Sunday, June 8, 2014

Family project: day three - Honduras

If you were hoping that I'd write everyday, please know that was never my intention. As much as I'd love to remember every moment by documenting, I want to actually be in each moment, so last night? A dance party and Disney movie in Spanish happened instead of my post. ;) 

After another amazingly fun day at VBS yesterday, today was exciting because we were switching it up. We headed up into the mountains to a special little church retreat area. It had two pools, two soccer fields, covered cooking areas, and tons of lush tropical vegetation to relax under. 

We went with the intentions of baptizing people from the local Every Nation church.

And Hannah. 

Last March, Michael was baptized and just before that, Hannah had asked if she could be baptized as well. Both Mike and I talked with her at different times about how that was our heart, but there was steps she needed to take. We began to explain salvation through Jesus to her and she stop us. 

"Mom. I've already prayed and asked for forgiveness. I asked Jesus to be in charge of my life a long time ago." 

Hannah has a very vivid recollection of sitting in a chapel service at the Christian school she had been attending. She remembered how the speaker talked about giving all of your heart to Jesus was the best decision and she said that she knew that she wanted to give all to Jesus too. There was a Friday, sometime in third grade, that my little girl made that decision and I couldn't be happier. After talking with her for a short amount of time, both Mike and I knew that she was ready for baptism. 

Last week, when we were going through our schedule for Honduras, Hannah saw that there was a special time for baptisms. She came to me and asked if she would be allowed to be baptized in Honduras. Neither Mike or I knew for sure, but I promised we would ask. 

Today, my daughter and second-born child was baptized on the side of a mountain in Honduras. God has something very special planned for this girl. She has a heart of compassion and understanding. She never sees things only at the surface, she looks beyond that and looks straight into the heart. She will make friends anywhere, never letting language, race, or social standing become a wall. I truly believe that she will touch many people in her life and will see the world as she shares where her source of love comes from.

Missions work isn't just for the nationals that you are going to minister to. Missions work takes you out of your routine and places you in moments when it is just you and God. Nothing else matters and there is no one else you can depend on. When you come and you experience that, you will walk closer to God. You will be changed. You will decide to baptized miles and miles from home in a country that you have never been too, all because you want God more than anything. 

Today lesson: the most beautiful things happen on the side of a mountain.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Family project: day one - Honduras

You can almost divide missions trips into three stages: 1. Preparation, 2. Trip, 3. Impression. I think that any missionary, short or long-term, can testify to the struggles, challenges, and adventures that you can find in each of these stages. 

Our first stage of this, preparation, is a blog post that is stirring in my heart. So much so, that I am still wordless on it and until I can wrap my brain around it to convey it, I'll wait. 

But for today, let me share about our first full ministry day in the trip stage. 

Our Ten Days team consists of 33 people from all over the US. We brought nine people from our home area and seven from our church. We are the only group to have brought kids. Our team's ministry areas have fallen into three categories. First, there is the campus ministry. La universidad nacional autónoma de Honduras has approximately 85,000 students, making it larger than any university in the United States. Evangelism on that campus and the development and discipleship of student leaders is a huge goal. Second, Pastor Rigo Hernandez, the pastor of the Honduran City Life Church, has a special relationship with key members of the police force here in Tegucigalpa. This has led to the opportunity to disciple a group of people who are seen to hold power, but are also seen as people who abuse it. We want to encourage and guide them to Jesus, all while being given the opportunity to serve them through some projects, like painting, that need to be done. Then lastly, we are showing tangible love to children through VBS. This was a ministry that was added just a week ago, but was presented as a ministry project with our team's kids in mind. We will be doing two three-day VBS'. We want to build relationships with kids that will open the door to minister to their whole families.

VBS began today.

We woke up to a beautiful sun and excited atmosphere. Hannah and Jae were so blown away that they had just woken up in a different country. After a great hotel breakfast and my favorite Honduran coffee, we met for some VBS prep. We sorted through the hundreds of toys, crafts, and candy that was brought and prepared for a "normal" VBS at the church location for about 75 kids that we were leaving for at 9:00a. 

Actually, we left for our VBS at 11:00a and it was in a dirt-filled soccer field in the middle of a neighborhood of aluminum, concrete, and plywood houses with about 300 children. 

Day one lesson: Use pencils, not pens.

