Chris in Estonia

Song Festival

2011-07-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today, the team traveled to Tallinn (the largest city and the capitol) for our R&R and debrief day. As has been true of past trips, this day included a lot of walking around the old town Tallinn area (which is like a "little Prague") and hanging out with a couple of our Estonian friends for the last time.

Today was a little different... this weekend is the weekend of the "every other year" Estonian song festival, which is a festival of song and dance in Tallinn that commemorates the nation's independence from the Soviet Union and the fact that they sung their way to freedom. A few of us from the team went to today's events, which was the dance festival, and watched many youth dance crews demonstrate their national pride through dance. It was very cool - I had to think that over 3,000 students danced in today's festival show. I wish I could have been out there tomorrow (but we leave for the States, so no can do) because the Sunday Song Festival show features (actually headlines) a 20,000 voice Estonian choir in which many of our students and friends will be part of. I don't know about you, but getting to listen to a 20,000 voice choir just sounds pretty freakin' awesome.

Getting to see multiple dance crews... each highly coordinated and awesomely orchestrated... each the size of the Fighting Texas Aggie band... each dancing in national pride for Estonia... each decorated colorfully and costumed in a highly decorative fashion... was amazing. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience and I'm glad that I took time away from sleep to see it :-).

It is also an answer to my prayers... the prayers that I get to see God breathing life into a culture... I got to see a lot of that in the lives of the students we spent time with at camp (more to come), and I got to see that in a huge way tonight. There is a spark of life in Estonia... and there is a small crew of Christ-followers whose lives are shining brightly in this country that are the future... and I'm happy to have seen God use us in a small way to lead them closer to the source of life, the author of salvation, and the hope for all humanity.

And this is just the beginning, I believe.

Day 2 - RYL Camp "Recycle Your Questions"

2011-07-01T05:38:00.000-07:00

Kevin and I are staying at Oliver's house (we stayed at some of the Estonian students' houses this year... really cool)... I wake up, the sun is shining brightly into the window as if it were 2pm in Atlanta on a perfectly cloudless day, Kevin, who was sleeping on the floor near the fish tank, was not there... so I thought I SEVERELY overslept and I started to rush to get my clothes on to get ready. Kevin looks up from behind the couch where I was sleeping (where he had moved to) and asked, "What are you doing? It's 4 in the morning!"

I stopped to check my watch... it was 3:40am. I doublechecked... uh, yeah.

Me: "I'm going back to bed."

Yes... the sun doesn't REALLY go down in Estonia this time of year. Oh yeah.

So we finally get up and get packed up for camp. The Estonian leaders met students in the square out by the park and the American team (that would be us for the scorekeepers) went to Risttee to meet our students and get introduced. The students met us as we each exited the green room to Facebook pictures of us that Daniel had found (with the exception of BethAnn who doesn't have a Facebook account)

The day was entitled "Recycle Your Questions" and the activities were posed around getting us to think about the questions we ask, whether they are questions that really answer what's burning in our hearts, and the ultimate question that Jesus asked about Himself.

So - we left Risttee to go to the Tartu courthouse in which we had to solve a murder case by asking an accused and two key witnesses questions about the case and determine whether the person was guilty or not guilty. One team (Kevin's) found him guilty and the rest of us found him not guilty, so when we had to come up with our team names, Kevin's team decided to name themselves "Team Guilty" in honor of the verdict :).

We were Team Zooville... it was a creative collaboration that would take too much time to explain, but we had the most fun with our team name, I think.

We then went to a castle that was owned by a German landlord that was not very popular during his day and slept on the third floor to protect himself from angry peasants that wanted to kill him (hmmmm... what a life, eh?). Finishing up, we arrived on our first day at a Baptist church in a small tourist town where we laid for the night and had our first "conversations" (this was our debrief time where we processed the events of the day, the challenges, and talked about the Recycling idea for the day... in this case recycling our questions about life.

This was a really good intro day... I definitely discovered that I had a great team and was looking forward to the rest of the week.

The following day in this town (we didn't travel for day 2) was going to be a little more challenging :)....

Day 1 - Training Day

2011-07-01T05:15:00.000-07:00

It was a great thing that I didn't have wifi throughout the trip, but the negative is that I'm coming up with these posts from memory which many of you know is not great. haha.

Saturday after we arrived was our training day for the camp, in which we spent the morning at the Risttee offices talking about the logistics of the camp and what we could expect, including a little cultural training and worship time. Betti led us in some singing before camp - she was a student during my English Camp in 2008 and not yet a leader at the time and now she has really stepped up as a leader not only in singing but also in leading people to know God and worship him with their hearts. This is really cool.

And then... part of the cultural training, which included blindfolding the six of us Americans up and introducing us to a little Estonian food. It was a good thing that they blindfolded us because there was some crazy stuff they made us try, including "gelatin meat" which looks unappealing to me and after trying it... it was. I couldn't get it down... I tried, but as soon as my brain tried to tell my mouth to swallow my stomach went into "reject sequence" and I managed to use up my napkin early because the gelatin meat was the second thing they made us try, and we had six samples on our agenda. Fortunately, the last four weren't so bad, and the fourth was a cheesecakey chocolate bar which is one of my favorite candies from Estonia so I was glad to end on a high note.

We finished up the day with hanging with our Estonian hosts and the guys went to sauna at Peep's place and some of the guys that were going to camp hung with us. It was a good time. Sauna is where the world slows down, and it was a good time.

And... I slept great that night, which was really needed given how little sleep I was going to get at camp :)

What an adventure!

2011-07-01T05:02:00.000-07:00

I can't wait to share with you more about the awesome trip that we've had so far! It is Friday, we have just completed our debrief at the Risttee offices and have a little free time before the Recycle Your Life Camp afterparty. For those of you that have been to an English Camp with our Estonian friends before and know some of the crazy things that can happen at the afterparty, you can pray for us six Americans now :).

God has definitely been working in the lives of not only the students but in ours as well. I want to share a little more but I need to piece it together into something more than just a summary "Hey, camp was great y'all" kind of post. So, more to come.

For tonight, though... the big win for the afterparty is to really make sure that the students we have had the privilege of spending time with this week get connected in some way so that the conversations and journeys that were started or that big steps were taken as a result of continue in the context of family and community. I can tell you, from my experience here this week, that God has really blessed the "missional" vision that our friends in Estonia have at Risttee Church in Tartu, and these communities have enabled people to grow closer together in life giving relationships and closer in their relationship with Jesus Christ.

