You're the reason that I live ... Jesus

So God has been teaching me some crazy awesome stuff lately and I thought I'd update this because I never do.
First let's check out 2 Corinthians 5:11-21
"Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Lately God has been teaching me a lot about Loving others with His love. I am SO filled with His love at this point that it's impossible not just completely love everyone. And I am being serious -- yes I get frustrated with things at times but God is keeping me so in check with that stuff it's crazy awesome! I truly am giving my all to Jesus first and letting everything else happen after this and God is using me for GREAT things! I especially like verse 13 up there which is the one regarding viewing people through Christ's eyes not in the world's! Seeing people as souls that Jesus died for, not for their outward appearance. And alongside that I love how in the first part, verses 11 and 12 it is talking about how we are called to be more like Jesus and accept that we are only humans with a higher calling! Also that we fear the Lord so much and obey Him SO MUCH that we can have those answers for those who take pride in what is seen as opposed to where our heart is! It's so great to have a wise book of Truth that sets this stuff straight for us! That we are to love people with His heart and look so far past the outward appearance that we compel those who look at the outward as opposed to the inward seek out what we have found in Christ!

Jesus has also been teaching me so much about self-control in regards to my nutritional intake.
Let's check out 2 Peter 3-9:
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins."

First of all I just want to say how much I love verse 3a, "His divine power has given us everything we need for life!"Amen! How great is that?
But I have to say that God has been showing me a lot about the "divine nature" and truly living for his desires and not the evil worldly desires that controlled my life for SO LONG and still are trying to keep a strong-hold on me. But we all know God is bigger than the boogie-man, amen!? But God has been adding these things onto my life in the order pretty much, started with goodness, just the idea of that and seeking that out, then I have been seeking his knowledge and knowing for a long time. Self-control has been HUGE lately with the way I have been changing my diet in order to fit a more Godly way of eating. I have cut out meat (I will eat organic meat but the mass production of meat nowadays and the chemicals animals are injected with, the way they have no free-range and the dangerousness that is the job many humans have at the mass market meat factories violates a lot of human rights issues that make me more than uncomfortable with eating it), on top of meat I have cut out cheese and anything that contains milk/dairy products e.g., sour cream, cream cheese etc however I do eat organic eggs and also drink organic milk on occasion however I think I may cut out milk completely very soon, I also have cut out white-flour completely. Many people think I am crazy, and they also think I am doing this for religious reasons, well that is partially true however I don't think God doesn't want us to eat meat, like I said I would eat organic meat however ... you already heard what I said about the human rights issues alongside mass market production of ... well pretty much anything. As for white flour, I think we all know that God didn't intend on us bleaching something with so much nutrition and thus removing all the nutrition from it. If it doesn't do ANYTHING good for your body than what is the point of eating it? Verdad?
God calls us to treat our bodies as temples (1 Corinthians 6:19), because this body is not ours! It does not belong to us! It is a means for our spirit, and for the Holy spirit. Also I know that health is very important, I also know at this point in my life I am not in great health and that I could do SO MUCH more for God's kingdom if I had better health -- so I better start listening to Him and doing what He has called me to do in order to better do what He is calling me to do for my future. Amen?
Back to verses 6 and 7 -- Perseverance is def. coming in handy right now, I have always had great perseverance when it comes to everything and God is def. filling in my weaknesses but in all honesty I can use a lot of prayer because cutting out all this stuff in my diet is kinda hard and pretty crazy but I know God is bettering me and showing me SO MUCH through this. I am so thankful for my mom also who is enlightening about these health issues that she has spent so much time studying. I get a lot of knowledge from God and a ton from my mom also. She def. has had a huge impact on my diet and on what is healthy and what is not.
A lot of times my issue is that I know what I need to do but I do not do it -- thankfully God again is coming in w/ the perseverance so that I can truly put this knowledge and respect for my body into reality.
Saying that, I should go for more walks. Slash work-out more often.
I think a lot of times I have tried to diet for outwardly reasons and have failed, I think doing this for inward reasons which immediately affect my outward reasons is a great thing that God is doing for me. This wisdom is from Him alone.
Verse 8 which reads, "For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Having this knowledge of Jesus is awesome but by not using it for what He is asking SURELY makes you unproductive and ineffective, by knowing God but not bettering yourself for Him -- well then you don't TRULY know God. Bold statement but that's how I roll. I have also been making a lot more bold statements that are glorifying to God as opposed to bold statements that hurt others. Killin' myself with kindness over here.

