An Incredible Story

"Your word is a lamp to my feet
    and a light to my path." - Psalm 119:105 ESV

We want to share with you an incredible story of the power of God's incredible Word!

An incredible gift.

Kids loved receiving their new Action Bibles, donated by ChildHope. We loved being able to put those Bibles in their hands. It did not take very long for us to hear testimonies:

• Kids from the school near the notorious Palmasola prison showed up to church with their new Bibles so they could learn how to use them.
• A high school student from that same school was in the hospital to undergo tuberculosis tests. He had his mom bring his new Bible to help him pass the time.

The Bible, God's Word, is an incredible gift. And receiving God’s Word is always a blessing.

An incredible visit.

God opened the door for us to enter the Palmasola prison, where a number of kids sponsored through ChildHope used to live, and where a number of sponsored kids’ parents still do.

We went in to talk to some students' fathers. The school was able to share report cards and important information with the dads. A pastor friend was able to share from God's Word. Then, we were able to hand each of them a copy of God's Word so they could read it for themselves. We gave them each one of the same Bibles we had recently given their kids. They were excited. We were excited.

An incredible opportunity.

On the way out of the prison, we were given the unlikely opportunity to visit Mery. She is mother to a couple kids sponsored by ChildHope at the school in Samaria. She had been imprisoned shortly before our visit. She would later be proven innocent of her charges. However, that was not much consolation in that moment. A mom behind bars. Her boys left with her parents. During our visit, we gave her one of the Bibles. She is a Christian, and we wanted to encourage her.

Mery has since been released from the prison. She is now back at home with her kids. That is where I recently had the chance to visit her. I asked her about the Bible, and that is when she shared the following beautiful testimony with me.

An incredible testimony.

Mery brought her Bible to an office where she was working within the prison. It became a community Bible. Other ladies began reading God's Word too. Ladies who had never read the Bible before. A friend commented to her about how she had never understood the Bible so clearly as she did then.

When Mery left the prison, her friends asked her to let the Bible stay behind so they could continue reading it. She did. Mery still visits her friends in prison. They recently asked her to bring a notebook and pen with her, because they have been copying Scriptures from the Bible she left for them to read in their cells. They are so hungry for God's Word!

The incredible God!

We never know all that God has in store when we follow the steps of His plan for our lives. But we do know that, whatever it is, it will be incredible, because God is incredible!

In this case, what began as a project from ChildHope to put God's Word into the hands of kids at partnering schools throughout Latin America turned into an opportunity to leave copies of the Bible in a notorious Bolivian prison. As people read these Bibles, God continues to speak His incredible Living Word!

Social Reset

Do you remember your best friend(s) from you were a kid? Do you have one now? In some cases, it may even be the same person.

I had best friends growing up. They changed as life changed, but there were always those with whom I was closer. I would talk on the phone for hours, even when it meant paying an exorbitant amount of money on the long distance phone bill (remember when you had to pay per minute for "long distance" calls?).

Social reset.

One thing that happened in my decision to go to school in Springfield, MO was that it forced me to say goodbye to my former friends and essentially begin a new life socially. Obviously I maintained friendships to some extent, but that was before social media and technology became what it is today. I didn't even have a cell phone.

After I graduated from college I moved back to Massachusetts, but an hour west of the city and no longer near my friends from before college. And in the process I left my college friends too. Once again I was forced to essentially reset life on a social level. After marrying Polly, we developed close friendships with others once again. Our closest friends moved away but we still managed to have close, meaningful relationships with others.

In 2014, when we moved to Costa Rica, we yet again found ourselves hitting the reset button socially. We developed good friendships with other American missionaries as well as Costa Rican nationals. Then we left, went back to the U.S. and prepared to become missionaries to Bolivia. More changes. More social resets.

Here we are, less than a year into our time in Bolivia. We are building new friendships, once again with other American missionaries and with Bolivian nationals.

Reset again.

While we don't get rid of our previous relationships, as relational beings we desire community in a physical sense. We want to spend time with people in-person, not simply via technology. We want people at our house. We want to spend time at theirs.

There's a challenge that comes with constantly resetting your life socially. You constantly find yourself entering situations where people have often already developed their long-lasting friendships long before your arrival. So while you develop friendships, it's hard to find best friends.

And that leaves you looking for others who are not deeply established in their existing friendships. These are typically internationals. And like you, they generally live a transient life. So it's hard to connect to deeply knowing that you or they will soon be gone.

Genevieve, our 7 year old daughter, is dealing with this problem right now. Her best friend is Italian. And we just found out that they are moving back to Italy next month. Reset.

The biggest challenge.

Sometimes people ask what the biggest challenge is as a missionary. Some suggest that we give up so much, our livelihoods and homes and such when we leave. But the truth is that I don't care about stuff. I miss people. I miss being established. I miss my life when goodbye wasn't such a common word and hello wasn't said with such reserve knowing how this too will end.

I don't normally share about these kinds of things, but after sharing a short post on Facebook this week, I decided to open up more and explain further to give you a better idea of our biggest challenge. 

We're not unhappy or depressed or down in the dumps. It is a reality we have accepted to be real. It's just a reality that sometimes stinks. Especially for our kids.

This is an area where we would appreciate your prayers.

Praying our Way to Bolivia

It's hard to believe, but September is here! We are now in our target departure month. It's hard to believe. And we are still well on track to hit the target of leaving by the end of the month. We have chosen today (Friday, September 1, 2017) as a prayer emphasis day to really focus on praying for some of the needs we have as we wrap up our time in the States and to ensure a September departure. Of course, we welcome all prayers at any time. Would you agree with us in the following areas?

God is already answering prayer!

Actually, before I start, I need to share something exciting!! We have been asking people to pray about decisions regarding Genevieve's schooling in Bolivia. I even included in our our prayer post from the other day. Today I was planning to post a more specific prayer about a school we have been looking at and hoping that they would have room and accept her late. We have been praying about it and even prayed about it this morning. Well, we heard this morning that the school is accepting Genevieve!!! This is phenomenal news for us and we want to express a big thank you to God for His goodness in this!

Now let's agree together that God will similarly move in other areas.

Prayer needs in preparation for departure

Please agree with us in prayer regarding:

Visas/Residency Docs

• That the kids will have no issues with the necessary immunizations required (and otherwise necessary) so we can submit their visa applications
• That God will already be moving in the hearts of the workers at the consulate to receive and approve the kids' applications without any issues
• That our remaining documents will arrive in a timely manner so we can get them certified
• That God will already be moving in the hearts of the workers at the consulate to legalize all our residency documents with no issues
• That we will find favor throughout this entire process

Budget

• That the remaining 10% of our budget will come in through new partnering churches and individuals so we can hit the 100% mark we'll need prior to departure
• For the remaining services and meetings we already have scheduled to share our hearts and an opportunity for partnership
• That God would put us on the hearts of those who have already considered partnering with us financially and make a way
• That God would put us on the hearts of those who haven't already considered partnering with us financially and make a way
• That God would supernaturally put us on the hearts of those who don't even know us yet and make a way
• That God would give us favor in any board/leadership meetings where churches are discussing partnership with us
• That God would give us other services or meetings as our schedule allows

Personal

• That God would help us navigate through the emotions of preparing to say goodbye to life as we know it and leave for Bolivia (for all of us but especially for the kids who are still learning how to better navigate emotions
• That God would help us as we pack for Bolivia - that we would know what to take and what to leave (sell, give away, pack away, throw away)
• For traveling mercies as I (Mike) go to Florida for just about a week (Sept 2-6)
• For traveling mercies for all our remaining travels prior to departure
• For favor as we go through medical, dental and eye exams
• For us to get all the paperwork done correctly for Genevieve to go to school
• For strength as we seek to tie up any other loose ends
• That God would help us not to be anxious as we go through this process

Honestly, there are so many other specifics I could offer, but these are the ones that come to mind as I write this. Hopefully this is at least a starter for some ways you can be agreeing with us. We have no doubt that God is able! He has always been faithful to us and we have confidence that He will remain faithful.

Thank you so much for your prayers! Please let us know how we can be praying with you (mikeandpollybrown@gmail.com). May God go with you always!!

Taking Aim at the Target

[UPDATED 08/31/17 09:43am]

Well, September is almost here. Our target has been to leave for Bolivia in September for quite some time. One big question looms: Will we hit the target?

We believe that the answer to that question is, "Yes!" That answer is based on the fact that we believe that God is able! We also believe that we need to bring our needs and desires to the Lord in prayer. This is why we are sharing this prayer guide with you, so that you can agree with us for God to move in some specific areas as we take aim at the target. We ask you to agree regularly as God leads us through these areas. We are also specifically focusing on prayer this Friday, September 1st as it is the first day of our target month. Perhaps you may consider taking a little extra time to focus on prayer for us and these needs on that day.

Clearance

We must receive clearance in a number of areas prior to departure for Bolivia. Of those, these prayers are focused on 2: visa clearance and financial clearance.

1. Visa

Polly and I already have our temporary visas necessary to arrive in Bolivia. The kids still need theirs, however. We also need to have all necessary documentation for temporary residency legalized by the Bolivian consulate in New York City prior to departure. Please pray for:

• [UPDATED] Favor as we send in applications for Genevieve and Jonah's visa to the Bolivian consulate in New York City
• All the documents we need to apply for temporary residency to arrive quickly
• Favor as these documents are certified
• The officials at the Bolivian consulate to accept and legalize all the documents (there is one in particular that could be an issue, though we are believing it won't be; thankfully a new plan B option would not affect our time frame)

2. Financial

Praise God that we have reached 90% of our monthly budget raised which allows us to deal with our visas and, upon their approval, purchase our plane tickets. Please pray for:

• The remaining 10% of our monthly budget to come in as we cannot leave until we are at 100%
• Blessings upon those who have partnered with us already
• God to speak to the hearts of the church leaders and individuals who will become a part of our sending team through finances moving forward
• Favor in all remaining itineration services, meetings and conversations

Preparation

Clearances are critical, but they are not the only thing requiring our attention. We have other things to focus on in preparation for our impending departure to Bolivia. Please pray for:

• God to give us wisdom and guidance with what to pack and what to leave behind, sell, give away, throw away, etc.
• Us to be able to acquire things we still need
• Decisions regarding Genevieve's schooling in Bolivia
• Strength through all the impending goodbyes
• Favor in upcoming medical, dental and eye exams
• Favor and wisdom as we prepare to purchase plane tickets
• Traveling mercies as we travel a lot during our final month here
• Strength to work through a busy schedule
• God to help us navigate the emotions that come with transition
• Any loose ends that need to be tied up
• Favor and wisdom as friends help us look for housing in Bolivia

Of course, you can pray for us in any other area as you feel impressed on your heart by the Holy Spirit. Especially considering that these are items prior to our departure. There will be many prayers needed when we arrive and while we serve there as well. Thank you for praying with us. Please feel free to Facebook message us (facebook.com/mikeandpollybrown) or email us (mikeandpollybrown@gmail.com with anything that we can be praying for you about or with anything you feel the Lord puts on your heart regarding us as you pray. Thank you!

Finding the Balance

Last week was our Assemblies of God national pastors' meetings (Asamblea General) in Costa Rica. What a great time connecting with friends and making new ones. This country is in great hands with excellent pastors and leaders.

Beyond the meetings themselves, the 2 days I spent there really offered a good glimpse into the balance between finishing well here and preparing for our upcoming transition and itineration.

Double Duty Scheduling

As we told pastor friends our plans to leave in August, a number of them wanted to be sure to schedule us to come and preach at their churches before leaving. We also scheduled a couple of kids' ministry classes to teach and a potential final trip into the jungle to minister to the indigenous.

We had submitted our newsletter on one of the first day I was at the meetings. In the newsletters we let pastors know that we're beginning to schedule services from when we're home in August until the end of the year. So I was on my phone responding to requests for itineration services.

We were (are) building 2 different schedules. One for the remainder of our time here and the other for our return to the States. This really offers a good picture of where we are right now. We are committed to the people of Costa Rica and our responsibilities here until the end. We want to finish strong and finish well. And then there's the need to set up our schedule for when we arrive in the States to prepare for Bolivia. It's a balance.

Itineration

We are going to keep going strong here. We love the people and we love what we are able to do. And we look forward to still learning as much as we can these final months here. But I want to take this opportunity to focus more on when we'll be home for itineration.

As I mentioned we are looking to fill up our schedule from when we're home in August until the end of 2016. We can't really schedule further in advance because we still await official approval as appointed missionaries, which would be in October. We believe God is in this and that everything will work with this, but we still leave it in His hands and ask you to pray that His will be done as we go to our interview. If we are approved, we will immediately begin filling our 2017 schedule as well.

There are 3 encounters we would like to schedule:

1. Churches - We would love opportunities to come and share our hearts at churches in Sunday or Wednesday services, children's services, youth services, small groups, men's groups, women's groups, etc. This is true both for already supporting churches and potential supporting churches.
2. Pastors - We would love to connect with pastors and/or missions leadership of churches over coffee. While we love connecting with the whole church body, we understand that sometimes this works better for some pastors for various reasons.
3. Individuals - We have a decent amount of monthly support and one-time donations which has come from family, friends and complete strangers. We would love to connect and share our hearts on a personal level with those who partner with us financially or who would like to consider financial partnership.

We are also asking for prayer and really want to work on building our prayer team more intentionally and strategically so stay tuned for more about how we'll be implementing this aspect of partnership.

Please pray that the details will still come together regarding where we'll be staying, how we'll be traveling, Genevieve's schooling and other technically details.