More news to come, including some snippets from camp. It was truly an adventure.

We made it!

2011-06-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

Anyone following the travel drama on Facebook or Twitter last night knows that we had quite an adventure getting here.

Reminiscent of a recent trip I had from Seattle for work a week and a half before, the plane that was supposed to take us to Prague for our connecting flight to Tallinn did not show up to the gate, and our flight to Prague was delayed out multiple times for "maintenance" reasons. This was causing us a little bit of concern because we only really had a 2 hour layover scheduled in Prague - good if your flights are on time, but in the situation we found ourselves in a little nerve racking.

Eventually, Delta pulls a "new" (one of us commented that it may have been the original Delta 767 plane purchased from Boeing) plane out to fly us to Prague and we eventually take off at 8:15pm (or 2 1/2 hours after we were scheduled to leave). From that point, and my Facebook status of "pray for us!", we knew that our chances of catching our original connection were somewhere between "slim" and "none." But we trusted that God would enable us to get there, and I knew from experience that what we think of as "Plan B" in many times is God's "Plan A" because he isn't so much concerned about our smooth travel as in our trusting completely in Him.

Anyways - short story. I fall asleep and wake up about an hour before we land in Prague. We land at the airport exactly 15 minutes before our Tallinn flight is scheduled to take off, and it takes us a long time to get off the plane. With the walking through the airport and having to go through security, I'm looking forward to day full of airports and strange transfer flights. And then we walk off the plane....

And greeting us is a cute little blonde Czech girl from the airline with a sign reading "Tallinn 9" with an escort from Czech Airways that tells us to follow him and he'll get us to our flight. He gives us passes to rush us through security and Czech Airways holds the flight for us, and we board our scheduled flight to Tallinn. The pilot did mention as they were taking off: "Sorry about the delay, we held the flight because some Americans were late." Ha Ha. Good times.

An hour and a half later, we are meeting Innar in Tallinn. Okay, we do not have our bags, but who cares about bags... we are in ESTONIA... ON TIME... AS SCHEDULED. Based on Delta's delays and my recent history, this should not have happened.

Now you can't tell me that God doesn't have something awesome cooked up for us at this camp!

So, anyways we finish our day with a BBQ at Craig Hamner's house and right now I'm writing this blog from Daniel's house and am about to shower and get some much needed rest. We are going through training for the camp tomorrow and on Sunday will be starting our adventure. I'm excited!

Now, all that needs to happen is for our bags to arrive tomorrow :-).

We leave today :-)

2011-06-23T08:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone... keep us in your prayers as we fly out today.

Instead of writing something with my prayer requests, I opted to do a video blog today. This is my first attempt at iMovie and it was a little weird looking at myself record this, but I believe I got my thoughts out okay :-)

Thank you so much for your prayers and support. I can't wait to tell you about what God's going to do through this trip!!!

Ciao!

Recycle

2011-06-15T16:49:00.000-07:00

The trip is 8 days away, and I'm finally getting a new blog post in.

How to start it?

Maybe like Snoopy, I can start with:

"It was a dark and stormy night"

Actually, that part is true. It IS a dark and stormy night tonight. I'm not making that part up.

Perhaps a status report is in order, last weekend we met with some other folks that have been to Estonia before to pray for our journey. Three weekends ago, we escaped Atlanta for a weekend to the beach at Hilton Head, thanks to Kevin's grandfather for donating his one bedroom, one bath condo for 6 singles for the two days. 6 people - one bathroom - that's a lesson in flexibility there.

We shared our stories with each other, and we Skyped with Daniel (the youth leader at Risttee) where we talked a little about the retreat details. And you may have heard the retreat theme if you follow any of us on Facebook. The theme is:

"Recycle your life"

Given what I wrote to my supporters when I started on this fourth journey to Estonia, this camp theme is definitely fitting. And given the theme of our stories, this is what we experientially get to share with the students we are going to be hanging out with. I like the theme, and here's why...

It's what they (and we) need.

Our lives are broken in some way, and we need to exchange it..

For something better.

Something useable.

Something valuable.

Something amazing.

And this is what God does with our lives, our mission, our relationships when we surrender up the broken things that are part of... wait.... are our lives. Like an emptied, disgusting Coke bottle, he takes it...

And transforms it.

And fills it.

And returns something greater than what we gave up.

I'm excited to be talking about this over the course of the week. Imagine not only what can be done with our lives when we surrender up what is ultimately useless, and we get back something infinitely valuable. When we consider that these students are indeed the future leaders of Estonia, imagine what this could mean for a culture.

Exchanging the fear of Soviet past. Exchanging mistrust. Exchanging a life that depends on and ultimately ends with "me"

And getting hope. Getting life. Getting God's blessing.

That is awesome. That is what I'm praying for.

Join me in this... will you be willing to pray bigger than you've ever prayed for Estonia before? Are you willing to pray like you believe that God is as huge as He is.

I am. So let's also recycle our prayer.

That nugget is free :-)

Coming along

2011-04-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

Well - the trip is in process right now. We have now met twice (once to celebrate a couple of birthdays, including mine), and I really feel like our team is starting to gel. This may be one of the best mixes of people I've had an opportunity to serve with... three of us have been to Estonia before, one has been to Split a number of times supporting the team out there, and a couple of folks will be making their first journey overseas.

Today, I have been wrapping up my second support request push and I'm really thankful that I'm very close to my goal now (my team is only $5,000 off as of now). The last item is this blog, so that I can get my support information out to anyone on Facebook that may want to support but doesn't know where -or- why to join with the six of us Georgians heading to Estonia to serve students. Here's a little bit of the why and the how :-), as well as a little of my story...

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Beginning in 2007, I have had the opportunity to invest in a community of students in a city halfway across the world that has a vision to influence their culture to know the unconditional & extraordinary love that Christ offers and see it take root in their lives. This group of students lives in Estonia, a nation where when you walk the streets you will see...

