Desire

Having ended the fast in the last half hour (first thing in my mouth was a spoonful of peanut butter, in case you were wondering), there are so many different things that I can write about, because the Lord was definitely at work in the fast. I’m going to try to roll up several of them into this post and share what the Lord has done.

I have this tendency towards idle productivity. I notice this at my house first and foremost. At my house, there’s not a whole lot to do. I don’t have a TV, I don’t have a DVD drive on my computer (or a single DVD for that matter), I don’t have internet at my house and I don’t have anyone to talk to aside from the Lord and if I’m feeling delusional, any of the various lizards that come in to visit me. Because of that, I try to toil in the interest of growing spiritually. How many pod casts can I listen to tonight? How many chapters will I read in my book? Will I master any new worship songs on the guitar? All of these are good things, but I find that my mindset isn’t always coming from the best angle.

Fasting

From time to time, I have friends that will ask me about my take on fasting, if you will. For those friends, this one’s for you… and its also for me.

It wasn’t until my junior year of college, at the age of 20, that I had my first fast. Somewhat surprising due to the fact that I had accepted the Lord when I was in preschool; it shouldn’t take a believer 16 years to get around to a part of the Christian walk that is so vital and helpful. For that year of schooling, I set aside every Thursday to fast and then it would be ended after my Thursday night prayer meeting. That year was definitely a growing year for me as I found out more about fasting; physically, theologically and emotionally.

My head always wants to make sense of these things and make it into a formula. I remember driving to work one Thursday, profoundly frustrated with my fast and whether or not I was “doing it the right way.” The thing that made sense in my mind was to add an element to this particular formula of Thursday fasts. I prayed to the Lord in my frustration and asked “What do you want? Do you want me to just not end it late Thursday night and just go to sleep to end it in the morning?” “No!” He replied instantly. I was quite taken back, because I thought that was the part that I, quite grudgingly, would need to add. He instead talked to me that He didn’t want that, He wanted my heart. So its not some religious practice that I have to do out of obligation? No, it’s a way that our hearts become rendered to His heart and that’s what moves the stuff around us.

Process

After a crazy time getting back to Moshi, I’m back in Moshi. I find myself writing from within my own living room but in some ways I still feel like I’m back in Asia. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m listening to Jesus Culture or that I have another stomach ache complete with vomit tasting hiccup burps (just thought I‘d share), but I truly feel like there’s a part of me that came alive there and I’m trying to figure out how that looks like in my blessed normal context of Moshi. It is a bit to process.

My trip was amazing. God did new things in my life and I feel like I grew a lot. Its kind of an odd feeling. While I can articulate some of the stuff that He did (at least enough for eight previous blogs in addition to this one), I feel like the heart of what He did and my feelings towards the trip are beyond diction. That seems to be a recurring theme in my life, not having the words. Quite the quandary for someone who fancies himself a writer. What God does is beyond words and such was the case on this trip. Nonetheless, here’s my feeble attempt…

Life is all about the first and second greatest commandment. That we love God and love others (Matthew 22: 37-40). I love God more after this trip and I thank Him that He is here with me in Tanzania as well. I thank God that He is omnipresent and that while we left Asia, He stayed there and came with us. And yet, no one else came back with me. I do miss walking around Darjeeling or seeing the beauty as our tour bus winded through the Himalayas. But more than anything I miss the people. The ministry takes place before the Lord and is for the benefit of the people.

A Story

How do you start a good story? How do you live a good story? Over the last few weeks, I have found myself in the midst of one of the best stories I’ve ever heard. Its one of the greatest stories I’ve ever heard, because I know who the Author is and I know that He does all things well. The real life story has all the suspense and great scenes that you would want in your favorite fiction book, but this is real. The Writer has chosen to use real people in real places in an effort to not only bless and write a good story, but so that people will observe and read the story and point to Him as the Giver of all good things. This is one of the many amazing stories that He’s planned since the dawn of time. It is impossible to fully capture the depth of the story in a finite world when its already been written by the eternal God. At any point in the story, any small thing, a newspaper thrown away, a rejected internship, a stolen identity could have upset the story, but it was in fact written masterfully. So how am I suppose to start this? Do I start it when I first came on the scene on April 8th, 1986? Do I start it at the age of four when I gave my heart to the Lord and His plan of redemption, blessing and purpose began in my life? Do I start it when I first got called to Tanzania? Or when I left California totally single and not knowing what God was going to do? My feeble words couldn’t match the masterful penmanship of the Lord and yet here’s my attempt to tell one of the best stories I’ve ever heard… or been a part of.

