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. 

It's about that time...

Tete is calling my name. Today is the day I head back to the place where I am called for this season! I guess you could say I'm a little bit excited. :)

These past two months back in the States have been such an adventure. Speaking at churches and conferences, road trips, good food, shopping, family, rest, joy, victory, cold weather, driving on the right side of the road...

These next 12 months will be full of different kind of adventures that I don't even know about yet. Worship. teaching music, breakfast in the streets, imparting identity, building a home, loving the least of these, my brothers.

I am so beyond thankful for everyone who has been praying for me and supporting me through this whole time as i step into what my calling is and begin to follow Papa's heart in the darkest places.

Flying from Nashville to Tete and will step back onto the beautiful african soil on Saturday. My heart is about to burst!

Victory

Did you know that the battle is already won? I have the victory through Jesus Christ! I have no fear because He is inside of me and He is bigger than the enemy, so why should I be afraid? 

My life back in the States has been super crazy the whole time! Jesus has so poured out His favor on me and has allowed me to travel around and speak at several places and share the testimony of what happened to Me, Nick, and Marlene, as well as the call on my life in missions. Ive been able to be with a bunch of my Harvest School 17 brothers and sisters as well and Jesus did a lot of healing in me through them. So beyond thankful for such a big family through Iris. 

I had the privilege of going to Sarasota Florida to check out the Harvest School that was going on down there, and attended a conference that Mama Heidi and Papa Rolland Baker, Mel Tari, Brock Human, and Jason Lee Jones were leading. God totally set up divine encounters for me that week and I received prayers of impartation and commissioning from all of these incredibly anointed people who the Lord has used to impact the Kingdom on earth in more ways than I can imagine. One day Mama Heidi brought me to a lunch gathering with all of those people and many more amazing people in leadership. I was sitting there having lunch with them and being a family like its normal life, and I'm thinking to myself, "Wow who am I that I get to be a part of this family and do life with these amazing world changers?" I'm only 19 years old and that already happened to me. I can't imagine what the Lord is going to do in and through me in the future!!! It blows my mind to even think about. 

At the conference, the last night, Mama Heidi asked me if I would share my testimony during the service. So I stood up on the stage in front of over 700 people and shared the testimony of what happened to us and that the enemy is not going to stop me. After I spoke, Mama Heidi hugged me and said "Brooke, I'm so proud of you. You have no idea what you just did, you just awakened a whole tribe of laid down lovers to go into the harvest with no fear!!!" That is exactly what happened, too. There have been so many people coming up to me and saying that they know they are called to missions whether across the street or across the world but they have been held back by fear. After hearing my testimony, they all came up to me and said they are going to go into the harvest now and proclaim the name of Jesus with no fear! 

Everything about me is so honored and humbled that Jesus is using me in this way to touch people's lives and to call forth their destinies and callings that Jesus has for them. I'm just one little girl that chose to say yes to Him and to whatever He has for me, and now He is using me in bigger ways that I ever could imagine and this is just the beginning! That's the awesome yet scary part! 

As you all may know by now, I am returning to Tete, Mozambique on May 9 where I will be serving for at least one year. Jesus has been so faithful and has been providing for this trip but since I will be living there with no job, I will need monthly support from people who feel called to sow into the Kingdom through finances. If this is you, I would love to have monthly supporters who are committed to praying and giving however much or however little Jesus tells you to. You can either send checks or cash to my church or donate on my Paypal link on this page. If sending to my church for a tax deductible receipt....
The Nest Church 
318 5th Ave.
Franklin, TN 37064 
Specify for Brooke's missions 

It's The Little Things...

Since I've been back in the western world for over a week now, there are several things that I've noticed that I so took for granted before I went to Mozambique. Something so small and simple seems like a luxury to me since I haven't had it in almost 6 months. It's so easy to take things for granted until you are forced to go without it. So I just wanted to make a list of some of the random things that we should all be more thankful for every day (if you live in the west, of course!) .....

cream cheese
strawberry cream cheese
low fat cream cheese
blueberry cream cheese
so many other flavors of cream cheese
real cake
an actual scoop of thick and rich ice cream
Starbucks
thick crust pizza
Mexican food
sweet tea
two story houses, with stairs!!!
A HOT SHOWER
running water inside
washing machine and dryer
dish washer 
queen size bed thats super comfy
air conditioning
an iPhone
a pantry and fridge full of food 
public trash cans 
a dresser to put clothes in instead of a suit case 
a family that loves and encourages every day 
a toilet 
thick toilet paper 
a toilet that you can actually flush the toilet paper instead of throwing it in a plastic bag 
so many restaurants with different type of food 
soooo many stores close by where we can buy anything we need/want
cheap gas prices (compared to Mozambique)
strawberries (and other yummy fruits)
coffee creamer 
tons of different options for flavored coffee creamer 
free wifi with good connection
bagels 
Goldfish crackers 
Sour Patch Kids candy 
Forever21
instant access to whatever we want 
fast food restaurants 
zip lock bags 
green grass instead of red dirt 
having what seems like a normal size house for the west with two stories and 4 bedrooms, when you're used to a tiny cement home in a village 
......

