Anyhow, we recently released this video, and it is now being distributed to all AIM missionary candidates, but we thought we’d share it here as well so you can enjoy what our last 2 years have been like!

Anyhow, Lesa and I feel led to pursue a position with AIM, hopefully with the media team in Nairobi. Right now we’re praying about the best time to do the “candidate week” in New York, which is required to be accepted as a missionary candidate. Their next candidate week is in November, the one after that is January. We’d like to do it as soon as possible so we can start raising funds, with the hopes of arriving in Africa maybe next fall. November is a bad month for us, though, the busiest time of year for church musicians.

Click to see the photo album

We met with “K”, one of the directors of AIM, and had an incredible time with him talking about the work they are starting in North Africa, and TIMO (Training in Missions Outreach)- an intensive, medium-term, immersive introduction to missions. After our meeting with K, we visited the Masai Market, a big flea-market-like weekly market, and we grabbed several souvenirs here.

Later that afternoon, we hooked up with our friends, John and Joy Haspels. John lived next door to me at Sterling College, and Lesa and him had many missions classes together. It was great to catch up with him, and hear about the building project he is working on in Loki, northern Kenya.

That evening, Katie and I attended a worship concert at a big pentecostal church in Karen, near my aunt and uncle’s. It started out pretty slow and boring, a bunch of drawn-out, old American worship choruses. Katie and I tried to leave, but the monstrous downpour of rain must have prevented the cell phone signal from working. We were glad we didn’t, because as soon as the worship leader shouted something in swahili, the place erupted. Everyone jumped to their feet and started dancing, and it was the best 30 minutes of worship I’ve ever experienced in a language I don’t understand. It’s amazing that once they started singing in their heart language, the difference it made in the participation and engagement of the congregation.

I should mention something about the rain here. When it rains, it pours, and when it pours, the power goes out. I think the electricity must have gone out 4 or 5 times a day, and it seemed to be every time we were having dinner. Roger and Shirley were always prepared, with candles and UPS’s and battery powered lighting. I took the picture to the left during a lightning flash (it was dark outside at this hour), the greenish light in the kitchen is from a flourescent light that is powered by a battery that is charged by solar power during the day.

I also need to mention the Tumaini Counseling Center, where Uncle Roger and Aunt Shirley work, and live. It’s amazing, and I remembered as a boy helping pack the big sea container full of building supplies they were collecting when they were getting ready to build it. I’d grown up seeing pictures of the place, but wasn’t prepared for really how awesome it is, and what a professional facility it is. There are offices for the counseling staff, a large library, several conference rooms, and an incredible lobby (where Aunt Shirley is standing, in the photo on the right).

Outside is an awesome garden/nature walk. The photo on the left is the front of Tumaini, with Sydney being trailed by one of the dogs (everyone has German Shepherds here, it seems, as an added security measure!)

Shirley then drove us through Nairobi (an adrenaline rush, if it’s your first time) to Rosslyn Academy, where Lesa and I led worship for a chapel service. This is the school where my cousins, Rachel and Hannah, attend. It was beautiful, as was Nairobi in general. Lots of trees and flowering vegetation, and such a great, mild climate that the school campus was a real open-air architecture.

After lunch at Rosslyn, we went to an orphanage for infants who were orphaned by AIDS. Many of them had tested positive for AIDS because their mothers had AIDS, but we found out in many cases they end up not being infected at all.

The next day we had planned a tour of the Kibera slums, but ended up spending the morning at the doctors office as Sydney was throwing up again, and had developed strange spots all over her torso and arms and legs. We thought it might have been an allergic reaction to the malaria meds she had just started taking, or maybe an interaction with the chickenpox vaccine she had had along with a buch of other required vaccines before we left. The doctor told us it was a virus, but nothing to be worried about. She was also terribly constipated, since we had been unable to feed her any fresh fruits or vegetables for sanitation reasons.

We went to the AIM (Africa Inland Mission) hanger in the afternoon, and had an interview of sorts with Alan Masters, the director of the International Services division of AIM. We really enjoyed meeting with him and hearing his vision for AIM IS, and getting a great overview for the structure of the organization, and where we might fit in.

