Back in Atlanta... from Tartu, via Tallinn

Ah... International travel, especially in Atlanta. You've got to love it. I arrived back in town yesterday afternoon as part of my 32 hour day (8 time zones seperating Tallinn and Atlanta). As with every time that a mission trip comes to a close, the processing begins and life as I knew it prior to leaving takes over again.

We closed out the trip in Tartu with a (much needed) day of rest on Saturday where many of us, including myself, slept in, got a cheap massage in town, and toured the KGB museum in Tartu (recommend if you are ever there!). The team all got together for dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant in town... and I got my fix of real gnocchi (which you can honestly only find in Eurpoe) before I left. Betsy Griswold told me about an Italian market where I can get gnocchi flour, so there's a possibility that I'll try to make this an entree during my supporter picture/dinner party (date TBD).

Sunday we worshipped for one more time at Risttee Church... God's hand is on this group and I was excited to be able to support them for their second "Bear Week" outreach to the University. Kristan and band led worship and it was (again) very cool to see both Estonians and Americans alike worshipping Jesus with passion and authenticity. Finishing out, we had to leave the hotel at 1PM Tartu time to head to Tallinn... Helena, Tarmo, Maret, Daniel, Timo, and the gang (I need to see the pics now... my camera's charging) went over to see us off with encouragement, hugs, and "Bear on a stick signs" (ok... I will post a picture soon so you know what this is all about... it was hilarious). We debriefed on the bus to Tallinn & arrived in Tallinn at 4PM Tallinn time (same as Tartu time) to tour the old city of Tallinn (Tartu didn't have an "old city" because much of it was destroyed in WWII... Tallinn was spared of this) and eat as this really good Russian restaurant (check that one off my list). I highly recommend the beef steak and the pot roast pie... both got rave reviews.

We left Tallinn at 7AM Tallinn time for our flight and was in the air or in security lines for a good 12 hours, arriving into Atlanta around 2:00 and getting through Customs and MARTAing to Rich's house by 4:00PM Atlanta time. Part of my 32 hour day... which was all good if it was long. Now comes the processing and reflecting with God and close friends as to how my life has changed as a result of this trip... and it indeed has. I'm looking forward to sharing more soon... :) thanks for all of your prayers and encouragement!!!

Short one Donald Miller book

I have a short amount of time to blog as a group of us are about to head out to dinner in a bit before we go to Risttee Church for the Living Room event that we're hosting for the students that we connected with tonight... pray that TLR goes well tonight and that many of the students we connected with this week come and get connected in some way to someone at Risttee.

I am (as you can tell from my title) one book short from what I brought to read on the trip. I got a personalized tour of Tartu from my new Tartuian friend Ivan today and had a chance to invite him to The Living Room tonight... he was not committal but was open to reading Searching for God Knows What and sharing his thoughts on what he is reading with me (I have his e-mail addy, so communication will continue), which I was reading on the 8 hour flight from the ATL to Amsterdam and now I will have to pick up where I left off in a new book I will get in the States. I got to share with him a little too about Christian Spirtuality (a concept that Donald Miller coined in Blue Like Jazz) and having a relationship with God. I hope that the seed sticks in and grows... he is a very smart guy. I also gave him our last Passion CD that was donated to us by the Passion folks (thanks Jennifer Hill!!!)... I think he liked the songs that Kristan sang this week and we even ran into him on the "tour" and talked for a little bit.

The concert last night was incredible. The band from Risttee has some talent... I think that they are going to do well in the production department. A lot of students came out and listened to the show and the gospel was shared in song... in addition the students that attended were made aware of The Living Room event that we are having tonight.

We are on the home stretch! God is awsome!!!

chris <><

On being a roadie, art competition, and working on the railroad

Interesting title? Well, it has been an interesting couple of days... pictures to come - I am at an internet cafe and cannot upload pictures yet.

Yesterday's railroad races were really fun... two teams of us Americans competed in the "Bugs bunny" rail car race and we fared pretty good, not good enough to make the playoff but we held our own. My team of boys beat our team of girls (which to their credit posed for pictures a good deal if that tells you how seriously they were taking the competition :) )... the team of Daryl Griswold, C Willis, B Waites, and Jaime Gibson finished fourth... and let me tell you it was much harder than I thought... we were close to having a casualty but no injuries. It also did not help that it started pouring when it was our turn to race.

