Church Multiplication

A couple of years ago I read a book called "Operation Multiplication." It was a great book that encouraged believers to develop a Paul/Timothy relationship with a younger believer. The idea was to disciple the younger believer until they were ready to disciple their own young believer. It was encouraging and fun.

This past month One Mission Society did something similar, but on a much larger scale. They had 40 pastors, from all over the world, come to headquarters in Greenwood, Indiana. While there, these pastors learned techniques to use back at home to help plant churches in areas that have never heard the gospel. The last week of the class, pastors diagrammed their plan and allowed others to review their plans and give feedback.

Today those pastors are hard at work, fulfilling their plans and allowing God to work in the hearts of nationals throughout the world.

I read this quote yesterday and I think it helps us realize the significance of missions and the desire God has for each and every individual to hear and accept the gift of salvation.

"We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God."- John Stott

As far as a personal update, Briyana and I are excited about what God has for us in the coming week. This coming Sunday Briyana and I get to present our opportunity to a ministry of Christ Chapel Bible Church called LAUNCH. LAUNCH was created to help people learn about missions and help them get involved in missions. We are also hoping to get together with a few couples during the week.

Brie is hard at work on her thesis and is excited to clear several hurdles this week in regards to research. Please pray for her as her schedule often makes her feel overwhelmed and stressed.

We write this often but we really do appreciate your support and prayers. Please let us know by leaving a comment or by emailing us if you know of anybody that would be interested in hearing about our ministry. Perhaps the Lord is challenging you to participate in ministry? Like my friend recently said, "Have you ever considered the fact that your obedience of acting in faith could be someones answer to prayer?"

Blessings,

Brent and Briyana

Power of Prayer

Briyana and I want to thank everybody for their prayers this past week. Much of last week I was on the road meeting couples and churches and sharing about our ministry. The trip was amazing. Your prayers were heard by God and he answered them. Thank you!

So often people think that writing a check and praying every now-and-then is all they can do to help their missionary. But that just isn't the case. God has designed the church body in such an amazing way. Some people are called to go into the field of missions, while others are not. If it weren't for those people who stay at home, missionaries would not be successful. God has given each person a special gift to use for extending the Kingdom. Some might be good at making money and choose to support missionaries. Others might have the gift of hospitality and allow missionaries to stay with them when they come back home. Still others might of a gift of encouragement and write an encouraging note to their missionary at a time when an encouragement is greatly needed. We all come together to form the body of the church. When one takes a look back and realizes how amazing this blessing is, one can't help but be awestruck.

Here is a story of how prayer has recently had a major impact in the missions field. I received this email from a missionary of ours down on the field of Haiti just a couple of days ago. Here is an excerpt of the email.

My mind is just whirling from the past days...no electricity has meant no internet, but I am praising the Lord this morning for some city power, some water, and a chance to share with you! You all must be praying, because these past stretching days have brought some beautiful things to pass.

While we've had some hot days and some shower-less nights, everyone's attitudes have been brilliant, and not one complaint has fallen on my ears. Lily is happy to not be bathing, we've had enough city power at times to pull all the drinking water that the 70+ of us need, we are the only Seminary I know of that now has a designated "pee in the garden" rule, and last night was SO uncharacteristically cool that everyone slept well without fans. EVERY time the situation has neared "urgent", city power has popped on, something our dear friend and maintenance man Abel marvels as a complete miracle. "I have never seen such consistent city power in my life!"

