Saturday, February 4, 2012

A Stubborn and Rebellious Priesthood


(Zechariah 10v1-2)"Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime, and he will answer with lightning and showers. Every field will become a lush pasture. How foolish to ask the idols for anything like that!"
Oh LORD, I thank you that you are a GOD who answers our prayers, who provides in abundance. You don't just water the land but you bring it so much water it becomes lush. LORD I ask you to rein in my life. Fill it with your abundance and glory.
LORD, I have been led astray, like your people Israel, I too have sought provision and comfort from idols; food, books, matching games, work, my husband. None of these things are inherently wrong. But oh my LORD, it was so wrong to let them come between you and I.
You are the only true God, the only one whose promise are true, the satisfaction of the world's promises are empty. I spent my time focusing on those things, seeking the answers to my questions, the peace to quiet my restless hurting soul. Even though they didn't satisfy I thought "oh, I'm not trying hard enough, I need more"
So instead of turning my back on them and seeking you with whole hearted abandon like before I worked harder, I spent more time escaping to books, trying to numb my pain with food, expecting my husband fill me, trying to derive some sense of satisfaction from a high score or bigger paycheque, hiding behind fixing other people's problems.
Yet, God you never gave up on me! You continued to call my name! Alleluia! God you are amazing you restored my life from the grave you brought me hope and life.
In Zechariah it says (10v6&7) " I will strengthen Judah, yes, and Israel too; I will re-establish them because I love them. It will be as though I had never cast them all away, for I, the LORD their God , will hear their cries. They shall be like mighty warriors. They shall be happy as with wine. Their children, too shall see the mercies of the LORD and be glad. Their hearts shall rejoice in the LORD.

YES LORD! Though I have lost sight of my first love you, you have heard my cries. God you have shown great mercy and filled me with joy as I experience the grace of your mercy. Everyday LORD you cover me in your forgiveness you give me a new day, a new opportunity to glorify you with the choices I make. LORD, may I be a wise steward of the many second chances you have given me. Help me to avoid the quick fixes and temporary highs and rather seek a deeper relationship with you and the lasting satisfaction of dwelling daily in your presence.
LORD, help me to remember when I make my decisions that I'm living for you. Help me to plan my life for success and growth. LORD, I have really missed you and missed our quality time, painting, running, singing, dancing, just you and me, Jesus.

LORD, as I have started spending more time with you again you have filled me. My relationship with my husband is far more satisfying and fulfilling as I am not having unrealistic expectations for him. As I allow you to fill my life I am able to pour into his and receive the love he offers me as a delight. Thank you God for filling our lives with JOY and SATISFACTION as we grow individually and collectively with you and with each other. Help me to love and support him better each day.

LORD, thank you for your promises that are true. I love what you say to the Israelites (10v12) "I will make my people strong with power from me! They will go wherever they wish, and wherever they go, they will be under my personal care"

God, I thank you that is by your strength I am healed, by your strength I am perfected, by your strength I can love and serve. LORD, on my own I am weak but through your power I am made strong. LORD, thank you for loving me and putting me under your personal care. Thank you for loving me enough to know my name, to know my innermost thoughts and feelings, my guilt and fear, my longings and vices. Yet still you love me!!! Oh how you love me Jesus! I am so blessed, LORD help me to share your love with others, because this love is not just for me but for every person on this earth.


What a beautiful testimony God! You are so faithful.
I was reading Malachi
(1v1-3)""I have loved you very deeply," says the LORD. But you retort, "Really? When was this?" And the LORD replies, "I showed my love for you by loving your father, Jacob. I didn't need to. I even rejected his very own brother, Esau."" (LORD, I don't understand why some people are called "Those Whom God Does Not Forgive")
(1v6-9) ""A son honours his father, a servant honours his master. I am your Father and Master, yet you don't honour me, O priests, but you despise my name."
"Who? Us?" you say. "When did we ever despise your name?"
"When you offer polluted sacrifices on my altar."
"Polluted sacrifices? When have we ever done a thing like that?"
"Every time you say, 'Don't bother bringing anything very valuable to offer to God!' You tell the people, 'Lame animals are all right to offer on the altar of the Lord--yes, even the sick and the blind ons.' And you claim this isn't evil? Try it on your governor sometime--give him gifts like that --and see how pleased he is! 'God have mercy on us,' you recite; 'God be gracious to us!' But when you bring that kind of gift, why should he show you any favour at all?"

