Coming Home

Hey all, this will be my last update about SBS, although my life and connection with Taiwan as it seems at this point in time is far from over.  As most of you know, I am now finished with the school. Graduation happened a week ago, on Friday, December 13 and  now I am back in America,  and now the plan is to get a job and work for a little over a year to pay off loans to get myself back to Taiwan for a more long term. How long term, I am not certain yet. While I am in Williston, outside of work, I will be working with Campus Crusade for Christ, investing in a church and studying Chinese.

Over the past couple weeks, God has been doing some awesome things. As we have continued to walk through the prophets, the closer we got to the end of the Old Testament, the more the Bible pointed forward to Jesus. We finished the school with the last of the prophets and then dove into the book of Matthew to end the book.

Outside of school though, I have really seen God growing my heart for the Taiwanese people. For a long time, although I have loved the nation and the people, ministry has been something that although I have enjoyed, God has given me greater delight and joy for investing in relationships with the Taiwanese. Just in the past week I was able to go with some of them to a burger place and although we didn't share the gospel, we were able to build and grow in relationships with some of the Taiwanese. I got to hear the testimonies of some Taiwanese Christians and how they came to know the Lord. Believe me, although people are sinful all over the world, it looks different throughout the world. Many people here who come to know Jesus don't have the support of their families, as a matter of fact, family is a large reason people don't become Christian because many will be persecuted by their families if they choose to follow Jesus. Even beyond hearing these testimonies, I was able to talk with a lady here and see the needs, especially the needs foreigners can bring into the church.

All that was really to show how God is growing in me a heart for this nation as I have stepped out in faith and sought to be obedient to him more in the long term as often I have not done. I have been so fearful to make a decision because in making one decision I realize I am closing so many other doors. I realized that whatever decision I made was going to affect and change my future and it scared me because I was fearful that I was going to make a wrong decision or miss out on some big thing God had for me or that there was something better, but making this decision, although a challenge, has been a blessing to me and I have grown because of it.

As of a few weeks ago when I sent off my message about needing support. There is good news. All of my school fees are now paid off. I owe no money to the school, so praise Jesus for that. I have a few prayer requests for you all. First off, God's provision for a job. I have applied for a couple of jobs and have another prospect for a job, but as of right now, I do not have a job. The second thing that I could use prayer for is transitioning well back to America. People talk a lot about culture shock and adjustment in going to new countries, but adjusting to coming back has not been an easy transition and so I could use prayer that Jesus would still be the one I look to as I seek to transition back home.

I appreciate all of you and thank you for the support you have given as I have been in Taiwan. I have seen some of you and look forward to seeing others. Thank you again and be blessed.

His Servant,

Travis

The Next Great Adventure

Hey all, it's getting to be that time again to send you all another update. Life in Taiwan continues to be as busy as ever. We celebrated Thanksgiving this year a week early which turned out to be a great day, it helped that we couldn't work so we had an afternoon and an evening to just relax and enjoy the day. Following Thanksgiving, the next morning we had the annual Turkey Bowl, a football game that is organized here every year. It was a hard fought battle, but I'm proud to say my team won five to three.

This past month now we have been going through the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Daniel and some others. As we've looked through the prophets, we have really gotten to see the patient heart of God as he continues for hundreds of years to call his people back to him in repentance and instead of turning back to God, the people of God choose to continue to turn their backs on God, to worship gods of their own making rather than the One who created them. They would do things as terrible as burning their children in fire thinking that by doing so they were appeasing some god. You see, back in that time, each nation had different gods, and not just one, sometimes hundreds or even thousands of gods would represent one nation, and God's people would constantly take on the new gods that they encountered from these other nations. As I look back on how those nations would turn to other 'gods' or idols, it is easy for me to think of how foolish those people were. It is easy for me to look back on people who would physically bow down to idols that couldn't give them true life and think that there was something wrong with them and they were crazy, but the reality is, we still do it today. How many of us, myself included, will spend more time on facebook in a day than time alone with God? How many of us don't think we could go a day without our smartphone or ipad? How many of us care more about being in a relationship, or having money more than we care about our relationship with God and our spiritual wealth? Or how many of us think that if we just get one more thing we will be satisfied? The reality is, although we may not physically bow down to things like the people back then did, we all have things in our lives that at times will take the place of God. The author Tim Keller gives this definition of idolatry, "It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give… An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, “If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I ‘ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.” There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship." This is what the prophets called out for hundreds of years in the Bible, and I have realized that this is something we can't  assume that we are above. We too have idolatry in our lives and we are not any better than those who went before us.

