Letter 9

Hello Everyone,

I am sitting here on a rainy Sunday. It is starting to look like spring here now. I hear that the weather has been cooler in Minnesota. Its funny being exactly opposite in seasons. We have spent this week learning about the Holy Spirit from two women, Lia and Sally, both belong to a church in Christchurch and travel frequently as missionaries and teachers. I learned more about the Trinity and learned to respect the Holy Spirit in understanding that he is part of the Trinity and is our Lord.

Monday we started off with worship and went right into lectures about the Holy Spirit. After lectures we went off to our respective service locations. I went to help finish and build a work bench and garden box for the man and woman I have been working with every week. They have been teaching me quite a lot about woodwork, I've learned the importance of measurement and angles in building, :) the hard way. I have been able to share my testimony with them both. They are not believers and I hope that I have had an influence on them. After our service on Monday we had one more evening lecture.

Tuesday morning we woke and had intercession for the C-hina team. The C-hina outreach is going to be one focused on skateboard ministry and will be very successful as long as they focus their energies. The team members have many different personalities, but if they work together they will influence many people. I am excited for them. I think their team will be great in sport specific evangelism. After we finished prayer we went into another lecture. After our lecture we finished our weekly assignments and spent time preparing for our angel and mortal game. We each had a name and someone else had our name. We gave gifts and other nice things to the person we had and received from a different person. I sent my “mortal” on a treasure hunt for candy and had her solve riddles for a big candy bar at the end. I received lots of candy and my “angel” also waxed my skis for me. Tuesday evening we celebrated our small groups because Tuesday was the last day we would meet. My group went to the Rosie's household and had homemade treats and played video games, everyone was really happy.

Wednesday morning we found out that we would not be skiing because it was too windy. Instead we got to take a trip to Castle Hill. The place that they filmed the Chronicles of Narnia. Needless to say my friends and I posed as Aslan and had a really good time playing a game of Sardines (like hide-an-seek, but you hide with the person when you find them.) Castle Hill is one of the best climbing/bouldering places in the world. One of my friends fell about 20 feet, but walked away. I know that some people here are not responsible when it comes to staying safe before outreach. After we got back from Castle Hill we had the night to ourselves.

Thursday morning we woke up and spent time in prayer for the unevangelized people in our world. Afterward we had a lecture and then spent the afternoon preparing for our different outreaches. Thursday night we had a yearly event called a “love feast” our cook made a great three course meal!! And then we all gave short speeches about what our angel did for us. It was a very nice night and to conclude the evening we had a very wild dance. I practiced playing the saxophone and mostly watched everyone else. :) it was really fun.

Friday we worshiped and then had our last lecture on the Holy Spirit. We left for Christchurch and went on to do our respective street ministry for the night. I chose to go rock climbing and spent time talking with my friend. I think the next Y-WAM school will be going to this climbing place frequently to witness.

Saturday we all went to Mount Hutt and skied in some warm weather. I was able to ski with my friend from M-ethven for awhile. After our skiing on Saturday we returned to the base and I found out my T-urkey Travel team had a surprise trip for the night. We went to a families house (they spoke at our base and also support Y-WAM) and had a nice Kiwi dinner of Fish and Chips (french fries). We then sat around the fire and spoke about our plans for T-urkey and just talked with each other. I introduced the banana s'more that I learned to cook in Boyscouts. Everyone liked it. Sunday morning I made french toast and Alison Lam our new leader made eggs. Everyone was really happy and it was a good time for our team. We finished our trip with worship and prayer.

My team: A-lison, J-onathon, E-line, J-esse, C-layton L., C-layton N.

We needed this time together because our other leader Lauren hurt her ankle and is unable to go on outreach so it was really good to spend time with our new leader Alison. We also roughly planned our trip to T-urkey we will be spending most of our time on the Western Coast down to the southern coast and possible farther east before we head back to I-stanbul for our departure. I will give more detail later. And my team will continue a blog when we are on our trip.

The Lecture notes from this week.

The Person of the Holy Spirit
Qualities of personhood:
A will (1 Cor. 12:11)
Emotions (Eph. 4:30)
Knowledge (John 16:13)
Self Awareness (Acts 3:12)
Ability to Speak (Acts 3:12)
His Divinity. The Bible declares that the Holy Spirit is divine (Acts 5:3,4) and therefore has all of the attributes of God.
Psalm 139:7-10
1 Cor. 2:11
Luke 1:34,35
Hebrews 9:14
Romans 1:4
John 16:13
Romans 8:2
Hebrews 10:29
2 Tim. 1:7
The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
Creation
Gen. 1:1-5
Gen. 1:26; 2:7 & Job 33:4 *Psalm 33:6 (breath = Spirit)
Empowering for Leadership
Othniel (Judges 3:10), Gideon (Judges 6:34), Jephthah (Judges 11:29), Samson (Judges 14:6, 19; 15:14), Saul (1 Sam. 10:6), David ( 1 Sam 16:13).
Equipping for service
Exodus 35:30-36:1
Inspiring Prophesy
David (2 Sam.23:2), Azariah (2 Chronicles 15:1-8), Jahaziel (2nd Chronicles 20:14, 15), Balaam (Numbers 24:1-4)
The Holy Spirit in Jesus' Life
Luke 1:35 (Birth)
Luke 3:22; John 1:32-34; 3:34; Luke 4:1 (Baptism)
Luke 4:14; 6:19 (Ministry)
Hebrews 9:14 (Death)
Romans 8:11; 1 Peter 3:18 (Resurrection)
Acts 1:2,3
The Teachings of Jesus about the Holy Spirit
Agent of New Birth (John 3:1-8, 2-:21,22)
Comforter (John 14:16, 15:26, 16:7)
Spirit of Truth (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13)
Teacher (John 14:16)
Testifier of Jesus (John 15:16)
Convicter (John 16: 8--11)
Revealer (John 16:13, 15)
Glorifier of Jesus (John 16:14)
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit
Jesus the Baptiser
Matt. 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, John 1:33
Acts 1:4,5
John 20: 21,22, John 3:5
The purpose
John 7:37-39
Acts 2:1-4
Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8
Initial evidence
Acts 1:4
Acts 10:44-48; 11:15-17
Acts 19:1-7
Acts 8:14-19
Acts 9:17-19; 1 Cor. 14:18
1 Cor. 14:1-19
1 Cor. 12:7, 10
Acts 2:38
John 7:37-39
Thirst
Come
Believe
The Spirit-filled Life
Acts 4:8, 31; 6:3,5,8; 7:55,60; 11:24; 13:9-11, 52; 19:6
Eph. 5:18
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Nine separate gifts that can be divided into three natural groupings
1 Cor. 12:8-10
Gifts of Revelation, Demonstration, and Inspiration.
The Fruit of the Spirit
Galations 5