· Alcoholism is rampant and a persistent problem
· Skepticism and mistrust is the norm
· Even neighbors living in the same community, or in the adjacent apartment, will not speak to each other

It can be depressing; even though the Soviet empire has left almost 20 years ago, even in a culture as rich in cultural tradition and learning as Estonia is. Somehow, darkness is still there; while Soviet Russia is gone it isn’t giving up its grip easily. One thing that Innar, a Christ-follower working on staff at Risttee and a good friend of many in the Buckhead Church community, told me as I arrived in Tallinn in 2009 during my third trip that stuck with me was this:

“Thank you. For bringing light to this dark place.”

On June 23^rd, I have the opportunity to return to Estonia to invest in a group of high school aged students that I had the privilege of pouring my life into in the Summer of 2008 during an English Camp trip. I am joining a team from Atlanta, GA to connect with students in an adventure camp that will allow us an opportunity to connect with these students in a way that a week of strict outreach would not allow, even though I am admittingly a little nervous about some of the crazy things the students may make us do (my team members in 2008 can attest to some of these J).

I am excited about this opportunity to give a week of my life to these students because I believe that through this generation the culture can truly be transformed, and that transformation can start (as it did in the beginning) with a small group of people. What also excites me, and what I’m praying for, is that the Risttee students will invite their friends… friends who need to know the love of Christ, and during this week they will catch it and come closer to experiencing the happiness that comes from this relationship during this Adventure Camp week. I am humbled just to be a small part of that.

This is where I need your help, and invite you to join me in this investment in Estonia.

First, I am responsible for assisting our team reach a support goal of over $16,000 for our team members to participate in this journey. I would be honored if you would assist us through supporting me in my goal to make this trip happen.

You can give through making an online, tax deductable, donation on the GlobalX website. To do so, go to this link: https://ssl.northpoint.org/ssl/globalx/

In the Country box, choose “Estonia”

In the trip box, choose “Estonia Estonia Camp 6/23 – 7/3/2011”

In the participant box, type “Chris Willis”

Thank you J

Second, we need your prayers. Those of you know that have been on mission trips in the past know that if we are to “succeed” in what God has called us to do then we must follow his leading and not do things our way. Pray that we catch His vision for this trip, and we are not just caught up in the “stuff we are going to be doing” on the trip.

Third, I need your encouragement. Those that have followed with me through my Estonia journey know that I have a blog from my prior trips that I would love for you to comment on. This blog has been taken out of hibernation and I will be posting in here throughout the preparation for the trip and a few times while I’m in Estonia. Letters and notes are really the #1 way you can encourage and drive me through this journey.

So... I'm going back

2011-03-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that this is coming as a huge surprise to you, but this summer I will be going back to Estonia to work with our partner in Tartu with students. This will be my fourth journey to this country, and a lot of people, that has become very close to my heart and for some of you reading close to yours as well.

As you may or may not know, I felt called to take a step back after my last trip in 2009, and in that time felt God's calling me to spend an incredible time in Kenya serving an incredible group of people who have a vision for their community and lives and have partnered with 410 Bridge to serve as the enabler in this journey. It was an incredible experience, and in it really caught more of a vision myself for how Risttee and GlobalX partners as well.

So. I was in the same place at the end of this last year. Kenya was amazing. life changing. deeply profound in growing my faith. and... I fell in love with the people. But, no clear call to go back.

So... I'm not sure, do I take a year off? Do I go somewhere else? Waiting on God for direction can be a little frustrating (at least for self-starters like me), because I am 100% on his timetable, and not mine.

And then around late January... looking at the GlobalX trips. I just felt.

Estonia.

English Camp.

And in a process of praying, talking to people at church and over coffee, and stop-and-starts, I am excited to say that I'll be going back to invest in the same group of kids that I had the privilege of pouring my life into in 2008. The only catch is...

It won't be looking like English Camp.

The students are planning out a week of "Adventure Camp" which both scares and excites me. I love new experiences and this will be a new thing for me. At the same time, English Camp was awesome. I won't lie. It was such a great experience investing in these kids... many of whom have stepped up and become leaders in the Risttee community as I found out the year later. This excites me to no end because I know that if positive change can occur in a culture (and I believe that it not only can but in God's grace will) it will happen through this generation that we are investing in this year. Having poured time and energy into this group over the last 4 years, I truly believe that. I wouldn't be in, I believe, if I didn't.

So - I'm sitting here at Starbucks thinking about what I'm going to write to my friends and supporters about this trip, and thought it would be best to let myself do a little stream of consciousness on this blog that has been dormant for a year. I hope that you read the stories from the past, and get excited about what "could be" for the future. Because these students, while they live in a culture that still has many remnants of the darkened world of Soviet communism remaining, have a light in their lives that we want to in some way help to further ignite. And this light... what John calls the "light of men" that lives within them... can spread. And I pray that it will spread, and lighten up a dark world that needs to know hope.

More to come... :-)

Sauna

2009-06-04T07:08:00.000-07:00

Greetings again from Estonia. Today's been a little unusual, as our pancake stand has been rained out for the day :-( - sad, really. So, instead we spent the day hanging out with the Risttee staff and giving them (and I suppose, us, but we really are here to encourage and build them up) a day off. We are about to head over to Innar's house for a prayer walk around the area of town that he lives in, and then go to hang out with more students from Risttee tonight.

Please pray for tomorrow that the weather gets better and we can make the pancake stand work.... it has been really great for meeting people and helping us serve the students. Unfortunately, I don't think that we have an indoor Plan B yet.

Yesterday, as part of our activities, we invited students that we connected with and students at the church to hang out with us at Sauna last night... no strings attached. For anyone that hasn't experienced the Estonian Sauna, there is really no good way to really explain it, and to do so may cause needless prayer requests so I won't. I really enjoyed the experience both times we were invited to sauna and this "floating sauna" (sauna boat) thing was pretty cool (minus the skeeters, of course). We were on this "Huck Finn" raft about 50 feet from shore which had a sauna inside and a grill outside we BBQ'd on... it was cool. One of the students I met at pancakes came out, a really cool Physics PhD student who's going to see Michael Jackson play in London in the fall. He had a good time hanging out.

The Estonians say that Sauna is 10% about "sauna" and 90% social, that a lot of deep conversations happen here. In fact, and probably not joking, sauna would represent the next step environment beyond the "kitchen" (if you're following the Northpoint "Foyer - Living Room - Kitchen" house analogy) where accountability, authenticity, and that brother to brother connection happens. I could see that... I'm not sure what the equivalent "room" would be in American culture that would represent the level of one-on-one, transparent accountable relationship that goes deeper than small group, but the Estonians definitely have a good one.

