Seek First...

Sometimes, when I really need something from The Lord, I only pray and ask for that specific thing that I need in the moment.

The other night I was sitting in a prayer service at church and God gave me a vision. I saw a lot of different strings and ropes swinging around. At the end of each strand, there were round bubble looking things. As they were swinging, they began to hit me and some of them burst and water soaked me. Others hit me and dried up instantly. The rest hit me and bounced right off without bursting at all.

As I was seeing this in my mind, I asked Jesus to show me what it meant. He told me that each string and bubble were different blessings and gifts that He was wanting to pour out on me but I was only receiving the ones that I thought I needed. The ones that soaked me were the ones that I was praying for, the ones that hit and dried up I was only receiving part of the whole blessing, and the ones that were bouncing right off I was totally missing all together.

A lot of the time, I get so focused on a few specific things that I need for different situations that I totally miss other blessings that God is wanting to give to me. Through this vision, He reminded me to always keep my eyes, ears, heart, and mind open to everything He might want to teach me and bless me with. I don't want to be so focused on one thing that I miss an opportunity to share another blessing with someone else.

I don't know if this is making sense to anyone but it's just something burning on my heart right now.

Since I've been back in the States, The Lord has been teaching me new things about myself that I never knew. It's a daily process that I go through learning how to keep my attention on Him and allowing Him to show me how to rest and prepare for what He's calling me to do.  He is showing me one step at a time how to rest even while planning a wedding and growing my relationship with Emanuel. This is one of the biggest things I'm learning right now, seeking the face of Jesus above anything else and He will show me how to love Emanuel like He does, He will show us how to plan the wedding like He wants it to be, and He will show me how to continue resting and preparing in the midst of anything else going on.

There's always so much more that we could be receiving from our Papa, we just have to be willing to lay ourselves down and what we think we need, in order to receive what He knows we need. He knows us way better than we know ourselves!

"Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you."
Matthew 6:33

The One Whom My Soul Loves...

As everyone has seen by now, I'M ENGAGED!!! I get the honor and privilege of marrying my best friend, Emanuel Jumblaru.  :D

I thought I would take some time to share our story with those of you who don't know.

It all started in October of 2012 in Pemba, Mozambique…

I went to Harvest School of Missions 17 last year to completely surrender myself and pursue my passion for missions. While I was there I told Jesus, "You are all I need, Jesus! I don't need any man in my life right now. My heart and soul is completely and totally Yours!"

Little did I know that Jesus had already begun showing Emanuel that I was the woman He created for him to spend the rest of his life with. I thought Emanuel was a nice guy and we were just friends because I didn't even want to look at guys in a romantic way while I was there. He saw my dedication to The Lord and He didn't want to distract me in any way, so he remained quiet about the feelings he had for me. He prayed that God would set everything up in His perfect timing.

After Harvest School, I continued my missionary journey to Tete, Mozambique and while I was there, Emanuel and I began to message back and forth every now and then on Facebook just checking up on each other. We started to form a beautifully strong friendship just from being there for each other and praying through things together from across the world.

In February of this past year, everyone knows, I had to walk through something extremely hard. The missionaries I was living with and I were robbed, and abused. During that whole time, Emanuel was one of my biggest encouragements. He became someone that Jesus allowed me to lean on as my rock. There was still no talk of feelings for each other or anything at this point.

Shortly after our attack, God called Emanuel to serve with us in Tete as an intern. We were both in Tete together for about two months and while we were together Jesus began revealing things to us about each other. After two months, he felt called to leave Tete and move on to the next adventure that Jesus had for him and it was then when we felt the push from God to enter in a relationship to pursue marriage. He called my parents and asked for their permission to pursue me, they said yes! :)

For the next two months I continued serving in Tete and he traveled to do missions in Sweden and returned back home to Canada. We began our relationship both doing missions in different parts of the world and trusting that if this was from Jesus, then He would bring us together when it was supposed to happen.

We both grew so much in those few months. I could go on and on about all that God showed both of us during that time. The longer I was there, the more God was speaking to me about going back to Tennessee to be with my family and take a season of rest and preparation. I didn't know what that preparation was for but all I can tell you is that's what I heard Him say. So I obeyed Him and made a huge transition and came back to the States. Emanuel lives in Canada so we were still far away from each other. We both felt like it was super important for us both to spend as much time as possible with Jesus and seeking His face about our relationship and timing with everything.

He came down to Franklin a little while after I got home and met my family we just spent time together after being apart for over two months. He went back home after week of visiting and we pressed hard into the heart of Jesus and asked Him for guidance. My family absolutely adores him and completely welcomed him into the family. We both felt lead to take a fast from food and communication from each other for a few days. It was super hard but totally worth it because it was during that time that God confirmed everything about our relationship and told Emanuel when he could propose to me.

