First off – Hallelujah! We are officially fully funded on the World Race. A special thank you goes out to all of you who supported us financially. When we started six months ago it was honestly pretty intimidating thinking we essentially had to raise twice as much money as every other World Racer because their are two of us. I remember praying in my bed in June and just hearing God silently speaking to me “Don’t worry Brady, everything on earth already belongs to me and I already know where your provision for the coming year will come from”. That being said, Marin and I recognize the sacrifices many of you have made for us. We take our work this year very seriously and do everything we can to be good stewards of the funds donated.
With us being fully funded it does mean, obviously, that we don’t need any further donations. If you do donate further to our account it will go to one of two places: If Marin and I do another mission trip with Adventures in missions, we could use the funds for that mission trip. If Marin and I do not do a further mission, the funds would go to the Adventures in Missions general fund.
If you are thinking at all about what would be a great thing to support financially this Christmas, I have three options below. I especially encourage you to consider and pray about the first option:
#1 The Life and Light Center in Cambodia that my team and I worked with in month 1. This is an amazing ministry that is focused on starting churches and lifting up the people of Cambodia. Roger and Deb are the missionary couple that started the Life and Light Center a few years back. They literally took a 1 way flight to Cambodia based on God’s calling without any money or a specific plan. They do very little support raising on their own and simply trust God to provide basic needs. They are working in an area with 12 villages. So far they have been able to start small churches in 3 of the villages and have been able to start English classes in 4. One of the great things about giving to this ministry is that a dollar goes so much farther in Cambodia than the USA. Whereas a $50 donation in the USA might pay for 10 meals, it can cover an entire month’s rent in Cambodia. I encourage your to pray and see if the Lord is calling you to give to the Life and Light Center. If you do feel called to give; please send me and email at [email protected] and I can get you the correct information to donate. I can personally vouch for Roger and Deb and the amazing impact their ministry has. Thank you!
2. Three of my squad members missed their December fundraising deadline. Any support that you can give them would be greatly appreciated. Links to their blogs are below:
Acacia: http://acaciajoy.theworldrace.org/
Asia: http://asiasmith.theworldrace.org/
Ashley: http://ashleyalbert.theworldrace.org/
3. If you have any desire to continue supporting Marin and I at all you can do that through personal funds. We generally spend about $100 to $200 on things like extra food beyond the food budget, basic hygiene supplies, transportation for food/internet and coffee, postcards, ect. The best way to get funds to us would be to send a check made out to one of us to my parents at 8044 142nd Ave NW, Ramsey, MN 55303.
So, switching gears – We are now in Africa and more specifically in Uganda. One of the most fascinating things to me is that I’m a Muzungu here! A very large muzungu that sticks out like a sore thumb. (Muzungu just means white person) I’ve taken multiple runs with teammates and with about 100% success rate, every child under the age of 8 that we run by yells “muzungu”, and then stares at us with a giddy smile when they see us. Some like to come up and touch our hands just to make sure we’re real people. I find it to be pretty fun but a few of my less outgoing teammates get a bit tired of it.
This month we are at an orphanage/school. Our ministry schedule is totally open which means we get to ask the Lord a lot what to do (which I’m excited about). So far what we have in the works is:
1. An evangelism night this coming Friday. There is a huge soccer tournament going on and their will be about 500 boys age 13-18 at our complex (talk about opportunity right!). Secondly, it is entirely acceptable, and actually very normal, for people to preach in random locations in Uganda. Our plan is to essentially gather everyone and then my teammate BJ is going to share the gospel and then we’re going to pray for anyone who wants prayer and hopefully we can finish with worship.
2. Worship nights. We had a team worship night 2 nights ago and I prepared a bit of a bible lesson for it. By the time it was done we had about 20 African people worshiping with us and I was essentially preaching a message out of Revelations 21 and 22 with a translator. All I could think was, “that sure escalated quickly”.
3. Vacation bible school. We will be teaching VBS for the orphans at the school next week.
4. Fatherhood class: BJ is somewhat of an expert on fatherhood so he will be preaching a class 3 days a week on the subject in the church at the school/orphanage.
5. Slum ministry feeding program in Kampala. I don’t really know anything about this except that we will be doing it.
6. Guys and Girls night with the orphans.
7. Ask the Lord ministry. This is essentially where we just pray and see where the Lord leads us. Its a bit scary but also can be very rewarding.
BJ Holding one of the children at the School
The School/Orphanage
Our bedroom this month
Shower
Soccer Field
