Brooke's US Adventures - Summer 2008

Brooke’s US Adventures Update– Summer 2008 –July 30, 2008

Dear friends,

I greet you in the name of Jesus and in the fellowship that He offers. It has been one incredible summer and I long to share with you all the blessings of what the Lord has done.

Brendan arrived in mid-June and our trip together began with him getting to experience alongside me the joy of relationships I have established in Washington, DC over the years. It was fantastic to worship together at Church of the Resurrection and be able to both stay at the Southeast White House and be blessed by the tangible presence of Christ that resides in this house. The hospitality of the ministry is such a blessing to everyone in the neighborhood, and indeed blessed us both, as this was our base for him to see the city I love so much and get to know the friends. We were able to serve at the house together a bit with the Tuesday morning prayer breakfast and participate in the house Fun Day activity which was a photo scavenger hunt around Washington, allowing Brendan the chance to get to know my coworkers and vice versa. Some other highlights of these first few days included a fantastic crab dinner with our friends Cricket and John and an Orioles game in Baltimore, and many meals with pastors and friends.

From DC, we rented a car and headed south to Sharp Top Cove, the Young Life camp we served at as Summer Staff cooks. We spent one night in Atlanta with Tom and Alexandra Roddy beforehand and were able to hear wonderful stories of Young Life ministry from many years ago and get Brendan excited for what he was in for. The next day we piled into the bus from the airport with many other young people of high school and college age from around the country and to this beautiful camp nestled at the base of mountains in north Georgia. Our time at Sharp Top was a beautiful time to be together, work hard alongside each other, get to know and minister to those around us, particularly those younger than us, and get to be quiet with the Lord. Our job, being PM cooks, meant we had the morning to have personal and summer staff devotional time, as well as take hikes or go swimming before reporting to our jobs after lunch. It was a fantastic opportunity to enjoy nature, to see deer, appreciate fireflies and for Brendan to also learn more about urban youth culture in America. Coming from Southeast Washington to an urban/multicultural session at Sharp Top gave Brendan a great glimpse into the culture that I have been seeking to know and minister in for many years. It was really fun to see inner city kids from Memphis, Little Rock, Tampa, and Jacksonville all enjoying the camp property and learning to swim and go down a zip line for the first time. It was also fun to have other kids from Bermuda and even some from the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine join in the mix with Hispanic youth from Immokalee. If you ever need a lesson in faith, you should observe a blind teenager being talked through by her leader on the high ropes course, amazing! We loved the time to invest in those around us and also be invested in by the dedicated camp property staff and our summer staff coordinators who led us through the book of John and focused our attention and service on Jesus during the 3-week assignment. Of course connections and friendships were made there and one of the very fun things was meeting people that were connected to other friends of mine, or that are discipled by friends of mine from college, that have the same Young Life leaders I had in high school, or that even serve alongside my friends in various cities. Martha Shinn, my former college professor was even an adult guest a few days at the end of our time there and it was wonderful to reconnect. Brendan really enjoyed the time together and it was a great chance for us to work even more on keeping shorter accounts in terms of conflict and to learn even more what it means to speak the truth in love as we were spending so much time working with on another and spending other time with each other, things were bound to come up. It was an intense 3 weeks, with no days off and with sore hands and full hearts we were ready to leave at the end of it, although it was a perfect space for us between all the busyness of Washington and before meeting my family in Florida.

John 6:35 “Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

So, our journey continued after camp to Florida where our first stop was Jacksonville, to stay with my mom and step-dad Dan. Here, I was also able to give a thank you speech to the Rotary Club of Jacksonville that had recently sent me to Los Angeles and once again express my appreciation and continued commitment to the ideals of Rotary. We were blessed also to be able to spend time with my sponsoring counselor and his wife, Dr. Bill and Linda Bainbridge and be hosted at their home for a night. It is always enlightening spending time with them and receiving from their wisdom and gracious hospitality. I was very grateful also for a day Brendan and I were able to spend with my mother in St. Augustine and the three of us were able to explore my old alma mater and enjoy the beauty, history and culture of this lovely city, as well as the beach. Brendan was ready to hit the beach and excited to see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. We were also able to share time with my dear friend Nan Ellen there in Jacksonville and went from there to Orlando to see my friend Audra. From Orlando, we headed to Lakeland where we were blessed to attend the Florida Outpouring meetings that have been taking place since April when Todd Bentley went to Ignited Church for what was thought to be a few day conference. It has now been over 100 days of daily meetings with the anointing so strong, especially with regards to healings occurring daily. If you haven’t heard about this before, I would recommend you check out: http://www.freshfire.ca/
We were able to attend the Wednesday night meeting in the tent at the airport and also went back up to Lakeland the following Monday for the day meetings being held in Ignited Church and evangelism training in Lakeland. Both Brendan and I were incredibly blessed by the anointing present and were able to serve behind the scenes at the evening service and witness powerful testimonies of how God was healing the sick that were coming from around the nations to this place to get healed. God is doing something here that is an outpouring to all the nations and the vision is that it wouldn’t stay in Lakeland but as people would watch online, or visit in person they would be empowered to have their faith built up and begin to pray for others in their towns and cities and indeed this revival has broken out in other areas. If you are at all near Lakeland or able to visit, I would encourage it, but even just tuning into the live broadcasts online at Fresh Fire’s website or on God TV, has been an amazing blessing to so many, including Brendan’s mom and church in Australia, so he was especially excited to participate in this.

John 4:34-35 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, “Four months more and then the harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.”

