India

Hello friends and family,
I apologize for not updating you in so long. Something I really need to work on is my organization and keeping on task with things like this. I will try to update you at least once more before I get back to the States.

A lot has happened since I last updated you about the giving day. God has done a lot of awesome work both in my own personal walk as well as in the school as a whole. The school really continued to bond and grow in the Lord. We had a week on the Father heart of God, Missions, Biblical Worldview, Biblical Standards, Spiritual Warfare, and the Cost of Discipleship. God really spoke to me through these lectures. The two main lectures I really felt God speak to me was during the Father Heart of God week and Spiritual Warfare week. During Father Heart of God, I really learned how to trust God as my Father and to believe something He has been trying to teach me since early on in the lecture phase of DTS, that He is big enough and good enough to follow. God really began to show me during the Father Heart of God week that as Christians, we are not orphans. We very often get into an orphan mindset thinking we are fatherless and live and act like it. How God really spoke this to me was through another student on base, Angwar, and School of Biblical Studies(SBS) student from India. I went out one night to pray and Angwar and another student came up and started visiting with me. As Angwar prayed, one part of His prayer stuck out to me. He prayed "would Travis know that he is loved by you without doing anything. That the you love Him simply because he is your child."  It was something I had believed as a Christian but it really hit home at this point. My efforts and works and all of the good things I have done don't make me any closer to you or a better disciple, that just as our fathers on earth show us love simply because we are their children, He delights to do the same to those who are His.

The theme in almost all I have learned this year is the bigness and goodness of God. My other big learning experience came through Spiritual Warfare week. Not one thing about spiritual warfare week stuck out so much during the week, but God really used the week to show me how big He really is. There is a verse in Ephesians says that people who believe in Him and know "the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe." God really has used that teaching among other things to really take fear away and grow my relationship with Him and to believe how big He really is.

Ministry in Taiwan went pretty well as well. We  didn't necessarily see any crazy things happen but I had some really good conversations with people there, some with Taiwanese believers encouraging them and helping them get plugged into places their faith might be able to grow as well as with people who are not believers in Jesus but are interested. It was a really awesome thing to just be able to invest in a country and in the kingdom of God in a real way. About a week before we left we celebrated Thanksgiving as a base and then lecture phase ended at the end of November.

We left on outreach for Siliguri, India on December 1. Our first week we spent time every day with a youth group only a few minute drive away from our house and were able to invest in believers and people who were not believers there and see God work in the hearts of everyone from the leaders to the students. Our time in India has mostly consisted of team building and teaching as well as spending time with each other and investing in our team. God has really worked on my heart for teaching and is really giving me a comfort with speaking in front of groups about who He is and what He has me speaking and taking away almost all of my anxiety of public speaking. Personally in my walk with Him, He continues to show me how big and how good He is.

The differences between Taiwan and India are probably bigger than the difference between The U.S. and Taiwan. Taiwan is very western in many ways. Taiwan has a lot of western food chains, good roads, and busy people walking around with cell phones. India has a lot of roadside shops and quite frankly very dirty. If it were clean it would be a beautiful country, the tea gardens are everywhere and hint at the beauty the country could have, but garbage everywhere keeps it from becoming that.

India really has a lot of spiritual need, and although there are some good ministries happening, there are still over a billion people who do not know Christ and the forgiveness for sin He brings. Financial needs are big here, but so are teaching, and really just care for people, especially kids. India is really a country that is in desperate need of Jesus.

Specific prayer requests would be for perseverance. It's easy to get to this point and think that we only have a week left until Taiwan and a month until we go home, so prayer that we would look to Jesus for our help and that we would not slowing down because we are almost done.
Personally I could use prayer for just seeing that Jesus is enough in all situations. Sorry I'm not more specific, but really just in all areas what I need is to look to Him and see His sufficiency.

Again, I thank you all for being patient in waiting and just for your involvement in my life. I am so thankful for your support of me in every way you give it and am excited to see you when I come back to the States.

Travis
2 Corinthians 5:21

He Is Faithful

Hey guys, I typically won't update my blog twice in a week, probably more like once or twice a month but God did some really cool things this Friday I thought I should share with you. Either way, I hope all is well with you and Jesus is doing awesome things in your life as well.

