TWIST 08-30-2010

This Week In Short Term

Haiti

We have a team of 2 3 men going to Haiti to finish up the first home in the Homes For Haiti project. They will serve September 1-7.

They will be joining 2 men who are already in Haiti.

Philippines

We have a team of 10 preparing to go to the Philippines on a Dynamic Women team from September 16-27.

picture courtesy of http://mysinglemomlife.files.wordpress.com

Homes for Haiti Update

This past week has flown bye. After graduating from UTA last week, Brie and I went to go see her parents and got away for a couple of days. Now we are back home and hard at work. Brie started school today and I am setting up appointments, working on newsletters, and looking forward to traveling Texas to raise funds. As of today we have raised slightly less than $1000 a month. We have also had numerous one-time donations that help too. In order to move to Indiana we need to raise $3900 a month to pay for our ministry expenses and give me a meager wage. Now that summer is over we hope that people will have more time to meet with us so we could share what God has laid on our hearts.

Recently we posted about One Mission Society's program called "Homes For Haiti." Here is an update.

They have been working for about 6 days now and have the foundation poured, and the team is beginning to lay down blocks to outline the bedroom and load-bearing walls. The team that is down there now has learned a lot, and has made some notes for the future houses. Before most of the team leaves they will lay down the outline for the second house, so the next team that comes in will have a head start.

Here are a few pictures. The first is a picture of the shelter the family of the future house is living in now. The second is a picture of the bucket brigade when they were pouring cement, and finally the third is a picture of the foundation. The house is 20'x21'.

Please continue to pray for good weather for this team and that the project would be completed on time.

Thank you for your support!

Brent and Briyana

TWIST 08-16-2010

This Week In Short Term

Haiti

We have a team of 5 men going into Port with the Homes For Haiti project August 22-September 1.

Much love,

Brent and Briyana

picture courtesy of http://mysinglemomlife.files.wordpress.com

Homes For Haiti

Tuesday January 12, 2010 was a day that changed the lives of many. It was the day of the now famous Haiti Earthquake. An estimated 200,000 people died and over 1 million people became homeless. But God is at work in this small Caribbean country.

Men For Missions is beginning a campaign on August 22, 2010 called "Homes for Haiti." The plan is to go into Haiti and build homes for the needy and homeless. We will start off by building 20 homes in Port Au Prince as a test, and we hope to expand the project even further. Please pray for these teams as the homes are built. Pray that God would use these houses as homes for shelter, but also as places were he can dwell and where people will worship His name.

Briyana and I have had a good week. Yesterday was Briyana's birthday. She is now 24 years old. We baked a cake, had some quality time together, and were able to have a nice dinner with family. Briyana's last day of summer is tomorrow, and I know she is looking forward to having a couple of weeks of rest away from school.

As far as our ministry goes, we are looking forward to sharing our opportunity with a friends small group this Sunday, and we just turned in an application for support from our home church. Please lift up both of these in prayer please. We are also working on finalizing our list of addresses to mail out our first newsletter. You should look forward to receiving this in the next month or so.

Blessings,

Brent and Briyana

Picture courtesy of Le Nouvelliste Haiti via Flickr

Growing Up

Everybody goes through stages of life. When one is conceived they go through numerous changes until in week 39, a baby is born. Then one goes through more changes as an infant. For the first couple of months babies learn to develop a realistic sleep schedule. Then after a couple of months babies move away from milk and begin eating solid food. From there babies acquire language skills. As they move through school they learn skills and fundamentals that will help them later on in life. They begin to date as they get older, they graduate high school. Some go off to college. Eventually they marry and begin their own families.

I was reading Hebrews today and a verse made me think about these things.

"By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one - baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God's ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong." Hebrews 5:12-14 The Message

I know many people who claim to have become Christians long ago, but still require "baby food." I say claim, because nobody but God knows who is actually saved. By now they should be on "solid food", making a difference in the world for the name of Christ. All to often we as Christians get comfortable in our lives and become content with the status quo. This is when we have to be the most careful. God didn't call us to be comfortable. He called us to be lights to a world full of darkness. It's not going to be comfortable. Often times it's not even going to be politically and socially correct.

Today, we as Christians, need to wean themselves off of "baby food" and begin digesting the solid stuff. Each of us should be living a life worthy of Christ, leading others towards Christ and discipling younger Christians.

What do you think?

This past week has been jam packed with things to do. Last week we gave away our second car to a family member who could use it more. Now we have to find the title for it to change over ownership. We have met with several families and shared a little bit of what our ministry consist of, and have enjoyed getting to catch up with all of them. Brie finishes summer school next week and is looking forward to a couple of weeks off from school. I finish my bachelors degree on the 19th and am increasingly looking forward to that event, 15 days left (not that we're counting down or anything.) I'm in the process of planning a trip around Texas for fundraising with some other people from One Mission Society that will probably take place in September, and yesterday I finished the final touches on our first quarterly newsletter. Now I have to send it in to be edited and mailed out.

We would love your prayers in the coming week for strength to finish our summer school classes strong, pray for safety as I travel to tell people about our ministry, pray that God begins to prepare the hearts of the people we will be sharing with, and that we continue to have a strong and healthy marriage that glorifies our Lord.

We thank and praise God for the friends he's blessed us with everyday!

Brent and Briyana

Picture courtesy of http://www.lifedynamix.com