Father God, I am guilty. LORD, you have loved me so much you sent Jesus your one and only son to suffer and die in order to free me from my bondage to sin and give me eternal life in your presence and I have rejected you I have said like the Israelites (1v13) "'Oh, it's too difficult to serve the LORD and do what he asks.' And [I] turn up [my] nose[s] at the rules he has given [me] to obey. Think of it!" leftover minutes after I have sought satisfaction in cookies or chocolate or after hours of hiding in the lives of fictional characters or whiling away hours on pintrest or facebook. Why should the holy God accept such empty sacrifices as these? (my paraphrase)
This behaviour makes God so mad, it hurts him so deeply and yet he offers forgiveness. I have rejected him and despised him making a mockery of his greatness by offering him leftovers and praying earnestly only in crisis.

God says of his laws "The purpose of these laws was to give [] life and peace, to be a means of showing [your] respect and awe for me, by keeping them. He [Levi] passed on to the people all the truth he got from me. He did not lie or cheat; he walked with me, living a good and righteous life, and turned many from their lives of sin. Priest's lips should flow with the knowledge of God so the people will learn God's laws. The priest are the messengers of the LORD of Hosts, and men should come to them for guidance"

Since we are God's priests (1Peter 2:9)But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
These are our responsibilities, not only am I responsible for my own actions but for how my life impacts those around me. My highest calling is to walk with God so that my life can bring others to Christ. We are to be Christ's messengers, his hands and feet showing love to everyone around us.

Oh, how patient you are Father, like the Israelites I give you my leftovers and then in crisis I turn to you in tears (2v13) Yet you cover the altar with your tears because the LORD doesn't pay attention to your offerings anymore, and you receive no blessing from him. "Why has God abandoned us?" you cry. I'll tell you why it is because the LORD has seen your treachery" (2v17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. "Wearied him? you ask in fake surprise. "How have we wearied him?" By saying the evil is good, that it please the LORD! Or by saying that God won't punish us--he doesn't care.
I think it is awesome that God's messenger is so passionate, He knows that God cares about his people, that is why he, the messenger, has been sent. God loves his people (us) and want to bless them (us) yet they (we) are rebelling and it pains him so he needs to discipline them (us) in order to bring them (us) back into rightful relationship with him. I thank God for his just and loving discipline that restores me to a life-giving relationship with him. Without God's discipline, I would live in sin, caught up in its snares and blinded by momentary pleasure to its disastrous consequences.

God says of his messenger (3v3-7) Like a refiner of silver he (the messenger) will sit and closely watch as the [waste] is burned away. He will purify the Levites [us], the ministers of God, refining them like gold or silver, so that they will do their work for God with pure hearts. Then once more the LORD will enjoy the offering brought to him by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as he did before.
"At that time my punishments will be quick and certain; I will move swiftly against wicked men who trick the innocent, against adulterers, and liars, agains all those who cheat their hired hands, or oppress widows and orphans, or defraud strangers and do not fear me," says the LORD of Hosts. "For I am the LORD--I do not change. This is why you are not already utterly destroyed {for my mercy endures forever}. Though you have scorned my laws from earliest time, yet you may still return to me." says the LORD of Hosts. "Come and I will forgive you".

I think it is awesome how God emphasizes how important it is that we love and protect the most vulnerable people in society. The sins he lists are those against widows, orphans, strangers, hired hands, those who are looked down on, easily overlooked, or taken advantage of. And did you catch God's infinite mercy? "Though you have scorned my laws from earliest time, yet you may still return to me... Come and I will forgive you" (3v7).
WOW WOW WOW!!! How truly awesome is our God, can you imagine someone; a friend, a coworker, a family member, or perhaps you don't need to imagine because you have some one like this in your life but no matter what you do, they scorn your kindness, they abuse your forgiveness, they take and take and never give back, they gossip about you behind your back, they steal your most valued possessions, they make snide comments about what you are wearing, the way you talk, the ideas you share at work. Are you starting to feel a little angry? Imagine they've stolen the affections of your spouse or best friend. Are you starting to feel a tempest of fiery hail burning within your heart?
This is how we treat God. He gives us everything; love, blessings, provisions, forgiveness, food, shelter. We reject him, we give our affection to other things and we don't just do it once or twice but over and over again. Still he says "yet you may still return to me...come and I will forgive you" Do I hear an AMEN! Cause I'm shouting one with all my heart! Truly, we serve an awesome merciful God. In Lamentations 3:22-23 after the author lists the sufferings they have experienced by the hand of God he says Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. God's love for us is so great that though he punishes us he never destroys us because he wants us to return to him. Thank you Jesus!