In Christ's Love,

Travis

Letter 8

Hello Everyone,

I am writing this on Sunday August 23^rd. I have had a great week in NZ and am in the process of enjoying a nice day. I spent the morning in church and then went to the local farmers market and got a very good breakfast. Just talked with my dad for a little while and got an update on life in Minnesota. The weather is overcast giving me a great excuse to enjoy a day to myself. I hope you enjoy the cool things that God has done in our ministry this past week.

Monday we spent the day learning about missions from a team of three missionaries from an Organization called W_E_C. I learned a lot about culture and how it applies to God's plan for creation. Culture and worldview need to be understood in our different pursuits of bringing the Gospel to the world.

Three principle things were focused on in Monday's lecture

• A reflection on God's promises and nature

  • building our understanding of what it means to know God

• A commitment to intentionally overflow God's blessing, and influence other peoples.

  • Intention to overflow one foot in front of other

• From evangelism to world evangelism

  • effective communication depends on shared meaning. That is: agreement over interpretation.

We also received a workbook called my neighbors are weird and I have learned some practical tips to overcoming cultural differences and being sensitive to differences.

I found Monday's teaching really interesting and I immediately compared it to the different people I have meant over here in NZ. My friends from New Zealand do not like to stand out and lead a group and I realize that is because of their different beliefs and enculturation. I also noticed differences in my friends from Switzerland, Indonesia, India, Holland and Japan. My friend from India has different ways of respecting our leadership than my friends from the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand. He has a really hard time speaking up in lecture because his culture deems that as disrespectful to the leader.

Tuesday we learned more about culture and missions more from a Biblical standpoint.

Biblical Principles

• 1 John 4:8

• Romans 5:8

• John 3:16

• Genesis 12:1-3

• Psalm 72:19

• Habakkuk 2:14

• Matthew 6:10

We prayed for single mothers and spent our afternoon completing our journals and book reports from the week before in Queenstown. I read my book “Heavenly Man” it is about a Chinese man who spent his life trying to give secular China the truths that he had found in the love of Christ.

Wednesday I woke up thinking that we would be skiing in fresh powder because it had been snowing a lot on the mountains. I found out that the mountain roads were inaccessible and that we were to have a day to ourselves. I enjoyed my day. I spent it in prayer and rest. I needed to recuperate after the week we spent in Queenstown.

Thursday morning I was up and at 'em early enjoying devotions and time with God. I focused on His promises in Scripture and prepared myself for our day of learning and prayer. We prayed for our team that is heading to Africa and then we learned about culture and spent time learning about the respective places that our teams are heading too.

I started to study the T_urkish language and spent time studying different beliefs that most T_urkish people hold. My team watched a video about missionaries who had worked in T_urkey previously. Eric, the man from W_E_C, had lived in T_urkey for 7 ½ years. He told us many things about being respectful and polite in T_urkish Culture.

Friday I woke up early and got ready to go to Christchurch for the evening. We had a time of worship in the morning and I was reminded of God's love for me as a Father. I had a picture of my dad picking me up when I was young and making “everything better” and I realized that God does that for me and loves me as a dad would love his son. It is ironic that we had the option of going to a seminar and learning about God's love for us as a Father that night. I went to the seminar for a couple of hours after enjoying some time in Christchurch.

In Christchurch my friend and I meant up with a friend of ours, who we had taken out to eat the week before and had invited to a few of our events over the past months. He had heard the Gospel message from us and was excited to spend time with us. We had told him that if he wanted to go snowboarding with us he could. So after we were done hanging out with him in Christchurch we had him over at our base for the night and then gave him a ride to the mountain the next day. I spent quite a bit of time with him. We talked about many things and both shared our respective beliefs. I hope that he comes to faith and ask that you pray for him. He went with a team of ours to Methven were we fed him. I hope he had a great rest of the night.

I am very blessed by your gifts for my outreach team and I know that we will continue to thrive under your prayer. I am glad to hear that most of you are doing well and hope for the best for all of you.

