Jambo! I’ve made it to Africa and I love it here! I've been dreaming about Africa for 23 years. I feel like I belong. I feel at home. It only took 1 day to realize that I'm an Amerikenyan at heart.

This month I'm excited to beworking with Deliverance Church Southland in southern Nairobi. The pastor and his wife just had a baby 2 days ago and it's exciting to arrive at such a time. I’m staying in the house of a wonderful older woman we call Mama Milka who is a member of that church. She has completely opened her house to my team and has loved on us like we are her own children.  Another member of the church is cooking our team amazing meals so that we can focus on all the ministries that are going on here.  

We do street ministry, teach English, serve in the church administratively, do praise and worship alongside the worship team here, we are participating in a 40 days of purpose program alongside locals and inviting people we meet on the street to attend with us. There is also a daily hour long prayer meeting which may sound boring to some of you. It did to me at first. Let me tell you, if you heard these men and women pray, you would be wide awake. It sounds like people are fighting. And they are! They are waging spiritual warfare in a simple 4-walled structure.  They are crying and shouting and whispering and walking and jumping. I never experienced anything like it before.  The first time I heard it I was overwhelmed. I just sat there, completely out of my element. I began to listen to the words they were speaking and started weeping so hard.  I rarely cry and even less so in public. I was so broken by their prayers, their faithfulness in coming everyday and how desperately they spoke to the Lord. If anything these people should come to North America and teach us how to pray, instead of Americans coming to teach English.  

It is the rainy season here so almost every afternoon it thunders and downpours. It is cool and and a much appreciated respite from the last 7 countries which were quite hot.  Also, we don’t have to worry as much about Malaria here as it is not as common but still happens. What a blessing!

I’m so excited to be here this month.   

Pray today for:

Safety- physical, and spiritual

My health--the change in weather and temperature has affected my sinus and allergies.

Praise- the pastor and his wife that we are working closely with this month just had a baby 2 days ago! It’s been such a delight to be here during such a sweet time for their family!

“Are you more likely to be used than a stick?”

I’ve been listening to a sermon series going verse by verse through the book of Exodus. Pastor Kevin Hass of By Grace Community Church in Newport News, Va does not mince his words and chooses them carefully. 

“Are you more likely to be used than a stick?” 

I was dumbstruck when I heard that sentence. Well, of course I am. 

In Exodus 4:1-9 God is conversing with Moses at the famous burning bush. Moses is doubting, whether or not the people will believe him or even just listen to him. HE IS ENCOUNTERING THE ALMIGHTY GOD, THE GREAT I AM, AND STILL, HE DOUBTS.

It’s incredible. It doesn’t make me feel so bad when I question my ability to be used by God.

God asked Moses to take the simplest thing he owns, a stick, and throw it on the ground. It became a serpent. 

God said take your hand and put it inside your cloak. He did and when he pulled it out, it came out leperous.

It was just a piece of wood that Moses happened to pick up one day while walking.

It was just a hand that Moses had happened to be carrying with him all of his life.

It doesn’t matter what you think you have or haven’t got to offer. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. If God can use a stick, a cloak, and a bush to reveal His love and glory, how much more can He use you, someone He loves, someone He died for, someone He lives for, someone He created in His own image? In God’s hands, these simple things, they do marvelous things.  The river turns to blood, rocks give forth their water, and blood stops death angels. 

Let me repeat that.

The river turns to blood, rocks give forth their water, and blood stops death angels!!!!

How crazy is that!?  Can you just imagine if you allowed Him to use you?

People of God, how much more are we created with love and care than a stick?!

How much more does God want to use you to demonstrate His love and His Glory and His mercy than a stick!?

We are men and women who were created to be men of God and women of God. We are made for so much more. We are capable of so much more when we surrender ourselves, just as we are, to God’s hands.

Moses was scared that the people of God wouldn’t believe that He met with God because he talked to a bush in the middle of the Midian wilderness. 

People of God, do you believe that God is who is says He is or are you too concerned with what others will think? Will you surrender to the call placed on your life or are you still doubting in the wilderness while God is talking to you from your personal 'burning bush'? 

People of God, can you just believe that you are more likely to be used than a stick? 