I was at the Hidden With Christ office in Tustin. As I was walking through our small office space and looking at the hangings in the hallway, I was pleased to see newspaper clippings of past and current Hidden With Christ missionaries. Lydia, Jodie and the first director Melissa Hermann were in an LA paper, Rita’s son Andy was in an OC paper and I thought that it was a cool way to witness and potentially fundraise. As I commented on them, Rita told me that it would be a good idea to contact local papers back on the central coast where I grew up and see if they would be interested in running my story about moving to Tanzania. I took on that idea and subsequently contacted a couple newspapers up in San Luis Obispo county. I was in a story that ran in the Paso Robles Press, Atascadero News, and Paso Robles Gazette. Also I was in a totally separate article in The Tribune which goes throughout the county. I was pleasantly surprised when it led to some support that came in as well as a donated laptop, on which I’m writing this story. While those things are good, the Lord had so much more planned.

Testimony

I have been very blessed over the last month or so with some friends that have come from California to work with Ryan. I’ve already mentioned Kelli who has been my friend for a few years now and we were in the same life group back in Costa Mesa. Also, Vanguard’s interns Nick, Taylor and Dalila as well as Melissa who got connected to Ryan through me and kind of a cool story of what God did and is doing in bringing her here. So these five are staying at Ryan’s place and its been really great to have a community of people around my age to share life with this summer.

Before Melissa and Kelli even got here, I mentioned to the others that I wanted to do testimonies as a group. I’ve always loved to hear stories of other believers and the work that the Lord has done in their lives and what He’s doing right now. It allows us to have better insight into those in our community and it encourages us because we realize that often some of the things they’ve gone through aren’t all that different from our own. Even for those in the group that drive you up the wall, it increases your ability to empathize with them and love them more.

So we started our testimonies a couple days ago. I got put in the hot seat first (that’s what I get for coming up with the big idea) on Wednesday. I managed to go for just over two hours. Yeah, a total snooze fest. I enjoy sharing of what the Lord is doing and has done. Because I’m so long winded I try to throw in a few completely irrelevant stories about stuff like being in a “club” as a child named after my friends stuffed bear (Club Ted) and how tea parties with girls played a part in such situations. Basically, I try to keep everyone awake, which isn’t all too dissimilar from preaching at a Tanzanian church service. After I went, Melissa shared (pushing us late into the night) and then last night Dalila and Taylor testified. Nick and Kelli are coming up next.

Persistence

This is a little cheap. Okay, just so you know before you continue with the blog, I want you to know that there is the slightest bit of me that is being lazy in what I’m about to talk about. The Lord has been teaching me something over the last little while and I’ve turned it into a sermon. I delivered that sermon at Pastor Unity’s church on Sunday. I then used the same material in a short devotional at TOA on Wednesday morning. I’ll be preaching on it at a my church tomorrow. A couple hours ago, I didn’t know what to write on so I went with this. I’ll be a little like Rob Bell. Not like having hip haircuts and sprinkling a little heresy and weird analogies in my teaching, but rather if you’ve heard me teach, then my writing is pretty much the same stuff, just like his Noomas and sermons are the same as his books. If this repetition in anyway makes you feel cheap, I’m sorry. Please feel free to not read any further. My feelings won’t be hurt. I imagine most people that “read” my blog don’t make it past the first paragraph anyway.

