airplanes

I love airplanes!  More than the flight itself, busy airplanes, or free peanuts- I love ascending. Love that feeling when you hear the plane's engine revving  into the air and you see your world, your own surroundings become clouded. You know that in a short amount of time you will be somewhere totally different, new surroundings, new people, new place. Goodbye old place, it's a brand new adventure waiting to happen.

For me airplanes bring back memories.. that first time when I was a naïve 16 year old going off to live at boarding academy in Colorado.. or the time I went to Korea with two of my best friends to teach English and travel for 3 weeks.. the time I went to Peru for a year to work as a missionary. Man- good times- I am so abundantly and infinitely blessed.

And as I look out the window seeing buildings that soon become as tiny as aunts and mountains and oceans come into view.. I have to put on my beats (best headphones ever) and whisper Thank you Lord! Thank you; thank you; thank you Father!

This Thanksgiving I flew next to my brother- which is an answer to prayer because I never imagined I would be so blessed to go to school with my best friend. But together we flew- to Colorado- land of the beautiful mountains to meet my family and spend Thanksgiving up in Aspen. Tomorrow we're going snowboarding and tonight we're cuddling up next to a fire.

Airplanes remind me that God is big- He's bigger than my dreams, than my imagination, than my knowledge can comprehend. Even when I can't understand what He's doing in my life, in time, He will show me that it is good.

I challenge you this holiday season to slow down and praise God; trust God. We all have insecurities, challenges in our life that threaten to stress us out- but God whispers to us- a million ways every day "I'm holding you." "I'm the King of your world."

I'm so thankful for airplanes. Thankful for family who sit down and eat together every meal; thankful my family lets me cook for them haha; and thankful that it's supposed to snow tomorrow. But most importantly I'm thankful I know Jesus and His peace this season and I want to share that joy of knowing Him with the people around me.

Whitney

As I went to work today, heart heavy full of thoughts of Whitney- a beautiful, vivacious girl, I wished life could stop. That the world would mercifully pause so the everyone (or at least our Christian campus) could pray for this beautiful 21 year old girl who was losing her life! But as I walked into the gym, the TV's showed the news, sports, and a comedy show and guys lifted weights huffing and puffing. I wanted to scream to the world.. Wake up she's dying! Do you not know? Whitney is not ok! She needs prayer! She needs help.

Wake up! Wake up!

Stop what your doing. Turn off the tv. Stop listening to music, memorizing more drugs, trying to ace your test. Pause for a minute. Pray for a friend.

But not just for my friend Whitney. It's not just her. It's this world- friends. Jesus must be coming soon for surely sin has caused such devastation.

Compassion overload has caused us to close our eyes and act as if we don't care. We feel invincible- that disease will not plague our own skin and bones. We walk around blindfolded until it finally hits us..
Then sit stunned as we watch the people around us walk as stone soldiers and do nothing to help. Yet what can they do.

Friends we must open our eyes and start loving our brothers and sisters today.
Friends we must understand that Jesus is coming soon.
Friends we must get our oil because the time of Jesus' return is near.

Although Whitney is sick physically and needs your prayers desperately, all of us are sick mentally. We are all plagued by sin and selfishness. We must pray for Christ's healing. First in the life of Whitney so a miracle can be done in her and second in our own lives for a revival.

Waiting here

Hosea 12:6 Therefore, return to your God, Observe kindness and justice, And wait for your God continually.

Waiting has always been one of the hardest things for me to learn. Especially as I strive to be a girl who is full of grace- I see the importance of self-control and patience.

One of my dear friends represents this character of grace so well. She is calm, slow to speak and act, but always ready to listen. She knows the word of God but waits for the Spirit to share it. She is gentle but full of poise and beauty. She knows how to wait...

But do I? I struggle so much..

It seems I'm good at moving, at doing things, getting things done and I'm not so good at having to sit still, having to quiet down, having to wait on God.

But then I hear God asking me "Brooke have you really been waiting on me?..
Because I've been waiting on you.

Wait you God?
You were waiting on me? The God of the Universe was waiting on me?

And I heard the King say yes because I love you.
I knew you had to be ready.

Then God I asked.. if you were waiting for me- who was I waiting for?

Sometimes I think that we find ourselves asking God for something or a specific petition instead of waiting for His guidance and character.

That we could perhaps be searching for a trinket or a prize instead of the glory of the Father.

That we may desire healing or a gift when instead Christ's presence is far abundant to meet our every need.

If we would look for Him; if we would wait on Him- ready to see His presence- then He could reveal Himself to us.

God I am so sorry for the times when I have been asking you for a thing instead of asking to know you more. For you alone are more than enough to meet every need. I want to seek your presence more than any other thing.

Short Term Missions

This year I have a new job which is titled "Uquest leader" for campus ministries. My job is to plan a "poverty alleviation/ transformational development experience" which will include equipping college students with information about world issues and taking them on a short term "mission trip" to Nicaragua.

