Belgium Trip update: breakfast and such

I talked with Cassi a few times today. We Skype'd at our small group today, so we got to see each other too. The entire team is exhausted. Cassi had a waffle for breakfast and pizza for lunch/dinner. They are most likely sleeping right now and will be up around 9 am Brussels time. That is 2 am central. This is one of many little chocolate shops around their hotel and surrounding area. Godiva is Belgian.

34,000 feet and steady

Cassi and the team going to Belgium are currently cruising at 34,000 feet above the Atlantic ocean. They have been on this leg of the flight for 5 hours and 36 minutes. Cassi snapped a few photos of the team as they loaded the plane. Unfortunately there are none of her, but here is the team. Jordan, the girl in the bottom picture, is going to be Cassi's roomate this trip.

Peace

Bryan and I

Last day together for a week. Headed to Belgium tomorrow.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Greater Than Us All...going, going, GONE!!!

Ok y'all. For those of you who have not heard, the Daniel Doss Band is an independent artist again. We are no longer on EMI/Sparrow. That being said, we have purchased every copy that the EMI warehouse had left. It was only a couple thousand. If you will ever want one, or another copy of it you need to let us know soon. Once they are gone they are gone.

One cool thing about being independent is that we are working on a record that will have our stamp on it. Complete artistic license again, but with better knowledge than before. There are some great new songs that are going to be coming out. We plan on recording the album this fall. There is not a release date yet, but it would be late this year or early next year.

Go to http://www.danieldossband.com/ or let me know if you want a Greater Than Us All CD.

Team Belgium Partners

We have added the blogs of the other families traveling with us to Belgium from LifePoint. You can find it in the column to the right. See what they are up too as we go along.



They are:
Kyle and Amy Goen and family
Dan and Elizabeth Christensen
David and Angie Ebensberger and family
Rob and Cynthi Law and family
and us


Peace

Belgium Update #6: Introducing...

Today the Belgium and Thailand teams were brought up in front of the church for a formal introduction. The two teams took up the front of the stage. There are quite a few of us being sent. Once the video is up of this service you can see the introductions here. There is 1 song and some baptisms. We are directly after the baptisms.

The purpose of the introductions was to let the church who is going overseas to represent LifePoint. It was also to explain that we are vocational missionaries and need support in many ways including funding. It is estimated that a married couple like Cassi and I will need to raise $4900 per month to survive. It is very expensive. Our Bangkok, Thailand counterparts will need about $1500 per month to survive. As you can see, it is very expensive to live in Brussels.

Cassi and I are very thankful of those who have already stepped up to make a commitment to partner with our ministry. For those who received a letter from us already. Please pray about your role in this. For those who have not yet been contacted, you are free to contact us if we don't get to you soon enough or at all. We have a lot on our plate and are trying to keep all the things going that we need to.

Today was another baby step. How many are left? 1500? 2000? Who knows. We keep plugging away though.

We had some great conversations with some people today who are wanting to make more of a commitment to reaching out with their faith. That is exciting! I can't really go in to much detail, but "stuff is stirring".

Peace

Blog #100: I want to Change - by Russ and Tori Taff

This song/prayer is perfect for the 100th blog! It is from Russ Taff's 1983 Walls of Glass album.

Lord, You know my past
How the many things of life have molded me
The years have brought so many things from examples I have seen
Some good, some bad -- they're all a part of me
So I see my selfish motives and my inconsistencies
And block upon block, the wall was built complete
Lord, please come and break the wall down
And show this captive heart how to be free

(Chorus)
I want to be like You
I want to change
And not be trapped in the paths my life has set for me
I want to be like You
Please help me change
Into what I was meant to be
Until all I can clearly see
Is the loving reflection of You in me

Teach me to forgive
Letting go of hurts I hide behind
Replacing all the things in me that I've buried deep inside
Till Your healing love brings all of them to light
Let my life be an example of what true life can be
When it's given like a gift to those who need
Please come and take control, Lord,
Of this yielding, willing soul and live through me

(Chorus)

This album is on iTunes. I suggest you get it if you like or miss soulful worship music. Man we gotta get churches doing this stuff again. Church soul is my favorite! These lyrics are great for prayer and reflection too. I downloaded this album a few weeks ago. I wish I was playing in church back then. We gotta bring it back. Who's comin' with me?

Peace

Brussels update #5: Introductions and cleaning

This Sunday our pastor, Pat Hood, is introducing the families that were placed on the Belgium and Thailand teams. I think there are 10-12 families total. This will be a chance for LifePoint to see who is going overseas to start the first international campuses for LifePoint. This is a week to show your support for these families if you are a "Life-er". Just another step in the process.

Cassi and I and getting our house ready to put on the market. We have some interest already and are pursuing that. We have been doing the typical cleaning and such that it takes to get a house ready to show. I guess we are about 35% there. It is so much work. Cassi's family is coming in this weekend to help get the house ready. They are going to help clean the baseboards, floors, walls, concrete, etc. That is a huge help!

