Flying for Him (FH)

WOW!! WHAT A RUSH!! Yes, that's me way up there in the red parachute looking thing. We happen to know a guy who knows a guy who would take us up paragliding from the cliffs of Lima, Peru's coastline. Oh, it rocked the planet! Justin has yet to go, but he has issued the challenge that if a group from Ebenezer comes down, he will do it with them. SO EBENEZERITES, C'MON DOWN!! :) It all started when Food for the Hungry's country director from Nicaragua, Kim Brown, and her son Lucas (age 13) came to Lima for a conference. They used our guest room as a home base as they went to the conference and then did some fun touristy stuff around Lima - like PARAGLIDING! Kim was the brave soul who tried it first, and then at the end of their week, Lucas and I, along with our Christmas houseguest, Rachel Cohen (a missionary with FH-Peru in the jungle), decided we needed to go too. Justin stayed home with the boys, but we brought home the pictures to share. God made such amazing wonders, and I think you can see them all from the cliffs of Lima, Peru :). - Gillian -

CYBER CHRISTMAS

This year we did Christmas with Vonage, Skype, and web cams. Vonage is our phone system that uses the internet to make phone calls. We have a South Carolina phone number, so for anyone calling us, it's just like we still lived there! So that's how we called my family and wished everyone a Merry Christmas. With Justin's family, since his parents have a web cam, and coincidentally, so do we, we used Skype. Skype is like instant messaging but better, and you can talk through your microphone and hear through the speakers, and then see each other through the web cam- FREE! It's awesome. It's really helped the boys connect with home. We're hoping Gillian's family will get hooked up with a web cam so the boys can see them too. It's not exactly like being at home, but we will take it as our substitute.

Christmas Eve was great. After doing Christmas with family in the States through the computer, we went to church and then had friends over for a late Christmas Eve dinner. The gravy was WAY too salty and Gillian burned the stuffing, but that just made it memorable! :) Thankfully there was plenty of other good food so everyone left the table full. After dinner the boys put out cookies and milk for Santa and headed off to bed while Miss Rachel and Gillian stayed up WAY too late watching "High School Musical." Then Justin got sick - that was so much fun that it earned its own blog entry - see "Santa Brought Justin a Stomach Bug." Christmas Day we had grand plans for playing board games and watching movies, and our new Hunger Corps Missionary, Kami, even joined Rachel and us, but all we ended up doing was staying in our pajamas (excpet for Kami who had to ride public transportation to get to us), eating leftovers all day, and watching movies. The boys had fun playing with their new toys and markers. It was GREAT. - well, Justin actually stayed in bed and drank water and Gatorade, but it was still a relaxing day all around.

At 12:30am Santa Brought Justin a Stomach Bug

We had a great Christmas Eve, and then four out of the five of us in the house had a good Christmas Day. Santa arrived at our apartment at 12:30 a.m. the night of Christmas Eve. How do we know? well, Santa brought Justin vomiting and diarrhea. Justin couldn't even wait til morning to enjoy his gifts. :-) I was up until 2am watching "High School Musical" with our houseguest, Rachel, when it hit the poor guy. I slept from 2 till about 4:30 when Justin woke me up saying, "Gillian, I really need some water. I'd do it myself, but last time I got up, I got so dizzy I and had to lie on the floor till I could make it back to the bed." Needless to say, he got my attention quickly. I got him some water and Tylenol (in the form of Panadol here), and then stayed up for the rest of the night, being the worry-wart that I am. Poor guy! Then in the morning he discovers that Santa left him CHOCOLATE for Christmas. Sorry, Babe! It took him a few days to get his strength back, but he was 100% again by New Years. Go figure.

TURKEYS HAVE HEADS?!?!?!

...and feet as it turns out. Yes, ole' Tom Turkey comes with all of his parts here in Peru. I was NOT HAPPY about this. Sorry, Tom, you still got cooked, and ooooh, you tasted good. Next time Justin gets to reach in and find out what comes out.

Santa Uses US Postal Service

Awesome story: So Justin was going down the stairs at work, getting ready to leave for the day, when he heard a commotion in the lobby. It seems that the guy who checks the mail once a week had picked up a larger than usual load. By large, I mean a waist-high US Postal Service sack filled with padded envelopes and a couple of boxes (all under two pounds each, thank you!). "Most of that's for you," he said to Justin. Shocked and amazed, Justin looked through the sack, and sure enough, Christmas from the States had arrived. You should have seen the look on the boys' faces when Justin walked in the door with this huge sack of packages - 14 in all! Two of the packages were from the junior church kids at our home church, and the rest were from our family. THANK YOU FOR SUCH EFFORT TO SEND US CHRISTMAS!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW YOU BLESSED US!!

Pics from my trip to Bolivia

I will put some more info about this trip a little later. - Justin

Where's the Newsletter?!

Okay, so we have random pictures of our broken computer posted below...THAT is where all of our newsletter contacts and everything are kept. Thankfully the thing let Justin boot up long enough to get our contact information off of it and loaded onto our other, much older computer. Yes, that's right, the broken computer is the NEW computer that we bought just before we left the States. Thankfully we bought the warranty, so the new motherboard is free, but Dell has to ship it down...that can take two weeks or longer. We're thankful to now have all of our contacts, and now we've recreated our newsletter format anew on our old computer, and we're working from there. Hopefully we'll have it out in the next couple of days.

In the mean time: life is doing well. We miss family, and Justin is still getting into the groove of things in ministry, and the Lord has really given him a vision for working with men. We sometimes have "Bad Peru Days"...That's a phrase we've adopted from some friends who wrote to us from China saying they sometimes have "Bad China Days." This by no means is an insult to our host countries, rather our reactions to culture stress. The theme song from Cheers keeps popping into my head, "Sometimes you wanna' go where everybody knows your name..." It's like being a freshman all over again, meeting new people, seeing who you jive with, forming your routine, trying to balance work with play, but add in the fact that few people speak your first language, you have to completely relearn how to drive, and you have to barter all your prices for food because they want to charge you more because they think you don't know better...and sometimes you don't....and it just plain gets tiring.
I'm also still adjusting to facing poverty...though we live in a very nice part of town, there are still street children and impoverished street vendors on the streets leading up to our local shops and markets and everywhere in the city. Sometimes I get flustered trying to think if I have change for a handful of a woman's candy, or when a street person walks up to me and I have nothing, or I don't feel like I should give because they're just begging and not working. It's tough to balance out my feelings and to figure out the appropriate thing to do.