This Friday the base decided to have a giving day in the afternoon. Giving day is an opportunity for the students to help out other students who don't have enough money to pay for their school fees. We had four students who needed about 300,000 New Taiwanese Dollars, (NTD's) to raise to keep these students in school which is right around 11,000 USD's. We all showed up to the giving day and it was just an opportunity to worship and ask God what he wanted us to give to help out the other students here who didn't have the money to pay for all of their school fees. Keep in mind this is a group of about 25 people who are pretty much all living off support from others other than one couple. I will tell you what happened in this time but honestly, words can't tell you how awesome of a move God made within each person in that room to give.


The rest of what I am going to share is just stories of people who were moved to give by God to pay for the students fees. When we were praying and worshiping occasionally one of the staff would come up front and erase the debt of each person and put up the new amount left that needed to be paid. As we worshiped, God moved on one of the girls hearts to walk up front, erase the 78,000 NTD debt of one of the other girls and cut the debt in half and took half of the payment of that debt on herself. If that money didn't get paid back, this girl was responsible to come up with the extra money to pay off that debt. As we continued, one of the guys took on about 60,000 NTD's worth of debt that another one of the girls owed and put the entire debt on himself, again if that debt didn't get paid, the debt was his. There was story after story of what God did in that room. One of the guys gave his phone up to be given away or sold. Another guy told me he gave up probably a couple months worth of food money(I'm sure he still has enough to live on but it was a sacrifice). One person I was told gave enough to pay for one of the students school and maybe more, which had to be at least 30,000 or more NTD's. God told one of the girls to empty her pockets even. I was told by one of the students who owed money that they gave up even some of the little bit they had saved up because she wanted to live by faith. There was story after story of how God convicted people's hearts to give sacrificially for the sake of these students to be able to stay in school here and grow in their walks with the Lord and knowledge of who He is. When the time was up the final tally for the amount all of us gave as a school was over 350,000 NTD's! That's just about 12,000 USD's!

I tell you this not because I want to glorify the people and how great and holy they were for giving, but to show you how great our God is.  God took about 25 people who were pretty much all living off of support and made it happen so that each one of those students could stay in school at YWAM. And not only that, but we made enough to give to other ministries. A lesson we can all take from this is the idea of sacrificial giving. We as Americans are good at giving within our comfort zones. I will give my 10% or however much I have decided to give so I can say I give but I don't want to give until it hurts. I don't want to sacrifice buying my new ipod or laptop, I want a car that runs well and has air conditioning, I need to pay off my loans as fast as I can, then I will give. Don't get me wrong, none of these things are bad in themselves, but we have so many excuses why we will not sacrifice these things for the sake of the Gospel. Why we won't give extra to a missions organization because we want to get this or that new thing. As the body of Christ we need to be giving sacrificially, which sometimes means we will lose some of our comforts or give even beyond what we think we can afford to give. If He has called you to give, He will provide the money you need extra to meet your needs, but maybe nothing more than your needs. We ended the afternoon by singing a song about the faithfulness of God and as we were singing a song about God's faithfulness, we were informed that we had the last of the money needed to pay everything we needed off. I am just going to leave you with the chorus of the song to look at. God's blessings and I hope this finds you well.

Travis Kleppen
2 Corinthians 5:21

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
  - Matt Redman- Never Once

God is at Work

Hey guys, it's time to give you all another update. Life in Taiwan has been incredibly crazy, it seems that only the last couple days I have had some time to slow down and really have any free time. We have been keeping busy with class. The last few weeks we have gone through evangelism, the character and nature of God and this week we are going through relationships, from authority relationships to male female relationships. Besides lecture, we have been filling some of our afternoons with small group and preparation for our outreach. Our first outreach will be just in Taiwan for a week. For those of you who have not heard, my big outreach I will be going to India for about a month. We will be going to northeast India by Nepal to a city called Siliguri. We also have outreach twice a week. I go to a University nearby on Tuesdays and do evangelism and on Thursday nights I do my ministry at "The Rock," a coffee shop run by YWAM here in Danshui where we share the Gospel and help Taiwanese learn how to speak better English.

