Archive for the ‘Ministry’ Category

Celebrating Baptism

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Posted 02 Nov 2010 — by nick
Category Creation, Friends, Fun, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, News, Spirituality, Technology

Summit Church Beach BaptismsI spent last week in Orlando, FL near the headquarters of GCM, as a stop along the support raising trail back to campus. My good friend Chris hosted me at his place for the week as I worked at finding times to meet with folks and share about the work I do and – during the off hours – spent much time working on upgrading the GCM network firewall with our IT department.

Shortly after arriving in Orlando I found myself standing on the beach facing the Atlantic Ocean. Chris’ church was holding their Baptism service – which is much more of a celebration than most churches I’ve attended. I loved the atmosphere and excitement as we celebrated brothers and sisters making a public display of the inward commitment they had made to follow Jesus.

Together in community we shared a meal, cheered as 113 folks were baptized in the waves of the Atlantic (including some more notable figures), worshiped together in music and voice and shared our lives. This church thinks about baptism much the way that Illini Life does – it’s an event we want to celebrate as a church community. It’s worthy of celebrating as we watch others make a public declaration to the church body that they belong to Jesus.

Traveling life of a missionary

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Posted 25 Oct 2010 — by nick
Category Fun, GCM, Jesus, Ministry, Spirituality, Television

Airtran flight 561 seat 26C from BMI (Bloomington, IL) to MCO (Orlando, FL). At just over a half hour into the flight drinks and pretzels have been served, passengers hide their faces in books, laptops, crossword puzzles – the normal routine.

Like most on this flight, Orlando is my final destination. I hear rumbles of Mickey Mouse, Harry Potter and the Beach. Sounds like fun! Likely for me this week won’t hold any of those staples, at least not in the vacationing sense. I’m on the support raising road back to campus – Orlando is a stop along the way. This week I’m hoping to meet with new and old friends of Amy and I to share about the great things God is doing at University of Illinois and how they can be a part of it.

While I’m there I’ll also be working with the IT guys in the GCM office to install a new network firewall; lending my expertise and experience from my past life as a network engineer. I’m excited to be able to serve GCM in this way. Consulting time of network engineers tends to be pricey so I’m happy to save us those costs.

Isn’t that how we do church? You might have a knack for hospitality so you host welcome events and greet people at the door on Sunday. Or you might be a gifted singer so you lead us in worship. Maybe you do both. Me, I’m a nerd that gets networking and computers, but I also love sharing about Jesus with others. As a missionary I get to do both. Admittedly, the networking and computers hardly ever, making it exciting when I do get the chance.

October 2010 Update

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Posted 05 Oct 2010 — by nick
Category Family, Friends, Fun, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, Running, Scripture, Spirituality

Hello friends below you should find our update letter for October 2010.

Download (PDF, 432KB)

A Knowledge Barrier?

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Posted 28 Sep 2010 — by nick
Category GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, News, Spirituality

The Pew Forum on religion & public life posted the findings of a recent survey of religious knowledge. It has made quite the headlines today. You can read the executive summary and stats here.

Several headlines I’ve read point out that atheists and agnostics “know more about the Bible than Christians.” Which isn’t quite accurate reporting. The study showed that Mormons and Evangelicals know the most about Christianity, but overall atheists and agnostics know more about world religions than any other group surveyed.

The more I read through the study the less surprised I was. Evangelicals tended to know most about Christianity but little about other religions. Those with more education tended to score higher on the survey. Those that answered more of the general knowledge questions correctly tended to answer more of the religious questions correctly – showing a correlation of more education or knowledge emphasis in general.

All this has me thinking about if we have any responsibility as Christians to know more about other religions and informing or encouraging our students to know more. Or does knowing the truth leave us content?

Things I’m thinking about… I welcome your thoughts

September 2010 Update

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Posted 09 Sep 2010 — by nick
Category Friends, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, Photos, Spirituality

Hello friends below you should find our update letter for September 2010.

Download (PDF, 304KB)

The Land Between

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Posted 24 Aug 2010 — by nick
Category Family, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, Scripture, Spirituality

As I type today, I’m reminded that it’s just been 2 short weeks since I started my regular trips to the Chicago suburbs. Yet in just two weeks a rhythm has started, there is a flow of my week and time seems to pass quickly now. I miss being in Champaign, especially this week as classes get started at U of I and I-Life gets moving again. There are stories almost daily of new friendships being formed as our students, leaders and staff step into the dorms and initiate with other students.

Life-long friendships, mutual discipleship, Christ-centered relationships – all forming as the faithful pick up the phone or send a text message.