Disclaimer aside, there is this passage in Luke 11 that seems a little odd to me. Sometimes, I hear a story that Jesus tells and I’m just like “huh?” This is one such passage. One night, a guy comes to his friend and asks for some bread. The friend tells him to take a hike, because him and the fam are already in bed (I’m paraphrasing of course, that’s okay though, Eugene Peterson paraphrased the whole Bible and everyone loves that). The dude doesn’t leave, but keeps asking. Jesus explains that it is because of his persistence that the friend will get up and hook him up with the bread. And what do we learn? If you bug your friends enough, you’ll ware them out and get what you want. Right?

Jesus goes on to teach the famous “ask, seek, knock” passage, to which everyone that wants a new car says “amen!” Not quite. This passage always seems to befuddle me a little. I remember thinking about this passage and continually asking the Lord for a particular thing that was very important and very big. It never happened and barring a miracle that is way overdue, it won’t ever happen. I’m okay with that, but it makes the passage a little confusing.

Answered Prayers

Like most things in my life here, my spiritual life has been flipped upside down and I’m searching for categories to place things. As if prayer weren’t hard enough to understand as it is, just focusing during times of prayer now has become one of the most elusive things for me to accomplish during my quiet times. And despite my own distractions and inability to “speak the right words” to Him, prayer is still a two way street and I’m seeing more and more how the Lord makes sure to hold up more than His side of the exchange.

My first night in my house here was one marked by prayer. I was pleased to come in and see my house furnished with borrowed furniture, but there was no bed yet and no mosquito net. I pulled the cushions off the couch and placed them on the floor in my living room to go to sleep. January is the middle of summer here, so it was a bit hot, so I slept in my normal attire of shorts and no shirt. Little did I know that I was about to be engaged in warfare. Prayer. Warfare. You know what comes next… I got LIT UP by mosquitoes. I started putting on more and more clothes, pulling my hood all the way over my face to the point where all that was somewhat exposed were my hands and that was unintentional as I was asleep. The Bible says that our tongue has the power to both bless and curse. In high school I had a potty mouth from time to time, but I was literally cursing these mosquitoes, like telling them to just die. I was laying there just praying that God would just kill these stupid useless mosquitoes. Well, He didn’t kill them and the next morning I woke up with about ten to fifteen bites on each hand and also got a bit on my ankles.

Its kind of interesting to think about prayer. We can pray in faith and expect results, but that doesn’t make life easy and after one problem is solved, another one pops up. I don’t know what to make of this necessarily, but often I say in my prayer “Lord, it would be good if __________, because ________” like “Lord it would be good if this stupid internet would just be fast enough so that I can get this stupid YouTube video to upload, because then people back in the states can see what our kids are up to and they might pray for us or donate.” Sometimes, the video uploads, sometimes it doesn’t. I think it would have been good for me to not get attacked and have an ultra itchy hand the next day after sleeping in my house that night, but it didn’t happen. Perhaps there is a level of vanity too something like YouTube videos and mosquito bites, but all the same, doesn’t God want to do good things?

I don’t claim to have any answers to why those things don’t happen and I don’t know how this whole prayer thing works. The Lord will accomplish His will on earth. He does it through our prayers and actions. But He doesn’t “need” us necessarily, He chooses to use us. But if we don’t do our part, He makes up for it. Sometimes we pray and nothing happens. Sometimes we pray one thing and the opposite thing happens. Sometimes we pray and exactly what we prayed for happens. I remember talking about prayer in youth group and I remember my youth pastor saying, “when you pray, God either says ‘Yes,’ ‘No’ or ‘Wait’” At the time that seemed so profound to me, now looking back I think about what happens if one of my kids asks me for something, what do I say, ‘Ndiyo,’ ‘Hapana’ or ‘Subiri’ (sometimes I say ‘labda’ but I don’t think God says that). Wow, okay that’s helpful then.

You all ready to hear some truth? The Lord DOES hear our prayers. It does make a difference. When we pray, things shift in Heaven and Earth and good stuff happens. We don’t understand it completely, but that’s okay. Stop and think about what you are doing… you are speaking with a transcendent infinite being who created the universe and loves you like a father… are we expecting to understand that? What’s more than that is that the Lord does answer our prayers and when He does He has a flawless record of coming through on His word. I am writing this in Tanzania, because the Lord answered my prayer and I thank Him for that.