I've been reading the book "Helping without Hurting in short term missions" with Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. I definitely recommend reading the book if you are a missions junkie, wanting to spend time abroad, or even wanting to attend a short term trip to "save the children." It is definitely eye opening and a painful but necessary read.

According to Corbett, short term mission trips have been quite the common trend aka voluntourism with around 2,200,000 people sent as short term missionaries to "save the world" in 2000 and rates still rising*. It is estimated that approximately 2.2 billion dollars is spent on short term trips every year*. If it could be shown that significant improvements had been made because of this money being spent or people being led to Christ who had never heard the Gospel, that would be one thing. But the terrible news is that many of these mission trips are doing more harm than good.

Let me address a few typical problems.

1. Short term participants often do not understand the language of the country they are traveling too to visit. Without understanding the language how can they bond with the local people? Must they hire translators? Will they be able to understand and learn the culture without knowing how to communicate?

2. Short term participants often GIVE free goods. They bring presents thinking they are saving the world, all the while destroying the communities' local businesses as well as pride. Americans often go to visit thinking they know what's best. But when free clothes are dumped it takes out the need for the villages to shop and barter. They are then encouraged not to work hard for their money but to beg and ask for more. No wonder when they see a white person they can't help but ask "Prestame... Give me.. please." No more. The free goods must stop. There is a difference between relief and emergency providence (after natural emergencies) and giving to the poverty trap.

3. Short term participants waste A TON of money. If the money they spent going on their trip could be given directly for the community to invest in education, infrastructure, health or create more local jobs, it could go so far. But instead trips of 40 people often spend 40,000 solely on airfare before even getting to the country they desire to help. Then there is the fact that so often participants on trips have no skills in the area they are assigned to work. For instance what is the point in charging $2000 per high school student to send them on a construction and VBS trip when in reality 85% of them have never done construction before in their life and will be slow not to mention miserable in the sun. Have they ever volunteered for VBS in their local church or is it just the glory of international service and tourism that interests them?

4. Short term participants develop a false view of the world and sense of pride. This is something I personally have a hard time with. I grew up wanting to help people and somehow my first mission trip I learned that I could do something small to change the world. The problem is not my attitude towards helping the problem is the attitude I begin to develop that I think I know the answers or that I can be someone else's hero when in reality I am "poor" too and Christ alone can save us all. We think we have all the answers for other countries or families' poverty. In reality unless we have done tons of research on the history of their community and spent time getting to know them personally, we have no idea what specific needs we could actually help meet.

I'm not saying we should just throw all efforts at helping people around the world out the window. What I am saying is we need to evaluate the actual impact so many short term mission trips are making. We need to research how to better invest our money to help not hurt people who are struggling with poverty. We need to seek to understand by learning from the people of different communities instead of coming in with our own game plans of what we think needs to be done.

My traveling friend

So many transitions, so many places to go see.
Adventures to live through, wonders to explore.
New places, new people, and new jobs
New experiences as far as the eye can see



Yet every time I move
Changing seasons, places, or even best friends
I have to find Him again
Not that He isn't there
no matter where I go, what I do, what I see

But He lets me find Him
He lets me choose Him
Each and every day
Even though He pursues me
He waits for me to follow Him



I don't know what I'd do without Him
I don't know where I'd be without this guy
I've crossed so many countries with Him
Journeyed so far away
And yet He's the only one that stays by my side
He'll never leave me

Three years ago I left for a country of Peru
And I asked my traveling friend
To take me on a new journey
On the best journey I'd ever been with Him

I asked him to marry me
And I told him he could have my heart
He could break it
Or remake it
It was His

He took my life and started painting
New colors and pictures
Painting over my fears, my insecurities
And asking me to be a nurse, to be humble
Most importantly to let Him lead me every day

And as I've followed
My best friend has shown my heart so much joy
So much love, so much passion, so much peace
It's incomprehendible

So I invite you.
Do you want to go on a crazy journey?
I hope you meet my best friend
I hope you let Christ love you passionately
I hope you give Him everything

ALASKA

This summer I experienced an amazing adventure deemed "Alaska camps". I spent eight weeks traveling to three different summer camps in Alaska being a camp counselor and a lifeguard. We visited Camp Tukaskoya (Palmer/Anchorage), Camp Polaris (Dillingham), and Camp Lorraine (Wrangell). I made amazing friends, saw some great wild life, and grew a different perspective of Christ. I want to share with you a few special memories and pictures that stand out to me from the trip but most of all I want to tell you TRAVEL; GO SEE ALASKA for yourself!



One of my favorite memories of Alaska is my 2 bear encounters- every tourists' dream come true. We were prepped upon going to camp Polaris that there were dangerous grizzly bears and that we were to carry whistles at all times. If we blew the whistle continuously it meant there was a bear and the camp ranger would go get out his gun. Well it was only a couple days in when I heard the whistle and everyone came running only to hear the bear was pretty far across the camp. We took some picture shots and then got in the canoes to go for a little bear hunt. We stayed a very long distance from the shore but were trying to make sure the bear was not getting close to the camp where the kids were. We continued to see the bear a few more times at night and had to stay inside but we fortunately did not have any serious bear trouble.



