Let it snow; let it snow; let it snow...

Over the last 8 days the Travis family has seen more snow than ever before in our lifetimes. (well, besides vacation spots) The heavens have simply opened up and dropped inches and inches of beautiful white, dry, fluffy powder. It has been a treat to play in it and allow the Father to endear our hearts to our new home. It is interesting how something so "simple" as weather can remind us of how amazing our God is! In Central Asian culture, it is believed that if you get cold you will become ill. Interestingly enough, from my widows this week I have watched so many people leaving their houses layered-up and bundled for Arctic weather stop and look around them to see if anyone is looking and then take a quick handful of the cold delight and throw it at something. Playing in the snow allows even the most "proper" and "dignified" of people to remember the gaiety of their childhood and feel the purity of creation. I am reminded of the hymn, "In His Time". I love the words to this song: IN HIS TIME, IN HIS TIME; HE MAKES ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL IN HIS TIME; LORD, PLEASE SHOW ME EVERYDAY; AS YOU'RE TEACHING ME YOUR WAY; AND I'LL DO JUST WHAT YOU SAY; IN YOUR TIME. (Verse 2) IN YOUR TIME, IN YOUR TIME; YOU MAKE ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL; IN YOUR TIME; LORD, MY LIFE TO YOU I BRING; MAY EACH SONG I HAVE TO SING; BE TO YOU A LOVELY THING; IN YOUR TIME. Lord, I am asking you today just like the white snow has made everything beautiful that you will bring us to love this new city. Change our hearts to be as pure as the snow in our service and witness to those around us. May the life that we bring to you be a lovely thing in your time. AT

The 12:1 Adventure continues...

As stated in my last post, if you are interested in getting other sources of our family updates you are welcome to email us. I go into more details on our moves and other specifics. I know it seems like I keep posting about moving...well, it's because we have now lived in 6 different homes since January of 2009. In that regard, it has been a crazy journey so far! Recently, in my daily "read through the Bible" assignment, I came again to Genesis chapter 12. This chapter is, of course, special to our family because 12:1 is the promised verse that the Father gave to us when He called us to this adventure. Over the course of our early years of marriage the Father gave us several 12:1 verses from scripture that allowed us direction and encouragement. (At the beginning of our 12th year of marriage He finally sent us overseas....crazy right! God's timing is amazing.) I love how He speaks to us through His Word. As I was reading the Genesis passages again, I was struck by something new. In 12:6-9 it talks about how on Abraham's journey to find the place the Lord wanted him to settle he actually, "passed though" the land, "proceeded from their" and then "journeyed on". Well, that seems like a strange way to "arrive" at a destination. I love our new TomTom GPS. You type in where you want to go; you follow the directions; then in short time you hear the words, "you have arrived at your destination." If you do not follow the directions specifically, you hear, "when possible make a U-turn". In the Genesis account, the Lord tells Abraham, "this is going to be your land"; so Abraham builds an altar. I'm guessing that at that time, even though it is not recorded, that the Lord says something like, "there is a famine and the Canaanites are powerful right now, so you can't stay in the land I have promised". Abraham has to then go into Egypt. In the next few verses, the Bible only records the part of Abraham being fearful and lying about Sarah being his sister, but later in chapter 13 we see a comparison of the promised land to Egypt. God had reasons for Abraham traveling to Egypt...not just to escape the famine. God did not say, "Do a U-turn when possible"; nor does the Bible record God saying, "in 200 meters you will need to do a right turn"; "you have 5 minutes until you reach your destination." TomTom is always so good about that! AND YET our God is even better to us than TomTom. God could have kept Abraham in Ur...waited a few more years to call him if he wanted to simply take him directly to the new land, but we see Abraham moving around quite a bit in the process of settling into his "new land". In this moving and journeying process God was teaching Abraham to trust and depend on Him. SOOOO, I guess you might see where I am going with this. I am VERRRRRYYY hesitant to suggest that we have "arrived" at the "land" the Lord has promised us, because that has not been revealed to us; however, we can look back on the adventure thus far and see why the Lord had us journey through different cities. We are learning step-by-step to trust and to depend on Him. Our prayer is that we are allowed to now put down a few roots and see the multiplication of our family and the family of God, but we know that HIS ways are perfect so we are simply remaining faithful to the call. AT

He cares for the birds of the air...