Apart from that, God has been challenging me a lot in my own personal walk. I have really felt like God is really trying to teach me to trust Him fully and specifically who He is. I've believed since I have been a Christian that God is all-powerful and good in all that He does, but in practical experience I have really struggled to believe that. My actions show that I don't completely trust that God is enough and He has my best in mind. I often trust in my own devices. I will struggle with something like fear and I will only see Him as big enough until I don't feel like He is big enough anymore. As much as I don't really want to, I am realizing I have to get past my feelings and learn to trust in what I already know. God has absolutely been doing awesome things in and through me there though. I have a couple of stories to share with all of you. One story about what God is doing in me and another about what God has been doing through me.

One night on a weekend I decided to head down to the river to pray. The river in the evening is amazing, almost every night there is a really awesome sunset. I went down to the river for the same reason again, to see the sunset and pray about what I want to do after I am finished with the DTS here. Before I had came here I just assumed I would be going back home and working at my old job, which is still an option, but I have been considering staying longer for an SBS (School of Biblical Studies), or joining staff for DTS, but that is beside the point. When I began to pray, I started to think about an idea that I learned in a book I read for class here, that it is easier for us to hear God's voice when we come to Him with a clean conscience. I began to ramble off a list of sins that I regularly confess, but I really felt God asking me to go deeper than the surface level sins this time. God began to convict me of my unbelief, specifically of the resurrection. Logically in the Bible, I understand and believe that the resurrection happened and that because of that all who trust in His name will be brought to new life with Him. I realized in this time though that experientially and practically, I didn't really believe it. I continued to pray into it and waited on God to speak, I really realized that I had areas of my life not submitted to Christ because I did not believe this. I was willing to make small sacrifices for the Kingdom of God but I realized I wasn't totally willing to give my life as an offering to Him, and it all stemmed from not fully believing that I will be raised to new life with Him when I die, that I would just cease to exist. As I prayed I just asked that He would place that desire and full conviction in me to be willing to give my life for Him(because let's face it, none of us on our own accord could muster up enough courage to die for a cause, especially one we didn't fully believe). I continued to pray and wait for God to speak and I was really convicted that I should spend four days reading through each of the Gospel accounts of Jesus betrayal, death, and resurrection. In that time God did some awesome things. I absolutely didn't see a complete change of heart in that four days but I believe God really began to work something in me regarding His death and resurrection and my fear of man, and the whole week we learned about the bigness and goodness of God. Although nothing major happened in that time it is something I have seen God working on and I believe He will continue to work until that fear is gone.

Another story about what God has done through me happened when I was doing evangelism at the university near our school. I went up to the university with a couple of the DTS students here for evangelism one night. We went and talked to a couple of girls first, but didn't have really much of a deep conversation. We left those girls and just asked God to lead us to the next person we should talk to. As we walked through the campus we didn't find anyone right away but as we continued to walk I felt like God was leading us in one direction, and sure enough there was a guy sitting by myself that I felt like I should go talk to. I went up to Grant and made small talk. (My first words when I'm doing evangelism are ni hao, then do you speak English?) Short story of my conversation with Grant was, that he spoke perfect English, and that he actually was a Christian already. Grant attended a university in the US and was just back in Taiwan for a short time. He asked a lot of questions about how to share the Gospel and I got to pray for him. The next day I got an email from him telling me that our conversation was very encouraging, and how he had started to backslide away from God and that I was a huge encouragement to help bring him back to Jesus.

I've met other people and had other good conversations with people and God has really been faithful in my ministry and schooling here in Taiwan as well as building relationships with the students here. I have been really blessed by all that God has done in Taiwan so far and am excited to see what happens as He continues to work in me and in the hearts of the Taiwanese people as we seek to win this country for Jesus.

A couple prayer requests.
    - That God would continue to bond us together as a family during this DTS.
    - We have a mini-outreach in two weeks where we will spread out through Taiwan and share the     Gospel in different contexts. Pray for open hearts to receive the Gospel and for team building for our team.

