Patiently Working Hard

I hear people say from time to time that they are waiting on God's will for their lives. It's as if they believe that somewhere off in the distance there is a magical portal that they'll be able to walk through and find everything God wants for them. They think there is a great door open to them that will solve all their problems and answer all their questions. Yet, today they are content to sit down, do nothing, and wish things were different than they are currently.

I know I'm called to Australia. There were times when I was in college that I wanted to quit school and go, but my wife (fiance at the time) had the wisdom to convince me to finish school first. I was still under the notion that once I finished and got married, I'd pack up my things and go; but it hasn't worked out that way. From time to time I get frustrated about it all and even wish that God hadn't told me where He wanted me to go until He was ready to take me there. That has been my "door off in the future" that would make everything better.

I know now that this is a fallacy in my own thinking. I have come to understand the fact that God wants me here right now. Once I settled that fact in my own heart, it was amazing what God opened up for my wife and I. I now am able to serve in a nursing home on a weekly basis, serve in my church choir, and two weeks ago, my wife and I began leading a Teens For Christ Bible Club at a local middle school. We had 74 kids this past week and were able to share the Gospel with them in their own school! I never would have imagined the opportunities I've had right here, but God didn't give these opportunities  until I was ready to settle down where he had me right now.

We studied Abraham a few weeks ago in Sunday School. He was told of God to pack up and go, but God never told him where. God said go, and Abraham went. He became a wanderer and a nomad for the rest of his life, but he had God's blessing. He didn't know where he'd go next until God told him. The point is that God didn't tell Abraham everything. God told him what he needed to know right then. I may know where I'm going someday, but I have to listen to what God wants me to do today first. The Lord wants to lead our lives, but He wants to lead on a daily basis.

Don't think that your golden ticket will come in the mail one day, and you'll know then and there what to do. There's no magic portal that you'll walk through to serve Christ and be happy. Serve Him right now where you are. You are where you are either because God wants you there, or because you're running from Him. Let Him use you today! He'll guide you tomorrow if you do!

Teaching English to Reach a Heart

People say there is nothing quite like teaching a child to read, and then hearing them read their first words by themselves. I have not experienced that, but I have experienced something that might come close. . .

This summer, I had the amazing opportunity to finish my TESOL degree (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). It made for a challenging beginning to my summer, but what I received from it was worth it! Yes, I was very excited to receive my certification to teach, but I left with something even more valuable than that! I had developed a love for helping internationals learn English by studying God's Word. Watching them not only reading the Bible in English, but then grasping an understanding of the Gospel in our language is an experience difficult to describe! Many of them were so open to hearing about Christ.

Through this one class, I created friendships that I hope to hold onto for a lifetime! I look forward to seeing how God will use this training in my life as Simeon and I seek to follow God's will for our lives at home and one day abroad!

We cannot begin to express what your prayers and encouragement mean to us! Please continue to pray for us as we seek God's direction and follow His will for our lives at this stage He has us in!

All for His Glory,

Brettnay Brazzell

A Threefold Cord

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 " Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.  For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and

a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

Sunday, July 12th, Simeon and I celebrated our first anniversary! It is so hard to believe that we have been married for a whole year; where did the time go!? 

Several weeks before our wedding, a friend of mine gave me a card congratulating us on our marriage. Inside the card, she wrote the verse Ecc. 4:12 ". . . a threefold cord is not quickly broken." That was the only time I saw that verse written in the many cards we received. It's not a verse I would have immediately thought to write in a wedding card, but it has greatly influenced me since reading it. As I looked it up in the Bible and studied the context, it became a verse that I claimed for our marriage. 

When Sim and I first started dating, we agreed to only grow closer together as we grew closer to God. Now, that hasn't always been the case in our relationship, but we have always aimed to keep that the goal. This verse complemented that desire!

Our first year of marriage has been wonderful. We have had several bumps in the road, but overall it has been an easy year for us. We have enjoyed getting to know one another on an even greater level, spent a lot of time talking about how good God has been to us, prayed together for many requests that were pressing on our hearts, and sought God for His will for our lives. In all these things, our "threefold" cord has been strengthened as we have strove to keep Christ in the center of our relationship! As we journey through life, harder times will come, but I know that when those times come, it will be the threefold cord that we have worked to strengthen that will carry us through!

We've only been married a very short time and are in no place to offer marriage advice. This is just something that God has greatly used in our marriage, and because the authority is from God and not me, I trust it can make a difference in your marriage too!