“Hey, this is Nick M. from Illini Life Christian Fellowship. Hoping to see you at the Fall Preview tonight @ Illini Union 8:00PM”

Faithfulness for me this year looks a little different. I’m not on campus meeting new students this fall – the first time in 9 years. For me faithfulness looks like dialing the phone for the 50th time this week, to see if I can connect with another person in an effort to share about my work as a campus missionary.

I miss campus, I miss my wife, I miss my friends and my own bed; but this is good. It’s The Land Between.

Just as Israel had the desert to cross between Egypt and the Promised land, so a missionary has support raising between the initial calling and released to assignment. It’s The Land Between where God chisels away at the rough edges, softens the hardened heart and strengthens His call. The Land Between is where God speaks softly and quietly, reminding of His goodness and provision.

In The Land Between I have the choice to embrace and trust a God who I know is good or run to quick fixes to numb the pain of rejection, boredom of idleness, and loneliness of isolation. If the story of Israel teaches me anything, I’ll take God over the quick fixes, they just leads to wandering for longer.

Facing Fears

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Posted 10 Aug 2010 — by nick
Category Family, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, News, Spirituality

Amy and I just celebrated our 1 year anniversary this past weekend. It was a time to look back and be reminded of the sweetness of our marriage and the good gift God has given me in a dear wife. Not to be all gushy and all – well actually yeah that’s what I had intended 😛

That set the stage for me leaving on the first support raising trip without her. Most of the next weeks and months will be this way. I’ll be in the Chicago suburbs raising support while she’s in Champaign working in the schools and seeing each other for a short weekend each week.

I can feel a sense of urgency to finish support raising as quick as possible, it is stronger, almost new. Certainly God provides in His time and I’ll be doing this until He tells me otherwise, but nonetheless my heart speeds and my pace quickens.

“Just drove away from Champaign without my wife, one of the hardest things I’ve had to do so far while raising support. 9:50 AM Aug 9th via Twitter”

The hard thing about leaving has less to do with separating from her – that’s tough for sure – it’s the not knowing for how long. How many weeks will we be following this routine, how many more times will I drive away from our house watching her eyes fight back tears as mine do the same?

As I prayed through all this, it became evident to me the urgency, the questions, the worrying were all rooted in the fear I was feeling. I haven’t had to be alone for the past year, I’ve had a companion. As I pull away for the week, I’m alone again: me, my thoughts and my work. Lucky for me I follow a God who meets us in that place of alone.

August 2010 Update

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Posted 04 Aug 2010 — by nick
Category Friends, Fun, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, News, Spirituality

Hello friends below you should find our update letter for August 2010.

Download (PDF, 236KB)

We Made It!

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Posted 26 Jul 2010 — by nick
Category Family, Friends, GCM, Illini Life, Ministry

Thanks for all the prayers and help from all our dear friends and ministry partners. Just a few days ago we rolled into our driveway back in Champaign after being on the road for 1 month. God really provided over this past month, but we’re still hard at work in the support raising process.

The next couple weeks will have us in Champaign meeting with people in the area. We’re really asking God to continue to provide and give us rest as we go into the next season of support raising.

Amy’s job in the local schools starts back up in a few weeks and I’ll begin traveling back and forth between Champaign and the Chicago Suburbs weekly to continue raising support. The details of how that looks week to week are still being figured out, but it will definitely look in some way like us being apart the majority of the time. We’re hoping God provides our needed support quickly!

The Support Raising Process

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Posted 20 Jul 2010 — by nick
Category Fun, GCM, Illini Life, Ministry

Within GCM we refer to support raising as ministry team development – MTD. We really see partnership in ministry as the goal, people partner in several ways, finances being one but also in prayer, in getting us connected with others and in donating their time, abilities and resource. I love the idea that it takes a team of folks supporting a missionary for God’s work to be accomplished. What better picture of the Church?

Which explains some of what Amy and I are doing right now. We’re meeting with individuals who are interested in hearing about what God is doing through GCM and it’s missionaries and explaining my role in all of that. I thought it’d be fun to run some stats on all the people I’ve met with or tried to get in touch with over the past 2 months.

231 – the number of times we’ve tried to initiate with people to see if they’d like to meet. That could be anything from an email thread, a text message thread, facebook message thread, phone call or in person.

76 – the number of people committed to praying for us regularly.

46 – the number of appointments we’ve kept. Quite a few of those folks were couples so more specifically it is 71 individuals.

23 – the number of people interested in supporting us financially with a repeating gift. There are 3 additional people that have given special gifts with no commitment to repeat.

8 – the number of homes we’ve stayed in besides ours along this journey.

I can think of few things that force reliance on God more than this process, as an introverted engineer, at times I can feel like I’m in a foreign place watching myself dial the phone another time. Tiredness comes to mind and passes, excitement replaces it.

“Hi! this is Nick Modrzejewski campus missionary at University of Illinois…”

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