Spring photos in DC - Bill and Cinni, with Annie Barnes, at Young Life's Rockbridge with women from the SEWH: Tina, Tammy, Jamilia, Evelyn & Marilyn

Punta Gorda Images - dad with car & bike, sunset, Jan and grandbaby Benjamin, Tigger the cat, JP & dad with other stage "son"

Brooke's Southeast White House Update - Spring 2008

Brooke’s Southeast White House Update – Spring 2008 – May 4, 2008

Dear friends,
I know for those of you who have been receiving communications from me for several years you may be very surprised to see the heading of this update – but it is true… after two and a half years away from this amazing house, I have renewed my professional relationship with the ministry and taken a short-term commitment to serve here. But let me back up and tell you what has transpired in the past few weeks and how I ended up back in DC after my visit to see my family in Florida.

Romans 12:13
“Share with God’s people that are in need. Practice hospitality.”

So at the time of my last writing, I was in Tallahassee and Jacksonville finishing up at the FSLF and spending time with my mom and step-dad. The time there ended so well and my time in north Florida was capped off by being able to address the Jacksonville Rotary Club’s weekly meeting. The club has been such a supporter of my life this past 3 years as I have been involved in the process of applying for and going as an Ambassadorial Scholar to Australia and it was an honor to be with them and thank them in person. The club is also sponsoring me to attend the first-ever Rotary Foundation Alumni pre-convention gathering in Los Angeles in June that will be a fantastic opportunity to network and get excited even more about the scholarship programs and see what a difference the opportunity has made in so many lives over the past 60 years that scholars have been sent out. I look forward to sharing how this time goes.

From north Florida, I started driving south and spent one priceless night in central Florida with my dear friend Audra. It was precious to catch up on life in person and I was able also to see Mary-Pam, another Orlando friend. Then, I drove down into my hometown of Punta Gorda and for the first time in 9 years, since my mom moved away, I was able to stay in the town itself. My dad and step-mom have moved into the town in these past few months and it was very fun to stay with them in Punta Gorda Isles and borrow their car to check e-mail at a wireless café in the waterfront mall where I first learned to swim as a baby and where I had my first job and reflect so much on where my life has taken me in the past 10 years since I have left this small town. The time was so relaxing and was spent with my brother, Jean-Paul as well as my dad and Jan. Much of the day was spent relaxing in the sun, working out, reading or making my daily e-mail check ins, while at night I had dinner and catch up with my family or friends I haven’t seen in 10 years. It was like a mini-reunion and great timing, since the 10-year reunion is this year, but I will be back in Australia during it. Much has changed in the town since I have been gone, especially in the rebuilding after the devastation of Hurricane Charlie in 2004. It is in many ways a new town. However, it was also hard to see how difficult the current economy has been for the town. Since much of the economy is built on tourism and retirees having their second home (snow-birds coming from the north for the winter) in our town, the housing market has been severely impacted by the recession.

It was a great time for me to be down with my family for a few different reasons. One is that my brother was the lead in a Neil Simon play and my dad was cast as his father and the opening was when I was there. It was incredible to watch them both perform so well in character and there was an irony to the plot in that in the play (Come Blow Your Horn) the father owns a family business that his two sons work with and in real life of course, my father owns a business that my brother has been working with in the past year and a half. It was very funny and true to life in some of the interactions on stage. I was very glad to be able to support both my brother and dad by reading through the lines with them and by cheering them on from the audience. Another great timing was that my dad and I were able to get out on the boat for 2 days – just the two of us and enjoy the beauty of nature. Every time I go back to where I am from, the physical beauty of the place and how pristine it is strikes me. To see manatees, dolphins, horseshoe crabs, pelicans, seagulls, mullet, and alligators in their natural habitat is so fun. Plus, the weather was spectacular, 80-degree days with no humidity and sunshine, I couldn’t complain. I was really open to considering spending the next few months working there but I still had Washington, DC on my heart and was putting it all before the Lord. My dad was encouraging me to stay and so I did apply for a few jobs, including at the restaurant where I worked my first job. The funny thing with that was that the owners were the same and there was even a friend from high school working there, yet, my timing was off. I was told: “If you would have only come in yesterday.” I actually was planning on going in the day before but then, changed my mind… So, as I was leaving the place I was praying and asking God what He wanted next and I got a call that I had been hoping to get to come back and help out at the Southeast White House.

