Saying Tchau....

Today is our last day in Brasil.....

How can it be that 15 days have already passed?

How can we leave our beautiful, new friends?

How can we ever put into words all of the unbelievable experiences we have shared during our stay?

There are so many emotions feeling our hearts at this moment.  We just shared, as a team, our last morning devotional.  As we shared our personal stories of how we've seen God in the lives of our readers -- and our own lives -- it is 100% easy to say, the six of us will never be the same.  God has moved in ways bigger than we ever imagined....transcending language barriers, transcending cultural differences, and transforming hearts that are hungry for Him.

We'll share some personal stories in the days and weeks ahead; but for now, please lift these precious souls of our readers up to the One who loves us all ~ Dinilza, Edna, Dione, Nedi, Thaysse, Charbelle, Leticia, Marcela, y Sabrina; Dayana, Louise, Cenira, Marilene, Jussara, Bruno, Victor, y Fernanda; Carlos, Francisco, Daniel, David, Luis, Sidney, y Radrigo; Vinicius, Mariza, Natalia, Thales, Breno, Leda, y Josie; Maria, Levy, Thairiny, Daniela, Aline, Paulo, Danielle, Maria, Vinicius, y Clemilse; Anore, Adriano, Darcy, Antonio, Renato, Carlos, Alessandro, Luis, Michael, y Cesar.

We love you all for your prayers, encouragement & support.  It's because of you, and God working through you, that we have experienced all that we have.  We look forward to seeing you again tomorrow; but please understand when we tell you that a little piece of our hearts will always remain in Brasil.

God's Word from our devo this morning....

"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace." ~ Numbers 6:24-26

We love you all so, so much!!!

~k, e, b, & m

Why We'll Never be the Same.....

We love you all; we really do.....and we've missed being with our family and friends for the past 2 weeks. But when we return to America in just a few, short days, we will return much different than when we left on June 17th. Oh, we'll look the same. We'll sound the same (though we'll throw out a few Portuguese words every now and then, just for fun). And our daily schedules will resume. But a portion of our hearts will always remain in Niteroi, Brasil with the beautiful friends we have made here.

Here's a look at why we'll never be the same.....

Francisco & Kent

David & Kent

Brano & Bailey

Mariza & Bailey

Vinicius & Bailey

Charbelle & Edana

Dione & Edana

Thaysse & Edana

Carlos & Kent

Todd & Kent

Sidney & Kent

Bruno & Madison

Dayana & Madison

Our time in Niteroi has been two of the most amazing and life-changing weeks of our lives.  God has crossed our paths with some of His most wonderful creations....the people of Brasil.  We have been welcomed warmly into our neighborhood, into the church at O Caminho, and into the hearts of our readers and the missionaries at O Caminho.  

We are so grateful for what God has done through you to bring our family to Brasil!! Your prayers, encouragement and financial support have been a tremendous blessing. This opportunity for the four of us would not have been possible without you!  Heaven will hold even more souls because of your and our trust in God to do this work.  "Obrigado" from Kent, and "obrigada" from Edana, Bailey & Madison for this opportunity.

There's still more to come....even when we return home & try to grasp the magnitude of emotions we've felt this week.  We look forward to sharing more of this journey with you; but for now, please know that God has filled our hearts fuller than we could have ever imagined.

Muito amor!

k, e, b, & m

Boa Tarde from Brazil!!

....that's "Good Afternoon" in Portuguese!! Aren't you glad you're learning a new language with us? :)

It's been a wonderfully busy six days for us, as we are reading with and scheduling new readers every day. God is so good to be readying the hearts that are coming to us. It's amazing how His love transcends beyond any language barriers. Love is the same in all languages, as we are finding true every day!!

We'd love for you to pray with us over each of our readers that have met with/scheduled with us so far. They are.....Charbelle, Dione, Edna, Marilene, Fernanda, David, Daniel, Mariza, Natalia, Francisco, Thelus, Vinicius, Levi, Todd, Sidvey, Dayana, & Cemira. (It's okay if you don't pronounce them correctly. God knows who you're talking about.)