As you all probably know, my time here doing the School of Biblical Studies is nearing an end and a new season of my life awaits me. Before I left to do SBS, just as I thought the same about DTS when I did my last school here, I thought I was going to be here for the time of the school, move back to Fargo, get a job, and pay off loans while I waited on God to reveal to me what is next. For the past couple months, I have been praying about what would God want me to do after I graduate from SBS. In the past, God has spoken to me in some really crazy ways where it had been evident to me as I was making my decision, but this time was much different. Usually, after I prayed once or twice I would know or there would be significant progress made when I did pray. This time, I felt like I was not hearing anything from God. It seemed like silence. I would ask what was next and unlike before, there was no solid answer that I could go back to. But as I began to meet with leaders here on base and think about it and pray about it, I was realizing that God doesn't just speak through crazy circumstances, rather, he often speaks simply through His word, the Bible. He often speaks through people and the wise counsel of people who have been walking with God for a longer period of time. It's not always an audible voice, a shooting star through the big dipper (this actually happened to me once haha), or a crazy vision, but often what we see the Bible telling us. So as I prayed and wrestled through with what God would have me do, I really felt like he began to show me through these much more practical things what he wanted to do. Through conversations, I began to realize that I needed to be using my time to prepare myself for the future and for a full-time and long term ministry, whether it be in the workplace or in missions or in the church. I began to see also the desperate need of the Taiwanese to hear the gospel. I began to realize that going back to Fargo was simply because I didn't know what I was going to do next so to me it was the next logical step because it was what I wanted to do. There was a lot more that played into my decision, but what I decided to do was to go home for a year and live in Williston so I could pay off the college loans I have left to pay and then I will be coming back to Taiwan for at least two years.
This was both an incredibly difficult decision to make but at the same time, a very joyful one as well. I love Fargo and there is so much I will miss about the city, most of all, the relationships I was able to build there. Between River City and Cru and the Ranch there is so much I will miss about Fargo. It was honestly one of the most difficult parts of the decision I made to come back to Taiwan. Outside of leaving family, that takes the cake for the most difficult part of this decision. But on the other hand it has been an incredibly joyful and freeing decision because this is absolutely where I believe the Lord has me in this season of my life. I am not wondering now about what is next for the first time in a long time because I have made my commitment and know that unless God is very clear that he wants something else for me Taiwan is where I will be for this time.

I have a couple requests from you. The first is a prayer request. The prayer request is that God would give me the grace to finish this school strong. We are all tired and it would be easy to just coast for the last three weeks I have here but I want to get the most out of the school, every day. The other prayer request would be for a smooth transition. I have place to live in Williston, but that I would be able to get a job and get settled in and that all that would go smoothly as I transition from live in SBS to life in Williston.

My last request is simply for finances. I am still about eight hundred dollars short of what I need to finish. I would greatly appreciate prayer for finances and support if you are able to financially support. If you would like to give financially, you can send a check to my family at 805 12th Street SE, Watford City, ND, 58854 and they will get it to me. If you are thinking about supporting financially, you can reach me as well at kleppentr@gmail.com. I appreciate it.

I am so honored by each and every one of you to have you as a part of my life. I know I say this almost every update, but I really appreciate the support I have from all of you. Financially, prayer, and your friendship and support truly are valuable to me.  I am excited to see all of you when I return to Fargo on December 16.

His Servant,
Travis

Facing Your Fear

Hey all, this again is not an official update of what is going on here, I hope to get on to you all soon, but I just wanted to share some more of what God has been challenging me with lately and maybe this will challenge you as well.

I don't really know how far this goes back in my life, or how far it goes back since I became a Christian even, but I feel like I have had a hard time in my life, especially in my walk with the Lord with dealing with my problems and the issues I deal with. It is so easy for myself, and I believe many Christians to see their problems and issues and instead of totally dealing with them just making themselves feel okay or feel happy and then never dealing with their problems. It is so easy for people to think because they feel happy to think that they have actually dealt with their problems when in reality, they are only scratching the surface at that time. There is a quote from C.S. Lewis that I go back to sometimes that really hits this on the head. Lewis writes in the Screwtape Letters, a fictional book that is basically one demon talking to another demon and teaching him the ways of how to deceive people, and the older of the two says this of humans and how to deceive them, "Keep them watching their own minds and trying to produce feelings there by the action of their own wills. When they meant to ask Him for charity, let them, instead, start trying to manufacture charitable feelings for themselves and not notice that this is what they are doing. When they meant to pray for courage, let them really be trying to feel brave. When they say they are praying for forgiveness, let them be trying to feel forgiven. Teach them to estimate the value of each prayer by their success in producing the desired feeling; and never let them suspect how much success or failure of that kind depends on whether they are well or ill, fresh or tired, at the moment." What he is getting at here is that people, instead of for example, trying to be courageous in a situation, would rather just feel courageous. You see, for me this is a big one. I want to feel like I'm dealing with the issues in my life sometimes without actually dealing with them, because I pray for a few minutes and feel better, or sometimes not even trying to deal with the sin in my life. This is what God revealed to me a couple of nights ago.

Once a week, I try to take a least an hour of an evening off and just get alone with God and get away from my charts, get away from all that's going on in SBS and just get alone with God. This week, I ended up going to McDonalds to watch a sermon and decided about half way through the sermon that I should get out and pray because it had been a difficult week and although the sermon was great I just needed to get alone with God. I went out to the river to pray and to be completely honest, I was scared to bring my sin before God. This isn't the first time this has happened to me though. Very often when I am trying to deal with the sin in my heart I get scared. It wasn't until I was praying that night though that God made it very clear to me what I was afraid of. I'm not and none of us should be afraid to come to God if we truly love God and are living for Him. What I realized I was afraid of is not just dealing with the sin, whatever it is, what I was afraid of was afraid of what might result from dealing with it. I was afraid of the spiritual attack that may happen as a result.

I won't go into detail, you can ask me if you want to know more, but part of the reason for this goes back to about two years ago now. (Sorry for going back and forth so much) A couple years ago I saw some really deep spiritually dark stuff with someone I had been semi-close with in the past and how this person was effected spiritually. It was by far probably the scariest thing I had ever seen. Ever since then, although God has dealt with it, I don't think I've totally gotten over that fear of being found out or some of the same things happening in my life or at least some other spiritual attack. (again, I'm sorry this is vague and not totally explanatory, but I'm just trying to be careful here). Anyways, I didn't really realize that it was a traumatic event for me until months later while I was doing DTS outreach.