He just came down to visit last week and I thought he was just here to visit but he had other plans… He spent a while talking to my dad one of the days that he was here, asking him for my hand in marriage. (I had no idea about any of this btw!) He proposed the very next day in one of my favorite places in the world, Downtown Franklin! I'll save the proposal story for another post…

Something else that makes this story even more beautiful is that Emanuel and his family are from Romania and they moved to Canada when he was 8 years old. I'm from Tennessee and we both followed where God was calling us and met in Africa. One of my favorite parts of this whole thing is that we both had to search the heart of Jesus to be able to find each other.

Never would I have ever dreamed this time last year, that I would be engaged and planning a wedding but I couldn't imagine anything else. He is the greatest gift that God could have given me and I'm beyond blessed that I get to marry the one that was created for me!

New Beginnings...

Well I have some big news to share. I originally thought that I was going to stay in Tete for about a year and serve here and then be launched into the nations and start my own ministry one day. The past few weeks I’ve been praying a lot and feeling like the Lord wants me to take a season back with my family in the States to prepare for what God has next for me. I wasn’t exactly sure when that season was supposed to happen, I was thinking maybe in a few months. But I talked with Nick and Marlene and we prayed for a few days and agreed that the best thing for me to do is to go back to the States right now. The Lord still has a lot that He wants to download in me and teach me before I can be released to the nations. I really want to take this time to prepare and seek God about what my calling is and what steps I need to take in order to fulfill my destiny. 

My heart is so in the nations and in the darkest places of the world, the last thing I want to do is to go back to “normal life” in the States. But I have no doubt that God is wanting me to step into this new season and learn how to be a missionary no matter where I am. When the Lord called me very clearly to be a missionary and to go into all nations, He meant ALL nations. Including the USA. His plans are different from ours most of the time but they are always so much better than we could ever imagine. 

Jesus has already shown me a few this He wants me to do back in the States but I’m just praying about when He wants me to do them. His perfect timing is everything. I don’t want to jump into anything prematurely, I want to really seek God and make sure I’m walking in the fulness of my destiny in the center of His will for my life. 

It’s so funny how we make our own plans and even when they are really good plans, God can still come in and reveal to us something different that He wants us to do. 

It’s going to be extremely hard leaving Tete and our boys here and the amazing missionaries I’ve been serving with. But we all have a peace that this is going to be the best thing for me right now. 

I’ll be going home in about two weeks and I’m looking forward serving in the States in whatever ways that looks like and continuing to lay my life down to further the Kingdom. This is really where I have to take a big step of faith and trust that God’s got the plan for me and I just have to listen to His voice and continue to obey what He says. 

In no way is this me giving up or quitting missions, in fact this is me taking a huge step forward in preparing to get closer to the huge call that God has on my life in missions. I’m excited to see how He is going to use me no matter where I am in the world. 

“May the God of peace equip you with everything good that you may do His will, through Christ Jesus, to whom be glory forever and ever.” 

Hebrews 13:20-21 

Open Hands and Open Heart

This is the posture we have to be in if we want Jesus to take over our lives so we can walk in the fulness of His destiny for us. Everything is all about Him. We are just the vessels He chooses to use to release His love here on earth. 

I have been back in Tete for 3 months now. These 3 months have flown by way faster than the 3 months I spent when I was serving here before. I’ve been amazed at how Papa has been able to use me here in releasing His love. Every morning Ms Linda and I  go to the street where our Shekinah boys are and have breakfast with them in the little barracca (shed) where they sleep. Jesus released portuguese to me just enough to be able to communicate with them and lead short bible studies every morning. Just to paint the scene for you a little bit, they sleep in a very small empty brick building that sits right next to a shop that sells alcohol and plays music all the time and another shop that fixes motorbikes. As you can imagine, its pretty noisy and distracting and hard to pay attention to a bible study. There’s always a constant stream of people passing by and several stop to ask who we are and what we are doing and why we are two white girls giving these “street boys” food and having church.

Most every morning there is something going on with our boys that we have to deal with when we get there. Either someone stole something and they’re in trouble with the police, or they are simply fighting with each other like brothers do, or they are too lazy to clean up their barracca, or one of them is sick, so on and so on... There’s never a dull moment with these boys. The other morning we pulled up in Ms Linda’s car and Tandai came running up to the car and said “Tia Brooke is here, she can help us now!” In that moment I had no idea what was going on but I loved the fact that they know that I will stand up for them and help them with anything they need. Turns out, some guy stole one of our boys’, Evilisto, belt and Evilisto was upset and trying to get his belt back from this guy and they were about to fight, until I got there and stepped in between them and told the other guy to leave with the belt and I bought my boy a new belt. Little things like this happen every day here and we always have to ask Jesus how to love them and show them that we care. 