One of my jobs at camp was to be a skiing and wakeboarding instructor. Something we do at this camp to help kids learn to wakeboard or ski is to start them on a tube. So imagine with me that here I am sitting on a double tube holding onto a rope and then a camper jumps on with me onto the tube and my job is to show them correct starting technique and help push them into the water when they are ready. There is nothing so beautiful as seeing a little kid learn for the first time and ski out from the tube for me to be spun in circles left in the middle of the lake for 5 maybe 10 minutes as they continue their ride. As I sit on my tune in the middle of a beautiful large lake I see mountains that are tipped in snow and I see beautiful clouds in the horizon. The mountains dude they are awesome! Alaska is a crazy beautiful part of God's handiwork that really declare His glory.

At every camp our cabins would rotate activities including fishing, canoeing, hiking, tubing, and sometimes even showering our the great well known Mkay-eh. The Mkay-eh is what some natives use in smaller villages and it is basically a sweat house. You start a fire and then pour water on the rocks, sweat, soap up, and then bucket rinse off and declare yourself clean. Showering in the small Mkay-eh is a one of a kind Alaskan experience that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Hey the other option was a Polar dip into the freezing cold lake early in the morning. It would definitely wake you up, but it was NOT my preferred temperature.

At many of the camps we had Alaskan natives and non- Christians. This was cool because we got to rewind back to basics and share with them who Jesus was. Every morning and night we would have worship and frequently they would be outside with views of mountains, lakes, or oceans listening to the sound of loons over the water.

This picture above brings back lots of memories as it is deemed Jackknife Mountain. It is accessible easily by our camp but other fisherman or visitors sometimes visit just to climb it. It is a tough climb- especially for the girl who climbed it in old tennis shoes. There is a huge area that is covered in shell or rock which most hikers either love or hate. First most of the staff got a preview/ practice climb the Sabbath before the campers came. Then during camp the show called "Let's survive the mountain" started where our goal was to get as many campers to the top of the mountain and down without injuries. We had staff running back and forth, three radios, lots of sweat, songs, fun, water, and child motivational speeches. In the end about 15 kids (out of 40) made it all the way to the top and conquered the mountain.

heaven

"What is heaven like?" the little girl asked her dad. Are their butterflies and rainbows and dancing?
I don't know daughter. He said. The Bible doesn't tell us much about heaven, but their will be no more sadness, no more pain, lots of singing praises to God and spending time worshipping Him...

Oh the little girl sighed. Anything else? What about the animals?

Oh and there will be lots of animals the dad replied.

What else dad?

I don't know daughter. I guess we'll find out when we die."

I can't believe how easily we dismiss thoughts about heaven and teach little children and new believers to do the same. We make it sound boring, unrealistic, imaginary. This delights Satan who does not want us to meditate on heaven and a new pure world with Jesus.

 Heaven should be the thought most constantly in our heads and yet for so many of us it seems a distant fairy tale land that we feel guilty about thinking of when this world has so many problems.

Yet Colossians 3:2 says to Set our minds above not on earthly things.  Is it possible that thinking of heaven is what God wants us to do to gain strength for our current condition and passion and love for His kingdom.

C.S. Lewis says "Most of us find it very difficulut to want "Heaven" at all- except in so far as "Heaven" means meeting again our friends who have died. One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained; our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Another reason is that when the real want for Heaven is present in us, we do not recognize it.

I think we have a serious problem when Christians wait more eagerly for Christmas than they do for heaven. Beyond that, the truth is that many church-goers aren't excited about heaven at all. Like the song by Albert King says "Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to go now."

It's terrifying and tragic that as Christians sacrificing for the Lord we know and care not about heaven- where we are going to spend eternity. So often we act without thinking about heaven, without looking up, just doing the world's things, and it's almost prophetic of the time we are living in because it demonstrates that as a Christian people and church we are asleep if we are not awaiting heaven and looking forward to it daily.

Randy Alcorn believes that God has given us glimpses of heaven in the Bible to fire up our imagination and kindle a desire for heaven in our hearts. And that's why Satan will always discourage our imagination- or misdirect it to ethereal notions that violate scripture. As long as the resurrected universe remains undesirable or unimaginable , Satan succeeds in sabotaging our love for heaven.".. "What we need is a Biblically inspired imagination." Read the book "Heaven".

Think about the best things that have ever happened to you that are pure, good, and beautiful. The Bible says that all good and perfect gifts are from above, coming down from our heavenly Father. So think about each animal, pure beauty, innocent relationships without the sin, without the hurt, without the fear. Think of the things that make your heart come alive. Imagine us in our original condition pure and holy, undefiled masterpieces of God, and the world around us lively and lovely.

I don't know about you but I want to receive a Biblical imagination and I want to think about heaven more then I think about the things of this earth. Satan wants us to get caught up in everything this world has to offer us so we won't care about heaven. Let's pray to God to transform our thoughts and help us to think about heaven- the way He created it- so that we can look up to Jesus and spread his light to a fallen world.