Bailey and Madison are quite a novelty here, and the word that two, cute American girls are practicing English is getting out. Please pray specifically that more young readers come in to read with both of them.

We're so incredibly humbled to be in this place, doing this work....and we pray that all we do and say is to the glory of God. With Him, all things are possible.....even a little family from Oklahoma flying to Brazil to share God's Word with our new Portuguese friends.

Please keep your prayers coming, friends. We need and WANT more readers!!

More pics to come.....thanks for taking this journey with us!

Muito Amor,
k, e, b & m

Bom Dia from Brasil!!

....that's "Good Morning" from Niteroi, Brazil!!

We arrived on Saturday morning, greeted by our host missionary, Zane. After a brief intro to Rio, we headed across the bridge and toward Niteroi, our destination city for this mission. Zane has been a gracious host, orienting us to the local markets, necessity stops, bakeries (YUM!!), our apartment, and of course, Igreja O Caminho (the church).

We have been so busy!! Being the first LST team in from Park Plaza, we have had some campaigning to do to get the word out about our reading sessions. (You might remember in earlier posts that we mentioned another team from Park Plaza who will come in for another 2 weeks after we leave. This will be an awesome continuation for our readers to continue to practice their English (and learn from the Gospel of Luke)....we're very excited about that!!) We campaigned in a wonderful park that plays hosts to an enormous number of families (fyi -- the population of Niteroi is 1 million!). We handed out 1,000 informational flyers about our work, which may sound like a lot. It is! But guess what? A team of juniors, seniors and their parents (from Park Plaza) came to volunteer at the church a week ago. Among the many wonderful works they did here included handing out 4,000 flyers about us coming!! We are sooooo excited (and appreciative) of their enthusiasm and dedication to the Lord's work.

We were so blessed to worship (in Portuguese) yesterday with the team of missionaries and church members at O Caminho. We were VERY warmly welcomed, and it was so amazing to watch what God has been and is doing through the Christians in Niteroi. We are very excited to be even a small part of the seed planting in helping grow God's church in Niteroi. (insert goosebumps here!)

There's so much to tell you about (and show you in pictures), but that will have to wait for other posts. Lots to do here, and our day is just beginning. Just know this....we love and appreciate you so very much for your prayers and support to make this work possible. Please keep those prayers coming. Our information meeting with interested readers is tonight at 7:30 (that's 5:30 CST). Please pray that God brings in the right readers for each one of us: Bailey, Madison, Wes, Kendall, Kent & Edana. Please pray for their hearts to be open, and please pray that each of us will be the vessel of God's love to relate to each reader. Thank you, in advance, for those prayers.

Much, much love to you!!

~k, e, b & m

Field Trip....

In preparation for our mission trip to Brazil, Neteroi Team I (that's the four of us + Kendall & Wes LeFlore, if you missed it in a previous post), decided to incorporate a little fun into a recent field trip.  For those of you who keep up with what's showing on the "big screen," you've probably heard about the new, animated flick, Rio....

This is Blu & Jewel, hang gliding by the Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

If you have a chance to see the movie, it's really very cute.  For us, though, it was an "animated" look at where we'll be in just 48 days (and counting)!  The scenery was beautiful; and it's going to be really cool to see how realistic the movie creators were with their likeness of Rio de Janeiro.  If you do happen to check out the film, keep an eye out for the Christ statue and how many times it's incorporated into the "scenery"....pretty awesome!

Christ statue, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

God is soooo good!!  And we are soooo blessed that you're joining us on this mission trip in spirit.  Thank you for your prayers.  Thank you for your encouragement.  Thank you for your financial support.  We couldn't do this without you!!

Our love and prayers to you!

Training is an Adventure All Its Own....

Our LST training is well underway....and while it's been a lot of work, it's also been a blast!  We love how God incorporates so much joy into serving Him!! 

