Brooke's Southeast White House Update - Summer 2008

Brooke’s Southeast White House Update– Summer 2008 –June 13, 2008

Dear friends,

Well, as of yesterday, I am no longer working at the SEWH, but since I’ll still be staying there a few more days I thought this title was still an appropriate one. As I write this I am flying far above the earth in an AirTran jet bound for Los Angeles and I am feeling very, very grateful for God’s faithfulness and where He has led me in these past few months of being back in the US. It has been a very sweet time to be back at the Southeast White House and to have been able to see it end with the end of the school year BBQ yesterday was an exhausting and exhilarating finale’ to the time. Imagine kids everywhere and that is the picture of what it was! The kids started arriving as soon as they finished their last day of school at noon, even though the grill wasn’t going to be fired up until 3:30… This has been a big week at the house, as the summer camp counselors have been having a training and gearing up for the summer’s activities. They were all ready for the children as they descended and it was fantastic to see the cotton candy machine, water balloons and face painting all converge with sugar cookie decorating and hot dog consumption. My time working once again with the friends and families of Southeast was a reminder of how messy life is… when you care about the poor you are bound to be intricately involved with the stories and grief’s that inevitably impact their lives. I have seen how involved especially our full time Friends of the Children (FOTC) mentors are in the lives of the children they work with, and of course consequentially the families these children live in. So, as I have been helping Sammie with administration of this program, I have learned about the situations of these families and tried to help provide support for these mentors with the incredible task they have been given. Homelessness, disease and death, tragedy through violence, grief, joy, celebration, graduation, new life and teenage pregnancy all collide to form the fabric of a community. With my relationship with Charisma I have been brought face-to-face with many of these conflicting emotions and situations, but magnified by 50 in learning these stories the past two months. It has been an immense privilege.

I have to share a few of the many ways God has specifically answered prayers and showed up powerfully in and through the time. In one situation specifically, many of you have been praying for Charisma. I was praying that the Lord would provide another mentor as I prepare to go back overseas and the Lord has indeed done that. Please pray for Carolyn as she takes on the joy and responsibility of stepping into Charisma’s life at this delicate age of 16 – when independence and freedom wars with need for guidance and the conflict of not being fully adult nor fully child emerges. We all three were able to meet together once, but it is unlikely we will again. Our time has been difficult and beautiful this past month as Charisma hasn’t gone to school or made appointments we set, but when she has shown up, like yesterday with her boyfriend and friends in tow to the BBQ, joy and love have come up fully from my heart for her. Another answer to prayer was a successful audit and how all the pieces came together beautifully for that to occur. I’ve also been able to contact many former FOTC mentors and children and receive needed information on their lives for our records. A last and huge answer to prayer was that God provided someone to take the position from me and not only is she a delight and joy, she has been volunteering with us for the past month or so, so she has learned the community a bit and I was able to train her before leaving, which is a huge relief. Raquel Rogers, is a newlywed that married my friend Josh from Church of the Rez. She and I had not met prior to this trip, but she has fast become a great friend and has fantastic experience working in community organizations and I believe she is a God send for the position, to continue to work I was able to begin and to provide stability to the program and support for Sammie. Pray for her in her transition to the community and house and for the resources for all of the programs to continue, which part of her role will include a grant/development component.

“Put aside your fears, open yourself to my love and goodwill, and walk with me today.”
- Echoes of Eternity

Another massive answer to prayer and something, which again reminds me of the Lord’s provision and perfect timing is that I received my yearlong work and holiday visa to return to Australia. I am allowed to re-enter Australia anytime between now and September the 7th (my ticket incidentally is to go back on the 6th of September) and I can stay for a year and work full-time for up to 6 months with the same employer… and who knows what will happen in that year time frame? It is an exciting time indeed! It is amazing to me how fear and anxiety, thoughts of the future can consume us… I knew upon leaving Australia that I would try and go back, however that God was asking me to cease from my strivings and allow His timing to dictate. As I researched the options for visas I saw that as soon as my visa was granted, I would have a 3 month window in which to return… so I waited until 3 months before my ticket was to return and look at how quick it happened– within 8 hours of applying, I was granted the visa request. So many had said how hard it would be, etc. to receive this visa and so many negative thoughts wanted to fill me to the point of questioning even applying, but God’s peace told me to go to bed and apply the next day and it was all beautiful in His time. Why do we struggle so much to live fully in the present?