I am extremely grateful that the Lord has blessed us with an awesome apartment, we're all healthy, and busy with our new life. One day this will all be familiar, and I will forget that it once felt weird to have to pay guys to watch your car when you're parked on the street, or to dodge traffic like a fast game of Frogger, or to pay your bills at the bank or supermarket. I am thankful for this rich life. Now if I could just figure out how to quit setting off my car alarm everytime I get in :)

In Christ,
Gillian

These are the pictures of my Dell Latitude D630.

Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving, though we dealt with some major homesickness. We celebrated first at Alex's school, and then with our friends and missionary family for the whole big meal.

IPHC Ventanilla, Peru

While we work exclusively with Food for the Hungry, we are blessed to be included in some of what the Lord is doing through our denomination's churches here in Lima. Dan Clowers (Overseas Missions Coordinator for Latin America) and a team from the States came down to help one of our churches dedicate a new church building. Pastor Jorge Watanabe is IPHC Peru's superintendent, and his wife, Dr. Janine Watanabe and their two children are an incredible support the ministry. The people of the Ventanilla church are a warm and inviting crowd. The kids loved having their pictures taken and then seeing them show up on the camera screen. Who can resist capturing those precious faces. Alex and Nathan loved playing among the other kids. That night, several people came forward for prayer and to dedicate their lives to Christ. We considered it an honor and privilege to participate in such a special event.

Gillian Brickey - Warts and All

I sometimes wonder how I landed here, living in Peru. Those who know me, know that I like things to be well planned, predictable, stable. They know that I, along with my husband, guard our children with an iron clad shield of overbearing protection. If I were an outsider looking onto my situation, I would not have taken me for a girl designed for international living...and yet here I am. Being here fulfills huge desires and callings in my life, but I look around me at other missionaries and wonder, how did I get so lucky to get mixed in with this crowd. Most of the people our age down here, are usually more the healthy-types. You know, the kind who run for fitness. Whereas I like to reserve running for being chased by something. These people also seem very comfortable with grabbing whatever mode of transportation is readily available in their given destination: motorcycles, animals, micro-buses, anything. They figure, if they end up somewhere near their destination they're doing okay. Honestly, it's a stretch for me to branch out and be so adventurous. I like to know which bus goes where, and have someone experienced show me how to do it first. Even driving here, I like someone with me when I venture to a new spot.

I guess I've always been aware of my mortality - I've always been cautious. I wanted to say that I've become more so since my mom passed away seven years ago, and since my children were born, but that's simply not the case. I have always been a rule follower - a "play it safe" kind of girl. So how did I end up here with my husband and two tiny little ones? I know that part of it is that I have had this inexplicable gnawing at my spirit since I was about 12 years old to serve Him overseas. The Lord designed me with this desire to serve in this way. I also think it's because I seldom tolerate being hindered by my fears. I can't stand feeling boxed in or limited by fear. I've learned to recognize it lurking in the shadows of my apprehension. Sometimes I mistake it for an unction from the Holy Spirit that something bad is going to happen, so it should therefore be avoided. Very few times, after prayer and reflection, however, has this truly been the case for me. More often than not, my apprehension is none other than my own self-limiting fear. Fear of the unknown and fear of embarrassment or judgement. Whether Satan produces these fears or he sits back and lets my own nature take over, I'm not sure. But I do know, that a spirit of fear is not from the Father...and I crave what He has. I have noticed that every time I have shrugged off my fear of being judged and truly followed my heart, I have come out feeling true to myself, closer to the Father, and blessed for the journey.

So there's this other type of missionaries here...they're typically older than we are, though some not by much. They also have small children...or grown children, but their families are established. Some of them are the healthy types, but life slows pace with children, so they're healthy within the pace of family life. And when I look around me, I see other people like me. They're afraid to drive here too, and some are amazed that I've just taken the bull by the horns to do it. They don't know that I stick to the roads I know until I have a reason to venture farther. I realize that "missionary types" are as diverse as regular people, oh that's right, they ARE regular people. We vary in our calls, personalities, approaches to ministry, everything. So there's room for me in this world...my cautious, planning nature.

So here I am, Gillian Monson Brickey - The cautious, ever-planning, seeking the will of God for our life in Peru. Little me, big world, yet all things are possible. And I am ever-grateful.

Moving Again, but then Home Sweet Home

After one last move, shopping markets for furniture, and setting things up, we are finally settled into our new home. We praise God for his provision. Our pictures FIRST show our TEMPORARY apartment and then they transition to our current apartment. Friends helped us shop and move, and we are so very thankful. We're finally home!!!! God has blessed us with a home that can become a sanctuary for weary missionaries. We cannot say enough how thankful we are for our Peruvian home.

Gillian
to see the captions, click on the black around the pictures
Not every picture has a caption

The Loss of a Dear Relative

On Monday, October 22 My cousin Matt Monson, age 25, passed away suddenly. It's hard to be away from family at such a hard time, but God is truly the Prince of Peace. Our prayers go out to Matt's parents (my dad's brother Randy and his ex-wife Jill). So please remember them and the rest of the Monson family in your prayers. To my family, I love you, and I miss you. I am well taken care of down here, so no worries about me. I pray God's peace for you. When we can't figure out "why" I pray that God will bring His peace and clarity in figuring out, "What now."
In Christ,
Gillian

Moving Soon...