At the beginning of this week, Peep mentioned during our initial meeting about (in their cultural context) rethinking the concept of "church" (Sunday mornings) as the "foyer," and I had an opportunity to ask him more about that during sauna last night. I can talk to you more about this later (it would be too deep to put in a blog post), but essentially it is difficult to make the church a "foyer" because for an Estonian the act of even going to church itself represents a much higher wall that it does in the United States. In fact, I myself found out in conversations with students that the connotation of "the church" represents the building, control, bureaucracy, etc... things that are very unattractive to Estonians (and I can imagine for us as well). All of these things not what Jesus called his Ekklesia (the Greek word translated "Church" in the New Testament that is literally translated "Called out ones.") to be. So, the question exists in a country and city where people need to see the love of Jesus acted out, how will anyone see the Ekklesia if they won't visit the church? The answer is that the Ekklesia has to go outside of the church walls and show them in their apartments, malls, workplaces, classes... serve them, love them, and shine as the lights we are in the midst of the darkness.

This is essentially the challenge... one I am earnestly praying for them on, and praying about how I can help through encouragement, support, and (of course) prayer. And it's also convicting me too, because I am also called to "be the Ekklesia (church)" in my world, and sometimes I admit that I don't represent so well all of the time. I can guarantee now, that this thought will be on my mind a lot in the coming weeks/months. I know it's been on the minds of those in our singles ministry at Buckhead Church with starting events like Giving Up Christmas and do.justice to spur this movement, so perhaps there are some ideas we can share and perhaps some things that may translate (after all, Gen Y and Millennial generation Americans have a fairly skeptical outlook on Church too).

Anyways - I've gotta run. I hope your day is great and thanks for your prayers!! :-)

Pankooks

2009-06-02T08:27:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Tartu! I'm excited to be back here, and glad to report that I am now stitch-free (for those that don't know, I had to have my left foot stitched up a week ago Sunday because of an unfortunate glass accident. I actually did take the stitches out myself... it really wasn't that big of a deal. But, considering how much walking we will be doing this week, I'm really glad to have them out.

The trip so far has been really great. Very Bear-Week-esque except without the Big Ben concerts. This is final exam week for the University, so one thing that we are doing that is really bringing some smiles to the students (and great conversations) has been setting up a pancake (crepe-style) station near the library to catch students and offer them a free snack and a friendly face. We've had a chance to meet some really cool students and sometimes talk to them a little about the "why are we doing this?" question. And it really is, quite simply, that we're a group of Christians that love Jesus and really want to do something nice for you guys. I think it's catching on because we did have a crowd around our pancake tent today; the second day we've served the students in this way.

What's also been really awesome to see has been how a lot of the High School students that were involved in Risttee and attended (not led, attended) English Camp last year were really stepping out and serving/leading in what Risttee was doing. These students made up a good bit of the worship team that led on Sunday morning (including Betti, who has a really great voice!) and most (if not all) of the KidStuf actors (Risttee has been doing KidStuf for about a year, starting a little after taking up their new residence in the Atlantis on Sunday mornings). My heart was really encouraged to see them really involved and leading at such a young age. Makes me think of the words Paul told Timothy when he said "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young." Well, they aren't.... so rock on :-).

Hope you all in the States and in Estonia reading this are doing well :-)

(I had been writing to our team blog until Tarmo told me this afternoon that he was looking here and hadn't seen anything yet... oops.)

Dessert Thoughts with Peep, Mart, and Tarmo (Repost from 10/30/2008)

2009-05-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

Some thoughts... since I referenced some of the things Peep said at this dessert several times during my prep for this summer's Connections team trip :)

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Tonight after work, I made my way over to Daryl and Betsy Griswolds' condo to again have an opportunity to hang out with the friends I have made in Estonia, have some dessert (always a plus), and listen about what God is doing 7 time zones across the world. It was fun and of course great to see Peep and Tarmo again since being at English Camp in Estonia last July.

The cool thing about Daryl and Besty's place is this really huge clubhouse on the first floor of their building that is really perfect for events like this (that, and their amazing knack for hospitality). When we all arrived, the desserts were all set and we mingled for a while catching up, followed by Peep, Mart, and Tarmo each talking about Estonia, the Going Up/Risttee ministry, and what God has been doing over the last year.

What was really cool about the evening, other than seeing these friends again and hearing their stories, was the cool "déjà vu" moments I had from the evening... I'll share a couple:

At one point, Tarmo got up and talked about his cousin Ragnar and the story about how he had come to faith in Christ and about his baptism at English Camp this year... especially relating the difficulties that reaching family can be. I got a chance to meet Ragnar at English Camp and witness his baptism :)... he is a great, quiet yet strong guy with a good heart. I felt a swell of (good) pride swell up when the story was told and the pictures from the baptism was passed along. It was encouraging for me... especially to keep praying and being Christ to family and seeing what God will do in their lives.

Second, Peep told us about Daniel's rise to leadership in Going Up (he was... sadly... unable to be at dessert... boo!) and how God has been growing him. Again, I had a chance to serve with Daniel before his being given the mantle of leadership (at Bear Week in 2007) and after as he led the English Camp we attended in July. I have been able to see first-hand how much Daniel has grown and matured as a leader and I am excited to have witnessed it.... and look forward to serving with him again (praying about English Camp again) real soon.

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Thinking about all that has transpired in the past year... with heartbreaks, missions, job transition, and the like... I'm starting to see now in this season that God was working in it all to bring about His purposes... trials are in many ways God's way of strengthening our faith and letting us know that it really is He who is sustaining us... Risttee had the same story last year when they got kicked out of their facility in December and God used it to position them for greater ministry opportunities today (for a later blog for anyone who doesn't know this story).

You know (another thing that was really cool), in a moment of unscripted spontaneity, Peep said something about how God has been molding him this year and that they weren't any longer about "doing church" but about "being the church." You know, being the body of Christ out in the world loving each other and letting a world that needs to see the hope of Christ in us SEE that hope played out in our love for one another as Christians. I was really encouraged and got a little swell of pride when I heard that... it's cool when you see a people that truly get the gist of what the church is and I've seen them live it out in Tartu. This is something I hope for us at Buckhead Church and also for all of us that hope in Christ :-).

