Brooke's Pre-Departure Update, Winter 2007

Greetings dear friends,

I am sitting in a community coffee shop in Clarendon, a neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia – in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC and today is a sunny 70 degree day… quite a different January 6th than others I have spent in Washington. It is so warm outside that while I was running on the National Mall yesterday morning my friend and I spied a cherry tree (one tree Washington is famous for having) beginning to blossom. This is a big concern because if that happens in January and say we have a big frost (which would be more typical for this time of the year), the cherry blossoms may not come back out this year. It is interesting how different years can be… from weather changes, new running partners, new places to live and changes in mindset. Loved ones, 2006 is past and 2007 has arrived – I pray we all choose to pause at the beginning of this new year and choose to reflect on what is past and listen to the Lord’s heart for us as we begin anew and continue to pursue what is on our hearts to accomplish. If there are painful things that haven’t been resolved in 2006, these still need to be addressed as we start another calendar year, indeed they cannot be neglected, but there is hope for what is to come also.

1 John 2:15-17
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”

It has been over 2 months since I have sent out an update and partially it is because I am not involved in full-time ministry at the moment and I am not sure if writing to you all about my job at my friend’s boutique on 14th Street is as interesting – yet, I have no doubt that for me it is as important in some Kingdom economy – whether I am serving the young hipsters and homosexuals of DC their fashion needs (skinny jeans anyone?) or taking care of the more obviously physical needy of Uganda, I believe God calls us to faithfulness where we are planted. Needs are everywhere if you are aware and pray for the eyes to see. Mother Teresa used to talk about the extreme need of the developed world for love and that poverty existed in the cities of America due to loneliness. She said people didn’t have to come to Calcutta to find the poor – find your own Calcutta is what she said. I do believe that Calcutta comes in many different forms and the ugliness of poverty is disguised in many beautiful masks at times, in my own life as well. I am finding great fodder for prayer among the customers that come in our door in mid-city. The store is situated in a neighborhood that is in transition. It is close to the Whitman-Walker clinic that serves those with HIV, it is only a block from the Central Union Mission that serves the homeless and is across the street from a half-way house for those coming out of drug and alcohol abuse. It is also only blocks from many of the wealthier residents of the District that have moved into new condos and love wearing the cutting edge of fashion and listening to the Indy rock music played at the shop. It is a very different experience to my time in DC, yet I have realized, no less valuable and significant.

2 Timothy 1:9
“He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to His own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began.”

Since I last wrote I have returned to Washington, DC and am finishing out my time choosing to invest the time I have in relationships and praying that I end well relationally as I prayed I would work-wise when I ended with Pastor Jackson and Christian Life Ministries back in October. My days have consisted of working with Lori at Redeem (www.redeemus.com), living with Chris and Dani in the Trinidad neighborhood of Washington and on my day off volunteering at the Cedars as well as spending time with my pastor’s family as adjust to another member being added (they just introduced their fourth child to the world). I have been riding the bus and metro system DC has to offer and have discovered another side to this incredibly diverse city. In walking around the city I am also able to smell and see on a more intimate level the poverty and wealth this city has. In my four and a half years of life in DC I have never felt more dependent – I live with friends and rely on their generosity to live in a home, I work with a friend and depend on the success of her business to earn a living, and I am dependent on good shoes and the bus to get me around town. I am also reminded that this is a city I have seen from all angles and have prayed and cried over many times. I have often to visiting friends remarked that for me Washington is my Jerusalem. It is a city I have loved and been disgusted by. One that is beautiful and ugly at the same time, but one I have been committed to – especially in prayer. I feel, as Jesus must have felt in a small way when he spoke of Jerusalem and indeed I know it is His heart that I have felt for this city that is certainly not my hometown. In being this close to the city these past few months and living in the Northeast part and working in Northwest – I have truly completed the quadrants (originally living and working in Southeast for 2 years, then Southwest for another 2 years). I will miss this city, yet I have a release that my time is drawing neigh.

Luke 13:34
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”