The pub concerts went well as well... Ivan showed up and we hung out. I really want to connect him to folks at Risttee and have made some introductions. I plan to spend some time with him on Friday and talk about God... and plan to give him a copy of Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller (which I brought for me to read and did on the flight up... and I feel that I can sacrifice a little to help someone in their spiritual journey, you know)... which I think he will like and will provide opportunities for more conversation via e mail, myspace, or facebook when I get back to life in the States. Speaking of facebook... many of my new Risttee friends are on facebook which I find really cool. I have already put out a shout out to Tarmo and Timo - they are studs.

Today we handed out coffee and spent most of the afternoon setting up the stage for this evening's outdoor concert... we're bringing the full-on Buckhead Church lights and smoke machine show... it is going to freakin rock. I can't wait!!! What I got an appreciation for was how much work goes into setting up for a concert... and I am really glad that I am not a professional roadie. Interesting work... I lifted a lot of stage equipment, lights, and boxes. Fun. I also watched the art competition that we hosted in the town square... that was really cool. Li, who I talked about in a previous blog, competed and man is she a good artist! Courtney from our team also competed and I thought her mermaid drawing was good (Not sure what the theme was). I will post pictures when I get the chance.

I cannot wait till tonight's show. Pray that God uses it to move peoples' hearts more towards Him. He is the hope that they (and we) all need.

chris <><

The band has arrived! Making more contacts :)

As you can probably imagine, we are all very, very busy with handing out coffee & sandwiches, promoting our events and concerts, and supporting our Estonian friends from Risttee as they set up and lead the events. This evening, we are hosting a "railroad race" where teams of two get on these little pump cars (my term) and race for time down a set of abandoned railroad tracks (think Bugs Bunny cartoons or the movie "Oh brother where art thou?" which I haven't seen and now probably ought to). Bryan, Rich, Peep, and I got to "test drive" the railroad cars yesterday as we were setting up the course and I will honestly tell you that it was a lot of fun.

Catie and I are assuming "team leader duties" for the team today, which is a little extra pressure. So please pray for me for wisdom and energy because I didn't get much sleep last night. Part of our "leader duties" for the day is to lead the team meeting and devotion. Partly because of the fatigue we are all feeling, I felt led to do the devotion from Judges 6, which is the story of Gideon's calling to deliver Israel... a calling that he felt completely overwhelmed by and not prepared for... as many of us are feeling on our uber busy schedules and *ahem* sleep. It's cool that God does not call the qualified but he qualifies the called. I think I heard that from somewhere... but not sure where.

Connections are continuing to be made and are deepening. Marco, who I talked about in my last blog (sans pictures) has come by the coffee & sandwich stand every day this week so far - same with Li - and in fact we bounced different trivia game ideas off of them as we were brainstorming different questions off of them yesterday afternoon. Marco also showed up to the Kristin Stanfill & gang concert at the Big Ben pub last night and brought a friend :) - he had a great time and is starting to warm up to Courtney and I. Another guy that I had a chance to get into several long conversations with is a Russian guy named Ivan who is a third-year student at the University... I'm not sure where he is spirtually, but really like talking to him because he's a musician (introduced him to Timo last night), is a deep thinker, and isn't really afraid to speak his mind. We're going to hang out on Friday and I want to try to use this as an opportunity to further connect him with those students that are plugged in at Risttee - he was also at Big Ben last night - ... he's also met Courtney from our team too who has really been great about pursuing relationships with the Estonian students we meet.

The pub concert last night was really great. PRAY FOR THE BAND because they are (or were last night) wiped out from all of their travels... and mentioned that some of them have been up for 30 hours straight. I rode back to the hotel with Matt Melton last night and he told me that they were all pretty much gone physically. No matter... they played really great - and played their "usual stuff" and not the secular cover music that we anticipated. I think some students may have left because the worship music songlist wasn't expected (a table of students I met over bfast left and stuck me with a 201 krons check... about 20 bucks... did I mention though that I "found" an unexpected 20 dollar support check in my encouragement bag yesterday?)... but many stayed and I heard one comment secondhand from a student that said the the band #&"¤#¤% rocked. What can you say? They're good.

Ok... off to sending a few e-mails and catching up with friends.... and off to the train tracks at 4:05 (give or take). I'm looking forward to tonight's concert at Big Ben and to a lesser extent the RR race.

Coffee o Kakau? :) Ciao!

Chris <><

Pictures from Estonia through Monday

Above: The team at dinner with Kumar Saturday in our first night in Tartu, Below: Brian, Stacy, and I on the baggage claim at the Tallinn airport waiting for Jaime to hear that the airline lost his bags (or left them in Amsterdam... six of one, half dozen of the other)



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Above: Baptism pictures from Risttee Church: Below: Kumar Yoma (our ultra cool Risttee Church tour guide), Mareet, and teammates (Jaime, Rich, and me) on the Oscar Wilde statue before lunch on Sunday.


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Above: wrapping sandwiches for Monday's student rush; Below: coffee and chocolate station by the bridge.



More pictures and news on http://estoniasept07.blogspot.com - check it out :)

Arriving in Tartu, Worship at Risttee, and passing out coffee and "kakau"

Hi all... life is good up here in Tartu on a very beautiful and chilly Monday morning (chillier for some more so than others... I found that my blood is not as thin as I believed) Our first morning reaching out to students was very productive... we handed out about 300 ham, cheese, and cucumber (ok... not my thing but they went fast) sandwiches and many more cups of Nescafe coffee and hot chocolate (or "kakau"... however it is spelled - I sure I am not spelling this as it should but how I would say it... I'll give you an update on the spelling later). We found ourselves a spot strategically located near the bridge going into the city center where a lot of students and young professionals will use to walk to class and to their work.

Along with the coffee & kakau, we also handed out a small flyer that advertises "bear week" (or Karunadal 2007) and provides a URL that lists out more details about the events we are hosting during the week and all of the dates, times, and places. The sandwiches & coffee cups we handed out also included a URL for the Karunadal 2007 events... so pray that students check out the website and are attracted to the events we are throwing, especially the concerts. A couple of students that Courtney and I had an opportunity to talk to were really cool... Marco and Li... they really seemed to enjoy talking to us and had that first year amazement with them (wow - college is really hard) - pray that we get more opportunities to see them during the week during the events and passing along the way to class.

Yesterday's worship was really good. I didn't understand a word that anyone was saying in worship (except for Jeesus :-) ), but really was in awe of hearing people genuinely worship in their own language... seeing that the gospel is for the Nations and that He wants every people group to reach out for Him. After worship, we ate lunch with a few of our new Estonian friends and then traveled to Craig (one of the American Risttee pastors)'s house for dinner and to prepare for the events. One of my favorite people from Risttee that I met was a girl named Mareet (excuses for not being able to spell), who was just baptized this year and has an amazing voice... she LOVES to sing and as she was walking to the restaurant with us after church was singing worship songs as she walked. It was cool. She's part of the Going Up (High school ministry) and will be entering college next year, I think. It was really cool to see someone with her passion and zeal for Christ in this church, and hope that God will raise up more like her.

Pictures to come with my next post... Thanks for your prayers and encouragement! :-)

chris <><

And we're off!!!!

Aren't you glad this is the last post that I'll be pontificating my esoteric thoughts about the trip and getting on to more practical, action-packed postings? Ha Ha! Me too.

I'm about 1 1/2 hours from traveling to Rich's to meet with the group and progress toward the airport. Bags are packed and passport is stowed. All is well in the world. The great news is that our team's support needs are being met... from what I've heard we were short as a team by about $4,000 yesterday morning and I received over $500 (over 1/8 of the total need) in just the last 24 hours. :-). Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

One last esoteric pontification if you will... my last night of fun before going into "focused maniac packer mode" was dinner at this place in Decatur called Carpe Diem (owned by the same folks as Apres Diem in Virginia Highlands)... laughing histerically and swapping stories. A good time had by all. I imagine that our conversations with Peep, Anna, and our hosts in Estonia will be quite similar. It's interesting now that I think about it, because I really believe that "carpe diem" has been my theme for this trip (although, I didn't really make this connection until today - I'm more ADD than you think)... to sieze the day and allow God to dream big through me... and I sense that He has great things in store for us. I always think of the movie "Dead Poets Society" when I hear that phrase... and Robin Williams' character whispering carpe diem into his students' ears as he challenges them to make their lives count for something extraordinary.

