The Ethiopia Trip
It’s been a while since I’ve posted about my latest adventures and I’ve barely written about the thing that has been keeping me the most busy. I’ve been contemplating for almost a year now traveling with my friend John Gross to Ethiopia to begin the ground work for some strategic missions work there. Our specific goal is to build relationships with believers in Ethiopia and lay the groundwork for an orphanage there. Up until about two months ago it didn’t even seem like I would be able to go on the trip, so talking about it seemed premature. When everything did come together it became obvious that we had to move quickly to get everything done.
So now, in less than three weeks, a team of four of us from our house church along with John, Gizaw, and three others from Kansas City will be venturing to Ethiopia to see what the Lord would do when we show up. We would very much appreciate any prayer support we could get. Also, if you’re heart is moved to give towards the cause, we would love that as well. You can check out more details here if you’d like more information.
Because the time is short, if you decide to pray or give, leave a message in the comment section so I can connect with you somehow. Prayer is especially needed and we are quickly working on an effective way to organize our prayer support. Thanks to all of you who have become an amazing form of support to Christy and I.
We love you.
Travis
Related Posts:
When An Ethiopian Comes To Your House Church
Thoughts On The Death of George Tiller
Today’s installment of “Blogs I Wish I Wrote” features a post from Randy Bohlender. Randy, better than anyone I read or know of is qualified to speak on behalf of the pro-life movement about what happened to Dr. George Tiller. Randy is an advocate for the unborn, a practitioner of adoption, and a voice for redemption in the fight for the rights of unborn children.
It comes as no surprise then that everything that I and many other pro-lifers were subconsciously chewing on, he has articulated extremely well in his latest posts. The death of Tiller was in no way a victory for our movement, just another opportunity for gross misunderstanding on all sides. Randy’s post takes us beyond just the sad death of this doctor and looks at the struggle that has brought us here. I would encourage you to read his post on the subject here and take a look at some of the follow up thoughts here.
Deep Thought While Watching Star Trek
My wife and I went and watched the latest Star Trek movie last night, not because we’re “Trekkies” but because we thought J. J. Abrams would do an amazing job. The movie was good and J. J. Abrams did not disappoint.
But while I was sitting there I had a thought that I think would be helpful to share. It’s hard to deny the impact that Star Trek has had on us as a society. If you scour the internet there will be no end of articles about how the technology we “saw” in Star Trek has become what we use. This article has a great summary of some surprising ways Star Trek changed what we do.
But what struck me was how much the ideology of Star Trek has become part of our society, even more than the technology. We shouldn’t forget that the point of Gene Rodenberry‘s show was to show humanity working together beyond their boundaries to better mankind. This is why Star Trek was the first T.V. show to have an interracial kiss and why all the members of the Enterprise are from distinctly different nationalities. Rodenberry also intentionally created a world where human beings had stopped believing in anything beyond science. His depicition, no matter how comical at times, has very subtley shaped society.
So here’s my deep thought: This man created a vision of the future and sold it to the Earth in such a way that we have begun to build towards it. How should our vision of the end of the Age and the Kingdom of God change the way we live in society now? How shoud it cause us to live our lives differently?
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 