THE JOURNEY SO FAR


Our Jan/Feb prayer update

Ruth and I are now in Birmingham, Alabama. We still have our Colorado cell phones (Cingular). E-mail us if you'd like the number. We'd love to meet with as many of you as we can fit in during the next couple of months. In addition to our Alabama churches, we'll be traveling to North Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana for church conferences on the weekends. Mid-week, however, our schedules are more flexible.

As you may know, we traveled to Germany for meetings the first couple of weeks of January. It was so good to reconnect with fellow missionaries to plan and pray for the coming year. Out of that visit two very significant decisions were made.

First of all, we at CreativeWorks decided to launch a new Europe-wide ministry that for the moment is being referred to as GEM Media. The ministry differs from CreativeWorks in that its primary focus is producing professional media FOR churches and for promoting GEM's ministries in North America. Because of the concentration on production rather than training and mentoring churches in creative ministry, we felt it best to make it a separate ministry from CreativeWorks. Jim Meyer whose background as an advertising art director for companies like Wendy's and Kellogg’s has been asked to direct this new ministry.

Secondly, we (GEM and CW leadership) have decided that CreativeWorks will be relocated to Dublin, Ireland, after seven years in the Black Forest area of Germany. Our focus remains to help churches across Europe to leverage creativity in ministry. We believe this new location will also prove invaluable for influencing the growing movement of church planting in Ireland while deepening our ability to influence church planting Europe-wide. My relationship with leaders in Ireland over the past 14 years has opened opportunities for partnership with Church Planting Resources, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, Operation Mobilization and opened up a chance for me to train new leaders at the Irish Bible Institute.

Ruth is applying to a masters program in European Studies at University College Dublin to strengthen her skills as research coordinator for GEM with the hopes of doing the one-year program this year or next. She is also busy collecting data for an update on the European Believers Report she hopes to release later this year. You can read her publication, “The Ambassador's Briefing,” to find out how social trends are affecting ministry in Europe. http://www.gemission.org/News/AmbassadorsBriefing.asp

Please pray for our financial support. We need several hundred dollars of new or increased support before we are allowed to return to Europe. Also, we will need some additional funds for our moving costs from Germany to Ireland. Thank you for the part you play in making our ministry possible.

Finally, pray for our housing needs. We must find renters for our home in Germany to afford rental prices for a small apartment in Dublin. (Modest 2-bedroom apartments go for $1500-$2000 per month.) Trust him with us to meet that need.

Serving the Lord with you,
Durand and Ruth Robinson

Meanwhile in Germany...



We arrived a few hours ago after a flight that took us from Birmingham to Chicago, then Washington and on to Zurich. In Washington, we met up with Bob Till and the three of us flew together. My good buddy Jim Meyer was there to drive us to our place.

After a catnap and a sandwich it was off to a meeting in the GEM office, Muellheim. We had a great time of catching up with all the Europe Wide ministry leaders, sharing stories, concerns and praying for our work together. (I prayed with my eyes OPEN, since jet lag is setting in.)

Anyway, we'll be here for a few days. Pray for discussions about the coming year, defining new projects, roles and the like.

By the way, I thought you'd like to see the latest video produced for GEM's EuroTeam. I've included it above.

Durand

We're in Birmingham (for a couple of days)!

After two 11 hour days and one short 3 hour drive on day three we arrived safely in Birmingham. For three hours we drove across eastern Colorado toward Kansas on what can only be described as a skating rink. Deep blue ice, compacted and smooth, covered much of the road. Equally disconcerting were the dozens of wrecks lying along the highway. Cars rolled and burned out. Recreational vehicles with on their backs with wheels facing skyward. A jack-knifed tanker truck and countless cars, trucks and SUV's stranded in snowbanks with nothing to do but wait for a tow truck.

Thankfully, shortly after the Kansas line, the ice disappeared. And by the time we made it to Salina, Kansas the snow left as well. We'd not heard about the avalanches that day that took the lives of some traveling through Colorado, but many of our friends who knew our travel plans did. The rest of the trip saw a bit of precipitation, but nothing significant.

We're in a "missionary" apartment in the basement of one of the church members from Shades Mountain Bible Church. Nice to have a place to land. But we'll be here only until Thursday AM, when we head to Germany for a series of meetings. I will be in strategic planning meetings for CreativeWorks while Ruth meets with the Europe Council. Then we'll attend the Director's conference for all GEM's ministries before heading back to the States and several months of missions conferences around the southeast.

Pray for stamina, good travel connections, and wisdom.

Durand

New feature on "The Journey So Far"

If you'd like to receive a simple email when a new post appears on this blog, simply click the top right tab above called "Email Notification". Your email program will open and you can simply send the note back to us saying that you want to be notified when we update the website every week or so.

Simple as that. Oh, and don't forget to tell others about the site with the "Tell a Friend" tab right next to it.

Durand

On the concept of home...



For many people home is a place. For me lately, it feels more like a concept.

As we get ready to move from Denver to Birmingham, it gets tougher to feel like we're really at rest. Our apartment has been great here. We've had all our kids in and out of it the past six months. But our kids are all headed back into their lives as students. Our "home" used to be where they were.

My parents and two of my siblings live in Birmingham. We arrive there on Monday to stay in a guest apartment for six months. We used to call Birmingham "home" too and will be again for the next little while.

But the following weekend we'll actually be in Germany in the house we own, sleeping in our very own beds for several days during leadership meetings. That's "home" as well. We've actually pared down the requirements necessary to call a place "home". Now it's knowing where the light switches are in the dark. (Just kidding.)

It's not like we're unfamiliar with moving. I wouldn't even want to know how many places we've lived in the past. But the reassuring part is that I know what my final destination will be. So I try to remind myself that I do have a home, and it's waiting for me.

I wrote this song three weeks after moving to Ireland. It reminds me that I need to live fully where I am for the time God gives me, knowing that one day, there'll be no more boxes to pack, no more new addresses to remember or goodbye's to be said.

One day I'll be home.

Durand

Concert planning

CreativeWorks is wanting to help European churches create opportunities to meet people in their communities who have not heard Gospel. Through our events we try to explain life with God in ways that most Europeans have never seen or heard.

We have three concert tours opportunities this year. We have two bands that have worked with us in Europe before aiming at concerts in Ireland (May/June) and in the regions around (August) Vienna, Austria. And we have an amazing opportunity to share with thousands of Polish citizens around Warsaw. (June)

They are all specifically linked with efforts to multiply new witnessing fellowships. The challenge is that being in the US makes it difficult for me to work out the logistics easily and efficiently.

And then there's the need for a solid band to bring to Poland, as the crowds we've been asked to play for are large- about 1000 each night. The opportunity there requires that the musicians be exceptional, and that they have experience serving in Europe.

So if you're looking for something specific to pray for these next weeks, this would be an excellent choice. Please join us in trusting God for confirmations of venues in Ireland and Austria/Czeck Republic and for a specific band to join us in Poland.

Durand




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