Items for the Travis’ Thoughts category

There is a harvest

Krakow October 2008

There are three “mile stones” for us to pass before we leave the USA for Poland.  The first is to grow our family, we hope to have one more child before leaving, if we end up being fully fund-raised and w/o another child, then we’ll probably move to Poland and grow our family in the field.  The second mile stone is getting enough monthly donors to commit to 120% of our living and ministry budgets, currently we need an average of $30/month from 187 more donors. Lastly is having our deployment fund raised, which includes emergency money, three months of reserves, first month of living/ministry costs, moving costs, etc.

But those are all details that don’t really matter without a heart and vision for the harvest.  There is a harvest of souls, a population of people who are at the best unsure of their faith, and at the worst completely fed up with the “system”. Yes, the same is true here in America, but what’s not true in Poland is that there are not churches in every town and neighborhood, the opportunity for someone to even hear or know of someone filled with God’s saving grace can be summed up in this bit of trivia…

In Krakow, the first city we plan on living in, there is a population of more than 2 million (similar in size to Portland, OR) – there are about 12 churches, and a dozen or so other para-church (protestant) organizations doing works in the city.  Of those groups, it’s estimated there are about 1,000 to 2,000 believers in the entire metro area of Krakow.  In Portland, OR (a city known to be “un-churched”) there are over 20 churches of 1,000 or more people in attendance each week.

There is a harvest.  Hear us LORD, send us.

 

 

 

 

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Relationships… hardest part of life?

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One of the key values of our mission to Poland is building meaningful relationships. Relationships built on God’s kingdom and values. The core to meaningful relationships is interdependency, the idea that we all need one another. Church should reflect a family system, the idea that we are there for each other in spite of circumstances.

However, this is all very ideal without some hardcore and usually humbling revelations about ourselves and our commitment to truly love people as God has called us to. God doesn’t call us to be perfect and “nice” to everyone, but he does call us to love through everything. Many times that means loving when our hearts are hurt, when our flesh is frustrated, or when our soul is deeply disturbed by the world around us.

Missions, and this thig we call Church/Christianity requires relationship, and so the question is… what does relationship look like in the Kingdom and am I there? The good news is that in the Kingdom grace and mercy abound, and if not from our fellow brothers and sisters, you can guarantee our Father will pour it out!

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Tweets for the past week

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Tweets for the past week

Travis updated his blog with a new post called “Tweets for the past week”, check it out.

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Tweets for the past week

Travis updated his blog with a new post called “Tweets for the past week”, check it out.

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Tweets for the past week

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Some things to write about…

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Tweets for the past week

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Stuck in “small talk” mode.

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Tweets for the past week

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Gone stale…

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Tweets for the past week

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Tweets for the past week

Travis updated his blog with a new post called “Tweets for the past week”, check it out.

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Tweets for the past week

Travis updated his blog with a new post called “Tweets for the past week”, check it out.

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Tweets for the past week

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Values

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Tweets for the past week

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Tweets for the past week

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Goodbye 2010!

Travis updated his blog with a new post called “Goodbye 2010!”, check it out.

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