My dear brother, Matt Snyder, writes a special blog every
Friday just sort of telling his readers about his week, maybe bringing up a
funny thought or idea. So I'm going to do that today. And today, I'm going to
discuss something that I actually cherish very much- Michael J Fox- no... that's not true.
(as you may know, I love referencing movies in my blogs, so today's is "Back to the Future")
While I was on The World Race, I would try to process
everything that I was experiencing, whether it was through talking to my
teammates, writing in my journal, or even talking to friends and family on the
phone/skype. But it was incredibly difficult to explain it all. The only thing
I could really say clearly was, "It's like every day is sensory overload!"
Every part of me was being immersed in something new, uncomfortable, and real. The taste of the food, the smell
of the air, the feeling of the dirt, the sounds of the vehicles and people, and
of course the sights. Every sense was filled to the max of something new and exciting.
What I didn't realize was that these things were creating memories in me. Each sense would hang onto those things and not let
go.
When I came home from the trip, it was... interesting. I would
be listening to someone and halfway through their talk I would have to interrupt
them: "Oh, sorry Mom. You're going to have to start over. I was in Moldova for
a little bit there."
Flashbacks!
Sometimes when you're sitting at work or in school you get that smell that reminds
you of your childhood. Everything else- sights, sounds, feelings- is
distracting you from this, but the smell is so memorable. Well with these
flashbacks, all five senses would jump back to these memories. It's like my
whole body would be in this and that place.
SO COOL! Even though I can't actually be in Kenya, I can
still experience Kenya again! Even though I'm not in the Philippines, I can
still experience the Philippines!
As I was overwhelmed during the World Race by all of the
smells, tastes, etc, my senses were growing memories in them that would sustain
me past my time in those places.
Hmmm... this could go off into a ramble about how we need to
soak up every part of God we can while we're on the "mountain top" so that we
can rely on those great things while we're in the "valley," but I'll spare you
the eye-ache.
Posted in Revisited: by Braedon Tabor on 2/25/2010
Team Changes
A year ago I spent some time in the beautiful city of
Mwanza, Tanzania. It was a wonderful month of ministry with some great
relationships built along the way. But before I get to the ministry side of
things, let me talk about one of the biggest pieces of the month- Team changes.
Becoming a team leader was one of the biggest things God did
with me on The World Race. It tested my patience, my integrity, my compassion,
my initiative, and, obviously, my leadership. But I would not have gone to the
(figurative) places I had if God had not put this mantle upon me. It was hard.
It was tiring. It was lonely. But all in all I would not have given it up for
the world.
I was fortunate enough to have two of my teammates from
Karis, Cindy and Katie, moved to Team Crux with me. However, we were teamed up
with Audrey, Bekah, John, and Steph, four people I knew very little. So in the
midst of all the ministry opportunities we had, we also had to start the
"get-to-know-you" process once again. We ended up having some real fun times, including
a pizza night with some German med. students we met, and a swim in Lake
Victoria that our digestive tracts will not soon forget. John and I gave the
girls fruit and candy for Valentine's Day, as well as wrote them a lovely poem.
Though it was a hard time of transition for most of us, I think we did a great
job on trusting The Lord with what He was doing with us. And having gone a year
since that first month as team Crux, I can say I'm truly grateful for this team
God provided me with.
Posted in Revisited: by Braedon Tabor on 2/25/2010
Ministry
One gift The Lord blessed me with through The World
Race was the relationships that I still
have with some of the people we met. I asked Paul Nyabagaka to send us an
update on how things are going in their community and church. It's not much,
but it's great to hear from a brother in Christ writing all the way from
Mwanza, Tanzania (keep in mind his first language is Swahili):
"Thank indeed my
friend
All the time we keep
you in our prayer
Pass my greetings to
the all team
Here at Kilimahewa,
Mwanza we are doing fine
Please keep us in your
prayer we are still building the church and we are expecting to receive another
team in March"
Pastor Paul and brother Jonathon Bisanga are two absolutely
amazing men of God. They did everything they could to welcome us into their
home, community, and church. Paul and his family were incredibly hospitable in
opening two of their rooms up for us to sleep in and feeding us! Their five
children are wonderful, fun, and friendly, and you can tell their parents pray
for them every day that God would reveal Himself to them. Paul loves and cares for
people on such a strong and passionate level that people are just drawn to him
and his ministry. Please pray for his
family, that they would continue to be blessed, healthy, and active in their
community.
