Support Letter for the World Race

Dear

For many years my heart has been burdened for missions.  God began working this into my heart after my first trip to Romania in 2006.  A few months after returning home, I felt God’s call to surrender completely to missions. At the time I wasn't sure what that would entail, and after a few years I believed I had lost the passion I once felt. In October of 2011, God began to reawaken that call. Last year I was able to go to the Ukraine on two separate trips. One was a work trip on a home for graduated orphans, and the other was to help host a camp for orphans. Both trips solidified my desire for missions.  This year, I was able to travel with my church (joined by my mom and brother for their first trip) to Belize and minister to other missionaries there.

I first became aware of The World Race through a friend,  and about a year later I came across a newspaper article about a young lady leaving for the Race. At that point I began researching and reading about the program, but I had to trust God’s timing for when I should go.  After another year, the World Race was again brought to my attention.  This time I began seriously praying and felt it was time for me to step out and take the leap of faith. 

The World Race is an eleven month journey around the world.  In those eleven months I, with my team, will visit eleven countries and team up with ministries already in place to reach that area for Christ. What we will be doing will look different country by country, day by day. Some days we may be in the streets ministering, hosting VBS, or working in construction. Other days may simply encompass the daily grind of grocery shopping and caring for those on my team.  Every day will be full of prayer.

So why go? Ultimately I have been asking God for a long time what I’m supposed to be doing as a twenty-something, and this is an opportunity for me to step out in the call I believe He has on my life. It is a journey to minister to the least, lost, orphans, widows, and poor.  I don’t take this call and trip lightly.  I am essentially committing two years of my life to this endeavor with the hope of making a difference for Christ and being fashioned to look more like Him. With everything surrendered to God, here I am preparing for another, very different, mission trip.

I have signed up to leave in September 2014 for eleven months. Not only will I need a lot of prayer, but I have to raise all financing for the trip.  I will need to raise $15,500 plus $764 for insurance. That is a bit overwhelming, but that’s why I am trusting God and asking if you will partner with me.  Would you consider a monthly donation?  Or even a one-time gift?  If you can help in any way it will be much appreciated.  As I have heard often (and believe) “little is much when God is in it.”  Thankfully, I don’t have to have all of the funds all at once. Here is an actual break down of my financial needs:

§  $150 Deposit - Due 11/11/2013 (2 weeks after your acceptance date.)

§  $3,500 - Due 6/28/2014 (2 weeks before Training Camp)

§  $7,500 - Due 8/18/2014 (2 weeks prior to your trip)

§  $11,000 - Due 12/1/2014 (End of 3 months on the field)

§  $15,500 + $764 (*Insurance) = $16,264 - Total Due 3/1/2015 (End of 6 months on the field)

I cannot begin to thank you enough for taking the time to read this letter, and for your prayerful consideration of helping me reach this goal God has given me.

You may feel free to contact me or check my World Race blog: http://brookeconn.theworldrace.org/.

Through Christ,

Grand Announcement or Life is About to Change...a lot

Just a few days ago I got a call that I had been praying about for a few months now.

"You've been accepted!"

What!!!!...

Okay, let me back up.

At the beginning of this month I applied for a mission trip called The World Race. I wasn't really sure what I was doing, but I knew that God was asking me to take a step of faith (remember this post?).  So I stepped out and waited to see what God would do (here).  Little did I know this is what would happen.  I was hoping but...

So as it stands now I will be leaving in September 2014 for eleven months and each month will be spent ministering in a different country.

Here is my tentative route. To learn more hit the banner above.

Haiti




Bolivia




Peru




Ecuador




Malawi




Zambia




Zimbabwe




Thailand




Malaysia




Vietnam




Cambodia

To say I'm excited is an understatement!

I am still in shock at times and yet my brain has kicked into overdrive. Yes I have a year but that's really not all that long to get ready for a whole year of travel!

I wish I could say more but time constrains me at the moment.  I will say that in the coming days I will begin blogging on the World Race site.  As soon as I get that set up I will post the link here so you can keep up with me.

For now I ask for your prayers as I start this process.  I do, as any other missionary, have to raise my own support.  This trip will cost roughly $16,000 plus the gear I will be needing. And I know there will be a lot of changes in store for me and those around me.

I cannot wait to see what God does in the coming weeks and months!

Through Chirst,

Lady B

(Brooke)

Did I?

Did I really just do that? Did I really just take a leap of faith?  

It's kind of odd to take a leap of faith and then have to wait. In a sense it feels like your just hanging out there not sure what is going to happen, but the truth is I have landed just where God wants me to- in His arms resting and waiting.  Who knows what will come of this jump.  Perhaps nothing.  Perhaps everything. Maybe it is just one step on the journey.  Maybe it's the beginning of a whole new adventure. Only God knows and it is in Him I trust!