In Christ's Love,

Travis

Letter 7

Hello Everyone,
We spent the past week in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world; it is in the southern part of the south Island of NZ. About a 6-hour drive from Oxford and 7 hours from Christchurch.
Our group left on Sunday morning at about 9 and arrived at 4 in Lakeland Heights Christian camp (the Remarkable Mountains were right behind us, that is MORDOR from the Lord Of the Rings), about ten minutes from Queenstown. On the way down we stopped for an hour at Lake Tekapo, which was an absolutely beautiful lake that had very clear water like the Boundary Waters. We spent that time praying and asking God to heal the many people in our group who have been injured. He healed knees, hands, ankles, and backs this week.
Upon our arrival on Sunday night we had an option to drive 45 min. away to a town called Wanaka for an evening church service. This particular church was started for snowboarders who are always traveling and do not have a home church. Kelly Clark, the Olympic Gold Medalist, spoke at the church service and gave her testimony! The sermon focused upon the Holy Spirit and the signs and wonders that Jesus’ and his followers perform. We had a time at the end of the service where many people were healed from things like: broken ribs, hurt knees, bad hearing, and arthritis. I was really happy to meet many professional snowboarders and was encouraged because I know that they are telling the other snowboarders about Christ.
Monday morning we meant our speaker and his wife, Kawika and Natalie Drummond, we learned about the Kingdom of God from them. After our Lectures and worship we went into Queenstown and spent time in the city exploring and evangelizing to the people in town. Queenstown was a very fun city. There are people from every part of the world and there are a lot of fun places to spend time. It is located on Lake Wakatipu. This lake is a glacial lake that is many miles long (lots of trout). I spoke with a couple from Australia and a man from Germany while I was in there. I got to tell them my testimony and why I believe in Jesus as my Savior. After our return on Monday night we had a lecture. I learned about how our greatest defeats can be launching points for our greatest victories. We talked about faith and the relationship that we have with God through His Son with the Spirit. The point that hit me was that we will have revelation of God for all of eternity. As I listened to Kawika’s Lectures on Monday I was reminded of my short and long term life vision that is to bring God’s kingdom to earth.
Monday Lecture:
• Sozo (Greek word for Salvation)
o Salvation (Romans 10:9, Luke 19:10)
o Healing (Matthew 9:22)
o Deliverance (Luke 8:36)
Four Key Things (kingdom keys):
• God is good; Devil is bad
• Nothing is impossible
• Jesus has one complete victory
• I am significant
o Cost determines value
Foundational Teaching
• Seek his Kingdom and righteousness first
• Gospel of Kingdom
o Gospel = Good news
o Kingdom = Domain of King
• Good news for God’s people
Purpose
• Have Dominion
o Gen. 1:26-28
• Be Blessed
o Gal. 3:8
• Be Fruitful
• Multiply
Christianity is the art of receiving God’s love.
You becoming great, wise, powerful and blessed is a good thing, but you need character (example: Solomon, David etc…)
Tuesday morning we prayed for the Chile and Argentina Outreach team. I know that this team will be a very productive and energetic team, I am excited about the work they are doing for God’s kingdom.
Tuesday Lecture
• Kingdom principles have been given to everyone or Kingdom Keys.
o God does not have favorites
o Life and life abundant
o Forceful men lay hold of it
o Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and strength/mind.
o Love your neighbor as yourself
• We are disciples of Jesus. Study His life so that we can live that way through Him.
o It’s a journey
o Build a relationship
o Sought God’s Kingdom
• We were created to Worship
o What or who will you worship?
o Focus on worship
• Romans 12
• Listen well
• Focus
o On what God has done
o What He is doing
o What He said He was going to do
The rest of Tuesday we spent in Queenstown doing a form of evangelism called a treasure hunt. The treasure hunt starts with prayer and then we write down different locations, appearances, sounds, and names … We went into Queenstown with the goal of finding the details that we wrote down and then telling strangers what we were doing and asking if we could pray for them. I found that it was easy to relate to people because many people want to be involved in a game. I was able to pray for some people and bought fudge for a person.
I went to Queenstown later and found out that I had made the person’s day when I bought fudge for them. I also found out that I man we had prayed for was healing quickly and I think that it was unexpected healing.
After the treasure hunt we returned to our base and spent the night in lecture and in preparation for the coming day.
Wednesday morning I woke up to snow!! We drove to the Remarkable Mountains (MORDOR) and skied all day. It was really fun and I meant up with my friend from Japan. He had accepted my invitation and drove the 7 hours to Queenstown so that we could spend time together. I was really excited that he came down to be with us. After skiing on Wednesday. We invited him for dinner at our base and then went to Queenstown and spent time with him looking at the city, finding a place for him to stay and eating nachos.
Thursday morning we had a quick prayer time followed by lecture.
Thursday Lecture
• Encourage One Another
• Expect Greatness
o Psalm 139:17
• Prophecy
o 2nd Cor. 3:5
o Principles
• Love
• Honor
• Receiving Prophetic Words
o Put value to it
• Write it down
• Accept it through prayer
• Study it
• 5 fold ministry
o Apostles
o Pastors
o Evangelists
o Teachers
o Prophets
• Need all five to be fully equipped
• Example of how 5 fold works
• Pastor – sees the people
• Teacher – truth, studies the situation so to understand why, how and when it happened so it doesn’t again. The word is most important.
• Evangelist – starts to preach, uses the situation to bring people the Gospel.
• Prophet – gives a proclamation of truth. Appoints leaders
• Apostle – Brings the kingdom of God, supernatural healing, revival. (Paul)
• Recognizing Jesus and Revival
o Trust
o Discern between religion and revival
o Persecution
• Sonship
After our morning lecture my friend came to our afternoon meal. I had spoken with the camp manager and asked if he could stay at the camp so we went to the camp offices to get him a cabin for three days. After that he went with me to Queenstown again and we walked around and spent time talking about our homes and lives for about 3 hours. We headed back to the base and I helped him to move into his cabin. I spent Thursday night in another lecture, but Kelly Clark gave this one. She gave her testimony and spoke about the following.
• Identity in Christ
• Goal setting
• Minister and live in a place driven by love
After Kelly Clark gave her testimony we were given prophetic words and we worshipped.
Friday morning I got up made sure my friend had breakfast and then we went to Remarkables again to spend the day skiing. I spent some time with him and made sure he was happy and then I went by myself and told many people about Christianity and prayed for a man who had hurt his head and for a guy who had hurt his foot. Both of these men were very thankful for my prayers and asked more about my faith. I told people from Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, England, and Brazil about the Gospel. It was a remarkable day! Friday night I went with my friend to Queenstown and spent time talking about Japanese culture, religion, family and other things about Japan. In speaking about all of these things I told cause about our culture. We spoke about our life dreams and about our personal beliefs. This led into a long talk about religion. I gave my testimony, he gave his and we talked about our different opinions. I told him the Truth and he told me his. I gave him logical arguments for the Christian faith and helped him to see the truth in my words. We were up till 1:30 in the morning, but we both were very happy with our night. My friend prayed with me and accepted the truth that Jesus died and rose again for his sin. We both went to bed exhausted and happy.
Saturday morning came and we went to the Cardrona Mountain to watch the Burton Open, which is a world wide snowboard competition that all of the best riders compete in. Kelly Clark and Shawn White won the competition. It was nice to see two American’s win. Shawn White did a double cork 1080, which for all of you snowboarders out there is amazing and superhuman, for everyone else you will have to take my word for it. Saturday night I explained to my friend more of the Creation story and read to him Genesis chapters 1-2. After he heard that he went with my friend Jonathon to Queenstown and Jonathon explained more to him.
Waking up today was hard, but I am very happy with this past week. God is so good. My friend, Jordan, gave my friend from Japan his Bible and we blessed him a ton with all of the free meals and time we spent getting to know him. I am so happy to say that your prayers for him have come to fruition (please keep him in your prayers in the next weeks as he is a new believer and has many obstacles in his way). I will see him again in Oxford and in Christchurch before he leaves. I am going to get him set up with a church so he can be baptized and established as a Christian man.
This week I had many conversations about culture and worldview with different people. I learned about the Japanese (Kaz’s) belief in Spirit Fathers. I also learned about their drive for success and for honor. I noticed his humility to the point of being inappropriate to my own American worldview.
I learned from a Kiwi man named Andrew Rosie that NZ Culture is driven by success in ones family and possessions. He explained the “tall poppie syndrome”, which is a term that Kiwi’s use for someone who tries to lead with confidence. Apparently Kiwis do not like people who try to stick their head above the rest for any reason.
I spoke with an Australian man about Kiwi’s dislike for Australia and he confirmed Andrew’s statement that Kiwi’s think that Australia is kind of like their big brother and they feel threatened by Australia’s success.
I also spoke with a Hindu Indian Man who explained his beliefs to me and I learned quite a bit about his worldview because I was able to understand his religion.