With Love in Him
Travis Kleppen
2 Corinthians 5:21

The adventure begins... Really

Hello again friends and family,
          This time I'm on the other side of the world. I got to the airport in Minneapolis around 8:15 the morning of September 6th. I flew from Minneapolis, to Chicago, to Tokyo, then to Taipei which I arrived to at 9:30 in the evening of September 7th. When I arrived in the airport, I was greeted by a friend of mine from Taiwan that night and was picked up by some of the people who are on staff and a friend who is already in a different school here. I've only been here for about 3 days and I've experienced so much here already I figured I'd give you all an update.
          After arriving in Danshui after my 24 hour plane ride, I had a 45 minute van ride to the house I was to be staying at. Over the weekend and today I have experienced so much of Taiwan. I have been able to try multiple different Chinese foods, Dan Ping has been my favorite. Dan Ping is a popular breakfast food in Taiwan, which is basically a tortilla with egg inside, and the rest of what is inside varies based on the place you go, my favorite so far has been with little potato ole looking things inside and some Asian sauce on top. I've also been able to experience a couple of different markets where you will find shaved ice (a popular dessert food in Taiwan which is literally shavings of milk and water ice shaved very thin often served with ice cream and fruit,  people standing around stores yelling from microphones(this gets really annoying), food everywhere, and people are just as plentiful. I have spent a lot of time getting to know the people from the school here as well as a couple people I had met through correspondence with the school before coming here.
          Today school officially started, although we didn't really get through any material. Today was more of an introductory day to get to know the other students and to get to know the city of Danshui as well. Today God did some really cool things for me while we were having our base wide worship. I was in a room filled with the nations, there were people from, Canada, Mongolia, Taiwan, South Africa, Brazil, Taiwan, United States, Panama, Japan, as well as a host of other counties. One of the coolest things about the worship is we would sing a song, and we would sing a verse and a chorus in English, then go through the same verse and chorus in Chinese. I always think it is so awesome when I am able to recognize that God doesn't operate in my own little english box. He is the God of the nations and understands every single tongue that praises Him on the face of the planet, whether it is in English, Chinese, Swahili, or some tribal dialect that I have never heard of.
          The other thing I really saw God working in was a song I've heard and sung many times but I was really hit with a few lyrics to the song Love Came Down. There is a line in the song that says I sing out and remind my soul that I am yours, I am forever yours. As I often struggle with fear, God so comforted me with those words and all it took was me singing out and reminding my soul that I am forever His and there is nothing or no one that can snatch me from his hands. The rest of the day until now has mostly been orientation and over the next couple days we will be getting going with our classes. This week the topic is the father heart of God, something I am excited to learn more, not just in knowledge but experience.
          Prayer requests at this time. The biggest things I want to ask for prayer for is for unity within the group and that God would build a strong bond between all of the students and staff that are here in Taiwan for DTS. I could personally use prayer that I would really use this time wisely and to focus all of myself on Jesus while I am here. Also that I would not allow my pride to get in the way of what He wants to do in and through me and my schoolmates over the course of this next 5 months. Again, I hope to hear back from all of you and hear how all of your lives are going.  I'm super blessed to have every one of you in my life.

