Lessons Learned

I would say that we have been going through a busy stretch, but that almost insinuates that being busy is the exception rather than the norm. One thing I am learning very quickly as an itinerating missionary is that life gets busier. Much of my time is spent either building contact lists, contacting pastors/churches, traveling to churches or events, preparing for churches or events or actually sharing my heart. This past week was incredibly busy, but it's one of many busy weeks to come. First, I want to take a quick look back at the week that was (and how things went) and then I want to cover a couple lessons I learned in the process (not all completely missions related either).

Sunday morning (May 20th) we had the privilege of speaking at Tabernacle of Praise AG in Oxford, MA. This was extra special for us because this church is in the town where we live. We have a heart for and pray for the same people. Sunday school was great as the Word of God was taught. Then for worship time, it was nice for me to sing some old hymns I hadn't sung in a while with minimal musical accompaniment. But more significant was that the presence of God was so evident that morning. I shared for about an hour (longer than usual) but it was a great time. We met some wonderful people and really felt connected. I am sure we'll run into them again as the church is only 3 miles from our house.

Sunday night was the beginning of the Southern New England Ministry Network Conference. That first night is the ordination service which is always a great time. I knew four of the ordinands including the associate pastor from the church we were at that morning. The service brought back fond memories of my ordination service from last year at the same location. We set up our table (it was my first time setting it up as Polly is the one who normally sets it up). We were yet again put next to Neil and Kathy Vanaria's table. Polly and I really love being their neighbors at these events. We love them! They're such helpful people...and hilarious! Anyway, we were already making great connections with old friends and new faces Sunday night.

Monday and Tuesday was the continuation of the conference. The big difference was that Genevieve was with us for those two days as we stayed overnight Monday at the hotel. On Tuesday, our friends Ben and Amber brought their beautiful little girl Quinn (2 months younger than Genevieve) so Genevieve had a friend. All in all during the conference, we had a great time. We set a few dates for services while connecting with numerous pastors and laid the groundwork for more services. After the event was over on Tuesday, I took two out-of-state missionary friends I had met at the event into Boston for a mini-tour of the city. We had a great time.

Wednesday night, we had a service at Radiant Christian AG in Warren, RI. Due to the hecticness of our week, Polly stayed home with Genevieve. This was my first time traveling solo. I love being with my wife and daughter and I view them as integral parts of this journey so I didn't like being without them. I hope we don't have to do that too often (though it will undoubtedly happen again). We met some more great people and I had a great hour-and-a-half long conversation with the pastor (and former missionary) Larry Mangone. I appreciated his words of wisdom and advice.

Well, that was our crazy week that was. As I said, I'm sure there will be plenty more to follow. Now, as promised, let me share a couple lessons I learned:

1. There is a such thing as too much fruit for a baby.

On Monday afternoon, there was a luncheon for all the credentialed women and pastor's wives at the conference. Polly wanted to go and I wanted her to be able to. This meant that I was in charge of the baby for lunch. I reassured Polly that this is not my first time watching Genevieve and that everything would be fine. It came time for Genevieve to eat and I tried to give her the food Polly had prepared for her. She didn't want the PB&J (she's not really a fan) but did okay with the pita bread and hummus. I tried to give her Cheerios (actually Joe's O's) but she wasn't very interested. So, I gave her some blueberries. I knew Polly had already given her some to keep her content earlier but I didn't pay attention to how many. After Genevieve ate, I decided to drive somewhere to get lunch for myself. I ran into my good friend Anders in the lobby. He, too, was in need of food. We ended up going to a local Subway. While in line, I gave Genevieve more blueberries to keep her happy. While at the table, she began to fuss a little. Anders gave her some more blueberries. All along I wasn't paying very much attention to how many she had actually eaten. Of course, there were now only a few left in the container that, come to find out, had just been opened for her that morning. Fiber anyone? Genevieve went through a few diapers once we got back to the conference. To make the problem worse, we had forgotten to pack enough. So, long story short, Polly's shirt got stained blue as did Genevieve's outfit so I had to rush to Target (with my friend Chris) and buy diapers, wipes and a new outfit for Genevieve. I arranged Polly to get a clean shirt for the next morning and all was well. I felt terribly, of course. Kathy Vanaria told us this is just missionary training. If that's true, then I feel a whole lot more ready for the field after that one.