Another Latin phrase that I love, that relates very well to the trip is the question that Pilate asked to Jesus prior to ordering the crucifixion. That phrase is "que es veritas?" (what is truth?)... and I believe that we are all asking that question when it comes to finding meaning and hope for our lives. They go hand in hand, because when we find Jesus to be our veritas, then we can securely carpe diem because we know Him who has secured us in His love. That's my hope... and especially that we can show veritas agape (ok - I am splicing Greek and Latin here, work with me) in a real and tangible way.

Off to Estonia. Whoo-Hoo!!! :-)
Cheers!
Chris <><

T minus 2 days till we hop the pond!

Holy cow! Can it be coming this soon? I am just starting to realize that my teammates and I will be boarding our beloved KLM flight to Amsterdam en route to Estonia in less than 48 hours. Wow.

Some great news! I became fully funded for the trip as of today!!! Praise God! Rich has asked that we target $2,100 to help support the band, I'm at $2K right now (which is supporting me) so any additional checks I get will go toward Kristan and co. (as well as picking up for my teammates... the funds donated to the trip officially go into a pool in which each of us is responsible for raising a certain amount as our share... that's kind of how it works).

I am about half packed... I consider myself a professional packer (not to be confused with the Green Bay Packers) because of my traveling for work. However, seeing as though I will be in Tartu for about a week and a half and will be experiencing somewhat of a climate change (going from sweating mid-90's to highs in the low 60's/lows in the 40's), packing is a little more of a challenge than it would be for a business trip. Additionally, part of my luggage will be dedicated to stowing give-a-ways (150 t-shirts, 50 flash drives (I think), a few iPods, etc.).

... speaking of give-a-ways, I met up with Rich this evening to give him the letter bags that many of you that came to my party contributed to... we were brainstorming how to best maximize them, including trickling notes of encouragement to team members during the week. We were out at Target getting supplies and American-style t-shirts to give out during the competitions. I got a set of 3 Spider Man and 3 Green Lantern "super hero" shirts there (for those of you that don't know, Green Lantern is on SuperFriends and he's not really all that Super... Superman is always bailing him out and Jerry Seinfeld isn't really all that fond of him either... but it is a cool shirt). I hope the students that I give them out to as gifts like them.

Ok... I gots to get back to either retiring for the night (sleep good, me like) or packing. We'll see, it's getting late.

chris <><

Pictures from the Prayer Party

Above: We have great musicians on our trip. Can't wait to worship with these guys, Below: Listening to testamonies from past trips.



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Above: Me, Stacy, Courtney, and Wes... Below: Rich and I (the two rocks of Team Estonia... in my own mind)



I can tell you, from what I've heard... God's about to do something really cool through and in us. Only 8 more days!!! :)

Ok... not related to the trip. Sue me ;-)

Some of you know that I'm on a calorie reduction program to lose a few pounds now... more related to being at the beach and fitting in clothes than missions. I have been on it for a little over three weeks and I just weighed in at 7 pounds lighter than my last weigh-in on 8/7. Whoo-Hoo! (oops... Homer eats do-nuts).

It's earned too... only gave into fries temptation ONCE and have done a good job of portion control. Ok... next post will be about missions... I do have about 10-15 pounds to go till I get to my target weight. It's not over yet, but I'm glad to have the scale cheering me on :-)

The greatest sign of respect...

"The world was not worthy of them." - Hebrews 11:38a

"Then the LORD said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.'" - Job 1:8

I just got back from Dallas from a "sales simulation" training thing with my work... and on the plane home, reading "Shattered Dreams" I had a little epiphany that I wanted to share... no worries, it does relate to my prep for the trip.

Late on the second day of interviewing the executives we were supposed to meet with and build our proposal/business case for, we had to take the high level numbers (which were huge because one of my teammates likes showing big numbers) to be reviewed by our company's simultaed CFO. I needed to have a one-on-one meeting with an executive, hadn't yet, so it made sense that this would be the most logical opportunity for me (since I do financial business cases for a living). The downside was, we hadn't 'fully baked' our numbers before this meeting and our business case was in the process of being changed as a result of a few prior meetings, so I was feeling a little trepadation as I walked into the CFO's office. What resulted was a merciless beating (where I was the 'beaten') because I wasn't able to defend the ONE-BILLION-DOLLAR (cue Dr. Evil voice here) numbers that we e-mailed the guy 2 hours earlier. I stood my ground and attempted to defend but at the end of the day... I went away with work to do - and a little upset at a teammate or two for setting me up to go through that interrogation. Now, this meeting was great in that some teams got beat up when they were presenting their final proposal... not us (I took one for the team)... and we WON!!! Cool.