In His Glorious Love, 

Brittney

P.S. If you would like to listen to the sermon that inspired this blog, go to:

http://www.bygraceonline.org/wp/resources/sermons

and click on Exodus Series.  Enjoy!

P.P.S. I have another blog speaking specifically about ministry here in Malaysia coming. It was just on my heart to share this truth that rocked my own little world.

P.P.P.S. Be sure to check out my other blog for photos! :) 
http://theadventureofexistence.blogspot.com

This is a cry out for support!!! 

My Squad, B-Squad, has stood together through so much and we know that we are to finish this journey together. Every member serves as a piece to the Kingdom Bringing, Life Altering, Spirit Breathing, Love Giving and Good News Preaching that this journey and our squad have to offer.

We have had the opportunity to play with toothless kids, witness miracles, see people come to know Jesus, help each other become closer in our own walks, offer our bodies to grueling physical labor, laugh with people we have come to love but the following people need your help to continue and finish the Race...

Read their blogs and choose to support and fight for them! The amount is how much they have left to raise.

 

 

 

Here are the lyrics of a Chris Rice song called The Power of a Moment.  I feel that they succinctly describe what my heart has been crying out for a while. 

What am I gonna be when I grow up?
How am I gonna make my mark in history?
And what are they gonna write about me when I’m gone?
These are the questions that shape the way I think about what matters

But I have no guarantee of my next heartbeat
And my world’s too big to make a name for myself
And what if no one wants to read about me when I’m gone?
Seems to me that right now’s the only moment that matters

You know the number of my days
So come paint Your pictures on the canvas in my head
And come write Your wisdom on my heart
And teach me the power of a moment

In Your kingdom where the least is greatest
The weak are given strength and fools confound the wise

And forever brushes up against a moment’s time
Leaving impressions and drawing me into what really matters

I get so distracted by my bigger schemes
Show me the importance of the simple things
Like a word, a seed, a thorn, a nail
And a cup of cold water

So come paint Your pictures on the canvas in my head
And come write Your wisdom on my heart
And teach me the power of a moment.

...

I've always asked lots of questions. Currently I'm asking myself, What do I want to do with my life? What do I want to do with all the things I am witnessing and learning? How do I want to use all the blessings God has poured out on my life? What does that look like? Because I’m changing and growing. I can’t remain the same. I have so many ideas about what’s next. A lot of them are really noble. So where do I anticipate I’ll be in 5 months? In a year?  

I don’t know. 

I took a Myers-Briggs personality test recently. It is an in depth analysis used by many professionals to study leadership qualities, as well as workplace and team dynamics. It is fairly accurate and is incredibly insightful. If you aren't familiar with it, look it up. Essentially, this test results in 1 of 16 defined personality types. These 16 personalities are based on 4 dichotomies or continuums:

Extraversion<--->Introversion

Sensing<--->Intuition

Thinking<--->Feeling

Judging<--->Perception

You will fall somewhere on each continuum and it is rare to fall to onto an extreme end or exactly in the middle. People usually fall somewhere closer in the middle of each scale but definitively on one side. For example, you could be 30% introverted and 70% extraverted in your tendencies. That would give you an E for the first dichotomy. Your score can vary over time as people grow and change.

My result this time was INFJ. INFJ personalities of any age can be summed up in one question:
                         
                                                                 “What do I want to be when I grow up?”. 

When I read that I nearly fell over laughing. No wonder a common theme in my walk with the Lord has been,                                       Just be present, Brittney. I’ve got a plan for you. It’s gonna be wild. Just wait.

As I continued reading on several websites about INFJ personalities, I began to gain more perspective. I gained insight on my strengths and weaknesses. Combining that with truth from God’s word and from my Christian community here about my true identity in Christ, I felt I had a revelation.

I have to know who I am and Whose I am. 

Socrates summed it up pretty well when he said, “Know thyself.”

You have to know yourself so that you don’t burn with somebody else’s fire. I want to burn with the fire and passions that God gives ME. I want Abba to come and paint HIs pictures, visions, and dreams on the canvas in my head. I want the outpouring of my relationship with Abba to be distinct. Not Jesus and Seth Barnes and mine. Not Jesus, my team’s and mine. Not Jesus, Invisible Children and mine. I don’t want to jump on the bandwagon. All the ideas I’ve had about what’s next have all been for noble causes and I believe I could honestly contribute to them but I am not burning with a passion for any of them. I’m settling for burning with somebody else’s vision and passion that God has given them. 