We're doubly excited I guess. Excited for what's already here (ministry in Costa Rica) and what's to come (the transition to ministry in Bolivia).

Oops! Moments

After 30+ years of living in the U.S. (mostly Massachusetts), I arrived in Costa Rica with my family to learn the language and culture of Latin America. 2+ years in, we feel like we have learned a good bit of each. Of course, 2 things remain undeniably true:

1. We have made and still make mistakes culturally and linguistically in Costa Rica; and
2. Latin American countries are not exactly the same, neither in language nor culture.

With truth #2 in mind, we expected some cultural and linguistic differences when we visited Bolivia last week to check out the place where we feel the Lord is calling us.

Costa Rica Oops Moments

Before we look at a couple of those oops moments in Bolivia let's go back to truth #1 above and relive my 3 worst oops moments (so far) in Costa Rica.

1. Hole punch

Shortly after our arrival in Costa Rica, I went to a local store looking for a 3-hole punch.  The problem: I didn't know the word for it. I found a dictionary in the store, but it didn't have the word. So I found a word for "hole" and a word for "punch."

Armed with "hoyo poncho," hand motions and "uno, dos, tres," I gave it my best shot. I knew it wasn't right, but I didn't know what else to do. The worker looked at me and in perfect English asked, "You need a 3-hole punch?" In hindsight, I should have asked if he spoke English first.

2. Walk of shame

You know...that time I was the only man walking down to the front of a church with hundreds (perhaps thousands) of women.

3. False cognate

I was talking with 2 tica friends (though we were in Panama at the time) once about the health concerns of foods with preservatives. Well that's what I wanted to be talking with them about anyway. I quickly found out the word was not "preservativos" as I had suspected...it was "preservantes." "Preservativos" happens to be another word for prophylactics. Oops.

4. Deaf or Left-handed?

I once told a tica friend that Polly knows sign language because her parents are deaf. Actually, that's what I meant to say. What I did say was that her parents are left-handed. Why the confusion? Surdo = left-handed; Sordo = deaf. My dad, for the record, is a lefty...as may be Jonah.

Bolivia Oops Moments

Okay, back to Bolivia. While we didn't have many oops moments there, two do stand out. One was cultural and the other linguistic.

1. A Bolivian greeting

During our first day in Bolivia, I met a local pastor who oversees an LACC school. At one point he shook my hand and came in for a hug. Well, it seemed to me he was coming in for a hug anyway. I'm a hugger and many ticos are huggers so it seemed right. As I hugged him he put his hand on my shoulder, pushed me away and said, "Okay, okay." It was awkward but no biggie.

It wasn't until the next day that I found myself in a similar situation. I finally figured out what was going on. My missionary friend in Bolivia had forgotten to give me the heads up on the proper Bolivian greeting between two men: They shake hands, with the same hand pat the back of the left shoulder of the other man twice and then shake hands a second time. That pastor must have thought I was crazy.

2. Tico

Having learned Spanish in Costa Rica, it should come as no surprise that I use a number of words that are common here but nowhere else. I used them a few times and got blank stares but I generally did well to avoid them. Only one provided a funny moment.

I used the word "tico" when I referred to people or things from Costa Rica. That's the word I always use in Costa Rica and throughout Central America. Well, apparently this term for Costa Rican has not made its way to Bolivia. To make matters worse, they do use the word, just differently.

So when I told a group of pastors, "My son was born in Costa Rica so he's a tico," they laughed. Only later did I find out that they use it to mean "little people." While my son is in fact little he is not a "little person" and that's not what I meant to tell that particular group of pastors.

A Tale of Two Cities

Polly and I had a great trip to Bolivia last week. We left feeling encouraged and further confirmation that this is the country where God is calling us to serve. In our last blog post, I shared about how we came to this point. Today I wanted to share about some of the process and prayer requests to actually get us there.

The Switch

We knew we were going to switch from missionary associates to career missionaries after one term in Costa Rica. Knowing we were going to switch and actually walking through the process are two very different things. We have already completed most of the application process with only a few simple steps remaining. Assuming all this goes well we will be invited to our official interviews in Springfield, MO in October. If all goes well there, we will leave as officially appointed career missionaries.

• Please pray that all our paperwork is well received and for favor in the last real step we have remaining, our physicals.
• Please pray for favor in the interviews. This is not like a regular job interview. We're not just trying to show qualifications. We need to express our heart and why we desire to go to Bolivia. Please pray that God would give us clarity and the right words to communicate all that we need to communicate.

Partnership Building

We will actually begin sharing at churches before we are officially appointed. We are limited in what we can really do and accomplish prior to appointment, however. After appointment, we will have to redo paperwork for all current financial partners who want to stay on board with us and then will have to pick up a lot more.

