brooke's Revelife

Last Ecuador Update

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:30:04 GMT

Ah. It´s ten till midnight and my teammates are all asleep in their comfy hotel beds here in Gauyaquil, and what am I doing?

Blogging of course.

I thought about sleeping, but my heart and mind are so full, that I feel I must sit and write and write until some of it is out of my brain. I am so afraid it will leak out and be lost forever. Of course that will happen, because there aren´t enough journals, or pictures or videos or blogs that can encompass everything that happened on this trip. So it´s best that I do what the disciples did back in the day and write down what God wants me to. It´s His story anyway.

We fly out of Gauyaquil tomorrow at 10am. Soy muy triste (very sad). I love it here. I think I could handle several more weeks of this before I would be ready to return to America. Being in Latin America has always felt like home to me and this trip has been no different. I am a Watina (Wanna-Be Latina) through and through. I love the culture, the way of life, the musical language, how relationships are central here, how important family is, how passionate and exuberant they live life. I will miss greeting people with besos (kisses on the cheek) and I was never uncomfortable with the action to begin with. I will miss the warmth and openheartedness of the people. Church is totally different here -for obvious reasons. People aren´t as closed or private - they don´t hold back in worship and they know they need God - most of them love Jesus so much, because He freed them from the bondage of the warped Catholic/Mystic views that permeate the culture here. Their version of catholicism is so idolatrous and far from anything we know in America. So they embrace Christianity once they come to know Christ.

We worked so hard to equip the church here - we are leaving behind sweat, tears and maybe a little bit of blood. The existing work here is so strong, but understaffed and under-equipped, and I truly believe God crafted the team we brought to bolster and reinforce the church here in a significant way. We did just that - I don´t say that being prideful or arrogant. I watched my teammates work in the sun day after day and come to church and teach and serve night after night. There wasn´t a lot of downtime and that was because we wanted to do all we could while we were here.

But we leave here with just as much as we gave. That is just like God. I see changed people. People I admired even before this trip are returning completely different, full of something God placed in them, a new vision or a dream that´s been brougth to life. I see new life, new courage, new dreams, and I am awed by what God did. God used us to minister to each other, He used people, the Ecuadorians, who don´t even speak our langauge, to bless and impact us in the most powerful ways, and then God himself, through His using us to minister, spoke to us through our own service. I am overwhelmed just thinking about it.

Lastly, I sit here unsure of what God is doing in me. So many things that I have felt for years or months were simply confirmed here and yet I am not seeing how it´s going to play out once I return to America. Not that I need to see - I only need follow and obey when God speaks, but I am lying if I won´t admit I am curious and only a bit trepidatious about how to walk out what is in my heart.

I don´t fit. I don´t fit in America, I don´t fit at my job, I don´t fit at my church. I don´t mean that in a negative manner. I feel at home in Latin America for a reason. I have my job for a reason and I´m grateful for it. I am at my church for many reasons and I am certain God has placed me there. But it always comes back to feeling like a square peg trying to fit a round hole. I am this square peg that God has made me and I want to find where I fit in the puzzle...I feel like I´m hanging in midair as other pieces are shifted and placed before I can finally settle into my spot. Being in midair, even in in the hands of God, can be scary and uncomfortable, but His are the safest hands and if I will not trust Him before I placed in the puzzle, then I won´t be able to trust Him once He sets me down. This uneasiness I feel is ok in some respects and in others, it needs to end.

I have so loved leading worship and teaching worship here - words can´t express it. It is my passion and something I was born to do. Yet I don´t see that playing out in the way I would hope or expect where I´m at in America....or even at the level of anointing that gifting flowed out of me here. It shocked me. I knew God put that in me, but when it happens, I am still awestruck that He uses me. He used me here and there were times that I didn´t see it and I had to be told. I know I will miss the freedom and ability to lead worship like I did here once I am back in Texas, and I want to combat that disappointment. God can use me in whatever way He chooses - whether that be something ¨big¨or ¨small¨.