Romans 13:8-10
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Let me back up a little further and tell you about a dream I had… Before I left Australia and when I was seeking to discern what I was to do next when my visa was coming to an end I was praying about where to go. One night in going to bed, I felt anxious about many things – money, my future, and questions of vocation and went to bed feeling that way. I had a dream that night in which my old boss, Sammie Morrison from the SEWH, offered me a job and I felt that he had offered it because he knew I needed a job. When I woke up I just had this sense from the Lord that He was going to be working things out and would take care of me. When I visited Washington, DC in March, I stayed at the SEWH and the day I arrived, Sammie came out to help me with my luggage and said immediately, “Gagnon, I want to talk to you about a job.” I laughed because I thought my friend Kristi whom I had shared the dream with had told him. But he said he hadn’t talked to anyone about it. So, began our discussions of how I could come back for a season. Then it didn’t look as if funding was going to allow me to come back and therefore when I was in Florida I was seeking to still discern where I was to be in this season. The time with my family was very healing and redemptive and also with friends I haven’t kept up with in so many years, but there was and is a deeper call for me to Washington and I was so blessed to get the call to say come. So, I have now been back almost 3 weeks working and living back at my first home in Washington, almost 6 years ago, my first job out of college.

“Writing can be a true spiritual discipline. Writing can help us to concentrate, to get in touch with the deeper stirrings of our hearts, to clarify our minds, to process confusing emotions, to reflect on our experiences, to give artistic expression to what we are living, and to store significant events in our memories. Writing can also be good for others who might read what we write. Then writing can become lifesaving for us and sometimes for others too. One of the arguments we often use for not writing is this: "I have nothing original to say. Whatever I might say, someone else has already said it, and better than I will ever be able to." This, however, is not a good argument for not writing. Each human person is unique and original, and nobody has lived what we have lived. Furthermore, what we have lived, we have lived not just for ourselves but for others as well. Writing can be a very creative and invigorating way to make our lives available to ourselves and to others. We have to trust that our stories deserve to be told. We may discover that the better we tell our stories the better we will want to live them.”
- Henri Nouwen

My role now is different then it has been in the past. This time around I am helping the YSDC (Youth Service Development Corps.), which runs our full-time Friends of the Children mentoring program, the Peoples House and our volunteer mentoring program. I am helping to administer these programs and complete financial responsibilities such as process reimbursements and help with an upcoming audit (I knew I majored in Business at Flagler for some reason!). I am also seeking to re-connect with children that were at one point involved with our Friends mentoring program but that aren’t currently in touch with us. The goal is to find out how these children (or adolescents) are doing and see if there is a way to continue to involve them in programs happening or connect them to another mentor relationship. It is very exciting work and I am glad to be able to pour my energy into a place that has been such a huge part of my life and passion for so many years. I must say though that there is a lot of work, so your prayers – particularly for getting ready for the audit would be appreciated. Another amazing strategic timed blessing to share with you is that I have been able to reconnect at a very important time with my long-term mentee, Charisma. I mentioned that I saw here when I was visiting in March, and now that I am back living here, her mom has been in touch a lot raising concerns about how late she comes in, that she has been hanging out with an older boy and that she isn’t listening… So, I have the great honor and responsibility of trying to be involved in Charisma’s world for the few months I am back in the US (especially the next month and a half I am in DC), and prayerfully, involve someone else who can help mentor her for the next few years. She is at the end of her sophomore year and will probably fail this year… I met with her teachers this week and her absenteeism and tardiness, combined with cursing and disrespect to teachers make it hard for her to succeed. I believe in her though and I am excited for the time we will have together. Please pray for her and for the tough decisions she needs to make in order to graduate from high school. Please pray for me as I seek to work with her and love her where she is and encourage her to where she should go…

I am sorry this update is so long, but it seems so much has happened in such a short time. Before I end off, I do want to give you a glimpse of what is coming next. My commitment to the SEWH is until mid-June and then Brendan, my wonderful Aussie boyfriend of a year, will be arriving in DC to discover my world a bit. We’ll spend some time here at the SEWH and make our way down to Sharp Top Cove a Young Life camp set in north Georgia. There we will volunteer together on summer staff for 3 weeks in the kitchen. We are both looking forward to this so much and to learning how well we work together in ministry. Young Life has been such a huge part of my life for the last 12 years, so to introduce this relational style ministry to Brendan and share the summer staff experience with him will be so great. From there we’ll be heading down to Florida once again for him to meet up with my friends and family there. So, if I haven’t seen you yet on my whirlwind tour, please know you are welcome to contact me in DC for the next 6 weeks or perhaps in Florida in mid-July, as we’ll both be leaving at the end of the July/early August for separate trips to Europe – heading back west to eventually land in Australia in September. I am very excited that Brendan has made the decision to come to the States and get to be with me in the country I have called home for most of my life. We have been really stretched and grown in the past 9 weeks apart and I know God is using this time in both of our lives in powerful ways. I know the 6 weeks until he comes will pass quickly so I am seeking to make good use of my time here in DC with my work, church and catching up with old friends and so look forward to all of these friends meeting the man that has meant so much to me in this past year. It is amazing how I can be so present and satisfied in two separate spheres, Australia and America, and so torn when I am in one place and not the other, but I’ll be glad to see how they come together in a small way when Brendan comes.

Thank you as always for walking the journey with me. If you want to be in touch while I am in the States, my cell is: 904-537-2230.

God bless,
Brooke

Romans 12:9
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”