I just wrote this email to a friend, and by the time I finished I thought, “Hmm, I should blog this.” So here it is 

Things here are still moving forward. Our new apartment is supposed to be done this week, so we’re gearing up to move on FRIDAY. YAY!! I can’t wait to get moved in and have a washer AND dryer again, along with internet and Vonage phone! Just to make things interesting, we’re also getting ready to send Justin to Bolivia for 2 weeks on Saturday. If you’re gonna’ do something stressful, make it as chaotic and stressful as possible, that’s what I always say. The other missionaries have already offered their help, so everything should work out just fine…it’s just a lot of logistics to juggle….making sure Justin has clothes for the trip is a little tricky since we don’t have a dryer in our temporary apartment. Thankfully we have a washer outside under a little corrugated fiberglass roof, so we’re not totally archaic. I’m doing one load per day and hang-drying it all in our little courtyard. I feel very “missionary” when I do this with Nathan playing with his trucks at my feet. One day I thought I had a great idea by giving him a bowlful of water and paintbrush to “paint” on the red sidewalk out there…but Lima is a very dusty city, so the bowl of water quickly became a bowl of mud, and instead of writing on the sidewalk he, then Alex, then our neighbor boy from upstairs figured out that they could take said mud and paint on the walls of the house with more lasting effects. We now have “Alex” and “Marcelo” written in dirt on our back walls. Our landlord is coming on Friday to check out the apartment and finish out our rent, so we have a little extra cleaning to take care of between now and then. This really isn’t all that difficult since we’re still relatively packed, but we do need to clean everything, and get our clothes and things back into suitcases, but I’m sick…I’ve had a little stomach bug for 4 days. It’s not a big deal, but enough to sap my energy a bit. Ah yes, such is life getting settled in a foreign country. FRIDAY WE WILL BE MOVED INTO OUR NEW HOME!!! We can’t wait.
Love,
Gillian
PS. UPDATE: I'm feeling better now! YAY! God is always just in time :)

New Apartment Coming Along...

We're still in our temporary apartment, but our new home is almost complete. We had our appliances delivered for our laundry room and kitchen today! The rest of it is coming along well. The only major project left to be completed is a walk-in closet that's rather involved...it's kind of an addition to the building itself and has windows and stuff. It's really cool. We'll send pictures when everything's complete. So we're still in our temporary apartment until this apartment is finished...we believe it will be worth the wait. It's in an awesome location with tons of shopping literally just around the corner. It's also right on an open park with sidewalks for the boys to ride bikes and play while Mommy and Daddy jog around the perimeter. It's great. The apartment is owned by our country director, and it's her vision to have this apartment as a ministry to missionary families. She's asking for a very reasonable rent, and the place is covered with her prayers. We are very excited about it, we even have the boys' bunk beds already!! They're just waiting at our friend's place until moving day. Our own bed is also being delivered to that friend's place today. We're buying up everything we will need so when moving day finally comes we will be ready to move right in.

Aside from that, I am now taking a break from language school while Justin uses the time slot for his own language school...he only has four weeks and then he'll start work on October 15th. He's going out to a Food for the Hungry community this week to get his first glimpse of the work that God has for him. I'll go back to language school after we get settled into our permanent apartment and find good child care for Nathan for that time.

We're adjusting well, and things are moving along! Next big purchase: a car. Please be in prayer for a good car within our small budget. We know it's out there just waiting to be found :)

In Christ,
Gillian

I think I've figured out pictures!

We're going to give this a whirl. If it works, you will see pictures from our entrance to Lima, Peru. Totally out of character for me, I have not taken a ton of pictures. Part of this is for security. Lima is a HUGE city, and we didn't want to draw more attention to our gringo selves than necessary. The other part is that we have been sooooo busy that we just plain keep forgetting to take pictures. There's also not much to see yet. We're in a temporary apartment and in language school. Justin will start ministry work soon and we will send pictures along when we can. Blessings!



Love,
Gillian

Saying Good-bye to Minnesota

Before we left for Peru we spent a month with Gillian's family in Minnesota. This is the longest stint for which we have been able to visit since Gillian moved to South Carolina 8 years ago. This year we have been blessed with three trips to MN, when normally we only go once. We praise God for this important and treasured time with our family. This album is a little scattered, but our time on the internet is very limited right now.

Blessings!
The Brickeys

Leaving South Carolina

Finally, it's done. We've put together an album of our long departure from South Carolina. Tomorrow we'll post our month in Minnesota. In this album you'll see the camping trip that marked the beginning of the end for us. We took a weekend to ourselves before the surge of visits with friends, church, and family...oh, and packing. In this album you will also see Nathan's birthday and Justin's birthday, time with family, time with friends, time with church, and more. You all enrich us and fill our hearts. Thank you.

Love,
All of us.

Sorry, still no pictures, but...

Okay, so we're still figuring out this blog stuff, and we're soooo close to getting pictures out there. We're also unable to connect to the internet from our temporary apartment right now, so we catch it when we can. Right now I'm (Gillian) sitting in a Starbucks as I wait for my language school appointment. It's too expensive to drop Alex off at school, go home, come back for class, go home, then come back to get Alex, sooooo Justin gets to be a stay at home dad with Nathan for the next few weeks while I go to language school and wait to pick up Alex at the end of the day. Once we get into our permanent apartment, hopefully in the next few weeks, we will work out a schedule for Justin to start classes.

I only have a few more minutes before class, but I can tell you that our adjustment to Lima is going great. My Spanish is sufficient to navigate taxis, order meals in restaurants, and go grocery shopping. Justin's Spanish is awesome and he's doing great.

We've had a few adventures since we've been here. It turns out that Justin had pneumonia when we first arrived. Last week he finally went to the doctor for it, but had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics. At 9pm we loaded the family into a taxi to head to the pharmacy to get Benadryl. Unfortunately it's not called Benadryl here, so we were also on the phone with our fellow staff missionaries finding out the names of good antihistimines (spelling?). We found what we were looking for, and Justin was just fine. The doctor told him to try Zythromax instead, so now we know of a familiar antibiotic, the Peruvian versions of Benadryl, Tylenol, Advil, and more! It was a great learning experience. Thankfully we were able to learn with Justin and not with the boys...that would not be fun. Justin's fully on the mend now and taking it easy with Nathan back at home.