As we made our way south in Florida we were able to stay with some of my college friends Ruth and Woody and eventually get to my hometown of Punta Gorda and stay with my brother. The three of us then packed into the car and headed even farther south to the Florida Keys, past my birth place of Duck Key and all the way to Key West to meet my dad and step mom, Jan and gather with other friends and family to cheer on my dad as he competed for the 9th time in the Ernest Hemingway Look-A-Like Contest. We were all really hopeful that this would be his year to win and join the Hemingway Society, which is comprised of former winners. However, the title remained elusive despite my dad’s great job, once again making it to the finals and we all had a great time at Sloppy Joe’s together enjoying friendship and being together. It was a very special time for us all to be together and for everyone to meet Brendan on this trip and although there never seemed to be enough time, the time that we were all able to share was priceless time and there was a good spirit that characterized our visits. On our way north we were able to visit with Pastor Dan and Elise from Church of the Rez, who happened to be on sabbatical in Florida, again a very special encounter for Brendan and I and pivotal in helping look at our relationship before we had a little more time with my mom and Dan in Jacksonville. On this trip we were able to be special guests on my parent’s cable access television show, “Second Wind” and share about what the Lord is doing in Australia. It was really fun to be able to speak together and minister with my parents (more about this later). Our Florida trip ended with an overnight Greyhound Bus journey (a first for me!) up to Newport News, Virginia in order to be able to participate in the Family Vacation with a Purpose at Christopher Newport University. This annual gathering has been taking place for over 40 years and this was the 6th year I have been and it is always one of my highlights of the year to be together with these precious friends. Again, I was not disappointed by being together with families I only see perhaps at this once a year gathering, but year after year our friendships grow deeper, as well as new friends being added, like Brendan this year. It was a very relaxed time filled with tennis and the beach and a good wind up for Brendan’s American trip. We returned to DC on Sunday and had once last time of worship together at Church of the Rez and were blessed by being sent off in prayer by faithful friends there. I have often said what I missed the most in Australia was my church and prayer groups I was a part of, I know that I will miss this again, but am so grateful by the season I was granted and that Brendan was able to share in it with me and am hopeful that I will become more grafted into community as I return to Australia and seek to become planted deeper into Sydney. After a night monument tour, Brendan’s time was up and he flew to London on Monday leaving me to now reflect, enjoy a few more days in DC with friends and I leave on Friday for Greece.

Luke 11:3 “Give us each day our daily bread.”

I know it seems like a whirlwind of a trip, and it was in so many ways, but every bit of these past 5 months in America has been incredibly blessed by friends along the way. Thank you to so many who opened your homes, leant your vehicles, invited to dinners, and just really loved on me, and on Brendan when he was here. This next season is again unknown, but I am learning greater confidence in the Lord’s faithfulness each step of the journey and look forward to sharing His provision every step of the way.

Here is my itinerary for the next 5 weeks, please as you read it, keep it in your prayers and as the Lord leads, if you are able, please consider supporting financially this trip, especially the trip to the Philippines. Contact me directly and I will give you details of how to give support. This trip is the culmination of many dreams and friendships coming together over the years and I pray it will be Spirit-led and powerful for the Kingdom of Heaven.

August 2nd – Greece – first stop Athens, then Bulgaria to meet up with my Bulgarian friend Dimitar and his sister and learn his nation & culture & further develop our friendship
August 11th – back to Athens to meet my American friend Bethany who went to Bible school in Croatia to do some traveling in Greece and then to Macedonia together to meet with some different people, missionaries & government workers (and pray for this homeland of Brendan’s family); then to Serbia to visit my friend & youth pastor Samuil and his mother Megi, who is a friend from Sydney
August 20th – fly to Bangkok to reconnect with ministry friends at NightLight and prayerfully visit the women I connected with through this ministry last summer
August 27th – fly to the island of Mindanao in the southern part of the Philippines to meet my parents and participate in a Pastors Conference with them reaching out to over 400 pastors in this Muslim dominant region – this is the first time I’ve been able to minister internationally with my family, it has long been a dream of mine and an answer to prayer – orphanage work will also be what my family will participate in, consider sowing towards this… my expenses will be approximately $1500 and anything more given will be sown into the ministry in the Philippines. If you are interested in seeing details on my parent’s ministry, please go to: http://www.mightywindministryintl.org/index.html

September 3rd – fly back to Bangkok for brief layover
September 5th – return to Sydney

As you can see I’ll be experiencing an amazingly diverse trip with many different cultures and languages to try and be relevant in. Please pray for protection as I travel, often alone. Pray for spiritual protection in every way and for the Lord to richly provide for all of the needs, even those I do not even know about yet. Pray for the Spirit to guide and lead every encounter I would have in the journey and for unity with those I am traveling and ministering with.

“The road before you is purposely obscure. You do not need the burden of knowing the details. Grace abounds in each hard place, and I am with you in all you face.”
- Echoes of Eternity


Also, please pray for the Lord’s clear guiding as I return to Australia concerning housing and job details and revelation on the many decisions that await both Brendan and I, as we return to Australia. I have seen God so mightily at work that truly I can only rejoice for what I know He will do in the future and I am so glad to be able to testify to you of this my friends. Please continue to keep in touch with me about how I can pray and support you in what God is doing in and through your lives and thank you for continuing to walk this journey of faith beside me.

All my love,
Brooke Gagnon

www.brookesintladventures.blogspot.com

With friends in DC - with Kate, Gena, Shannon, Josh and Raquel at the hat party, with Carrie and Steve, at Anna's shower...