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
Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see. Hebrews 11:1
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
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
Thursday, March 27, 2014
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
Sunday, February 9, 2014
:: the new normal ::
Sorry it has taken me so long to update! Things have been a
little crazy around here. A week after being in country again, the Spencer Hope
team came down and that was pretty fun to see some familiar faces! J Not to mention, my
mom!! The team was here for a week and then went home, but my mom and two other
ladies stayed an extra week with me and Cassidy. It was such a great time! J
We have had lots of crazy things happening the past few
weeks and have been busy running in a million different directions. Many Hands
for Haiti has been led to help a couple who has lost everything in a house fire
(their home, their possessions, their health, and even their 4 month old baby.)
You can read Carolyn and Wilfred's full story here. Many Hands for Haiti is in
the process of building them a house so they can get back on their feet as
well. In the past week we have also met a young mother (Cindy) and her son (Gilson) whose intestines
were literally sticking out of his stomach. Since the hospital in Pignon could
not fully treat him, they had to head to Milot to get an operation to fix this.
We helped with what we could and they were on their way. We don’t know if we
will ever see them again. We also had a child in our Thrive for 5 program
(Frislin) who had a HORRIBLE deep rope burn on the back of his knee from a
donkey. (It is healing quite nicely now.) All of these things are heartbreaking and devastating, but something
else has begun to weigh on my heart even more right now.
The last book I read was called Radical by David Platt and this
is a book everyone should read to have their “fire for Christ” ignited even
more. I have been thinking a lot after reading this book and it’s really making
me think about how living radically for The Lord looks. For example, when people
see us living in Haiti they always comment how awesome it is to see young
people devoted to The Lord. (We’ve talked about the pride issue already in the
last blog.) But now I keep thinking to myself, shouldn't THIS be considered a normal thing
for Christians? People shouldn’t say, “Wow that’s daring & courageous of
you to do” when they hear of someone being called to serve in another country. Moving
to Haiti (or anywhere else) shouldn’t be considered “outside the norm” for Christians
of any age and it definitely shouldn't be considered a drastic step. It should be normal because going where God calls us
is exactly what is expected of us. We are called as Christ followers to go to
the ends of the earth to share the good news. We are demanded to do so, it’s
not optional if you want to truly follow The Lord.
Right now what is considered as "radically living for God" should be the normal Christian lifestyle. It scares me to think about how off we are on what “radically
living for God” means. It doesn't just mean reading your Bible daily,
praying before we eat, going to church on Sunday, joining a Bible study, and
doing nice things for people. It means truly GOING to the ends of the earth and taking leaps of faith in order to make His name known (even walking across the street and witnessing to your cranky neighbors if that
is where God has called you.) It means truly focusing on people’s salvation instead
of just what their physical needs might be at the moment. One of my friends
once heard someone say, “If you Christians truly believed people would go to
hell if they didn't believe in Jesus, you would be crawling through the streets
begging people to listen to you.” We totally don’t do that. We say we believe
you need to know Jesus to get to heaven, yet we don’t beg anyone to listen to
us. Sometimes we won’t even talk about God with others! We figure if we don’t
know about/don’t address the issue, then it’s not OUR problem. The Bible tells
us differently. God sent his son Jesus (a REAL person) to come to earth and
witness to others about God. We were created for the exact same reason, we are
REAL people too who are supposed to go out and spread the good news just like
Jesus did. Whether we want to realize it or not, it is on our backs to plant
seeds and go to the ends of the earth proclaiming the good news to everyone in
our path, no matter where God places us. And when we as Christians choose to
take responsibility and do this, it shouldn’t be considered “living a crazy dedicated life for The Lord.” It should be the normal Christian thing to
do. (Note: I am totally NOT saying I have this one down and figured out, or
that I’m living like this every day, because most days I honestly don’t feel
like I’m doing enough for the Kingdom. It has been really on my heart though
and it’s something that all of us probably need to work on.) If you haven’t
read the book, I would highly suggest doing so!! J
(Radical by David Platt)
Please keep our team in your prayers so that we continue to
follow the path that God wants us to and to be reminded daily to take time for the
people He places in front of us. A quick prayer for energy wouldn’t hurt
either. J
Love,
Tampico
Tampico
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