Coming back to this event now, I realized that a great part of the reason that I struggled was not just that event specifically, although it did have a lot to do with why I don't want to deal with problems that arise, but I was just scared to deal with them because I was afraid of what would come up or come out as I was dealing with them. But as I was praying, I really feel like God was present and revealing to me just how big he was. Ephesians 1 talks about two very important things. God's immeasurable power toward believers along with his immeasurable grace. If he is immeasurably powerful and immeasurably great, than there is no fear or spiritual attack that can win when we come to him. His grace and his power toward those who believe is infinite and without measure.

My challenge to you, as well as myself. If you are walking with the Lord, deal with these things. Don't be like me in this area and make yourself feel better about where you are without actually dealing with sin, or making it better for a time. Come to Jesus. Without condemnation, without fear. If you are his child, you can approach the throne of grace with confidence and without fear because you are his. There is no power of hell that can pluck you from his hands. So come to him, the great physician, and let him bring the healing to your heart. He will do it, all you have to do is come to him.

I believe! Help my unbelief!

Hey all, I just wanted to write something less about updating you and more about something I feel like God is doing in my heart and is something important for all of us to wrestle with if it is going on in our lives. I feel like something I have struggled with even since coming to do SBS, maybe even more than just about any other time in my life is unbelief. There is this wrestling within me of the reality of God. I have seen him speak to me, I have experienced his reality in my life on many occasions, but so often, it is difficult to believe. In Mark 9 there is a story of a man whose son has an unclean spirit. The man comes to Jesus and begs him to heal his son, the man tells Jesus, if you can do this, you should heal him. Jesus almost sarcastically seems to say 'if you can?' Jesus says that all things are possible for the one who believes. The man immediately cries out to Jesus, I believe; help my unbelief! I often feel like that man. I can very often feel like this man. Part of the reason I share this is because I want to be open with you all, but there is another point to this also. For a long time in my life, I feel like I have struggled to really commit to anything. If it was short term, maybe I'll commit or if it doesn't take a lot of my time, but it is something that I really haven't done well in. To give you an idea, as most of you know, the first school I did was DTS or Discipleship Training School. The school I attended was about 5 months long. It took me over six months to finally fully commit to doing the school It took me longer to commit to the school than the school itself took. I began thinking about doing DTS in September or October, I didn't commit until June of the following year. I share this because as most of you know, I am at another juncture in my life at this point in time. I began to pray about what was next and seek God and I never really heard anything from God so I took the next logical step and just figured, hey, I'll just choose to move back to Fargo and then I'll go from there, if I end up back in Taiwan, I end up back in Taiwan. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think that every time we make a decision in life there always has to be this clear plan laid out, but looking back, I feel like I was just doing what I wanted and felt comfortable with it and it fit into my plans. Now, I don't know what I will be doing come the time to go back to the States, I don't know for sure where I'm going to live and what exactly I'm going to do, but I have realized that I think part of the reason I have not made the decision is because the option I wanted to do was the comfortable option. If nothing else worked out I had a safety net and I feel like much of it boils down to unbelief in my heart that God is really here, that he really is who he says he is, and that he will really do what he says he is going to do.

The reality is, I, and we all need to be seeking God's heart for us and be willing to do what he has called us to do, even if it is not popular with the people around us. If God has called us to something, we need to do it, no matter how difficult it seems or how contrary to what the rest of the world is telling us, even sometimes members of the church. I tell you this to share with you from my own life and to share with you some of the struggles that I am going through, but I also tell you this to tell you what I believe to be the root often is of not stepping out in faith to do what God has called us to do, and I think it boils down to unbelief in many cases. Unbelief that Jesus still really still speaks to us. Unbelief that he will call us out of our comfortable plans for our own lives. In my case even sometimes, unbelief that He's even here even after the incredible things I have seen him do in my life as well as in the lives of others. As Christians, we can't settle for just our lukewarm lives. We can't settle for living in stagnance. We need to be people who walk boldly knowing that God does speak to us and as we see and know that our God lives, that our God is with us and he will guide us every step of the way, we will be obedient to walk as he is calling us to walk and do what he is calling us to do and we are not to deal with our unbelief by trying harder. We are to cry out to Jesus as the man in that story in Mark 9 did. We need to cry out to Jesus and tell him I believe! Help my unbelief!

Two Down, One to Go

Hey all, time for another update from Taiwan. Since I last updated you, we have gotten through plenty more books. We have gone through Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles which turned out to be quite a bit of work, especially Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. I recently just got back from Okinawa, which is a beautiful island in Japan.