In closing... thank you Peep for coming and sharing your lives and your hearts with us here in Atlanta. And also thank you for inviting me to participate in what you are doing and what God is doing through you through Bear Week and English Camps! It has been a privilege and I look forward to serving with you again real soon. To all reading this... he encouraged us to say "YES" to participating with them... through praying for Estonia, through giving of our resources, to GOing to Estonia to serve, and through telling others what's going on... which is really my point of writing this blog tonight.

Five Words

2009-03-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

Today's a day that I'm spending doing some of the "administrative" preparation for my upcoming Connections trip to Estonia in June. During my time with God this morning, I started to think about my testimony a little bit and what I would say during our team retreat when I share. Among other things.

Two years ago, when I went during Bear Week, each person from our team shared our "testimony in five words" which was really moving and powerful as we explained to each other the story of God as it intersected with our own stories. I thought I would do something similar this year, except I'm finding that I would use different words this year than I did in 2007. I believe that is in part because our relationship with Jesus is not static... and if it is growing the different seasons of our lives and dynamics of our relationship will bring out a different story... same thread of grace, forgiveness, and dependence but different paths as we have walked with God in new and fresh ways.

So, what were my five words 2 years ago?... Feel free to read :-) http://estoniasept07teambios.blogspot.com/2007/07/chris-willis.html

What would my words be this year? Here's what I'm thinking:

Providence
Remembering
Dependence
Anticipating
Enough

Feel free to ask "why these words?" I'm noodling more over that over the coming weeks :-).

Wondering what to write

2009-03-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

Less than one week from my first team meeting with the Connections mission team I am going to Tartu with in June (leaving May 30st, actually), I am throwing around ideas about what I want to write in my support letter for this upcoming trip. That's one item on my busy "to do list" for the next couple of weeks... also included are renewing my passport and saying "hey" to the peeps that I want to touch base with when I get over there. But, the agony of raising support is there and it's important.

There are a couple of reasons for this... first, I like to put some thoughts into this thing because the whole exercise is really about recruiting a support team that goes far beyond finances for the trip. I'm really liking some of the things that Peep shared with us at the last support dinner in Atlanta about Give-Pray-Go, as well as his vision of the church being the church versus "doing church" in Estonia. Believe me, I've got ideas... how to get these into a concise format is going to be the challenge :-)

Second, a thought I've had in my recent quiet times has been about Paul's letters to the churches... things that we today in modern Christianity analyze, go to seminary and Bible Study training classes to understand, and pour over the words to apply to our lives... but also letters that contained a significant amount of emotional capital. For the vast majority of these letters (such as Ephesians, Galatians, Corinthians, etc.), they were written to people that Paul spent months, sometimes over a year doing life with during one of his missionary journeys... and he wasn't just writing theological treatises but instead an intensely personal letter to people whom he knew their names and could see their eyes and their smiles in his memory...

In a way, this trip is a lot like that for me; where it's not really now about Estonia as a category anymore... it's about people... it's about Tarmo and Ragnar... it's about Daniel... it's about Evelin and Hannah and Kati and Timo... and there's more names that I can list. People that I care about that live and truly desire to see God move in mighty ways in their city, their circles of influence, and their country.

It's hard to convey the personal aspect in a support letter, but somehow I feel that I should. I think it's my prayer that through this trip, that we can all touch their city in some unique way that God uses to transform a country... and even more important that we can, as Paul told the Roman church, to "impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong - that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each others' faith." (Romans 1:11-12) I pray that you reading this, and those that read that letter that's in my head that will be in paper soon, may catch that vision and choose to participate in the way God calls them to.

This has to be the latest recap in the history of mission trips

2008-11-14T18:57:00.000-08:00

Especially since some of you that will be reading this probably have been wondering... "why hasn't Chris blogged about the trip since that Wednesday in camp?" and now... "why blog something now?" Perhaps I can provide a little bit of an explanation for my tardiness:

1.) Of course, life took over at full tilt when I arrived back in the States last July. Having left a lot of balls up in the air I needed to get back and start to juggle. Unfortunately, that didn't leave a lot of time for reflection as God was still very much working in the "here and now" of the summer...

2.) Why now?

Well... as I mentioned in my regular blog, a few of the folks we support through our time, prayers, and vacations came to the States a few weeks ago to share about what they were doing, what they are sensing and learning from God, and obviously sharing some of their own lives with me again. Peep, Mart, Tarmo, Anna, and Daniel were all around Atlanta and had a chance to catch their vision in a couple of desserts... one of which was a Josiah Venture dessert in which a lot of pictures had been included from English Camp (a few folks from JV came by the camp to interview students and take pictures).

One of these pictures was of Ragnar, who was baptized on the last day of camp. Tarmo, his cousin who slowly invited him closer to relationship with Jesus, got the opportunity to help baptize him... it was a moving moment. The pictures brought back the memories, and they were really really good.

My last blog was on Wednesday (or at least that's what Blogger is telling me) of Camp... the camp was a blast, the students were even more of a blast, activity was non-stop, and we didn't have much margin for getting online. But, like I said as fun as the students were, I didn't really notice.

What I got to see in English Camp this year was God bringing students (and at least one American... ME!) through the process toward greater intimacy with Him... and this in a culture that isn't really into Christianity. For all of us, this is a process but I can see it more clearly there because in a sense church, Jesus, and such isn't part of the culture like it is in the U.S., which makes it really neat to see when people catch this relationship with Christ what an amazing difference it makes in their world. I was blessed to see it. And also, the processes of refining that God uses to shape a man or woman into someone who shines forward with His character.

I'm also writing this because I am seriously praying about next year... and possibly being back at English Camp again with these awesome students in 2009. Knowing that our trip (as well as some others within GlobalX) had troubles meeting our financial objectives in this tough year... I wanted to encourage you to give to GlobalX's work in Estonia if God puts it on your heart.... not to our trip or to me... but as a gift to support this ministry so that the partnership continues and is strengthened through Northpoint's partnership with Peep and his team. No link here... you can find it on other pages or on Northpoint's website if you're interested. I did want to lay it out there because seeing this ministry partnership continue is obviously very near and dear to me.