Step of Faith

Labels

Tonight at our HeartsAlive meeting the lesson was about labels.  In counsel group we answered some questions about our own personal labels.  It was so good to, as James tells us to, confess our sins one to another. It was there I made a discovery.  I have had two main labels in my life (and probably several minor ones).
The first label, the one I struggled with for many years, was  the“good, little Christian girl” label.  For a long time I was very proud of that label but then I hated it because I knew I was not a “good, little Christian girl”.  I had sin, some secret and some not.  For me it felt as thought I had been put on a pedestal and I didn’t know how to get down. 
The second label, the one that I found freedom in, was “Adulteress”.  If you have read my recent post of my testimony you will see that this is actually one I gave myself.  When I had my encounter with Jesus this is what I realized I was.  It was in that encounter and realization that Jesus was able to change me and make me free!
My labels are a bit odd in that I struggled with the former and was freed in the latter.  Now, though, I am no longer an Adulteress nor do I ever want to be that good little Christian girl. 
Now I am a child of the One, True King., beloved of Jesus Christ!

Ever Changing

One of the neat things about giving your whole life to God is the variability.  I once heard that it was like chasing a wild goose only there is purpose with God.
One of the crazy, unexpected turns my chase has taken me on is in the form of working.  That is right, I am working, and at the same daycare.  My boss sent me a text last Thursday asking if I was interested in working permanently.  I only had that afternoon to pray about it, and pray I did.  And, well, I said yes.  So now I am working in a classroom four days a week for about three and half hours.  I love it. 
My first week has included such things as screaming kids, dirty diapers, scolding, saying no twenty dozen times and cleaning up vomit- twice.  But you know what, I love it!  
I also get to do things like soothe an upset child, read stories over and over, sing songs, listen to children's laughter, be piled with six kids wanting to sit in my lap at the same time, pat backs at nap time and laugh at the antics of toddlers.  I am a big part of theses kids’ lives and, even though they are only 1 1/2, I have a chance to help shape them.  I want to bring Christ into their lives as much as possible!
I have to say God does surprising things but I do so love “chasing the wild goose.”
Through Christ,
Lady B

My god…a confession

¹ And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. ² The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. ³ The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. ⁴ The LORD talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. ⁵ I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. He said:
⁶ ‘I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
⁷ ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.
⁸ ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; ⁹ you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, ¹⁰ but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

~Deuteronomy 5:1-10

How many times have I read those words and just moved right along saying- of course.  How many times have I told myself- You have no other god.  It is not a verse I often take into account but the other day God kind of knocked me up side the head with it.  As I read it, I was ready to move along as I always do but there was something holding me back.  So I read it again and tried to move on and still I could not.  I finally stopped and took a minute to think on those words and when I did my life was laid before me to search and I found something I did not like.  I had another god.  I had bowed down to another and had been for a very long time. 

What is this god?  My computer; namely Facebook.  Facebook is not bad but it is addicting and distracting.  I have noticed my “addiction” in the past and even taken time away from it but at the end of the week or month or whatever it is always the same. 

Facebook has consumed my life.  It has taken away my time from my family, it has reduced my communication with family and friends to mere jots on a “wall”, most of all my relationship with God has suffered to the point that I feel as though we barely ever talk.  That is a scary, horrible feeling and I do not ever want it to become a hold in my life.  I have struggled with giving it up which in turn tells me that it has become entirely too important in my life. 
Yes. I do like to keep up with my family and friends but I would rather have a deeper, more meaningful relationship with them than what I get from Facebook. 

I am ready to get away with my Bridegroom!

Striving to live the Normal Christian life!

Through Christ,

Lady B

Thoughts for This Season

1.  I have been on the defensive.  In my spiritual walk, I have waited for satan to strike and then fought back in prayer.  I realized this Thursday, when I found out Grandpa had died.  I knew him for eleven years, yet I never once fell to my knees begging God to turn his heart to Him.  Not once did I ask him if he knew Christ, and then I found out he was dying a few weeks ago.  Then I prayed; then I tried to speak to him, but was it too late?  Has satan already struck the ending blow?  Not just with Grandpa but others, I have waited and now I wait no longer.  I want to be on the offensive.  I want to be there attacking satan (with God) before he even gets the chance to choose his next target.  It will take practice but no soldier goes into battle without some training.  Sometimes the battles even make him stronger.

