a children's cup photo album

I just came back from the Children's Cup open house. We were honoring two new missionary families that are moving to Swaziland to work with Children's Cup. The first family is the Prince family. Stephen and Krista along with their three children (Avery-7, Iliea-5, Ellie-3) are planing to move to Swazi this September. They are still trusting God and are still gathering their support. I love this family and their HUGE heart. I had the privilege to hear their testimony and its quite amazing! To hear what they are willing to let go to serve is so encouraging. I'm following their blog: http://prince-fam.blogspot.com/ I would encourage you to check out their blog and pray about supporting this amazing family.

The Prince Family

The second family is the Hildebrant family, Mitch and Char are no strangers to the mission field. The Hildebrants worked with Mission of Mercy for many years in a Radio ministry. (Mission of Mercy is a great organization that works alongside with Children's Cup in Swaziland and Mozambique.) They are also still gathering their support. I would love for everyone that reads this post to pray about supporting these amazing families. I'm also following the Hildebrant's blog: http://mitchionary.blogspot.com/

 Mitch and Char Hildebrant

I also saw many familiar faces such as the famous Ben Rodgers! I love this guy he is an amazing man of God that I'm looking forward to working with. Ben is the African Children's Cup Director. He and his family have been there for about 6-7 years.

Ben Rodgers, Pastor Dixon, and Myself

Dustin Anderson was also there, Dustin will been my room mate while he stays in Swazi. He leaves about 4 days after me and will stay about 2 months. Looking forward to working with him.

Dustin Anderson

Natalie and Barton have become two good friends of mine. They both have been Swaziland and their heart seems to be left there. Barton is an extremely talented guy that paints and sketches with so much emotion. I love looking at his pictures he has drawn of Africa. He sells his work and the proceeds go straight to Children's Cup. Barton is currently writing a book about an experience he had while in Swaziland. I 'm looking forward to reading it. Natalie probably has to have one of the biggest hearts I've ever seen. She has a heart to serve and love people. Her spirit is contagious. She is a very strong woman that I highly admire.

This is one of Barton's amazing pictures

Another Pic of Barton's he is writing a book about the boy in this picture

There were many more incredible people that were at the open house. To many to list. Lol  I'm looking forward to working alongside with all of these incredible people. Children's Cup is a family not a crew or a team. I think all that know Cup will also say the same. I'm counting down the days, only 24 more! I can't wait

trusting God

So much has happened sense I last posted a blog. I’m leaving for Africa in about a month; plane tickets have been purchased for Tuesday May 25. I’m so excited; God has been blessing my socks off! All I have is about $1,700 left to fundraise. I know God will provide the rest of my needs. I just can’t stop thinking about how good God has been treating me. He is going beyond providing my needs and now He is starting to give me unspoken desires. I’m so honored and yet so humbled all that He is doing.

This entire fundraising journey has been so unpredictable! When I began to fundraise I started in discouragement, for I had no clue how to raise the funds. But God came through every single time. He taught me how to trust and to not worry. I’m a worrier and trusting doesn’t come naturally for me but God was so patient with me. I remember the first time I chose to trust instead of worry, it was so crazy! I remember laying my head on my pillow and saying “God I hand this situation over to you. Let your will prevail over my own.”That’s exactly what He did! And His plan was so much better than mine. Trusting God isn’t always easy or natural but it is WELL WORTH IT!

"A Walk for Hope" group pic

I feel like I’m living the scripture where it says "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him."

I’m starting to dream again, I’m starting to dream bigger dreams. Not selfish dreams, but dreams that I believe come from the father’s heart. I’m dreaming of one day starting an orphanage. An orphanage in the middle of a place that has been forgotten, a place that God has seen for so long. He has heard cries of people and He has been waiting for a man He could u send to show them His love. I’m dreaming and listening to where this place is. I pray that God will reveal this place to me when He sees I’m ready.

Until that day comes I will do whatever He wants me to do. And for now I know that I am to go to Africa for the next 10 months.

baton rouge dream center

For the next week I will be serving at the Baton Rouge Dream Center with a team from Memphis, TN. As I drove to the dream center I didn't know what to expect. I didn't have a clue what we would be doing or anything. Today we did two outreaches and they were amazing.

The first thing we did was we went door to door in the community surrounding the dream center and we passed out candy and Gatorade. It was amazing!  We were giving out stuff left and right and even had the opportunity to pray with some people. I'll never forget what one woman told me and this other girl. We knocked on her door and gave her the candy and Gatorade. And she said, "you two seem very happy to be doing what you're doing. This is very good what you are doing for the community. It's good that you youth can do this for others." What I loved about what she said is she noticed we were happy to bless her. I hope that it was a witness to her that the church loves her and God loves her. Who knows maybe that's what she really needed today.

The other thing we did was we boxed hotdog dinners and delivered them to apartments and trailer parks in the community. While delivering dinners in the apartment building we came across two little girls and they became our escort around the apartments. The two girls were so happy they could help. They would show us where to go and who would want food and who wouldn't. God Bless those two girls. Then we went to the trailer parks to deliver dinners and candy. These trailer parks were rough. Sheets as windows the front door wouldn't close all the way just a really rough neighborhood. Everyone in the trailer park recognized our red HPC serve shirts and was so happy to see us. They weren't happy to see "Brandon" or any of the other individuals but they were happy to see HPC dream center. The dream center is well known around their community they have left a positive mark on it. I'm glad we can come and learn from this great church. I know this is the beginning of a great week.

fundraisers

On Saturday, March 20 I will have a double fundraiser to raise funds for Africa. The first part of the fundraiser will be pre sale jambalaya lunches (lunches are $5 a plate if you would like tickets please contact me ASAP ) Plates can be picked up at Ascension Christian High School from 10:30am - 1pm. The second part of this double fundraiser will be a HUGE garage sale taking place in the school gym. Garage sale hours are from 7am - 3pm. Please tell everyone you know and come out!