It certainly was different experience this time… especially travelling with our 1 year old. Fortunately, Sydney did a pretty good job on the whole trip. She slept when we slept, and we brought a lot of baby food with us so she ate pretty well, too.

Lesa’s sister Katie came with us as well, and was a huge help with Sydney and our 8 suitcases and giant guitar flight case. We were quite a sight at Heathrow trying to ride the tube between terminals carrying all of our stuff and Sydney.

We arrived in XXXXX, Friday evening, and got checked into our hotel room around midnight. The next morning our group toured the medina, and went and visited with some other American workers there who run an college program.

Sunday we taxi’d somewhere in XXXXXX, and met with the youth group for an incredible time of bi-lingual worship. We played songs that were known in both english and arabic, and they sang a lot of songs in arabic, and I played along on the guitar. Afterwards we had lunch and spent the afternoon playing games and hearing their stories. Really amazing stories, every one of them. I remember one girl said she had been following Christ for 3 months, but she wished with all her heart it had been 3 years. She was the only Christian in her city.

The next day I was sick. I spent most of the day in bed or on the toilet, while Lesa went to a hospital ward for abandoned infants. Then she spent the afternoon hanging out with XXXXXX university students, in a relational evangelism setting. We called our XXXXXX friends later that evening, and met them at Carfourre, and they took us up to XXXXXX, then bought us brik (Fried egg pastry), and we hung out at their house until about midnight. This was the most important part of our time in XXXXX, where we could sit and ask questions about how we might get involved, what kinds of work need to be done to soften the ground there, and basically feeling them out for encouragement about coming.

The next day said goodbye to our group (who were staying almost another week), and taxid to the airport to fly back to London. At the airport, Sydney threw up twice, and on the plane to London, maybe 5 times. We knew we were going to land, run to our next flight, and make another overnight flight, so we were praying hard Sydney’s stomach issues would stop quickly! And they did… by the time we landed in London she was fine, praise God!

We got a good chuckle from the flight attendants as they announced the final descent into London, and the arrival on the ground in Arabic. I don’t know much arabic, but a couple phrases: enshallah (God willing), and humdullah (praise God). I could only guess the rest of the flight attendent’s dialog: “Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts for our final descent to London Heathrow. We will be landing shortly, God willing!”. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have landed, praise God!”.

As far as what we see ourselves doing on the mission field, we’re not exactly sure at this point, but we are hoping that you would join us in praying for direction. We do have some basic ideas/visions:

1. 1. To use our God-given abilities/resources to help lift people out of poverty and share the love and message of Christ with them.
2. 2. To use our God-given abilities/resources to encourage and build up local national churches.
3. 3. To inspire, equip, and mobilize American churches (and specifically musicians/artists within those churches) to join us in #’s 1 and 2.

We are hoping to learn several things on our trip:

1. 1. What are the needs of North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa that our God-given abilities may be able to meet?
2. 2. Is there one place or people group that God is directing both of our hearts towards?
3. 3. We will be meeting with leaders from two different agencies, as well as missionaries from many more, and talking about specific needs and opportunities that they see, and we are hoping that God may direct us specifically towards an organization or an opportunity.
4. 4. What environments will our family fit well into? How will our children be able to participate in ministry and what opportunities are there for them for friends, school, and other activities?

So, we wanted to ask if you would be willing to join us in seeking of God’s will at this point in our lives. We want to include you in this process, hoping for your feedback, ideas, and prayers.

Specifically for our trip this spring, we are planning on taking our youngest child, Sydney, who will be 17 months at the time. We ask for prayers for her health and safety and our travel with her! Our two boys, Robbie (7) and Avery (4) will be staying home with Andy’s mom – though they are excited to join us the next time we go! Lesa’s sister, Katie, who just graduated from Sterling College, will be joining us on the trips, as well. We are excited to have her with us and will greatly appreciate her help with Sydney, her knowledge of French (they speak French and Arabic in North Africa), and her voice as she sings with us.