Since I last updated you, a lot has happened here. God has been doing a lot of work not only within the school, but in my own heart. It has been a rough and bumpy ride to get where I am, and I still have a long way to go, but there is a work that God has been doing in my heart over the past six months. I want to share with you probably the biggest
area I feel like God has been bringing to light in my life in the past three or four weeks. To share this, I really need to go back to high school or maybe even middle school. For the longest time, I have been plagued by this desire to be liked by people. In junior high, it may have been trying to impress a girl that I thought was attractive, in senior high it probably looked more like wanting to fit in with the 'cool' kids in school whatever that looked like. In college nothing changed. The reality was, it didn't end when I became a Christian over five years ago. This desire, this need to be liked by my peers especially continued and to some degree continues to stick around. It looks different now that I have become a Christian, but it is still totally evident in my heart. I still want to be somebody. I want my Christian friends to think I'm spiritual, to think I like the same things they like, to be invited by the people I deem as 'cool,' or just to be noticed by them, and it turns my desire away from wanting to please God to wanting to please man. It hinders me from sharing the gospel because I am afraid that I will be rejected or the people won't want to hear what I have to share. It harms my view of some because I see some people as having more value than others and although people don't always see it, it is a clear heart issue that needs to be dealt with. I have been realizing this need to look at people all with the same eyes. Whether someone loves the Lord with all their heart or are are not following him at this point in time, the reality is, they/we all stand with the exact same need of Christ. I can't look at myself with pride or anyone with pride when I realize the deep and desperate need each and every one of us has for Jesus. Although I know this is something I struggle with, I realize it is something we should all reflect on and look at. We all need to learn how to look at people with the eyes of Christ. We all need to not be looking out for our own social standing, for what makes us look 'cool' or good in the sight of  others, but we need to be seeking how we can love and serve others who are in or out of the body of Christ and not be worried about our reputation or what others will think of us. Whether Christian or not, we all stand in the same desperate need of Jesus and that should be what unites us.

Over the past week, I have had a lot of time to reflect on God's faithfulness in my life. We finished second quarter off with the book of Chronicles, and the book itself is really a reflection on many of the good things the kings of Israel did. The book goes all the way back to Adam and although nine chapters of genealogies might seem extreme and unnecessary to us now, it really showed the people who were originally reading this book where they have been and all that God has brought them through and then goes in to David and some of the kings of Israel and many of the good things that they did throughout their times as king. Partly in light of this and the timing in the school, I chose to do what we call final application for the book by simply spending some time over break remembering and reflecting on all that God has done in my heart and in my life. I have been able to look back over the past month or so and God has really been revealing to me his faithfulness to me in my life, how God has used even seemingly foolish decisions and used them for my good and for the good of others and even when I was not solidly walking with the Lord how he still loved me, still used me for his purposes and was faithful to me in those times. It's crazy I feel like for all of us to look back on the times on our lives that we saw at the time as some of the most difficult or the most uncertain and as I look back on them I feel like I see God's hand the most clearly on my life and he works for good even in those times.

God has spoken to me in some cool ways over break, but he also blessed a group of us immensely as we traveled to Okinawa Japan. We flew to Japan not just because we had a week off, but because most of the students can only stay for 90 days before they have to leave the country to do what we call a visa run, which basically means we had to leave the country to renew our time in Taiwan since we are not actually residents or alien residents of Taiwan. When we got there, we were greeted by the parents of one of my fellow classmates who housed us for the week. They paid immediately for our dinner upon arriving in Okinawa, pretty much left their house open for us to use all week and showed us all around the island. We had a pretty restful first day, but then they brought us to go ziplining and paid for us to go ziplining and then brought us to a place to go snorkeling. The next day, they brought us to go hiking up to a waterfall and later that day they again paid for lunch and brought us to one of the world's largest aquariums. The big aquarium is the third largest aquarium in the world holding just a hair under 2 million gallons of water and home to three whale sharks a couple large rays, porpoises, among many other animals. A huge highlight for me later in the week was Taco Bell which was on the military base as well as Chiles, mini-golf, an arcade, and a great conversation on the seawall the night before we left with the guys I was there with.

It is now late Saturday night (technically Sunday morning) and we have one more day left of break and Monday we have the founder of my school (SBS or School of Biblical Studies) coming in and his wife and they are teaching us wisdom literature, starting with Proverbs on Monday. This will be the last stretch of school before I head back to the States for Christmas. We have about three more months of school and from there I will head back on the 16th of December and am excited to see you all. I have a couple of prayer requests from ya'll as I head into the last quarter of school here in Taiwan. The two that seem most prevalent is this school is very trying on most of us mentally and physically it's exhausting so myself as well as the entire school could use prayer for one last burst of energy to finish the school strong. Time is flying, but it's still a lot of work and very time consuming. The main prayer request for myself which will probably be prayer requests until I finish and probably even after is that I don't want to come back unchanged. I know I have shared with you guys that changes are happening, but change is not always easy to maintain, and I have such a desire right now to see this change continue and I need your prayer to see that continue and want to be praying for any one of you who needs prayer as well, you have all made an investment in my life just by taking the time to pray for me, to read this, and just being involved and I want to be able to invest in your lives in whatever way I can. Again, as always, I would appreciate to hear from all of you. I like being able to share with ya'll, but I also really enjoy hearing about your lives, event he seemingly mundane details are things that your friends overseas like to hear. Often, people think that missionary lives are so exciting and they have so little to offer, when in reality, we are all living life and things are happening and the only real difference is we are living life in different places and the things people think are mundane or unimportant are often just the things we need to hear to feel like we are in the loop back home. I appreciate you guys and look forward to hopefully hearing from some of you.

Thanks so much for all of your support,

His servant,

Travis

P.S. Posted along here are some pictures from my break. We had our second of two breaks a couple weeks ago and I had to fly out of the country to renew my visa in Taiwan. The pictures are courtesy of/ I believe copyrighted by Ed Chan.