Alex is loving his school. He went straight into his class the first day and hasn't looked back since. He's even made friends with another little boy who keeps Transformer toys in his cubby at school...God knows our boys' needs :).

Random thought before I go: I was sitting in my Spanish class yesterday and it occurred to me that I'm studying to speak a foreign language in a foreign country to which God has called our little family for which we have been working for two and a half years. An overwhelming sense of gratitude and fulfillment washed into my spirit, and I am content. Thank you to those who are reading this...God is so good.

Love,
Gillian

We're in Peru!

We got up at 4am on Wednesday morning, got to the airport at 5:30am, and our flight left at 8am. We prayed that all of our bags would be under the 50 pound weight limit. We even bought a special luggage scale for $10 at Target, but we were still concerned that it might not be accurate...but by God's grace it was! I think our heaviest bag was 47 or 48 pounds. Our flights were great. We arrived here in Lima around midnight, and finally arrived at our hotel around 2am. All of our 11 suitcases made it! We even got "red-lighted" in customs, but all they did was send the bags through this monstrous x-ray machine...no hand searches! It's the same timezone as MN (where we've been staying for the last four weeks with Gillian's family), so at least there was no jetlag to speak of.

Things here are going very well. Yesterday we got pictures taken for our visas, got copies of our passports notorized so we don't have to carry around the actual passport, etc. So, we're good! Today we looked at a possible apartment. It's in an absolute PRIME location for easier living. The floorplan is a little small, but it has two great little patios, and a lot of character. We saw another apartment that some single lady missionaries are living in just for an example of another floorplan, and the apartment is AWESOME, but the location would be challenging for our little family...no stores within walking distance, hard to get taxis, etc. We'll keep looking around in the coming weeks, but that first apartment in the great location really looks great to us. It's brand spanking new, and it's not quite done yet. We're going to look at a guest house tonight that's fully furnished and intended for new missionaries. It would be a great temporary home while we wait for the other apartment to be finished and look at other apartments too.

Justin's not feeling well, so that's kind of hard. He's going to take a break for the rest of today and hang out at the hotel with the boys. I'm going to go with our staff person and look at the possible temporary apartment this afternoon. Living in a hotel is more expensive and tough because we can't make our own meals. Alex (our first child) is picky eater #1, so we've been hitting all the fastfood places. The one upside is that almost all of them have really awesome indoor playgrounds. The temporary apartment is completely furnished and has a stocked kitchen, so we can cook for ourselves.

Soon we will have a home! Justin has been an awesome translator, and he's busy absorbing the city. He's been making calls back home to friends and family to let them all know we're safe, sound, and content (aside from Justin being a little under the weather). We have a staff person with us all day for the next week to help us get around. Once we find a place to live, we will start language school. Oh, and Alex starts school on Monday, and we looked at a possible preschool for Nathan. You should have seen all of these little Peruvian darlings swarm around Nathan's blonde self!! It was adorable. They had all sorts of questions for him, how old are you, what's your name, etc. It's hard to imagine letting our kids go to school, and we keep getting choked up over the idea of doing it so soon, but we drove by Alex's school and it looks great. He's excited about it, and it will offer some stability in our otherwise nomadic life right now. I think we'll wait a while for Nathan, though. K, I should go and join my family for a nap.

Blessings to the homefront!
Gillian

Minnesota, Our Second Home

This is not a very thorough account of our slow departure from South Carolina, but I am hoping to figure out how to add the pictures and such later. I just wanted to make sure we updated all of you in a timely manner, so this is what I can do for now.

We officially said good-bye to South Carolina this week, and drove up to Minnesota. It was a whirlwind of seeing friends and family, packing, getting our "affairs in order," and trying to breathe in the midst of it all. I'll hopefully add some pictures soon. It was WILD. Our church had a precious good-bye dinner for us. They gave us some snack food for the drive to MN, and several people passed along words of encouragement and gifts. Mrs. Becky in Children's Church put together an awesome shindig for the boys' last day at church. They had snow cones out back, and then gave the boys some gifts for the road. The boys absolutely LOVE their Mrs. Becky. When Alex was itty bitty he would absolutely BALL when there was a substitute in Children's Church. Both boys always looked forward to seeing Mrs. Becky on Sunday mornings, along with their Sunday school teachers. I think we will be hard pressed to find such devoted and loving alternates in Peru.

We had lunch with our church staff the Tuesday before we left, and it was great to laugh, eat, and tell stories. As I sat there, my mind took a snapshot of the moment. Panning the faces of our treasured pastors, pastor's wife, and church secretary. I soaked in our fun conversation, keenly aware of how much I will miss our church.

We also enjoyed a special going-away gathering at Justin's office, First Presbyterian Church of Columbia. The senior pastor, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson said some kind words, mostly thanking Justin for not exploding over the staff's simple errors and computer glitches. The staff wrote special messages in a journal for his journey, and then Dr. Ferguson added that if Justin could just jot down a few last instructions in the remaining pages and mail them back, they'd greatly appreciate it :). They were truly wonderful to our whole family. They also gave us a collection of our favorite goodies to take with us on the road, and the children's department put together an amazing bag of discoveries for our boys. There was an envelope for each boy to open per state we passed through on our way up to Minnesota. We had a great time with those...what a boredom stopper!

A couple sets of friends at church also arranged get togethers at their houses to say our last good-byes. The food was excellent, guys! Thank you!! We also squeezed in play dates right up until it was time to leave SC. If we missed having a last chance to say good-bye, please know that we just simply ran out of time. We are still available by phone and email!