Financially, we still need about half of the cost of the trip, and will all be working hard over the next couple of months to raise the rest. If you would be interested in partnering with us to help make the trip possible, please see the information below. But, most importantly, we would appreciate your prayers.

We love you all and want to keep you informed concerning our trip and our other big decisions. You can go to our blog that Andy set up at ethnodoxology.blogspot.com to see photos and trip updates. Thank you all so much for the love and support that you have always given us.

In Christ,

Andy and Lesa Brown

My wife has always been interested in missions… I’ve always been reluctant because I always thought of a missionary as someone living in a grass hut in a dirty dusty village trying to teach people without clothes how to grow corn. I know that didn’t really cover everything that happens in foreign missions, but I seriously thought that was a large part of it. I didn’t have much of a desire to live somewhere where I didn’t have internet, where I couldn’t speak English, and where people didn’t know all the words to The Joshua Tree by heart.

My wife majored in missions at Sterling College, I majored in Computer Science and Music. She went on to study it in seminary while I raked in the cash as a web developer. At some point, God got our (mine, particularly) attention and called us unmistakably into full time ministry. We left our home in Kansas City and moved to South Riding, Virginia to work for a church, where Lesa and I serve as Creative and Technical Arts Directors (respectively).

We love our church… really can’t stand the thought of doing something else. But God has a funny way of changing your heart and placing burdens in it that weren’t there before. Ha ha. We’re still figuring out the details, but here begins the story of my first overseas missions trip and how God spoke to me one night in XXXXX (cue the Dizzy Gillespie soundtrack here).

By the way, since this is a blog, you need to read the posts from the bottom up to read them in chronological order… so…. scroll all the way down and start reading!

Drove about 6 hours back to XXXXX, then 1.5 to XXXXX. We were all exhausted by now (8pm) but had an evening of activities planned, including finishing packing B’s apartment and getting to the airport by 5am. We also went to B’s friend Muhammed Ali’s house and had cous cous with his family around midnight. He lives in a very poor neighborhood (called “popular city”, which I guess means “populated” not popular in the fashion sense) and is pretty poor himself. In XXXXX, most people retire early, not because they have the money but because their kids are old enough to work and I guess people just get old quickly. Muhammed was probably my age, was in college or had recently graduated, and was struggling to get a good job. With the money he did earn, he had to support his mom, dad, younger brother, and handicapped sister who all lived in the same house as him. He also had a girlfriend he wanted to marry but could not because I guess it’s really expensive to get married and he was worried she would find someone else to marry that could pay it. Anyhow, he was a really great guy and spoke enough english to have a good conversation with him. The whole family was very generous and kind, and the poor mom obviously spent a lot of time preparing the fancy cous cous meal for the American guests.

After Muhammed’s (about 1 am), we took a taxi to meet “N” again. She had a fundraising project for the youth that we were buying and taking back to our church. Taxi’d back to B’s, and packed/cleaned till 4:30am. Took 3 taxis to get our 12 suitcases and carryons to the airport. Somehow we knew they weren’t going to let 4 people check 12 suitcases and about 8 carryons, but I think B was hoping he could charm them into letting him do that. They didn’t submit to his charm, and offered to let him check the extra suitcases for $150/suitcase. This was after waiting in line for at least 30 minutes to talk to the special problems person. This wasted too much time, and by the time we discovered the $150/suitcase fee, the plane had begun boarding and we had maybe 15 minutes before the flight left. So, there we stand in the middle of the terminal, opening the suitcases and throwing underwear, socks, toiletries, whatever into a big pile, trying to figure out what is worth $150. We ended up leaving a suitcase and whole bunch of stuff, paying for one extra bag, and sneaking 2 oversized carryons past the ticket counter.

We are now running to customs, which was very slow. Ran through security and I got to the gate just before departure. Cam was on board first, but we sat there on the plane for 10 minutes thinking B and Ryan didn’t make it. Ends up B had a pair of Creative Memories scissors in the carryon, and had it so jammed tight the zipper wouldn’t open when security wanted to remove the scissors. It took some pliers and some policework to extricate the lethal weapon, fortunately no-one noticed the extra Arabic bibles surrounding the scissors.

