So, for whatever reason, my stomach/intestines feel like they are in a knot. I tried the throne room, nothing moved. When random things like this hit, my job becomes terrible. I just want it to go away. I say to “it” – Behave and be normal, in Jesus’ name.
Month: July 2008
Big to do list
Oh man, I have a huge list of things to do, or things I need other people to do…
A lot of it retains to our poland trip(s), donations, database, new website, emails, getting our team together, fundraising…
Then there’s the home, fix the bathroom drawer, touch up the paint where the mattress scraped the wall, bleach the living room drapes, organize the garage, vacuum, dust, get garbage service again (that’s a story), complete fish tank do-over…
And there’s the Forge (our young adults ministry), contact our core team, setup meeting, get schedule for speakers setup, create database, contact new folks, layout messages for the coming year…
Finally the car… ug…. get estimate for fixing peeled paint from dump-truck rocks, get estimate for bumper fix from unknown person backing into me and running, see what the squeeling noise is (buddy thinks it’s the timing belt, oh fun), get oil changed.
Thank God we learned what boundaries were at a young age… We do nothing, but what we feel we have energy for, on Sundays, and either Monday or Tuesday night we go on a date, usually something simple like coffee or dessert, but always something.
Things are moving forward
So, we’ve gone ahead and purchased our own domain name now: reachpolska.info
You’ll notice (if you visit my blog) it now redirects to travis.reachpolska.info. I’ll be slowly updating everything to reflect this change, for now everything should be pretty transparent. Eventually we’ll have information on our missions on the main page of http://www.reachpolska.info/.
Stay tuned!
OIL
Okay, so I have some strong opinions on what we need to do about oil, so I am far from un-bias on the subject. However, I feel that I am trying to be balanced and moderate in talking about it as well. Recently I received a letter from United Airlines, it was an open letter to all airline customers and written by all of the major US airlines. It talked about how oil speculation is taxing on $30 to $60 per barrel of oil. Well upon further research the evidence seem to be there. So I followed the link in the email to Stop Oil Speculation NOW, which by clicking this link, brings you to a very easy form that will send either an email or letter to your state and national representatives, you can even customize it. I added a couple of paragraphs on how this is personally effecting my family, and how I also see the need for our government to somehow use oil industry profits, and put more of its resources towards renewable resources and clean-burning (it’s out there, – sorry must register to view, but great article!) oil-based energy.
Mobile post
Anniversary roses, and fine dining coming up. Praise Jesus for "creative" financing and some anniversary gift money.
2 years, just the beginning
Today Alexis and I are celebrating our 2 years of marriage… Not much of a celebration… but we’ll do something. I think anniversaries and birthdays should be paid holidays. It’s been amazing, hard at times, but worth the pain. Not much else to say. Time to head home!
Ode to Alexis
My wife is a seriously amazing woman of God. I don’t mean that she is saintly, or a push over, or just a “nice church wife”. I mean she seriously listens, obeys, talks, and has a relationship with God. It’s her relationship, not mine, it’s her walk and her talk with Him, it’s personal for her, and she obeys when He asks her to. She listens for His voice on all matters, and is not afraid to bring up something that might be controversial.
Her passion for our work in Poland and here at home is nothing but excellent, and her love for people, even though it gets hard, never wavers. She may complain, but she doesn’t give up, even when she feels like it. Her ability to be a lover, mentor, home-maker, wife, mom, and friend all at once is a feat that goes un-sung.
I thank God almighty for her, and I seek his face in joy for bringing us together, keeping us together, and allowing me to serve together with Him and her. Because of her willingness to learn, be stretched, and to love in spite of her feelings on things, we have become only stronger, and she has become a bright star in the sea of God’s children.
Can we ever see the "both" in Christ?
I just read an article that made me sick, sick because it contains both truths and extreams… It also is down right un-graceful, last I checked, Jesus was full of grace. It is true that our God is both vulnerable and has authority. I’m sure that the quote from Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church – Seattle) was not meant to be what the article makes it out to be. The gospel makes it clear that Jesus wants us to be both weak and strong, to allow him to fill our weaknesses in faith, and to allow kill our pride (false strength) in order to love him and people.
In my observation most people in the Church have true points to make, but they get stuck on one facet, they see one side to the whole picture. We serve the infinite God, his ways are far beyond our ways, and personally I would rather keep my sights on serving him where I feel passionate instead of being critical of one another. I believe in correction, but overall I believe in pointing people to a more full picture. Let’s make our picture of Jesus bigger than ourselves, He’s vulnerable (weak in some people’s eyes) and strong, beyond our understanding.
Stay moderate, keep a healthy open view, while listening to the extremes, and gracefully speak truth to the areas that bring a more holistic picture of the true God we know.
NO WAY!
You know how many times I have heard people say “No way” when I talk about long term missions (heck, even short term missions)? I would say 9 out of 10 times. Sometimes I even get people laughing, like they think I’m joking. So, for those of you who have have laughed when I asked that, let it be known, I wasn’t joking.
It boggles my mind that people can be so closed-minded (in my opinion afraid of the unknown, which is what most of our life with Christ is) about serving God in another place.
And then God reminds me, just as much as I don’t understand “them”, “they” don’t understand me. So I digress, I drop little seeds with people to open their minds to hearing God’s heart for another people-group. I of course agree there is plenty of work to do here in America, yet if we all took a short-term trip to another place outside our culture, saw another part of the Church, then maybe, just maybe, we would have a bit more passion to be his hands and feet to America and beyond.
It takes dough
This whole missions thing takes dough, the kind that’s green and flat (is that unleavened?), but Jesus can make loaves of the stuff from nothing.
Here’s a break down of nearly all our donation totals for each trip sent directly to our mission accounts. (It doesn’t include team raised funds from some trips).
$9,008 – September 2003 to August 2004 Travis’ year
$349 – 2005 U-Turn Summer youth camp hosted in Poland (team funded the rest)
$3,380 – 2006 U-Turn Summer youth camp hosted in Germany, spent extra week in Poland
$5,070 – 2007 U-Turn Summer youth camp hosted in France, spent extra week in Poland
$1,085 – February 2008 – Poland (still waiting on full report)
October 2008 – Poland (still fundraising) donations to date: $748 goal $9,000 for team
I just have to say, praise and glory be to Jesus. At times it’s been incrediblly stressful (such as the France year, having a shortage of $1,000 in the field sucks, yet He came through). Each year we remain humbled by the generosity and blessings by so many of you. Thanks for serving your father in prayer and giving.