Now we're in MN. Our heads are still a little cloudy from the chaos of the past weeks/months, but I'm fairly confident that we will eventually relax and feel ready to head to Peru. We spent today helping my sister and her husband clear a swimming area at their new lake place, and the boys have already made use of my Dad's jacuzzi bathtub. Right now my men are outside my dad's house playing basketball. We still have several things to finish up: forms for Food for the Hungry, letters to precious people, etc. But everything is nearing completion, and I feel confident we will get things done, or at least acceptable before we leave.

It's really odd living in this state of limbo. We said good-bye to South Carolina, and now we have another few weeks (or more) to say good-bye in Minnesota. This year we have been blessed to be able to afford THREE trips to MN in a 10 month time span. We give full glory to God for this, because we typically pray to afford just ONE trip per year, much less THREE. God has truly stretched our finances to allow for these three trips. "Why three trips in one year?" you may ask. We came up for my dad's wedding in September and my sister's wedding in January. Now we're here delivering our car to my dad (he's buying it from us), finishing up some loose ends, and saying our good-byes to friends and family.

So that's the low-down on our transition. We're tired and road-weary, but we have a couple of weeks here in MN to recover. We still have no news on our visas. We will know more next week. We were disappointed to find out that they were taking longer than expected, but we're enjoying our time in MN already, and we continue to trust in God's timing. So far everything has worked out great: our house sold in three days, but a rental house popped up quickly and it gave us a chance to whittle down our things somewhat during that first move. Then we made plans to come up to MN, so we had to close out our life in SC. Now we have a little bumper time still in the US to take care of any loose ends before heading to Peru. It will all work out in the end, we're just learning a lot about patience and flexibility. :).

Thank you for your continued prayers. We will continue to keep you posted.

In <><,
Gillian

Random Thoughts about Being Busy

We have just two weeks until we leave South Carolina, and there is so much to do. Thankfully we have a little "bumper time" in Minnesota, so if something doesn't get done, we'll still just be a few-days-by-mail away from South Carolina. I sometimes feel like everyone else is still living the life once paralleled to ours of church and family, and now we're veering off, taking that road LESS traveled...and yet not UNtraveled. We're jumping the track and entering into a life that is shared by missionaries everywhere. We went camping this past weekend and I met a former missionary to Peru and her daughter (who was born in Lima, Peru) in the bathrooms. She and her husband are now pastors of a church up the road from the state park where we were all camping. How providential! She was filled with encouraging words, and it was such a treasure to hear a little of their story. I came back to the campsite and told Justin all about our conversation and he asked, "How in the world did you talk about all that in the time it took you to go up to the bathroom and back?" There was just something about this former missionary that said, "Talk to me, I have a story." So she passed along some words of wisdom and gave us their family email address. God is just so good.

Now we come crashing back to reality. Justin was up and dressed by 6:45 this morning, having woken at 5:30, a full hour earlier than usual. He puttered around the house, went off to buy some milk, and then came back home and still had time to kill before going to work. I got up early too, unable to go back to sleep, and ready to “start the end of our time in South Carolina.” We have a lot to do - enough to fill every day until we leave. It won’t all get done, and if we weren’t such perfectionists, this would be a lot easier. I am also guilty of being a Type A personality – something God constantly has to give me an extra dose of grace to manage. I want it all neat and tidy. No loose ends, a perfect arrangement of information, and everything perfectly put together.

My Mom always said, “Don’t sweat the small stuff. And it’s all small stuff.” I have been guilty of putting too much thought into the small stuff, and by “stuff” I mean JUNK. I went through a phase this past spring, just before we sold our house, where every little item in our house had sentimental value and therefore had to be salvaged. Granted, we had already whittled away at our belongings, and I felt like we were down to “the bare minimum.” But as we threw everything together to get moved, I realized how much more we could stand to get rid of. Once we moved into our rental house we were able to do another round of whittling away at our belongings, and now as we are in the two-week home stretch of leaving South Carolina, and after a weekend of camping with truly “the bare minimum,” I now realize how much more we need to get rid of. What am I clinging to? Our family photos, our family videos, a few pieces of furniture, and our boys’ toys. The family photos and videos, okay, they might not come into perfect order, but no one ever gets that project fully completed- it’s like laundry. The moment you get caught up, you have another three loads to deal with. And the furniture…we’re keeping just a bedroom set and a couple of end tables, and a small bookcase. I think that’s forgivable, and the rest will be for sale when we leave our rental house (there isn’t much else, though).

But the boys’ toys. Ugh. It’s tough. Justin and I feel like we could pack a bag of clothes and be good for the journey, but to make that decision for our two boys is excruciating. Over the last year many toys have “disappeared.” Seldom are they missed, but Nathan went looking for a very specific truck today that is long gone. That broke my heart. I found an alternative, and he’s over it, but I’m not. I will be fine by this afternoon. I know from experience. Many toys, though, we have decided about WITH the boys, allowing them to make decisions about what’s important to them and what isn’t. It seemed help our oldest to have a little control over the move. He caught on that a few toys had gone missing, so rather than create turmoil, we let him in on the process. He’s staked out his treasured Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Legos, and a few other odds and ends. Our youngest is a little less aware, being on the verge of being just 4 years old, but he has caught on enough to occasionally announce that, “I will play with THIS in Peru,” as he holds up a treasured toy. I make mental notes of what has been slated as most precious, and move on. Kids Meal toys, however, BEWARE. I have no mercy for you.

In just two short weeks we will be on our way. Our weeks seem to fly by like days lately, so it feels more like we're leaving tomorrow and the pressure is ON to get things done. But here's the most important thing: we are trying to spend time with PEOPLE before we go. I will gladly leave my photos and videos in a managable mess if it means I get a little extra time with the people I have come to love so dearly in South Carolina and in Minnesota (my hometown). I can't believe how good people have been to us, helping us, encouraging us, and receiving so little in return. Thank You Father for your mercy and grace that are sufficient for today, for the people who want to see your work accomplished around the world, and for the blessings of "stuff" for it's evidence of your provision. Praise you for this ministry team that is GOING TO PERU! Amen!

- Now it's off to rid my home of Kids Meal toys.

