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 ☺!!!