“If I may prove my case, do you think humans were designed to live in the present or the past or the future?”
“Well,” said Mack, hesitating, “I think the most obvious answer is that we were designed to live in the present. Is that wrong?”
Jesus chuckled. “Relax, Mack; this is not a test, it is a conversation. You are exactly correct, by the way. But now tell me, where do you spend most of your time in your mind, in your imagination, in the present, in the past, or in the future?”
Mack thought for a moment before answering. “I suppose I would have to say that I spend very little time in the present. For me, I spend a big piece in the past, but most of the rest of the time, I am trying to figure out the future.”
“Not unlike most people. When I dwell with you, I do so in the present –I live in the present. Not the past, although much can be remembered and learnt by looking back, but only for a visit, not an extended stay. And for sure, I do not dwell in the future you visualize or imagine. Mack, do you realize that your imagination of the future, which is almost always dictated by fear of some kind, rarely, if ever, pictures me there with you?” (Jesus speaking to Mack)
The Shack by William P. Young http://www.theshackbook.com

My dear boyfriend, Brendan, flies into Washington, DC tomorrow and our US adventure will commence. I am very excited to show him around DC and have him get to meet so many that mean so much to me in the next few days before we head down to Georgia to work at Young Life’s Sharp Top Cove and from there on to Florida and to my family. Truly, God has been very faithful to me and I can’t stop thanking Him and being grateful.

“To move more courageously, you have to hold on to hope, and you trust that God has a better script for your life than you could write on your own.”
Sex and the Soul of a Woman, Paula Rinehart pg. 147

I do have much hope for what will come in the future… but I am excited to live in today even with all the questions left unanswered for what will happen tomorrow. Jesus told us not to be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow would have it’s own worries (Matthew 6: 25-27). I am off today to LA to enjoy a Rotary Alumni Celebration. I am grateful that I was given the chance by the Rotary to be an Ambassador of Goodwill and Understanding to Australia and all that the year held for me. I look forward to the people I will continue to meet and connect with through this organization and I see God’s provision in all of it. I am excited to connect with my dear friend Kersten Metzler, years after we lived together at the Cornerstone house in College Park, MD – the place I will be delighted to share with a group of young people, not too far behind me on the journey on Monday night. So much has seemingly come full-circle in the past few months – reminders of how interconnected lives are and how the Lord has a purpose and a plan for every relationship and experience. The book, The Shack, that I quoted above has had a big impact on me in the past week that I soared through its very poignant pages. I would encourage each of you to read it. One small, but very powerful phrase repeated in the novel is: “If anything matters, then everything matters.” It truly has been my experience that God works everything out for good, even all the pain and allows for redemption to take place. I have been so incredibly blessed to come back into relationship with those at the SEWH that I had once enjoyed sweet fellowship with, and at my church, but I also have been able to re-connect to those who I had longings for better endings with that had yet to be recognized until I took this trip… I pray for each of you reading this update that you are able to reflect on those you might need to re-connect with that somehow where the relationship is doesn’t settle well in your spirit. Our God is a God of relationship and none of us can do this life cut off from others…
“Even a piece of paper is lighter when two people lift it together.”
- Korean proverb

I have been so blessed by relationships, even when they are messy and require me to die to myself. Living once again in community has been a painful joy of learning interconnectedness. And I am sure for all the fulfilled longing of reuniting with Brendan, traveling together will have of the same bittersweet moments. Pray for us in our journey and thank you for your friendship. Until next time,
Brooke

www.brookesintladventures.blogspot.com