In Christ's Name,
Gillian

WE'RE AT 100%!!!

Wow, I can't believe it's here. It's really here - the day when 100% becomes an official number in our ministry account. At the start of this process God new that we would need to be broken down and made ready. We started out on our own power, thinking we had this support raising thing in the bag, and God said, "Um, excuse me. It's not about strategy, it's about heart. It's not about money, it's about ministry. You're not bringing together donors, you're offering opportunity to be Senders. Your ministry at home is going to grow and become just as important as your ministry abroad. You're going to lose some friends, and you will gain some. You will face opposition, and I will fight it. You will come to love each and every person you encounter, and you will be forever changed by this experience. And one more thing. YOU can't do this. But I can."

Thank you FATHER. Thank you MINISTRY TEAM!

Love,
Gillian

The Surreal Life...

Life just does not get any better than it is right now. God healed our children from reflux and asthma, so both of them are healthy and vibrant. Justin and I have been working on our house for the last few months, sorting through the clutter, repairing little things here and there, and putting fresh paint on everything, so now it's a sweet home with few worries for maintenance. Our finances have come pretty much under control over these last three years (living on a budget with healthy kids and no one in diapers), so our debt will be completely wiped out before we go to the mission field. Our friendships have multiplied and intensified. Sooooo many blessings. We are the All-American family - Justin is even a coach on Alex's t-ball team. And now, we're about to leave it all for a country thousands of miles from here, and a life yet to be revealed.

Yesterday the boys and I visited Justin at work in downtown Columbia, SC, and we enjoyed a 6 block walk to a restaurant. It reminded me of summers in Minnesota when my friends and I would hang out in Uptown Minneapolis, walking one direction to the movie theater and the other to the restaurant. I would dream about the day when I could live in an urban setting, taking in the eclectic array of personalities and culture that cities bring. I also craved the walker's life...sidewalks everywhere, public transportation, etc. I have seen pictures of places where we could live when we get to Peru. They're nice, with shops and parks within walking distance of many apartment buildings. And Justin and I have never felt so at home as the times that we have hung out with other young missionaries. Could it be that God is fulfilling this childhood attraction to urban life? Was He grooming me to live in a place like Lima, Peru? LORD, we want what YOU would have for us...not what we would have for ourselves.

This morning I stayed in bed a little longer than usual because the little girl that I babysit isn't coming today. I listened as Justin fed the kids breakfast and got himself ready for work, and I was amazed at our current blessings. How easy our life would be right now if we weren't going anywhere. For the last three years (one year of praying and exploring our call, and two years of raising support) we have been actively dedicated to exploring and seeking our call to missions while living a paralleled All-American life. Justin came and sat on the bed before heading off to work and we talked about how crazy it is to leave all of this. But then, as we talked, we realized that we were motivated to fix up our house because we were leaving. Our children were healed as a result of prayer, not wanting to leave for the mission field if our children were sick. God gave us a vision for managing our money because we would not go to the mission field with debt, and because we want to be excellent stewards of our money as we live on the support of others. And we signed Alex up for T-ball this year because it would be his last opportunity to play with his Dad, uncle, and grandfather as his coaches and his cousin as a teammate - you see, T-ball is not Alex's natural gifting or interest...but spending time with family is. And our friendships...would they be as intense if we weren't leaving so soon? Everything has been motivated by our call to serve on the mission field.

I'm reminded of Esther when faced with the decision of whether or not to help her fellow Jews. She had it good as queen, and to approach the king on behalf of the Jews, UNSUMMONED, risked the punishment of death. But she was faced with these words from Mordecai, "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape....And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" Okay, so I'm no queen, but if we were to remain here, who's to say that this time of contentedness and peace would remain? Life over these last three years has had its immense spiritual, financial, and emotional challenges, so to think that our life is picture perfect is to forget from whence we came, and our purpose for that journey. We would be remiss if we forgot WHY and HOW we came to this point in our lives. Everything I listed in the last paragraph was motivated by the prospect of becoming missionaries, perhaps ordered and designed for "such a time as this."

I'm also reminded of the Israelites' Exodus out of Egypt, where, over and over again, they get a huge blessing, rejoice for a time, then forget the blessing, start grumbling for a new blessing, and then God provides again, even at the risk of leaving leanness in their souls. Psalm 106 recounts the Israelites' ungrateful moments during their passage through the desert, and says, "and he gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul." (Ps. 106:15, ASV). All of my Christian life I have heard that God knows the desires of our hearts, but I always assumed that if He gave us those desires, it would come with the protection from what would harm us. Why did God give the Israelites their request even at the risk of unfulfillment? My Bible study by Beth Moore, A Woman's Heart, says it is to prove HIS faithfulness, not theirs. Ouch - a stab of conviction for me. I'm reminded of this because in all of our missions planning and efforts, our greatest prayer is that God work out HIS desires for our lives. If God is going to grant us only our own desire, but leave leanness in our souls, then I don't want it. I want the full glory of God, not an appeasement to my spoiled requests. But here I stand at the brink of His call, and I am sad about leaving.

I am aware of my own strong will that gets in the way sometimes. Just like the Israelites, it's easy for me to forget the great blessings God provided for HIS purposes. From my standpoint right now, I see that God has ordered our life for the mission field, not for Justin, Gillian, Alex, and Nathan to do all of this work in our lives only to say, "Okay, God, now comes some really hard and unknown stuff, so lets just stop here and enjoy what you have done without doing the job you have prepared us for."

God, it is SOOO hard to leave our first home, friends and family, and a somewhat predictable routine life, but please don't answer my grumblings to leave leanness in my soul - please make my desires align with yours! I was just looking through God's Word and He brought this to my attention: "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." He goes on to say, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand." (Isaiah 40:28-31; 41:10) These kinds of promises are laid out throughout the Bible, who am I to sit here in my pity party with this kind of assurance?!? I am still Gillian, and I falter in my ways, but I am thankful to know the One who knows the future.