I hope you are having a great 2008 Holiday Season.

Chris <><

Wednesday at English Camp

2008-07-23T11:26:00.001-07:00

Hi friends,

Most of Wednesday's activities are coming to a close, and it has been a very good and a very hectic three days of English Camp so far. We just finished our small group discussions and everyone is now dispersing to play sports, games, and cards around the school. I am having a great time hanging out with these students and the time has flown by so fast here.

There are no shortage of opportunities for me and my teammates to connect with the students and build relational equity through this week. They are doing the same with me... I'm not really wanting to leave at all and I really love these students we are getting a chance to hang out with. Now, one of those means is through me and my teammates taking opportunities to act crazy and do some goofy things to make things fun... such as impersonating Brittany Spears or a really (and I mean, really) bad singer that Simon would throw out of American Idol. I personally have enjoyed letting my hair down this week.

Pray however that the deep connections also happen... one thing that God has blessed me with is a great Risttee/Estonian small group partner in Kati and a group of students that are really open and sharing. We are talking about being human, which includes our unique value in Christ, our inability to measure up even to our own standards, and thus our need for grace and forgiveness which is offered freely and richly by Christ. We are going to be talking about that in our small groups tomorrow night. I am encouraged that spiritual conversations have already started in our group and really pray that they deepen tomorrow.

We are also a little tired. Sleep came at a premium last night and I'm feeling it a little, so pray that my rest is good. Also, we had a couple of injuries at camp yesterday... two students hurt their ankle really badly playing sports... they are in really good spirits but I also hope that we don't see any more first aid needs. LIke I said, the two students who twisted their ankles are in good spirits and have gotten a LOT of support and I pray that they continue to have a great time at camp and that God uses those experiences in their lives to encourage them in some way.

I'm off to hang out more. Hmmmm.... caffine?

chris <><

Good Morning Sunshine!

2008-07-21T22:44:00.000-07:00

I've got a little time to blog before we begin our morning team worship... dubbed "Good Morning Sunshine" to the camp. We've invited the students to come and check it out and hope that many of them do come and see us worshipping our creator. Good times.

The camp is going very well. The students arrived en-masse on a bus to the school at 11AM yesterday morning and we greeted them with cheering and excitement. A lot of the Estonian students are excited to be at camp and are having a lot of fun. Kati and I have a good small group for this camp... one guy that is a really deep thinker (which I like). We had a really good conversation last night in our small group. The theme of the camp is on "being human" - and what that means. We talked about our uniqueness and our need for belonging last night.

We are having a lot of fun as well... there are a lot of games (both sports and board) to be found around the camp and I've learned a new card game this week already. The camp sessions are really fun even though all of these "elimination" games like "Titanic" find me getting eliminated early (this could be a good fusion game... hmmm). They're having us Americans do a lot of crazy things on stage right now. Terry and Sara were up impersonating Ozzy Ozborne and Paris HIlton in a mock up of "Celebrity Squares," we had to improv/act out the 5 basic rules for the camp, and I got on the Hot Seat for the first session and had to answer all kinds of penetrating questions about myself. I tried to "plead the fifth" on one but was quickly reminded that I'm not in American anymore ;)- darn!

Prayer requests... 1.) we continue to connect with our students, and that everyone gets a chance to connect with us and participate. 2.) Continued energy level. This is going to be a high energy week and we all need our sleep :) (or decent substitute).

I'm out. Later. Good morning Sunshine! :)

Chris <><

We're here!

2008-07-20T04:36:00.000-07:00

Whoo-hoo! We're here at the English Camp and training for what we'll be doing over this next week. The school that we're holding the camp at is pretty neat... we're going a little rustic (as I had mentioned in a past blog) which is okay with me.

Little did I know that, when I started out on this new adventure, that we are not holding the camp very close to Tartu at all. There are students from Tartu coming here but we're actually staying at a place called Otepaa, which is a "ski" town about 40km south/southwest of Tartu. I was slightly concerned, having been here (not here/here, as in this camp, but "here" as in Estonia) when we passed Tartu and just kept on going, and kept on going, and (yes) kept on going at 3:30 in the morning (we landed and left Tallinn at midnight).

Yesterday's team bonding time in Amsterdam was really good. We toured the Anne Frank Museum... it was really moving for me AND a little "creepy" walking through the house as if I was stepping back in time to when Jews were being persecuted by the Nazis and feeling a little "in hiding" myself. I had a few interesting thoughts go through my head as I walked through the tour but I'll save them for future conversations. We also walked around town (didn't go into any "coffee houses" - to alleviate anyones' fears) and checked out the architecture of the city and ate at a couple of cafes. The weather wasn't so great (off and on rain) after we left the Anne Frank Hais so we ended up taking the train back to the airport a little early.

Everyone here has been really cool so far and our team has bonded (even failing at an - in my opinion - unfairly hard team-building challenge earlier today). What we really need prayer for right now is for REST (of the sleeping/napping variety) as it really appears that sleep will be a precious and rare commodity this week. The travel has taken something out of us so we need to catch up :).

But that's me... catching up with you. More to come! :)

chris <><

19 hours and counting...

2008-07-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

Oh my... I can't believe that our date to leave for Estonia is coming up so quickly :). 19 hours to go till we're heading to Tallinn via Amsterdam.

This week has been a little crazier than I expected... on Tuesday I was asked to go out on a last-minute trip for business (an interview with a sales director at my company) and just turned around a less than 24 hour jaunt to Salt Lake City. What time zone am I in? I'm going to be asking that same question on Saturday morning... but this time in Europe. What's cool is that we have a 12 hour layover in Amsterdam and I'm hoping to do/see some cool things... the Anne Frank house has been talked up a lot and I'm hoping to see that. In the meantime, I still need to pack and check everything off of my to-do list for tomorrow. As in the last two trips, there is no shortage of rat race busyness right before leaving for a trip.

And this trip is going to be rustic :). No hotels or hostels, it's going to be sleeping on the gym floor baby! I'm actually looking forward to this... it brings me back to the old A&M BSU Mexico Mission trips... or camping out in the woods at Philmont (but we will have a roof)... there's nothing like bonding when you're all sleeping on the same floor :). Fun times.