As many of you already know, our family is in transition again. If you don't receive our monthly prayer emails or quarterly "snail-mail" letters, and would like to, please send us your addresses. To briefly catch someone up, Matt has taken a job based out of London. After much prayer, we have decided to move to Istanbul, Turkey to make travel and the job overall more "do-able" for the family. The kids and I have spent this first week of the new year looking for a new apartment while Matt is training in England. One day this week, after a rather exhausting fruitless day, we decided to take a stroll through a park. While I was sitting on a bench (feeling rather sorry for myself and beginning to grumble!), I noticed a very bright green bird in a tree. Startled, I asked another woman at the park if she knew anything about birds. To my surprise, she said that actually she loves to come to this particular park because she is almost always sure to spy wild parrots. According to her, a truck load of tropical birds over 10 years ago were being transported to Istanbul's botanical gardens when they escaped. (I later confirmed the report with this article http://www.todayszaman.com/news-191234-wouldnt-you-like-to-discover-istanbuls-secret-garden.html.) I found this very interesting. The birds do find refuge at the botanical gardens, but they have also settled all over the city. Why did the birds not try to travel back to their homeland? The climate has to get downright miserable for them, and they surly have had to make adjustments to their eating and other natural habits. In my moment of pondering, the Holy Spirit pulled from my memory the verse that says, "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" (Matt. 6:26) Yes, yes I am more more valuable in God's eyes! What an encouragement!! no, NOOOO I do not want to move again. I do not want to "settle" again. I do not want to adjust to new foods and new weather. However, I know in my heart that God has an amazing plan, and I truly desire to be used by HIM. I guess that if a simple creature like a bird can trust God to provide, I can as well. Do I imagine that it will be easy? - NO, but here we go again off on a new road to this adventure! Father, help me remain humble, teachable and useable for your glory!! AT

The Christmas Tree

One of the things that I love about teaching my kids at home is that I am learning so much alongside them. I was never really that interested in history & science when I was in school. I can list a whole host of reasons why, but then I would just be shifting blame and complaining. I think it is better to say that as years come and go, I believe that my tastes in many things have evolved. I have had to read many different types of books for work and for the kids. I believe it has stretched me in so many good ways. In the past, I took what people said about things that happened in history as fact. I had not researched it for myself and was not interested in doing so. If it sounded believable, I let it pass as truth. I know that was a big mistake on many levels! One of those subjects that I let this occur in was the history of the Christmas tree. I had been told that the decorating of Christmas trees was really a pagan practice meant to worship tree spirits. Christians tried to justify participating in this practice by changing some of the ornaments to represent Christ. Over the years, I have allowed this wrong information to rob me of some of the joy of the season. I am so thankful that this year in the study of the early Church I have learned the truth. I am going to briefly outline what I learned: Winfrid, better known as St. Boniface, was an Anglo-Saxon Englishman in the early 700s. His first assignment as an ordained priest was to the pagans of Freisland, Germany. Sadly, his first experience on the mission field was unsuccessful and discouraging. However, the Father sent him again to Germany...this time to Hesse. It was very common for the people of Hesse to worship trees and other things in nature. As it is recorded, one day, Boniface was traveling through the woods and came upon a group of people ready to sacrifice a young prince to the "gods" of a massive (6 foot across) oak tree. Boniface "intervened" it says to rescue the prince. He cut down the tree. He is quoted as saying, "How stands your mighty god? My God is stronger than he." Now that he finally had the attention of the people of Hesse, he began using the example of a fir tree (evergreen), common in the area, to share of the one true God and His everlasting love for them. Slowly the symbol of the evergreen tree and God's gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ began to move through Europe and eventually to the Americas. Now, I challenge you not to take my word for it! Research it for yourself and enjoy your celebration of the Gift of Christ!! For the first time this year, I am looking at our tree in a whole new light. I am also looking for opportunities to share the everlasting love of Christ. AT Pictures: This is how we are remembering the Christmas tree and participating in "Advent" this year. The kids made chocolate Christmas Trees. They get to eat one chocolate per day.