I am guilty as the Israelites of being proud and arrogant (3v14-15) Listen; you have said, 'It is foolish to worship God and obey him. What good does it do to obey his laws, and to sorrow and mourn for our sins? From now on, as far as we're concerned, "Blessed are the arrogant." For those who do evil shall prosper, and those who dare God to punish them shall get off scot-free.' I may not have said that explicitly but my actions shouted it.
If we are able to find our way back to God confess our sin and receive his grace we will be like (3v16-18)those who feared and loved the LORD spoke often of him to each other. And he had a Book of Remembrance drawn up in which he recorded the names of those who feared him and loved to think about him. "They shall be mine," says the LORD of Hosts, "in that day when I make up my jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares an obedient and dutiful son. Then you will see the difference between God's treatment of good men and bad, between those who serve him and those who don't. (4v2) But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.

God is just waiting to pour out his blessings on our lives, so what is stopping us from turning from our sin and wholeheartedly entering into the life-long pursuit of God




Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Sorry this has taken so long to post. I wrote this soon after we arrived in Congo but have been unable to post it due to technical difficulties. Now I do not have time to write a current post but I am well. Blessings on you all looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks.
Dear Friends and Family,
I my team and all our luggage safely arrived in the Congo. I am doing well. The first couple days were especially challenging as my body tried to adjust to the pollution, the new food, different eating times and different foods. In Congo because of the extreme poverty often people will not eat lunch and sometimes not breakfast. Also because it is a very warm culture if you are eating you are obligated to share with the people around you. So we have not really eaten lunches since we got here. At first it was hard but now today we actually had a lunch around two and it is now seven and I’m not at all hungary. I am realizing again how little food some people live on and what an abundance we have in North America. It seems so unfair that some should go without when we throw so much out.
It’s hard because as a North American I just want to fix it and make it fair, but as a Congolese I am learning that relationships are more important than tasks. I can make an impact and touch lives for Christ by taking the time to build relationships wether with the taxi driver, the youth and children we are working with or the kids on the streets or in hospitals and orphanages.
In my mind I’ve been trying to figure out how to explain the Congo to people and I feel like no matter what words I use you will not truly understand for yourself until you have been here. The first things that hits you as you walk off the plane is the air. It is oppressively heavy with smog and pollution. It feels like you need to cough but you can’t. As we walked out of the airport there were people everywhere. Animated smiling people. We drove down the road in a taxi van which we had rented. So nine of us are 17 pieces of luggage and nine carry-ons along with Jean Baptise, the driver and the apprentice climbed into a van no bigger than a normal eight passenger van. This van was a cargo van with windows hacked out on the two side panels and the back to benches removed and narrow board benches put in. We had 23 people in there today and we’ll likely have even more once we no longer have this van hired.
Then we proceeded to drive through Kinshasa to our home for the month. At first the road was smoothly paved highway but the further we got in to the “abandoned” neighborhoods the worse they got at some points disappearing between layers of dust and garbage, littered everywhere with plastic bags, bottle caps. . .some days we have driven down narrow bumpy dirt alleys lined on either side by fences and strewn with boulders. I have no idea how our driver manages to navigate these roads but he is amazingly good at it. In Kinshasa there is no such thing as road edict. Drivers weave in and out of traffic on both sides of narrow roads. Pedestrians walk willy nilly. Drivers honk loudly as a warning to get out of the way and you better move quickly otherwise you will be driven over.
It is challenging to adapt to another culture, but at the same time it is something that I really enjoy doing. Trying new things, meeting new people, being in Africa our all things I am passionate about. So as hard as it sometimes it is I am really enjoying myself and learning a lot.
The first day we arrived we went to Jean Baptise’s family’s home and had dinner. It was very good and they were very welcoming. The next morning we got up and went to the embassy’s to register that we are here. Then we went shopping to stock up for running a Congolese household. Everything takes longer in the Congo. We need to treat our drinking water, sanitize our hands before we eat and bleach, cook or peel all our food.
Because there is no standard of transport getting places takes longer as well. So we are learning to be patient.
The next day we went to Boma Yi Sika (House of Mercy) an orphanage for children who have been kicked out of their homes. We spent the day doing introductions touring the place and then just hanging out with the kids. The regular team will be working there doing a DVBS program in the coming weeks so this week was mostly just introductions. When we were playing with the kids I was shaking hands greeting them and then this one boy Vinny grabbed onto my hand and would not let go. The whole day that we were there he held my hand and sat on my lap. It was so sweet. He didn’t speak even to the other children and he was younger then most of the other kids there. I wonder what his story is and pray that God will bring healing and restoration in his life.
On Friday we went to Bon Berger a medical clinic where the nurses will be spending a lot of their time. In the morning we toured the place and then spent time listening to the story and vision of the two doctors who started the clinic seven years ago in a small shack. The neighborhood where Bon Berger is situated is considered an abandoned neighborhood. The government is not involved in the neighborhood and there is only one public school and two public clinics for the population of 100 000 people. In order to get there we had to cross a waste stream.
The regular team spent our time drawing pictures in a small church school, then we taught them a Bible lesson and sang some songs with them. We enjoyed our time. Meanwhile the nurses observed at the hospital.
Today we spent the day with the youth group from Jean Baptiste’s church. We went to the Congo river and shared testimonies then we hiked through a rock quarry to the other side. Where we sang on the rocks and talked a bit more. Then we hiked back through the jungle/bush and the quarry to the other side where we had a snack of peanuts, bread and some chicken. Afterwards we headed back to our house and most of the team passed out from exhaustion and dehydration. I stayed up. Today has been the first day when I have felt full of energy. Praise God!
So pray for
energy
safety
unity within our team
health