Yeah, we were a little overwhelmed. Yes, we might have been slightly under prepared. Yep, we made lots of mistakes. But God showed up. 

Michael fit right in with boys his age and began communicating in the universal language of fútbol (soccer) and actually impressed me with how well he kept up with these boys. After their game, I wasn't surprised to see him surrounded and an immediate leader with them. He was actually so involved in trying to communicate something to a boy named David, that he missed the three foot drainage hole. He sliced open his knee pretty rough, but I told him it'll make a great 'missions war injury' one day. The only thing that bummed him out is that his soccer days are limited now. 

Hannah helped me with teaching about Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and Jae helped in crafts. Hannah's heart broke for the living conditions and for the families. She told me tonight that she is pretty sure a little girl told her that she didn't have a dad because he just left, a familiar story here.

I am so happy to be back in Central America, this is a place that is so dear to me and I'm so blessed to finally be sharing that with the kids. But it never fails... No matter how often I am here, my heart breaks every time. 

A man once asked Hudson Taylor, missionary to China in the late 1800s, "why didn't you come sooner?" and that question stirs in me. If I had come sooner, could I have shared Christ's love and saved a women from looking for love in all the wrong places? If I had come sooner, could I have shared God's restoration power and seen a family restored before it was too late? If I had come sooner, would a man who died yesterday be made whole in Heaven today? 

I might not have been here sooner. 

But I am here today. 

Use me, Lord. Show me, Lord. Mold me, Lord.

,

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Family project: We are in a little jam....

When we first told the kids that, this summer, we would be going on a missions trip to Honduras, their first concerns were about money. It amazes me how kids can take on the worries of the world at a such a young age. Last summer, I decided to homeschool. We were going to become a one income family for the first time since I had had a newborn. They have watched us trim our expenses here or there and I'm sure they've heard Mike and I talk about budgets and inflow vs. outflow, but never thought they would take on that burden in any capacity.

However, when their first worry was money, I was actually excited. That's the same worry I had when I went on my first trip and through it, I was able to watch God work on and stretch my faith as I had to rely on him fully for finances. I want that for my kids!! If anything through our new life in the last year, I want them to understand that money just doesn't appear and that it's not unlimited. But even more... I want them to grasp that everything we have has been given to us by a God who loves us and wants the best for us.

We were able to talk about ways that God will supply all our needs and how we can't do this trip alone. We need friends and family to help us and partner with us. As Michael and I sat to write partnership request letters, we talked about how we might physically be going to Honduras, but so many people will be coming with us in spirit.

Have I mentioned how excited I am about all that God is teaching us through this trip??

Well... after some simple brainstorming, the girls suggested that we make something. I suggested that in order to raise money for our trip to Honduras, we could make jam.

I have never made jam before.


Now, we happen to live very close to Plant City, Florida, which happens to be home to the Florida Strawberry Festival. Since most people online said that strawberry jam is a good beginning place for canning, we decided that would be our jam. (pun intended)


We were joined by my cousins and their boys out at Favorite Farms and in just about an hours time had picked about 30 quarts of strawberries. I highly recommend Favorite Farms. The berries were great, the location was awesome and at $1.00 for 2 quarts, the price was amazing.



We brought our treasure home and decided very quickly that rinsing and washing these berries in the sink was just not going to happen easily and that's when I remembered when my mom used our bathtub to rinse strawberries, probably from the same farm, when I was my kids age.


Our tub of berries was pretty amazing and after the girls dreamed of jumping in with the berries, it was on to the next step. I promise. It was only dreaming. There was no floating on a sea of fruit happening. ;)


We hulled and mashed our five cups of strawberry yumminess. We measured out the cups and cups of sugar. We squeezed ever last drop of lemon juice from the lemons.



Then we had a science lesson. Again, I have never "canned" before. (Yes... we used jars, but for some reason 'canning' is the proper lingo. I don't know why... but go with it for a minute.) Since this was a whole new experience, we had to look up all the ins and outs and how-tos. We learned that you can't put a room temperature jar into boiling water, it needs to gradually rise in temperature with the water. We learned that you can't pour strawberries that have been "violently boiling" into a cool jar or you might have a broken jar and oozing jam all over. We also learned that when you water bath in your canning process, the pressure from the water is what pushes out the air to help create that vacuum seal to keep out bacterias.

