Help send me to Kenya!

I will be traveling to Kenya on June 3-16, with a team from Healing Place Church. We will facilitate outreaches to show the simple and practical love of Christ as well as conduct school assemblies all over the country. Kenya is an East African country with a population of over 40,000,000. Over half of Kenya's population is 15 or under! I believe the opportunity of a lifetime lies before us - the opportunity to make an impact on the youth and future of a nation. On this trip, we will have the opportunity to present the loving message of Christ to over 90,000 kids! Those children represent the future of Kenya, the hub of East Africa and me and you have the opportunity tell them how much they are loved, but I need your help!

Firstly, I am asking EVERYONE to please pray for me, the team going, and everyone that we will come in contact with. We need your prayers! I am also trying to raise funds for the trip. If you feel led to donate any amount at all, I would be humbled and grateful. I will directly receive all donations and will update the progress on the progress bar located to your right!

To donate and see up to date blog posts, visit http://www.YouCanSend.me/Brandon

Twitter

"Life of an Intern" doesn't describe my life so much anymore. Thinking about starting a new blog or maybe just, personally, retiring from the blogosphere all together. Gotta think about this one...

To keep up with me check out www.twitter.com/bbizzle

EXECUTION ROCK!

Where do I start? It has been a crazy couple of days. The guys have been doing concrete and foundation work at one of the carepoints and the girls have been doing crafts and other work at another carepoint. While the guys were working, we had a brick delivery so me and Barton started hauling bricks -

Oh yeah, it was some heavy stuff.

Yesterday we hiked to the home of one of the carepoint cooks. She walks an hour and a half to get to the carepoint to cook for the kids! It's so easy walk either, it is in the mountains. She proudly showed us her very modest home and we gave her some blankets and prayed with her. I can say for the whole group that we had a very special moment.

Then we woke up this morning to do some REAL HIKING! We set out to climb Execution Rock, where people used to be executed by being pushed off. About halfway up, I started to wonder if I was going to make it to the top, but I determined that I wasn't going to stop. I am SO glad I did it. It was breathtaking at the top. I didn't take any pictures of it on my phone (which is how I have been blogging these pics) but here is a picture of Execution Rock that I found on Google -



I stood at the top of that today! Man, it was incredible - I still can't believe I made it to the top. Tomorrow we meet up with the Mozambique team to do some stuff at the Maphaveni carepoint and then drive to Hlane game reserve to go on a game drive and spend the night there. This trip has flown by. My second time to Africa, but it is safe to say I am returning to American soil a different person.

oh yeah

Thats right - Red Bull Swazi-style. The only coffee we have found is instant aka GROSS so we have been hittin' up the gas station for some caffeine love. This was taken while we mixed concrete today and building the foundation for the new classroom at the Mongwoneni Carepoint. More concrete work in the morning (thank you Jesus, for the gift of Excedrin) and then a hike to deliver some goods and supplies to some homes in the mountains. It has been great. Lots of work, lots of laughs - all for Him. What an honor it is to do this.

HPC_swazi is official

The launch yesterday went GREAT! Everyone was buzzing with anticipation (and red bull) as we were preparing all of the last minute details. Everything from sound, children's ministry, parking lot and preparing a lunch to feed 200+ people - this is truly an HPC campus! Pastor Ben shared a great message about the woman who was caught in adultery and how the pharisees wanted to stone her - but Jesus takes the stones in our lives and turns them into our foundation. It was good stuff. There were 202 people in church to hear that message! The alter was full at the end of service. It was awesome - I will try to post pics of it later. To hold you over, here is a picture from the balloon outreach we did the the other day.

we hiked.

Yeah, its true. We hiked up a mountain tonight when we got back to the hotel. My legs hurt. My back is killing me. But it was BEAUTIFUL! It was so worth it! Waterfalls, amazing trees, MONKEYS!... We just ate dinner and we are talking about how we want to go to the rooms and crash and Natalie says, "Brandon, you don't want to know what time it is." It was only 6:55pm! I'm so tired. I haven't gone to bed this early since 4th grade. Tomorrow is the launch!

HPC_Swazi

These are the brand new HPC_Swaziland signs! They just got put up this morning and they look great! Today we went to a very busy area in the middle of the city and gave out suckers tied to balloons and told people about the church launch in the morning. Then a group of us went up to a soccer field in a really rough area and gave out cokes and talked to a bunch of young people. We are about to eat some lunch and continue to get the church ready for service tomorrow. Please pray that everything goes well in the morning!

Swazi babyyyyy!