The ah-ha moment came in what the role player told me in my one-on-one feedback session with him after everyone came out of role. He told me that he set out to make this a really, really hard meeting because he was very impressed with me and my team and wanted to see if I had what it took... and he told me after the fact that he was proud of me in that I stood my ground, didn't lose my cool, and was willing to defend what I put in front of him (the number he decided to pick on wasn't one of those, but oh well). In fact, we had a chance to 'chat' (he's British) afterwards and really had fun talking to him (he's into miltary history, which I also find to be facinating).

As I was reading Larry Crabb on the plane later, what he was talking about in Chapter 3 about God trusting US with trials and pain because HE can trust us to live in hope of Christ through shattered dreams and suffering and show the world where true joy really exists. As I started to put my own trials and frustrations (even the little ones) in perspective, with the words of a retired CFO, a smart author, and the words I read about God bragging on a dude from Uz named Job in my quiet time earlier.... it dawned on me that God also trusts that in all these things that I will not give up hope, because my hope is not in the little things that the world says are ultimately important but in God. Especially as I am preparing to spend a week serving Risttee Church... the perspective becomes more clear because there's not too many things that can make the gospel appear less compelling than a joyless Christian - and it's cool that God allows me to see that He's proving that His joy is alive in me. That's one thing that I defintely want my new Estonian college student friends to see and be attracted to!

cheers!
chris <><

Good times.

I wanted to post some of the pictures from Sunday's party here... a good time was had by all and almost all of the food was consumed :-)

Also... a huge shout out to everyone who wrote an encouraging note to the team at the Team Estonia Hall of Fame wall... I'm delivering these notes when we leave Atlanta on September 7th and I know that your encouragement will be greatly appreciated.

Up: Toasting birthdays or personal accomplishments... bottom: Former Team Croatia members (Mary Ann, me, Ben Compton) posing for Haduk and Shokata.

Below: Supporters and crazy roommates Autumn and Kelli getting a little wild for Shokata!!!

Below: Fusion23 South friends and supporters getting close (Jen Westworth, me, Heather Burnley, and Charles Pleiss)... and of course asking me where they could get themselves some Shokata :-)

2 1/2 weeks to go. Thanks for all of the support, encouragement, and leftover avoidance :).

Chris <><

Party, Party, Party... All in the name of Jesus.

This weekend, I am hosting a dinner party for my supporters (aka - to raise support) for my mission trip to Estonia in 3 weeks (Is it coming up that soon????). I'm looking at my townhome, and being male that I am you can imagine that it needs some cleaning... if you guessed that you'd be right! This weekend will include some of that fun... and the REAL fun of collecting supplies, recipes, and cooking for my friends and telling some stories about what God has done in the past overseas (and here in the States) and dream big for what He wants to do through me and my teammates in Tartu in September.

By the way... BIG props to my friend Mary Ann for knowing where to score Croatian supplies here in Atlanta... so I am going to be able to have some Cevapcici (it's spelled different than I thought it would be phonetically) at the party... which is the admittingly guilty pleasure that Daniel our Crusade contact introduced me to when we were at Split. It's more of a Bosnian "dish" but it's pretty popular in Croatia too.

Also... God's really put some cool dreams in my heart for Sunday's party... beyond just a cool support-raising event. You'll just have to see it to believe it. :) I am also going to give my new digital camera it's maiden voyage at this party so I'll post some pictures on the blog after Sunday.

chris <><

Vision

I read a very interesting quote in my "lunchtime reading" today that has kept me in thought all afternoon. It's a quote from Larry Crabb in the introduction of a book I picked up (Shattered Dreams) that says: "Manageable visions are not worthy of an unmanageable God."

This quote especially jumped out at me as I, as many of us do, tend to limit myself to "manageable visions" in my world... and the fact that I'm meeting with team members to talk about giveaways after work. I believe that, in this case, the temptation is to diminish the importance of what we're doing today and merely go through the motions... when God can use something as small as a flash drive with a thought-provoking song on it to lead them to a relationship with Him. Having also been to Europe on trips like this before, I think I may be tempted to lower my expectations for what God can accomplish in this week (especially in prayer), but in reality we don't know what He will do during this week or what the after-effects of our connections with students in Tartu will be (Chris mentioned to us at the retreat that a girl had just accepted Christ last month that initially came in contact with Risttee during the first Northpoint trip to Tartu).

