Setting Out

Tomorrow, Brian and I leave for Portugal (Christine and Linda come the next day). We're going to Portugal to Trekk a group of church planters with an organization called Christian Associates International.

We'll be in Lisbon, Ericeira, Sintra and Cascais.

the purpose of this VT is to help these folks better understand how they can create high impact teams as they do their work in Europe creating Christ based communities.

More will come in the following days so stay tuned!

There and back again...

Know... Go... Grow.

We got back to Bethel around 1:00 a.m. on Sunday the 30th. It was a LONG 17 hour van ride. As we were making our way down from the mountain, we were greeted by a two hour delay as the vans couldn't make it up this one section of the ever so narrow road. After much help, we made it. The metaphor for life is that sometimes there is something so simple, so small, yet for whatever reason we cannot get ourselves over that little bump (or in this case a foot of snow and ice) in the road. That's when we need others, with their unique strengths and gifts (in this case a 4 wheel drive vehicle with snow chains and a tow rope), to help. That's how God has designed us. To live our lives in such a way so as to compliment each others gifting.

It's hard to summarize a trip of such magnitude as this. One where we (all of us, not just the students), were challenged to take a deeper look at ourselves and who God has created us to be. Then, to not just sit on that, but Go with the courage to be who we can be, understanding that it will be a lifelong process of Growth as we continue to take leaps of faith.

This picture sums it up.

Stay posted for the next Vision Trekk experience.

Day 5...

Today was our final day of "content". We discussed our APEST results which asks us to GO somewhere and engage theses things we know of ourselves. APEST isn't designed to give you a specific set of job descriptions, but instead identifies an arena where we feel most at home being agents of influence. To illustrate this, we asked the Trekkers to design the next Vision Trekk! more details to come...

Day 4...

Today we learned about personality type using the MBTI assessment. We had a very spirited discussion around the 4 different preferences. It was fun watching the students come alive around the way God has wired them. This afternoon we set out to build snow shelters. IT WAS A TON OF FUN! 2 were successful and one not so much, but we learned a lot about how we engage the world through the process. The picture above is Grace, Tim, Neenah, Stephen's "Quinhzee". It was geat!

Day 3...

Today we learned about Strenghts and how to apply them. We were taught some orienteering skills, then sent out on a 3 mile course to find as many stations as we could. it was a blast! Mark, Chin-Chin, Jenna, Deandra and Dan's group won finding all 10 waypoints. they worked together amazingly, utilizing each strength in a positive, productive way!

Day 2

Sorry for not having a picture today... we spent the morning talking about the Character Matrix-those things tha have the potential to cause us our greatest harm if not dealt with. Greed, Pride and Foolishness. The beautiful is that at the end of each of those streams lies our greatest charactelogical assest as well. Generosity, Courage and Wisdon. THE afternoon was a character exercise where we hauled trees out of he woods to chop and stack. the students had an amazing attitude during the whole thing and watching their ability to work together was increadible.

Day One...

What a day! We talked about the incarnational missional way of life this morning... ask for an explanation when we get home. Then we snowshoed to the top of Chestnut Ridge (see picture). Amazing to see everyone callenged and pushed beyond what they thought they could do. Coming down was the best! Leaping headlong into 5 ft snow while decending was truly exhilirating! Everyone has bonded suprisingly fast and getting along famously.