Thank you, Father. I needed this today.

G

Plans, Plans, Plans....and now a little movement.

WOW, our house sold in THREE DAYS!! We had a showing the first day it was on the market, and that person made an offer that was too low. Then we had a showing the third day it was on the market, and the offer was good! YAY! We met the couple yesterday, and they were so sweet and excited about their house. Funny story: there was a BAT hanging from the peak of our roof when the buyers arrived. They came in the house and said, "Um, did you know there's a bat hanging from the side of the house?" Nice. Justin went out and bothered it a little, but not enough to wake it up...no, the true wake up call waited until night when we had some friends over. All the guys went outside to throw sticks near the bat to wake it up...but I digress. The buyers wanted to measure for some furniture, and it was fun to watch the wheels turning in the girl's head as she planned out their future home.

It's hard to think of leaving our first home, and a good cry will be in order the day we hand over the keys, but this frees us up to leave whenever our support is finally raised. This would be easier if we were at 100% of our need for the mission field, that way we would have a solid departure date and a place to go, but this works too. We're now trying to work out a deal to rent our home until July 15th, but if that doesn't go through, we'll have to find other arrangements. We have a couple of options, so we're not worried about it. We're just praying for the best possible arrangement to keep from uprooting the boys too much. ...ah yes, the boys.

It occurred to me that we haven't mentioned the boys a whole lot in our blogs or newsletters. Part of it is intentional: people want to hear about how the ministry is progressing and our news about the boys is simply off the subject. But the other part is unintentional, because we could tell you more about them here in our blog. Alex is fully aware of leaving for Peru, and he's somewhat understanding that we are offering people a chance to help us in this ministry. He'll ask us, "Do we have enough money to move to Peru yet?" And when we told the boys about selling the house, Alex asked, "So are we moving to Peru now!!" We told him he would have to wait a little while longer for that. He's excited about the prospect of a new place to live and going to school, but he had a moment last week when he realized that he was going to miss our friends and family, especially his grandparents. It was during the day, so Justin was at work, so Alex and I shed a few tears together when we talked about the things we would miss, the ways we would keep in touch, and the special things we would need to take with us to make us feel comfortable.

Nathan, being just three years old and a second child, is a little less aware of the specific changes that are about to happen. He keeps hearing about Peru, and he'll mention his desires: Alex wants a dog, and Nathan wants a turtle, neither of which we have any idea if we can have in a rented Peruvian apartment. We've read some books about moving, but we haven't found a book about moving to another COUNTRY yet...so we have to skip over the pages when they talk about bringing ALL of the kids' belongings with them to their new houses. Nathan's also starting to get into the Spanish thing - FINALLY. We had to cut back on Spanish to get him speaking English well. Now that he's effectively communicating, we're back to the Spanish, and he's enjoying it. I think the transition will be easier for him than for Alex...we'll see. Our great debate is whether to start him in pre-school right away when we get there. He may need the extra boost, so we're going to go ahead and sign him up, reserving the right to change our minds if he's socially not ready yet.

The boys are our #1 priority in all of this, so we chose a school for them that we think will make the transition a little easier. It's an international school that came recommended by some other missionaries in Lima, Peru. We can't get down there and look for schools right now, but Alex will need to start as soon as we get down there, so we thought this sounded like a good option. They teach in English, but offer Spanish courses, and they have a significant discount for missionaries. It's a bunch of other international kids, so the boys will be around kids like them. We're still in debate about whether we need to find a Peruvian school for them to really get into the culture where we live, but we will have to wait to search those out when we get there. The school issue has been HUGE for us, so please help us pray for God's direction and care for our boys.
So that's the latest and greatest. We've sold our house, we've chosen a school for the boys, and now we're getting geared up for a LOT OF PACKING AND SORTING!!! Busy, but worthwhile. Now we just need that last 11% :).

In Christ,
Gillian

Think on these things...

Things are moving forward for us. We've put the works in motion to move to Peru before only to have them all halted. So what's different about this time? The support is much higher, and coming in at a pretty steady pace, making August an extremely likely departure goal. At times we're overwhelmed. It's easier when one of us is overwhelmed at a time, so at least one person is available to lift the other up. This week, though, we were overwhelmed at the same time. We had to stop...take a deep breath...and encourage each other as best we could through honesty, conversation, and God.

We're balancing a life of building a ministry team, preaching around the state, getting our stuff packed up and organized, getting the house ready for sale, regular church life, t-ball, oh yeah, and being a husband and wife/Dad and Mom, and worshipping our Holy Father. There's a poem out there that starts off saying something like, "today I was too busy to pray," and then the day goes on and it's really hard, so the last line is something like, "I'm too busy NOT to pray." That's how we're feeling. Our week started off really crazy with events every night, a realtor coming on Wednesday morning, and Justin going out of town Wednesday afternoon. Add in that I wasn't feeling very well. All the makings of a great, "Poor Me" pitty party. Believe me, I had a great big pitty party on Tuesday. That night, LATE because of our busy schedule, Justin and I worked on getting the house clean for the realtor to come the next morning. We were both overwhelmed, and we bumped our way through it, thinking that we were about to put our house on the market the very next day as Justin headed out of town.

We finally just stopped. We had a heart to heart about how crazy we were working, and seriously contemplated rescheduling the realtor meeting. Evaluating our efforts and our spirits we decided to KEEP the meeting, but QUIT breaking our backs...we had NO peace about putting it on the market on Wednesday, but we still wanted to meet with the realtor. In the morning we finished basic cleaning just minutes before the realtor came. After our meeting with her, we both felt a sense of peace and direction. Our house will go on the market in a week or so, when Justin's been home long enough to finish the few odds and ends we need to get done. Now it's Thursday, and it's GORGEOUS outside, and things are in better perspective...WE'RE HEALTHY, OUR MINISTRY IS COMING TOGETHER, WE'RE SURROUNDED BY LOVING FRIENDS AND FAMILY, WE HAVE A ROOF OVER OUR HEADS, FOOD IN OUR BELLIES, AND WE LOVE OUR KIDS, AND WE LOVE EACH OTHER! It's amazing and humbling how quickly the big picture can get lost among the clutter of details.