2.  I want a man who will cherish me.  I want a warrior-poet.  Often I dream of the warrior side as just fighting for the things of God.  Yes I do want that to be my husband’s focus, but I also want him to be my warrior.  I want a man who will stand before me, God and the world and proclaim, “I love you.  I will fight for you; I will die for you!”  And, yet I have already found the perfect One who says, “I love you.  I am fighting for you; I died for you!”

3.  I did, in fact, watch Prince Caspian tonight for the first time in two years (since the day I watched it in theater).  Honestly, it is a love-hate kind of thing.  I hate it because it does not follow the book!!!! (what can I say, I am a purist)  But I like it because, well, it is Narnia.  Just do not expect anything more from me or I might go into a rant.  (very spiritual, I know)

4.  I will get my school work done so I can get to working on my Christmas presents and other projects.

5.  I will finish cleaning my room when I wake-up.

6.  I need to stop staying up so late and implement the schedule I wrote up Friday nigh…er…Saturday morning.

7.  This Thanksgiving when you think about the first celebration, remember the tragedy those Pilgrims went through before that day.  When you see the family of four think- the husband recently lost his wife (perhaps in childbirth), the wife was widowed the previous winter and the children lost their parents to some disease.  Yet they all came together to make a family and give thanks for this new country.  A country of freedom.

Through Christ,

Lady Helen

The Close of a Season

Now, this actually does not have anything to do with the end of summer and come of autumn.  The title is because of the end of a short chapter in my life (”a time and a season for everything”).  The chapter of daycare worker. 

As I was leaving work this afternoon my boss asked to speak with me.  They had to let me go.  It was not something they wanted to do, but they need someone who can work until six in the evening.  When I first started working there we had talked about my hours (11am-4pm), and I told them I could not work until closing, because I needed to be at home to help Mama with supper and such (here is where I blush because honestly that did not always happen).  Anyway, the two hours between when I leave and closing are the roughest part of the day and when they need the most help.  They found somebody who can work those hours, everyday too, so they had to let me go. 

The worst part of it for me was not so much being fired (for lack of a better term) but that I had grown quite attached to the kids in these past few months.  I really thought I would be there for a while and watch the kids “grow up” in a sense.  I also felt like a was just getting to know the other girls and enjoying their company.  Mrs. S may call me every now and then to substitute, and I know where to find them, but it is still quite a shock.  I cried all the way home, and when I got home I went immediately to my prayer journal.

I know God knows His plans and He does not have to reveal them to me.  I know He is in control.  All I can do is seek Him and wait “in the silence until [He] come[s] and sit[s] awhile with me.”

I will leave you with this quote from Ms. Jane Porter (author of The Scottish Chiefs) that I came across just last night (what great timing!):

The mourner banquets on memory; making that which seems the poison of life, its ailment.  During the hours of regret we recall the images of departed joys;and weeping over each tender remembrance, tears so softly shed, embalm the wounds of grief. 

Through Christ,

Lady Helen

I am a woman of many contradictions.

Sounds quaint, does it not?  At least in writing.  I can tell you it is not so quaint as it sounds.  I was just spending some time with God in prayer and I, well, I was having trouble expressing myself…to God!  There are many contradictions within me and I do not know how to understand some of them.  How can someone be so full of contradictions.  Things such as whether or not you drink.  I will not ever drink but I think drinking is…I cannot even put into words what I think because it sounds so illogical and unformed!  Another is I really do not like the computer and being on it, but I can spend hours on end doing absolutely nothing but wasting time!  . Then there is the issue of children’s ministry.  I believe that the Bible, the truth, should be enough to bring people to Christ.  that children should not be separated from their parents, families should learn together.  But then I think that children do need to be reached out to and have a focus on them.  How do you mesh the two?  I feel that God is leading me to children’s ministry but how can I? (I am starting to get that tense, anxious feeling so I had better move on before something explodes.)  Then there are even bigger things like I know I love God, but there is a verse in the Bible that says “if you love me you will keep my commands.”   I wonder if I really love God; I do not always keep His commands…  The old adage, “Actions speak louder than words,” is my constant companion and  antagonist.  I know what I know about myself, or do I?  The saying seems to tell me otherwise.

As I was praying I just began telling God all of this and asking Him for help, and when I could say no more I began reading today’s passage, II Timothy 2.  Here is what the first verse says, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

I do not know what I am going to do with myself or my contradictory nature but I will learn to be strong in the grace God has given me in Jesus Christ!

Thank you for listening to my rambling today!

Through Christ,

Lady Helen

My first day in English Literature

I thought I would share a little of my literature class with you.  These are mainly some quotes and points I found interesting.  I also wanted to give you all a little peek at what I am going to be reading this semester (because of this class).  I am looking forward to learning more about English literature! 