Edana, Kent, Madi, Kendall, Wes & Bailey
Neteroi Team 1

We meet weekly for 2 hours at our home church (Park Plaza Church of Christ) with all of the Let's Start Talking (LST) teams that are going out on summer projects (more on that later in this post).  Our training takes place in "LST Land," as our trainer, Jamie, refers to it. There's something unique every week in LST Land....it may be a "typical" greeting in the language of our destination country.....or maybe wearing strange head gear to help us step out of our "comfort zone".  No, we don't typically wear bunny ears, Irish girl hair, or funny hats to training....unless we're in LST Land! :]

We just returned from an intense training weekend in Dallas, Texas where we trained with over 150 missionaries in the central US who will be going on summer LST projects, just like us. Have we mentioned how humbling it is that God has called us to "go"? Truly, we can't say that enough!

It was a fantastic weekend with LOTS of information, and also, a lot of team building exercises.  From attempting to build the tallest structure with some unusual supplies...

wire coat hangers....

more wire coat hangers....

wire coat hangers and an empty paper towel roll....

all poked into a cardboard box, with some tape,
and a random plastic bag...

Just look at that engineering masterpiece!

Okay, so we may not have won the contest, per say, but what we walked away with was the confidence that we have a really good team who can work together (that's 1A {1 Another} leadership) under pressure.  Oh, did we mention that we had to build these contraptions in 10 minutes?  Oy!

Our lunch time activity proved just as successful, as God continued to mold the dynamics of our group together.  It was a "scavenger hunt" of sorts with challenges related to transportation, talking to strangers, identifying a random building....things that forced us to put our noggins together and find solutions....again, with time restraints.



This is Wes, running to get the physical address from the
above-mentioned random building...did we mention the time restraint?  Go, Wes!!

Oh, yeah!  Made it back with time to spare!!

Every training session is an "adventure" all its own; but at the heart of each session is God....and our readers that we pray for each and every day.  We hope you're praying with us, too.  God calls each one of us by name....and He already know each and every reader that He is going to bring to us. We can hardly wait to know them, too....and to introduce them to you through this blog.  Thanks for taking this journey with us!

We mentioned earlier about our LST teams that we're training with at Park.  Our team ~ which includes the four of us and the precious, young couple you see with us above, Kendall and Wes LeFlore ~ will be traveling to Niteroi on June 17th.  There is another Niteroi team of six who will overlap us a day in Brazil.  There is a team of ten heading to Honduras. And two darling young women will be heading to the Ukraine (for six weeks!).  We would love for you to keep all of us in your prayers as we prepare to share God's Word around the world! 

LST Park Plaza Summer Mission Teams 2011

Your prayers mean the world to us….we can't reiterate that enough!  And we can't thank you enough for praying for us and partnering with us in God's work.  We are blown away by what God is doing through you....prayers, words of encouragement, and generous donations continue to come our way.  We are truly humbled as we thank God daily for you and your faith that "through Him, all things are possible."

Sending you our love,
Madison, Edana, Kent & Bailey

We love and appreciate you so much!!

*If you would like to contribute toward our work in Niteroi, you may do so online at www.LST.org/2011projects/brookfamily1; or donations may also be mailed to Let's Start Talking Ministry, PO Box 99321, Fort Worth, Texas 76199-0321.  Please include "Kent Brook" in the Memo.  Thank you!

Please Pray with Us....

Last week, we blogged about making the decision to go, but neglected to tell you about what we will be doing in Brazil.....and our training to get there!

As part of the Let's Start Talking (LST) ministry, our mission team.....

Niteroi Team 1:
kendall, wes, bailey, madison, edana & kent

from Park Plaza Church of Christ will be traveling to Niteroi, Brazil in June for 2 of weeks of work -- after 8 weeks of intensive training with THE most dedicated and amazing trainer...