2. When using mints or candy at your table, be sure to factor that seven pieces will be eaten by another missionary for every one piece a non-missionary eats. It's a form a sabotage I think.

We alternated mints and Werther's Originals in one bowl and had a continual supply of banana chips in the other. I think Kathy ate most of the banana chips. Since they accused us (all in good fun, of course) of bribing people with our candy, they decided to outdo us with Italian cookies the second day. I responded to that by sticking Genevieve on our table. "How will you compete with that?" I asked Neil. "I'll just give her a cookie," he replied. Well played Neil...well played. In all seriousness though, by the Vanaria's example I learned the importance of having fun and joking with other missionaries...of viewing other missionaries as friends and partners, not as competition.

For as busy as this past week was, it was equally enjoyable. I love seeing old friends and making new ones. This is a major reason why I love the opportunity that's before us. We've had four services (included our own church) and have nearly 20 more already booked...and we're just getting started. We are excited for what experiences lie ahead!

A Sense of Belonging

A little over a month ago, we participated in our first event as missionary itinerants. We had only received our official approval the day prior. And I'm not going to lie, we had no idea what to expect. We were completely new to the whole process. As I mentioned in previous blog posts, we were busy the whole week leading up to the event as we prepared our table display and packets. We thought we would go and gain a little exposure with some pastors and leaders and such would be our day. As it turned out, we did connect with a couple pastors and a few leaders. Without missionary cards, we didn't even have anything to leave people with except for a full promo packet that we had rushed to print the night before. Still, we felt good about this purpose being satisfied. As Polly and I reflected on that initial missionary experience, however, we both had the same feeling. The value in that day for us was not in networking or connecting with pastors and leaders. The value in that day for us was networking and connecting with the other missionaries who also had tables there. We quickly came to the following conclusion: Hanging out with other missionaries made us to feel a part of a family.

Polly and I truly felt that day that we were part of something much bigger than ourselves. We weren't an isolated family going to serve God in another country. And it wasn't going to be only us and the Musacchio's. No, we were part of a bigger family of numerous missionaries who were serving God all throughout the world. There was an instantaneous bond and connection that I can hardly describe. We built friendships that day (we already "knew" a number of the missionaries) that we believe will last us a lifetime.

We were blessed to share a table space with Neil and Kathy Vanaria (pronounce this the Italian way or else...). As such, we spent a bit of time talking with them. I "knew" them already as we share a mutual friend and have had conversations in the past. I let them know how they were the first missionaries I ever remember having at church when I was a young kid. I remember thinking how cool I thought it was that they did what they did and how I would like to do that someday. Funny how God works, no? Anyway, Neil made a comment about missionaries and used the term "we" in that comment. It hit me that he meant me too. I guess it hadn't really sunk yet that we are missionaries now too.

Neil and Kathy invited us to dinner after the event was over. We shared some great stories over some delicious food (Panera is always a good choice) with them and Sarah Blackstone. It was such a blessed time. Polly and I left feeling like we belonged...belonged to the missionary family.

Our First Itineration Service

We are excited and privileged to have been granted the opportunity to share at Cornerstone Assembly of God in Oxford, CT tomorrow. This will mark our first service we've taken as approved Missionary Associates. We were initially expecting the first to be in our own backyard, Oxford, MA (heading there next month). But it seems that God had other plans as Cornerstone invited us to come this week. It was one of those God-incidences we love so dearly. As such, we look forward to discovering what God has in store for us and for the people of the church.

We also look forward to seeing our friends Joseph (associate pastor) & Holly Lear. Actually, to be completely honest, one of the things that has us feeling incredibly blessed as we've set up some services already is that we have connections with many of the pastors and churches in the Southern New England Ministry Network. We will have many services where we will be happy to see friends. I've been known to be a social person so this is also a plus. As part of my love for connecting with people though, I also look forward to meeting many new people tomorrow. We feel humbled and honored that we get the privilege of meeting so many amazing people on our journey.

Well, I need to work on preparation for tomorrow's sermon and such. Please join us in prayer that we will be usable vessels tomorrow and that God's presence would be so apparent during the service. Please pray that the church will be blessed!

Mike

The "Table"

As I mentioned in our last blog post, we were kept quite busy for a couple of weeks in anticipation of our first official promotional event this past Saturday. I gave a little insight into the formation of our promotional packets, but now I want to give a little insight into the other main component: the table display.