I hope that all of you are doing well and I enjoy the emails that I receive from you.
In Christ’s Love,
Travis

We baptized three of my friends today in Lake Tekapo ☺!!!

Hello Everyone,

I hope that all of you have had another week filled with awareness of God’s love. And that all of you are healthy and doing well. Let me know about any new things that are happening at home.

I spent Monday in worship and lecture. The lecture focused upon Scripture and understanding God’s love for us, we focused on Eph. 3:20, Luke 6, Eph. 2, Rom. 8:7, Matt. 9:9, Matt. 14:13. In the afternoon I helped Peter and Diana build their work bench. I am learning how to build things, while serving this man. It’s great!

Tuesday was spent in prayer, lecture and in preparation for outreach and I also spent some time hiking and rejuvenating myself. Tuesday night we had a lecture, which focused on evangelism. We learned how to effectively share the Gospel. Many people try to go about mission work without sharing the Gospel because it is hard to share. I experienced the effective reality of just sharing simple Truth with people on last Saturday night and it made me really excited about God’s power. The Gospel is authoritative and evokes strong emotions. Our prayers on Tuesday were focused upon domestic violence. It was a very hard topic to cover, very sad.

Wednesday our trip to Mt. Porters was cancelled and I took the day to sleep, pray and read God’s word. Wednesday night we had a corporate worship time many people prayed for one another and our base was alive with God’s presence.

Thursday morning we had prayer and intercession for our finances as a school. I learned more about evangelism on Thursday and turned in a five minute testimony that I had prepared to give. I used the passages Rom. 3:23, Rom. 6:23, and Rom. 10:9-10 to share the Gospel as a part of my testimony. I focused upon my knowledge of the Christian faith being a part of my entire life, but that I am only recently decided to give my entire life to God and His truths. So in other words, I am undergoing the process of relationship with God that all Christians have for their entire lives. John 10:10 – life to the full. Thursday afternoon was spent working on outreach preparation as a team. I spent Thursday night making cookies to sell. (we got a recipe from Jo Seagar, she is like the Martha Stewart of NZ, except without the problems). We made 96 yo-yos, which are two cookies with filling in the middle. It was a BIG project for two guys. Over the next two days Jonathon and I sold all of them and we made a good profit, we will have some spending money for T_urkey.

Friday we finished our lectures on Evangelism. I have listed some cool verses to think about.

· Warnings

o John 8:24

o Matt. 7:13-14

o John 10:10

o Luke 20:18

o Matt. 10:39

o Luke 9:25

o Luke 12:2-3

o Matt. 5:48

o Matt 22:32-39

o Matt. 5: 21-22

o Matt. 5:27-28

· Offers

o John 10:9-10

o Matt. 11:28-30

o John 8:36

o John 11: 25-26

o Luke 9:10

· Repent and See Him

o John 1:11-13

o Rev. 3:20

o Luke 5:31-32

o Luke 13:3

· The Cross

o 1 Peter 3:18

o 2^nd Cor. 5:21

o Acts 4:12

· Specific Verses for the Post Modern Mind Set

o Jer. 29:11-13

o Gen 1:1-2:3

o Luke 19:10

o 2^nd Cor. 5:16-20

Friday afternoon we went to Christchurch and my friend, Jordan, and I took a 19 yr old guy out to dinner at a bar called Fat Eddy’s, great food. This guy seems very old for his age. He has been to prison and didn’t always have a place to sleep at night. I meant him the week before at the rail jam. After dinner we went back to the center square in Christchurch and I meant my Japanese friend and his friend, the man I have been asking you to pray for. We took these three to the movie “One Year” where they heard the Gospel message.

We have been praying for these three consistently and I am so excited to share that they all know the Truth and have been talking with us about it quite frequently now. The guy from Christchurch was really influenced by the dinner we took him to. The Japanese friends have been really happy to be invited to all of our events. It is hard to speak with them because they both are still learning English, but they are very fun to spend time with.

On Saturday I went to Mt. Hutt and meant my Japanese friends and snowboarded with them all day. We took pictures together, talked about home, and talked about my upcoming trip to Queenstown (he might meet out group there and spend some time with us) we just spent time bondingJ. I really wish that they would accept Christ.

I am typing this early because I am going to Queenstown this coming week. Queenstown is about 7 hours South from Oxford and is supposed to be a very beautiful place with great skiing. I am going there for lectures and to do outreach in the snowboard community. Please pray for our group as we will have more events this coming week and have ministry opportunities every day. We also are having many injuries and I feel like Satan is trying to hinder our influence for God's Kingdom. Please Pray.

I am learning more about the Maori Culture because we had a person do the traditional Maori war dance this week. I also have had an opportunity to learn about the Japanese culture through my friends, they both are very polite. I can tell that they respect people in a different way than westerners would, but am still putting my finger on exactly what it is. I know that they walk behind me and always try to submit to me in a way that makes me as an American uncomfortable. They are my friends and I enjoy getting to know them.

God is full of love for each and every one of you. Please accept that love.

Travis

Discipleship Training

I have posted all my responses to our speakers and other school requirements at the link below.