So... pray for huge things :-) because we serve an awesome (and unmanageable) God.... and pray that God expands my vision for what He both wants to accomplish in my life AND His dreams for Risttee Church.

chris <><

Cool things happening!!!!

Hey friends,

We just completed our team retreat this weekend... in Simpsonwood (D'Oh!) courtesy of the Griswolds and had an amazing time! Unlike last year's Croatia Team retreat at Winshape, we stayed close to Atlanta at a Methodist retreat center in Norcross (near Atlanta) and spent a lot of time sharing our faith stories and not as much time on activities (I did like the ropes course). It was good and our team defintely bonded in a way that I haven't seen yet in a mission team I have been on.

This retreat was the first time we got a chance to hang out with Kristan and the band as well. That was very neat and it was good to see the genuine hearts of these guys and their passion for Christ and what He is doing in other parts of the world. A quote from Kristan that I heard about why they are coming: "We didn't want to miss out on what God's doing in Estonia." Neat.

We also have put together our plans for executing while in Tartu... I'm in charge of "giveaways" - which means "free" t-shirts, flash drives, and other asundry trinkets that can be used as reminders and connectors for these college students to Risttee Church (heck - what college student doesn't like free t-shirts???). I'm also going to be taking a role in "pub activities" - whatever that means. The pubs are social hubs for students so we're going to be brainstroming how we can organize some social opportunities (perhaps concerts) around that. Additionally, we had some talks about the concerts that we would put on in Tartu... one Peep had discussed with Rich included renting a boat to ride along the river (somehow we thought it could have been a barge visa-vie The Simpsons Movie but not so much), the types of music that would relate to students, and what that all may look like logistically. Chris, from the Risttee Church staff (Going Up) was at the retreat to help us and give us a perspective on Risttee and Estonia.

chris <><

Retreat this weekend!

We just got the final details for our team retreat this weekend. I'm looking forward to getting away, bonding with the team, and putting some meat behind what we'll be doing in Tartu. Pray that we bond as a team and that our time is productive :-).

Also... I will appreciate your prayers and encouragement greatly as the week closes. I've been attacked with a lot of discouragement this week and it's starting to impact me.

Truth and Relationship

I have to start with this verse that popped up in my quiet time yesterday morning: "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And is what we are!" - 1 John 3:1a... What really "got me" about this verse wasn't necessarily the words, but the punctuation (yes, the punctuation is also inspired)... Exclamation points! John is being emphatic about the greatness of the love God has for us... think about Tom Cruise's stupid "jump on the couch" antics about Katie Holmes minus the publicity stunt and in the vein of true agape love... not Hollywood lust. That's pretty cool.

On the support raising front... I'm currently at $450 of my $2000 (the target went up because of the price of the plane tickets) goal. Thank you, thank you to everyone who has contributed to-date!

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About the title: Yesterday, I was returning to my car from LA Fitness drenched in sweat (which is a good thing when working out) and saw a sheet of paper on the side of my car. When I picked up to read it... the title read "Am I Going to heaven?" (I think that's how it's capitalized) in a very old font. I looked around and the before mentioned tract was on most everyone's ride too. It starts out by talking about the King James Bible and goes through the plan of salvation (I suppose... I didn't read in detail) with a ton of verses.

Now, I'm not doubting that anything on this card is not true... in fact I scanned it and it looks theologically legit... the rub I have is that the thing was placed on my car by someone who has no clue who I am (and in fact could have saved themselves a tract if they saw my GlobalX workbook in the backseat). Somehow, the whole idea of passing out tracts to strangers says something like this... "I want to share Jesus (or I need to share Jesus) with you but I don't want to invest in a relationship with you, so here's the truth and read it for yourself. Have a nice life and if you accept the truth then we can hang." That may be unrealistically harsh (a reverse euphemism in a way)... and I hope that there's no truth to that but that's can be how it can be construed.