Lastly ( I am going to have to type this through tears), I really anticipated this trip would be that final step in restoring me to wholeness. I believed it would transform my heart and remove the pain and brokenness from this past year of hurts. It didn´t. I really wanted it to. I made it yet another event in my life, a goal that once it was reached, all would be well. And that is not the way God works. When I demand that I end up just like the catholics here who use Hail Mary´s and candle lighting as their Golden Ticket to answered prayer. God isn´t a genie in a bottle. And my heart will only be whole once it is wholly His. That doesn´t occur because I took a 2 week mission trip. I am still broken and that is still ok, because He is getting my heart, piece by piece as I finally relinquish it to Him. He is relentless and He hasn´t given up on me because of my fickleness or foolishness. His love as all-consuming even when I am crying over a stupid boy. He is there for the hundredth time and He doesn´t give up on me even when I want to give up on myself.

I know this was long and to be honest, I wrote it more for myself than anything. I will need to read this as a reminder - because the beautiful things that happen tend to leak out and be replaced with the ugly if we let it. I won´t let it.

Ecuador Update 2 - Now With PICS!! yeeee!

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:25:17 GMT

First off, this keyboard hates me and I don´t have a lot of time to blog, so if there are any errors, BLAME the dadblamed SPANISH keyboard. whew! got that off my chest.

We leave Cuenca Thursday morning and typing that sentence made my lip quiver and eyes water. I love it here. Sure it´s pretty as you will see below, but the PEOPLE...they are so warm, open and genuine. They love us and put up with our poor spanish and beg us to return, and threaten to confiscate our passports. Christian & Gaby, who i have worked with on the worship team, already have decided I´m staying with Christian and his parents and I must come back and teach the worship team for 3 months. I´ve told them I will pray about it and I´m serious. I could easily see myself here and I feel so at home and comfortable in this city. If I were to stay behind, I would be a tad lonely, but I think I would love it. That´s if I were to ignore the fact that I would miss my friends and family terribly. I have not been homesick at all. I´m homesick right now. For Ecuador. and we haven´t even left yet.

This team...words cannot express the selflessness I have learned from my team. I think we will be permament group of banditos amigoes even after we get back stateside. I love them dearly.

Ecuador Update #1

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:35:28 GMT

The travel day was a success. We didn´t have any major snags besides having to repack the bibles into different boxes before checking them on the flight. I overpacked as usual and had to remove all my books from my bag to get it down 2 lbs. Sad. Try as I might, packing light is hard for me. I always think ¨What if?¨and pack accordingly. So I haven´t regretted bringing anything, but I wish I have brought more sweaters and a heavy jacket. It is VERY chilly here at night.

Ok typing on a spanish keyboard is only slightly less difficult than speaking in spanish. Which has gone well - my spanish is much better than I expected and that has been a relief. Our team is INCREDIBLE: All hard workers full of good attitudes. We seem to only get bad attitudes when we have nothing to do - everyone is so dedicated and selfless. The first 2 days here have been work days and we have gotten many of the church projects completed in record time.

We have laughed a lot. We are the weird, loud Americans and we seem to have fun everywhere we go. I also think we have taken around 500 photos as a team so far. Holy moley.

Last night was the first of 4 nights of worship workshops that I am leading. It was a bit chaotic, but I was able to share my heart with them and they were very recpetive. We had ministry time at the end my team was ready on the spot to pray for people. Tonight we have another worship seminar and the rest of my worship team is sick with stomach virus. So pray for Manny and Paul that they would recover quickly.

Ok computer time is up. I love you all - thanks for your prayers and support.

Counting Down

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:18:57 GMT

I leave for Ecuador in 26 days.

WAHOO!!!