And it’s so alluring when somebody burns with the fire God has given them, isn’t it?  You say to yourself, I want that. I want that fire, that joy, that passion.

 I’ve shared on previous blogs that I have been really trying to stay in the moment and out of the future. Some of you may not understand that struggle. I’m finally becoming ok with that. The victories that come out of that struggle will be a result of the refining fire that is uniquely mine that I am burning with. I hope that if you are reading this and burning with somebody else's fire and not your own, you will stop and reflect and invite the Lord to paint His pictures on the canvas in your head. 

Blessings.

 

Pray today for: 

My coccyx, I think I cracked it being adventurous. haha 

The Lord to teach me the power of a moment and that I would remember the lesson.

That I would boldly burn with my own fire and not somebody else’s.

Vietnam is not what I expected. 

A concrete jungle with paved rivers?

Air-conditioned?

Running water?

A REAL TOILET?

Come on, Lord. Give me something REALLY challenging. This is too comfortable. Search my heart.

You ask me, ‘What then, do you really find your comfort in?’.

Uh oh.

That would be my pride, my ability to stay in control of my emotions, and my future.

Good grief. Here goes my pride. I want my readers and supporters to know that just because I’m on the field doesn’t mean I have all my ducks in row. (No one does but for some reason it's easy to believe that folks like me are somehow more 'spiritual' or 'Godly').  Actually, being on the field is forcing me to chase down my ducks all over the place. Little known fact: These ducks are irritatingly fast and love avocados.

A couple of examples of my ducks that tend to run off without my noticing are my pride, my sense of control, and infatuation with the future which robs me of the present moment.

You may be familiar with these ducks. Maybe not. Just stick with me on this analogy though, it’s about to go deep.

The refreshing fact of the matter is that along with being the Creator of the World, Prince of Peace, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Healer, Defender, a Trinity and all that jazz, He is also a professional Duck Wrangler. And He loves that role just as much as the others.

If only I would just let Him be that for me! If I could just swallow my pride,  let Him do what he does best, and wrangle my ducks back into their rows, I could really enjoy the journey instead of feeling stressed out so much of the time. 

Does this sound familiar? 

Granted, allowing Him to fill the role of wrangler requires the discomfort of humility, more often times the greater discomfort of relinquishing control and usually facing an uncomfortable reality.

When I try to deal with things from an earthly perspective, which I so often do, its rare that I can get my ducks under control and they are usually resentful and act out of a bitter attitude of obligation. 

The really sweet thing about Jesus, the Duck Wrangler, is that He approaches the ducks that are deserving of punishment and correction with a counter-intuitive response. A Heaven-oriented, grace-based response. 

Are you still with me on this ducky analogy? No? Let me explain.

Por ejemplo:

Peter really lost his ducks three times in one night when He denied Christ before the crucifixion. When His ducks had all been wrangled back to where they belong, Jesus simply asked him, “Do you love me?”

Peter responded, “Yes Lord, you know that I do.”
“Feed my sheep.” (John 21:15-17)

He wasn’t saying, “keep the law.”

He wasn’t saying, “maintain this relationship by keeping all the rules.”

He was asking Peter’s ducks, “Do you love me? Do you really want to have a relationship? If you do, then just follow me and love others like I love you.” (John 21:15-17 New Jennings Paraphrase)

That’s how He gets my ducks in row. Actually, He has them lining up themselves because they want to, they have to, out of a heart of gratitude. The love they have been repeatedly shown just has to flow through them. He doesn’t want to control them, but has given them self-control. 

Essentially, when Christ says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”, Christ was saying, ‘If you love me, you will adjust your behavior because you want to protect our relationship.” (John 14:15)

This is a relationship worth protecting. Still, my ducks are prone to wander because let’s be honest, staying in row all the time can get uncomfortable when your perspective turns from the Lord to the duck’s butt in front of you. 

Fortunately, I have a Duck Wrangler/Prince of Peace/ Savior/ Holy Spirit/ Jehovah/.... who is always with me wherever I go to help woo my ducks back into submission.