My thought on the trip, as if you thought I'd leave without one... of course I'm in the SLC airport this afternoon and watching all of the Mormon missionaries as they are heading out... and here am I leaving for less than 2 weeks on a trip halfway across the world. It makes my dedication (if you want to call it that) seem a little small, given that these guys give up 2 years of their life for their religious movement. The other thing was hearing about the dedication that successful sales people give to getting great at their trade and giving up things like rock music in the car before a sales call (probably not altogether a huge sacrifice). And here am I giving up only a week of time off to go serve the Lord. Seems small? Yeah, it probably is... but what I know is that God really wants for me to think of it as more than "just one week" and to look at it from the eternal perspective.... that He's doing the work and not me. Also, while these guys at the airport are giving up 2 years for a religious movement and sales guys (which may include me soon) give up little pleasures to get good at their trade... they are small in comparison to the sacrifice of our lives that Christ has called us to. Dietrich Bonhoffer (btw - who was also oppressed by the Nazi's -- see Anne Frank house comment above --) was quoted as saying, "When Christ calls a man, he calls him to come and die" - meaning that we give our all to Him... what is really cool about that is when we DO, he gives us back a life that is much greater that we couldn't have had if we held onto the decaying life that we once had.... and it's that life that we offer to a dying world in whatever role we find ourselves... whether that is "on the mission field" or in the cubicle.

Chris <><

Seasons of Preparation

2008-07-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

Today, I was out with about 8 friends (and some other people) at a Habitat for Humanity build in South Atlanta... something that I had been committed to for about a month or so. It was a good time... the house that we were in the process of building was for a Sudanese refugee who fled religious persecution (from the Islamic regime/forces that were forcing "conversion by the sword") and had the opportunity to have this house built for him and his family by Habitat. His was a really cool story. But that's not the story I'm telling here... I just thought it was cool that we were doing this build for a guy with such an incredible story...

But, back to my story. How selfish, huh? ;-)

Today was the "painting day" for the house that we were building. I found myself, for almost all day, outside caulking (sealing cracks) and painting siding on the house. Part of this house, which was the most difficult to paint, was the backside because the house was built on a slope so this side was almost completely unreachable without the ladder. Right before lunch, we got to this section of the house, in which we had to plant a sliding 20' ladder to go up and seal and/or paint the house. The ground that we were placing the ladders on was not very... what's the word? FLAT. So, almost every time we had to reposition the ladder I had to get a shovel out and create a new foundation to lay the ladder in. It was a lot of seemingly unproductive work, I tell you.

So, after lunch I'm back in the back painting the back (not my back) of the house and was talking to a fellow Habitat builder (whose wife is from Lithuania... and having discovered that I was going to Estonia next week created this cool cultural conversation about the Baltics) and I made this comment that "It seems like I've spent more energy shoveling for this ladder than actually doing any work" (almost in a frustrated sense). I'm not sure when-after I made that statement that an "ah ha moment" hit me that if I hadn't spent the time preparing the ground for the ladder, that I couldn't do the work on the house AT ALL because I would fall down on my butt (a long ways too). In a sense, the "unproductive" work of preparation was just as important, and necessary, for the productive work.

This was a cool moment for me because I feel that's the way my life is right now.... that God's preparing me for something huge but what he has me doing is shoveling dirt and I feel like I'm spending a lot of energy for something that's not producing anything... be it in my career, or in relationships, or even in the preparation for this trip because most of what we have done has been to create unity as a team... most of our training will happen in Tartu when we arrive. What God gave me a glimpse of with the ladder is that the fact that even thought don't feel that I'm doing what I want to be doing career-wise, or in a relationship, or whatever in the present tense... the experiences He is giving me is preparing me for a greater work that will be incredibly fruitful. For the career example, I never set out to build a career in finance, but the role that I've been in for 2 years has moved in that direction and in the trees I'm not seeing things going my way but from the forest seeing that the financial skills I've honed in this season will differentiate me as a sales and marketing professional and make me more successful in my future endeavors. I have also seen life circumstances this year that don't seem to have any purpose in the moment but when I lay over the context of Estonia, of ministry, and of seeing God's faithfulness have incredible value in shaping my faith and character. The season of preparation, while in the moment doesn't seem pleasant or even productive, is a tool that God uses to shape us and our character for the great things He has planned.

It's easier to see that with an eternal perspective :-). I'm in the woodshop... and the sandpaper is being applied. It's all good.

chris <><

Post Retreat Home Stretch

2008-07-09T05:02:00.001-07:00

Okay, starting off... one night at the beach is not enough. I could use some more chillax time.

Our team retreat at the "Redneck Rivera" was good. Five of us (Clete, Melissa, Jennifer, Terry, and myself) road tripped down to Panama City for Saturday night of the July 4th weekend to retreat, bond, dream about the opportunities that God is going to give us when we are on the ground, and tour multiple restaurants in the greater Panama City Beach, Seaside, Grayton Beach area. More on that soon... As far as the road trip was concerned, we relied on our rented (on points, thanks Terry!) seven-seat Ford Explorer cleverly disguised as a five seat Chevy Trailblazer and the navigation of an Australian voiced "Ken" (Melissa's Tomtom GPS system), who was quite the demanding type (especially on the trip back as we decided to detour to avoid the LONG line in Euphala, AL with Ken screaming at us every 500 yards to turn around and get back into line in Euphala ;).

What was especially interesting as we worked through our trip preparation and bonded as a team was the theme of our prayer requests... a lot of busyness and a lot of job stresses and prayers for direction. That included not only the team at Panama City but also those that were unable to make it to the beach. So if you could pray for anything, it is that confidence that God is in control and is taking care of those situations as we are on the ground. As a note, I AM going on the trip and am trusting God for his provision as I set out to serve. This is something that He has been gently nudging me toward this weekend.

Speaking of nudging... I needed to mention the "PCB Restaurant Tour" - which started with our road trip to Grayton Beach on Saturday to go to The Red Bar (which I have heard SO much about but haven't been), which had no parking and an hour and a half wait... so the tour began with us landing at another place in Grayton after Clete checked out an Italian spot which only would allow seating for two. The tour continued for breakfast in the "Redneck Riviera" as we explored our breakfast options. First was a place that Clete recommended but unfortunately it was closed on Sunday... followed by our two options: 1.) The Waffle House, which had too long of a wait time, and 2.) the breakfast buffet that we eventually landed at. Good times to be had by all.