It is getting closer. One week at a time.

Peace

I Need a Good Interpretation

I have a theological question. There are people out there that have more knowledge of what I am about to ask, than I do.

In John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." When he referred to those 3 things (way, truth, and life) was that an allusion to the trinity; the 3 parts of the one God? Father, Son, and Spirit? In verse 10 Jesus answers Phillip and outright says that He, Himself, is the Father and the Son. The Father lives in Him, and He in the Father. Verse 17 and 18 might suggest that the Spirit is in Him too.

So I wonder if it is possible that it is like this:
Way = Jesus
Truth = Father
Life = Spirit
All 3 = I Am

All of these parts are one? I do think that there is support even in this passage that it might not be the case. I am just wondering if there is something more to the words Jesus chose here. The way. The truth. The life.

I probably made a jump here in the theology, but it all started when I started wondering why Jesus used those 3 specific words and started it with "I Am". That is how God referred to Himself in Genesis when Moses was to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of captivity.

Screwing things up one verse at a time.
Peace!

Why Belgium?

In the country of Belgium 90 percent of Belgians claim Catholicism, but almost none regularly attend any kind of religious service. In fact, less than 1 percent of the people in Belgium are practicing Christians. LESS THAN 1%. The Muslim faith is the fastest growing faith in Europe. If you have watched the news recently you probably have seen European politicians begging America to not go down the same roads they did. They see us making the same mistakes. In a trip Bryan made to England and Greece in 2005, he noticed very different fashion styles. Over the next 2 years those styles crept in to pop culture in America. What happens in Europe does not stay in Europe. It eventually gets shipped to America. This goes for fashion, politics, and religion. This post-Christian society needs to hear of God’s love so that cultural and religious exports to America are once again biblically based.

Brussels, Belgium is the heart of the European Union. People are constantly coming and going in Brussels. We NEED to reach these people to help turn Europe around. They need to understand what a personal relationship with a real God looks like.This mission cannot be accomplished alone by us and the four other families that are being sent. It will take a host of families stateside to make this possible. If you feel like God is tugging at you to join in this ministry please contact us. Several friends have joined already and we thank you guys so much! We will keep you all regularly updated.

We had our second small group meeting yesterday and I cannot fully express how excited I am about the team God has assembled for us to work with during this mission. It is truly a group of Christ followers driven to make God famous in Europe.

I want to ask all of you reading this to pray for us in the coming weeks. I and 6 other Team members will be flying to Brussels, Belgium later this month. Please pray for God to guide our steps while we are there and please pray that the Belgian people will have open hearts and minds. This is mainly a vision trip to scout out possible areas to plant the church, meet with and possibly witness to some college students, look at potential places for us to live, and plan plan plan.

When we first started feeling like God was calling us to the country of Belgium I could not wrap my brain around it all. With everyday that passes the urge to get over there and start working for Him is more overwhelming. I now know why God is assembling this team he is making it clear to us the need for Christianity in all of Europe. This is something we are very passionate about! If you have any questions please feel free to ask. We have had about a million questions ourselves since starting this process in early May. If we cannot answer them we will get the answer. I am attaching a video that shows part of the importance of having a presence and sharing God's word to a lost country. They deserve to feel the love a church family can provide, and we are stepping up to the plate. Please take a few minutes and watch the video. It blew my mind.

Au revior.

Cassi Wolski

Brussels Update 4: Find a partner

Today was great. Our first small group meeting with Team Brussels happened today. Twenty of us convened at the Goen's. Our pastor, Pat Hood, stopped by to give the LifePoint vision. You know, "straight from the horse's mouth." We had our first worship session with the Ebensberger's at the helm. Fittingly, our first song was How Great is Our God sung in French.

Also, we now have been given the green light to start finding our ministry partners. The team is pretty much firmed up and we are to be contacting people to partner with us to make this mission a reality. Cassi and I have already heard from a handful of you that want to partner with us. We want to thank you so much for that. We will be contacting you soon to work out the details of what that looks like.

Our first official ministry partners are Jon and Joy Wolski. Jon works as a web developer for a national ministry and had some great ideas in our brainstorm meeting tonight. They are going to help us integrate the technology part of what we do. It is said that the number one reason that ministry partners quit giving support is for lack of information on what is going on in the ministry. We talked about ways to keep people plugged in and to have transparency on what we are doing. We will be trying out new ideas to implement soon. We will also probably go to a dedicated domain for the mission work. This particular blog will most likely have a new URL in the near future.

Cassi's next blog will be on why we are going to Belgium specifically and what needs to be accomplished there.

Things are happening. Hop on board and hang on.

Peace.

P.S. I hijacked the picture from Women of Grace. They own it, not me.