The Shekinah home is being built at a fast pace right now and hopefully will be done within the next few months. It’s so exciting going out to see the land now and seeing the vision turn into reality. 

My heart is here for this season and I love being able to serve my God in this way. I’m excited for whatever He has next for me and I’m enjoying every step in the journey. I choose to keep my hands and heart open so that He can use me in whatever way He chooses no matter where I am in the world! 

Hear. Trust. Obey. Rejoice.

Saturday night the pioneer61 team and I went out on the streets here in Tete to minister to prostitutes and share the love of Jesus with them. We had no idea what it was going to look like, we had no plan, we just heard the voice of God and did what He said. Before we left, we prayed together and asked God for clues as to where we were supposed to go and details about the women we were supposed to talk to. One of the things that I saw was a yellow smiley face with black eyes and a black smile. We left the house at around 10 pm and ended up in a part of the city where there is nothing but darkness. Drinking, partying, dancing, extremely loud music, girls selling themselves, ect... As soon as we got out of the car, I could literally feel the evil spirits everywhere and saw how the enemy has totally taken control of these people. 

We split into two groups and walked around and stopped with different women that we felt drawn to. Many of the women were from Zimbabwe and speak english. They came here to find work and when they couldn’t find an actual job, the began selling their bodies just to have enough money to eat and to live and take care of their babies, if they had any. There were two girls that I talked to who spoke english. Minete, one of our friends that came with us, tried to talk to them first but they didn’t seem too interested so she told me to try. I just began sharing my heart with them about what I felt like Jesus wanted to tell them. They are daughters of the King...They are princesses...They are worth everything... The key to having a relationship with Jesus is knowing who you are in Him...  As I was talking, I could see the change in their attitude and they began to hear and accept what I was saying. I also told them the importance of surrender and trust. They have to come to a place where they can surrender everything  and place their lives in God’s hands and trust Him with it all. 

After we were finished talking, we stood in a circle with our arms around each other and we prayed over them. It was the most beautiful feeling standing there in the middle of all this evil and drinking and sin, we had the honor of standing there and representing the light of Jesus in the middle of the darkness. I felt the Holy Spirit so strong standing in that circle. I have no doubt that there were seeds planted that will bear fruit in those two precious women in that moment. 

The remainder of the night, we walked in and out of the baracas and stopped and prayed with different women and simply loved on them with the love from Papa God. We accepted 3 beautiful women into the Kingdom family that night. Right before we left, a drunk guy walked up to me and spoke english and said, “why do you think you can come here and talk about God and have church? I’m drinking here and don’t you see all these people drinking and doing bad things? You shouldn’t be here talking about God!” I simply replied, “Well, God told us to come here where there is darkness and He wants us to shine His light and share His love here with everyone. You don’t have to only have church in a building on Sundays... It doesn’t matter if you’re drinking and doing bad things, God loves you anyway and He wants you to stop doing these bad things. But He told us to come here and represent Him in the darkness and share His love with you.” He took a step back and said “Wow! This is the first time that I’ve heard of anyone doing this here. You’re doing a good work. God bless you!” 

This totally touched my heart because we got to be the first people who ever evangelized in that area and the people recognized something different in us, other than the fact that we were the only white people there... It makes me feel so humbled and honored that I get to represent Christ in that way. Being His hands and feet in the darkness. 

On our way home, we stopped on the main road in the city where there were so many prostitutes standing on the sidewalks waiting for their clients to come pick them up. We walked up and started talking about Jesus and most of them didn’t want to listen to us but one girl listened and accepted Jesus into her heart! We were sitting on some steps next to a building while we prayed about what we should do about the difficult girls who didn’t want to listen, and I looked up at the building and saw painted on the wall were tons of yellow smiley faces exactly like the ones I saw when I was praying before we left. I knew immediately that we were supposed to be there. God had a divine appointment set up right there. 

Marlene took one of the girls across the street and sat with her and began talking to her. She was from Zimbabwe and spoke english. She has two children but was only able to provide for one of them when she came here so she had to leave the other one with her father in Zim. She lives alone here now with her 9 month old baby and she can’t find work anywhere except by selling her body. She wants to change. She doesn’t want to continue this life style. She really began to open up to Marlene and she said she has to make a certain amount of money every night just to provide food for her and her child. Marlene told her “Well, I think Jesus wants to buy your night today. I’ll give you this same amount of money from Jesus and I want you to go home and spend the night with Him tonight instead of another man. He will show you that you are white as snow and He sees your heart is pure.” She was blown away and we gave her a ride home. 

