new blog name

Hey guys!

My new blog associated with the World Race can be found at www.heatherbrown.theworldrace.org. At this site you can keep up with me on the next journey I will start in January, see pictures of what's going on, and even see how to support me if you feel led.

I would also like to say a huge thank you to all who said prayers for me at the end of my time in Haiti when I was dealing with kidney stones. I am passed all of that now and feeling a million times better. God was watching over me and I am so thankful for all my faithful prayer warriors. It meant the world to me to have so many people praying for my health at such a scary time. That was a perfect situation to be reminded of God's love and power to heal on His time, not mine. We serve such a wonderfully faithful God and He always comes through for us. I am excited to see more of His faithfulness as I continue to go where He leads.

Blessings!
Tampico

Changes: God’s path for me in 2015 will look very different!!

I’m excited to announce that there will be some BIG changes for 2015 and I look forward to continuing to walk closely with the Lord, wherever He is asking me to go. I happen to be in Exodus right now and the Lord could not have been speaking more clearly to my heart by something I read last week. This is what the info/background page in my Bible said to prepare me as I started this book:

“It’s not easy to trade the comfortable security of the known for an uncertain future. But what if God gives the order to move? Will you follow his lead? Exodus describes a series of God’s calls and the responses of his people. God led Moses and the nation of Israel, and he wants to lead us as well. Is he preparing you, like Moses, for a specific task? He will be with you; obey and follow. Trust him, and do what he says. Read, study, and obey his Word. Exodus is the exciting story of God’s guidance. Read with the determination to follow God wherever he leads!”

From the beginning of this journey, I said I will continue to walk down the path that God is leading me. I also said that I will know in my heart if/when my time is up in Haiti. I’m posting this to let everyone know that in June, I feel my time will be up. I will have been here for about 10 months and I have had a wonderful experience with Many Hands for Haiti, but feel God leading me in a different direction.

Being in Haiti has taught me so much and I would not trade any of the experiences. I have learned so much about God, prayer, the Haitian people, my coworkers, the Haitian culture, teamwork, myself, etc. I can genuinely say that I know God placed me here at this time for a reason. I believe God has used everything in this experience to prepare me for the future He has planned. If I had not been here for this amount of time I would not have: been forced to learn how to forgive and forget easily, learned to go with the flow and let God truly lead my day, learned to live on fewer material things, or learned to be okay with not being able to see my family/friends for long periods of time. I also don’t know that I would have ever really taken the time to slow myself down and really get in the Word and listen to what God is saying to me every single day like I do now. I have learned so much by quieting my mind and closely focusing on what my Father in heaven is saying to me. I know that I was called to serve in Haiti with MH4H for many reasons and I feel blessed to have been a part of what is happening here.

I have been praying about this a lot the last few months and truly feel God calling me somewhere else. After reading the book Radical, I could not shake the feelings that God was stirring in my heart about unreached people groups and other countries that are less publicized – if recognized at all. I have closely been following His lead, continuously been praying and receiving a sense of peace like I have never felt before, and walking through doors that He has faithfully opened to this next chapter in my faith journey. After much time considering this next step and talking about it with God daily, I’m certain He is now calling me to do the World Race (WR) (www.worldrace.org) from January 2015 to November 2015. The WR is a series of short term (1 month) mission trips back to back. I will be on a route that includes 11 countries in 11 months. I truly feel God is asking me to take another leap of faith in the mission field and go a little further from home, where others might not want to go or maybe have never even heard of! The only way I can explain my certainty of this next step is by the complete peace in my heart, soul, and mind whenever I pray about it. J This is a feeling I know can only come from the Lord, and that’s something I trust 100%.

I truly feel God placed this on my heart so heavily and opened the necessary doors to show me this is His will for my life, but I have to be the one to actually say “yes!” and walk down the path He asks me to. I love Haiti, MH4H, and the Haitian people, but I feel God pulling me in a different direction for this next year of my life. I want to thank you all for the prayers, support, and encouragement over the last nine months of this journey in Haiti. I will never be able to describe how much it has meant to me! J The “blessing cards” I have opened in the past few months have been spot on with what I needed to hear and the prayers have been truly felt each day.