Anyway- in a semi crazy way that is what God is teaching me. Sorry if it seems jumbled or doesn't make sense but if anyone actually reads this, and wants to know more or whatever. Comment, call, e-mail.

Love, peace, recycle, vote
-Brooke

Open my eyes, so that I can see how You are working in me

Hi!
So it's official, I'm back in the states safely!
PTL (Praise the Lord)!
My trip back was good, I left the Orphanage at 2:30am Saturday morning rode in a taxi to the Airport in Santiago. I met a Missionary who grew up in the U.S. but had been living in Santiago for the past 11 years w/ her family working at a church there. We flew to Miami on the same plane but then she had a direct flight to Chicago and I had to go to Kentucky and then to Chicago. Oddly enough when I finally got into Chicago I ran into her again! She borrowed my cell phone and we caught up a bit about or traveling and the like. She gave me some contact info so if I feel like doing a different type of missions anywhere else in the D.R. I have a great place to stay.
Once I got to baggage claim in Chicago I realized circa 2 hours after my flight got in that my luggage had been lost. My dad and I claimed it and we took off. Stopped at an Applebees on our way home and got back to Paw Paw around 1am.
I got my luggage delivered yesterday night, pretty great reaction time I think -- I'm so blessed to have gotten it back that quickly, or at all you know!
Yesterday my brothers came over with their families and we had a fun day in the pool with the kids. My mom attempted to recreate some food from the D.R., and though it didn't really taste a thing like it... it was still really good!
Now I'm just trying to figure out what to do with my time. I might walk into town, we always take cars here and after 10 weeks of not having one at my immediate access I start to really appreciate walking and just taking however much time to do whatever I feel like doing.
Less scheduling more relationships even the one with yourself and especially the ones with others and mostly the one with Jesus.
Here are a couple pictures, because blog posts are better with pictures.
my niece Isabella and i in the pool

the fam

God bless you. The support I received before, during and now has been so great!
Love in Him
-Brooke

This past week has been great -- this upcoming week is my last and all we are doing is psending time here at the orphanage doing some structured things and a lot of unstructured things. I am excited to have a great week and then venture home... as much as I don't want to leave I'm estoked to start my more Long-term mission back home. Your mission field is what you make it. :) (Credit to Emily).



As per usual, here are some good pictures from this past week. God bless, see ya'll soon.



jose luis and his youngest sister luz maria


me with indiana and jennifer, a little whelmed





luz maria, rockin' my sunglasses and carrying around a towel, for whatever reason





this one is for izzy... and sometimes, jennifer isn't my friend





monument in santiago -- josh this lady were very mismo





view from the monument





the monument



fin

In Him

-brooke

Week 8...

This past week we had another group come in from His House and also a group from Tom's (Orphanage Outreach Director) church come in. We did two different camps and the one I was part of did a camp at the Baseball stadium just a couple blocks away and also one in a neighborhood about 45 minutes away which had never had a camp there before. It's crazy to see the difference between the camp at the stadium and the camp at the neighborhood b/c the kids who come to the stadium are so used to having camp and kind of take it for granted a little more. The neighborhood was awesome and all the adults from the neighborhood were very helpful and actually participated in camps by assisting us when we couldn't completely explain the rules to a game or keep the kids in their groups. Friday morning everyone went to Dajabon but us interns got to go to the ADMAT center which is where there is a team of archeologists working to dig up and preserve ruins from ship wrecks all around the banks of the DR. We got to see some really ancient stuff so that was pretty cool. We also got to ride in the back of the truck which is always fun. From there we went out to lunch and then when to the El Morro beach for the afternoon. The groups left early yesterday morning and now it's just us interns and a couple of 2 week girls. I'm gonna go take a shower and play with the kids a little. Here are some pictures!

Heat Lightning! An often occurance around here...


This is El Morrito Beach during the day, we usually go there every Friday


Izzy and I on the back of the truck on our way to ADMAT


A little girl at the neighborhood who when I asked to smile, made this face


Sunset from the roof...


Josh and I got a package from our friends Alicia and Mark!!!


The gang of little gals at the Orphanage... back row, Jennifer, Joanni, Nena, Piley, front row, Franchesca, Luz Maria, Lisy


Jennifer!