We made it! We got to Manzini, Swaziland last night right on time. For our first night we went to eat, met some of the Children’s cup team and then went back to the hotel and crashed! We started today with some Cooking for Christ - Swazi style. We cooked for about 200 people and distributed meals to surrounding businesses. After the food outreach, we went to a park that has 3 highschools nearby and all of the students pass by when they let out of school - I’m talkin’ A LOT of kids. Jordan, one of the Children’s Cup missionaries, set up a sound system and played some dance music and we passed out candy and flyers for the FIRST official service for HPC_Swaziland on Sunday! These kids can DANCE! It went great. We are currently at Ben and Susan Rodgers house where we are about to throw down some awesome dinner and hang out for a bit.

Everything is going great. We even saw some monkeys today at the place we are staying - it is beautiful scenery. Keep prayin for us and I can't wait to see everyone when I get back!

T-rice

Its official. Trice is gone for the summer. If you don't know him, Trice is the coolest guy around and he's a genius-whiz kid when it comes to stage lighting. He'll be on tour for the summer and won't be back till August. He's sure gonna be missed around here.

hahahahahahahaha.

My Thoughts are Provoked...

Sarah in the "Thought Provoking" section at Barnes and Noble...

ARC

Comin' at ya from Birmingham, AL at Church of the Highlands. They are hosting the annual ARC Conference this year. Looking forward to hearing from Brian Houston and the other great speakers. All of the ARC church interns got here a day early to hang out and do a little pre-conference stuff, so it should be pretty cool. Just had some slammin' dinner and we're about to start the first session. Check back...

Prayer

I've had a few email updates from Heather and everything has sounded like it's been great, but I got an email yesterday that she has been sick in bed with a high fever for a full day now. So definitely be lifting her up in prayer, because it's a spiritual battle. I've been sick in a 3rd world country (103 degree fever!) and it's pretty miserable.

Update from India

I got an email from a friend of mine, Heather Alise, who is currently on her very first mission trip to India. She said -

"Today was our first real day in the city...WOW...an email wouldnt even do any justice to what i saw and experienced today. I really do know now for a fact that this HAS to be the worst place in the WORLD! ...my heart is wrecked..Never have i seen what my eyes saw today. Kids EVERYWHERE...no parents..all sick and begging for money...this one little boy was selling necklaces in the market and wanted 100 rubies for one..which is like 30 bucks in america...well i couldnt help it and was just pulling out money and wanted to give like 200 rubies to this little boy...when i looked up i had all these Indian kids smiling and holding out there hands...i was kinda stuck!!! Thank goodness our guide "Sweety" pulled me away..'Heatha you cannot give your money's away like that!!!!'...guess im still learning..."

Not only is she oversees, for the first time, but she is with Luke Walters and Rusty Domingue! Talk about gettin' rowdy for Jesus over in India!

it just doesn't get much more relaxing than this

Par

Me and my boys Dustin, Evan and Dylan went and hit up a little mini golf tonight. I dominated!

got some bad news and some good news...

The bad news, you already know - it has been a while since I've blogged.

The good news - I'm in Destin for the week, gettin a much needed tan.



If you know me well, then you know why I posted the picture above. You cannot find a Rockstar Pomegranate ANYWHERE in Baton Rouge, but they're all over Destin, ya heard!

amazing

I know, I know - everyone has blogged about Amplified and I'm really late. I was totally ready to type out my thoughts on Sunday afternoon, but as I sat down to my computer, I was just overwhelmed by the impact of the weekend. The weekend was for students to be discipled and grow closer to God, which happened in a BIG way, but after all was said and done - MY HEART was so full. My body was physically exhausted but my spirit has never been more alive. Bondages were broken, chains were thrown off and students lives were set free. In my group of guys alone some felt the call to be pastors and missionaries. I could not be more proud of a group of guys than the 14 10th grade guys I had for the weekend. What I would have done to have a group of guys like that when I was in high school... The future of HPC is STRONG! Thank you, Pastor Dino and Delynn for giving us the opportunity to do this. And thank you to the whole student ministries team for working tirelessly to make sure the weekend went off without a hitch.

Thank you Jesus for using someone like me to reach into lives.


Me and some of my guys bagging groceries for the Winbourne Dreamcenter - thanks CarolE!

Arbitrary bit of information for the day

I saw on Relevant that the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing is releasing the new five dollar bill this month. It's pretty crazy lookin, if you ask me. And PURPLE.





The huge, purple 5 on the back is supposed to make the five dollar bill easier to recognize than other denominations. Kinda odd looking though...

Rob is so cool

Apparently, Rob Gros is taking over BATON ROUGE.


Check out Josh's blog for more Gros domination.