The list goes on and on. Those are just some random and some silly things that I've noticed since being back because I lived 6 months without all of that. It's so important to be thankful for what we have. Even something as simple as a turkey sandwich with real turkey and actual bread and cheese. Seriously. 

I'm also learning to be able to enjoy all the luxuries of this world while I've been back. It's so easy to think I don't deserve it or feel guilty because my kids in Africa might not have all that I do here, but God has me here for a reason and He has blessed me with all of this so I should at least try to enjoy it while I have it! 

Restoration

Well I'm back in America for now. I apologize for not updating my blog until now. I've been super busy since I've been back in Nashville and just haven't had the time or words to write until right now.

I really feel like I'm supposed to write about what happened to Me, Nick, and Marlene three weeks ago. It's hard to believe it's been that long. It feels like it was just last night. So for those of you who don't know the whole story, I really feel like Jesus wants me to be completely open and honest and vulnerable with you about what happened and what we experienced.

It was three weeks ago on Friday, February 28 at 2:00 am. I was in my room in Nick and Marlene's house, where I had been living for the past three months after Harvest School, and I was sleeping because it was the middle of the night and everything then out of no where I was woken up to two guys talking in my bedroom. Now when I initially heard them, I didn't freak out because I thought it might have been some of our boys that we minister to because often times when something happens to them in the city or the police show up, they will come to our house no matter what time it is, for us to help them. So I assumed it was some of our boys and something happened and they came to my room first since it's closest to the front door. The lights were all off and I couldn't see who it was, so I reached for my phone to turn the flashlight on, which I always keep on my bed by my pillow, only to discover that it was gone. As soon as I realized my phone was gone, I knew these were not our boys and these guys were here to rob us. My heart began to race and my stomach was turning in knots and I didn't know what to do. By this point, the two men realized that I was awake and they came over to my bed and turned on a small flash light so I could at least see their faces, ripped my mosquito net off of me and started saying (in portuguese) "where is the money, where is the money, where is the money?" They were two men probably in their 30's, very angry and sweaty. I was trying to calm them down a bit and distract them because I knew why they were there. I then began trying to communicate with them with what little portuguese I do know and I said "wait, how are you? My name is Brooke, what's yours?" They ignored me and repeated to ask me where my money was. I told them I was a missionary and I didn't have very much money but I handed them my purse and they dumped everything out and took what little cash I had, my iPhone, iPad, video camera, headphones, and any other small things of value.

Once they discovered that I only had 1,000 mets which is around $30 US, they were even more angry and upset. Then they started tearing up my whole room just ripping everything apart and throwing stuff around trying to find anything of value at all and didn't find anything else. I told them I'm sorry I don't have much for them. Then the main guy who the other guy kept calling "Biggie" grabbed my arm and sat me up out of my bed and attempted to abuse me but the other guy was like "no we came here for money" and I began crying and was begging the guy to let me talk to my friends (Nick and Mar). He didn't know there were any other people in the house. I was like please I just need to talk to them. So he was like "ok fine" and cut the strap off of my camera bag and he tied my hands behind my back super tight to where i had cuts on my wrists. This whole time the second guy is standing over me holding a huge machete at my neck so I couldn't scream or anything. All I could do was pray in my mind and speak the name of Jesus over and over again. Once he got my hands all tied up, he took me to Nick and Mar's room and I yelled for them to come out and I told Nick to come first and grab something! Mar knew what was going on, right away. Nick grabbed something to hit the guy with but as soon as he opened the door, the guy grabbed it from him and almost hit him with the knife and pushed us all on the bed and tied up our hands and feet. One guy stayed in the room with us the whole time and the other guy went around the whole house and started grabbing everything and stuffing it in Nick and Mar's luggage. They took our TV off the wall, 3 iPhone's, 2 iPad's, 2 video camera's, and all their chargers, 1 super nice Canon camera, a bunch of money, headphones, 1 MacBook Pro with all the videos and pictures of our boys on it, and so many more little things of value. They didn't take any of our credit cards, passports, documents, or car praise Jesus!

After they gathered everything that they wanted, they came in the bedroom with us and the main guy, "Biggie" grabbed Marlene and took her into my room by themselves and he tried to abuse her as well and we just heard her screaming in the other room and we couldn't do anything, we were so helpless sitting there tied up. Nick said several times "please you can kill me, just save my wife and leave her alone" the guys didn't care tho. Later after everything happened Mar told us that while she was in my room, he was trying to abuse her and she was fighting him and he punched her in the mouth three times and dislocated her jaw and cause her top lip to swell up like crazy. They finally brought her back in the room with us and then he took me again to the living room and since my feet were already tied, he was pretty much dragging me and slamming me into the walls and i got several bruises from this. He threw my on the couch in the living room and said in english "you do this, ok, you no do this, I kill you're friends". Oh Jesus! That's all I could say was the name of Jesus and pray that He would protect me! As he was trying to abuse me, he physically couldn't and finally stopped trying and took me back to the bedroom with Nick and Mar. They then took t shirts and stuffed them in our mouths and cut a towel into strips and tied the shirts in our mouths super tight so we couldn't scream when they left.