On Wednesday, Lydia and I met together to just talk about how my first month and a half of actual work at TOA has gone and what things we can be doing and working on and everything. I had a meeting with my incredibly godly boss essentially. We of course talked the technical stuff of work detail. But I was also telling her how grateful I am for her and Jodie and Eli. She went on to return the gratitude and she told me that I am specifically an answer to prayer. It took a special grace for her to do the books and seeing the kids (especially the little ones) learning English has been something critical to running this place, but it was outside of her ability because of everything else that needed to get done. She prayed that someone could come and do these things and the Lord sent me here. The Lord orchestrated something beautiful. Three years ago, three women came here and started an orphanage. That summer, the Lord first called me here and I soon thereafter found out about this place specifically. It soon became a prayer of mine that the Lord release me to come here and start down the path of running an African orphanage. Lydia was the Education Director who became interim Program Director who went back to be Education Director who went back to interim Program Director who became permanent Program Director. Ryan and Stacy came through during that time. For a year in there, a man named Warren came here and fixed the booking system. All this stuff was happening here and I was in California praying that the Lord would release me here. Then in a beautiful moment, Rita offered me a position at TOA and after answering the prayers for a children’s pastor in Long Beach, I returned here and the culmination of many prayers took place. Wow.

One more story…

My senior year of college, I took 40 units altogether so that I could graduate on time with no outstanding units. Because my school schedule was so strenuous, I had to drastically cut back on my hours working at the city. That didn’t mean that my cost of living went down though, so I had to pay for things with my credit card. After I graduated and started working more regularly, I went back to mostly using debit, but I wasn’t really able to make much of a dent in the credit card payment as I was paying back my loans and rent and food and everything else. I stopped using it eventually, but couldn’t pay more than the minimum most months. I prayed and fasted for my financial situation. I dared to pray that the Lord would pay off all my debt (credit card and loans) within a year of my graduation. I only told Clesi and Ashley up til right now, but I prayed, gave generously regularly, and fasted asking the Lord to pay off all my debt before May 2009. The evening of April 30th, Ash and I were literally on top of Triangle Square in Costa Mesa looking through planters for $50,000. Didn’t find anything. So did the Lord just not hear our prayers, not see the fasting? I don’t think so. In the words of my wise youth pastor I think He just said, “wait.” This week, an answer came to $3,500 of my debt. In an act of submission to the Spirit and joyful generosity, a friend of mine has taken over the remaining balance of my credit card. A friend who is already an AMAZING supporter of mine and already had a great impact on me while I was living in California. This friend is a beautiful answer to my prayers and I trust the Lord has something special for them.

Pray. He hears you. He loves you. He has good things for you. If you are discouraged in your praying, ask the Holy Spirit to do His work of encouragement. I stand in the blessed prayers of yesterday and I hope that the next season bears wonderful fruit that I prayerfully sow today.

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The Rundown: This week has been good. Last Sunday I helped Lauren move some stuff for another missionary and after that I swam with her and Ronda at their place. Its just nice to hang out with friends and I’m blessed that they were both my roommates over the summer. Monday, I was over at Lydia and Jodie’s for dinner. They are not only hospitable but the food is BOMB! Wow, chicken pot pie with mashed potatoes and gravy. Its like I’m back in the states. I’ve been able to hang out with those short termers a few time so that’s been cool. Discipleship was good on Tuesday, small group was good on Wednesday and worship was really good on Thursday. Yeah, other than that not too much going on. Emails, messages and comments always welcome

Single-ness

If this hasn’t been a blog in the making, I don’t know what is.

I’ve decided to do a mid-week blog (no extra charge) on something that I know is applicable to many friends back in the states (as opposed to my last blog, seriously who cares about poetry?). And something that is really stinkin’ difficult.