For those of you interested in hearing more: I am doing the January 2015 Route #2 Race. God will be showing me the work He is doing in the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Romania. J These places are all pretty far from home and I can’t even find some of them on a map right now (sorry to disappoint you Mr. Waggoner) and that excites me. If I’m not sure where they are, other people might not know either, and that means there are a lot of us who don’t know what God’s doing in these countries! I am excited He has called me to be part of what He is doing in these different areas of the world and to be able to share with others back home what I see. The things that I have been reading lately are definitely not a coincidence – every day the Lord makes His plan clearer to me and I could not be more excited about that. I will also have a blog associated with the WR and I will post more information on here about that when it is made. I would love for you to keep up with me on this next journey and hear what God is doing in each of these 11 countries! J

More of Him, less of me! J

Love,

Heather 

the tiniest role

SORRY it has been so long since I have gotten a chance to blog. We have been busy with teams here the last few weeks and updating sponsors on their cuties in Thrive. We have had some really great (big) teams here lately and it has been awesome to see everyone’s passion for Haiti and their energy to help with projects going on here. MH4H is continuing to put cement floors in the houses of sponsored children in the Thrive for 5 program. It has been so cool to see how much healthier the children are and how big of a difference these floors really make! J Thrive for 5 has been going great as well, we are busting at the seams with children wanting to get in! Right now the parents are deciding if their child will be “out” of this program in October – depending on whether or not their child is old enough to start school. All of the parents are so excited that MH4H will be finding sponsors for their child to attend school this next fall. It takes a huge burden off the families, especially the ones that are too poor and otherwise would not be able to send their child to school. J God is good!

The other day I was reading a page out of an old copy of “Our Daily Bread” and it talked about the story Jesus told of the widow who gave two coins, which was all she had. (Luke 21:1-4.) I was quickly reminded about the gift I received (to bring to Haiti) when I was home in December. After church, on the Sunday I spoke about Haiti, I was chatting with a few people when all the sudden a lady who I didn’t know came running up to me. She said, “Here, take this to Haiti. It’s all I have in my purse right now.” She slammed some change in my hand and as quickly as she came, she took off. Out of all the donations I received to bring down here and use as the Lord desired, THIS one is the most memorable. I didn’t even know the woman who gave me the change to be used in Haiti and she didn’t even know me, yet she felt called to give all she had with her at the time. How many of us can say we actually do that? It’s a lovely thought but reality is that giving “all you have” at the moment doesn’t happen that often. I love this Bible story because it reminds me that we should all have a faith like these women (the widow in the Bible and the woman I encountered.) I should always be willing to spend what I have on the Lord, because God is faithful and He will always provide for me. When we have open hands to freely give to the Lord, He is faithful and He will freely give back to us in ways much better than money can buy. Open palms freely give and freely receive. This is such a short story in the Bible that it could easily be overlooked but I think it’s such a beautiful story about authentic faith in God and giving what He’s asking of you, no matter what.

At the beginning of the month I was reading the book Consider Your Call by Gisela Yohannan and one quote that I loved in there was this: “The job He assigns to His tiniest sheep is as great a calling as leading a church with 10,000 people.” It is so true! I love this quote because it’s a great reminder that every single job in the Kingdom of God is worthwhile. And not only is every job worthwhile, but even the tiniest contributions count just as much as the biggest ones do. If God can feed 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish – think about what He could do if we all gave what we were called to give – not only in money, but in time as well. (Maybe God’s calling you to volunteer at the Many Hands Market?! J ) After receiving quite a few donations while I was home for the holidays – it was still the tiniest amount of coins that had the biggest impact on me. The smallest gesture can make the biggest difference. J I love this reminder that none of our roles are ‘a little less appreciated’ by God.

Also an update for those of you from Hope Church on the January 2014 trip to Pignon. Wilfred and Carolyn are doing GREAT! Their house is finished (see below) and their burns are healing more and more each day. WOW! J Carolyn is all healed, but Wilfred still has a little ways to come with his foot. They have a wonderful new home, new beds to sleep in and from the looks of it – they are officially back on their feet! J Thank you so much for all of you who left money behind on the trip to pay for this project. You have no idea how much joy is in their eyes every time we go out to visit them. They are SO thankful for your generous hearts. Bondye beni ou! (God bless you!)

Love,

Tampico