One Meeting, Two Meetings, Three Meetings, Four

This week, we have had busy weeks. We've both had a lot of school work and have had to find the balance between school, work, fundraising, and finding time to share together. Yesterday we met with the missions pastor from a local church to inquire about them supporting us. It went well and we are now currently in the application process for their support.

We have enjoyed having people over to our house recently. It never ceases to amaze us how much fun it is to share what the Lord has planned for us. We enjoy knowing that even raising support can be a ministry of ours until we get up to headquarters.

Please pray for us for energy to push through the final weeks of school, for encouraging conversations regarding fundraising, and time for us I to share together.

We thank each of you for your prayers and support. Our ministry wouldn't be possible without the help of friends like you!

Blessings!

Brent and Briyana

Amazing Grace

God directs our paths in ways we often don't understand. He dances to a beat that is different than the world's. When we hear his voice, many times we don't understand where he's leading us, but do we have the faith to trust and follow him? Are we willing to trust him and do the unexpected?

God called us into missions. We are leaving our comfort zone, our family, our jobs, and everything that is familiar to us to trust and follow God's path. To some, it doesn't make sense. They ask, "Why would you leave everything to go somewhere you never lived? For a job that doesn't pay you?" The truth is, it doesn't make sense IF you're looking through the world's eyes, BUT if you look through God's eyes and have faith in him it does make sense.

There was a man named John Newton who used to be a slave-ship captain. He grew up with his father who was a slave-ship captain, so John had been around the slave business nearly his whole life. One day he felt God calling him out of the slave-trading business and to work for the church. While there, he wrote one of the most famous pieces of music the world has ever known. "Amazing Grace" has blessed the world because John Newton left what he was doing to follow God's will for his life. He left his profitable slave-trading to work in the church. To many back then it didn't make sense, but God knew what he was doing.

So what is God calling you to? Are you listening?

Here is a link giving you some background on the song "Amazing Grace"

In Him,

Brent and Briyana

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

ODM Syndrome

This past week was a little bit slower than weeks prior. We've contacted people about getting together with them, but schedules did not allow for us to meet this week. We hope that in coming weeks we can meet with them. We are praying that God leads us in the correct direction regarding meeting with people and asking him to show us how to follow-up with people. We would appreciate your prayers lifting us up too.

Yesterday at church was our Mission's Luncheon. We listened to how one of the missionaries our church supports was impacting the Philippines and that area of Asia. We also ran into some friends that support One Mission Society. We enjoyed eating lunch with them and look forward to upcoming conversations and interactions with them.

Our sermon yesterday was by the missionary that spoke at the Mission's Luncheon. He spoke on Luke 12:13-21. It was a great message that challenged people to look on how people perceive money and how God would like us to use it. He talked about how much money does it take for us to be happy? He called it the "One Dollar More (ODM) Syndrome. He showed us in scripture how God keeps us away from money that we want for our own good and how God gives us money to give to others. He emphasized that the saying, "The man that dies with the most toys, wins" is not true. Jesus, in this passage redefined greed as when a man thinks only of himself. So the question is, who controls your money? Does greed control your view on money? Do you say, "just one more dollar... just one more toy?" or do you say, "God the money is yours and I will do with it as you lead me?"

We'll leave you with a story that was shared during our sermon…

I'll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12, and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money.

By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.

When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. When we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn't listen to the radio, we'd save money on that month's electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1.

We made $20 on pot holders. That month was one of the best of our lives.

Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we'd sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.

The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change.

We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before.

That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn't care that we wouldn't have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering.

We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn't own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn't seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet.

But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt rich.

When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20.

As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn't say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills.

Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn't talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn't have our Mom and Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night.

We had two knifes that we passed around to whoever needed them. I knew we didn't have a lot of things that other people had, but I'd never thought we were poor.

That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn't like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed--I didn't even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!

I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn't know. We'd never known we were poor. We didn't want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn't talk on the way.

Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, "Can't we all sacrifice to help these poor people?" We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week.

Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering.

When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn't expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, "You must have some rich people in this church."

Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that "little over $100."

We were the rich family in the church! Hadn't the missionary said so? From that day on I've never been poor again. I've always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!

God Bless!

Brent and Briyana

Story courtesy of Eddie Ogan--from: Bill Rayborn

TWIST- 07-19-2010

Here is a list of the short-term missions teams we are sending out this week. Please lift these groups up in prayer during your week.

Haiti

We have 2 people in Haiti July 15-20 working on the x-ray equipment.

We have a team of 7 going to Cap to do VBS from July 24-31.

We have a team of 15 going to Cap to do VBS and Radio Distribution 07/28-08/04 (CCG youth/adults led by Tom Wright)

Hungary

We have a team of 9 in Hungary to help with English Camp from July 6-25.

Ukraine

We have a team of 12 people in Ukraine to help with English Camp from July 10-24. (T Fornwalt)

We have a team of 9 people going to Ukraine July 31 - August 14 for English Camp.

