�s one to the right of me right now, and it stinks, I tried to get out of the way, but this is the closest electrical outlet I could find, and i'm sitting on the floor because there are no chairs near the electrical outlets... i'll post a picture when I can. The internet access in all of the airports has been horrible, Frankfurt has internet terminals, but the lines are ridiculous, and the wireless internet at all of these airports has issues, major issues. So, right now I�m typing this in Word, and hopefully the connection will stay alive long enough to post. As soon as I�m settled in Zakopane I�ll upload some pictures. Oh yeah, that reminds me, if you want to snail mail me anything here is my address.

Travis Mielonen
ul. Andrzeja Struga 3/6
34-500 Zakopane
Poland

So, that�s about it. God bless, and lets pray the customs people like me in Krakow, I found out in Seattle that if I�m planning on staying more than 3 months I need to get a visa, well� I don�t have one, so they added reservations to my tickets for me to have the �chance� to leave Poland within the three months. Anyway, god bless again, and I�ll be posting soon again, I hope.

And just a little FYI: I don't know when i'll update again... it may be over a week, becuase i'll be doing some missionary touring and conferences for the next 8 days...

Okay i'm going to post this really fast, while this stupid wireless internet is working, it keeps quitting on me.

So, the paradigm in which I live right now is shifting. A year ago I was going to two churches, because I didn�t have the guts to �leave� the other one, yet I wanted a place with people my age, but I was serving in the other church. Today, I am attending one church, but in a week, I�ll be half way around the world, worshipping in yet a different group of people. One year ago, I would have thought this was never going to happen, me a missionary? I don�t have any bible school background (yet), and I certainly didn�t (at the time) have any kind of real ministry background, but over the past year I was co-leading Campus Crusade for Christ, and learned a lot about ministry with young adults. Plus I�ve been actively involved with my young adults group at church, so here I am now� less than a week before I leave, the paradigm is certainly different that last year. Now I feel confident, now I feel like I�m knowledgeable, now I know I am at least equipped for ministry as best I can be. I know I will have hard times, I know I will screw up, and I know I�ll be frustrated. But with the power of Christ, I will be okay, I just need to depend and lean on him. Thank you for your prayers, and I will be praying for all of you.

You�ve got to check this place out, especially if you have a laptop with a wireless adapter � Free internet! Yes that�s right free, although you should probably buy a drink so you can always have this place around. Check it out� I�m here right now with Alexis, and she likes it, and I like it, so life is happy� there are a couple of locations, shorelines is the closest to the �mill creek� sphere of influence. Who wants to go to the fair today? I�m going later with a big group, give me a call. See ya later!

Check out there website (when it goes back online): http://www.hotwirecoffee.com/

Well, I know I have, and if you associate with other humans in any manner, at some time you�ve been disappointed. My problem is when I put expectations on people, ones which I never really tell them, nor do I do anything which will actually have them meet those expectations. Nope instead I expect things to happen like magic, as if what I�m hoping they will do is being broadcast from my brain or something. So last night, I had this expectation at my �going away party�, I really wanted to talk about God, and get into some deep meaningful conversation, but I never prompted anything in that direction because I never found the right time, plus I was distracted by the fact everyone was at my place, so I had to be the host. Long and short of the story is, I was disappointed I really want some prayer time, some good conversation and have last night be an uplifting night of real down to earth Christian fellowship, instead what I got was disappointment, and it�s all my fault. I have nothing against those who came, I am very happy that all of them came, and I�m glad to see them, it just wasn�t what I wanted� so I guess I was being selfish, and instead of seizing the moment, I just sat there expecting something to come from nothing. Once again, I�m not mad at anyone, not even my self, just frustrated at myself for not doing what I wanted.

Today I had lunch with an old friend, granted he�s four years younger than me, which makes him 17, but in all the years we�ve known each other (about five, and four of those as good friends) the age difference has never been more than a little joke. Plus, this particular friend of mine, is a foot taller than me, at 6�6� he sort of towers over me, but once again, just small jokes have been the outcome of that. His name is Ross, and he is one of the most important people in my life. He�s the son of my first pastor, so he�s a �pastor�s kid� or �PK�, but he�s not anything like the stereo type, not at all. I�ve had hundreds of good conversations with him, from stupid guy things, family things, church stuff, people, prayer, and God. I�ve seen him grow both spiritually and physically, when I met him, he was shorter than me, and I may have only grown an inch or two since I�ve known him.