I doubt that hurting people that may already have a negative perception of Christians are really impressed with this approach, or are even helped by it. Our greatest need is for love and relationship... and while that can ultimately only be fulfilled by a relationship with Christ characterized by grace, most people will only enter into that relationship when they see it played out in the real world. In one of our Estonia meetings, Timo (who is an intern at NPCC and a member of Risttee Church) mentioned that what got him was seeing Peep and his wife sitting side by side and truly loving each other. That's one of the things that really got him thinking that there's got to be something to this Jesus thing.

The one thing that I have seen that illustrates this "truth without relationship" thing the best is a scene from the Casting Crowns video of "Does anybody see her?"... After "the girl" comes to here senses after another bad night trying to fulfill the hunger in her soul in the wrong places, she comes to her senses and decides to check out what's going on at church (because these people seem happy and she's obviously miserable on the inside)... only to meet rejection in the form of a scornful look from a mother with a child (she just came from the bar and she's dressed "as she is" and didn't have time to "clean up") and having the singles group clique pass by her without anyone even saying hi to her.... she gets up to the door of the church but doesn't go in after feeling so much rejection. The next scene shows her waitressing at the coffee bar and the same Christian group is sitting down having a good time ("the girl" is obviously hurting now). They leave the restaurant and give her a super-cheap tip (a buck... "Mr Washington") and a "Steps to Peace with God" (I think) tract and leaves. And, like I think most people who don't have a relationship with Jesus would do in this situation, she throws the tract in the trash and then breaks down... because she feels disrespected and unloved (fortunately, the video doesn't end there... someone eventually DOES speak love to her).

(btw - anyone wanting to see the video itself... it's on http://www.castingcrowns.tv/ - the "Does Anybody Hear Her?" music video. Good stuff/convicting. Now, I don't necessarily want to knock on all tract usage because it does have it's place... they're simple reads and all... and God can use anything to bring people into relationship with Him (even things done with wrong motives... He's a big God), my thoughts are that many Christians tend to lean on these impersonal methods to witness and in the end are we really fulfilling the Great Commission as Christ intended?)

What I'm personally wresting with is this... Am I investing in relationships with folks that need to know Jesus -or- am I simply going through the motions to "do good” in the name of service? Is the love that Christ lavished on me and my love for the other person my motivation or is it something else? My prayer for this trip, and for my life here in Atlanta, is that God gives me the kind of love for people that allows me to "Walk as Jesus did" – to invest in relationships with people that need to know the love that He has for them (and me). I think that's what Jesus would want.

Chris <><

A few updates

I hope that you are all having a great week. A few updates from our team meeting on Sunday:

1. Our team will be hosting our own blog that each of us will periodically update. We have also included some links to Estonia and Risstte Church on this site. The URL is : http://estoniasept07.blogspot.com/

2. No news yet on what our flight iteneraries are going to be, but Rich did inform us that the costs of the airfare will (probably expectedly) be higher than we orignially believed. Once I find out what our support raising target will be based on the flight prices, I will let you know.

And the race is on...

Do you ever get the feeling, when God wants to do something great in your world, that overwhelmed feeling of "distractions?" That has been my feeling this week... especially as my one huge goal is to mail out the majority of letters for support to my team. The encouragement I've gotten as I've asked for addresses has been great, though. Most of the distractions are coming from work... where I'm juggling 4 projects which are all, except for one, in a way full-time jobs. I was also out in Pleasanton, CA for one of these this week... traveling on "red eye flights" each way and working 12-13 hour days and still not feeling "caught up." Things should clear up after Tuesday as I've got a big presentation with a customer that morning (which will take one of those projects off my plate).

Being a little sleep deprived from traveling home from a work trip in the Bay Area (California), I went out to a cookout party that a bunch of my friends from Buckhead Church were at. I had a chance to talk to Jim Wier a little about Estonia (he was there last month for a small group ministry focused trip with Stuart Brown and a few other folks I know) and really got excited. I'm not so sure if I'm as thrilled about the "only 4 hours of dark" that he referred to. Apparently, since Estonia is so far north (close to Finland), the days there are very long (in the summer/we'll probably have 6 hour nights "according to Jim" in September when we'll be there)... he was telling me to get an eye mask because for his trip it was 4:30AM and as bright as a 2PM in Atlanta day... you can imagine that will do something to your biorhythms.