During these past few months I have also mourned more significantly for the loss of my significant relationship – it is true that I will be leaving many relationships very shortly, but to have been so seemingly close to a life-long commitment with someone and to have that ended perhaps prematurely is worth mourning over. Although I leave soon, I am not gone yet and that has perhaps been the source of some of the sadness and complications my heart has faced. I have determined though that it is all worth it: love is worth the pain. Without throwing myself into these questions and decisions I would never know what I know now and I pray that even as I may plumb the depths of my heart (as a friend remarked) I would begin to heal and be more able to love the next time. Truly my peace about where I am heading has never diminished and so I do believe I am following the Lord’s will and that is my greatest of all comforts. Your prayers for continued healing and that I would turn to Jesus in my loneliness are also so appreciated. It is so easy honestly to fill voids in our heart with lesser gods… with shopping (a recent pleasure I have indulged working at a boutique – probably women are more susceptible to this one), with gossip and learning about other’s lives (living vicariously through others – celebrities provide us with much fodder in this department), with busyness so that we don’t have to deal with the loss or with simple complacency or depression (feeling sorry for ourselves). I had a very big wake up call this week honestly as I woke up on New Years’ day not feeling particularly well from the night before and I was completely humbled to realize it was time to deal with these emotions and not keep filling my life with things that only Jesus can heal. There have been so many prophetic words spoken about what is next – including that healing is coming for me in Australia and a partner to join me in my dreams and help fulfill the calling on my life that do excite me… but I have been in DC still and not dealing with what needs to be dealt with before I go and see how God wants to fulfill these words. I am so grateful for the Lord’s grace and that His promise is that His mercy never fails, and great is His faithfulness. I do believe that and was offered grace in the most merciful of forms by the people in my life caring for me in my weakness. I was prayed for, held and reminded that only God can heal the broken parts – not only in the wake of a break-up, but also with family relationships and disappointments. There seems to be a lot of expectation I put on the time with my family over Christmas owing to several factors. One was it is my last visit to Florida before moving to Australia (a geographic distance and financial commitment I don’t believe my family will overcome during my stay there). Another reason is that it was the longest time I have spent with my family since I graduated college (four and a half years ago). The last being that it was the first Christmas I had spent with my family in 3 years. Some of the visit was amazing, yet some left me with a profound sense that all is not well and major healing continues to need to happen and yet, I am in many ways powerless to affect that change. So, at the beginning of this New Year, I am choosing to lay it all down at the Lord’s feet and say – I need you Lord. I pray that I would continue to remember that. This is why I am so grateful for a season of dependence to realize, I am weak so that I can remember, it is about Jesus anyway, and His will be done.

2 Corinthians 12:9 & 10
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”


My days have been decidedly less complicated (with work at least) and have had a certain rhythm that I have certainly enjoyed. Yet, I am beginning to get restless for the next adventure and since this is only a brief chapter, I know that I am to embrace it and also plan and prepare for where I am being sent. On February 4th I fly to Sydney, Australia to begin the next phase. I land in Sydney on my 27th birthday and am so excited to see what will be. There have been many dreams leading up to this climax and to see what it looks like lived out may be radically different but I am determined to just live life for what it is – truly. For those who don’t fully understand what I am going to do in Australia, let me lay it out here. I have been granted a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship by the Rotary Club of Jacksonville, Florida (the city my mom and step-dad live in) to go and study at the University of Newcastle in Australia (a city 100 miles north of Sydney). My scholarship allows me to study at the university in a master’s program in which I will be studying towards a Masters of Social Change and Development. It is a master’s by coursework and at this point I do not know exactly what classes I will be taking but they will range. I have been accepted into International House at the University of Newcastle which means I will be living on campus with other international students as well as Australian students in a dorm type facility where we are grouped together in common areas that 5 of us share – so although I will have my own bedroom, with 4 others I will share a common area, kitchen and bathroom. I will land in Sydney on the 6th of February and plan on spending that first week getting reacquainted with old friends (Annemaree, Bec, Rob and others), hopefully meeting new ones and on the 11th I plan to head north to Newcastle and move into International House where I’ll settle in before beginning classes on the 19th. My Ambassadorial year has more to do with service than just studying towards a humanitarian degree (that I do believe will give me the tools to serve the poor more effectively). I will become a part of the Rotary Club of Newcastle’s life for my year there and be asked to give presentations to between 10-20 clubs during my year stay and participate in the local community projects they are involved with. All of this terribly excites me because of the amount of time I personally have spent doing community service in the United States and I know it will help me to learn so much about the culture as I am working alongside others with a common heart to serve. The Rotary Club is an International Club that has as it’s core a commitment to: “Service above self.” I believe with that common commitment I will have a year that is very rewarding. In case you are interested in learning more about the opportunity of a Rotary Ambassadorial scholarship, here are some facts from the Rotary’s website: (http://www.rotary.org/foundation/educational/amb_scho/index.html).

“Since 1947 nearly 37,000 men and women from 100 nations have studied abroad under its auspices. Today it is the world's largest privately funded international scholarships program. Nearly 800 scholarships were awarded for study in 2005-06. Through grants totaling approximately US$500 million, recipients from some 70 countries studied in more than 70 nations.”

I am extremely honored to have been selected as a 2006-2007 scholar from Rotary District 6970 and representing my home state of Florida to be sent to be an Ambassador of Goodwill and Understanding. It has been a long road from deciding to apply in February of 2005 to getting on the plane this February of 2007, but I believe the entire process was worth all the reflection and growth required. I am seeking in this next month prior to departure to also preparing for my presentations and reflecting on how I can contribute in a place so different and yet perhaps similar to where I am from. It is a season of change and one I am grateful to have others alongside me in the journey. The next time I will write will be from the land down under in the hottest month of the year, dead summer. But before that, I will need to say goodbye to life in DC. I give congratulations to all my recently engaged friends: Andrea and Douglas, Debbie and Dennis, Tip and Lindsay, Jennifer and Jeff – I regret to say I will miss your weddings… and for all of those recently conceived and born babies – congratulations Andy and Kristy, Mark and Mandy, Jessica and Jeremy – I will look forward to meeting the new family members at a later time. This is a season of transition and I pray for all of you that whatever 2007 brings, may you know the great love of the Father and the intimacy of His hand guiding you.

All my love,
Brooke