Jonathon is a wonderful brother and disciple of Jesus
Christ. He has such a servants heart and always desires to learn something new
about God. Jonathon was a great translator for us when we preached in church
and open air services. By the end of the month, when I preached for an hour in
a different church, he was able to stick right with me, and the words just
flowed between us. Amazing! He also has dreams of starting some big ministries
in the Mwanza area, but needs lots of help and lots of support in seeing these
dreams come to life. Please pray for
Jonathon and his family, that he would continue to be provided for, that he
would be given more opportunities to serve, and that he would step up into his
role as an apostle alongside Pastor Paul.
The church we worked with was the Assemblies of God Church
of Kilimahewa (the community/neighborhood in Mwanza). They are located on top
of a mountain overlooking Lake Victoria. This is also where our house is
located. Even though it was a workout to get up and down the mountain to the
church, we would fill the chairs at church every Sunday and Wednesday nights! The
whole church building would be packed with men, women, and children dancing,
jumping, and singing! I loved the music that we would make to praise God
throughout the church services. And one of my favorite parts of the church was
that they meet every Friday night, from 10pm to 3am to pray for the community,
church, church leaders, congregants, etc. Everyone would show up, we would pray
for something, have some praise and worship, have a teaching, pray some more,
and repeat! So good! This church is absolutely anointed and blessed, ordained for
the work of The Kingdom of God!
We had many other opportunities for ministry throughout our
month in Tanzania, working with a boy with only one leg, praying for many sick
people in the hospital, going door-to-door telling people about Jesus, and
dancing away with all of the church folks! Though John and I had to leave early
to meet up with the other men on the squad for "man-istry," we had a blast in
Mwanza with our new family.
Please be praying for
the continued blessings and anointing on our family in Tanzania, and for the
Lord to have His hand over their communities and churches. Pray protection,
life, and abundance over their lives.
Are we a product of our environment or are we simply who we
always were to be? Am I Braedon because my parents gave me that name, I grew up
in the Midwest, went to public high school? Or am I who I am because it's what
my DNA always said I would be?
I believe our environment has a lot to do with it. I'm not
going into all of the sociology and psychology of "nature vs. nurture" (though
that stuff is so interesting to me), but I have been thinking about how the
people around us really play a big role in our decision-making.
We have all hit those points in our lives where we are faced
with several different BIG opportunities and we are not sure which path to
take. We have this feeling in our gut that says one path is the right path, and
another path is the wrong.
Living in such close community with so many wonderful,
prayerful, and caring men and women, when you reach these paths it almost seems
more difficult to make these decisions. There is always a feeling of black and
white, as if God is going to give me a "Yes," or a "No."
But what would it look like if God was presenting me with
several different opportunities and He left it up to me to decide what to do?
Because in reality, if a choice is made to walk through Door #1, there needs to
be a solid effort to glorify Him in any way possible. And if the choice is Door
#2, can God still be glorified?
I'm convinced, more and more, that God is taking me through
a season where He's leaving it up to me. He doesn't want to give me a "Yes," or
a "No" because He wants me to "own" what decisions I make. It would be so easy
to do what most people do in this case: sit on my couch with my arms crossed
just waiting for God to throw something at me. But it's not that black and
white. He's telling me the choice is up to me, and in that choice I should
glorify Him.
I've got dreams and passions. But if I just sit here waiting
for a "Yes" or a "Go," (which I've done most of my life) then I could miss out
on some really good opportunities to glorify God.
So pursue I shall. What comes out of it, I do not know. And
I cannot expect everyone to join me. But "a man has got to do what a man has
got to do."
Not everyone is a verbal processor, but "he with the loudest
voice is heard."
It's funny. Even as I write this it's difficult to think of
what to say. It's as if I have these thoughts and feelings, discernment and
intuition, but they are made up of some other s u b s t a n c e than words.
A great man once told me,
"There is a time for obscurity,
but now is not it."
That's like saying to me, "there's a time to chew with your
mouth, but now you have to find some other way to be fed."
In a world where everything is based off of language and
words, there is only so far you can go with communication. You can only go so
deep into the mind of the speaker.
Studies say 7% of communication comes through words, 38% of communication comes through
tone, and 55% of communication comes from body language.
So how does a blog, such as this
truly communicate to you, the reader, what I, the writer, am actually trying to
say?
I don't have an answer. I'm
tempted to just start doing video blogging so you all can see and hear me, but I'm
not sure I have the technological capabilities at this point.
Several people have mentioned that
there have been many well written blogs on here. Thank you for the compliments.
But I am still not sure I've been able to express much of what goes on in my
head.
This whole concept of
internal/external processing seems to encompass my whole life. Work,
relationships, entertainment. A supervisor asks what I think of such and such.