Jamie (our trainer) with her hubby, Pat, in Brazil

About our training ~ We are training each week at the church building with Jamie, and heading to Dallas THIS weekend for super-intense training with mission teams from all over the USA who will be going out into the mission field on summer projects.  We're very excited to get to work with other mission teams & the LST staff. Can hardly wait to share this experience with you!

Our mission ~ We will be sharing our faith, one-on-one, with people in Niteroi who are interested in reading/practicing their English.  In many other countries, the opportunity to practice English with Americans (for free!) is a huge deal!  That's where we come in.....we will be working with readers from the book of Luke.  So, while we're practicing English, we'll be sharing the story of Jesus with them, too.  Oh, how God's going to move in that!!  (insert goosebumps here!)

We would love for you to join us in prayer as we prepare for this life-changing journey.  Please pray for our readers ~ while we do not yet know them, God calls them by name.  Pray that their hearts will answer His call and be softened to His Word as we share it with them.  Please pray for our training ~ that we will completely set aside any anxities we have so that God care prepare our hearts to share His Word.  Please pray for our team ~
that we will grow in faith, love, and unity with God and with each other.

And please pray for our financial needs as we continue to raise funds for this work.  We are 1/3 of the way in reaching the $10,800 goal set before us as a family, which goes toward training, airfare, food, lodging, and all working expenses for all LST projects.*

We have been so extremely blessed by the generosity of friends of family.  It's very humbling to know that so many believe in what God has called us to do.  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!  (we can't say that enough)

Please know that we are incredibly grateful to have you as a partner in this work, whether through prayer, financial help, or both.  We will continue to share, through this blog, the many ways we know we will see God in action during the weeks and months ahead....beginning with One Soul Won....Many More to Go.  (insert more tears of joy here)

Bailey's Baptism ~ March 2011

We thank God for you daily!! 

*If you are interested in making a tax deductible contribution toward our mission work, you may do so online at http://www.lst.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=428670&supid=322505719. Thank you for your consideration.

One Soul Won.....Many More to Go!

God is already working in glorious ways through this mission trip!  Following our first training session at Park last Wednesday night (that's March 30th, if you're counting back), our daughter, Bailey, was baptized!!



Mitch baptizing Bailey

 It was so beautiful to witness our child giving her life to Jesus Christ!  There just are no words to adequately convey the emotions we felt.  There were lots of tears.....of joy!  God is so good!  (I'm crying as I type; it's just.that.awesome!)

Bailey was extremely blessed to be surrounded by her sister...

Bailey & Madison

 her Mama Sue (grandmother)...

Bailey & Mama Sue

aunts, uncles, cousins, youth ministers, and friends....

March 30, 2011

While we all gathered around her in prayer, love and joy, I know her Daddy Jim was celebrating in Heaven. 

Madison, Edana, Bailey & Kent

Grace. Pure grace.  That's the God we serve.

Making the Decision to Go....

...was one that we prayed over for some time.  Kent had already served with a tremendous group of Christian brothers in South Africa.  Let's Start Talking (LST) was a ministry that has been on my heart since we came to Park Plaza Church of Christ nearly six years ago.  But taking the entire family just hadn't crossed our minds -- until last year.

Seeing other families make the commitment to go and serve our Lord has been inspiring to us!  The seed was planted, and God continued to nurture the seed within us until it was time for us to make a commitment to Him, too.  The Sunday that "sealed the deal" in our hearts was hearing Wes Gotcher, a missionary (and his precious wife, Carrie) that our congregation sponosered in Brazil, tell us about the tremendous things God is doing in Niteroi!  We knew we wanted to be part of sharing our faith and helping the Kingdom grow in Brazil.  Isn't God amazing?!?

Since making that decision, evil has thrown a lot of challenges at us, including a major health crisis within our family. But through it all, God has protected us and continues to bless us beyond what we're worthy of.  That's His grace for you!  That's the kind of God we serve -- loving, faithful, forgiving. 

We're excited that He's called us into action.  It's time for the Brook Family to step up and step out -- in faith.  Please pray for our family as we begin this journey of servitude.....  ~edana