Blog #6

My ministries for New Life went very well this week. I actually had my first teaching session for Promise Land on Sunday. As well chilling with the kids during my regular Tuesday night connect group. On Tuesday we had the dinner with all the families and then me and Jason (children's pastor) got together with all the kids downstairs while the adults talked about life and God. I really feel it's a blessing to be a part of this ministry. And honestly all I do is love the kids the best that I can. It is not too difficult. We have this giant rubber-band ball going. So one of the activities was making rubber-band chains and adding to the ball. After the parents are done they come down to pick up their kids. So that is part of the ministry, talking to the parents and letting them know that I am trustworthy to be with their kids.

Promise Land went very well too. I don't have too much experience directing a group of kids and keeping their attention. So first we did our regular sign language worship service, which is always hilarious. After that the kids all got together and learnt a lesson from Lorne, the leader. After that the kids prayed a "salvation prayer". Of course just the kids who wanted to. I had to be very stern with the kids who didn't want to pay attention, to make sure they wouldn't start distracting other kids. I feel like in order to be more effective in this ministry I can do some more pre class reading on the material we are covering and the lesson course. 

Again, I appreciate all of your prayer towards my church ministries, as well as my everyday ministry with people I come in contact with.

Here is a verse that I love from 2 Peter.. 

Shalom

3:

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.[a]

 11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives

Blog #5

This week has been a growing experience. I am learning quickly how to manage my time properly. I have realized that the college life has been taking its toll on me, as I have been trying to adjust to this drastically different lifestyle. The truth is that I have been planning and living my own life at my own pace ever since I was 16. Ever since I got into the modeling industry I entered a self pace school, pretty much a mix between homeschool and conventional school. In contrast to life at Kaleo many parts of my life are already planned for me, and it tends to be quite stressful for me. I have to adjust to it. The main thing I think I need to work on is my time and energy management. Knowing when to reserve my energy for myself and my own needs, and when to give it out to other people. I find I tend to try to do to much sometimes, and end out burnt out by the end of the day.

I did teach Sunday school this week. We started off with Sign Language Worship which was a tad bit embarrassing as I had to dance around doing sign language with the kids. Then we watched a movie. I had the chance to meet many new kids there, and I had a lot of fun.

After church we went to our main pastors house, Mark Buchanan. I had a great time talking with him and his family. He gave me a lot of cool points on areas of ministry where I have questions. We made plans to have a more personal meeting later on so I can speak to him about my writing and ministry interests. 

Prayer team can you please pray for our classmate John, who just lost his Grandpa. He was very close to him and I know he is hurting right now. Thats all till next week!

Blog #4

I am at a bit of a spiritual low right now.. I am fighting to stay positive. I feel like I am holding back tears all the time,  last night I found out that my Gramma has a tumor in her head. Immediately when I found out I didn't have much of a reaction to it. And I am not too worried intellectually because I know how much my Gramma loves God and no matter what she will be with God in heaven whenever her life ends. But spiritually this is taking its toll on me. It doesn't really matter how much the intellect gets in the way.I feel a little bit angry at life right now. I know I need to stay positive for her sake and just pray faithfully so that is what I am going to do for the rest of the night.

My ministry for this week was buying lunch for a homeless guy that I met in church a week before Kaleo started. His name was Tim and I just saw him the other night with a cut up face and everything. I asked if I could do anything for him and he said yes so we went to get some food, then we prayed and I give him some of Gods word.

Prayer team can you pray for my Gramma and Tim, 

God Bless, Brandon.

Blog #3

I love God, call me a Jesus freak but that is the only thing I can start my blog with! He is just so good to us, his greatness is just becoming more and more evident in my life. My soul longs for him, yet at the same time my soul is longing for all the people in the world that don't know him. I want to go tell them, I want to go love on them. People would have such hope in some places of the world if I could just go tell them. People that would rather die right now because of how bad their life is.

Today while I was in church I was feeling a little bit frustrated because the New Life Pastors don't really do much preaching. They do a lot of talking about people in the community, which I think is great. I just find myself at times frustrated at the lack of inspiration I feel there. Today was good for the first 90% of the service, nothing too special though.

Then they played this video, a really crazy video. It starred this one African woman. First she started off talking about God and how great he is. She was very passionate when she spoke, which made it a bit different than your average "God is Good" messages. Then the video progressed into showing how bad the world is in places like Africa and Kenya, and South America. I felt this burning desire to go to these people and minster to them. Everything inside of me was screaming "I WANT TO BE A MISSIONARY!!" And I still feel this desire. Im just giving it some time to settle down to make sure it isn't some fad in my life. 

After church we went to an event going on in Duncan called "The Walk of the Nations" We walked a kilometer with about 500 people in honor of the 1st nations of Duncan. It was really fun. There were random groups of drummers and singers along the way, then at the end there was a meeting where our pastor was speaking.

My youth ministry has been going well. I went to a Tuesday night connect group this week. We had dinner with a bunch of people from the church then after I hung out with the kids and had a pretty good time. This morning I had my Sunday School teaching. It was unfortunate that the power went out in Crofton the night before because I had some preparations that I wasn't able to make. But it worked out fine because another man was doing it with me. Next time I believe I will be teaching a class all by myself, I am excited for this!  After Church we go to a family's house every Sunday unless something else is going on like today. I have really been enjoying spending time with the families at New Life! They are such a great family of people and I am so grateful to be in it! 

God Bless

Bible verse of the week:

Philippians 2

Imitating Christ's Humility

 1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others.

(Photos:Top- Walk of the Nations Logo , Bottom- Orphanage in Tijuana,Mexico. Inspired by my new desire for mission work. )