Well, one more team meeting to go... and we leave a week from Friday. Crazy!

chris <><

Team Retreat this Weekend

2008-07-03T19:38:00.000-07:00

Man, how time flies! I can't believe that it will be only 2 weeks until we are flying to Estonia for English Camp.

This weekend is our team retreat, which is something that I have been looking forward to. Because we have been so geographically separated as a team (one team member in Australia, one in Mexico, one at Panama City Beach, and a couple (me included) traveling their tails off for work, it will be a great opportunity for us to all settle down from our crazy busy lives and bond, pray with one another, and dream about what God wants to do in Estonia through the trip. One cool thing is that we are doing our retreat via road trip to Panama City Beach since Clete our fearless leader is doing his BigStuf camps there. It's a little beach time, but it's still beach time :-).

Every trip that I've been on has been preceded by some sort of adversity... I think that just comes with the territory, and this one is no different. In fact, it's been really intense. I appreciate your prayers for me for wisdom and discernment in my life endeavors before and during the trip... and for protection. Most of all, I just want to keep Jesus and His passionate love for me at the forefront of my mind. Oh yeah, wisdom and discernment are huge too... I think I mentioned that. For all of you Cloud fans that have read "The 9 things..." I have a couple of movies running in my head right now.

On the support front, I got a note from Terry our treasurer that we are a little slow in our support raising. From the last report I saw, I am personally at $600 of the $2,300 goal. I appreciate your support for what God is going to do and your support for me and my teammates both in prayer and, for those that are called, financially.

Please use the online link (2 posts ago) to donate online. Talk to you all with news from the retreat :-).

chris <><

Seeing ministry as grace

2008-06-22T06:08:00.000-07:00

This morning as I am sitting down to have my quiet time (and) to also prepare for my small group discussion on Ephesians, God showed me something really cool. I thought I would share :). We are, this week, in Ephesians 4:1-16, where Paul is transitioning from (in my honest opinion) one of the best descriptors of our high calling, position, and value in Christ into the practical "how do you apply this in your world?" section. This should be a cool section, because we as guys are into action even though I love the "look at who you really are" stuff :).

So, I'm reading through this section and I get to verse 7, which says: "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it..."

And then describes our calling to be unified and to reflect Him through our gifts.

Earlier in this letter, Paul uses the word "grace" in a very similar way:

"Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you..." 3:2,

"I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power." 3:7

Same word. Same meaning. Not grace = salvation and I get a cool relationship with Jesus and go to Heaven when I die... but something else.

Here's my thought... or at least how I felt God speaking to me... God has given me (and you if you know Him and are called according to His purpose) the grace (gift) of getting to participate in what He's doing in the world. That, in fact, the ministry (aka - work) that He's got you doing is in fact a gift of grace and not a "job." That was the context that Paul used the word grace to mean in chapter 3 and by all context is the purpose of the word that he uses to spur us on in chapter 4. Furthermore, the focus of this letter is not on salvation per-se, but the manifestation of salvation in the life of the believer.

What does that mean? Well for starters, that going to Estonia to serve High School students, volunteering in Upstreet, and showcasing Christ through my life is not "work" but is instead a privilege that God has given me, which He has already empowered me to do. It is as much a part of my joy in Christ as the cool, warm-and-fuzzy stuff I get to do like sing and hang out with my friends. Thinking out loud, it also has to be a cure for ministry burnout... because generally I get burned out by what I "have" to do, and when ministry becomes a "job" or something that I am "volunteering" for, then my attitude tends to reflect that. However, if I see it for what it really is... God's grace that's been given to me... I can do all of these things with joy because I am living out my calling and participating with Him in reflecting who He is to the world.

That's my epiphany for the day.

------------

Additionally, thank you for all that have given to the trip so far :). We are still in support raising mode and I found out that the cost of the tickets went up (thanks to oil prices, of course). Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! If you haven't given yet and want to, please use the online form. It's fairly easy :)

https://ssl.northpoint.org/ssl/globalx/giving.html

Country: Estonia

Trip: English Camp 7/17-27/08

Individual: Chris Willis

It's official! I'm going back!

2008-05-26T11:36:00.001-07:00

Most of you that are reading this probably knew I was going back to Tartu this year because you got my support letter :). But perhaps you just randomly found my site... so perhaps the news is not so new.

But in case you haven't heard, I'm going back to Estonia in July to support one of Risttee Church's high school English camps. The skinny on the trip: We will be traveling from July 18-28, 2008 (as of now) and will be hanging out with Estonian high school students allowing them to practice their English and relating to them with the hopes that they will be exposed to Jesus Christ in a real way that will pave the way to their exploring and engaging in a life-changing relationship with Him.

God has been working in and through Risttee over the last months and has pushed them out of the nest in a way... forcing a move from their previous "suburban" location to a new location in the heart of Tartu. There is more to come but I wanted to keep this as a short blog as an announcement and a request for support.

We are leaving in less than 2 months and fortunately, NorthPoint has set up online donations for mission trips this year (welcome to the 21st century ;) ) so I'll provide the 411 on how to give online to my efforts (as well as my teammates). We have been asked to raise about $2,100/each to support travel expenses and materials for our mission efforts in Tartu.

To give online: Go to the following URL:
https://ssl.northpoint.org/ssl/globalx/giving.html

Under "GlobalX Trip Information" provide the following details:
- Country: Estonia
- Trip: "English Camp Trip 7/17-27/08" (not the NPCC High School English Camp.. this is for NP HS students)
- Individual: Chris Willis (yah).

I'm looking forward to sharing more. Glad to be back :)

Back in Atlanta... from Tartu, via Tallinn

2007-09-18T05:13:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

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 :)

2007-09-12T03:34:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-10T01:31:00.000-07:00

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"

2007-09-10T01:07:00.000-07:00

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!!!!

2007-09-07T07:44:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-30T19:18:00.000-07:00

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 ;-)

2007-08-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-08-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

"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.

2007-08-20T16:13:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-08-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-09T14:25:00.001-07:00

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!!!!

2007-08-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-01T10:49:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-29T06:49:00.001-07:00

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

2007-07-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-07-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-07-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

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 <><