I realized today, that God has blessed me with some of the most amazing people, his parents have taught me, and guided me over the past few years, and he has shown me what it is to be searching. Of course as any good friends have, we have argued, been mad at each other, and have cried over each other. Today, we talked, although it was not a happy talk, since I�m leaving soon, we reminisced, and he told me what was up in his life, and his family�s, and I shared all about mine too. We are both heading into the unknown, and I pray for the very best of protection, wisdom, and guidance for Ross, and his family. Thank you God for Ross, I am very proud of him.

And I�m asking for all of you who know Ross, and those who don�t, keep the Gomes� in your prayers, ask for God�s wisdom in their lives, and intercession of his power to protect them, Don, Heidi, and Ross all need protection from the enemy right now. Pray for Heidi, she had surgery last year for cervical cancer, and with that they did a full hysterectomy, which has caused a chemical unbalance and her emotions are being effected, pray for healing, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

In Jesus� name,


So be it.

See part of the city i'm going to live in... Isn't it "cute". It's called Zakopane (pronouced "Zako pon").

That is how I feel right now, I�m learning to breathe, into a relationship that is. Yesterday Alexis and I were in the car heading to my place, where we eventually had dinner with Josh and Erin (which was totally rad, but I don�t have the time to give details). Well we were sharing about our days and such, and I was telling her about the guy which is taking my place at work. He�s a good guy, has good skills, and I think will be a good replacement. Anyway, I was telling her how I had hoped (and prayed) my replacement would be Christian, but that didn�t (or maybe hasn�t) happened. At one point I was quoting something he said about his wife�s commute from Seattle (they live in Carnation, about 30 miles east of Seattle) and he said his wife liked to complain but he used slightly more colorful language that that, referring to her as speaking like a female dog. Well, I chose to quote word for word what he said, thinking to just quote isn�t really anything. Well this was the first time Alexis has her me curse, even though it was �just� quoting, it didn�t sit to well with her. At first I really didn�t see anything wrong, I wasn�t convicted of anything, and I really didn�t understand. But she said �Why use it at all, you can get the same point across w/o using that word�, she had a point. So, after a while of going and back and fourth in my mind, I came to this conclusion: If it isn�t uplifting and encouraging to those around me, it shouldn�t be said. Much like what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 8 and choosing to eat food offered to idols. I must realize that what I think is okay, is sometimes not okay to others, and I shouldn�t argue those things, unless it is against scripture. So, I continue to learn, more and more.

That is how I should be living my life right now, sometimes I am, but a find myself thinking and dreaming of the future, quite often. I need to set my sights on the realities of heaven, yet I also need to do what needs to be done here on Earth. I have four days left of working for the school district, and eleven days until I leave for Poland. I need to slow down, make a (another) list, and just get life going.

For some reason I feel the need to post the lyrics from one of my favorite praise songs�

What to say Lord?
It's You who gave me life and I
Can't explain just how
Much You mean to me now
That You have saved me Lord
I give all that I am to You
That everyday I can
Be a light that shines Your name

Everyday Lord I'll
Learn to stand upon Your Word
And I pray
That I might come to know You more
That You would guide me
In every single step I take
That everyday I can
Be Your light unto the world

Everyday it's You I'll live for
Everyday I'll follow after You
Everyday I'll walk with You my Lord

It's You I live for, everyday
It's You I live for, everyday
It's You I live for, everyday

This song reminds me to just take one day at a time, but to remember the overall picture of everyday living for Christ.

What to do�

1. Find my proof of insurance so I can prove to the Duvall PD that I have insurance (I was pulled over last Friday, and couldn�t find the current insurance card)
2. Get new License plates (that�s what I was originally pulled over for, no ticket on either account)
3. Go to AAA and get my international drivers license
4. Go to Kinko�s and get some passport photos for my youth traveler�s ID
5. Pray, Pray, Pray, Read the bible, Read the bible, Read the bible

Live wisely among those who are not Christians, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and effective so that you will have the right answer for everyone.
[Colossians 4:5-6]

Wow, what a statement. One which I�ve been working on for a long time, when you�re full of passion about something, but young in that passion sometimes you can offend people, although your intention is not to. I�ve been asking God to help me in this area, for a long time now God has shown me, that by being gracious I am more effective. People want to be respected; you must have trust with a person before you can effective with them. This is a broken world, where too many people (including Christians, and a lot of the time by Christians) have been hurt, torn down, shot down, and rejected by the words of others. I know that I am still a piece of work, especially in the area of communication with �pre-believers�. My time in Poland is going to stretch me beyond the limits, I�m going to have times where I doubt myself, I�m going to have times where I�m losing my mind, I�m going have times where I just want to give up. I know I can be especially discouraged when I don�t see fruit, when I don�t see the �signs�. I need to have faith that whatever I do, as long as it is for the lord, and my real intentions are to work for God, then all will be fine.

Well last night was one of the first �good byes� I had to do� John and Jen are leaving tomorrow for Multnomah Bible College; today they are spending time with their families, so I won�t be able to see them. So instead, last night we hung out, went to Seattle�s pacific place, walked around, and the girls (Jen and Alexis) tried on some very nice formal dresses, that was fun. While John and I were sitting in the waiting room for them to change, John saw a box of something, either cookies or chocolates; we were in Nordstrom�s so, so it could have been. Well he walks over to see what�s in this box labeled �Bravo� and it looks like some kind of cookie box. I tell him �watch out�, because I knew it could have been anything�. And it was� John peeked in, and his face turned bright red � it was the funniest thing I�ve seen him do in a while. So what was in the box? Let�s just say, women�s �breast enhancers�.

But later that night, when it was time to go home (after going to TGI Friday�s, and then watching �ever after�, which is a great movie) I let John drive my car to Jen�s house for one of the last times (for a while), and we said our �see ya laters�. Alexis and I began to drive off, and I just lost it. It was so hard, I could say anything with out tearing up, and crying. I really love John and Jen, they have been an awesome blessing in my life. I started to reminisce about Campus Crusade, my time with John at Ocean Shores, and all the other times I�ve spent with John and lately with Jen � God has something huge in store for them.

Father God bless John and Jen while they are away at Bible College, may they grow closer and closer to you, the mighty God of the universe, give them the strength and will to do what is right for you, and protect them from evil desires, and evil its self. In your Son, Jesus� name, Amen.

I have a lot to talk about, but not much time to talk about it. I know it�s been over a week since I last posted, which I think is a record. I�ve just found myself being caught up in life, one which is taking off in new directions. I had a work week from Satan himself, everything that could go wrong did, and to make it worse, all at the end of my regular day, so I had to work extra long each day this week, but my supervisor was nice enough to let me off early today. I haven�t had the time or the energy to do my quiet times, ride my bike, or anything else I actually get good joy out of. I saw matt once in the last two weeks, for about an hour. But I did make sure to get my fellowship time in, and my time with Alexis. Some may think its more important for me to get my bible reading time in, then anything else, but for me, it�s time with other Christians where I can discuss things, and figure it all out (which of course will never happen).

Even though I�m struggling, by losing it at work (lets just say I was growling at some servers), falling to temptation (again), not loving as much as I could, and just simply being human, I�m still seeking God, and feeling his presence. I don�t know how I would go on with out the strength Jesus gives me.

By the way, I got my new laptop, it is so awesome, and it�s going to be great having it in Poland. I also have a �big plan� I need to start planning for, so I better get going.

Some say faith is for the weak, I say faith is for the smart�

I see our lives here on Earth as a time to prove ourselves to God. But we only need to prove one thing, our love and appreciation for him. God created us because he loves relationships, who knows what else he has created, in the �past� or �future�, God�s does not work in a world limited by �time�. He created us for relationships, not just with each other but for him, he created everything, and imagine if you created everything, you would want a relationship too, just like you do with your own children. But God doesn�t want just a casual relationship, �hi Steve, what�s up? Steve says, not much. See ya later�, what would you think if your parents had that kind of relationship with you? It just isn�t good to have casual relationships with your children, and it isn�t go to have one like that with God either.

God knows what�s best, and he filled the people who sought after him with his Holy Spirit to let the rest of humanity know him by the words they would write. God�s Holy Spirit does not lie, but it is quiet, unless you get to know its voice, just like a friend on the telephone, the bible is that voice. I think �mainstream Christianity� today has a tweaked perspective of how a �Christian� life should look like, and be. There are not ten steps to living perfectly with God, there is not just one prayer which will save you from hell, there is not just any simple little thing you can do, and your life will be perfect. The Christian life is not a free shopping spree, getting everything you want. No, the Christian �life� is not very different from the �non-Christian�, people die, people hurt, people get hurt, and evil still fights us.