I’m a rarity in this neck of the woods. Moshi is one of the unique cities in the much bigger picture of African missions. Moshi, or the Kilimanjaro region, for whatever reason, has a fairly large missionary populace. We aren’t running this place by any stretch of the imagination, but I know of friends that have been in areas of Africa and have been the only white person within miles and miles. That’s not the case here. Yet despite the larger missionary base, I’m the only missionary that I know or know of that is a single man and a young one at that. (I’m sure that someone from Moshi will comment saying that they know another, in which case my entire tirade will be null and void and I just wasted everyone‘s time… which I‘m probably doing anyways).

Maybe its because I run in the young Christian activism circles back in California, but sometimes I think that “Africa” is more popular there than it is here. And yet despite the hype, not too many young women are willing to just up and move here for a “long-term indefinite” period of time (although shout out and props to women like my friend Lauren who have done just that). I also can’t think of another missionary that is here that is 23, although just one month till my birthday! Even the young women here are older than me. And if you matchmakers are thinking “possibility?” I’m actually one of those guys that really like to be the older one in the relationship (go ahead and quote me here, I’m sure I just sealed my fate to be younger than my theoretical wife).

I sent out a status update while I was in Wisconsin, jokingly asking people to pray that I’d meet my wife at language school (first week of being here) and a bunch of the sistren commented saying they would. I laughed and said I was joking, but inside, I was certainly entertaining the idea. When you sign up to do God’s will, you sign up to do it on His terms. And if you don’t do it on His terms, I give you a 100% guarantee it won’t work. And as I say that, I think to myself “that implies what I’m doing is working.” Weird. Anyways, His terms are really hard and painful. I know all my friends that are married at any age say, “you know, Brandon, marriage is hard” and I’m like “Really? Let me try.” Then I find out they’re quite fond of their wives and won’t share. Okay, life is hard period. Marriage won’t solve everything, alright. And yet that head knowledge doesn’t make it any easier.

Ryan and I were talking during discipleship and this of course came up. Ryan got married at the age of 22 (I think) right after college to Stacy who is one of those rare women who actually was willing to move, along with their whole family, to a third world country and be missionaries. So needless to say, his story is a bit different from mine. Nonetheless, he was talking about when he left college and missing those friends combined with the freedom that came from being young. He took that freedom and married, then stayed in the states for however many years before being sent out a few years ago. I on the other hand took that freedom and moved here, where the realistic number of potential matches for me became much more slim.

If you know my story, you know my story. I’m going to be careful to not share information that is too personal for another person, but if you know my story, you know my story and if you don‘t the following is more than enough for this area. When I returned from my internship last summer and I had been offered my job at TOA, I had a decision to make. I had to decide if I wanted to stay in southern California and settle down continuing in ministry work with a very respectable and godly woman that I loved very much or to come here, single, and fulfill the story that the Lord had been writing over the previous two years. If I were a more dramatic writer I’d tell you I pined over the decision and it was excruciating, but to be honest, the decision was the easy part. My resolve to come here with or without a partner was set in stone before I got on a plane to come back to California. It wasn’t the decision that was hard, it was the weight of the consequences that was hard. It IS the weight of the consequences that is hard.

My friend Colleen once told me that I’m the kind of guy that makes girls confident that there are still good godly men out there. Isn’t that nice? Its too kind and very humbling. Yet as sweet as it was for her to say that, its entirely frustrating, because if that were true how come I AM SINGLE? Being single is hard. I don’t know what the Lord is up to and I feel like me and all my single friends are just waiting for one big event that will fix our lives. I know that’s not true, but that’s how it appears. I’m not the guy that says “I’m looking for the woman that will complete me.” Because that implies that I’m incomplete, when Christ is truly my everything. And yet all my single friends seem to be waiting, men and women that all have different stories, all clueless. Some of them have remained pure, some have had to have their purity restored, some of them are in college, some are in their mid twenties and all their friends from college are getting married, some are in their thirties and hoping they didn’t miss him/her, I have a friend who is sixty and she was talking about her husband-to-be. All of us are clueless, it seems. I don’t know what the Lord is up to. I know that I can wait, I am waiting and Africa teaches patience well. And yet, I feel like I have to take every opportunity to share about myself and see if there’s potential, because I don‘t want to miss her. Having said that…

Name: Brandon Michael Stiver

Height: 5’11” (although my license says 6’0”)

Weight: 165

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Grey

Favorite Color: Green

Interests: Jesus, children, children who love Jesus, I like walks on the beach or just walks in general, I play guitar, write poetry and listen to Norah Jones.

