Mostly, I am trying not to forget. I'm trying not to forget the focus and importance of relationships. And how easy God is to find in a place like Africa. And how fortunate we really are. I'm trying not to forget those faces and hearts.
Here is a video of some of my pictures (3 of them are Adams :) Sorry the resolution is so low. I wasn't sure what way would be the best for sending to so many people. I think you'll get the idea.
Hope the holiday season is a time of joy and peace for you all. Much love,
Brandi
After two years of planning and praying Africa is officially a past tense in my life. Its strange to think about. During my flight to London I was looking out over the Darfur Mountains and it hit me that I'm no longer in Africa. Time moves at a slower pace in Africa and it has felt like the past couple weeks have in fact been much longer.
I just wanted to let you all know that I arrived safely in Denver this evening. As I landed I was greeted by an orange and blue sunset over the Rocky Mountains and a group of familiar faces. It was sad to leave the new relationships and beautiful faces in Uganda, but it feels good to be home.
[brandi]
Things are beautifully simple here. Since our arrival on Sunday our team has received nothing but love and generosity from our friends in Adjumani. It is funny, though we are so far from home, I think I speak for everyone when I say we feel very much at home here with Jeff, Michelle, Rick and Faye.
In the past couple of days we have spent our time meeting so many amazing people. We first met Michael who has helped some women in the area by building an energy conserving stove in order to bake pumpkin muffins which they can sell in town. I know we were all so encouraged by his desire to see his community prosper. His passion is contagious.
We have also visited a handful of churches now. Each congregation has welcomed us with open arms... and much singing... We have been so blessed to join them in praise and worship. And to hear how their churches were first started and how they've continued to grow. They also made requests in areas which Jeff and Michelle might be able to help them. I've been blown away by the way Jeff handles the requests. I know one of his biggest goals during his time in Adjumani is that the people would not grow dependent on him, but rather that he would be an encouragement to them to take steps on their own and to become self-sufficient. He has been in Adjumani for many years now and can honestly tell them he understands their needs and reminds them that God is the one that provides and fulfills those needs. Its hard to explain, but I think Jeff has been made for this place. He has a great understanding of what helps and what hinders.
I could type for hours about the massive potholes, or the sugary sweet african tea, or the cute neighbor kids that yell to us whenever we leave the house, or the sparking power surges, or the giant net of stars that show up at night in the giant african sky, but i will not. internet connection here is so touch and go. we will continue to update as frequently as possible. much love to you all.
[brandi]
So this trip to Uganda is coming up so fast! Funny how that always works, huh? I just wanted to thank you all for your prayers. Our team feels them as each piece of the trip continues to come into place. We're still working on making all of our arrangements and such, but have continually felt peace about God orchestrating this entire journey.
I just wanted to let you all know that I am not sure how often I will be able to update this site. I think the priority will be in updating our team's blog, which can be found at friendsofuganda.blogspot.com. You'll be able to read entries from all of the team, but I will still update this one when the opportunity presents itself.
Thanks for reading..it means a lot.
Grace and peace,
Brandi
As many of you already know, God has been moving in my heart over the past few years regarding the people of Africa. It started with a simple film (http://www.invisiblechildren.com) which acted as a catalyst to my growing passion. I suppose it was the first time my eyes had been truly opened to the sufferings of the people of Africa. After that movie, I found myself involved in various awareness projects (http://www.enteractionafrica.org) because of a desire to help in any way possible. Along the way, my path has crossed with many others who share the same desire. In November, I have the opportunity to join a team from my church, The Next Level Church (http://www.tnl.org), in a trip to Uganda. This trip serves many purposes as we've continually built relationships with various people and organizations in Uganda:
• Jennie Otte, one of my close friends, is living and working in northern Uganda. She is stationed with Medair, working as an office manager overseeing repair and sustainability of boreholes for providing water in remote areas of Uganda. http://jennieelaine.blogspot.com
• Shane, from Steamboat, Colorado, has founded an organization in the capital city of Kampala (Come, Let’s Dance) providing housing and education to children without homes. http://www.comeletsdance.org/
• Ben and Holly Porter are serving with the Mennonite Central Committee in Lira, Uganda. They continue their work with Concerned Parents Association (CPA) providing training for local counselors and supporting the process of peace negotiations in different regions. http://hollyandben.blogspot.com/
• Jeff and Michelle Thiesen are developing a missional community in Adjumani, located near the Uganda - Sudan. Together with others from their church in Portland, Oregon (Imago Dei) they are living and working with both Ugandan and Sudanese who have been displaced by the wars. http://sudanpartnership.org/wordpress/
The team from my church is made up of six individuals who all have a deep desire to discover how they can serve the people of Uganda (Alyssa English, Adam and Sarah Rao, Tiffani Rahtbun, Jared Mackey and myself). Our goal is two fold: to encourage the leaders and workers in various communities by listening and seeing the world from their perspective; to continue to foster relationships in Uganda for our community to send teams and resources on an ongoing basis. Our team will be spending the majority of our time (10 days) with Jeff and Michelle in Adjumnai. En route to Adjumani and via our return we will take a few days to spend time to encourage and provide needed resources to Jennie, Ben, Holly, and Shane. Daily life for our friends who live and work in Uganda can be disheartening at times. We want to laugh with them, cry with them, and offer assurance that they are supported both there in Uganda and here at home.