The Christian person is what is different, not the life. The Christian person, who continually is seeking God, by reading the bible and fellowshipping with other Christians, but realizing that the world is real, and needs Christ, is different. Not because of something they have �done�, but because he or she took a step of faith. Not knowing what would happen, they made themselves vulnerable, to everyone, and certainly to failure and humiliation. The initial trust is what most people, even people who call themselves �Christian� do not understand, and will not try. They do not want to take a risk, with out proof they will either receive something which will improve their status (weather financially, physically, sexually, or whatever), or get something they want in return. The truth is they will, but it�s not something you can see, it�s only something you feel, it�s not tangible, and it�s not going to improve any kind of status. It is unconditional love, which only God can provide. Once a person trusts in his unconditional love, then you can feel his spirit working in you, and your drive to know God better becomes stronger.

So, take a step, everyday, weather you�re Christian or not, taking a step to know God better can only improve your life, it may reduce your status here on Earth, but we must keep our sights on God, and trust him, seek him, then know him.

Today I realized, that I can't swear anymore. I just can't, I hate it. I'm not sure when this happened, I know a few years ago I made the decision to stop swearing, but I never thought it would get like this. It's not a bad thing by any means, but even when it slips in my head, I hate it. Today I was working on a server at work and things just were not going well, and I was getting really frustrated, it was getting the point where I was raising my voice at it (do remember, that no one is in the room, so if someone was watching, I'm sure it was pretty funny), and instead of saying other choice words I was just like "grrr, rar, fudge, stupid thing, and Lord fix it I quit". Well after I calmed down, and started looking up the error messages it was quickly resolved. I just though it was weird that I didn't even mutter a curse word, this is just so different from who I was just two years ago.

Today I also realized that I just really don't like working by myself, I've said this before, and I know I've mentioned it people, but I do not like being the only tech person for about 750 computers, 3000 students and 300 staff/teachers. This is not what I call fun, and I really hope that who ever they higher for my replacement is Christian, and has a lot of patience, these people need someone with patience. This reminds me, I need to call Justin and have him take a look at the application. So, now I'm off to pick up Alexis and go to dinner at her mom's house.

That's what I've been writing, crap� I know, it sounds a little harsh, I know it's not all "crap" especially the stuff to "her". But I realize it isn't interesting for anyone to read except me, and maybe the ones which are directly mentioned in the "crap". So, I'm starting something new, which is going to help out a lot when I get to Poland. I�m going to write about my day, but not like a chronological list of events of my day, but my feelings and my experiences� hopefully this is more interesting and enriching. Thanks.

Check this out. This is exciting, this is real, this is God.

"Don't be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father's home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know where I am going and how to get there."
"No, we don't know, Lord," Thomas said. "We haven't any idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had known who I am, then you would have known who my Father is. From now on you know him and have seen him!"
Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied."
Jesus replied, "Philip, don't you even yet know who I am, even after all the time I have been with you? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking to see him? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of what you have seen me do.
"The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, because the work of the Son brings glory to the Father. Yes, ask anything in my name, and I will do it!
[John 14:1-14]

1 - Jesus is preparing a place for us to be with him.
2 - Jesus is the way, know him, know God, be with God forever.
3 - Even if you have doubts, the evidence is there, Jesus was and is God, you know what he did so believe because of that.
4 - If you truly believe in him, then you will do the same as Jesus and even greater, because Jesus, God, and Holy Spirit are all working for us, with us, and loving us.

Yes, that's right I love her. I love her smile, her hair, the way she gets sleepy, I love everything about her. But I love her heart the most; it is so evident that she love's God more than me, or any other human. She is everything I ever wanted, and that's a good thing. But we completely believe in not "awakening love before its time" (from the Song of Solomon), so we wait, with my time in Poland quickly approaching I know that God is going to lead us into better pastures. I know, I must remain realistic, and begin to focus on my time in Poland. I know God has chosen this timing for a reason, and I must set my sights on him before her, and before Poland, so that I may serve both and all others with the best of my abilities.

So here are my (mostly random) thoughts Alexis.

Does she love the Lord? � Yes it is evident in the way she loves children and others.

Is she supportive of the Poland mission? � Yes, in fact she's excited for me, and is very supporting.

Where does she see herself fulfilling the great commencement? � Working as an elementary school teacher, and working with children. To fulfill her namesake of "Helper of man kind"

Favorite book of the bible � Joshua

Mysterious � Yes, and this is a good thing

Random Thoughts on myself.