They turned of all the lights and took all our stuff and left the house with us helpless and all tied up on the bed. Only by an angel, Mar was able to slip one foot out of the rope and she ran to the kitchen and grabbed one of our small kitchen knifes and while her hands were tied behind her back, she cut my hands free then we all began cutting the ropes off of each other. We threw some clothes on and ran around waking up our Mozambican neighbors making sure they were ok. Went to the Cain's house (missionary family that was with us at the time) and borrowed their iPhone and tried to deal with the police and everything. We grabbed the rest of our important things like passports and documents and such and went to some of our friends house there at around 5 am after everything settled down a bit. We know this AMAZING couple, mama Gigi and papa JB who are from Zimbabwe and they opened up their beautiful home to us to stay and rest for a couple days after everything happened.

SO much stuff happened that weekend right after it happened and we didn't feel safe staying in that house anymore so we went back the next day and packed up every single thing and moved it to a storage shed on mama Gigi and papa JB's land and it will stay there until Nick and Mar can find another house to rent and live in until we get our home built on the Shekinah land.

The day after it all happened, we got a phone call from Mama Heidi Baker and she said that she was sending Papa Rolland in the Iris plane to come get us and take us to Pemba so we could be with our Iris family and rest and receive healing. That was such an amazing answer to prayer! We got that call, then two days later we were in Pemba receiving so much love from the Baker's and the whole Iris team and all my beautiful kids there. I couldn't think of a more perfect place for us to have gone than right there at that perfect timing.

This whole situation was the scariest thing that has ever ever ever happened to me and I never thought that it would ever happen to me, but it did! I was completely terrified the whole time and literally thought I was going to be seriously abused or killed. I've never been so scared in my life. But even in the midst of my fear, I had a peace that Jesus was holding me through it. He really gave me, Nick, and Mar a crazy unconditional love for the two men that did these awful things to us. It makes absolutely no sense to my human mind that we could actually love the men that did these nasty things to us, but we did. We still do. We know it was the enemy working through them. We want the police to catch these guys so we can minister to them and demonstrate the love of Jesus to them. We want to see their lives radically changed for Jesus and transformed for the Kingdom.

It was just two weeks before all of this happened, that God told me to come back to Tete in May and serve long term. Then the enemy attacks with this crazy situation and I really felt him lying to me and saying "you really want to come back here? you see what I can do to you. I can actually hurt you. You should just go back home to Tennessee where you're safe with your family." Believe it or not, this gave me more of a confirmation that Tete is exactly where I'm supposed to be. Those lies gave me more of a motivation to go back soon and show the enemy that he CANNOT stop me! I'm going to go back and I'm going to fulfill the calling that God has for my life there. I have absolutely no idea what all Papa has for me there, but I just know that's where I'm called, so I'm saying no to the things of the world and putting a hold on college, to follow where God is calling me to go. I have such a peace and confirmation that this is what needs to happen and nothing can change that!

I'm back in Nashville now for two months until I head back in May for long term. I have no idea how long I will stay this time, but at least for a year! Jesus has been so amazing and He has already replaced literally every item that was stolen from us, He's replaced and upgraded them all! He is also providing finances for me like crazy for me to go back in May. I still need some help financially to go back to the place where I'm called to show the enemy that he's stupid. ;)

It's going to be a long healing process to get completely and totally deeply healed from the trauma that I experienced, but I'm so happy to say that Papa has been so good and definitely given me a peace and totally has begun the healing process!

Connected

I'm connected to the world again! Just arrived back to Tennessee yesterday from my beloved Mozambique. Wanted to give a quick update...

I will post more detailed updates soon but right now just wanted to let everyone know that I am going back to Tete in May. Despite what the enemy did and all the attacks that we encountered, I still have peace and confirmation that I am supposed to go back and serve with Nick and Marlene and be with our Shekinah boys. Papa specifically told me to go back in May, two weeks before the big attack. I really felt the enemy lying to me and saying "you really want to go back to Tete? You see what I can do to you. I can stop you." Most people would be scared and run back to where they feel safe and are comfortable. But this lie actually gave me more of a confirmation that that's where I'm supposed to be and where God wants me. If God has such a huge calling on my life that the enemy wants to try to stop at that level, then I have no choice but to chase after it with all that I have. I'm going to return to Tete and fulfill the calling that I have there, that I don't even know about yet!

I'm asking you to please join me in prayer and support as I prepare to return to where my heart is in Tete in May. I know that He is going to provide all that I need! He holds it all in His precious, mighty hands. You are all so beautiful and I seriously can't thank you enough for praying for me and supporting me so much.

I've added a Paypal box to my blog so that will be the easiest way if Papa calls you to sow into my missions and helping to send me back to Tete.

Once I get settled in a bit, I will write more posts and share what all has been going on in my life the past few weeks.