I really hope that you can become connected to the work God is doing in Africa by supporting my team. Your partnership is very important to me as we seek to communicate to others how to support peace and healing for this in Uganda. There are several ways you can help.
Please partner with me in prayer as my team prepares for our trip:
• For Jennie, Shane, Ben, Holly, Jeff, and Michelle all to be encouraged and refreshed by our visit
• That our hearts would be motivated by compassion and love for those in the Uganda
• For our safety and health as we travel through the war torn and unstable environment of Uganda
• That we would communicate the hope of Christ and that God would be honored as we serve, learn, and partner with those who serve in Uganda
As with the nature of missions, financial support is also appreciated. The total cost for our team is $18,000 – together as a team of 6 we have contributed the initial $8,000 personally. We hope to raise $10,000 for the additional costs of the team to take the needed financial and tangible resources to our friends. We are trusting God with the finances of this trip and I only ask that you donate if you feel God placing that desire on your heart. If you feel led to do so, all financial support should be sent to The Next Level Church, c/o Uganda Team. All support is tax deductible.
We will provide updates of our team in Uganda via www.friendsofuganda.blogspot.com. And of course I'll update as frequently as I can on this site as well. Our hope is for this team to be a catalyst of growth and encouragement not only for ourselves and those we work with in Uganda, but for you as well.
Thank you for your prayers and support. May the peace of Christ be with you.
Brandi
sometimes life is a vicious cycle. i have a deep longing to be known. i feel like if i stay guarded and continue to walk through life unknown than life is pointless. yet i feel a deep fear of taking that risk, a fear of being rejected for showing who i really am. i feel like i'm in a constant battle with myself. i'm not good enough. i never measure up. i walk under the burden of comparison. i'm not ok with who i am, so i don't think God is ok with who i am, so who the heck would ever be ok with who i am?? and yet, i'm God's child. i'm his artist. i'm his beloved. i'm exactly who he created me to be. i can't continue to constrain him to the nice little brandi-box i've shoved him in. i need to keep finding Him so i can keep finding the truth about myself. i am not my weaknesses. i am not my strengths. my identity should be in Him.
this past weekend, a friend of mine asked me how i would define God. i told him honestly that i don't know because i think half my problem is that i've tried so hard to define God, but my understanding of him is based on a very limited life experience with Him. He's bigger than my experiences. He can't possibly fit neatly inside a definition. If he did, I think I'd actually get Him, but I don't get Him. I have so many questions that only lead to more questions, but no matter what... my heart points me to Him.
sorry if none of this makes sense, though i wrote this more for myself than for you anyway. just processing through a heavy heart.
so anyway, i think one thing i know is that without struggling through anything i would never grow. i want to grow.
can i share some merton with you? good, cause i'm gonna:
"A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him. It "consents," so to speak, to His creative love. It is expressing an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree. The more a tree is like itself, the more it is like Him. If it tried to be like something else which it was never intended to be, it would be less like God and therefore it would give Him less glory. ... This particular tree will give glory to God by spreading out its roots in the earth and raising its branches into the air and the light in a way that no other tree before or after it ever did or will do."
