Archive for the ‘Fun’ 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)

Chicago Marathon – Fast Approaching

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Posted 04 Oct 2010 — by nick
Category Creation, Family, Friends, Fun, News, Running

Well folks, we are less than a week away from the Chicago Marathon. Amy and I have been training for nearly 18 weeks specifically for this race coming off the Illinois Marathon 1/2 marathon and Mattoon triathlon this summer.

I’m eager to beat on the streets of this great city after several years off of marathoning. This well run race has always been a favorite of mine.

This will be Amy’s first marathon, I hope you’ll join me in cheering her on and wishing her luck as she tackles this huge goal.

If you’re interested in following our progress in the race you can sign up for runner updates to your mobile device, follow the directions here.

Just Keep Running!

“Questions, I’ve got some questions”

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Posted 21 Sep 2010 — by nick
Category Fun, Jesus, Spirituality, Videos

Awhile back I was introduced to this video and it still makes me laugh from time to time.

“Why didn’t baby Jesus zap him?”

“What would Jesus do if He was attacked by a polar bear?”

We laugh but I often wonder how many of my prayers and questions of God are right along these lines. So often my perspective is so small I can’t see past the polar bear question to see Jesus for who He is and what he’s done.

The past couple weeks have been polar bear weeks, this week my perspective is wider – hopefully for a little while at least.

Endurance

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Posted 07 Sep 2010 — by nick
Category Fun, GCM, Running

Endurance sports have been my thing for the past 5 years or more. Marathons, triathlons. Running, cycling, swimming – when I talk about working out it is always one of those 3. Amy has started to get into it to. In a few weeks we will be running the Chicago Marathon together, it’ll be her first marathon. 18 weeks of training, a 1/2 marathon in the spring preceded by 12 weeks of training – she’s well prepared.

These sports have such a magnetism for me. They require deep discipline and perseverance, a band of brothers to train with is often helpful. All these things are great, but it’s not that. Its how much they are an analogy for life. Its the job that you just can’t stand anymore, the unemployment you wish wasn’t. Or facing conflict with a loved one, apologizing when you’ve been hurt and hurt others.

So often in life we have to do the thing we don’t want to do – we wake in the morning and would rather sleep in, but we lace up our shoes and run anyways.

This analogy has come to life in a new way for me lately. Support Raising. Making calls, going on appointments, being away from home. All things I enjoy from time to time but often they are like the run I’m dreading. I know I’ll feel so much better when I get through it, but it’s so hard to get started some days.

And then there are the days when everything comes together and you feel great – you finish 20 miles at your race pace feeling strong and fresh. Days when you wake and are ready to get moving.

I generally pray for the latter but live in the former.

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)

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…”

July 2010 Update

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Posted 07 Jul 2010 — by nick
Category Friends, Fun, GCM, Illini Life, Jesus, Ministry, Photos, Spirituality

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

Download (PDF, 312KB)

Warrior Dash

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Posted 20 Jun 2010 — by nick
Category Creation, Friends, Fun, GCM, Illini Life, Photos, Running

This weekend Amy and I met up for our good friend Alan (also a GCM missionary that we work with at U of I) and ran in the Warrior Dash, it was muddy goodtimes.

We ran 3.17 miles, through mud, over abandoned cars, wooden barriers, through a mud pit, over a 8 foot hay bail wall, cargo net, hills, fire, and under barbed-wire (to name a few obstacles). As you can see we were covered in mud at the end.

Running has grown to be a hobby Amy and I enjoy doing together and share with a lot of our friends and students here at U of I.

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