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.