Thank you so much for your prayers and support.
Britt

Friday, July 10, 2009

Going. . .Going. . .Gone!

Hi Everybody,
Sorry this will be brief it is late and I need to go to bed I did not sleep well last night. Tomorrow is our last full day in Canada and then we fly out on Sunday and spend unreal amounts of time in airports and on airplanes as we fly half-way around the world to minister to the Congolese people and learn from them.
Debrief has been going pretty well. I'm just so ready to be in the DRC already, but the past week of training, orientation and language prep has been good. God has been revealing Himself to me in new ways each day. I'm excited to see what He has instore for me in the DRC.
I ask that you pray for health, safety while traveling, that God will enable my body to digest fats so that while I'm in the DRC I don't have to make the decision between being disrespectful and eating food that I know will make me sick. Pray that the financial support will come in for me and all my teammates. Pray for unity in my team and patience as we live in uber close quarters in the DRC with less than stellar conditions. Pray for grace as we deal with conflict within the team. Pray that we will be able to communicate with our limited French.
Thank you so much for your interest in my life and your prayers and support.
Blessings on you all.
Britt

Thursday, June 25, 2009

One Week To Go

So the past two months have been pretty crazy. I have been working a lot. But tomorrow is my last day and then it is the homestretch of packing and getting ready to go to the DRC. Pray for me and my team as we raise support, pack and pull together the last minute things.
I have to go now and get some more things checked off my list.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

One Week Down

So tomorrow it will be one week since I moved back to the country and only 8 weeks till I leave to go to training for the Congo.
This past week has been hard, I think going home will always be a little hard for me.
On Friday I went home and made my brothers birthday cake. Then on Saturday I hosted his birthday party and mediated between my Mom and him. The party was pretty long and so I was wiped out after wards.
I started work on Monday and worked Monday and Tuesday moving trees and getting things ready for opening. Then today I did respite for a friend. The greenhouse opens on Thursday and then I will be working more regularly there.
Tomorrow is my first day off and I plan on going over to the house and starting to pack and sort through all my stuff which is piled all over the place from my various hurried degrees of packing and having my Dad and brother unpack over the last three months. So pretty much all my possessions are randomly located in boxes all over the basement and I want to find stuff and organize it.
I plan on downsizing. I have enough stuff to furnish my own house or apartment and well it seems that my life will be a lot of moving around in the next couple of years so hopefully I will be able to have a garage sale and raise some more money for the Congo.