If you say "table" to a missionary, they immediately know what you mean. For those of you who aren't missionaries and don't get the reference, I'll explain it a little. It is quite similar to a booth at a convention. It is standard practice for missionaries to create a table display to showcase/promote the mission they will be partaking in. Like many other things in life, there is no blueprint or right way/wrong way to do it. In some ways that's nice, but in some ways that makes it harder.

As I mentioned in the last post, Polly took the lead on the table. She is better than I am at things which are cosmetic or visual so it made since for her to take control of it. I helped her in figuring out what types of things we wanted to have for our table and the general layout, but she did the laborious work of getting the items and putting it all together. To be honest, I think that putting together a table the first time has got to be the hardest. I mean, missionaries who have already been on the field to a particular country/region have the advantage of having pictures and items that are unique to that area. Polly and I had nothing Costa Rican prior to this so we were literally starting from scratch. This meant that we had some shopping to do.

Polly went to Christmas Tree Shop and picked up a coffee mug, some candy dishes, a place mat to go under the dishes and a basket for our promotional packets. She went to Target and got a brown tablecloth. At Walmart, she picked up a couple of foam boards and a small foam tri-fold board. Then, I did what I do best. I went online to Amazon and bought a bag of Costa Rican coffee, a small globe, a map of Central America and a Costa Rican flag. I couldn't help but think about missionaries who served before the era of the internet. I wonder how they got stuff for their table. I'm sure they did okay for themselves, but it must have been more difficult then.

Quick side note: The cool thing about buying stuff on Amazon is that I'm an Amazon Prime member. Here's a hint for any online shoppers out there. I never paid for that membership. While we were still pregnant with Genevieve, I signed up for Amazon Mom (anyone can sign up for it, not only parents). Amazon Mom is (or at least it was) free and comes with a free year of Prime. But many purchases we make on Amazon extend that free Prime membership a set amount of time each time. What's the advantage of Prime? Free two-day shipping. In fact, we typically receive our orders the day after we make the purchase. And all this from the comfort of my sofa.

Anyway, we printed out a few things and put the whole thing together last Friday night (Polly did most of the work on this then too). While at the event on Saturday, we took notice of other missionaries' tables to look for possible ideas. It quickly became evident to us that each table display  took on the personality of its creator. Polly and I are similar in our personalities when it comes to these things. We both like things to be clean, neat, uncluttered, organized, coordinated, etc. Our table reflected our personalities. Maybe that's why we decided that we like our table just as it is. It was definitely worth the effort.

If you have any questions/comments, please feel free to leave them here, email us at mikeandpollybrown@gmail.com or hit us up on Facebook. If you would like to find out more about supporting us, please click on the "Partner" tab at the top of the page.

God bless,

Mike

That Was Easy

As I mentioned in our last blog post, we have been quite busy lately. More specifically, we were very busy for about two weeks while we were working on getting our promotional materials and table setup ready for itineration. The initial prep work or leg work or whatever you prefer to call it is always the toughest in life. You start from nothing to produce something. That's where we're currently at. Considering we just received final approval last Friday and have not officially made a dent in our budget yet (though we do already have some generous friends and family in line to get the ball rolling for us very soon with regard to support), it should not come as a surprise that we're still doing the laborious work at the beginning of this process. Polly and I split up the tasks. I focused mainly on the promotional packet and she focused mainly on the table setup. Genevieve focused on looking ridiculously cute. She's very good at that.

After finally finishing our ministry logo (which I shared in our last blog post), I got to work on the promotional packet. This included my letter to pastors/churches/friends, a mini-biography on our family, some country facts and the ministries we will potentially be involved with. Counting the cover, this was a 6-page document. In and of itself, 6 pages (a couple of which were very simple) is not all that significant at all. Anyone who has ever received an email or Facebook message from me or has read more than one of my blogs knows that I can create 6 pages worth of material without batting an eyelash. What made this a more difficult task was the fact that I wanted everything to be just right. I mean, let's face it, this is the means by which many will first hear about our missionary journey so it's important for it to be done well. This meant rewording and rewriting and reorganizing thoughts multiple times.

I finally completed the promotional packet on Friday. This put us a little into rush mode because we wanted to have a number of them available for distribution at our table on Saturday and still had other things to get done on Friday night. Initially we were also supposed to hang out with some friends on Friday night but their son got sick and they had to cancel. As disappointed as we were not to get to see them, this freed-up time proved valuable to us. We had a lot to get done.