Kudos to all those who followed that paragraph.


After our jars were done canning, we were the proud cooks of the best strawberry jam ever made in this house! After the 24 hour setting period was over, we enjoyed some of our hard work and ultimately were pretty impressed with ourselves.

But this is a fundraiser, so after that first batch was complete... we repeated it. Seven times.

72 jars of jam later, I bring you Branda Jam.


But WAIT!! There's more!! We are selling it!!

This can be yours for a simple $15 donation per half pint jar. We will accept cash or check. Comment below, Facebook message me, or email me to reserve your jar and instructions on donating! 

It's first come, first serve, so HURRY!! Let me warn you, my sisters have already purchased TEN jars! 

If you'd like to become a full partner for our trip, you can read more here about that.

... and now I will tempt you with examples of its yummy goodness... 




We had such a fun experience learning how to can and working together. Here are two fun facts. One... my kids actually dislike strawberry jam. But they all wanted to try what they worked so hard to make. Two... This was all done, from picking to the 72nd jar coming out of the pot, in a 48-hour period. I was leaving for a conference in Virginia and knew the berries wouldn't last until I got back. Just so you know... 30 quarts of strawberries is a lot. Even after our 72 jars... I had enough berries to do at least another 27 or so. :) 

I'm so grateful to have the ability to learn and grow with these kids and the experience was worth it alone. If you would like the recipe, or tips on canning, let me know! I'll direct you to all the fabulous websites I found that helped me learn a new trick and even share what I would and wouldn't do next time. 

Now.... buy some jam. :) 

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Family Project: Honduras 2014

This is an excerpt from our partnership request letters that went out this past week... If you are interested in becoming a partner, please comment below and I can mail you a packet.

Thank you for your interest in our trip and for giving us the chance to share with you our hearts!!



Nine years and eight trips ago, I sat in a little town on the shore of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala and I was emotionally broken. Here I was, witnessing God working through my life and falling in love with ministry to the nationals, in a country I had never been to, and all I wanted was for my family to share that experience with me. At the time, an 11 month old Jaedyn, Hannah, who had just celebrated her third birthday, and my “big kid”, four-year-old Michael were under the care of my amazingly understanding husband back in Florida. I knew that a trip to a foreign country with small children wasn’t going to happen soon, but I started dreaming of the day that they would all be there by my side. 

Fast forward to 2011, my first dream became a reality when Mike joined me in La República Dominicana (Dominican Republic). It was during our time there that he and I knew that we needed to start praying about introducing our kids into what was becoming our passion for the lost and the countries of the world. 

Nine years of dreaming and three years of actively praying have finally come together. This summer, the ENTIRE Branda family will be joining our international church family, Every Nation, and their Ten Days Missions organization in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. To say we are excited, might be the understatement of our 2014.

We will be in Tegucigalpa, June 4 - 14, and while schedules are still being finalized, we know that our biggest mission is to go and bless the local church. Every Nation Ministries is a global family of churches that exist to honor God by establishing Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, socially responsible churches and campus ministries in every nation. Since 1994, Every Nation has had a heart for ministering to college campuses and planting churches all over the world. Last summer, as I was a part of a huge national crusade and revival in Honduras, Every Nation planted their first Honduran church in Tegucigalpa. I had the opportunity to meet Pastor Rigoberto just before his church launched last summer and it is his church that we are coming along side of and encouraging. 

For nine years, my kids have sacrificed time and vacations in order for me to go and minister around the world. Now, my kids get to come and see what their sacrifice has been for since we will be in the same area that I was in last summer. You have an opportunity of partnering with us as we continue to minister to the Hondurans in Tegucigalpa. 

The total cost for our entire family is $10,000. That equates to $200 a day for each one of us. Would you consider being a day partner for $200, a half-day partner for $100, or even a full-day family partner for $1000?  We need people to come along side of us and join us in this adventure. Not just financially, but prayerfully as well. 

If you choose to join our team with a gift of $100, $200, $1000, or whatever you feel you can do, you have two options to donate. You can enclose a check with your response card. Please make the check out to our home church, Trinity New Life Church. The other options is that you can give securely at http://pushpay.com/kiosk/trinitynewlife Choose the reference, MISSIONS. Both of those are tax-deductible ways to partner along side of us. 

Thank you for joining along side my family and becoming a part of this exciting adventure!