Not Pictured: We are still lighting our Advent candles each Sunday and reflecting on the coming of Christ as well as reading a "Christmas Book" each night. (click here to read more about these traditions)

Our Thankful Month 2011

Just as in the past 2 years, we spent the entire month of November reflecting and giving thanks for the blessings the Lord has bestowed on us. This year, instead of a "tree", we decided to create a "Thankful Book". It was always interesting each day to see what the kids would write. Some days, it was the simple things like fresh water and electricity that they chose to remember. While other days, they wrote things like salvation, family and true friends. It is fun to look at the finished book. I am amazed at how the simple act of praising the Father can really get our minds and hearts ready for the holiday season. The holiday suddenly really does become about HIM. May you enjoy a wonderful month celebrating the precious gift of Christ. AT

Sorry, no deep thoughts for the month. I have list a few of my Thanksgiving blogs from years past if you are interested. Thanksgiving 2010 Click Here; Seated at His Table; What am I hungry for?; Chew on This

Becoming a Pastry Baker!!

Upon moving into a new neighborhood, I met “Arnold,” a pastry baker. I was looking for a cooking supply needed by Amy. I was surprised to find him extremely open to a friendship even after only a couple of conversations. Over the next few months, I found myself having tea with Arnold once or twice a week. Sometimes I would stop by and talk to him while he worked in his pastry shop, but as hard as I worked to move the conversation toward faith-based conversations, he worked just as hard to move it away. After spending more than a year visiting, Arnold said that he wanted to teach me how to make the pastries that are his passion. I agreed and thought that I was in for a fun morning. After a day of mixing, kneading, rolling, making and baking, I had learned a small portion of what Arnold wanted to teach me. He asked if I could come back the next day so that we could really get to the “important” stuff. My mind was reeling as I mentally reviewed everything on my to-do list that would have to be shuffled if I spent another day at the bakery. A couple of hours into day two of my “training” as a baker, Arnold turned to me and asked what I believed about the end of the world. We talked for two hours about what each of us believed, how they were similar, and more importantly how they differed. The work in Central Asia is slow. We are often tempted to make judgments of an individual’s receptiveness to the Good News based on a handful of interactions. Arnold, like many others, just needed to determine if I was willing to stick with him whether he believed or not. Arnold has not come to faith…yet. However, he is asking questions that allow for the Truth to be shared with boldness and unwavering truthfulness.
It took a year to start spiritual conversations, but it was worth the wait! MT

Fall Karate

I feel blessed to have the privilege of living overseas with children. Having children opens so many doors to meet neighbors and other members of the community. I believe locals find me as a foreigner more approachable because of our common position as wives and mothers. Currently, my children (ages 10 & 8) are participating in a local sports club. They love the opportunity to exert some energy and make friends, and I am enjoying the fellowship of local women.
Over the course of a month, I noticed an elderly woman from time to time waiting with the other parents. She sat withdrawn from the other waiting moms, and she never joined in the chatter and fellowship. Truth be told, she has a very sad and somewhat mysterious presence about her.
One Saturday, as the Lord would have it, she entered the club and decided to sit on the bench right next to me. I began small talk with her and even shared a plate of cookies passed-out by the staff. After about an hour, she asked me to point out my children. I thought it was pretty obvious, but continued pleasantries by indicating which two belonged to me. She then very gravely informed me that several weeks ago she felt compelled to put a hex on my children. Her reasoning was: “so that their foreign souls would not harm her grandson, and so that they would not succeed and do better than her grandson in karate.” It is very common for women of all cultures to deal with jealousy; however it seems to be much heightened in this society. It is also just as common for women in Central Asian culture to dabble in folk religious practices. However, I must say that my initial response was shock. Thankfully, the Lord gave me His words to share. I basically shared with her that my family loves her and her grandson. We intend her no harm. I also explained to her that my husband and I pray in the name of Jesus over and for our children daily. Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord over all. Nothing happens without His permission. At that point, her face changed from the grave sadness to a strange grin, and she replied, "We know of Him and He is greatest over all."
I cannot quite wrap my mind and hands around what might be going on in this woman’s life, but I do know that the Father desires her heart and fully desires that she proclaim Him Lord of all. I am praying that the Lord gives me more opportunities to share truth with her as well as the other moms. One meeting at a time...AT