No words come to mind. I think I have an understanding of how such and such
went, but to verbalize it is like asking me to play music with a chair (I don't
know what that's supposed to mean). My best friend Cindy asks me "what are you
thinking?" all the time. A lot of times I say "nothing," or "I don't know." I
just don't know how to get it out in words.
Obscurity is my life.
I can't get away from it.
So what is the point to all of
this?
"I don't know."
A great desire is to seek
understanding, knowledge and wisdom. But also to share that understanding,
knowledge and wisdom with others.
Do you think you are able to
communicate to others what it is your crazy mind is stirring up?
Because you folks are important to me, I am sending a quick note to update you on what is happening
with my life and ministry and ask for your prayer.
As
you may already know, I have been appointed as missionary staff apprentice with Adventures in Missions, serving in the Training Dept. in Gainesville, GA.
I am excited about an intense three-week
online training course I am taking to help me share my vision more
effectively and connect people with a vital purpose for their redemption:
being the expression of Christ to the nations.
At this point I am not asking for financial partnership in my ministry. Rather, I am asking for your prayer as I take on this course with lots of homework,
and then launch this exciting temporary assignment. I look forward
to getting in touch with you when my training is complete.
How do we react when God says, "I want to do something with
your life, too"?
What do we do when God says, "Alright, then do this..."?
A month ago, I wrote a blog about how God was calling me to
big things. And it didn't really come out of nowhere. It wasn't like I was
sitting on the couch one day thinking "this is what I want to do the rest of my
life," and then God poked Head into the room and said "Braedon, I need to you
to do this for Me."
Nope.
I asked.
I prayed "God, whatever You want me to do, I'll do it."
On the World Race there were plenty of opportunities for me
to pray this. I asked that God would take me out of my comfort zone and do some
crazy stuff. I told God that I would do whatever I had to do to see His Kingdom
come and His Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. I said that I would give
up everything in order for God to use me. And there were passions that God put
on my heart that I want to see come to fruition.
But around the New Years, and perhaps when I first moved
down here to Gainesville, I realized that all of these things I was saying were
actually being played back to me. God was saying, "Braedon, remember that time
you prayed for a ministry? Well here it is. But you can't just jump right in.
You are going to have to take responsibility. You're going to have to learn how
to do this and that."
What I realized I was doing was giving up. The responsibility
was showing its face and I didn't want to deal with it. I wanted to be the
immature kid not learning how to lead, work hard, manage my life. I just wanted
the end result.
I was in an argument with God.
And He always wins.
The day I wrote that blog a month ago was the day I threw my
hands in the air and said, "Alright, God. You're right. I'm going to do what I
have to do. For real. Not just words but actions."
And I immediately saw results.
God showed me opened doors revealing answers to prayers for
my future.
And every day I take a deep breath, strap on my proverbial boots,
and take a step toward God's desires.
Posted in Revisited: by Braedon Tabor on 2/11/2010
"You were created for more than
this. You can rise up and do the things that strengthen this community and
glorify God. Don't just sit there and wallow in your inability, but trust that
God has given you gifts and abilities to impact the nations."
This was not said to me
verbatim during my time in Uganda, but it was implied numerous times from
teammates and leaders alike. And as mentioned in my latest blog, you, my
readers, were also deliverers of these words.
Our ministry in Lira,
Uganda was headed up by our contacts at Victory Outreach Ministries, with
Pastors Johnson and George leading the way. These two men of God have crazy
stories to tell about how they have come so far in what God has called them. Pastor
Johnson has travelled to the States many times and is a close friend with Christian
writer, John Maxwell. Pastor George was almost assassinated by Ugandan dictator
Idi Amin's police, when he proclaimed the Name of Jesus Christ and they left
him alone. God has handed them the keys to a huge ministry in Lira and they are
walking in a lot of faith to see the fruit of their labor. It's an amazing
sight to see.
We were given several
different opportunities to serve throughout the month, including such things as
painting a local school, picking maze (corn) with local prisoners, visiting the
local prison to preach, singing with the worship team, and evangelizing
door-to-door. We had a blast being able to serve this ministry and also
enjoying the shade of a tree after a long days work, playing with the chickens
and roosters in the yard.
Throughout the month we
dealt with some team issues, trying to reconcile some feelings of rejection and
loneliness. We spent a good amount of time trying to work through these things
while also being involved in ministry. And to top it all off, we got word of
some team changes at the end of the month. Though we had some issues we needed
to deal with as a team, we were all a little upset at the prospect of being "taken
away" from each other. So even though we had plenty of ministry opportunities,
we weren't as invested in them due to our thoughts and emotions trailing.