Am I in love with the Lord? � Yes, and if I ever show anything else, seriously let me know.

Am I ready and prepared to leave Alexis, my friends, my family and my life here for Poland � Yes, I'm excited, but truthfully a little scared about meeting new people and having them understand my love for Christ, but I know the Holy Spirit will be strong, if not more than it is here at home, because I'll be in a place where I need to depend on God.

Where do I see my self fulfilling the great commencement? � Eventually teaching high schoolers about network administration, and architecture, most students interested in this area have social skills which are not "popular", and therefore a lot of these students need Love and attention� I feel God's gift to me as a computer/network support specialist can be used to make relationships with those kinds of people � the kind I use to be, I have a connection.

Favorite book of the bible � Ever changing, but Mathew is still at the top.

Am I mysterious? � Not so much.

My goal right now for the two of us � Show God's powerful love to everyone through our relationship with each and our individual relationships with Christ.

Must be some mistake
'Cause I'm not worth the price you paid.
With every passing hour
I convince myself that you saw something in me.
But I can hear them still,
As the whispers laced with hatred fill the room.
Guess I'm wasting my time
How could you love a man like me?

Lord I need your strength
'Cause I am weak and falling to my knees.
Who is on my side?
'Cause I can't tell my friends from enemies.
Filling up with pain.
Bitterness controls the air I breathe.
What am I fighting for?
Do you have a plan for me?

Must be some mistake
'Cause I'm not worth the price you paid.
With every passing hour,
I convince myself that you saw something in me.
But I can hear them still,
As the whispers laced with hatred fill the room.
Guess I'm wasting my time
How could you love a man like me?

Must be some mistake.
'Cause I'm not worth the price you paid.

Artist: Seventh Day Slumber
Album: Picking Up The Pieces
Song: My Struggle

Now, doesn't that say it all! Those are the words I wish I could say when I say "I just can't explain it".

What do you think of the new look? I know� I finally moved away from the blue, but I'm not making any promises, I like blue. I'm going to bed now, it's late.

I have finally resized, and optimized all the pictures I took at Creation, this isn't all of them, I took over 80 pictures! These are just the ones which came out right...
Click on a picture to get a larger version.


This is most of the group, from left to right- Eric, Lauren, Me, Brandie, Gregg, and Miles. I was just learning to use my camera and so this picture had the wrong settings of "landscape" on, so things up close were blurry.


This is Ashley and Lauren (R) (not the same as the one above... no really Travis...) silly girls, hiding from the sun.


Eric and Lauren, how cute.


Ladies, and Gentlemen, Jon Johnson, I had coffee with him today.


In the center with the orange vest is Josh, he was working on staff with Creation, as was Jon (from above). If you ever get to meet this boy, consider your self blessed.


This is Kyle going crazy to Pax217, he is Carly's brother.


This is Lauren, Eric (open your eyes boy), and Brandie...


Here is Matt and Tisha, they both surprised me and showed up later in the week, also people to get to know!


Me and Tisha on the hillside.


Newsboys, as much as people are "tired" of them, I still love them. Not the greatest picture, but it was fun!


Another Newsboys picture, in between each song, one of the band members sang a verse or two of an old hym, it was beautiful.


All the people rocking out to Pax217!!! This one is for you, Alex! Wish you could've been there :)


A better picture of Pax217, on the jumbo tron.


This little guy landed on some kids soda can, and then decided to make his home on the Kid's Dad's hat, so there he stayed, and at the time of the picture he had been there for over a day, going with him wherever the hat's owner went.... it's a praying mantis for all you non-bugy type.


And now I present to you, SWITCHFOOT! They rocked, as usual, but no 24.... AGAIN!


A great picture of the Thirdday show. Which was a great show, and a great way to end Creation.


More thirdday, and God's glory is going to blind all darkness, how rad is that?


The Toby Mac show, it rocked, the entire ampitheater!


See I told you so! Even the old guys!


Tree 63 - on the fringe stage... sad times, but a great show!


A view from the hillside of the Gorge ampitheater, God's creation is magnificent!


Me on the hillside, the mainstage, and Pax217 rocki'n out. Check out the view again!


Another amazing view of the sun setting at the Gorge.


This is me trying out the delayed shutter option on my camera, now if I just had a tripod stand, it would've been great.


Worship time at Creation, one of the most amazing times of worship, 30,000 people all worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ!


