REACH Polska

The Vision, Goal, Heart, and Desire – R.E.A.C.H.

Our goal is to grow big people, who can do God’s kingdom work, who are equipped to build His kingdom in Poland and beyond.  We strive to grow passionate followers of Jesus who know they are RELEASED into a reproducing ministry and EQUIPPED to do the work of the Church.  Followers who are AFFECTING their communities by relationally CONNECTING through a full worship experience that loves and serves both God and people.  Followers who HELP each other dynamically understand the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son.

Status of Evangelical/Missionary work in Poland

Facts:

In an article printed in Evangelical Missions Quarterly; April 2004, one country topped the list for having a need for church planting missionaries. That country is Poland.

• Based on the “N” Formula, this country is 10,000 times more needy than Papua New Guinea or over 200 times more so than Mexico. There are cities in other countries with more missionaries than this entire country.
• As a percentage of the population, there are 4 times less Evangelical Christians living in this country than there are in Saudi Arabia.
• There are nearly 1 million people per church planting unit in this country.
• Of the nearly 2500 counties in this country, 2219 have no Evangelical church of any kind within their borders.
• Within these 2219 “white spots” a total of 600 people die each day – with little or no exposure to the love and grace of the gospel.

These statistics were taken from the following sources:

1. “Where are Pioneer Missionaries Needed? by Marten Visser. Published in Evangelical Missions Quarterly; April 2004, pp. 220-227.
2. Operation World; Patrick Johnstone; 2001
3. GUS (Głowny Urząd Statystyczny), Official government statistical information service

What is God calling us to do in Poland?

Brief History:

On September 1^st 2002 Travis was attending a baptism service where two missionaries from Poland gave a casual call for help. After about a month of deciding what to do about a canceled year-long trip to Japan he made the decision to seek out a chance to serve in Poland. A little over two months before Travis left, Alexis enters the picture, and together we made the decision to court. On September 6^th 2003 Travis left to serve, teach English, and unbeknown to him, have his life turned up-side-down. The first six months were terrible and at one point Travis yelled at the Lord, “I hate this country”. Alexis came and served for six weeks right after this, it was a very troubling time, at the end of her trip is where we both met Dan Russell and learned about the Oregon College of Ministry. About three weeks later, at the European Foursquare conference, Travis heard the testimony of Marc and Kathy Shaw’s (now the pastors at Evergreen Christian Center in Hillsboro) transition back to the states, at which time the Lord spoke to Travis and made it very clear Poland was going to be home. Independently we made the decision to go to the Oregon College of Ministry, where both completed their Associate Degrees in Pastoral Studies. In July of 2006 we were married, and in April of 2008 gave birth to our daughter Emma! We have been very intentional to always line up our ministry, education, and life decisions to align with the work God has called us to do in Poland. We intend on moving and beginning our service in Kraków, Poland in the fall of 2010.

Phase 1 – first 5 to 7 years: Raising up deeply committed and graceful disciples for Christ – Mt 28:19

We plan on accomplishing this by…

• Enrolling in intensive language courses before and after the move to Poland
• Connecting to the local community, the university students, and our network of existing friendships in Kraków and the surrounding area, amongst the “pub/café culture”
• Through small/home group based ministry using a multitude of resources including pure desire, genesis, sexy Christians, prayer ministry, topical studies, etc.
• Training small/home group leaders for multiplication

Phase 2 – after the 7th year and beyond: To encourage Poles in their callings and equip them into ministry – Eph 4:7-12

We plan on training emerging leaders by creating a community to thrive in their calling, this may be in the context of…

• Equipping Polish leaders to lead, mentor, disciple, and grow their own churches/kingdom centered communities (house churches)
• Encouraging everyone to have a heart of evangelism for their friends and family, at all times.
• Building big people through mentor based relationships
• Mission trips beyond Poland
• Working with the catholic community, college students, and any combination of the above
• Encouraging leaders to see/hear God’s vision for his Church through Spiritual gifts
• Encouraging each disciple into their personal calling
• Equipping/training/releasing beyond Poland

Preparations before departure

While there are a number of secondary tasks for us to do before we depart, there are three primary tasks that we have always heard the Lord clearly state we need to complete before we are sent. The first of these is to become licensed and ordained for ministry. We are fully aware that ordination is simply man’s recognition of God’s calling on a person’s life, we are also keenly aware of the Polish culture’s view on credentials. We have faith that no matter what our “real” credentials are, the Lord will open people’s eyes for relationship and discipleship, and at the same time we know that the door can be opened wider with ordination. The reason we seek ordination instead of just our international licensing is that we have received a number of prophetic words specifically using this word and we feel in our hearts that we are not to be sent until this step is accomplished.

The second of these tasks is to learn the language; there is an active Polish community in Portland that we have begun to make inroads. The community center provides Polish lessons and we are in communication on the details of how to begin a tutoring relationship, this is one of the line items costs we have included in our “startup costs”, but we are willing to self-fund this as well if needed.

The third task is to maintain our relationships that we have created in Kraków and we hope to travel there two times a year, either as a family or just Alexis and or I when available. We hope to bring other people along with us on these trips so we may have a state-side prayer group and liaisons that understand and know the culture and people we are ministering to and with. Sometime in the future we would like to inviteand fund a Polish couple to visit Gresham for 2 to 3 months and do an intensive internship in ministry with us and others.

As we mentioned before, there are a number of smaller tasks, and we are very flexible even with the tasks we have noted above. We are open for input, correction, and other ideas as well.

Thanks for your prayerful consideration and support as we move closer to the seed God planted in us back in 2004.

Serving Him,

Travis, Alexis, and Emma Mielonen