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!

Being a Watchman in a World That Doesn't Want Watched

I have a friend I work with who is a Christian. Yesterday he and I were discussing the recent Supreme Court decision to allow same-sex marriage in all 50 states. We were having a private discussion about our opposition to the ruling and how it's going to be bad for the country. Another coworker interrupted and said, "why do you Christians care so much what other people do. Why can't you just let people live their own lives?" I have to be honest, I failed to give him a satisfactory answer immediately. It was only later, after thinking about it, that I went back to him with my answer.

Ezekiel 33:6 says, "But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand." In other words, God has given the Christian the responsibility of warning others. This passage is often used to speak of winning the lost as it should be. It doesn't just mean that though. It says "see the sword come". This means that if we see danger coming we are to warn others. Christian people are not to live our lives silently while the world burns. We are commanded to be watchmen warning others of impending danger. If we fail to do so then God says that their blood will be on our hands. This doesn't mean we are to be arrogant and hateful towards people, but that we should be wanting to help them.

Homosexuals are people just like you and I. They're trapped in their sin. They're deceived by Satan and this world into thinking that what they are doing is Ok and even right! They need loving Christians like us to come along beside them and show what the Bible teaches about salvation. If they aren't saved then you'll never convince them they're wrong. They don't have the Holy Spirit to convict of sin. They, like my coworker, can't understand why we won't just leave them alone. Screaming that homosexuality is sin from the rooftops will only make them angry and harden their hearts toward God.

When I explained to my coworker that the Bible teaches that destruction is the end result of sin and that I have an obligation to warn others, he understood why I was opposed. He didn't agree with me, but he understood why I stood where I stood. He's one step closer to understanding the truth now then he was yesterday morning. He probably won't ask why I'm vocal about my beliefs anymore, because he knows I believe it's my duty to warn others. Not everyone will be as understanding as he was, but we aren't responsible for the reactions of others. We are responsible for warning people.

Unfortunately, there is a sect of Christianity that isn't loving when they speak to or about homosexuals or their supporters. Those Christians are one of the reasons that we are so often called "bigots" and our opposition is called "religious bigotry". Eph. 4:15 says that we are to speak the truth in love. It's a delicate balance. Think of a parent telling a child not the play in the road. The parent can yell and scream at the child, or the parent can explain to the child why they shouldn't play in the road. If the parent just screams not to do it, then the child may grow resentful and do it anyways. If the parent explains the danger of playing in the road in a loving way, then the child is more likely to obey. It's high time we quit complaining about the evils of the world and start being the watchmen God commands us to be. Speaking the truth in love for all within our sphere of influence. If we don't, America's blood will be on our hands.

Prayerfully trying to be a watchman,

Simeon Brazzell
I Tim 1:12