In order to eliminate some of our workload, I called Staples to quote a price for printing 100 of our promotional packets. I figured they'd be a bit pricey, but thought that it might benefit us to suck up the cost this one time to alleviate some of the pressure. Once they gave me the $280 estimate, their slogan had a whole new meaning to me. Left with the decision of keeping the extra workload or spending a ridiculous amount of money to have it done for us, all I could think was, "That was easy! There was no way I would spend that kind of money on printing!" We printed on our friend's printer until it ran out of ink. We didn't end up with 100 packets, but we had enough and saved a bunch of money. (This reminds me, we need to buy more ink for our friend's printer, haha). I have a strong gut feeling that we will not be utilizing Staples' services too often in this process.

In the next blog post, I will go into a little more detail on the table setup which will include a helpful tip for general shoppers as well.

If you are interested in supporting us, we have added a "Partner" page at the top which gives some instruction on how this can be accomplished. If you have any questions/comments or would like to be added to our newsletter mailing list (for when we begin utilizing that mode of communication), please feel free to email us at mikeandpollybrown@gmail.com.

God bless,

Mike

"Final"-ly

Polly and I received an incredibly exciting email today. It contained the two words we had been waiting for: final approval. That's right, Polly and I have finally received our final approval as Assemblies of God World Missions (AGWM) Missionary Associates. What does this mean? We're official. And since we're official, we can officially begin the process of raising the funds we will need to get to Costa Rica (Our AGWM Acct # is 2713097 for those of you who had already been asking).

This news couldn't have come at a more opportune time for us as we will be having a table at Catalyst Boston at Christ the Rock Church in Dorchester, MA tomorrow. While praying that God would help us trust His will and timing, we were also hoping and praying that this approval would come in time for this event. Based on the information we received this past Wednesday, we were not too confident that this would be the case. We simply prayed that God would give us favor and either bless us with the approval or with the patience we needed to wait. We had no doubt that God was going to answer our prayers either way because God is good! Please pray that God will give us favoring in networking and connecting with the right people at the event tomorrow.

Speaking of the event tomorrow, we've been working pretty much all out for nearly the past two weeks to get our table display and promotional materials ready, which is why we haven't blogged in a while and also why this blog is short and coming so late in the day. We will share more detail about our approval and what we've been busy working on for the last couple weeks soon. We will also share some more detail on some potential ministry opening up for us in Costa Rica in the near future.

Below is the logo that we have created for ourselves. It's the outline of Costa Rica and features the colors and design of its flag:

Like it's 1995

As excited as Polly and I are about heading to Costa Rica as Missionary Associates some time in 2013 and as much as we would love to completely focus our time and energy on initeration and planning for that mission, we still have other responsibilities in the here and now that need our attention. One example of this is our work at Calvary Assembly of God in Dudley, MA where Polly and I are still serving as pastors (Polly - children; me - youth) through the end of August. And, truth be told, we are still excited about our current roles at the church.

Today is a big example of our complete attention and focus being required by Calvary AG as today is our annual Free Family Easter Event. The event is being held at a local elementary school. We will have games, face painting, balloons, an Easter egg hunt, snacks, prizes, etc. But most importantly, we will be having a skit that shares the true meaning of Easter (we call it the Gospel presentation). To be perfectly honest, I couldn't care any less about bunnies or eggs, but you start talking about Jesus dying on the cross and then raising to life again and you'll get me excited. We want to convey that truth to the people who attend this event today. We've spent time and energy working on all the components of the event, but no aspect has received more time or energy than the skit.

And it just so happens that I'm in the skit. I play a junior higher. I only have three lines so there's not really too much to it. We were told by the woman directing the skit that we will have to dress the part. Polly asked me the other day what I would be wearing. I told her that I would probably just rock some jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie. What's more junior high than that? Polly started laughing. I asked her why. Apparently she was laughing because I always wear jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie. I guess it is sort of funny that my "costume" to look like a junior higher is an outfit I would wear on any given day of the week. Maybe it's just a look that knows no age limit. Or maybe I'm just stuck in 1995.

Anyway, if you're the praying type, please pray that we would do well to show God's love to the community today. We recognize that we cannot save anyone (only God can); we simply want to be obedient to all that He tells us to do. Also please pray that God will help us manage our time as we balance our current responsibilities with our future ones.

Mike