To my dear wonderful supporters: I have now raised over $1800 for my team, and my portion of the trip cost was only $1,500.00. Thank you so much for your generosity!! The crazy thing is that I think I sent the least amount of fundraising letters compared to my teammates, so the overwhelming response (more than 50%) of the people I have asked to help me go has been such an encouragement. I'll be sending out prayer cards this week with some more concrete requests and additional info about the team. We have a total of 13 people going now:

our fearless leader Krissy (whose parents are the missionaries in Ecuador)
Donelle (my fundraising partner and WONDERFUL pilates instructor)
Emmanuel (amazing vocalist!)
Paul (fantastic guitarist)
Sarah (the team nurse)
Steven (male co-leader for the team - great guy)
Michael (he's working diligently on his spanish)
Melody (children's pastor)
Allison (super organized)
Kerry (talkative)
ME!
Cristyn (super funny)
Kristin (great with kids)

We had a fundraiser Friday night - Parents Night Out. We babysat about 30 kids for 4 hrs - great time of team bonding and hard work. Chaos would be a fitting descriptor. I miss kids - it made me realize how much I enjoyed being in children's ministry and that I definitely miss it. It was also humorous to see who was good with kids and who wasn't. Most of the guys did a good job - the older the guy, the better he was with the kids. The ladies except for a few, were excellent with the kiddos.

We discussed spiritual attacks this past Tuesday at our team meeting - the closer we get to the trip, the more we are all noticing how we are being attacked - in our jobs, personal lives, emotions...which is AWESOME because we know we are scaring Satan when he is working so hard to keep us from going. Last week was really rough at work for me personally. As a team we are praying and fasting - each Tuesday and calling one person on our team each week to pray for them. Spiritual prep is just as vital as anything else.

I'm working diligently on my spanish podcasts and spanish worship. I'll be uploading a video soon of "Cantare De Tu Amor" soon.

Thanks again for all your prayers and encouragement.

Love--Brooke

Funny People

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 03:43:00 GMT

So far our team meetings have been less than fruitful, which tends to be the case when you attempt to get 14 adults together twice a month. Single people trend toward flakiness, and in Dallas where busy is THE lifestyle, folks just don't show up to meetings sometimes. So we haven't had too many opportunities to bond as a team.

Last night was a nice exception. We had a karaoke/poker night fund raiser. One of the children's pastors who is going on our trip is Malaysian and in cliched fashion, she LOVES karaoke and in non-cliched fashion, she and her husband are GREAT at it. They have an in-house setup - 85 CD's of karaoke goodness. I was in heaven, because I absolutely adore karaoke. I know it's cheesy, but it's fun.

They also had a friend of theirs bring his professional Texas Hold 'Em poker table and he did us proud- we had a room setup and it looked like some intense gambling was going on, minus the money and cigar smoke. I played 3 hands and went all in on that last hand of the evening and won. woohooo!

One of the things I'm really looking forward to is the light heartedness of our team. We have a bunch of comedians on our team. Most of us are extroverts, with the exception of maybe 2 people, and more than half of the team has this wacky sense of humor that translates into doing/saying anything to get a laugh. That was very evident last night. I foresee late nights in Ecuador of us all hanging out together, enjoying the silliness. This dynamic will also serve us well, because people who like to laugh tend to be more flexible and go with the flow, which is a MUST for any mission trip. When you are on the mission field, especially in Latin America, plans change, things go slower, people are on Latin Time and about an hour late to anything. Americans tend to get their panties twisted because they LIVE and die by the clock. They can't just chill out and let things happen as they will. Also, laid-back people will be more willing to eat weird food and do odd things asked of them. I also feel that even though we have funny people on the team, they are a responsible group, willing to step up to the plate and serve. I like that. I also like that I will not feel pressure to be the team "joker" - in fact, I probably won't even make an effort because the guys will keep us in stitches.

Lost In Translation

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:28:19 GMT

Spanish is fun. It's a fairly simple language to learn. Unlike English, spanish has hard and fast rules on pronunciation, verb conjugation and grammar usage. One could easily move to a Latin American country and with a minimal amount of effort on the part of an intelligent individual, become proficient in the Spanish langauge in 3 months. Or so I've been told. I've known teenagers who have gone with Teen Mania for 2 month mission trips and come back very close to fluent. It's all about exposure and effort.