I wasn't sure quite what to expect, but they've got quite the system worked out. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day. On top of that they run a program that helps guys get off the streets and rebuild their lives. Its all Christ-centered with the goal of helping people become self-sustaining again. Most of the people that work and volunteer at the mission are guys that are actually going through the 15 month program themselves. The program doesn't ask for any money from the participants. Instead, they assist by providing counseling, life skills training and job placement. When someone has graduated from the program, DRM provides them with a car, a furnished apartment, and $150/month towards rent for the first 6 months, and then $75/month towards rent for the 6 months after that. Basically, as one of the guys in the program said himself, "If you can't make it after going through the DRM program, you just don't want to make it."
Now, I wasn't up front where I could really talk with any of the guys. I actually was posted in the kitchen scooping veggies onto silver trays, but occasionally a guy would walk back to the counter and thank us for the food. At the end, as we were leaving one of the guys stopped us and sincerely thanked us for volunteering. He said "Our food tastes better with a smile behind it."
I'm just encouraged by that and also in knowing there are many more shelters that run that same types of programs all over Denver. Its easy to be discouraged by panhandlers and what-not, and feeling like its hopeless. But its not. There is always hope. We have teams of people all over our city that volunteer their time to make sure people don't go hungry and that people have hope.
As a kid, I remember my strong dislike for the mountains. "Nothing but big rocks with trees on them." I think it took me going away to college in the mountains to discover their true majesty..
I remember my first time skiing. I found myself at the top of a slope completely alone. I've never been surrounded by silence like that before. I could almost hear the snow falling and I was truly overcome by the beauty of my surroundings.
I remember walking back to the dorms from my last class every other night and the sun would have set already, but not completely. All that was left of the sun was a green glow creeping into the deep blue sky from behind the mountains. And I felt like God was walking with me.
I remember flying from Aspen to Denver for a Thanksgiving break after a rock slide in the canyon. I looked out over the mountains and couldn't help but think of all the places that were untouched by us humans. The mountains were so vast and it was hard to wrap my mind around it all.
Now I've hiked my first 14er. I suppose that means I can call myself a Coloradoan now. From the summit of Bierstadt I couldn't help but think how big God is and how small our "giant" mountains seem in the palm of His hand. How tiny I am. One insignificant part of a huge picture. How overwhelming God can be and yet how personal all at the same time. I love that He gave us something as vast as the mountains to remind us how vast He is.
Hey everyone. We're officially back in the states! Sorry I never had a chance to update between Nice and London. I only used the internet once during that time and it was in Paris. Their keyboards are different than ours so typing was entirely too complicated.
Anyway, the rest of our trip was amazing. We continued to meet people everywhere we went.. we even went Salsa Dancing in Paris (I thought of you Rosanna!) which was way out of character for us, but so much fun. Plus we saw the Eiffel Tower, Arc d'Triumph, Notre Dame, Louvre, and Muse d'Orsay while in Paris. Then in London we stayed with a group of people who live in a community setting (5 people in a two bedroom flat) and they were so great. Our last night in London we got tickets to see Lord of the Rings on stage. Somehow they successfully managed to fit the entire story line in 3 hours. The set was incredible, the best I've ever seen for a stage performance.
Our journey home seemed to fly by faster than our journery out there. We didn't have any flight delays or anything! I really will get some pictures up soon. Because JuliAnn and I just moved before we left we don't have internet at out apartment, but I'll work on it this weekend. Hope to see you all soon! (And you folks at 940, see you tomorrow!)
Brandi
Sadly, we've left the land of espresso and gelato. (Though I quite enjoy French pastries) We had a small debacle on the night train which would have landed us in Germany as opposed to France, but we figured it out in time to get all settled in our little train beds and sleep all night. Night trains are the greatest things. You sleep the whole time and wake up when you get to wherever you are going. I'm not sure that I'm liking France as much as Italy, but it is still amazing. Unfortunately, I keep using all my Italian phrases, which really dont get me too far with the French.
Basically, we have wandered around Nice and Monte Carlo for the past two days. We went to the beach and just relaxed, much like when we were at Lake Garda. Thats a really nice change from tons of sight seeing. A lot of traveling around Europe isnt a vacation. Its more stressful because of the language barrier and always trying to figure out public transportation in each new location. We did, however, manage to check out a sweet Modern Art Museum today. Nice is a lot bigger than I thought it would be, but the best part about it is being right on the Med... The water is so incredibly blue.
One week left...