Last Wednesday (the Fourth), I ran in the Peachtree Road Race for the second time and was very satisfied with my time considering that the PRR is not a serious race and that I wasn't at all in shape for a 10K. I had a great time. However, I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of having quality athletic gear on your feet when running a race like this. I bought my (now former) pair of Addias running shoes at the Dawsonville outlet mall... and as it turns out there is a flaw in one of the shoes that causes it to rub really badly on my left foot. It didn't bother me during my gym workouts or even run/walking at Powers Ferry, but it did impact me for the Peachtree. My left foot was bruised for a good five days after the race and I was literally limping around. Needless to say, it's the last time I'm wearing those shoes for working out -or- buying athletic gear at an outlet store. Now for those of you reading this that don't like "spiritual sports analogies" - I can't help you because the Apostle Paul used them so they're Biblical... it's good to know that the man that wrote almost 1/2 of the New Testament was into sports :-). In the "race" that we're running to serve God in Estonia... it's also important that we prepare well and prepare diligently. Paul put it this way: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” – 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. This Sunday marks our third team meeting, and as we prepare, my hope and prayer (and I’m asking this for you too :-)) is that we are focused on the mission, developing our cohesiveness and fellowship as a team, and wary of the distractions and hindrances that may be put before us as we run our race toward Estonia.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” – Hebrews 12:1

Speaking of competing... below are some pictures of my Croatia soccer team's attempt at competing outside of our league (you know Americans aren't so great at soccer as opposed to Europeans)

Where to send support...

Oh, wait... I told you that I was wanting letters of encouragement and financial support, and didn't tell you where to send them! Nice.

Of course, letters of encouragement can be sent via e-mail and blog comments. However, I am a big fan of handwritten letters. Call me old fashioned. There's just something about them.

Financial support... well, you have to snail mail that stuff. Here's where you can send checks out :-)

Chris Willis
6304 Park Avenue NE
Atlanta, GA 30342

cheers!
Chris <><

Starting Off

This has been a very busy Sunday... starting off with Upstreet Summer Craze at 9AM (and can you believe it? I was the only 4th grade volunteer this morning. AHHHHH), worship at Buckhead Church at 11 - and then returning home with bagged lunch courtesy of Chipotle in hand to prepare for this evening's Estonia Mission Trip meeting.

On my checklist for what I wanted to accomplish today was to draft my support letter, as I am well aware of my need to get a team in place to support me for the trip, and start up my personal blog so that I can inform those that I invite about what we are up to in regards to trip planning, prayer requests, news from the field, etc. It's exciting.

Since this is my first blog post... a few things about Estonia. I'll make sure to post some new facts about the country with every blog posting:

“Where is Estonia?” The country borders Russia from the west and is one of the former “Baltic Republics” that split from the Soviet Union during the mid-1990’s (along with its southern neighbors: Latvia and Lithuania). Estonia has a population of about 1.4 million people and is considered one of the least churched areas in Europe (less than 1% are practicing Christians), which may be a byproduct of the rule of the Soviet regime.

Since this is a "first post" - I'll let you know what type of support I'm looking for. First and foremost, I need prayer support as any ministry effort is God-sized and God works through the prayers of His people. Cool, huh? It's like the KSBJ motto: "God Listens" - He pays attention to our requests and acts according to the dreams and hopes that He shares with us to share with Him. It also says that God cares about what is on our heart.

Second, I defintely need encouragement from you... so please feel free to send comments/notes to the blog or to my e-mail (chriswillis96@yahoo.com). This is especially important because spiritual attack is part of the game... for instance I was BURIED in a project in Dallas for two solid months before going to Croatia last fall and was working crazy hours up until the 11th hour to get a project out. The enemy is not happy when we are pursuing God's will and will look for opportunities for distractions... one of the coolest features of the Church is that we have the ability to be "Jesus with skin on" to others in the Church and encourage them when we are facing these types of issues... and give us perspective on life and what God is doing.

Third... is financial support. I have been asked to raise $1,800 for my portion of the trip, which covers traveling expenses going-to and when we are in Tartu (the city in Estonia where the University we will be outreaching to is located). If you wish to support me, please send the checks to me and write them out to "NorthPoint Ministries" with "Estonia Mission Trip" in the memo line. Do not put my name on there... it's not good for your tax purposes, and I want your filing of your support to the IRS to be smooth and painless :-).

More to come. I'm looking forward to the journey!!!!

Chris <><