In His service
Travis

The Adventure Begins

Hello All,
          I am just sending you out a preliminary blog post to give you all a better idea of how I decided to go to this Discipleship Training School (DTS) and just what God is up to with my whole situation right now as well as prayer requests. One thing before I get going, I want you all to know that I'm super blessed to have all of you in my life and that all of you are actually interested in knowing about my travels and what God is doing in Taiwan. Also I don't want you guys to think that because of the things I am writing or what I am doing, I don't see myself as having a higher calling than any of you who know Jesus. As Christians, we are all working to advance the Gospel whether it is small town or big city, in full-time ministry or at a job, in the slums or at the White House or whether it is United States or Taiwan, don't see what God has you doing or where God has you at as any less than where He has me. Lastly before I start, you all know this and I've confessed sin to  many of you that I didn't attain some high standing or I have not achieved some high level of holiness to go to Taiwan. God moved me to go and I'm going. I still struggle just as much as anyone else with sin and am in as desperate need of grace as anyone else. The fact that God is bringing me to Taiwan is evidence of his grace and I am in just as much need of a Savior as anyone I have the opportunity to share the Good News with. Now on with the letter.
          First off, for those who have not received my support letter I will tell you all the story of how I decided to go on this adventure. DTS is something I have thought about doing for awhile now but I really started to kick my decision to go into gear last October. I began praying and thinking about going on a DTS around then. I began emailing schools and asking about their programs and what they do, how big they were, as well as some other things. In November I went to the wedding of a friend of mine in Bolivia where I was encouraged all the more to go with Youth With A Mission (YWAM), on a DTS. I tried contacting multiple schools but eventually the one that stuck out was a school in Taiwan, in the city of Danshui (pronounced Dan Shway), which is just outside of Taipei, the capital city. I began a correspondence with the registrar there and eventually was able to have a Skype conversation with them. I really enjoyed the heart of the school, which seemed very Biblically based as well as they had a heart for frontier missions.As I continued my long correspondence with them and communicating with people from the school, I began to realize if I was to go to a DTS, this is where I'd be. There are two phases to DTS. The first phase is the lecture phase where I will  spend the majority of my time in class and going deeper into different aspects of the Gospel and who God is. The second phase is the outreach phase where I will use what I have learned and share the Gospel with people in another country. I will figure that country out when some time after I get there.
          There was never really one defining moment where everything just clicked and I can point back to and say, that's when I decided for sure to go, it really was just a direction I set myself in and God never changed it, although he confirmed my decision multiple times. The main confirmation for going on  DTS was while I was reading a book called Radical by David Platt. Platt stated at one point in the book, "Paul(the apostle) talks about being a debtor to the nations. He literally says, "I am in debt to Jews and Gentiles." Paul is saying he owes a debt to every lost person on the face of the planet. Because he is owned by Christ, he owes Christ to the world... He continues on talking about how we owe Christ to every lost person this side of hell and how many people will say, sorry I'm just not called to that, that missions is for some but I just don't have that calling. But then he goes on to say this. "But what if we don't need to sit back and wait for a call to foreign missions. What if the very reason we have breath is because we have been saved for a global mission? And what if anything less than passionate involvement in global mission is actually selling God short by frustrating the very purpose for which He created us?" A lot of us, myself included often wait for God to hit us over the head with a book that says exactly what we are supposed to do. The thing is, He's done it in the Bible and has called all of his people to missions in some way, whether it is going overseas, giving to missions organizations, or praying for the nations to hear the Gospel.
         Another thing that really confirmed my going to Taiwan was from a very dear brother in Christ. Very humbly one day, he came up to me and said, you don't need to worry about money, whatever you haven't made by the time you leave, you have a blank check waiting from me. What was so incredible to me about this was not that he was willing to give, the reason I was so moved by this act was to see the generosity God had put in his heart that not only did he believe in God's purpose, he so believed that God was doing a work in me, sending me to Taiwan, that he was willing to give as much as was necessary to get me there. I've been affirmed in many other ways as well, how supportive, not just my immediate family, but my family as a whole has been of me, some of the checks that have come in that were much bigger than I ever expected, and the many conversations I've had with people who have continued to encourage me to go when I've been struggling with doubts, fears, anxiety, and questioning whether or not I should go.
          It has been a wild adventure to even get this far and I've had to realize that if God is going to bring me this far, He will go with me to Taiwan. One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Isaiah 43:1,2, &5 God says, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. Fear not for I am with you." God has shown me and proven to me in His Word among other things that He will go with me, that He is not just here with me in Fargo, but He will go with me to Taiwan.
          I have a few prayer requests to send your way as I finish preparing to go and see all that God is going to do in Taiwan. First, that God would  prepare the students and staff at the school for this DTS. Second that God would be preparing people even now to hear the Gospel message and receive it with joy. For myself I could just use prayer that I would trust that God is going to provide, spiritually, emotionally, financially, mentally, in all areas, that I would know He will provide. I am thankful for all of you and the support you have shown me already before I have even left the country and am so thankful to know you all. Feel free to shoot me an email or facebook me anytime while I'm gone, I want to know what is going on in all of your lives as well and I'm sure I will be excited to hear back from my home country.

In His Service
Travis Kleppen