Anyhow, crazy trip, and after pulling an all nighter packing after spending an unrestful night in the Sahara desert, after spending an unrestful night in a cave in Tatooine, we all zonked out for the long plane ride back to DC. Very tired… happy to be going home… and a changed man from the experience.

Also, God had me pumped up last night and I couldn’t sleep because of what I think he’s telling me. Not an audible voice as much as a impression so strong I just can’t shake it. An impression so strong it has my heart pumping hard and adrenaline flowing fast. The last time I felt like this was in Kansas City, coming home from an orientation for new students at the Nazarene Seminary, when I had this strong impression God wanted me to change careers and go into full time ministry. No way would I have considered quitting software engineering for church work before that evening, but the impression was strong enough that my mind was changed.

Yesterday we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, lunch at a local patisserie, and B went back to the apartment while we shopped some more in the medina. Then we taxied back to Carrefour where we met up with B and “N” who gave us a ride to her home to meet the “youth group”. Not just the youth group for their small home church, but the entire country! There were only 7 of them at N’s house, but if they all showed up there might be 20. 20 youth in the whole country of XXXXX who are Christ followers. 20 youth who will some day be the leaders of the church. 20.

Anyhow, we talked with them and they shared their stories of coming to faith, which typically involved knowing a Christian, being mad at them for their beliefs, then eventually considering their claims, then most like talking to “N” who lovingly helped them become a Christ follower.

The kids all talked (through N’s daughter who is fluent in English, French, and Arabic), then played guitar and sang some worship songs they enjoye. Only one of those songs sounded “middle eastern”, the rest sounded very western or actually were western songs translated into arabic. As I said below, a big reason for my being here was to explore the church’s ethnodoxology, to see what worship was like in their context.

The kids handed me the guitar and we sang some songs together that we all knew, most of them knew the english verses as well as I did (although most of them did not speak english). Then they asked me questions about worship and worship leading, using N’s daughter as a translator. We asked them to brainstorm about what we (our church) could do to be a blessing to them. They came up with:

• Putting on a beginner’s music camp for the community (similar to their english club)
• Providing specialized training in leading worship for the youth
• Finding drama scripts that they could use in their english club to ignite spiritual discussions
• Finding teaching curriculum for the youth group

Obviously Christian resources are scarce in a country with no Christian bookstores. I immediately saw the benefit we could provide by bringing in supplies like this… but how do we find them in arabic?

After discussion, we had a large group meal in their home (cous cous, of course), then said goodbye and “L” took us to catch a taxi.

When the taxis dropped us off, Cam accidently left a suitcase in the trunk with hundreds of dollars’ worth of homeschooling curricullum for CJ, the worker in Sousse we were on our way to meet. Cam ran after the taxi, but he had already picked someone else up and was gone. So, we stood there on the street corner and prayed out loud that God would bring the suitcase back for the sake of His worker’s family. It was one of the few times I felt I was praying with some kind of confidence that I thought God would probably answer the prayer. Anyhow, Ryan and I went back to the hotel and Cam & B went to the police station to see what could be done. 20 minutes later, as they were talking to the police (several blocks from where we were dropped off), they see the taxi (out of the hundreds that crowd the streets of downtown Tunis) and the driver gets out holding the suitcase! We spent many minutes praising God for this miracle!

I realized tonight that I had been afraid of North Africans, afraid of muslims. Not a fear like you feel when you’re sitting next to a bully on a bus and you’re wondering if he’s going to hit you just for fun. More of a fear like I have no idea what these people are thinking or what they are like and no way to communicate. God has started to give me a heart to love them. My heart was encouraged, blessed, and broken for the teens and “N” and what they are trying to do. How much more important in the Kingdom it would be for the youth group to have a full time person discipling and pouring themselves into them, than it would be for DCC to have a full time youth director. This is why I had a sleepless night and felt a strong impression from God, I think, and I shared that with B tonight, that I could seriously consider being part of God’s work here, and committed to pray about it.