DTS Journal

Letter 4

Hello Everyone,
It’s Sunday night here and I have had a very productive week. I hope everyone is doing well at home. Please keep me updated.
This week we learned about relationships from a man named David Ridell. Some of you might recognize that name, he has written a book “Living Wisdom” and is a very well known therapist. We learned a lot about the human mind and it’s connection to the soul (spirit) from a secular standpoint. I was wary of Mr. Ridell’s teaching at first, it seemed like he was teaching from a religious standpoint, but with incorrect doctrine. He proved me wrong. Over the course of the week he ended up giving great support from Scripture. Some of the practical advice he gave included: how to think in a healthy way, correct relationship, the importance of attitude, and ways to self-examine our minds and relationships. Mr. Ridell gave us all a lot to think about and gave most of us a free counseling session. I feel like the wisdom that he shared with us was given to him from God and will continue to learn from the notes given.
Monday was spent doing service work. I spent the afternoon helping an elderly couple clean their garage and helped to cut down some bushes. The man kept telling me how thankful he was, I told him that I was happy to do the work because my dad was probably doing our yard work and this way he couldn’t mess with me about not being there . We spent Monday night in lecture with Mr. Ridell. On Tuesday we prayed in the morning and then learned who would be on our outreach teams. My team is made up of seven people: Clayton N., Jonathon, Lauren, Eline, Clayton R., and Jesse. I am very excited about the team, I feel like we will all work well together. We spent the afternoon praying and talking about our plans for the trip.
Tuesday night was spent learning a skit that all of the different teams will use to share the Gospel. Rather than go skiing on Wednesday, due to the weather, we spent the day in lecture and the night praying and worshiping as a school. Thursday was spent in lectures and we prayed for the current teams on outreach.
Friday morning was a time of worship and prayer and then the rest of the day we spent in Christchurch doing street evangelism. I spent the time talking with some people in a local bar called Fat Eddies and listening to live music, I hope to meet them again in the coming weeks and continue to witness. One of my team members talked with some M-uslim people and learned about their beliefs and shared his. Some others spent time talking with the homeless and skateboarding with the locals. I have heard some stories about people praying with others and coming to faith, but I feel like many of us are still forming relationships. We also all spent some time inviting others to a big event that we are putting on next week in Methven (A ski town at the foot of Mt. Hutt), we will be showing a Christian snowboarding movie and their will also be a rail jam, or in other words a snowboarding competition.
Saturday we went at Mount Hutt. I gave a ski lesson in the morning and then spent the rest of the day skiing and looking for a Japanese man who I had meant a week earlier at Ricecube, never found him, I will see him next week though. This man is not a believer, but he seems very excited about Christianity (I have been talking with him via email). Please pray that I’d have the opportunity to pray with him.
On Saturday night it was my turn to serve at a church in Methven. We have been sending teams there every week for a free dinner and fellowship with anyone who can come (we hand out invitations everywhere we go). We usually average 17 people between the ages of 13-25, but last night over 30 showed up ! I talked with an 18 year old guy. I played him in pool and beat him! We made it a big deal because he didn’t want to lose to an American. I will meet him at Mount Hutt this coming week and ski with him; hopefully, I will get a chance to continue our conversation on religion, I don’t know if he is a believer or not.
On a side note: He thought it was funny that I always lose to my dad in pool, I told him that my dad thinks he can beat me in everything, but after this trip he doesn’t stand a chance. 
We slept at the church on Saturday night and we helped with the church service. I gave communion. After reading Jesus’ words from the last supper I gave a quick talk on the importance of communion. For remembrance of our forgiveness, but also the importance of recognizing that in taking communion together we recognize a unique bond as one in the body of Christ. I was very honored to be given that opportunity.
After church on Sunday we left and upon our arrival in Oxford I found out that everyone was playing a soccer game against the local team. I was put in at right mid. It was interesting to say the least. We ended up losing 2-0 and I didn’t help much, but we all had fun.
I appreciate all of your support and prayer. I will continue to do my best to witness to those I meet and spend my time with.
In Christ’s Love,
Travis

