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.