My friend just gave me this quote "For as long as you can remember, you have been a pleaser, depending on others to give you an identity. You need not look at that only in a negative way. You wanted to give your heart to others, and you did so quickly and easily. But now you are being asked to let go of all these self-made props and trust that God is enough for you. You must stop being a pleaser and reclaim your identity as a free self"-Henri Nouwen
Coming home is hard because everyone has a box that defines their perception of me and that box is outdated so I really don't fit into it. Yet still people want to fit me into it. So it is a constant battle to break that mold
and have the freedom to just be me as I am without the crutch of doing and people pleasing.I am praying that I can find the freedom even here to really blossom into the person God wants me to be.That I will have the courage like the crocuses to poke my head out and make myself
vulnerable to the world allowing God to work in and through me.
I find it especially hard because the last couple of months I have been able to really just be me whoever that was in the moment, having the freedom to grow with people and discover the things that are core to who I am. Now that I have established some of those things it is a challenge to hang onto them when I am back in an environment where people really don't know who I have become. Their image of me is shaped by
my childhood and for most outdated by several years as I haven't lived at home in two years. So even though nothing drastic has changed a lot of subtle shifts in view point and mindset effect how I live my life and the motivations behind some of my actions are different. I am me, but I am growing and continually redefining what exactly it means to be me.
The three things that I know for sure are that I love God and want to follow Him, and that I love people. Those things haven't changed but the direction they take me has.


Monday, May 4, 2009

Reflections on Moving On



May-01-09
12:18 AM

Hello everyone,
Today on my drive home I started thinking about how many times I have moved in the past bit. I have moved four times in the past eight months. Moving so much really challenges my desire to hang onto things. It aids me in my efforts to live simply by challenging me making me ask myself if I really need the things that I tend to accumulate. It's hard because there is a part of me that wants to nest and have nic nacs all over my living space, but that part is losing to the me that goes alright well I don't want any more junk. Only useful things and my art because it is necessary for me to thrive. That mentality was sorely challenged when I went home yesterday and started going through stuff from my squirrel days. I tried on a pair of boots that my friend gave me two years ago. You have to understand these are not just any boots they are beautiful boots. I have large feet and often feel like the only shoes that fit me are clunky, but these boots made me feet feel pretty. You know how certain articles of clothing can make you feel as if you are in fact beautiful. These boots did that for me, but I never wore them much because they really hurt my one foot.
However, I kept them secretly hoping that my feet would shrink or that the boots would become just a little looser across my right foot. Today when I tried them on they still hurt my foot. In fact my foot is hurting now as I write this. The pain only serves to underline the ridiculousness of me clinging to a pair of boots that never fit me.
Why did I cling to this pair of boots? Was it the ideal they held? The dream of being something I'm not? The knowledge that I will likely never buy myself a pair of handsome boots like them? The fear that God doesn't really know me and therefore will only provide me with drudgery clunky rubber boots?
Honestly, I think it was probably a little of each of those things. The thing that scares me the most is that I know God, we have walked through many fires together. I have experienced His provision and love and yet there is a part of me that stubbornly clings to these useless boots saying I have to look out for myself because no one else, including God, will. The reality is that people often fail and I end up looking out for myself, but God, God does not fail. Whenever I fully place my trust in Him and throw myself upon his mercy He provides in ways beyond anything I can comprehend.
So why do I hesitate to trust Him? Why do I sit alone mired in fears? Why am I seemingly incapable of completely relinquishing my hold on my life even when I know it is the answer to my sometimes crippling fears?
The answer I think lies in my condition, that of being human. As much as I know the truth in my head and have experienced it in my life I still struggle to believe God's truth.
Imagine Jesus is sitting across from me staring into my eyes.
"Keep trusting me?" He asks as he holds out his nail scarred hand. "I love you and I promise to never leave you or forsake you. Keep trusting me, really trust me. Let go of all the things that are distracting you, don't embrace fear as a friend. Trust me, ask my Father, search for us and then you will find us. You will be given what you ask for and the things you trust me with will be taken care of." Matt 6&7
He is telling me that I can't rest in the fact that I trusted Him in the past and He came through, but I have to be actively engaging in relationship with Him journeying down the next path. Going over and over the lesson of trust until I really truly learn it. To the point where I am able to throw off all my possessions and fears living contentedly in the trust of God.
Unfortunately I am human and as Kenneth Boa says the renewing of our minds is not a one-time deal but a continuous cycle of "surrender and trust and of emptying and filling as the Holy Spirit replaces the lies we have believed with the truth of our identity in Christ". I know the truth; that God will provide and that the Creator of the Universe loves me deeply, madly, incomprehensibly for all eternity. That love is so great that He gave His only son, Jesus who was perfect to suffer, bearing the punishment for my sin. I have immeasurable intrinsic worth, because not only did God create me in His image and declare that I was good. He sent Jesus to rescue me when I choose to run away from Him and broke His heart. Even now when I wander and doubt He calls me back.
No matter how much I know this in my head and have even experienced it personally in my life, those lies are buried too deep and I doubt yet again. I cling to the boots as a toddler rebelling against their parent. I tell God that I don't really trust Him when I cling to these things, but I am learning to trust Him. To hold all things in my life with open hands. It is so hard and I struggle often, but I continue to hold my life in open upturned palms to God. My hands are open to receive but also open to surrender giving it all back.
So today I put my boots on the garage sale pile.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Update Letter April, 18, 2009