Letter 1

Hello Everyone,
I have gotten to New Zealand safely. I have spent the past week getting used to my environment and am still seeing many unique and unexpected differences between various cultures and their norms. For example, New Zealanders are very helpful to the point that you don’t even always want to ask for help because they will drop everything to convenience a stranger. I also am living with a guy from Switzerland and he has shown some differences, but nothing that I can put my finger upon. These are only two examples of different culture among many. There are people from Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Hawaii and Scotland. It is extremely exciting and exhilarating learning about all of these different cultures. The energy among all of us is at an extreme high for what seems to be every waking moment; it fits perfect with my personality, but is actually more than I’m even used to. Anyways, every day has been a day that we have lived for the Lord. The joy that his love creates is apparent and I am in high spirits.
On Sunday the 28th I arrived at 8:30 and meant two guys, on the last legs of my flight, who are also training with me for our missions. One was from Alberta, Canada and the other from Birmingham, Alabama. It was fun talking to them about their reasons for coming to Youth With A Mission; I am among many like-minded peers, we are all here for something greater and hope to find ourselves or more of our identity in glorifying God. This common ground between us has created an easy and open environment in which we will learn from one another and will help each other to see our Lord.
After this initial contact with youth from my training school we were picked up by two staff members, Sam and Judsen (Sam is 19 and Judsen is 28) who immediately made us feel very welcome and after driving the forty-five minutes from Christchurch they showed us around Oxford. I think that Oxford is somewhat like Eagle Bend, the small town that my dad grew up in. It has all of the necessary conveniences, but not much more. There is a really cool playground that all of us, 19-30 year olds, like because it is extremely well built and is kind of like an American challenge course. There is a skate park, rope tower, balance wheel (kind-of like the ones for a hamster) a zip line (in a circle) and swings that are set up in a circle, this creates a so called “gauntlet” or in other words a very exhilarating swinging experience as most of us try to knock the other people off. We will be using this park as a mission ground and will hopefully be able to reach out to the local youth. I spent the rest of Sunday getting to know the area, I went for a bike ride and saw beautiful scenery along with sheep, deer and cattle, I played games with the other students in my mission school and felt like I had when I first started college with a million different names to remember. Sunday evening we had a welcome ceremony and spent the night worshiping and talking with each other.
On Monday I woke up to a great breakfast by a chef who I learned cooks all of our meals and is absolutely wonderful. She has won awards in London for her cooking. We then had lectures on the history of YWAM and had orientation. After a long day of information we started to share our individual testimonies. Hearing over 15 people tell about their different interpretation of God, life, family, world-view, love, etc… I felt like I was going to explode with new insights and emotions. I was so encouraged to hear men and women my age tell all about their life experiences and with passion conclude that God is the defining force behind all of it. We all concluded with prayer.
Right away on Tuesday I woke up ate another wonderful breakfast and then went for a hike through the fog and watched the sun rise behind a beautiful skyline of mountains. This time was a part of my personal devotion time that we have chiseled into our everyday schedule, I can already tell that it will be one of my favorite things about this whole training school. Upon my return I went directly to my morning job of cleaning the windows and enjoying a cool conversation with a guy named Jesse from Eugene, Oregon. We then had more orientation lectures followed by 15 more testimonies. We then did a team building scavenger hunt and had a chance to interact with the local Kiwi’s (New Zealanders). We all got to serve in some way and we also learned more about each other. After dinner we have been just hanging out and I started to write this email.
It is now Wednesday night; we spent the day at the Mountain Porters. It was a gorgeous day and at the top of the mountain I could see for miles. I saw the prettiest scenery I have ever seen today!
While we skied we tried to make connections with some of the other skiers in hope that we’d be able to have an opportunity to share our faith. I told one man why I was in New Zealand and he new that YWAM was a Christian organization. Every week during lecture phase (training) we hope to witness in every way possible in all that we do, which, should be no different than in the States, but the opportunity to learn and be in fellowship with other Christian missionaries is going to be life changing.
On Thursday after one of the prettiest sunrises I have ever seen. We all started our first lecture on Knowing God by Jon and Mari Slack. We spent the morning learning about prophecy and how we do all hear our Lord. They explained that it is important to know that God wants to talk to us and does in our own individual ways. I learned a lot about different ways to hear our Lord, such as in our feelings both physical and emotional, our dreams, in visions/pictures, and so on. We learned about discerning the spirits. I felt that God was showing me that it is extremely important to understand the feelings that I have and that I might actually be getting some direction from him in those feelings. It was a great thought and I will be praying about it over the next weeks. After our lectures on Thursday we went into the community in groups of 3 or 4 and did service projects for the people. It was a great time, I liked the opportunity to work outside and be with some other fun guys. We concluded our day with a small group Bible study and me the other guys in my group spent time praying for one another and talking about different things that we are experiencing.
On a side note Jon Slack knew a lot about Dr. Greg Boyd from Bethel University. It was interesting. I knew Dr. Boyd was well known, but I expect a man from New Zealand would randomly bring him into a conversation with me.
On Friday morning we packed lunches in preparation for our trip to Christchurch after that we spent the remainder of the morning in another lecture on prayer and intercession, this one was also by Jon and Mari Slack. Jon taught a scripturally sound message about our God given freedom as humans and how he wants us to give our lives to him, but doesn’t force us. This truth about human freedom was then applied to prayer and in conclusion we found that we are effectively a bridge or are interceding for others when we pray, as Jesus is the ultimate intercessor we can now also intercede for humanity. It brought prayer into a new light and made it seem much more effective and real to me. We also talked about how prayer is not a monologue, but an interactive process in which “we must listen to God and be directed by His Spirit as we pray. Prayer is an interactive process which involves both listening and speaking” (Ephesians 6:18). The rest of our day was spent in Christchurch. We stopped on a mountain overlooking Christchurch it was beautiful, one of the students with me from Scotland said that it looked a lot like his home. Then we went to the mall in Christchurch and bought supplies and walked around the city for a while. It was interesting seeing the different people and shops. There was more sushi and the people generally dressed in a more European style. There were also a lot of similarities to America; people were definitely rushing around in the same way.
It is Friday night and as I reflect upon the past week I realize that I have tried to be open, accepting and trusting in this very different place, I have experienced frustration, confusion, and tension due to the cultural differences. I know that I will have a great learning experience if I choose to observe and ask about the feelings and differences that I notice. It helps to be able to reflect as I write. So thanks all of you for asking for these emails.
I’ll be sending something like this weekly along with some other things that I am reflecting upon while I am here.
In His Hands,
Travis
P.S. Dr. Ludeman Smith would you explain how you used the Emic-Etic interchange, or anything else, so I can take what I can and apply it in my experience. I have your workbook and am using it, but am wondering if you have any pointers after having read this email or just any quick tips that I can remember as I continue here. I think I’m looking for a really quick and catchy way to remember a very helpful process. What would quick thought would you focus on remembering and applying as you partake in a new cultural experience. Quick and easy because I am so filled with other thoughts. Does that make sense?