Out of the New Into the Old

Hey all, it's been awhile since I have updated all of you. since I last sent out an update we had our first of two one week breaks from classes and finished the New Testament minus Matthew (we will study through the gospel of Matthew last to see really just how Jesus was the fulfillment of everything the Old Testament pointed to). Because it's been so long, I am going to try to give you all a broad update of all that has happened in the past couple months and a few details of things that God has been teaching me.

I don't know how much I have shared with you all about what I do for ministry here. Each student has ministry once a week for three hours, my ministry is co-teaching a guitar class and then afterward, going downstairs and having conversations with Taiwanese where we teach them English, it is a great opportunity to share the gospel with people because people come in with such open hearts to hear about Jesus and it stretches my imagination to try to figure out how to share the gospel with someone who does not speak the same original language as me to find simple yet clear illustrations of who God is and how our sin separates us from God and that every single human being on the face of this planet deserves the wrath of God and how God pursues people and saves them from their sin if they will repent and turn to him.

Up to this point, as I have already said, we finished the New Testament and we have finished Genesis and Exodus and are currently studying through Leviticus. Every book has spoken something different to me and shown me something different about who God is or how he sees his people and so I just want to share with you all a few things that have impacted me throughout my study. The gospel of John was the last book we studied before break and outside of maybe Colossians, that book has probably spoken the most to me so far throughout SBS (School of Biblical Studies), especially two passages. The first truth I really got to see was how the love of Jesus is, was, and always will be unchanging. It is clearly demonstrated in John 13:1 when it says that Jesus time had come to depart from the world and he loved those who were his until the end. In John 12:23-28, Jesus is talking about how his hour has come (his hour is referring to the hour of his death) and he says that for this reason he came. Ultimately, he showed that his love doesn't change by taking the cross for the sin of whoever would believe in him. Why this really spoke to me was it showed me that even in the absolute worst hour that Jesus has ever or will ever experience, he still was obedient to do the work that he was called to and his situation didn't change the fact that he loved his people, if he loved his people even in his worst hour, he will surely love his people when he is glorified and with his Heavenly Father.

Another thing that really spoke to me in the gospel of John was also about God's love. In John 17:26 Jesus is finishing a chapter long prayer to God for his disciples and he says that I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. This really showed me just how God loves his people, he loves them with the same love he loved his only 'begotten' Son with and that love literally dwells inside believers, what a privilege believers have to have the love of God in them. If these things are true, (and they are) the lives of every person who believes them should be totally changed. If we believe that God is all powerful, if we believe that God raises the dead, if we believe that we will dwell in eternity with God (many people have a terribly misunderstood view of eternity, we won't just be disembodied spirits floating around but we will have physical bodies and be able to do physical things, probably a lot of things we do on this earth even), if we believe that Jesus truly is the Son of God, then our lives should look so much different than the rest of the world. We are justified before God totally by faith and not by works, but a truly changed life for God should look different than the world. It shouldn't be what the majority of Americans looks like who simply say, I am a Christian but walk out of church, if they go, unchanged. The lives of Christians shouldn't just be characterized by he or she is a nice person, it should be characterized by the person and work of Jesus.  If we believe in God's love and his power, not one of us should have an excuse not to give our entire lives to this God, and this scares some people,(it still scares me often) because it might mean they have to give up their cushy lives, it might mean they have to leave the country to do missions, it might mean they have to sell their houses or a car for the sake of giving to the kingdom of God to give more, it may even mean you have to give your life, but it's worth it and the reward you will have in heaven for surrendering your life to Jesus is great, far beyond anything you can imagine. All that to say, the love of God should change the life of the person who truly believes in it because the love of the Father is in them. This doesn't mean we are perfect now but we WILL be changed if we truly know and love Jesus.

After finishing John we went on our first break. Most of the students had to leave the country to renew their visas, but I was able to stay in Taiwan. It was for the most part a very refreshing and relaxing break. I went to a couple movies, went to the water park once or twice, and a group of us went camping and just got to enjoy creation while we had some time off. Got to spend some time under the stars just talking about how great God is and swapping stories with one another, but break came to an end rather quickly.

A group from my school on our Sabbath last weekend at Tea Mountain

The last thing I'm going to share with you guys is just something that happened and what God challenged me with through the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis is full of God's sovereignty, how God is in control of every event that happens in this world. I was really challenged by the life of Joseph, a character that is relatively not talked about in church but almost fifteen chapters of Genesis is his story, which is actually even more than Abraham. First off, Joseph gets sold into slavery by his brothers and his integrity really challenged me. Never once do you see him doubting God, and it is ultimately his trust in God that he ends up ruling the land of Egypt. He also was a man of integrity and did the right thing. IN the face of temptation day in and day out, Joseph chose not to sin because he knew his sin would be against God even though he may have gotten away with it.

There was one point in the book of Genesis that really got me though that I need to share a little bit of background first. When God made his promise to Abraham that he would make a great nation out of him, he promised them that he would give the descendants of Abraham the land of Canaan, which is modern day Israel. Now I had read through some of this, but one night as I was sleeping I had a dream. I don't remember anything from the dream, but I remembered the words New Canaan. When I thought about it, I recognized pretty quickly that since Canaan was the promised land for the Jews at the time, so New Canaan would then be the New Heavens and New Earth that God is going to give to believers in the end, when we reach our true home, but that morning I went to Starbucks, totally out of the norm to study and two other students showed up as well. I told the students about my dream and they decided to pray for me. (Mind you, I didn't give any specifics I just told them the words that I got and maybe a little bit of an explanation.) We prayed and I didn't really get anything or hear anything from God, one girl showed me a map of Canaan and how it was modern day Israel pretty much to the T. The other student though, a Korean named Chanmi, got something. She said that she really felt like God was calling me to think about the New Heavens and the New earth, to focus on heaven and think about it and believe in it, something to that effect, and the crazy thing was, that was exactly what God has been speaking to me throughout the past nine or so months. It was a word from God confirming things I have already been challenged by.