Looking For: A woman who loves Jesus, has an idea of settling down that includes living in Tanzania for the foreseeable future with future prospects of following the Holy Spirit anywhere else (India, Bolivia, wherever) and adopting children then moving an enormous Abraham/Sarah size family across continents at the Spirit‘s whim, she is artistic in some form and can live on peanut butter.

(Too much to ask?)

These have been my thoughts. They are only thoughts. They affect my prayer life and may affect my future life, but aren’t necessarily affecting my current life. A prayer that I pray often is “Lord, let my actions be righteous.” My thoughts can be to random and distracting, so I just pray that the thoughts that are within the will of God are the ones that I act on, because action is so much more important than mere thoughts. These are my thoughts on single-ness. Despite my thoughts on marriage, I am unmarried, I haven’t acted on any thought I’ve ever had about marriage, only the thoughts on pre-marriage. My prayers to stay in God’s will for who I am or am not with have largely been answered, because I am 100% certain that today I am supposed to be single. I don’t know what He has in store. I may never marry. I may meet my wife tomorrow. I have no idea. I’m clueless. But what I do know is that whether I’m married or single. My focus is the same. I am to focus on the Lord, seek my satisfaction in Him alone and what He has for me today. He is faithful and He’ll take care of me. He hears my every prayer and while I may be confused about His will or how the whole thing works is a non-issue, because He knows how it works and He loves me, thinks of me and will guide me better than I can myself. Praise the Lord.

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The Rundown: Only a couple things since my last blog. For one, everyone’s sick. A few kids (plus Jodie) have malaria. Awadhi’s been home from school all week with a fever. I personally have a killer sore throat, but I think that’s all it is. Apparently Diamond thinks its funny to cough directly into my face and overall we just share colds here at the orphanage. I went into immigration and I apparently got approved. I go into today (Wednesday) to pick up the permit and get my passport stamped. I’m not sure if they gave me one or two years, but watch my Facebook for the status update. Yeah, that’s pretty much it.

Sacrifice

"I can't lose focus, because Jesus is who I follow

Sometimes I choke back tears, but this time I'll decide to swallow

Submit my life to Him and glorify Him through the loss

Knowing before there's resurrection we must endure the cross."

-Excerpt from a poem I wrote on Jan. 30 2008

Mike Erre was joking a couple years ago about USC beating The Ohio State University and he said in jest that the loss was the cross that must be endured before the Buckeye's overcome and resurrect. Everyone laughed, but the joke itself was something that stuck with me (besides I'm a Badgers fan). We must endure the cross of pain and suffering before our resurrection and this is the path of the Way.

January 2008 was the crappiest month of my life. I just got back to Vanguard for my final semester before receiving my Bachelor's in Education. A little over a month before, my girlfriend of over two years had broken up with me, my best friend from back home had gotten into some trouble with the law and there was family turmoil as well. If I was ever in a state of depression, that would've been it.

I remember one night in particular. I was in my night class on the Gospel of Mark and I received a call from my brother Donny and then called back to talk to my sis-in-law Melissa and got the 411 on what had happened with my friend. I was devastated and shocked. In my pain, I wanted to turn to my best friend on this Earth, only to quickly remember that she had broken up with me November 23rd 2007. After class, I called my friend's wife and left her a pathetic tearful message and then went on a walk. I have never felt that things were so out of whack.

In that season of sowing in tears, I planted a seed that would lead to reaping in the deepest joy I've ever felt. The resurrection of my sorrow. [Psalm 126:5]

I again find myself in a time of dying to myself and sacrificing. I leave California in less than a week. This has been my home and the majority of the people I know and call loved ones live within the four and a half hours that it takes to get from Costa Mesa to San Miguel. As if saying goodbye to Andy, Amy and the Varners wasn't hard enough last week, yesterday I had a going away party. Joel represented the central coast, while Cody, Alaina, Clesi, Katie, Jeff and the LG fam showed up for Costa Mesa and The Garden/Modern Lovers gave LB love. And I was so sad. I cried so much yesterday. The bitter before the sweet I suppose.