Ireland

We have a team of 3 in Ireland to work with Stephen Williamson from July 15-26. (C & L Long, D Thomas)

Colombia

We have a team of 3 going to Medellin to do evangelism/prayer ministry from July 20 - August 7. (S. Leckie)

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Brent and Briyana

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

Baby Steps

I remember a movie called "What About Bob?", where Bob constantly reminds himself he must take baby steps before taking larger ones. That principle can be used in many aspects of life, including fundraising. So many times we want to be finished with the fundraising aspect of ministry so we can jump to the stuff we want to do. It's then that God reminds Briyana and me that, fundraising is part of our ministry and is preparing us for the future.

This past weekend was a whirlwind. We had 5 meetings with couples over 2 days in Austin, TX. The meetings were very encouraging. It is always fun to catch up with people and share with them our heart for short-term missions and the Great Commission. It wasn't until we arrived back in DFW, laid our heads on our pillows, that we realized how much physical energy the trip took from us. We slept like rocks.

We recently received our support letters and are feverishly addressing and sending those out. We look forward to how God is going to provide through this avenue. In the coming weeks, please pray for Brie and me for energy during the week, a feeling of comfort for us, a continued strengthening of our support and prayer team, and quality time with each other.

Here is a story from Bruce Bennett about what God is doing on the continent of Africa.

"I have just returned from an eventful visit to the Ivory Coast. On January 13, we held our first graduation ceremony for Village Church Planting (VCP) pastors in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Some 750-800 dignitaries and family members attended the joyous graduation of 88 pastors who had met the OMS graduation criteria: successful completion of the Timothy Training Institute and OMEGA programs, planting and pastoring a first generation church, initiating a second generation church and facilitating the training of its leaders.

In just under four years, God has used Pastor Mathieu in the extraordinary expansion of His Kingdom by adding 10,000 villagers to the body of Christ. These believers now meet in 155 first, 96 second, and 9 third generation churches…"

Thanking God for the friends like you,

Brent and Briyana

picture courtesy of http://www.skippypodar.net

TWIST

This Week In Short Term Missions

Here is a list of the groups that One Mission Society is sending out into the world. Please lift these groups up in prayer and thoughts.

Haiti
We have 2 people going to Haiti July 15-20 to work on the x-ray equipment.
We have a team of 5 going to Diquini July 18-25 to do medical/evangelism.

Hungary
We have a team of 9 in Hungary to help with English Camp from July 6-25.

Trinidad
We have a team of 26 going to Trinidad to do work and evangelism from July 10-18.

Ukraine
We have a team of 12 people going to Ukraine to help with English Camp from July 10-24.

His Servants,

Brent and Briyana

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

On The Road Again...

Briyana and I are continuing our journey of faith in preparing our for our ministry by traveling down to Austin, TX this coming weekend. If you happen to be in the area or know of somebody who would be interested in talking with us, please feel free to shoot us a note if we haven't already.

Here is a note of encouragement from a sermon at Traders Point Christian Church in Zionsville, IN.

"When something doesn't work the way it is supposed to, the word we often use to describe it is DEFECTIVE. Have you ever felt defective when it comes to your faith and desire to follow God? Maybe at one time you felt close to Him, but now He feels distant. Things that used to be clear are now hazy. Faith that used to be rock solid is beginning to show signs of distress. Joy has given way to feelings of shame and remorse. You wonder if God could ever use someone as ordinary and imperfect as you. If He could, would he even want to? If you've ever felt that way then your experience isn't at all inconsistent with what we see in Scripture. GOD LOVES DEFECTIVE PEOPLE AND INVITES THEM TO JOIN HIM IN MAKING AN IMPACT ON OUR WORLD."

-for more details, read 1 Cor 1:27, Eph 6:10-18

God Bless!

Brent and Briyana

Morrell Update

Things have been going well recently. I am in school, but will be done by mid August. Brie is currently finishing another semester of schooling for her Master's Degree. We've been on the fundraising trail recently, and have enjoyed seeing how God works through the lives of the church body.

A couple of weeks ago, after much prayer by Briyana and I, we felt God was leading me to leave my job to focus on fundraising. This was a huge step-out in faith on our part because we would become a single income family, but God was faithful in his provision. Two days after I put my two-week notice in at my job, Briyana received a letter in the mail informing us she received a scholarship for her schooling paying roughly half of her tuition until she graduates. This was an amazing blessing from the Lord, because we weren't expecting it. We didn't even apply for the scholarship. It was absolutely God showing us his provision and encouragement toward us. God is good!

We have not only seen God work in our lives, but also in the lives of others around the world. Just last week, I read a story from an individual that is in Haiti and working with One Mission Society. Here is his story.

"Sunday I was in Vengione Vital's chuch in Port-au_prince and before anything at all had happened, the Deaconess who was to lead the first song asked if anyone had come that morning to accept Jesus as their Savior. People started flowing to the front of the Church. No preaching, no singing, no urging…just the Holy Spirit moving among people in need. It is a fabulous day to be working in Haiti!"

- Richard Brown

It's exciting to see how God is working throughout the world. If you are interested in learning more about our ministry, please contact us and we would be glad to share with you. Also, if you know of anybody else that may be interested in hearing about our ministry, please pass on those names to us.

God Bless,

Brent and Briyana