Praying for you all, Peace and love
-Brooke

Mi Dios es ton GRANDE

Week 7...

This past week has been really good.

We did various work projects in the morning around the Orphanage, we completely re-did most of the kitchen and cleaned up the Green bano roof (for those of you who are familiar), we also painted the outside of La Copia, the Chapel we did camp at last week. It looks amazing now.

In the afternoon we did a Reading Camp here with the kids, all of us chose 3 kids to work with, I chose Leonel (17), Jennifer (3), and Nathan Woods (Eric's Son) (6). I actually ended up reading the same books with all the kids. We used bilingual books so Leonel would read in English and Nathan would read in Spanish and Jennifer would pretty much just listen to whoever was reading or draw pictures or mimic whatever we said. It was a lot of fun. On Thursday we had prizes for the kids and a party with cake and juice. It was good to see them learning and having the desire to learn more.

Yesterday, Our day off we went to Cabarete, a nice beach/tourist town about 3 or 4 hours away. We met a girl named Priscilla who goes to the University in Mexico but grew up in Santo Domingo. We hung out and walked the beach for a long time and went to a couple shops, had some pizza. Etc. It was fun to have time off to chill and stuff, even though we missed the kids.

A couple pics...

This is Josh, half of Jessica and I at the beach in Caberete


Mi Amiga, Lisy at the reading party


Me and My Amigo Winston


This is a picture of my friends Beth, Ismelda (Izzy) and I in front of La Copia -- with a fresh coat of paint


Thanks again for everyone who reads this and supports me and prays and all that jazz -- I really appreciate it.
Love you
-Brooke

Ps... Hi Mrs. Devine :o) Kristen is doing well!

Not to us, but to Your name be the Glory

Week #6 (?)
This past week a team from His House came in, we did a camp in the morning at a Batey called La Madre and one in the afternoon at La Capia (a chapel just a few minutes from the Orphanage). They were both a lot of fun, this week I was in charge of Recreation so we played Kickball, played w/ the giant parachute, etc, it was sweet. At La Capia it is actually the church of Annalesa one of the ladies who comes in and does laundry here - she is an amazing lady with a great heart for the Lord. It was cool to see her out of the laundry room and able to play with us and all that, a very cool experience.
La Capia was also cool because a lot of the kids there were kids that I had taught my first week here when we taught english in the schools. They remembered me and I got to see how they were and meet some of there brothers and sisters and stuff. It was a really cool experience to be remembered 5 weeks later, and be able to show kids pictures I had with them at school and stuff. Jesus is cool.
It was fun to have familiar faces here, now this week we don't have any volunteers coming in so some of us are going to do a camp at the English Institute and the rest of us are going to do some real service projects around the Orphanage and town. I'm stoked for that, I really am excited to do some sort of traditional service in the ways of things like painting and cleaning up stuff etc etc.
That's the excitement of the week, I can't seem to get my images to upload this time so you'll just have to wait and see ya know.
Love you all, praying for you, God is good all the time.
-Brooke

a few photos

hey guys,
things are still going great here - the big team turned out to be a lot of fun and though i was in charge, somehow things still got done! hoorah.
i don't feel like writing too much so i'm going to give ya'll some photos to check out!
here is a picture from the top of El Morrito, a small mountain we climb just about every week to watch the sunrise and go swimming...

here is another picture of the sunrise, this one includes the cross on the top of the mountain, there are the stages of the cross as you hike the mountain and then this big one is at the top

here is a picture of me and winston from the orphanage

here is a picture of me and some of my friends who are now gone :( they are steph, stef and heather

here is a photo of me and my friend katie, who is also gone now

this is the CMU crew, my frends beth, josh and alissa

one day we went on a tour of this swamp type area, it was a mix of fresh and salt water and there was probably parasites in it, but josh swam in it anyway -- here is a photo of my friends kelly, rachelle and i on the boat (they are both gone now too, and they are also both awesome)

here is a photo of the beach we swim at, it's the same beach as you can see in the pictures from el morrito

here is a pic of my eye that was infected, sick

here is a pic of this crazy scrape thing i got on my leg somehow, (i really don't know how i got it, it just appeared the other day)

well, that's good for now,
take care, i'm thinking of you all.
in Christ
-BR in the DR