One night while Allison
Johnston, our squad leader, was with us we had a night of prayer and worship,
as Allison saw we need a little "pick-me-up." She encouraged us to push through
these times of frustration and tiredness in order to serve the many people we
met throughout Lira who did not know Christ. She also rebuked us for not
stepping up into the things God is calling us to. This was quite the kick in
the pants I needed at the time, and the next day Allison approached me to
extend the invitation to be a team leader after the team changes that were to
occur after this month.
As uncomfortable as it
was, I had to say "Yes." I had heard God tell me through my own heart and
through the mouths of other people (World Racers and friends and family) that
He was calling me to leadership in some form or fashion, and I knew this was
the opportunity He was giving me. I knew it would be hard, I knew I wouldn't
feel confident about it, I knew I would have to take responsibility for six
other people. But this was what my Father called me to, so I had to do it.
Our month in Lira,
Uganda was overall a wonderful and ground-breaking month. It was the end of a
beginning and the beginning of a new beginning. My heart is still broken for
the men in the prison we visited, the kids we played with, and the sick people
we prayed for (see the story of Maxwell here). This month is most memorable
because it was the last month I was with my wonderful Team KARIS...
Thanks for reading.
p.s. check out this
video of our squad whitewater rafting the NILE RIVER during our debrief. Crazy...
"God wants to release some big things to you, but you're
holding on so tightly that you're not leaving room for the stuff He wants to
give you! God wants to bless you, but you're too stubborn to receive His
blessings!" –Greg
I mentioned in my last blog that we took the Real Life teams
to downtown Atlanta for an overnight on the streets. Thanks to the help and
hospitality of the folks at Safehouse Outreach (http://www.safehouseoutreach.org/),
we were able to pull this off, and some good things came out of it.
Benny and I had about two hours to spare before the teams got
downtown, so we hung out with some of the folks hanging outside the facilities.
We met a homeless man named Greg, originally from Detroit, MI. He explained a
little about how he ended up on the streets, how he ended up down here in
Atlanta, and some of his church background. But the real interesting stuff
happened when he turned to me and said, "Now let me tell you what I think the
Lord is saying to you..."
Greg then went on about how God wants to bless me
financially. He wants to open up some big things for me to receive. Greg
continued to tell me about how I have been struggling financially in
the past while. It's crazy because it's true, but even crazier because I had
not said a word to Greg about what I do for a living. He then continued to tell
me about how God wants to release financial blessings on my life and ministry,
but that I have never released my finances to Him, basically saying "I don't
trust you with finances, because you don't trust Me."
Another thing that Greg mentioned to me was that I haven't "tithed"
in a while. And honestly, I haven't given finances regularly to the Lord in at
least two years. It would be really easy to come up with the excuse "I haven't
had an income in a year and a half." But in reality, this is a perfect example
of how I haven't trusted God to take care of my needs. I think about all of the
close friends I have around me who need financial help. These are my brothers
and sisters. I want to be able to support them as much as I can, no matter how
much or little I have, myself.
This is not just about my finances. This concept permeates my
entire life. I wrote a short blog not too long ago about how I had to grieve my
youth, how I have to be alright growing up and taking the responsibilities of
the things God is putting in my hands. I want to see God's blessings pouring
out into my ministry and into my community. But if I am not trusting that God will
take care of those things, then I'm not going to see it happen, even if it is
happening.
Throughout the night on the streets, I learned a lot. I am
convinced that we met at least fifteen angels in downtown Atlanta in the middle
of the night. God spoke. The Holy Spirit moved. Jesus walked with us. My Father
showed me the keys to His Kingdom. He told me to trust Him with the things He's
giving me. And if I do that, I'm going to receive those keys, and a whole lot
more.
And what's really cool is... I was given Financial Coaching
from a Homeless Man.
Thanks for reading.
... and in case you didn't watch the video from my last blog, here it is again...
Posted in Training Camp by Braedon Tabor on 2/1/2010
Last week was Real Life Training Camp. We sent out four teams to Africa and India, to Swaziland, Kenya, Delhi, and Andhra Pradesh, to go out for three months to work with missionaries and ministries, bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to some of the most dark and hopeless places in the world. They are going to remind people of the Love of their God for them and how much that Love covers them.
The first night with the participants was spent on the streets of downtown Atlanta, GA, meeting homeless men and women, sharing (and learning about) the Love of God. Here is a video by Katie Rowland that sums up the night on the streets: