Posted in General Posts by Don Brensinger on 6/24/2010
Well, my World Race ministry days are over, and I'll return home to Pennsylvania in less than a week. This is the first of several Thailand videos made by my teammate (and video extraordinaire) Ken Virzi. During this past month, we dabbled in construction and did our best to entertain the most beautiful and sweet young girls in the world. For more about the organization we worked with, check out www.remembernhu.org
Take care, and I will see you all REAL soon. Love, Don
Posted in General Posts by Don Brensinger on 6/14/2010
When I used to enjoy the arduous hours of a newspaper employee (nights + weekends), I spent many an afternoon at a certain park about 15 minutes from my house in East Greenville, Pennsylvania. Now there were plenty of parks within walking distance of my abode, but I chose this particular location because it was an escape. I liked getting away from my development for a little bit, and for some reason, my mind always seemed more at peace at this park.
It was here that I would fire up my iPod and work on my jump shot for an hour or so, and then jog on this gravel trail that went up a hill, past the Little League Baseball fields, and winded around the township building.
I loved this park. No joke, I actually used to imagine NBA scouts driving by and stopping when they saw me - this nobody - unconsciously draining three-pointers on the basketball courts, ala Jimmy Chitwood in "Hoosiers." Or better yet, sometimes I imagined cute Christian girls doing the same as they walked their dogs around the nearby track.
But that was the mystique of this park. It was unfamiliar, and for all I knew, there could have been an NBA scout or two sitting in that parking lot or even some nice young ladies who dreamed of meeting a man with a wild imagination. I felt free to dream at this park, and it was an escape from reality.
On the afternoon I found out I was accepted to The World Race, I drove to my park. I didn't work on my jumper or jog. I went there to talk to God. Truth be told, part of me (a large part actually) was hoping I didn't make the cut. Because if I went on this 11-month pilgrimage, my life as I knew it was over. It sounds funny, because my life was pretty boring, uneventful, and predictable ... but I was comfortable.
I liked sleeping in every morning. I liked falling asleep to Conan O'Brien every night. I liked knowing all the latest sports news and rumors before my friends, because it was my job. I liked ordering salsa chicken flatbread sandwiches from Wawa every night on my way to work. I liked playing NHL '09 on my Xbox 360 or getting sucked into an atmospheric movie on my 42-inch plasma TV.
And all that was going to change. Might not sound like much to you, but a great deal of my joy and satisfaction came from these routines.
So that's why I went to the park. To clear my mind and ask God if this was a good idea. I brought along my iPod and played a song by Hammock. Chances are you have never heard of this band. If you have, I will buy you a salsa chicken flatbread sandwich when I get home in a few weeks. How do I explain Hammock? Um ... their sound is ambient and thought-provoking and just flat-out beautiful. Think Explosions in the Sky meets Common Children. That example probably helped no one, but Hammock and Explosions in the Sky can turn a five-minute drive to the dry cleaners into an epic quest to rediscover your soul. If you know these bands, you know what I'm talking about.
So I'm listening to Hammock and I trudge soulfully up my usual jogging trail until I find a lonely bench a little ways from the baseball fields. And there I prayed. I asked God over and over if The World Race was where He wanted me. And then it struck me: This would change my life ... but it would be a good change. And that's what I was looking for. I wanted my life to be more than salsa chicken flatbread sandwiches and NHL '09 and fantasy football and, sadly enough, Conan O'Brien. I wanted a purpose. I wanted fulfillment. And none of that other stuff did that.
My 10.5 months on The World Race have been purposeful and fulfilling. It's funny how my life is more satisfying when I live for others instead of myself. The World Race has been what I expected it would be: a pilgrimage, or a coming-of-age, if you will. It's been a year to grow spiritually and re-focus on living the life God wants me to.
But this is just the start. This was my training. I turned myself in the right direction. Now, I need to take what I've learned this year and put it to use when I get back home. I don't know what I will do or where I will go. I might stay at home in eastern Pennsylvania. I might hop across the country. I might hop across an ocean ... or two. Who knows? I don't. But I do know my future will have a purpose, and it will be fulfilling.
Hello friends. My squad is holding a fundraiser for an awesome dude named Vuthy, who has a vision for a huge ministry in Cambodia. Please check out this video made by our friends in Team Ninja and help us in partnering with Vuthy. Thank you, and God bless! Love, Don
We have met incredible people all over
the world during this past year. We have gotten to live day in and day
out with people who are putting it all on the line to follow God's
vision for their lives. We leave most months inspired and thankful that
God would allow us to see the ways in which He is moving throughout the
world.
This past month our team (Team Ninja)
worked with one such inspiring person. If you've been following along
with Team Ninja during May, you've already heard about him. His name is
Vuthy Nurn, and he lives in a small, remote village in Cambodia called
Toch Village. He was born in the village but spent his childhood in
Phnom Penh, the capital. After a few rebellious years, he accepted
Christ through YWAM. Almost immediately God laid a vision on his heart
for how Vuthy could transform his village.
Vuthy's vision is almost as big as his
heart is. His vision includes building a home for abandoned children
from the village, as well as for orphaned street kids from Phnom Penh.
He wants to construct a youth center for the local youth from his
village and the surrounding area. He wants a place for the youth to
gather to learn about God, to have a space for a computer lab, and to
run English classes. He currently runs English classes every day for
local children and youth.
Throughout the month our team caught
Vuthy's vision. We believe that God is working mightily through his
life. In order for Vuthy to be able to see these dreams come to pass in
reality, he will need financial support. He needs money to begin the
initial process to build both the orphanage and the youth center.
Please watch the video that we have put together to give you a more
complete picture of Vuthy and his vision. We hope that you will be able
to see the amazing things that will come out of your donations to his
project.
With love,
Team Ninja and all of J Squad
If you wish to donate to this cause, please go to www.theworldrace.organd follow these instructions.
1. Click the tab "Donate" on the top right side of the page.
2. Click on the link "Click Here To Give!" This will take you to the donation page.
In the box that appears, you will see:
ONLINE DONATION INFORMATION
3. Please select "Support a World Race Project" under Choose Program.
4. Please enter "2010 Jun J squad" in the Project field provided in order to be sure your funds will go into the account designated for this ministry.
If you wish to send a donation by mail, please make your check payable to Adventures In Missions and mail it to:
Adventures In Missions
P.O. Box 534470
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470
Please indicate "World Race Project Fund - 2010 Jun J squad" in the memo section of the check.
These gifts are tax-deductible.
We
want to stress this so there is no confusion - donors should not give
to this fund via my personal world race blog page. If you do, it goes
into my support account, not into the ministry fund.
Posted in General Posts by Don Brensinger on 5/31/2010
This blog is a tag-team effort by Shannon Morgan and Don Brensinger. On August 11, 2009, they left the comforts of home to serve God outside the U.S. On June 6, their parents will do the same.
Don and Sue Brensinger
When I told my parents in early 2009 I was thinking about
quitting my job to go on an 11-month mission trip, I didn't know how they'd
react.
It'd be one thing if I was earning minimum wage at Walmart
and had no direction in life, but I was in my fourth year of a well-paying
newspaper job, gaining valuable experience in the field I studied at college.
I can't think of too many parents who would be thrilled with
this epiphany, but mine were ecstatic and proud ... maybe even a little jealous.
"I wish I was young enough to go with you," my dad laughed.
Fast-forward to early 2010. My parents were putting the
final touches on booking a summer vacation in Montreal, Canada, when God put a
different destination on my mom's heart.
Haiti.
I know what you're thinking ... Haiti is probably not the best place to vacation in the wake of a
devastating earthquake, but Mom wasn't thinking about vacationing anymore. She
had something bigger in mind: a one-week mission trip to share God's love with
a broken nation.
Now, let me give you three fun facts about my mom. She
really enjoys her vacations. She doesn't "rough it." She has never been on a
mission trip or ventured outside the U.S., except for Canada (did you catch
what I did there? I snuck in a fourth fun fact!)
Now I understand how appealing Montreal must have seemed in
light of this epiphany. But Mom knows that when God speaks, we should listen
and obey. So she ran it by my dad, he immediately jumped on board, they
scrapped their vacation plans for Montreal, and signed up for a trip to Haiti with
Adventures in Missions.
One week later, my parents broke the news to me and
encouraged me to share it with my teammates' parents ... to maybe organize a Team
Olur Parents Trip. A few weeks later, Shannon Morgan's mom, Debbie, was on
board.
Living for God is contagious. I'd like to think I inspired
my parents to embark on this trip, but I know that's not totally true. I'm sure
God used me in some way, but if they weren't dialed-in to God's Will for their
lives, they would be heading to Montreal next week. Since before the earth was
created, it was God's plan for my parents to go on a mission trip to Haiti,
June 6-12, 2010.
They had to make some tough sacrifices along the way, but
their time has come.
And now it's my turn to be ecstatic and proud ... maybe even a little jealous.
Debbie Morgan
On September 25th, 1971, my mom met my
dad (They annually made a point of celebrating it to some extent, which is how
I know).
She was booking a band to play at a
local school dance, and my dad was the drummer. My mom was completely
overwhelmed by the hottness factor of my dad, in his pink shirt and
bell-bottoms, but mom never thought dad would notice her. He walked eight miles
to her house on Thanksgiving Day that November, and the rest, more or less, is
history.
Mama - or Debbie, to everyone else -
was absolutely good at everything. She will deny this in her great humility,
but the yellowed marriage announcement that sits in their wedding album lists
her as head cheerleader, four-year letterman in basketball, high school
yearbook editor, superlatives in almost every single "Who's Who"
category as voted by her school, and Miss Parkers Chapel High School, just to
name a meager few. Even as a teenager, my mom was very diverse in her gifts, as
I have known her to be my whole life. At eighteen, she married dad, both of
them fresh out of high school. She graduated from the University of Arkansas at
Little Rock after a whirlwind three years, achieving her dream of obtaining a degree
in Early Childhood Development to become a kindergarten teacher.
Then, due to a miraculous conversion
involving the name of Jesus changing the path of a tornado headed straight for
my dad's car, my parents came to know the Lord. My oldest sister was just a
baby, but my father immediately changed career paths, going into the full-time
ministry, becoming a pastor only months after becoming a Christian. My mom
followed his lead, using her diverse array of gifts to enhance and support his
ministry. Over the years, my mom has held countless positions, perpetually
unpaid and vastly unrecognized, to help others. She has been a nursery keeper,
a sunday school teacher, a youth minister, a piano player, a Bible Study leader,
a cook for church dinners, a choir director, a drama instructor, and, during
the earlier years of my life, a fill-in pastor on those days when some unforeseen
circumstance inhibited dad from coming to church. And these are just church duties,
to say nothing of her roles in the community or the eighteen years she took off
from her dream of formal teaching to informally teach my sisters, brothers, and
myself, at home.
All my life, I've watched my mother do
things for others. I can honestly say that for much longer than my 24 years,
she has lived her life in complete service to my dad and to my brothers and
sisters and me. Her commitments to us were evidenced by her increasing
confusion on how to live her daily life as each of her five children either
moved out of the house, graduated college, or started families of their own. I
never saw a commitment more strongly or selflessly than I saw in her last year,
resolved to care for daddy, especially as the later stages of cancer rendered
him unable to do things for himself.
My leaving for the Race and daddy's
death were nearly simultaneous, a scant nine days between my departure and his
passing.
This time in my life was harder than
any I've ever endured, so I couldn't imagine how my mom must have felt, who
hadn't been apart from my father since she was 16 years old.
Weeks after my father's funeral,
someone asked my mother, "Debbie, what are you going to do now?"
With endless, intimidating
possibilities before her, she stopped to think. Suddenly, she saw a vision of
her surrounded by little children, black skin shining in the sun. Cut free to
live life for herself, my mom, with all of her amazing gifts and the means to
do whatever she herself desired, answered her friend. This answer encapsulated
both her heart of love for others, her obedience to a vision God has given her
simultaneous to her answer, a thing she had never done in her entire life, nor
fully understood my constant desire to do.
Posted in General Posts by Don Brensinger on 5/26/2010
Before the World Race, I rarely went
out of my way to meet people I didn't know. Maybe it was because "people I
didn't know" were always cutting me off on the highway, or making me pay
taxes, or discontinuing the Oreo Madness dessert at T.G.I.Friday's, or creating
the movie "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days," or stealing
all of my underwear and freezing them together in a bucket-sized ice cube
(actually, I knew that person, but it was equally annoying).
Here in Month 10, I can honestly say
... I kinda like meeting new people. Actually, I love it ... especially when
they tell me they didn't create the movie "How To Lose A Guy In 10
Days."
Many of my favorite memories of this year have come from the
new friends I've met along the way. If I would have remained my usual
introverted self, I would have missed out on the following opportunities:
- Breaking the law in a certain
country by running around the city at midnight and taping Christian posters
wherever we could find a bare wall.
- Playing (and dominating) an obscure Chinese card game while
snacking on crickets and blueberry cheese puffs.
- Being presented with an
authentic game jersey and shorts by a member of the Cambodian national soccer
team (He may or may not have had a little too much to drink at the time, so I
hope he has a spare uniform).
- Cramming nine people into a petit,
five-passenger car on our way to Johnny Rockets, where we broke our three-day
fast over burgers, fries, and milkshakes.
- Fleeing from the Vietnamese police
(along with hundreds of university students) because our friends' motorbikes
were parked illegally while we were getting coffee.
- Being pushed through "the devil's house" (a.k.a "the gosh's house," a.k.a. a haunted house) as the girls screamed and the guys laughed while hockey-masked, horror monsters grabbed at us and clanged long blades against their prison bars.
I could go on, but you get the point. I love hanging out with people, hearing their stories, and finding out what their purpose in life is (because right now, I'm still trying to find mine. I think I'm getting close though).
But like I said, I wasn't always like this. Before The Race, I avoided meeting new people like the plague. I was always awkward in those situations, and I concentrated more on filling the silence than I did on sincerely getting to know someone.
Before this trip, I envisioned myself making life-long friendships in every country, but that wasn't happening early on. Don't get me wrong, I made some great friends during the first four months of The Race, but my breakthrough didn't come until December in Turkey.
During our first night in the country, I prayed that God would break my heart for the people of Turkey. That I would make new friends, not out of duty, but because I genuinely wanted to know and love the people God knows and loves (and I'm not just talking about Christians. Whether you believe in God or not, He knows you and loves you). That I would see people the way God sees them, with total love despite their weaknesses and imperfections.
And that is when things turned around. I'm not saying I'm Mr. Congeniality, because I'm still awkward at times and will probably always be. But God has given me a desire to know people, and listen to people, and love people ... which is a desire I didn't have when I left home back in August.
I guess I figure, if God is interested in every single person on this planet, and He takes delight in every single person on this planet, then maybe I need to get to know them better. I can attest that my life has been more blessed by the more new people I meet.
Posted in General Posts by Don Brensinger on 4/22/2010
Back in the day, I used to post something known as a "photo blog" for each of the countries we visited. Ireland, Romania, Bulgaria, Israel ... all covered. But then I forgot I had a camera in Turkey, and it was incredibly difficult to upload photos during our three months in Africa so the "photo blog" fell by the wayside. Until now ...
My team took many pictures in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. So I'm posting a handful of them for each country just to give everybody a taste of our ministries and what the people and the landscape looks like over there. This is a mix of photos by Ashlee Hillis, Kendra Baird, Katie McFaddin, Shannon Morgan, Ken Virzi, and myself. If you would like to see more photos, blogs, or videos of our time in Africa, click on the names above. Bon appetit.
Kenya
Deliverance Church Langata in Nairobi ... our home away from home. We worked with Pastor Ezekiel, who heads up the evangelism department there. This is where I slept, worked, and burned Colin Langston for 40-yard touchdowns in football.
A typical World Race bedroom. Let it be known, this is the girls room. The guys room was much more organized and civil.
Kibera ... the second-largest slum in Africa.
Kibera ... much bigger than it looks in this photo.