This is what I am learning on this journey called the World Race. Also, I’m not sorry for the duck analogy. I really like analogies. And ducks. 

Pray today for:

No head lice, we are working in orphanages rampant with it. I have dreads and it would be no bueno.

Our contacts and their work

My ducks: Humility/Pride, Surrender/Control, Present/Future thinking

Blessings!

Before you start reading I need to acknowledge that most of the credit of this blog goes to my squad mate, Laura Gamble, who simply wrote an incredibly accurate description of our experience in Cambodia. Instead of wasting precious time, I am borrowing most of her blog with permission. Why re-invent the wheel, right?

At the beginning of this month, we had our four month debrief in Siem Reap. This is basically a time to rest, worship, learn from one another, check in with our leaders, and enjoy community. We also had the opportunity to do some sight-seeing, including going to Angkor Wat. 

When our short time at debrief was over, Team Salt Shakers departed for our ministry with the Rock Foundation Cambodia near Phnom Penh. We're placed with another team this month, which means there are currently fourteen of us sharing three bedrooms and a small common living area. The bathroom consists of a large basin of water and a half-sized toilet. Bathing requires a tupperware bowl, as well as quick reflexes to avoid the plethora of mosquitoes that inhabit the water basin. Its incredibly hot and humid here, so we're thankful for the fans (when the electricity is working, that is). 

Our first day of ministry, we had the opportunity to visit Choeung Ek, one of many Killing Fields from the Khmer Rouge regime of the late 1970s. It was a sobering reminder of the recent past of many Cambodians and the many issues the country and its people still face as a result of the genocide. 

Our day to day ministry has included visiting a number of villages where our contact works. They are all squatter communities that are a direct result of the Khmer Rouge Genocide that our contact, Brett and his right-hand man, Thyvenn, have been pouring into for at least a year or more. They lead Bible studies, discipleship opportunities, and often bring food to help feed the hungry families.

 One of these villages is simply called the Rock Village. It’s a community that lives in a rock quarry, chipping out rock and crushing it into gravel to be sold. Seven days a week, 365 days a year, these families work to make a mere $30 a month. We've been able to help prepare a larger meal with them on Fridays, which is often the only good meal they'll eat all week. 

The second village we have been working in is called the Flooded Village, which is located in a ditch that floods 6 to 7 feet deep in the rainy season. ThyVenn conducts Bible studies and Brett has been able to work with the community to rebuild the homes there on stilts so they don’t have to evacuate the ditch and sleep on the road which is the only high ground, but extremely dangerous. 

The third village we’ve been working in, we call the Dump Village, where families dig through the nearby dump in order to collect wire, electronics, and other recyclables to turn in for money. They rent $5 rice bag shacks and too often are unable to even make that rent. The smell is putrid and the children are naked and dirty. But the Holy Spirit is moving there and several people have come to have a relationship with Jesus as a result of Brett and ThyVenns love and time investment. 

In the evenings, we've been teaching a free English class at the church, as well as helping with Bible studies and church services on the weekends. Our schedule has been keeping us really busy, but I've enjoyed my time here, our ministry contact, our translators and the work we've been partnering with. 

This weekend the men headed off to the "middle-of-no-where-Cambodia" to improve a hector (330' by 330') of land recently purchased by our contact, Brett. The goal is to make the land a functional mango farm.  By doing so Brett creates a job and income for a poor family at the rock village (moving them out to the piece of land) and simultaneously creates a stream of income for his ministry.

If you would like to learn more about the Rock Foundation Cambodia, you can check out their Facebook page or visit their website at: http://www.rockfoundationcambodia.webs.com

Another ministry I had a brief encounter with while I was here was Daughters of Cambodia. This Christian organization provides women, girls and lady-boys with alternative skills and work to provide a way out of the sex trade industry.  I was able to visit their shop where they have handicrafts being made in front of you, a spa, a coffee shop, and a boutique to sell their beautiful goods.  I’ve seen a lot of souveneir shops and this one was more than that. It was just, different. You’ll have to see it for yourself. Check it out future Racers and travelers :)

Ok. Hochimin, Vietnam next week...wow. I tell you what, WOW.

Also, check out my other blog: http://theadventureofexistence.blogspot.com