• Please pray that churches and individuals will want to stay on board with us and that redoing paperwork and commitments will go smoothly.
• Please pray for God to already begin putting more churches and individuals in our path to financially partner with us.
• Please pray that God would help us build a stronger prayer partnership for our time in Bolivia.
• Please pray that God will work out all the details regarding where we'll live and what we'll drive, etc. while we're in the States working on this part of the process.

The Ministry

We still need to decide exactly which ministries we want to be involved with when we arrive in Bolivia. We feel good about a couple of things already which fit into our vision of "Seeing entire families made whole."

• Please pray that God would help us as we make decisions on which ministries to be involved with.
• Please pray that God would help us develop those ministries and help us prepare well once those ministries are identified.

A Tale of Two Cities

A big decision we need to make is which city we will live in once we go to Bolivia. There are 3 major cities and we are really only considering 2 (though who knows if that could change as well): Cochabamba and Santa Cruz. We visited both during our trip. There are many aspects that go into such a decision including: family considerations, team building, location with regard to ministry endeavors, need, etc. Ultimately we want God to show us and not just make a decision based on our own wisdom. We will also be looking to seek guidance from leadership to help us with this decision.

• Please pray for God to clearly reveal His will to us with regard to the city where we should live. 
• Please pray for constructive and helpful conversations with leadership regarding this topic.
• Please pray for God to send more missionaries to all 3 of these cities.

There's obviously more things to consider and more that needs prayer like how the transition will affect us personally, the kids, etc. But I wanted to highlight some of the major things. Please feel free to trust God and pray as He would lead you, even beyond what I've shared on this post.

Bolivia

When we began the process in 2011 of applying to become missionary associates to serve a 2+ year term in Costa Rica, we knew that it was only the beginning of our life in missions. We wanted to take this time to learn more about missions and ministering cross-culturally. 

We finally arrived in Costa Rica in January 2014. We immediately began learning Spanish and culture. We also began developing friendships among the nationals. After our time in language school, we began serving in a number of capacities under missionary Mary Mahon. This has included a lot of work within children's ministry and more specifically a lot of work with our Latin America ChildCare schools.

In November of 2015 we found ourselves at a bit of a crossroads. We realized that we had to begin thinking and praying about what our future would hold. We knew we would want to transition to full-time missions. What we didn't know, however, was where we would serve.

A Seed Planted

During the week of Thanksgiving 2015 we attended a regional retreat in Mexico. While there, I felt a number of the messages directed at us. I felt like God was preparing us for an upcoming transition. Then the unthinkable happened. For the first time in my life, I felt like God began to put a specific country on my heart. Out of a seemingly chance poolside meeting with a missionary, God began to lay the burden for Bolivia on my heart.

The crazy thing was that I had never considered Bolivia before. In fact, it's probably the Latin American country I would have been most likely to forget before all this. But I left the retreat feeling that God was burdening my heart with this country.

Confirmation after Confirmation

At the airport on our way back from the retreat, I was having a conversation with a missionary friend who works with pastors' kids here in Costa Rica. God had began putting that ministry on my heart as well. I asked him if he knew of any countries with a need for that ministry. His answer was Bolivia. Okay, I'm listening God.

While talking to the director of LACC about potentially working with this ministry we love so much moving forward we asked him where their biggest need is. Yep, that's right...Bolivia.

The area directors for the Andean where Bolivia falls seemed very excited when we told them what God was putting on our hearts. The wife told us she was hoping that was the country we would say when she learned we wanted to go to their area.

Through a number of means and methods, God kept confirming Bolivia. I kept seeing its name and it seemed to be the answer to every question.

Putting the Pieces Together

Where are we now? Well, trying to put all the pieces together.

We're in the application process to become career missionaries. We don't see any reason this won't be accepted, but we're praying God's will be done and favor through the process.

Polly and I just returned from a quick visit to the country where we were able to meet with national leaders, pastors and a couple of our missionary units there. The biggest question is where we will live within Bolivia as we are weighing to options very seriously.

Nothing is official. Nothing is definite. No ministries are determined. But our heart is burning within us. God has even given us a vision: to see entire families made whole.

Why share something so indefinite in reality? Because it's so definite in our hearts and we would love all the prayer for favor and wisdom in this situation as possible. We will be okay if God ultimately leads us a different way, but unless He does we're all in on Bolivia.

And if everything goes to plan, we hope to arrive there in Summer/Fall 2017 after spending about a year in the States sharing our hearts and raising partnerships both financial and in prayer.