Team Olur (minus Kendra, who is working the camera) with Pastor Ezekiel. This is the pre-demolition gun show, where tickets went quickly and expensively.
This is the class we helped teach when our team traveled to Garissa for four days. These kids were hilarious and could roll tires faster than any children I've ever been around. If you ever want to hear a funny story, ask me about Charlie Brown.
Uganda
Shannon sharing her testimony during a crusade in Gulu. We served at Victory Outreach Church with Pastor Stephen.
Dozens of kids showed up each night to our crusades and danced relentlessly during our praise and worship time.
Ashlee and Ken show the Africans how we hit the dance floor in America.
Our church-planting mission in a nearby village gave us a chance to pull out our tents for three nights and enjoy sleeping under the stars. The sky in Africa was so clear, and we spent one night pointing out the constellations.
Church in Gulu on our way to the university.
Ken can fly.
Tanzania
Posing for a photo with some Maasai men in Morogoro. This was right after Ken shared the gospel with them, and they all accepted Christ into their lives. Then they fought to have their pictures taken individually with only Ken. We served with Pastor Albinus at Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church.
Kendra preaches at a secondary school. We visited the school twice during the month, and the kids were great listeners and even translated for us.
Yeah, so the signs that say not to feed the monkeys are actually pretty helpful. If case you're wondering what will happen if you feed them, they will chase you and make loud, aggressive grunting noises, and then stalk you ... like the baboon above. Thanks to Katie McFaddin and Melanie Dodson for carrying out this experiment.
Mount Morogoro.
We visited Compassion kids, and they danced for us just hours before performing at Morogoro's version of American Idol.
African women have the strongest necks in the world.
Katie is entertaining the children as we rest during our lunch break.
Early-morning clouds roll over the mountain. If you look hard, you can see a faint rainbow.
View from the top. ... I lied. I should say view from the two-thirds.
Posted in General Posts by Don Brensinger on 4/19/2010
There's a subplot in the movie "Back to The Future" where
Marty McFly (our teenage protagonist who accidentally time travels from 1985 to 1955) tries
to warn his friend, Doctor Emmett L. Brown (the 1955 version), that he will be
murdered by Libyan terrorists in 30 years.
Like any responsible scholar of time travel, Doc refuses to listen
because "no man should know too much about his own destiny." Marty persists and
attempts to inform his friend in a letter, but Doc sees through this wily ploy
and rips it up without reading it.
Marty returns to 1985 on the night of Doc's impending death
and races to the Twin Pines Mall just in time to see Doc get gunned down. But
to Marty's surprise, Doc is still very much alive and unbuttons his shirt,
revealing a bulletproof vest. Then he pulls out the letter he had torn up in
1955, and Marty sees that it is taped together. Doc had heeded Marty's 30-year-old
warning, and it saved his life.
So why do I mention this cinematic gem from the 80s? Well as
it turns out, "Back to The Future" has a lot in common with evangelism.
During our three months in Africa, evangelism became a
lifestyle. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania ... the country didn't matter. Our churches needed
us to take the salvation message to their communities. So that's what we did. We visited homes, marketplaces, and
universities and spoke to anyone who wanted to listen.
Like Marty trying to save Doc, we are trying to save people by telling them salvation is God's gift to everyone. Not a select few. Everyone. It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done. Salvation is a free gift, and all you have to do is accept it. You can't earn it ... it's free.
Also like Marty, our message was met with a bit of opposition. Most people listened, but a few walked away, and some just stared blankly into space. I found myself getting most frustrated by the latter. It's eerie how many people cheerfully welcome you to speak and then, at the first mention of Jesus Christ, they'll immediately slip into this emotionless gaze like someone flipped an off switch in their brain.
But then again, I can understand why many people put up a wall when they hear about Christianity. You don't have to search too hard to find examples of Christians being hypocrites, liars, cheaters, adulterers, haters, and snobs. Many Christians put up this fake facade of perfection ... like they never sin.