And finally, and perhaps the biggest gift because it is that which only HE can provide, is, in the words of Nicole (3rd year student), that "last night, God came down and dwelt among us. It was AWESOME." Around 7:30, Matt, Lily and I checked in on the students to make sure everyone had enough drinking water, and everyone was happily hanging out in the cafeteria with a few flashlights. The plan was for everyone to go to bed early, then get up early with the sun to study for classes that they had been unable to study for that evening. But despite early bedtime, this morning my guys were noticeably exhausted. They did indeed all go to bed at 8 pm. However, at 9:30, Junior (1st year student) was shaken awake by "hands that gripped my face and were chocking me! I was scared, and I couldn't breath or move, and in my mind, I called, 'JESUS!' and I heard his voice clearly tell me to pray." Junior lay in bed praying desperately for several minutes, until he heard Jesus speak again. "Now, get up! Pray!" So he did, bounding out of bed and quickly shaking awake all of his room-mates. They all began to pray, and several heard a voice telling them to "Pray, Pray." They woke up all the men in the dorm, then all the women, and from 9 pm until 1 am, our beautiful student body did just that...PRAY.

They prayed and shared, read and prayed, in deep darkness with only a few flashlights, and all testify this morning to feeling the intimate presence and urgency of the Lord to be praying for Emmaus Biblical Seminary, for Saccanville, and for their Haitian people. They testify to feeling the Spirit intimately with them as they prayed and shared together, and this morning, we have a different student body. Tired, but bound...excited, but burdened...urgent, but full of hope and praise.

Thank you for joining us in prayer for power, for Emmaus, for Haiti...for the world.

Brie and I really do covet the prayers you send out. Thank you again for your support and prayers!

Brent and Briyana

TWIST 09-13-2010

This Week In Short Term

Haiti
We have a work team of 10 going to Haiti September 23-30

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

Burundi
We have a team of 3 going to Burundi to do Literacy Training from Sep. 23 - Oct. 2

Hungary
We have a prayer team of 3 going to Hungary from Sep. 26 - Oct. 4

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

Guilty Pleasures

Football season is back, much to the dread of Briyana. I love watching football and every now and then can get Briyana to sit and watch it with me. I guess you could say watching football is a guilty pleasure of mine.

Another guilty pleasure Briyana and I share is sharing with couples our heart for ministry. This past week we had a couple meetings with friends. It was very encouraging. One of the couples asked how we felt about being in a transition period, while knowing God has called us to the mission field. We get that question a lot. Briyana and I feel that raising support is a ministry in itself. We get to share with our friends and family about what God is doing overseas and giving them a chance to participate in our ministry. It is fun to see people excited about missions. Though we long for the day when we are 100% funded, we know that God has us right where he wants us. He's preparing our hearts for ministry as well as helping us raise a support and prayer team.

This week I will be traveling to several cities in Texas. I've mentioned this before, but Briyana and I would greatly appreciate your prayers while I'm traveling. God willing, we hope this travel will be fruitful to our ministry.

In His Service,

Brent and Briyana

Homes For Haiti Update

Labor Day weekend is over and we are getting back in the swing of things. Brie is hard at work on her thesis for her masters degree and I'm working hard at getting together with people to share about our ministry. Next week my bosses, Kent Eller and Warren Hardig, will be in town. We will get a chance to travel around Texas sharing with people. If you know of anybody we can share with let me know. We would love to share with anybody willing to listen. Both Kent and Warren have amazing stories and a passion for what they do.

Our first house down in Haiti is finally complete. Here is the update I received yesterday.

Hi all:
Hope all is well at home. The US team finished its last day of work
on the house today! We had a lot that we wanted to get done, so today
was a long day. We worked on the roof system, installing the
remainder of the rafters, then the perlins and metal. We also worked
on the doors and started the ceiling. We went through the batteries
for our power tools quickly today, so that slowed us down a bit. In
the afternoon, we had a small generator available to recharge
batteries. There is a bit more work to do on the doors, one more small piece of metal to install on the roof and most of the ceiling still needs to be installed, but
Gabriel said that they can finish those things tomorrow. We had about ten
people working at the site today.

At the end of our work day, we gathered with the family and some of
the workers to pray and dedicate the house - it was a special time!
The family is so grateful and the team was a joy to work with.

Praise God for what he is doing all over the world. We hope you have a blessed week!

Brent and Briyana

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