Other than that, not too much is new, I have been learning a lot and working harder than I have ever worked in my life, but this school is an incredible blessing. I have learned so much about who God is and the Bible in such a short time and it has been a huge growing experience. An added benefit to all the work has been that I have learned for the most part how to manage my time well, although the fact that I am writing this at 11:14 at night when I should have been in bed forty-five minutes ago doesn't speak to that. A few prayer requests.
 1. Ministry- It is easy to focus more on my work than on ministry and ultimately I want to reach the people of Taiwan, not just learn a bunch of stuff. Also, sharing the gospel is not always easy for me, there is a lot of fear of man and I don't always desire to share it.
 2. I can always use prayer for my own heart that I would be vulnerable to what God is going to do as well as for my heart in comparison. Oftentimes, my motivation to work hard isn't because I want to learn about God and work hard for him as much as it is motivated by wanting to get good grades and be ahead of my classmates and it just kills my work because I'm not focused then on doing it for God but for myself and I get angry or frustrated when my peers are ahead of me. (I just want to be transparent with you all, I have plenty of struggles)
 3. Future- I have been beginning to pray about what is next. I have made my own plans, but just that God would speak to me and just give me some clarity on what he wants me to do after SBS. I plan on coming back to Fargo, but I want to be submitted to God's plan.

For real, the last thing this time. I am sitting with most of my support raised, but I am still in need of some funds for school. I don't have the exact numbers but I am still about 1,000-1,500 away from where I probably should be to be fully supported. Again, if you want to send any support, you can send the money to 805 12th St. SE, Watford City, ND, 58854 and address it to me personally. I love you all and as always, I would love to hear about your life and would really appreciate a facebook message or even a comment or anything just to hear about all of your lives. I think there is a misconception sometimes that people think their own lives are mundane or boring, but I love and I think most people overseas like to hear even things simply like how work is going and how your walk with the Lord is going, what you ate for lunch, just the simple things in life are great to hear. Anyway, I appreciate you all and thank you for taking all this time to read this, I know it was a long one. Have a good Sunday if you read this today, if not, have a great week.

His Servant
,
Travis

Back to the Bible

Hey all, time for another update. Hope you all are doing well half way across the world. Life here has been crazy busy as usual. I have been learning a lot and growing a lot in my walk with the Lord. Life here for me has been more difficult since I last updated you, but God has been faithful to continue to restore me to him and has been doing awesome things in and through me here in Taiwan.

One day a week here we get a Sabbath to rest on, I have learned not only to work hard on the six days we work, but to play hard with the little free time have throughout the week and on my Sabbath. Last week a group of us went to some hot springs and after that went out to a major night market in Taiwan. Today a group of us are headed off to see Ironman 3. I've also been playing basketball and soccer about once a week as well, which is most of my playing during the week.

God has been doing some awesome work here in Taiwan. A couple of weeks ago we went through the book of Acts. Every book study we have a regular application for that book, but for Acts, we had a different application. The application for Acts, because Acts focuses so heavily on the preaching of the gospel, was to share the gospel with one person. I have ministry on Friday nights teaching guitar to beginner guitar players, and after that I spend time in a ministry that our YWAM base here runs called the Rock. The Rock is a coffee bar and we give away free coffee. This brings the Taiwanese in to learn English with our main goal of sharing the gospel with them. The week of Acts, after I had done the guitar class I was going to share the gospel, but that plan got hindered when I got downstairs and found out that I was supposed to go sit and talk with a Taiwanese American who was in the Rock often and who had said he was a Christian. Another student, Elizabeth, got up to just preach the gospel to the whole room full of people and in that time the man I was sitting with left. After Elizabeth finished sharing, she gave the opportunity for anyone who wanted to to accept Christ and stand up, but no one got up. After this, I went and found another table of people to sit at in hopes of sharing the gospel with someone even though they had all already heard it and not responded. I sat down by a Taiwanese DTS (Discipleship Training School) Student named Abraham and a couple of other Taiwanese at the table. Abraham told me that one girl, whose name was Debby, wanted to learn more, but the language barrier made me think that she just wanted to know more about American culture. I took that as an opportunity to share my testimony with this girl and further expound on what Elizabeth had already shared about the gospel. Debby seemed very interested and even began sharing that she thought God had brought her to the Rock because she was going through a difficult time because her and her boyfriend had broken up. At that point I began to realize it might not be a good idea for me to have the whole conversation with her and shortly after that, Elizabeth came and sat down at the table with her while I found someone from the Rock Church to get connected with Debby. Elizabeth continued the conversation with her and she got saved and received the Holy Spirit that night. I still have joy thinking back to that and praise God because of what He did.

School itself has been going really well as well even with the daily struggles that come up. Since I last updated you we finished studying through Luke
, and we went through Acts, Philippians and Colossians, and now we have started 1 Timothy. The most impactful book, not just of the most recent books we have studied but of them all has been Colossians. The reason for Colossians being such an impactful book for me was seeing that Christ is sufficient for believers in all things. It says that in him, that is in Christ, all things hold together, that believers can reach the riches of full assurance of understanding, and that believers have been made alive with him. The whole book just screamed that everything a believer has comes from, through, and in Christ and that Christ himself is enough for every true believer in him. I want to challenge you all to read through the book of Colossians and seek these things out for yourself. Especially in Colossians 1:15-20 Paul uses the word all a lot and talks about Christ being enough in all things, and just the phrases in him with him and through him.

