Letters from Kazakhstan

Letters from Kazakhstan

Being in country has overwhelmed me...I have seen the splendor of God’s creation from mountain peaks to the flat lands and have been reminded just how great our God is.  Being isolated from the distractions that normally surround life (internet, phone, TV) have afforded me time to think and reflect.  Not to mention this latest journey.

The last several days I have been thinking about love.  What is it, really what is it we all say things like I love you, I love cheeseburgers, I love my dog.  So what is love, think about it, it is a common word we use but do we really understand what it means?

I think I am finally beginning to understand love or at least that I have been mistaken about love for much of my life.  As I have moved along this journey I have ended up with more questions than answers, especially when it comes to the love of God.

Jesus died on the cross for my sins because He loved me.  I find this amazing because in essence He did not really know me because my sin separated me from Him.  This is a giant paradox because Jesus knows us because He created us but yet sin keeps a distance between us and He still died for me/us.  I don’t know about you but I definitely would find it hard to die for someone else especially when I really don’t know them.

The Bible says greater love has no man than he who would lay His life down.  Do you have this kind of love?  I’m not sure I am there yet.  I would lay my life down for Lauren or Matt or even my closest friend but I am not so sure about that person next door.

Love grows as we grow in our faith and my prayer is that God allows me to grow in His love so I can be better at sharing with others.

Verses for thought:

Matthew 22:37; John 17:23; Luke 15; John  3:14-15; John 15:1314; John 21:15-17

What are your thoughts?  Leave me a comment.

Kazakhstan Bound

Well we are off...we hope.  Been a crazy couple of days.  We can't wait for everyone to meet the newest Brogdon.  We are excited about what God is up to, we will be meeting our next child in just a few days.  Pray that we make all of our flights.

Stay tuned for Bible Studies from KAZ...

World Changers Chattanooga

World Changers was a huge success!  I am so proud of all our students and leaders who shared Jesus without fear and worked hard with amazing attitudes!  God is so good, I saw tremendous growth in everyone who participated and watched as God did some amazing things.   I am already looking forward to WC 2011 Birmingham and Poland!

Thanks to our AWESOME Summer and Project Staff, you guys rock'd out Chattanooga!

IWC Romania

WOW!  It has been a crazy month...I feel like I have been on a roller-coaster from mission trip to mission trip to all the craziness of our adoption.  With everything going on finding time to write has been in short supply.  So, here is a single post recap of the last several weeks.

Romania

Romania was an amazing trip and we had the opportunity to see God at work in great and mighty ways.  Our trip got off to a rocky start with our flight from Atlanta to Frankfurt was delayed by about 3 hours this delay caused us to miss our connection to Bucharest.  God showed up and we all were able to get on the same flight just a couple of hours later.  We finally made it to Braila and the Home of Hope orphanage around midnight.

Sunday was a great day, we got to attend church in Braila and I had the opportunity to speak to the congregation and give greetings from the team sharing what our mission for the week would be.  Later that day we met our crew for the week and had a time of crew planning.  We had dinner on the Danube, what would be the only touristy thing we did in Braila.

Monday it was off to the villages for our first day of work.  Three different crews, three different missions...One crew - mission - install flooring in two churches; next crew mission - two children’s camps and a youth camp a day; my crew’s mission -   in home visits with evangelism a children’s and youth camp.

It was incredible to be in the Roma villages and meet the people who live there.  We discovered a welcoming people who were excited and open to hearing what God was doing in our lives and how His power changes lives.  We all instantly fell in love with the warm and affectionate Roma people.  It was awesome to see God move and work in not only the lives of the people we were there to minister to but in each of our lives also.

As we have returned stateside we all have thought about the biggest thing God taught us during the week.  For me God reminded me about love and how I need to love more.  More specifically God reminded me I need to love other Christians more because we are all on the same journey just some are in different places along the road.  I have always found it easy to love the lost but sometimes my patience falls flat when I deal with other Christians.  Thank You God for teaching me how to love others again.

Romania will always hold a special place in my heart.  Thanks Bob and Gail our missionaries for sharing your passion for the Roma.  Thanks Robert, Vasilica and Victor for being my voice and teaching me a little Romanian.

Romania

So it begins, we are on our way.  I am very excited about the team of students we have going to Romania.  I believe God will show Himself in a powerful way as we minister in Brailia.  Pray that we have the opportunity to see people come to faith and experience the power of faith in Jesus!

Craziness

Wow, it has been a crazy couple of weeks…Finally finding time to sit down and write. So here goes a quick catch up…

Survived Easter – Check
Spring Break event - Check
International World Changers trained – Check
Taxes Prepared – Check
Adoption Finger Prints Round…(I’ve lost count) – Check
USCIS Paperwork – Check
National World Changers trained – Check
T-Shirt designs – Almost Check

It has been an interesting ride and the summer seems to be more of the same, a few more hurdles and look out Romania and Chattanooga, here we come.

Here’s a quick look at the next few weeks:

May 16 - Grad Sunday, AM Service
May 21-22 - Graduation Weekend
May 23 - Preaching during AM Service
June 2 - International World Changers final meeting
June 11 – Leave for Romania

OK God, feeling stressed, fill in the gaps and prepare my heart!

GO-Kart Frenzy

I had a blast with our students riding Go-Karts and playing mini golf during spring break. I had the chance to get to know a few students better and really enjoyed hanging out! Here are the long awaited pictures. I have also created an album on the Gum Branch Facebook page.