The whole night was totally worth it even if it was just for that one precious soul. 

Jesus is doing amazing things here in Tete and beginning new works and proclaiming life into the dry bones. It would be so easy to miss if we weren’t listening for His voice, trusting Him, and doing what He says. 

The Face of Jesus

One of my favorite things about life here in Tete is that I get to be a part of breakfast and bible study with our Shekinah boys every morning on the streets. Ms Linda and I have been taking turns leading a devotional with the boys every day. Yesterday I felt that it was important to talk with our boys about respecting others. This is something huge that The Lord has been speaking to me recently so I would love to share these thoughts with you as well...

In Matthew 25:40 Jesus said, “Whatever you have done to the least of these, you have also done unto me.” This simple little sentence has totally changed my way of thinking. I should be treating people as I would treat Jesus. What does that even look like? If someone is sitting next to me who is hungry and I have a piece of bread in my hands, I should look at them and treat them like I would treat Jesus and offer them a piece of my own bread. If Jesus was sitting next to me and He was hungry, I wouldn’t say “Oh I don’t have enough time or money to give you this piece of bread, sorry go get your own.” I feel like so many of us do this to many different people all the time. We are in too big of a rush to get to the next place or save as much money as possible that we miss opportunities to bless people or to see the face of Jesus in them. 

Since I’ve been back in Tete, I’ve been able to see the face of Jesus in different people through my every day life. Sometimes Jesus wants to bless us with a smile from another person, but we are too focused on getting to the next task that needs to be done that we miss it. Most of the time, I think I should be showing other people what Jesus looks like through me, but sometimes Jesus wants to show me what He looks like through the mama sitting on the sidewalk, or the person at the register at the grocery store or the baby in the village with joy all over his precious face. 

How I treat another person should be how I would treat Jesus. I don’t know about you, but this makes me want to show a whole lot more respect and honor to everyone that I see. 

Faithful.

My Jesus is so good to His word. He is always faithful to fulfill His promises. All of them. no matter how big or how small. Every single promise that He gives you, He will be faithful to fulfill them in His perfect timing. 

I have been back in Tete for just over two weeks now. I still can’t believe I’m here! It feels like I never left, but at the same time it feels like I have been gone forever. The reunion with my boys was the sweetest thing ever. They are all so happy that “Tia Brooke” is back with them and that I’m staying for a long time this time. 

I’m beyond blessed that I get to bring bread rolls, butter, and juice to them every single morning to have breakfast with them on the streets. Then we talk about what happened the night before, how they slept in their tiny shed with a little sheet and mosquitoes everywhere. My favorite part of breakfast time is when we share a bible verse with them and talk about it, dance and sing together in a big circle, and pray together at the end as a family and bless each other. I’d say that’s a pretty good way to start the day. :) One of my other favorite things is when we get to take one or two of the boys with us as we walk around the city and shop. It’s such an amazing time to talk and get to know each other as well as learn more portuguese from them. They love it as well because they get to guard and protect me and Ms. Linda as we walk around the city. Their hearts are so beautiful and protective. Jesus seriously blessed me with incredible brothers all around the world. 

The afternoons are another beautiful time with the boys. Usually we just bring them lunch in the afternoon and spend a few minutes hanging out with them and then leave, but sometimes we stay and cook with them. Like yesterday we went to the dump where they cook sometimes and we sat with them as they cooked their xima, fish, and matapa. They cook in tin cans over a small fire that they start by burning wood, trash, and plastic. They are truly amazing and such survivors. 

My portuguese is coming along very well. I’m actually shocked at how much I’ve been able to speak. Jesus definitely downloaded it to me! I’ve been able to communicate really well with the boys and I’ve learned everything from them. I still have a long way to go and a lot more to learn, that’s for sure, but for right now, I’m doing pretty well. :)

Papa has been so faithful to me since I’ve been back. He promised that He would take care of me and that He wouldn’t let anything else happen to me and that I would see Him in everything that I see. It’s so true, I see Him in so many people’s faces throughout the day. He is constantly reminding me that He is with me and watching me and carrying me. 

I’m still trusting and believing for the rest of His promises to be fulfilled as well. I know this is where I am supposed to be for this year and I have no doubt about that. The enemy has tried to plant lies in me and give me bad dreams and scare me but I know that this is where Jesus wants me for right now so I don’t need to have fear and Jesus is so much bigger than any spiritual or physical attack from the enemy. 

Thank you so much to everyone who’s been praying for me as I’ve been transitioning back to this life and culture. I could definitely use the prayers and joy. :) The fire and promise is still burning in my heart super big and bright, pray that it doesn’t ever burn out.