Letter 2

Hello Everybody,
Hope all is well back in America . I saw the prettiest mountains again today. While skiing at Mount Porters we hiked to the top of the mountain and built a jump off a ten-foot drop into a ton of fresh snow! It was so fun to be there and then we proceeded to ski down a perfect run that felt like a pillow.
Anyways I am not only skiing and trying to hurt myself by jumping off cliffs. I am also learning a ton. This week we have a speaker here, Mark Parker, who has been speaking for YWAM for about thirty years. We are focusing on understanding how God works by breaking some the lies that many people grow to accept. We are also learning practical ways to proceed with the great commission. I have learned a lot about culture because to apply Mr. Parker’s teaching we must understand the people we are trying to reach with Christ’s message. I learned more about the Muslim people and the ways that they interpret different things about religion because of their own spiritual beliefs or because of the beliefs that were instilled into them. I also was reminded that in our western culture we do not often fear God as much as we should. Where as in Asia and in other eastern culture they often fear God so much that they cannot comprehend His love for humanity. I am excited to apply what I learned and continue to learn more as the week progresses.
We prayed for Muslim people to experience God during Ramadan because during that month as they seek God there have been numerous times that Jesus has come through visions, dreams, etc… and shown them to the real truth. I also had a very encouraging small group meeting, on Tuesday night, we were able to give some of our testimonies and we all prayed over each other. I am very excited to start our lectures again Thursday morning and will have more to write about then. For now I am going to go relax and go to bed early.
On Thursday we spent a lot of time learning about the Lordship of Christ and my friends prayed over three of the students and watched them get healed!! My friend Cole had hurt his knee and could only limp around and after they prayed for him he was able to run and dance. Another guy had a fever and was in a cold sweat in his sleeping bag and after prayer he was better, lastly, another of my friends had hurt his elbow, while snowboarding, and wasn’t able to straighten it, but after prayer he was able to! It was a great day.
On Friday we spent a whole day in worship and spent the day consecrating ourselves to the Lord. It was a very intense day.
On Saturday I was a “Weekend Warrior”, which means I stay back at the base instead of going skiing and worked on running our base for the weekend. I made a family recipe for everyone called ‘Chocolate and Biscuits’. Everyone liked it. It was a really fun weekend.
I meant a man named Freddy from India he explained to me his goals of starting a backpacking ministry across India and he spent about a half hour explaining to me exactly how he plans on proceeding with his goal. He taught me some things about the Indian Culture like the appropriate dress for a person and he also gave me his testimony, which gave me an idea of the importance of marriage in his Muslim culture.
I went to church and gave a testimony about our week with Mark Parker and the things that were happening on the base. Then went to the farmers market and had eggs, toast, sausage, and bacon. It was all straight from the farm so it was great. After breakfast and when we were done with dishes from lunch I went with three other guys to the associate pastor's house for the afternoon. His kids were Adam, Kyle and Becky. They were all very nice and I got to have some real coffee. Adam is 23, Kyle was 21 and Becky is 18. I think I found a Sunday hang out spot. :). We watched rugby, which is just like Sunday football in the states. Kyle said he would take me hunting for goats and big rabbits (Mitch I’ll get the ultimate mounter bunny) :). I also meant their friend Liam who is going to take us dirt biking. It was really fun spending the whole afternoon talking with Adam about New Zealand and telling him about our homes. I learned a lot about the Kiwi (New Zealander) vocabulary and noticed that the hospitality is a lot like small town Minnesota, very welcoming. I expected a difference, but ended up feeling very at home.
This week was a really tiring one, but very good. All of us feel close it has only been two weeks, but we have done very powerful things together.
In Christ,
Travis

P.S.
Dr. Wendt, I passed your mission materials along to Mark Parker. He has an important role in the Youth With A Mission organization and was very excited to learn about Crossways. He will be sending the materials back to me after he looks them over. I will keep you updated on the useful ways that your materials are being used.

Letter 3

Hello Everyone,
I’ve had another intense week in New Zealand. We even had an earthquake on Wednesday night, I didn’t feel it because it was a rolling one and not shaking, but one of our leaders said they saw their chandelier swaying. We spent this week learning about biblical worldview from the director of the base. I learned a lot of practical principles from the Bible and I will be able to build upon a stronger foundation because I have learned about the roots of our faith.
We focused on learning about Animism/New Age, Secular Humanism in comparison to Biblical Christianity. We spent time learning about the history of each and we learned about the different parts of the world where each one of these worldviews is found. In learning about these different worldviews I was reminded again that worldview is foundational to cultural values. I was exposed to different cultural tendencies and found that nations founded upon biblical worldview were generally more successful. This is due to the values that Christianity invokes in culture such as the “Protestant work ethic”, which was revived during the reformation. God told Adam and Eve to work His world and to care for it (Genesis 2), and He gave us His desire for growth (Genesis 9). This helped me to get rid of some of my own enculturation and misconceptions about God’s will.
Secular Humanism values that our world is going to be overpopulated and that everything is going downhill, when in reality God wanted us to fill our earth and subdue it, and there is still plenty of land to use. 
While working on understanding worldview and cultural value I learned from students from Indonesia and India. They both spoke about an unhealthy fear of God being prevalent throughout their cultures. Where as in western culture we have a tendency to not fear God enough. In learning about Biblical Christianity we learned about the importance of understanding God’s ability to work in any vocation and found practical scripture to study for our different lifelong vocations (Proverbs 16:3). I studied some verses that had to do with business (Proverbs 11: 24-25, 16: 3, 21: 20, 22: 16 and 22; Exodus 22: 22-27).
We spent Monday doing service work around the community of Oxford and in anticipation about where our options for outreach would be. After finding out our options I spent the remainder of Monday praying and asking for advice from all of you. On Tuesday we worshipped and prayed asking for God’s blessing on all of our decisions. I received some great advice and know that many people were praying for me as I made my decision to go to T-urkey 2, or the travel team. I am very confident that God will use me in T-urkey and I am excited to continue my preparation for this mission. On Wednesday I went to Porters and spent the day skiing and talking to people, I had a couple of opportunities to witness. On Thursday I spent the day learning about different cultures and then we watched a movie on M-uslim culture, while the groups going to A-frica and S. A-merica watched a different video. Friday we went into Christchurch and did mission work after our morning lecture and worship. I went to a thing called Ricecube and taught English to the Asian people who showed up, we also got to eat some authentic Asian food. It was great. Some people were able to witness and pray with some non-believers at the different events that our school did. Saturday was great, we spent the day skiing at Mt. Hutt and I passed out about thirty invitations to a free dinner that we put on every Saturday night in a nearby town (I also saw the biggest rabbit (Hare) I’ve ever seen in my life it was the size of Prints (my dog) and was running on all fours going really fast, I bet over thirty Mph). I went back to the base on Saturday night and got a bunch of people to go stargazing, so we drove to a high bridge about ten minutes away, it was beautiful and I saw three shooting stars! But the van broke down and it ended up being a 2 ½ hour trip.
“The key to experiencing some of the stuff relating to the love of God is able to respond out of that with reciprocal love.” Aaron Walsh
John 17:20-26
This is just a cool thought that I have been seeing as a reoccurring theme of my school.
Thank you all so much for your prayers and continued support as I learn and tell others about God’s love for them.
In Christ,

Travis

John 17

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to share a very cool chapter that I have been focusing on, John 17. It has been called the ‘real’ Lord’s Prayer (by scholars according to Aaron Walsh) because it is one of the last prayers that Jesus’ prayed before his ascension.