Dear Friends and Family,
This March God called me to go back to Africa. So I applied to and was accepted to join an incredible summer of outreach with MBMS (Mennonite Brethren Mission and Service) International’s ACTION: Winnipeg program. I feel that this trip is an important next step in my journey of discipleship with God.

ACTION is a discipleship training program offered by MBMS International. The purpose of the program is to expose participants to a creative medium for sharing their faith with those around them and to learn from other cultures and people groups. Through training in various forms of compassion ministry I hope to grow in intimacy with God, know God’s heart for the world and go and join in God’s mission.

I will be travelling in a team with other participants from around North America to the Democratic Republic of Congo during July and August 2009. Long term missionaries and the local church will be hosting our team throughout our assignment. Our group will be hosted by Jean Baptiste, a local pastor and his family. Please pray for them in their long-term ministry to the DRC.

Leve Toi (Stand You or Rise up you) - A school for visually, hearing, and physically challenged children. Our team will be involved in some small building projects and will run a carnival and kid's program for children from the school and the community.

Rama Elohim Mission – a ministry to local artists. Relationship building is an important part of this ministry - our team will spend a day getting to know the artists and hear about their passion for their ministry. We will also lead a Bible study with this group and any local artists that come.

Bon Berger - A local Kinshasa medical clinic initiative. All the clinic staff are Christians and they view the clinic as a ministry to the community. Our team may be involved in distributing medications for parasites or infections to homes and running a carnival day for the children in the area.

Bomoyi ya Sika (New Life) - An orphanage for both boys and girls. Our team will be involved in a combination of work projects - painting, cleaning, cementing, etc. and the rest of the time they will concentrate on loving the kids - playing games, etc.

Sango Malamu - This is a radio/television ministry that reaches a large audience in Kinshasa. Our team will share our testimonies and discuss topics with the host on both radio and television.

Christian Sportsman -). Our team will play sports together with their team, share testimonies and have Bible studies together.

Shalom – joining a team of local church planters in their ministry of Shalom.

Over the past year I have sensed a shift in my life from being a very goal oriented achiever to a far more relaxed holistic life-style. Within this shift has been an increasing call to Africa. Right now this is the next step in following God’s call to Africa on my life. This past year God has been teaching me to hold material objects, dreams, people, and all things lightly before Him with open hands. Willing to receive them but equally willing to lay them down. God has also been showing me that my spiritual gift is love and that I just need to get out there and love all people but especially African people.

Among other things, I anticipate learning humility on this mission as I once again realize just how small I am and how big God is. I expect to have my heart broken and restored as I meet beautiful people in a hurting country. Earlier today I was talking to a friend about missions and we were remarking on how God keeps widening our focus in mission. Just when we think we know what we are supposed to do God shows us another layer. God calls us to continue to trust Him and delve into each new layer/project/people group He shows us.

Please join me in praying for: health, team unity, God’s continued direction in what we do in the DRC and for the next step in my life, safety, financial support, wisdom, discernment, and an ability to serve. Pray also For The DRC, the people we will work with, the places we go, and each of my team members as we prepare are hearts and minds to grow and minister in a true spirit of love to each person we come in contact with.

Thank you for standing with me as I step out in faith. I will keep you informed as to how the trip has gone.

I have included a support form, which I invite you to fill out if God is calling you to support the outreach of MBMSI that I will be involved with this summer.

Thank you so much for caring.

Brittany

You can find me (although while I’m there we will have very limited access to communication):

On my blog: http://followingthewindingroad.blogspot.com

On Facebook

Or email britt.abrahamson@gmail.com