Just today I went out to the mailbox and found a card of encouragement from a supporting church with a few personal notes from friends inside. I have been convicted of my previous care of missionaries that we supported. I always thought they were too busy for our emails and whatnot, so I contented myself with reading their newsletters and praying for them. I now know, that they may not always have time to respond to our letters or emails, but they do need the encouragement. What a blessing words from "out there" can be, when we're too involved being "in here"- our own little world of getting ready to start a new life in full time ministry.

It's too easy to lose sight of the good stuff. In Philippians 4:6-8, NIV, God writes through Paul:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition , with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."

There's a promise to stand on! "...And the God of peace will be with you." :) I praise God for his awesome wisdom in how to protect our minds from the things that will weigh us down needlessly and keep us from acknowledging His Goodness and Peace.

I don't know if anyone ever reads these blogs, but this one really helped me put things into prespective.

May God bless you and me with peace as we think of things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.

In Christ,
Gillian

Wow, What a Ride

As our support increases, I am in awe of how utterly humbling it is to be a missionary. None of this support has been raised by our own strength, but by the call God has put on other people's lives to be part of world missions. That takes pride right out the window - it has nothing to do with us, and everything to do with God's ministry to the world.

Recently I was thinking about my Dad and his new job, and I remembered something I said to him when I was in early junior high. He was a stock broker and earned a variable salary based on commissions. One day, after hearing my parents discuss a slump in the market, I asked him, "Dad, why can't you get a real job?" They laughed and shared that question with friends and family as the latest "listen to what my kid said" story. But to me, it was a legitimate question. A "real job," by my young definition, was one that paid a steady and predictable salary. I even recall conversations with my husband, when we were first married and in our first "real jobs," where I said how thankful I was to have predictable incomes. I never could have imagined launching off into a commission-based job or starting up a new business, and I still can't. I still have those apprehensions about money. I like to know what we have, where it's going, and when the next amount will come in. And yet, I have never applied this concern to our mission support. I attribute that to the Peace that Passes All Understanding.

Over the last two years of support raising, many people have asked us what we will do if support drops off. It helps to know that we have a small bumper salary saved up for that contingency, but if that gets too low, then we'll have to come home and raise support. But even still, when we are on the field, we will have a steady pay check as long as support is coming in...but that's the thing..."as long as support is coming in." Somehow this does not alarm me. Faith in human kind has never been my strong point; I've been let down by some very close people especially in the realm of money. However, my faith in God and the support team he has brought together has won my heart. When I think of the relationships we have formed with our supporters, both before and after starting support raising, my heart throbs with comfort and gratitude. The "whatifs" don't seem so big because God's plan is so much bigger! God knows what I need to feel comfortable, and He is honoring that. Praise You, Father! YOU ARE SOOOO GOOD!

In Christ,
Gillian

Valentine's Delight!

On February 9 and 10 we attended a marriage enrichment conference at a local church. It was AWESOME. Our marriage is in a greally great place right now, so we thought this would be a fun time with friends and a great review. We were blessed by learning more new things than we thought we would! I am now of the opinion that we should go to these kinds of conferences every couple of years just to keep things sharp. I was especially convicted of my conflict resolution skills...man, I have some work to do. The weekend ended with everyone renewing our vows. I admit that it wasn't sinking in at first, that this was a REAL ceremony, and that we were REALLY renewing our vows. So Justin and I casually popped in our wedding video to review our vows before the conference began, and as I heard our young and naive selves reciting them, the impact of that day washed over me all over again. I MEANT every word back then. And we have been tested in EVERY area already in our marriage...sickness and health, richer and poorer, better and worse, honor and nurture, and building an enduring ministry marriage. I LOVE Justin Brickey. And I want the world to know it. We talked about the things we've been through (buying our first house, getting married, my mom passing away just 5 months after we were married, the births of our two amazing sons, finishing college, Justin's knee surgery, Justin's concussionS, our children's illnesses, raising support for the mission field, and more), and we were amazed at how our marriage has risen to meet our challenges and how it has been cemented through the triumphs. Now, as we face the mission field, we are keenly aware of the new challenges we will face, and our heightened need to draw closest to God in order to love each other best. Thank you, Father, for this incredible man. I couldn't have asked for a better fit.

Love,
Gillian

Outbound Budget Reaches 100%

One of our two budgets has now reached 100%. Our next, and most important task, is to raise the remaining monthly need. This first accomplishment raises so many feelings in me. I am in awe of how awesome God is, and I have absolutely no doubt that we are going to move to Peru this year. With that comes a lot of relief and praise. We pray that our testimony in this support raising process brings encouragment to others who are scared to step out for God. I pray that they will see that stepping out for God is not always the easy road, but it is always worth it. Yes, we have faced criticism and challenges from unexpected places that cut us deep in our spirits, but they served to turn us back to scripture over and over again to seek God's true voice. Throughout life we will face these challenges, and we just have to keep turning back to God, and HIS desire for our course, weigh the comments of concerned friends, and weed out the ones that don't match God's voice.
Satan works best in the dark. That's a lesson I've truly grasped in my most recent Bible study. He loves it when we don't take the time to evaluate the source of chaos in our spirits and instead live paralyzed by fear or emotional pain. We are learning to shed God's light on the Enemy's attacks, and to expose the TRUTH in our challenges. The TRUTH is that we have a huge team of supporters that is growing and encouraging this ministry to MOVE FORWARD. The TRUTH is that we often feel insufficient for the call that He has placed in our lives, but He has already proven that the old saying is true: God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called. And HE is our all-sufficient God, therefore, with HIM, we are sufficient. This is a language of faith that was once so weird to me, but now I understand. THAT is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
So we are excited about our first milestone. We rejoice in knowing that God is in charge and moving things along in His PERFECT timing. Now...selling the house....