Yeah, that's not true. The Bible says "ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
My friend (shout out to Rob Smith, he's single ladies!) recently used this quote from Pastor Alistair Begg: "We make it very, very hard for people who have struggles in their Christian life, when we present no struggles in our Christian life." Christians aren't perfect, and if you meet any who say they are, punch them in the nose. I'm kidding, don't do that. I don't advocate violence. I just thought that sentence sounded funny in my mind, and then I wanted to see what it looked like on my computer screen, and it made me laugh so I kept it. Yes, I'm easily entertained.
My point is ... don't base your assessment of Christianity on the actions of its followers because, sooner or later (most likely sooner), we will always let you down. Base your assessment of Christianity on the source: God. Christianity isn't a message of hate. It's a message of love. If God hated us and wanted us to burn in hell, he wouldn't have sacrificed His Son to pay the penalty we all deserve. He did it because He loves us ... more intensely than we will ever realize.
When I first started evangelizing, I put too much pressure
on myself. I had the mindset that I needed to say all the right things and present
the message in a way that was hip and cool, like one would tailor an
advertisement to make it appeal to its target audience. I doubted what God
could do through me. But the truth is, there is power in the Word. My job is to
proclaim God's gift of salvation for everyone and let God do His thing. What
people choose to do with that message is between them and God.
As much as Marty wanted to save Doc's life in "Back to The Future," he could only pass along the message. Doc had to strap on the bulletproof vest by himself. Likewise, as much as I want to save someone's life by sharing
my faith with them, I can't force them to become a born again Christian. I can
beat them over the head with Scripture (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, John 3:3,
John 14:6, Romans 10:9-11, 2 Corinthians 5:15, etc.) until I'm ready to pass
out, but ultimately, each person has to accept the message and believe it for
themselves.
I read somewhere that the average person has to hear the salvation message seven times before they become a Christian. If you evangelize to someone, and they disregard the message, it's not a failure. You just got them one step closer to seven, or however many it may take.
I mean, Marty didn't even get Doc to accept his message on the first shot. Or the second or third. For all we know, Doc could have waited 25 years before he taped up Marty's letter and read it. But eventually, he trusted his friend's judgment and listened to his warning.
When I used to enjoy the arduous hours of a newspaper employee (nights + weekends), I spent many an afternoon at a certain park about 15 minutes from my house in East Greenville, Pennsylvania. Now there were plenty of parks within walking distance of my abode, but I chose this particular location because it was an escape. I liked getting away from my development for a little bit, and for some reason, my mind always seemed more at peace at this park.
I liked sleeping in every morning. I liked falling asleep to Conan O'Brien every night. I liked knowing all the latest sports news and rumors before my friends, because it was my job. I liked ordering salsa chicken flatbread sandwiches from Wawa every night on my way to work. I liked playing NHL '09 on my Xbox 360 or getting sucked into an atmospheric movie on my 42-inch plasma TV.
When I told my parents in early 2009 I was thinking about
quitting my job to go on an 11-month mission trip, I didn't know how they'd
react.
On September 25th, 1971, my mom met my
dad (They annually made a point of celebrating it to some extent, which is how
I know).
Here in Month 10, I can honestly say
... I kinda like meeting new people. Actually, I love it ... especially when
they tell me they didn't create the movie "How To Lose A Guy In 10
Days."
There's a subplot in the movie "Back to The Future" where
Marty McFly (our teenage protagonist who accidentally time travels from 1985 to 1955) tries
to warn his friend, Doctor Emmett L. Brown (the 1955 version), that he will be
murdered by Libyan terrorists in 30 years.
My friend (shout out to Rob Smith, he's single ladies!) recently used this quote from Pastor Alistair Begg: "We make it very, very hard for people who have struggles in their Christian life, when we present no struggles in our Christian life." Christians aren't perfect, and if you meet any who say they are, punch them in the nose. I'm kidding, don't do that. I don't advocate violence. I just thought that sentence sounded funny in my mind, and then I wanted to see what it looked like on my computer screen, and it made me laugh so I kept it. Yes, I'm easily entertained.
But the truth is, there is power in the Word. My job is to
proclaim God's gift of salvation for everyone and let God do His thing. What
people choose to do with that message is between them and God. 