I was spending time in devotion a week ago and I asked the Lord if he had specific passage for me to read. He gave me the thought that I should read John 17. After reading John 17 and Luke 10 (another verse he prompted me to read) I had thought I have to share this cool experience with one of my friends. I instantly thought of a specific friend, Judson, my small group leader. So as I was going to tell him I was caught in another conversation and forgot (it is crazy how fast we can forget). I went to bed that night, totally ready for sleep, and I asked the Lord if there was anything else that I hadn’t done. He said, “You need to go and hurry to the house that some of our other team members are staying in, about a block away.” I was almost asleep so after asking 3 or 4 more promptings I got up, dressed, and walked down the stairs and outside. I asked the Lord why I was to go to this specific house? He said that, “I was to tell Judson about John 17 and that he was at this house and that I was to hurry.” So as I started to jog to this house I found Judson on the way back to our house. I told him everything and he was really excited and said that he was looking for something and felt that God was answering his prayer. Anyways needless to say I was excited and told him about John 17.

I specifically told him that I was really encouraged by John 17:26.

I am excited that Jesus is in us and that we are going to be continually reminded of Him and He will always give us revelation of his love for us.

Anyways I went back to bed about a half-hour later and again was about ready to fall asleep and the Lord told me I was to get up and tell a guy named Clayton. After asking four or five times for clarity (I was thinking that I was only to tell Judson). I finally had the will power to get up, dress, and continue to follow the Spirits promptings, which meant I would tell Judson that the message would be for others too. After I had gotten up and was ready to go again I asked the key question, “why am I up again?” and I realized that I was just being reminded that I am to tell of the joy and love that Jesus gives us and that he wants to abide with us, and inside of us. I was to tell everyone! So I went all over the base and insisted that the guys read John 17. It was great  I felt funny, but I was doing a part of outreach in my school, on the Lord’s time.

I went to bed awhile later and as I was falling asleep I asked again, “Lord is there anything else for me to do.”(Thinking and resolved that I was going to get up again.) I was excited and full of joy as I realized that he was just reminding me that I have a responsibility to share Christ’s love to everyone and can do that by sharing his personal messages to me.

My excitement and joy touched people and John 17 has been coming up often in the past week .

So I just wanted to share the Lord’s goodness and love with all of you, as I am encouraged here.

Please pray for my team as we go out the next couple of days and hope to reach hundreds of people.

Thank you all for lifting me up in prayer and blessing me with this opportunity to share God’s Love.

~Travis

Letter 5

Hello everyone,

It's Sunday night here, just got done playing soccer with some of the local guys. (Lost again). I spent the morning in church and afterwards I finished selling coffee. Overall it's been a very relaxing and much needed day to myself.

This week I could see all of your prayers working in our ministry. I was able to tell the Japanese man, Kazuya the Gospel, while we participated in a rail jam. I will be able to see him again next Friday in Christchurch when we show the movie "One Year" there. The rail jam was a success we had about 60 people show up and were able to show many people Christ's love and there weren't any injuries. I was also able to see my friend, Luke (the skier I meant last week while staying at the church in Methven) come to faith. He prayed after we watched the video "One-Year", which focused on giving the Gospel to the snowboarder community. The movie was a huge success we had 180 people show up, many that didn't believe, or hadn't heard the Christian message. I am so happy to say that they have now have all heard the Truth and have been given an opportunity to come to faith, I know at least one has!

Thank you so much for your prayers. Please continue to pray for our ministry as we will be showing "One Year" next Friday in Christchurch. Specifically please pray that everything would run smoothly (AV Equipment etc...) and that our goal of 300 + people would show.

I spent Monday morning worshiping and learning about the Father's Love or God's love for us as His children. After lectures I spent the afternoon working at Peter and Diane's house helping them build a tool bench in their garage (the same couple I worked with last week). Monday night was spent in another lecture (I learned a lot about God's promises to us by Scripture and am very excited to continue to learn about them. When we understand His promises we can seek the gifts He promised.) On Tuesday we spent the morning in intercession and studying Scripture and on Tuesday afternoon I spent time in reflection and journaled about what I have learned thus far.
Wednesday was spent at Porters Skiing I was able to hand out 30 different invitation for the rail jam and One-Year video, many of the people I spoke with showed up. Wednesday night I had a great worship time with a few of my friends. We spent quite a bit of time praying for the rail jam and One Year video, it was awesome to see God answer those prayers in unique ways over the next three days. For example, we prayed for good weather for the rail jam. Well, when we woke up friday morning I found out that there were 150 km/hr winds at the mountain and they were not able to get the snow they needed for the event, well the wind stopped. Which was a shock to the weather men because when westerlies blow down from Australia the wind doesn't ussually stop. I believe God allowed it to happen.
Thursday morning we spent in intercession and learned about our God. Once again, I was touched by all of the promises that God gives us. I've given only a few here (John 17:26, Revelation 21:2, 1 Peter 5:7, Gen. 3:15, James 4:6, Phillipians 4:6-7, 13; Hebrews 11:16, Psalm 37, Luke 10, Luke 4, Psalm 91, Jeremiah 29:11, Joel 2:28, Romans 8:28, Dueteronomy 10, Jeremiah 10:22, Matthew 7:7, John 14:3, Exodus 14:14, Matthew 6:23, 1 Corinthians 10, Galations 3, Romans 3:23, Matthew 28:19, Proverbs 16:3, Isaiah 40:31). We spent the remainder of the day studying Turkey and learning about the different ways that we can serve and influence the people. My outreach team seems very compatible and I am really excited to work with them over the next months in our mission. Friday morning we dedicated to worship and then spent that rest of that day in Christchurch inviting people to the rail jam. I walked around with the coffee my mom had sent me and sold it for a cheap NZ price and was able to earn enough to cover postage (I talked to my parents today and they said I could keep the money, I'm a lucky guy). Now I will be giving the coffee away as hospitality gifts (Coffee is much more expensive in NZ).
We went to the rail jam and gave away free sausages. The Kiwi's call it a sausage sizzle, we also made it on Mauri T.V. (the extreme sports show)!! I think I'll be able to post a video on this blog.
Saturday was spent at Mt. Hutt and after selling my coffee and handing out a ton of invitations to "One-Year" I went to Methven and helped prepare dinner and watched the movie with 180 other people. I had a fun time with Luke and I beat him again, in foosball this time :).
This week was a great one I saw our Lord move and know that people were brought to faith and will be saved for eternity!!!!

Please keep me updated on life at home. I hope all of you are doing well.
Thank you for all of your prayers,

Travis