Ashley put it really well a few weeks ago... I have sacrificed everything and especially these relationships for Awadhi [and the Treasures]. This last week, I've felt the weight of that sacrifice and its really painful. But the resurrection is yet to happen and that's my hope.

I am so glad that [Lord willing] my journey is not over yet. Yesterday before the party, I heard my story for the first time without speaking it. Thanks to a great videographer and now friend, Brett, I was able to hear me tell my story and I can't tell you how much it blessed me. I've watched it like five times by now and cried every single time. The only problem with my story about the Lord's calling on my life to Tanzania is that I live in California right now. I'm still saying goodbye and still hanging on this cross, albeit a glorious cross. I suppose my time in Rice Lake will be the tomb (am I reaching for this analogy?) and come January 10th, I get to come out and the Lord will receive glory and I'll walk through walls (figuratively...maybe literally).

So that seed that I planted in January 2008 when I started sponsoring and praying for Awadhi has already started to bud and next month January 2010 is going to be harvest time.

Praise be to the Lord. He is my Hope. He is my Love. He is my Peace. He is my Everything. And I will sacrifice everything and anyone (or everyone) for the joy of knowing Him. It is my delight to suffer for His sake and I await the day when all His saints are resurrected and we live in perfection for eternity. Asante Jehova.

Keep This Up Family

The Joys of Fundraising

Well I am about halfway through my time in the states before heading back to Tanzania. It has been a sometimes easy, sometimes difficult, sometimes joyful, sometimes sorrowful, but always always blessed time. I have so much enjoyed being a part of the Long Beach community especially those people at The Garden that the Lord has graciously given to me as brothers and sisters. I have also been so blessed to resume my relationships with my family in Irvine at Pacific Pointe and other friends throughout Orange County.

A question that keeps coming up is... how's fundraising going? Fundraising always seemed to be the drawback to missions. You have all these aspirations of how God will use you and then as you do the work you get stories of how God came through and you share them with others, BUT you have to fundraise. You get to impart knowledge and education to the kids, "Alright!" And you get to worship with the Masai, "Yes!" And you can be baba to all these wonderful children and live an exciting life before God, "Amen!" But you have to raise $25,000 for a year of ministry "Oh." But fundraising has been more than just "oh" and its turning into "Oh Wow! God is so good!" So I wanted to take a moment and testify of just how this tough season financially has showed the mighty hand of God and His faithfulness to me in all things He's called me to. All glory to Him in any good thing I say here. I wanted to share a few stories...

I hit the ground running in August and quickly got the word out of my new position and the money that I'll be needing to be with my family at Treasures of Africa and throughout Moshi. I got pumped up by reading the Autobiography of George Muller and was ready to see the miracles and radical answers to prayer. I was sending out letters by the dozens, contacting newspapers and radio stations, abusing Face Book in biblical proportions and telling everyone that would give me thirty seconds about what I was undertaking by God's grace. After I had done the majority of my letters, I asked Rita at Hidden With Christ for my update and a couple days later, I got a report from the office saying that I had raised like $230 or something. Essentially I had raised less than 1% of what I need. A tough pill to swallow considering all my toil. I then went six weeks or so without an update from HWCM.

In my new home on Signal Hill, I live on the second floor and from my patio I can see to Seal Beach and all the way up the coast to northwest Long Beach. I can see Belmont Shore, the big buildings in downtown Long Beach and everything in between. Something that I've gotten into the habit of doing is saying to myself "My Dad owns all of that" and remind myself that if not one person supported me, He would take care of me and bring His good plans to pass in accordance with His riches in Heaven, because He is always always faithful. It helps keep my head on when things don't look good.