I want to thank you all for your support of me in being here and your love for me. I know I say this pretty much every time, but I really do appreciate it and I want you all to know that I really do appreciate all of your support in all the ways you have given it.

Prayer requests this time would be really just be to continue to seek heart change in this time because it is really easy for me to just get into my work and not really want or seek heart change. Also, just pray for unity within all of the students and staff and that God would grow those. There are no major problems by any means, but we do need God just to build the relationships.

Also, just for finances. I am still about three thousand dollars short of where I would like to be. I have enough for this term and probably next term, but I sill need to get supported for that time. I would appreciate prayer that God would provide that money, but also if you would pray about supporting me financially. If you would like to support you can make the check payable to me personally and it can be sent to 805 12th St. SE Watford City, ND 58854.

In Him,
Travis

The Adventure Continues... dun dun dun

Hey All, this is the first post I've written since I have gotten back to Taiwan. Everything here is going in hyperspeed it seems. I'm already closing in on being here a month. For those of you who don't know I am back in Taiwan doing a second school. My first school was called DTS, or Discipleship training school where I learned a lot about my relationship with the Lord, who God is and what it looks like to be a missionary. This school I am not in is called The School of Biblical Studies (SBS). This school, although still a missions based school, is about training up people to read and study the Word of God and to learn to value the Word more, although we will still be doing ministry every week as well.
SBS is a nine month Bible training where we will go through every book of the Bible and study it inductively. What that entails is five separate reads. The first read is just an out loud read where you get familiar with the book and read it through the whole book in one sitting. After that, the second read is called the color code. During the color code read, we will take out color pencils or crayons and color different words, phrases or ideas different colors. For example all people will be colored in one color, the Trinity (Father, Son or Holy Spirit) in another color, time another, figures of speech and so forth. The third time we read through it we give a title to every paragraph. The last two reads through is when we put things inside our charts and begin to analyze and interpret the text. During each book we also go through Basic Required Information, get historical background on the book and do a final application from something we've learned from the book.
So far, we have studied through, Philemon, Titus, Galatians, Ephesians, Mark, and we have now started the book of Luke. It has been like trying to drink water out of a fire hose, you can get a little bit if you stick your mouth in and try to drink, but the reality is there is so much more there than I can understand and grasp in this year of studying. An average week here is pretty busy. Starting next week we will have class three days a week form 8-12:30. Other than the lecture, we will spend our days studying. We are expected work 10-12 hours a day six days a week. The average day is starting class at 8 a.m. and finishing work between 9 and 10 pm.
I have learned and grown a lot in this time already and God has been teaching me a lot of things. In my own personal times I have been learning the reality that my life is not about me and just seeking to learn how to serve my classmates and my roommates well. I have learned a lot from doing my charts as well though. Just a small portion of what I have learned has been the importance of making small but real changes instead of expecting major changes in my walk with Jesus.
I have begun to see the importance and the power of the resurrection in the lives of believers. When I was reading through Mark I saw how Jesus was resurrected from the dead and was just convicted about how crazy it was that he rose from the dead and how my life would look so much different than what it does if I truly believed that truth. That there would be so much less fear of man and fear of sharing my faith, there would be less anxiety about my life and the things that are going on in the world and there would be  more joy in following Jesus knowing that He has given me all that I need through not only his death, but the power of his resurrection. The resurrection is more than enough for any believer to boldly proclaim Jesus to a lost and dying world and it is enough to give us power over sin and death and the enemy.
As I continue to go through the scriptures I could use prayer for endurance, time management, a focus on Jesus and not the work, and just the ability to do my work well. I thank you all for supporting me in all the ways that you have to get me here and I appreciate each and every one of you and your presence in my life. Again, I would love to hear from, I am not always good at seeing how you are all individually doing and would love to hear about your life, just send me a quick message on facebook or email but I want to know how you all are doing as well. Be blessed.

Travis

Reflecting on God's Faithfulness

Hello all, I just want to thank you for all of your support financially, prayerfully, and words. I really appreciate all of you and wanted to give you one last big overview of what God has done throughout my time at DTS. This will be a bit longer but this truly is my experience in a nutshell.

I flew out of Minneapolis International Airport on the morning of September 6th. I flew from Minneapolis to Chicago to Tokyo, than finally at 10:30 p.m. on the night of September 7th I arrived at the Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan. I was picked up by two of the staff and an SBS student who I became friends with through connecting with the school. There was about a 45 minute drive from the airport to the house and from there, the staff came up with me, dropped off me with my luggage and there I was, In a foreign country, in a room alone without any clue what the next 5 months had in store. I got up the next morning and there went to breakfast with a couple of the girls who had arrived already and one of the female staff. Slowly, over the next couple of days, the rest of the students filtered into the house and thus began an awkward month or so of not really knowing how to interact and learning to get past the weird first stage we all go through when we are around a bunch of people we don't know.