When I went to Costa Rica in 2003, I was there for 5 weeks. We had a family team trip for the first week and then I stayed with the pastors in Costa Rica for three weeks, followed by the college team joining me for my last week. During my stay in between the teams arrivals and departures, I spent much time around people who didn't speak a lick of english, one of those being Lucas. Lucas was about 5 feet tall, with short arms and large hands. He was from Peru and he was in Costa Rica to help start a street ministry that he had already established in Peru called Fuego in Las Calles (Fire in the Streets). He had been a street kid and gang member, and upon conversion, God transformed him into a street evangelist. Even though we didn't speak the same language, I admired his passion and heart. He had a lot of fire in him and he could connect with gang members in a heartbeat. It was a miraculous thing to watch him when we went out ministered.

Being that I understood more spanish than I spoke and Lucas understood and spoke zero english, it was fairly easy to mess with the poor man. We were around the same age and since we were both guests in Pastor Julio and Sylvia's home, we spent much time together. I think Lucas may or may not have developed a crush on me. I don't say that arrogantly, because Latins are so demonstrative in speech and body language that, had Lucas been an American male, I woulda sworn he was infatuated. If anything he may have developed a proximity crush, but I'll never be sure.

Emmanuel did speak english and was forever in my debt because of his skill at translating for me. He liked to pull pranks on Lucas as much as I did. For instance, Lucas was ALWAYS starving and when he ate he put away more food than a man twice his size. Then he would sit back and pat his bloated belly and groan at his gluttony. Emmanuel taught him how to say "I'm full". I conversely told him that he was pronouncing it wrong and it was "I'm a fool." When he got done eating he would say "I'm a fool." and we english speakers would roar with laughter at the accuracy of his inaccuracy.

One Sunday morning while we were on the way to church, Emmanuel decided to have some fun with Lucas. The night before, Emmanuel had taught Lucas how to say "Excuse me." - I think Emmanuel got the impression that Lucas might have a thing for me, because the next morning while Lucas was sitting next to me in the backseat he turned to me and said "Kiss me." I looked at him like he was crazy and Emmanuel started sniggering in the backseat behind us like a little kid who put a snake in his nemesis' lunchbox. Lucas had no idea what he was saying in english, but realizing that it prompted a laugh from Emmanuel, he began to repeat it over and over with a big grin on his face, "Kiss me! Kiss me! Kiss me!". I began to laugh and blush and I did not want to tell the poor guy that he was saying "Besame!" to me over and over on the Sabbath of all days while we drove to church. Well, his protestations of love soon reached the front seat and the pastor's wife Sylvia, who was well aware of Emmanuel's joking, yelled back at Lucas and told him to stop saying that because he was not asking to be excused, he was telling me to kiss him. The look of abject horror and embarrassment on Lucas' face was a sight to behold. He kept saying he was sorry and Sylvia translated that I knew Manny had tricked him. He was far more subdued for the rest of the day, and that led me to believe that he probably did not have a crush on me as the suggestion of kissing me was terror-inducing.

But it sure makes for a good story.

Some Facts About Ecuador - Prayer Points

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:27:24 GMT

Let me say first off, this is one of the most unique trips I've been on. I've never been on a trip solely comprised of adults before. Secondy, most of the adults are my age, thirdly most of them are single. Lastly, the trip leader, Krissy, has lived in Ecuador and her parents are currently stationed there as missionaries. The entire team has already had the opportunity to meet with them, because they were here for about three months and they returned to Ecuador a month ago. There is something to be said about familiarity - a lot of the time when I've been on mission trips, a large obstacle to overcome is being comfortable with the people in country that you are going to serve. Many times you meet the pastors or missionaries on the same day as you are going out to minister. Sometimes this works great and other times...it doesn't. There are cultural gaps to bridge that go beyond language barriers. So the fact that we already have an established connection and the leader of our team is RELATED to the missionaries we are going to serve gives us a huge advantage.