Then a few weeks ago I set aside a week to fast and pray for three big things in my life. One of them was of course fundraising and finances in general. I don't know of your experience, but mine has been that when you set aside a period of time to fast, that guaranteed will be the time that you are presented with bomb food for free. Well, by God's grace I got through the week and after giving me a dream, He had me end it and He told me to spend the final day celebrating as He would be moving me into a time of harvest in all the areas of my life that I'd been praying for. Pretty satisfying way to end the fast.

Well, the harvest started the next day. In regards to finances, the following day my pastor and friend at The Garden, Darren, called me and told me that as the church is progressing they would like to hire me to run children's ministry at the Garden (an answer to another thing I was fasting for as well, because I was seeking the Lord to give me more direction in Long Beach). That same day, I finished my drudging time with paper work in getting my retirement money from my previous job and they expedited it so that I would get it sooner (which I have now).

From that point though, the harvest looked a little different as I continued to struggle in personal finances (even though in all truth the Lord has provided and has not forsaken me a single moment, despite my stress) and I again came to a time of high stress, being drained and needing refreshment. Right at that time, the Lord opened up an opportunity for me to head up to my hometown of Paso Robles. My family at First Baptist was so gracious with me. They gave me the chance to speak at the Youth Group and I had an amazing time telling the high schoolers my story and how the Lord has been at work. I encouraged them with the story of Abraham which has played a significant role in my life. The following day, I got to meet with the elders of the church and share my story. That too was a blessed time and I was very encouraged by those that were in the meeting. They prayed for me and also gave me a generous starting sum of money with continued prospects of future partnership.

As I was heading out of Paso Robles, I was able to pick up the Tribune, which is a paper that is distributed throughout San Luis Obispo county (this was the fourth paper I've been in on the central coast), and found my story on the front page of the Local section with a big picture of me and Awadhi. It was a blessing to read and I'm glad that AnnMarie (the reporter) helped me out. It was funny during the interview, she asked me what I would pack to come to Tanzania and I told her I didn't know, but probably not too much. Clothes, pictures, not too much. As an aside I told her that I live minimally and didn't even own my own laptop since mine was stolen in college four years ago. Well for whatever reason, she decided to make that particular item a part of the article. Then on Thursday a lady that works for a San Luis law firm contacted me via Face Book and told me that one of their clients was touched by the story and thought that since I'll be Education Director, I should probably have a laptop, so he decided that he would like to bless me with that. Isn't that amazing! I had been planning on squeezing a few dollars together to just get the cheapest netbook possible, but now its all taken care of and its on its way to my house. Out of the humility of this man's heart, he decided to not tell me his name, so as far as I know it could've been the Lord Himself. Whoever it was, praise God from whom all blessings flow!

These are just a few of the stories. There have been plenty more. I have a friend who by his own accord decided to let me borrow his truck three days a week, which helps so much for work and getting around for fundraising opportunities. I have another friend who on top of supporting me for TOA, loaned some money to me, when I paid her back out of the goodness of her heart she tore up the check and allowed me to have the money for good. I have an elderly couple up in Paso who have been out of work for two years but were still moved to donate what little they could. I've got a boy at FBC collecting recycling and giving the money to me and a friend from Rock Harbor that is giving a portion of her art proceeds to support me. I've had people give that I don't even know or hardly know. And yeah, I've had friends who won't so much as join a Face Book cause or respond in any way and at times it gets discouraging but above all these things, good and bad, is my Heavenly Father who is taking care of me and will continue to do so.

So how is fundraising going? Well, that's how its going. Logistically, I've raised about half ($3,700) of my launch number which is $7,500 and that is about 15% of my year total goal of $25,000. I am trusting that the Lord will take care of the rest of the years support as well as personal finances in all respects. Please believe alongside me! If you feel so inclined, check out www.treasuresofafrica.org/staff/brandon_s.htm for both my bio and my donation link. Also, if you have any questions, comments, encouragements, or words from the Lord please share them with me. Above all, PRAY!!! Thank you so much for those that have prayed, those that have given and those that took the time to read this ultra long blog. I bless you in the name of the Lord.

To The Glory of Jesus,

Brandon