More worship, God is amazing. Creation is just a hint, 1 billioninth of what God's glory is like.

I am so full of excitement right now! I am so meant to go to Poland I received a huge confirmation today, and basically yesterday too, although yesterday's wasn't much of one at the time. So let's start from the beginning (yesterday).

Yesterday at work, I had a meeting with my supervisor at 10am; we went over some projects I need to get done, and some other work related things. After all of that, we moved onto the business of me, I needed him to write a letter to excuse me from Jury duty, and then we went onto the subject of my leave of absence request for one year so I could go to Poland. Well, he didn't want to tell me this, but they (him, and the other administrators) decided to deny my request for the leave. The reason being that they felt they would not be able to higher someone of quality for a temporary position, which I understand, but the second reason was that "classified" employees (which is what I am, since I do not teach) are not normally given leaves � Thanks for leading me on, and getting my hopes up, now I have four weeks to figure out how to resign and when. I had already made the decision that I was going to resign if they denied the request, but I guess I hadn't really thought of it being a real option, so I reacted rather emotionally. But after talking to some great people, Leanne, Matt and Alexis all is okay, and I know that God is just leading me to other places. But of course it did put some scary insight into the future�

So today, I go to work, all is normal, I work on getting some of our servers back to working functionality, and I talked to Alex for a few hours while I hammered away at some problems with our middle school servers. It was a pretty good day. When I get home I realize that I haven't received the email I normally receive from the Mission Dispatch people (the people handling my support money) with an update on supporters and deposits. I email him asking him what's up� Then I go online to Washington Mutual's online banker, which is where I have my Poland Missions account. I notice that a deposit of $3,600 was made yesterday! WOW! I figure that my letters to everybody, stating that it will only take $10/month for 12 months really worked, and people just donated the entire $120 for a year. Well I get a reply from the guy at Mission Dispatch as to who donated� and to my surprise only two checks were sent for the month of July. One from my old youth pastors for $100 (which in it self is awesome!)� and one from someone I use to be in youth group with, who has already donated, who I was never all that close to, donated $3,500! Praise the lord, but $3,500, if I had something to give I would, but I don't! This is just amazing! God is amazing, and I realize that I am being blessed and guided just as I have been praying. Even though I am falling into sin, here and there, and I am far from perfect, God is still graceful and merciful! What do I do now? I'm looking for his phone number, and I'm going to type him up a special thank you letter, which I've been sending letters in the past to my supporters, but this is just unbelievable, not to mention he's a College student at Northern Arizona University!

Even with this amazing donation I still need $5400 more dollars, or 45 people to donate $10/month for the year i'm away, or $120 flat.

See also Part I and Part II

First my definition of "believe" � Believe, I know as absolute truth, with out any doubt, but because I'm human, my beliefs could change, but not without much counsel and research.

I believe God longs for us to be like him � Putting the needs and cares of others before yourself. I believe God is our perfect heavenly parent, perfect because God is unconditional. I believe we serve others because we love them, not because we want something out of what we are doing, but God does bless us for serving w/o condition. Because we love God, we love his creation, which is everything in this universe; we should go out of our way to take care of what God has given us. Don't just serve other "believers" serve the world, Jesus served the sinners, went to the poor, talked to the prostitutes, and healed those who others would not touch. Your true parent lives in heaven and created everything, so why be afraid? We have real power in Jesus Christ, the son of God and the son of humans.

Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves great wealth for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set.
And that's the way it was with us before Christ came. We were salves to the spiritual powers of this world. But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a women, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because you Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father. Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you. [Galatians 4:1-7]

What awesome news this is! I've heard it said before "you are a child of God", but it never really clicked, that God is my parent, of course I've called him "father", of course I believed I was his creation, but to have the same love and connection as a child, now that is amazing. I don't know why it clicked today, why August 1, 2003? But I know this is another step in my relationship with God. You too are his child, he loves you like a perfect parent, unconditionally, because he truly did create you. And since we are his children, everything he has belongs to us? Everything! His grace, mercy and love, all of it is ours forever.

Live mid-market rates as of 2003.08.01 20:23:35 GMT.
900.00 PLN - Polish Dollars Poland Zlotych = 230.633 USD - US Dollars

United States Dollars
1 PLN = 0.256259 USD 1 USD = 3.90230 PLN

So, what this all means... That apartment which Chris described in my previous post, will cost only $230/month for both of us, divide that by two, and that's only $115/each/month. Wow, how crazy is that.