Also, the Clarks had everyone on the team fill out "resumes" that give them an indication of our various skills, giftings and callings. They have poured over those resumes and assigned each of us different roles. They are actually tailoring the trip to fit us as a team so that we can best be utilized in ministry and service while we are there. Most trips just DO WHATEVER and tell people about God. Not only do we get to go and tell people about God, we get to train the people in their church and basically duplicate ourselves in another country. I will be in charge of the worship training seminar for their worship team in Ecuador - me and the two other musicians on my team will be leading worship while we are down there and then passing our knowledge onto their team. This takes our abilities and capitalizes them in the best way possible.

So those are some of the best developments. When I first heard about the trip and the Clarks told us "Hey we'll see what your team has to offer then we'll make a plan of action." I almost didn't want to go. I thought it a haphazard way to plan a trip since it went against every trip I'd experienced thus far. This has been a lesson to me not hang onto the past or tradition in such a way that it hinders my ability to be a part of what God is doing in the present. Thinking about your yesterdays more than your today will destroy your tomorrows- that has become one of my mottos lately.

Anyway, Krissy told us that although Ecuador is not at all "americanized" like other latin american countries, they do have a large rate of young people "shacking up". This is something I have never heard of in a nation that is considered Catholic. She said that many of them just start living together at age 17, start having kids and they just never get married. They even have a certain term for the person they are playing house with, because they don't use esposa(o) or novia(o) to define it. It's a big problem there, because it warps the definition of a real family and fractured homes are the result since none of these people are obligated to stay with each other. Recently Pastor Clark told his congregation that if they loved each other, they needed to take vows before each other and God to establish that covenant. He said that living together wasn't enough. They ended up having a GROUP wedding ceremony. The women got together, decorated the sanctuary with tons of flowers (3 dozen roses costs $4 there) and bought white dresses. It was a huge celebration and everyone was excited about getting married. That made me excited (to see people honoring each other and God) and sad (that it's such a large problem there as it is here).

Wow this entry was longer than I wanted. I'm going to add some more entries and future date them so that I don't have these ridiculously long blogs.

Love y'all!

Ecuador - Giving Online

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:45:06 GMT

Hey y'all-

Thanks for being a part of my life. I'm going to Ecuador with Trinity Church for the first two weeks in September. Some of you have asked about donating, so I wanted to post those links

If you are interested in making a donation towards my Ecuador Mission Trip, there are 3 ways. One is tax deductible, and one isn't so please be aware of that. The first one is making a donation through Paypal directly to me, and since I am not a nonprofit organization then I cannot give you tax credit for your donation. The plus side is that it's very fast & simple (if you already have a paypal acct), as well as safe and secure to do online- if you have a Paypal account then it will take you less than 5 minutes.

You can also give directly through my church, which is tax deductible, but it's bit more complicated since it takes about 10 minutes to register and donate. The registration is required so that they can send you your year end giving statement- my church WILL NOT spam you or send you junk in the mail, don't worry. It's secure and safe, and you can designate your funds to go to me on the site. Click logo below:

Lastly, if you are vintage, you can send a check to me, made payable to Frontline(don't put my name anywhere on the check, or you won't get the tax deduction) I'll pass your donation along to the church:

Brooke Wesson's Mission Fund
PO Box 1412
Forney, TX 75126

I'll be sure to share with you all what I learn about Ecuador as I study up on the culture and people, as well as a plethora of photos once I return. Check back on my blog for updates. Thanks for being a part of this latest adventure in my life.

Love,

Brooke

PS - this is one of the songs we'll be learning in spanish. It's a Hillsongs tune called "None But Jesus", or Solo Cristo en espanol. Enjoy!

Cuenca Videos

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:15:01 GMT

Monday, May 19, 2008

Mon, 19 May 2008 22:49:26 GMT

Hi everyone! I'm just getting started on Revelife... Drop me a comment if you've got some ideas on what to do first - or just to say, "Hi!" :-)