From the beginning, God as well as the staff began to stretch us. We spent the first week learning how to truly hear God's voice. Even in those first few lectures, God began to do a huge work in my heart that would transform how I live my life. The next week was Gospel week, which was one of my favorite weeks for two reasons. First, Gospel week really brought the Gospel, the basics of the Christian faith to another level, there was not necessarily any really new teaching, but I really got to get to hear the bare bones Gospel, the good news, the bad news, and the great news of Jesus life death and resurrection. The second thing Gospel week really did for me was to assure me of the beliefs of the base. Some YWAM schools have better theology and beliefs than others and Gospel week really showed me what this base valued.

As lecture phase progressed, God continued to work on me in so many ways and really began to mature and grow us as a school and each of us individually. During this time I learned that I was going to India for my outreach with two couples and two staff, who also ended up dating during outreach. At this time I also began to pray about the possibility of doing an SBS, School of Biblical Studies. SBS is a 9 month intensive study of the entire Bible. I began praying about it shortly after I got into DTS, but every time I would pray about SBS, God was telling me I had other things to deal with first.

Towards the end of the first month we had a man named Garth come in to speak to us about the Character and Nature of God. This week had a greater impact on me than any other week of lecture phase. He talked about the character and nature of God with the analogy of two legs. God's character includes things like His love, patience, kindness, and joy, areas of God that we can pursue and be like Him in. God's nature is  things like God being all-powerful and all-knowing. He used the legs as an example to say His character shows us He is good enough, and His nature is that He is big enough. God has been teaching me that since Garth's talk. God has been using that teaching and that truth to transform my life and change the way I live and what I believe about God and about who I am in Him. He has used it to break fear in my walk, to show me who I am as a child of God, and to get me through difficult situations. I continued to learn and grow during lecture phase. I had many opportunities to minister to people who were not believers as well as encourage others in Taiwan who were already followers of Jesus.

Later on in the school I continued to pray about what I should do next, if I should go home and work and pay off my loans from college, or if I should stay in Taiwan and do SBS. Thus began the adventure of seeking God and listening for His answer on what He wanted me to do. The first time I really took time out to seek God on it I went up the mountain to pray and didn't get much the whole time I was on the mountain. As I was walking back to the house though, I really felt like God just spoke to me what I needed to do was do what glorified Him. Of course, immediately I thought I knew what He meant, although, that didn't last long. A couple of weeks later, I was down by the river having some time to myself and praying. Again, I prayed about SBS and didn't get anything while I was praying, but on the way back again, God spoke to me, "it's your choice." It wasn't until I was talking to my friend Folker, an SBS student from South Africa that I realized that the reason God said it was my choice was not to do whatever I wanted, but to make a decision that would glorifiy Him. Again, I assumed I knew what I was supposed to do and jumped straight to the conclusion that I was supposed to do it. Again, I realized I had jumped to conclusions after talking Collin, the SBS staff who taught Gospel week. His concern was my loans and that I have a responsibility as a Christian to get my loans paid off. I met with another staff later that week, Scott, and He really gave me good and Godly counsel on my options. Either, go home and pay loans now and try to do SBS after they were paid, or do SBS in March to get grounded more in my walk with Jesus,  then go home and pay off my loans afterward. I was really encouraged by Scott's assurance that God was going to speak to me and make it clear what He wanted me to do. I had two good options and this time I was able to really wait on God to give me the answer. As I went to India I continued to seek God's heart for my next step in life. In that time God made it clear through a number of different things that He wanted me to do SBS.  There were three things that God really spoke to me to make me believe this was what He wanted. The time in my life really is now to do it, I don't know where I will be in a few years from now. I was also really convicted by the realization that I needed to become more grounded in my walk before going home and staying long term. One other thing that really hit me was that I have a lot of false views about who God is and the sooner those false images of God can be broken the better.

The rest of the India portion of outreach, God really continued to work in me as an individual and to grow us together as a team. There were some hitches in the ride, but, it was clear that God was at work. God continued to break fear in my heart, to teach me what it is to walk in wisdom, what it really means to rely on Him and see our need for Him, and to truly take delight in who He is. We had the opportunity to teach in churches and house churches, one was persecuted financially for being Christians. We had multiple opportunities to do skits and share the Gospel at schools in India. We also took a trip on a sketchy train to go to spend time with a Hindu family and share the Gospel with them and others in the jungle of India. While we were in the jungle we got to take a short trip into the jungle to go to the border of Bhutan a nation closed off to the Gospel.

After the India portion of outreach we went back to Taiwan and had the opportunity to serve at a Christian English coffee shop, teach in an elementary school and help out physically with anything they needed help with. During our time there, we also had the opportunity to do a drama called the lifehouse everything skit. If you have not seen it, there are great videos of it on youtube. We returned to Danshui, debriefed, and graduated. Graduation was an awesome experience but also sad knowing I would not see some of these people again after I left Taiwan.

I am now finished with DTS but I am not finished with my time in Taiwan after seeing so much growth and a season of God doing great things. I am back in Taiwan and DTS graduation is over. I ask you all to pray about supporting me during SBS as well. I need lots of prayer as well as both one time gifts and monthly supporters to make it happen for about ten months. If you feel lead to support me I am leaving you with an address to send the support to and a way to contact me. To mail support to me, the address is 805 12th St. SE, Watford City, ND 58854 and can be written out to me personally. I would also love to meet up with you to talk about all I have experienced through DTS and share with you my heart for Taiwan and just more of why I really feel God has called me back. I am also very excited to hear about all that has happened in the lives of you while I was gone. You are very appreciated and loved and thank you for your partnership up until now and your continued partnership.

In His Service
Travis