Another fundraiser we are planning is "A Walk for Hope". This event will take place on Saturday, April 10 from 9am - 12pm in the Gonzales Municipal Park . There will be free food, beverages, spacewalks, music, face painting and tons of fun. We are setting a goal to raise at least $10,000 for this event which is very reachable! If at least 50 people can spread the word to their friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors and raise $200 a piece we would reach our goal! Also I will be talking to businesses to see if they would be willing to support the cause.

Come out and let's just see what God will do!

'justice is what love looks like in public"

"Remember justice is what love looks like in public" I absolutely love that quote. I was reading a magazine article about human trafficking and came across that quote. I'm trying to keep myself aware in what's going on in our world. I have to say I'm shocked in what I'm gathering. How could I have not known all this? How could I have been so secluded? I just don't understand. Here are some things I've gathered:

• the fastest growing crime on the planet is human trafficking
• there are more slaves on the planet now than ever before in human history
• there are over 27 million slaves in the world today, that's more than the population of Australia
• over 22 million children are forced into the sex trade every year
• In India children costs less than cattle
• 50% of human trafficking victims are children
• Slave traders made $32 billion last year alone, that's more than what Nike+Google+Starbucks made combined
• In 2009 1.1 billion people had no access to clean drinking water
• 3 million people died last year from preventable water related diseases
• Experts predict that half of the global population will be living in areas of "acute water shortage" by 2030
• 97.5% of water is saline and ocean based its unable to be consumed. 1.5% is fresh but is not easily accessible. Much of the rest is polluted, leaving 0.007% of the Earth's water available to the Earth's 6.8 billion inhabitants.

Are you shocked? I was. Now that I'm aware of this it leaves me thinking, "what can I do? I have to do something. But what?" These statistics break my heart. I know that can be used as a figurative of speech, but there is literally something inside me that breaks. I love what this girl said in the movie Blood Diamond she said, "It's kind of hard to go back to sipping lattes and acting like everything is okay after seeing all of this..."

I know that the reason I'm sucking oxygen from this planet is to comfort injustice head on. I believe it's my "calling" if you will to do this. I will commit my life bringing hope to those that have gone forgotten, and also making the world more aware to what's going on and show them ways we can make a difference. I encourage you all to start becoming more aware to what's happing in the world. And let's do something about what we learn!

I'm ready to reject apathy and get busy fighting injustice. Let's do it together!
I encourage everyone to watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl3MbcZQGHk

"lets get real and do something"

Wow what a weekend! This weekend we launched a new ministry for our church and I was honored to be a part of it. Two friends of mine felt like God wanted them to do something to help the homeless. Temperatures reached record lows in the 20s for south Louisiana. So Wednesday night at church they made an announcement asking for jackets to bring to the homeless. When I heard the announcement I knew I had to help. Friday night I went with three others to my buddy Kenny's house to organize the donations. The response to the announcement was amazing, people gave generously and graciously we filled Kenny's living room and porch with all the donations. It looked like the Salvation Army in his house! We stayed at his place until 3 Saturday morning organizing and making other preparations. After getting a few hours of sleep Kenny, Nicole, Ashton, and I loaded up a truck with donations and also stuff to make a hot soup and headed to New Orleans! We dropped off the donations at the "New Orleans Mission House". We couldn't cook the soup Saturday but we decided to go back the following day to cook it. That's exactly what we did! We cooked a hot soup for 50-80 homeless people. It was amazing we spent four hours hanging out with the homeless. All the guys were grateful and very appreciative for everything. I loved hanging out with those people because that's what they are. We put a label on them "homeless" but they are just ordinary average people that we can learn from. All they need and want is some love. One of the guys told us, "no one spends time with us. People come and drop off stuff and leave and thats great and we appreciate it. But you guys have stuck around and spent time with us and that's rare. Thank you for caring and spending your Sunday with us it really means a lot." I was speechless after that guy said that.

I have a huge heart to love and reach out to people. And I hope I can do it for the rest of my life. What we started this weekend is not the end but just the beginning of a ministry or should I say a lifestyle that we as people of Household of Faith will continue to live.

hope

There are many different words in the English language. We use words to describe, educate, and converse. But of all the words we use, I believe "hope" has to be the greatest and most valuable There is so much meaning behind that one word.

Doctors say when a cancer patient looses "hope" the illness begins to intensify and the patient may lose their fight with the terrible illness. There is power and value in hope! When it comes to Africa I believe God has given me a theme if I can call it that. You may have already picked up on it, its HOPE. I believe God wants his people to keep hope and don't ever lose it. 1 Corinthians 13:13 tells us that there are three things that will last forever- faith, hope, and love. I believe this verse tells us that it will always be available, although we may choose to reject it or forsake it. It is my heart to partner with Jesus and bring hope to the people of Africa.

I realize that the people of Africa have faced some terrible and some undescribable things. I just pray that they will meet Jesus and see the hope that is in Him . Life doesn't always become easier as a Christian but there is a peace, hope, and a grace that comes knowing Christ.

I love the word HOPE. . . I hope that all of us, people everywhere, will never lose hope we will never forget the power, and meaning in it.