I hopefully can fit some of my own leisure reading into the semester but if I do not it will not be too bad a loss.  Happy Classes to those of you still in school!

Through Christ,

Lady Helen 

 

“The unexamined life is not worth living” ~Socrates 

“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” ~E. M. Forster

 

The Four Marks of an Educated Person
Grayson Kirk

1. Speaks and writes clearly and precisely.

2. Has a set of values and the courage to defend them.

3. Tries to understand those who are different and views others with compassion and respect.

4. Looks squarely at the world and all of its problems, but always with hope.

 

The Books

--The Middle Ages

--The Dream of the Rood

--Beowulf    

--Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (I have to do a presentation of this)

--Geoffrey Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales

--Introduction and Prologue

--The Wife of Bath's Tale

--William Langland and The Vision of Piers Plowman

--Julian of Norwich and A Book of Showings

--Margery Kempe and The Book of Margery Kempe

--Sir Thomas Malory and Morte Darthur

--The Sixteenth Century

--Edmund Spenser and The Faerie Queene, Book I

--Christopher Marlowe and The Passionate Shepherd

--The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus

--William Shakespeare, Hamlet

--William Shakespeare, Sonnets

--The Early Seventeenth Century

--John Donne, Ben Jonson, George Herbert, Robert Herrick, and Andrew Marvell, Short selections TBA

--John Milton and Paradise Lost, Book I, continued

--The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

--John Dryden and Mac Flecknoe

--Aphra Behn and The Disappointment

--Jonathan Swift and A Modest Proposal

--Alexander Pope and The Rape of the Lock

--Samuel Johnson and The Vanity of Human Wishes

--James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson

--Thomas Gray and Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Ah, Summer!

Dear, dear Summer, where is it that you have gone?

  How is it that classes begin once more on the morrow?   

Once more I am to be separated from those I love best by the long hours of lessons.   

But, oh joy! there is an end in sight!    

For this is the last of those long lessons.    

Come, dear December, I shall be free once more!

~Brooke O’Shea

While I am looking forward to the classes I am taking this semester I will be happy to be done!  I hope everyone had a lovely summer and has an even better Autumn!

Through Christ,

Lady Helen

I am building an altar

These past few months have just been a season of lesson learning for me. I am beginning to wonder why all this seems to be happening all at once. Perhaps I have never really been open to learning more about my faults and being willing to change them. One of my biggest lessons right now is something I often face but have never dealt with, my tongue.
Everything came to a head last week at Jr. Camp. Long story short, I got aggravated with one of the counselors from the other church and said some things very unbecoming of a Christian lady. It was not until the following Tuesday that God pointed out what I had done and it was then that I decided I must surrender my speech, my tongue to Him so He can change me from the inside out. So with that long introduction here is some of what I am learning.
~Guard my heart. One of the hardest hitting chapters in Debi Pearl's book, Preparing to be a Help Meet, was the chapter on chaste conversation. She did not go on about what we should and should not say but more who we share with. Her point was that we as ladies do not need to share our hearts so openly with any other man but our husband. Doing so just forms an even deeper emotional connection with that man and it destroys our sacred mystique. This is something I really have to work at! I want my husband to be the only man (besides my daddy(s)) that knows and understands my heart.
~Honour others with my speech. Another thing that stuck out to me in Anna Sophia and Elizabeth Botkin's book So Much More is honouring my dad(s) with my speech. That is a tough one for me. God is our Father in heaven right? Well would it not make some since to show our fathers on earth some amount of reverence also? This goes for other people as well.
~Control what comes out of my mouth. I have a horrible habit of not thinking before I speak. Often I will say something and for days afterward it will eat at me. I need God to cover m mouth and help me to think about if what I am saying is appropriate.

Proverbs 11:22
Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.

I want all of my speech to honour God in what I speak, how I speak and who I speak to.

My title mentions building an altar. In one of my favourite books, Hinds Feet on High Places, the main character, Much-Afraid, often finds herself building an altar along the journey that leads her to the High Place. So I have decided that on this adventure of life when times seem rough I will stop and build an altar an give whatever is going on in my life to God.

Father, here I build an altar and on it I lay my tongue, my speech and my will. Take them and do what you will with them.

Here are some verses that stood out to me.

Colossians 4:6
Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

Psalm 34:13
Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit.

Psalm 39:1
I said, “I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, While the wicked are before me.”

Psalm 120:2
Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips And from a deceitful tongue.

Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 21:23
Whoever guards his mouth and tongue Keeps his soul from troubles.

James 1:26
If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.

1 Peter 3:10
For “He who would love life and see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit.