BRICKEY TWINS ARE HERE!

Zeph and Silas were delivered by c-section on October 31 at 34 weeks along. Zeph's placenta was wearing out so the doctors delivered them early to save them both. They spent 3 weeks in the Neonatal Intesive Care Unit and are now home and HEALTHY! YAY! We praise God for His goodness. We are so thankful for all the friends and family who have blessed us with their help and continued prayers!

Gillian is recovering great from her c-section and the boys love their new brothers. Justin and all of us are thankful to have our whole family home and healthy.

In Christ,

Justin, Gillian, Alex, Nathan, Silas, and Zeph

The Loving and Leaving Series

The following several blogs are a walk through our time in Peru. After the Loving and Leaving series are the blogs we have written through our transition back to South Carolina. On the right side of the page is a list of these entries. As of today, Sunday, October 19, Gillian is almost 33 weeks into her pregnancy with twins. The twin baby BOYS are healthy despite early concerns, preterm contractions, and bed rest since August. More updates on the babies follow this series of blogs.

Thank you for your continued prayers for our family and for the ministry God has at work around the world. We hope you enjoy your walk through our time in Peru.

In Christ,

The Brickeys

Loving and Leaving Peru - Food for the Hungry Peru

Justin worked among a staff of Peruvians dedicated to ministering to their country. We are touched by your service, and thank you for the opportunity to work with you!

Loving and Leaving Peru - Hunger Corps Missionaries

The group of Hunger Corps missionaries that we served along side was our family away from family. Words cannot express how much this group has impacted our lives. We came a long way as a team over our months there, and we came even farther as friends. Thank you. We miss you.

Loving and Leaving Peru: Int'l Christian School of Lima

Our oldest's school was a large part of Gillian's personal ministry during our time in Peru. She both ministered and was ministered to through this diverse school. Both of our boys were also blessed by their ministries, and we miss everyone dearly.

Loving and Leaving Peru - Our Home Life

Our home in Peru was an apartment owned by our country director, Rosaura Mesones. It was filled with many friends and great memories during our time in Peru. We are thankful for our little home, and it was sad when the door closed behind us.

Bed Rest

Bed rest hasn't been so bad for these past three weeks. Friends have been AMAZING at keeping me company, bringing meals, cleaning house, picking up our kids from school, and MORE! For those who know me, you know that I'm a do-it-herself kind of girl (My parents even gave me a tool kit by that name when I went off to college - and I still use it!). When I was on bed rest with our second child, our first was just 15 months old. So my version of bed rest was still pretty active. I was also farther along in the pregnancy - 31-35 weeks.

THIS time, however, my body just won't cooperate and I went on bed rest at 24 weeks. It's scary to have contractions when you know for certain your babies are too small to survive. I also can't take the same meds I took before. They had some pretty rough effects on me, so we're using good ole' hydration and rest. So this do-it-herself girl has to take it easy. I get up more than I should when guests come around, but I'm getting better because my body just won't let me be up for long. Technically I have 15 minutes out of every hour to get up and do what I need to, but the Body just can't do that much.

The babies are moving great, and I love all the quality time that I'm getting with our older sons and my husband. Funny that I was afraid bed rest would interrupt my life with the kids, but it's actually been a great time to slow down and get caught up with everyone. My only heartbreak in this process so far is that I missed my second child's first day of school. I kept a smile on my face to help him make the adjustment better, and everything went smoothly.

Also, I can't end a note about bed rest without mentioning the incredible man that God paired me with. Justin is out the door at 7am and home around 6:30pm. He helps put dinner on the table (thank you to those who are providing our meals!), cleans the kitchen, bathes the boys, helps them pick up, puts them to bed. THEN, he goes to the grocery store, swaps a load of laundry, and crashes out for the evening. These are all tasks that we SHARE when I'm able-bodied. He has carried daily duties and beyond without complaint. He's even gone shopping for stroller, car seats, crib mattress, and baby clothes on his own, even driving from store to store to comparision shop. What a man. He's also rubbed my back, stayed up with me for long nights of contractions, and brought me chocolate. I love him.

So now we pray that these babies stay inside for a bit longer. We'll make it with a little help from our friends. THANK YOU!

In Christ,
Gillian

Ever Exciting

We're at 23 weeks along and Gillian is on bed rest. Our house still has many many bins to be unpacked, furniture to be purchased, repairs to be made, and some painting projects, but all that is on hold for a bit. Not only is Gillian newly on bed rest, but this is also the first week of school for the boys. So, for this week we're just focusing on getting them up and running. Once we figure out how this all works, we will get to nesting again...or at least Justin will.

As we've gone from doctor visit to doctor visit, and now with preterm contractions, we have said several times how thankful we are to be back home where we understand the language and health care system.

We are also thankful for the home that the Lord provided for us just 2 blocks from our church. Justin's family and our church family have already been able to help us. We already have arrangements for the boys to be picked up from school, as well as offers for books and meals.

Neither of us has ever been very good at receiving help - we always feel more comfortable on the giving side of things. But our time as missionaries (receiving in order to give), and now this fragile pregnancy that has leant itself to a very long season of receiving has stretched and humbled us. So many people in Peru and in the US have shown us the essence of service. They have given so freely and generously, it has amazed us. Thank you. We look forward to the day that we can pay it forward - that our ministry can again turn outward again and we can walk out the example so many have set for us.

In the mean time, we're doing well. Justin is employed, we're in our home, and getting settled. On bed rest the contractions seem to have settled down without medicines so far. Thank you for praying for our little family. Please remember to be in touch and let us know what we can pray for in your world!

In Christ,

The Brickeys

Busy and Getting Settled

Our last newsletter is slow in coming due technical difficulties. The printer we ordered was a lemon, so we had to send it back. Then our main computer (the one with all of our past newsletters and contact lists), started having major problems. Dell sent tech support that spent 4 hours breaking it even more - with a few screws left over to prove it. So now we're awaiting a whole new computer. Thank God for waranties! So, all that to say, we will get out a newsletter when we can.

UPDATE:

Justin is employed - YAY! He's been working for about 4 weeks now.

We bought a house - YAY! It's a little fixer-upper, but we love it. Now we're slowly but surely getting everything unpacked and evaluating which projects to tackle first.

Both babies are doing well - YAY! Gillian had a great check up last week and both guys are looking good. Gillian's getting bigger by the minute.

BIG HUGE PRAYER REQUEST FROM PERU: Our country director in Peru, Rosaura Mesones, is having some very serious health problems. She has a tumor that is being biopsied for possible cancer. She also has some other complications as a result of the tumor. FH-Peru is also going through some major changes in structure and leadership, so this event is a biggie on many levels. Our prayers are with Rosaura and her children (both adults), as well as with FH-Peru.

PARTING THOUGHTS: Transitioning back to the States has been wonderful and difficult at the same time. We have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with friends and family. So many people have been helping us with house issues, getting unpacked, finding our way back into ministry, and more. The difficult part is that we miss Peru tremendously. So please pray for us as we transition back home and discern where God wants us.

In Christ,
Justin, Gillian, Alex, Nathan, ? and ?

Sigh...and the search continues

When we arrived home we hit the ground running. In the wake of cultural readjustment, job, house and car hunting, and more, we're in need of a little R & R. A dear friend/mentor has offered us this coming week (July 11-18) at his family's lake place, and we find ourselves exhausted and ready to accept.

We have not yet begun to call our supporting churches to say a formal Thank You. We will be in touch soon. Thank you for your patience as we try to get reestablished as well as close out our time in Peru. We are thankful to God for a healthy pregnancy! See our last entry for details. Now please pray for us as we restart our life here in the US.

Blessings,

The Brickeys

Healthy Babies!

We are sorry to be so slow in updating the blog! Thank you all for praying! The doctors gave us a GLOWING report on Tuesday. Both BOYS are growing as they should be! :) That's right, we have two healthy fraternal twin boys growing inside Gillian. Everyone has enough amniotic fluid and everything else checked out great. Alex and Nathan are thrilled to be awaiting two brothers. They have no idea how their life is about to change even more than it already has.

Justin's job hunt is going well, with interviews starting next week. Please pray for the right job to open up, and for God's leading in the search. After he gets a job we should be able to start looking for a home.

Our transition back is a little weird, but it's going well. We have stumbled over culture shock in the grocery store and driving. We made a one-night trip up to West Virginia to visit Justin's grandparents. It was a good visit, though short. So tomorrow we're worshipping with our home church again, and starting Monday we're making our calls to our supporting churches to start saying a big THANK YOU to you!

Please feel free to write with any questions you may have.

Blessings,

The Brickeys

We're Home in South Carolina!

We made it back to South Carolina safe and sound today. Everything went smoothly with our trip. Now we just need to process everything that's happening. Thanks for your continued prayers for our family. We go in to see the OB/Gyn next week. We'll update with pictures from Peru and our arrival home over the coming days.

In Christ,

Justin and Gillian

Leaving Peru

THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by today to buy/receive our things and to say good-bye. We thoroughly enjoyed our last chance to talk with you. And thank you to those who have shared moments with us this last week. We're going to miss you all BIG TIME. You have been a blessing to our entire family, and it has been a pleasure serving the Lord with you. We especially want to thank staff at FH-PERU for the amazing wall hanging and the great send off last Friday, and to the parents and teachers from Alex's school who have become such dear friends - you have been such great guidance THANK YOU!, and to the Hunger Corps missionaries with FH-Peru. We had so much fun at our get together! Thank you for the photo album, desserts, and LAUGHS!!

This last week in Peru is scheduled to the hilt. We hope to have some down time the last two days before we leave. Justin has a few leads on jobs that look promising, so we're looking forward getting home and pursuing those opportunities. The Sunday after we get back we will be in church at Ebenezer PH Church in West Columbia, and we will be speaking for the evening service. All of us are very much looking forward to worshipping with our home church again.

FYI: Our phone number will stay the same as it is here. We will not be near our phone much in the coming days, but we will check voicemails nightly. Please be patient as we transition over the next week. We will be sparse in communication, but please know that everyone is deeply in our hearts.

Gillian and babies are doing fine - Justin is making sure she lifts NOTHING and takes naps! :)

We look forward to seeing many of you soon!

BOTH BABIES ARE DOING WELL!!

We just had another ultrasound today and both babies were in there having a party! "Little Guy" still needs more amniotic fluid around him, so we could still be facing a long road with him/her, but his growth has caught up with the other baby. Both were moving around like happy little swimmers. We feel very affirmed in our decision to come home and see our home doctors and specialists. Thank you all for continuing to pray for our little ones. We are amazed at God's grace and goodness. Now we need to continue to pray for the kidney function of "Little Guy" so he can continue to grow and have more swimming room. And continued protection for the healthier baby. Our next round of doctor appointments will be when we get home on either June 30 or July 1.

In Christ,

Justin and Gillian

We're Coming Home

The official date for our homecoming is Thursday, June 26th. We should be home mid-afternoon that day, and we have high hopes of going to San Jose's Mexican Restuarant for dinner! Alex has already submitted his request for "spicy cheese dip" with our chips :). Our next favorites (now discussed at every family breakfast and dinner) are IHOP, Moe's, Ryans, California Dreaming (for us grown ups), and the McDonald's Playplace in Three Fountains.

We are still in deep prayer for our twins. The smallest one still needs a boost. Our next ultrasound is here in Lima on Tuesday, June 10. This is the day before Gillian's 30th birthday, so we're praying for great results and a Happy Birthday! Gillian has been battling increasing allergy problems that keep her up most nights, so we're praying for health in these last few weeks.

We're sad to be leaving our friends and spiritual family down here, but we look forward to be seeing our loved ones in South Carolina soon. To our Minnesota friends and family, we will be up there just as soon as the babies are in the world and strong enough to travel. In the mean time, please know that we love you and miss you, and Gillian is not fully "home" until she sees you all again.

Thank you all for praying us through this decision and the logistics involved with moving back. We have had a lead or two on some jobs, we've also had some possible leads for housing. Thank you a TON for your suggestions and help, please keep them coming. You are truly a blessing.

In Christ,

Justin and Gillian

Waiting and Waiting....hurry up and WAIT.

That's how I, Gillian, feel like the last several years have been for us. We waited (and worked) for 2 years to raise our support, we waited for 2 months in a rental house in South Carolina after we sold our house, then we waited for a month at my dad's house in Minnesota for our visas to come through, once we got here to Peru, we waited 2 months to get into our apartment. We WAITED almost 5 years to try to have more children, and when we do, they're TWINS and one of them is in trouble. So now we must wait weeks between ultrasounds to check on them. June 10 is the next one, by the way.

Years ago I learned some valuable lessons about waiting. During one of my mom's many stints in the hospital during my teen years she received a test her roommate was supposed to get (whoops!). But that test revealed a spot on her lung. My mom, a smoker of 20 years, was naturally alarmed, as were the rest of us. The doctors told us to wait for 3 months to see if the spot grew or shrunk. That was the longest season of WAITING my family ever had to endure. In the end it turned out to be a rare fungus (funny place to grow mushrooms), and NOT the feared cancer. Our season of waiting for that diagnosis inspired the senior pastor of our family's church to write a series of sermons on the purpose of waiting. He would end each sermon with "...and to hear the rest of the message, you will have to WAIT until next Sunday." UGH, how annoying. We were already waiting.

So every time I go through a season of waiting I now remember back to that time. I didn't know it then, but it helped to equip me for future waiting. Our time of waiting to come to the mission field forced Justin and I to come out of leading Hispanic Ministry at our church - a ministry that started when we were just 21 years old and lasted for 4.5 years. It was as if we'd been hiding from our church congregation for those years! For the next few years we were busy pursuing the mission field, so we had the opportunity to take assistant roles under other church members. During that time we were also receiving training for the mission field on things like the mentality that perpetuates poverty and Biblical Worldview. All of these things brought us to new levels of faith and learning. During that time we were also able to deliver a glimpse of what we had learned to churches interested in sending us to the mission field. What a gift! Many times Justin heard that his message was applicable at their church, and it left us burdened for our home churches...but we were already on the conveyor belt to the mission field. We would have to WAIT to share the full message until we returned one day.

Back in December we told our Country Director that the only reason we would go home early is if we got pregnant with twins or had a complicated pregnancy. We didn't even know that we wanted more kids yet! By March the Lord had laid an overwhelming desire to have more children in our hearts, a desire He blessed. Now we face twins AND complications. Now, even though we told our Country Director those were the circumstances underwhich we would leave, we STILL have sought God's guidance on the matter. Are we REALLY called to go home? Over the month of intense prayer for the health of our babies as well as our decision to stay or go, we GRAPPLED with the idea that God was sending us home. We started off with WHY, God?!? But as we remembered in Job, where God lays Job out saying, basically, "I was there when the universe was made, not you, so you answer to me." (okay, that was a major paraphrase, but you get the idea). We changed our prayers quickly to, "Okay, so what do you want us to do that will bring you the most glory?" His answer still seems to be moving home.

It's what we do with our waiting time that's important. We do not regret one second of our pursuit of the mission field. The time was well spent and catapulted us into a season of learning that we may have never had otherwise. It carried us so far in our faith, our ability to surrender to the Father, our capacity for ministry,and so much more. We have also seen successes in our time here in Peru. Time has not been wasted.

Sometimes there is NOTHING to do while you wait, as with our twins, but go on living and praying. This can drive a person crazy, especially as we wait to look in on our little ones again. In my heart I feel that our littlest twin is okay and still alive and growing, but I am still looking forward to June 10 when I can see with my eyes what my heart already knows...my babies are hanging in there. But I find that while I have a ton to do to get ready to head back to the States, my heart just wants to stay focused on my little ones and sit around waiting for the next ultrasound. I'm doing my best to continue living in the here and now, to face what today has, and let tomorrow take care of itself. That's what waiting is all about sometimes.

Not that anyone reads these whole ramblings. I'm just happy to purge my thoughts. Blessings to any who have suffered the paragraphs. I pray it was worth waiting for the end :)

In Christ,
Gillian

Lots of People Wondering

Judging from the traffic on our website, lots of people are waiting for an update. We will send out our newsletter in the coming week with our final decision about whether we are staying here in Peru or heading back to the States.

For now, the update on the twins is that the littlest one continues to have low amniotic fluid, and continues to be smaller than the other twin. However BOTH babies are still in the fight, and so are we! We've sent our information to Gillian's OB/GYN back at home, and she in turn sent it out to a Fetal Maternal Specialist. We have not heard back from the specialist yet, but Gillian's OB/GYN is concerned about the littlest one as well and what that could mean for the pregnancy.

Thank you for your continued prayers and concern for us. We cannot imagine going through this without you.

Blessings,

Justin and Gillian

Discerning God's Will

I have no idea how many mistakes this blog has, nor how cohesive my thoughts come across, but I felt the need to share the amazing work of the Father. Yes, we're going through a trial, but please do not grieve for us. God is using it for Good, thanks to the protective prayers of so many prayer warriors! Thank you! In the Beth Moore Study on Daniel she highlights the experience of the three who faced the burning furnace- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. She says that trials serve three purposes:

1. God can deliver us FROM the fire; thus BUILDING our faith through miraculous healings or rescues.
2. He can deliver us THROUGH the fire; thus REFINING our faith through facing the trial and doing the work to face the pain.
3. He can deliver us THROUGH the fire into His arms; PERFECTING our faith by bringing us home to Him.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abedego expected that either God would miraculously save them from the furnace, OR he would deliver them into His arms. They never expected that He would deliver them THROUGH that fire - they came out not even smelling like smoke. You would never know they had been through that trial! And, as Beth Moore points out, the only things burned up in that fire were their BONDS. The things that tied them. But I think the most precious part of their history is that God was there with them in the Fire PHYSICALLY! Some say it was an angel walking around in there with them, others say it was Jesus, but no matter - God was there!

I am being so incredibly stretched right now - both literally and figuratively - it's painful, but productive. Justin calls it "a pressure cooker." An apt description. PHYSICALLY, My body is morphing at 12 weeks along in our pregnancy with twins, growing to accomodate TWO babies. It's been almost 5 years since my body last welcomed a Little One, and now, to be growing so fast, it's STRRREEETTTCCHING out again. Knowing that I have a baby in trouble, and three others (my two sons already growing and thriving, along with the other unborn twin) who also need me, I am doing my best to budget my energy for everyone. I'm drinking a TON of water, resting as much as I can, and praying for my little twins. For our other sons, on one of our darkest days, we blew off that night's obligations and we went on a family date. We ate fastfood and went to a movie - we even treated them to the annoyingly-not-worth-it little rides at the mall that the boys LOVE. It was an evening well spent.

EMOTIONALLY we're being stretched by the fight for life that our littlest baby seems to be putting forth as well as by discerning our roles in ministry. Our littlest baby is growing and developing so much slower than the other baby, and yet he's still in the fight. His heart rate is strong, but he has little amniotic fluid around him, which means his little organs aren't producing enough urine to fill out his living space. What a rollercoaster ride as we leave our doctor appointment with the last notice that, "By the next appointmnet, I expect we won't find a heartbeat." But then to go home and review the ultrasound and realize that our doctor started THAT appointment not expecting to see a heartbeat. I am preparing my heart to lose my child to the Father's kingdom, but I'm also doing my absolute best while he is within my stewardship! Do I have twins or not?! I pass by baby sections in stores and my heart just can't even look. My girlfriend told me I need to just look and buy some little things, just to have some Peruvian things. And she's right...that would be fun. Even with twins you don't need two of EVERYthing. But then we passed by a store that had two little baby displays in the front window - they were dressed in the same outfit, but one in pink and one in blue...my heart ached. Do I have both of you, or don't I??

Now the spiritual battle: WOW! The Father is doing something in us. We don't know what it is, but MAN, it's painful. For those who know me well, I do not run from pain. Nor do I begrudge its place in my life. About 7.5 years ago my mother took her own life, and that experience brought pain I thought would take the air right from my lungs. There were mornings I would wake up and wonder, with all the pain in me, how on EARTH could my chest still be rising and falling with each breath. Justin and I had been married for just 5 short months at that point, and I am so thankful that he spoon fed me the Word in my weakness. Bringing me scriptures that uplifted me, explained the Father's heart, and comforted me. But I also did the work to walk THROUGH the pain. It was the most pain I have ever faced, but it was the best time of growth I have ever experienced - and it serves to bring me the tools to face this new time of trial.

Something I learned through a Bible Study back at home was that Satan operates best in the dark...when we deny that he's on the move. But when we call him out - and turn God's light on him - he's CAUGHT in the act. Suddenly we see him, and we can fight a SEEN ENEMY. So I feel like I started off feeling despondent about the possibility of needing to go home (yes, this is a decision with which we are grappling). I was wondering what God was doing with us - but then Psalm 139: 13-18 came into my spirit by "accident" one day, and it's been growing in me. God's thoughts about our babies and about each of us are more numerous than my own, and these unborn children are even more precious to Him than to me...and I myself was fearfully and wonderully made in that secret place. He loves ME that much! WOW! How is THAT possible?!?! But it IS!

Then I wondered if we were in a Job trial - as God allowed Satan to tear Job's life apart to test his faithfulness to the Father. I started to ask, "Why?" Then I remembered the later chapters of Job where God lays Job OUT - "Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm: 'Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 'Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched the measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone - while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?" CERTAINLY NOT ME! The Father has this all in His hands. He already knows the decision we will make, and we are in battle against the Enemy to make sure the path we see and choose is the one that God has directed us to, and not that the Enemy has marked for us.

Justin reminded me that Satan cannot create life - this baby was not designed as his pawn. God created our babies perfectly in His image - even with troublesome bodies, our children are fearfully and wonderfully made. We have faced trials here in Peru, apart from our babies, that have led us to wonder why things have been so hard...but we've also had some great successes here. Are we to go home now, take care of our babies and serve our local church? Or are we supposed to stay here and find what else God has for us? So we're resting, not in the question of "WHY, GOD?" But in the question of, "What are we to do that will bring you the most glory?" It might just mean that our time in Peru has come to an end.

I have to get ready for church now, though I feel like I've already had it. Many many tears have glistened our cheeks. Much ache has crossed our hearts as we grapple with this decision of whether to stay or go, but the greatest tragedy would NOT be losing our baby, because, though painful for us, Little Guy would be at home with the Father. The greatest tragedy would be ignoring the absolute magnitude of God's sovereignty and wonderful work that He's doing in us. Today I am going to rest in that promise.

In Christ,

Gillian

Sad News About Our Littlest Little One

Thank you all for praying for us and the babies. We saw both of our babies today. We are tremendously grieved to tell you that our “Little Guy” appears to be slipping away from us. We don’t know the genders yet, but I feel like he’s a boy (ridiculous, I know). He’s only grown 1 week over the last 2 weeks, which puts him a full two weeks behind his twin. His heart rate is 138, which isn’t by itself super terrible, though it is low. But he has even less fluid around him than the first ultrasound, and he’s not as well formed or developed as the other baby. Most likely he will slip away from us over the coming weeks. Thankfully, this all can happen without harming the other baby, who, by the way is looking wonderful. The big baby (I feel it’s a girl, but it’s too soon to know) is measuring right on time, and moving and swimming as it should be. We could see it moving, waving and kicking today. Praise God for this favor. We don’t understand why our time here in Peru has been so full of challenges, but when we don’t get to know WHY, we are left with the question of “What now?” Please continue to pray for us as we grapple with this question.

Love,

Gillian on behalf of all of us.

Trying to Process...

Our next appointment is Monday, May 19th. I can't remember what time, but it's in the morning (10:30ish, I think). Please pray for us as we wait for this opportunity to look in on our babies again.

I liked today's quote on our Google page:

I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it.
- Garrison Keillor

The reality is that out of about 8 conceived sets of twins, only 1 will enter the world as twins...the others as singletons. We're only 9 weeks along, and 12 weeks is a better guage for the health of twins.

The TRUTH, however, is that we serve an awesome and amazing God who is allowing me to push through and grab onto His miracles. FATHER! I WANT CONFIDENCE WITHOUT PROOF! I WANT FAITH WITHOUT SEEING! We've lost a baby before very early in a pregnancy, which leads my heart to be reluctant to grab onto certainty, that YES, we are having TWINS! Yet, sometimes, just when I feel like my faith in the Father is at an all time high, I feel like I leave room for all this doubt of what he's capable of!

On Tuesday (the day after we found out about the twins and that one needs a boost), I was feeling so burdened. Do we stay here in Lima, do we head home, will the littlest one make it, will it not? Life still continued, and, distracted as I was,I still had to teach my 10th grade English class - Praise God! We were examining the title of a book we just finished, but I couldn't remember where in the book of Psalm it was from. So as the students worked on a writing assignment, I tried to save my hide and find it...well, I didn't find it, but I immediately and "randomly" came across Psalm 139:13-16 and it's as if I heard my little children's voices:

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully
and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

I still grapple with worry, concern, and even doubt, but the prevailing feeling is one of PLANNING FOR TWO CHILDREN!

- Gillian -

Thoughts on Having Twins

That's right, folks, I am 9 weeks along with twins. We found out today that there are two little people growing inside me. We were shocked and pleased to see two little ones, now we are on our knees for the little one that seems to be having a little trouble. The little one is in a very small sack without a lot of amniotic fluid around it. It's measuring about 4-5 days younger than the other baby, which at this stage is a significant difference. The babies themselves both have great heart rates, strong and steady, so that's a great thing. So our prayer warriors are already on fast and prayer detail.

Come on, little ones, you can do it! Alex and Nathan are stoked about the whole thing. We had a babysitter over tonight because I had to go back tonight for lab work, and Alex was quick to burst with our good news, "Mommy's having twins!" As we watched the ultrasound video tonight, we could see the wheels turning in Nathan's head as he looked at the screen, felt my belly, then looked at the screen some more.

K, I passed out while giving my labs tonight (yeah, big wimp!), so I'm beat and really need to crawl in bed after such a long and exciting day.

You can see our ultrasound and what to pray about at:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyaYpdXm2w4

(if the link doesn't show up, just cut and paste it into your browser)



Blessings, Friends,

Gillian

A Visit From Home

Our close friends, Roy and Heidi Bauer, came to visit us from April 15-23rd. We had a great time, you guys! Thanks for coming!

Finally, a word from Justin

I know that Gillian is usually the one who writes on the blog, but tonight I thought I should add something. This week has been a tremendous week for the Brickey family. Where do I begin?

Monday-- Gillian and Nathan came to the Food for the Hungry office. This is the first time that either of them had been to or even seen the office where I have gone nearly evrey day since mid-November. Gillian felt really out of the loop as far as being a missionary serving in Peru for over 6 months with an organization and having never even seen or been invited to see the office. It took me until February to feel comfortable with the idea of bringing her and the boys to Puente Nuevo, the door of San Juan de Lurigancho. San Juan de Lurigancho is the poorest district of Lima, is the home to over 1 million people and is also the fastest growing district. To enter this district from the central and southern part of Lima there are but two entrances to San Juan de Lurigancho, one is Puente Nuevo. Needless to say, it is a very busy area. I showed Gillian and Nathan around the office and introduced them to everyone. Nathan was very curious to see my current office. When I worked at First Pres, Gillian would frequently come eat lunch with me and the boys were no strangers to my office. We all have many fond memories of my office in the US. Nathan was a bit disappointed to see my current office. I share a room as big as my old office in the States with two other men and I work on a 7 year old computer. Nathan came in and looked around for about five seconds and said, "Can we go back downstairs?" After that, we were able to attend Monday morning devotions with the Food for the Hungry staff. After devotions and a special presentation by another missionary who teaches Christian financial concepts in the jungle of Peru I took them home for lunch and went back to work.

Tuesday-- Tuesday was great! Gillian and I kept Alex out of school and we ALL went to the office. Our insurance expired on our car so we had to take a taxi to the office. We got to the office and I showed Alex around. He also wanted to see my office. As soon as he walked in my co-worker, Atilio, grabbed Alex and gave him a big hug. Alex had enough of that and asked the same thing as Nathan, "Can we go back downstairs now? I don't want to meet any more people". After the hugging incident I had to explain to Alex that people in Peru are a lot more touchy-feely than people in the US. This is something I am still getting used to, I haven't fully embraced the touchy-feely, kiss when you meet, customs of my new home. Apparently, neither has Alex. We went back downstairs. I wanted to bring the family out to the office Tuesday because Food for the Hungry was beginning their annual distribution of school packets to children enrolled in their sponsorship program. FH gives notebooks, folders, pens, pencils, erasers, and other school supplies to their sponsored children. Our country director, Rosaura, thought this would be a good way for Gillian to see a glimpse of the communities where I work. After we returned downstairs I began to help load the trucks with the school supplies. Once loaded we headed out to the community. The place we went is a relatively new community called Rinconada del Sol. It is on a very steep incline on one of the desert hills. The community just below Rinconada del Sol (that you must pass through to reach Rinconada) had placed a roadblock at the very entrance to the community as some sort of punishment towards Rinconada. This meant that the truck couldn't carry the supplies to a convenient place to unload. We all got out of the truck and started loading our arms and shoulders with school supplies. Luke (another missionary from Minnesota)and I got to carry the heaviest things of the bunch (big boxes filled with reams of bond paper) all the way up the hill. I hadn't realized how out of shape I really was until after we completed this task. This community is in the process of having water and sewage installed. This is no trivial task as the community is located on a steep incline on a very rocky hill. I dare say hill of pure rock. There are the sounds of men working, jack hammers and occasionally DYNAMITE. That's right, dynamite. This concept should be a little unnerving. If you see how this community is built with rocks stacked on rocks and houses and buildings on top of these stacked rocks you would see why this concept is frightening. Back to the theme... we got all of the school supplies to the community center and the FH Child Development Promoter, Michel - pronounced ME-Shell (a man), began to organize the mother leaders of the community into their groups so they could distribute the school packets. During this time Alex and Nathan began to play with the other kids around the community center. Nathan loved playing in the dirt with his new friends and his new Hot Wheels cars that my Mom and Dad sent him. Alex loved playing with the little kids there as well. Gillian and I began counting paper so that each school packet would have 100 sheets of bond paper. The mother leaders were bagging up the rest of the school supplies for the kids in their groups. The bond paper came in reams of 500 and the numbers had to be divided evenly or some child would be short-changed on his packet. We were talking to the mothers and kids, watching our own kids, and counting paper for the whole morning. For lunch we went to a restaurant near the community with other workers from Food for the Hungry. It was good to be able to share my family with them. I love the family that God has given me. I love my two well behaved, kind, intelligent little boys and I love my wife that is afraid of nothing and who will accomplish whatever she sets her mind to. I really enjoyed watching them interact with my co-workers. After lunch we went back to the Rinconada del Sol to watch how the school packets were to be distributed. Gillian and I, along with the rest of the mothers finished counting the bond paper and once we did, the distribution began. Parents and children appeared out of nowhere and began to claim their school packets. The distribution went quickly and relatively smoothly. During this time we really had a chance to talk to Alex and Nathan about the community we were in. We had the chance to explain to them the reason why God called us to serve in such a place. Alex, kept looking at the community and saying, "This is a terrible place to live." We had to explain to him that the reason we were there was to help the people improve their way of life so that it would be a better place to live. At the end of the day we all went back down the hill, met up with the truck and headed back to the office. At the end of the day we went down to Puente Nuevo and caught a combi back to the house. For those of you who don't know what a combi is picture this, an old style Toyota mini-van packed with sometimes over 20 people. This is travel by combi in Lima. Luckily for us our combi was not packed, but it was tight. The ride home was great, we talked with Mesha (another missionary from New Mexico)and she took our family picture. What a way to end a productive day of helping school kids get their much needed school supplies. I truly had a great day and enjoyed sharing the previously unknown aspects of my life with my wife and kids. Later that night Gillian and I were talking about how great it was to be working side by side in ministry again. It has been so long since we have really had an opportunity to serve others together. I feel like I can accomplish anything when she is at my side. It reminded us both of our wedding vows, "...to have an enduring ministry marriage." I thank God that this is what we have.

Wednesday-- Well, today Gillian and the boys didn't come to the office, but it was a tremendous day as well. I went to help distribute school packets with the other Child Development Program (CDP) promoters that work in the communities I am working in. I went to four different communities today: Cerrito Rico, Nueva Jerusalen, Ampliacion de 1 de Mayo and Hacia El Desarrollo. It was awesome to get to work with the promoters and meet the mother leaders that do an unimagineable amount of work in the communities. This was really the first opportunity I had to visit three of the four places we were at today. At each stop we did basically the same thing as the day before, but it really helped me to see the communities that I am working with and meet some of the people that live there.

Apart from my news is even bigger news. GILLIAN BEGAN WORKING AT ALEX'S SCHOOL TODAY!!! Of course, she isn't working for money, that would put us in violation of the restrictions of our visa that allows us to be here. She is going to be teaching English literature to 10th graders that don't speak English very well. I think this will be a huge challenge for her, BUT I know she can make it happen. After graduating college with a degree in English with an emphasis in secondary education she has longed to get into a classroom. Unfortunately, raising two wonderful little boys like we wanted didn't allow her to fulfill this longing...UNTIL TODAY. This week she is just observing the class, but next week (I think) she will begin teaching. For me this would be very overwhelming, but she seems to be taking it in stride. I pray that she would be encouraged and disciplined as she begins this new adventure.

I initially started writing tonight's blog simply to say how much I miss SC. Tonight, I put on a t-shirt tonight that is probably 15 or 16 years old. It is the Royal Rangers t-shirt that Commander Gene Henderson had made for our outpost the first year we went to Pow Wow with Royal Rangers (and whipped up on everyone, we won everything in every category - and they told us it would be good for us to come and not expect to win anything). The shirt is still in remarkably good condition. The shirt is solid black and on the left part of my chest it simply has an image of the state of SC with the word EBENEZER over the state and ROYAL RANGERS below the state. On the right sleeve it reads OUTPOST 44. After I put the shirt on tonight, I looked down at the shirt and told Gillian and told her this shirt has three things I love - my church, my state, and Royal Rangers. When I think back at how my church and Royal Rangers has impacted my life to this point I stand amazed. These two tools of God have had a powerful role in making me the man I am today. Some of the tenets of Royal Rangers are what we are using in our ministry here. Food for the Hungry works to meet the four needs of a person - physical, spiritual, mental and social. This is in accordance with the ways that Jesus grew in Luke 2:52. This is something that has been drilled into my head and lovingly placed in my heart since I was 9 years old. The four gold points are the four ways a boy grows - physically, mentally, spiritually and socially. The impact that my church and Royal Rangers has had on me has been and continues to be profound. As far as the state goes, I do miss it dearly. Not so much the land and places(although I do miss the beach, the mountains, the forests, the driving, Shealy's BBQ, Moe's, Chick-fil-A, Arby's, Denny's, IHOP, Ryans, Waffle House, Lizard's Thicket...) but the people who have made me who I am today. There are too many to list and if I did I am sure I would accidentally leave someone out so suffice to say, there are MANY people that I think about on a regular basis that have made a lasting impact on how I think and who I am. THAT was the reason I began this entry two hours ago.

Until I write again...

Justin

God's Direction For Gillian

For a while there was a school very close to us that was recruiting me quite passionately to teach their 4 year-old class, which would allow Nathan to attend with me. I prayed vigorously about this and sought the prayers of friends and family. After a visit to the school with Nathan I decided not to accept the position. This was an excruciating decision, but I just knew for certain it was not the place for me to serve most effectively.

So I stepped out in faith and offered my resume to Alex’s school. It is a non-denominational International Christian School accredited with American Christian Schools International. Its mission statement aligns with our beliefs, and we feel it is the best place for our kids while we are here in Lima. Their mission is to reach out to internationals living here in Peru, so Alex has students in his class from Peru, the United States, Ecuador, England, and more. After I interviewed, it was over a month before I heard a response. During that waiting period I learned to surrender my direction to God, and the Refiner’s Fire truly brought me to an awesome place spiritually. Finally, the principal asked for a meeting and offered me a position teaching one section of English 10 to students who speak English as a second Language (ESL), and he wanted me to start IMMEDIATELY.

Added Bonus: a mom of one of the boys in Alex’s class offered to watch Nathan free. She stays home with her 4 year-old daughter who, at this point, only speaks Spanish. So her daughter is teaching Nathan Spanish, and Nathan is teaching her English. So I have one semester with my one class of 10th grade English students who are from Korea, Japan, and Thailand. I started in the classroom on Monday, March 10. It’s challenging to jump in mid-quarter with no orientation, but the other teachers are coming along side me, and I serve a God who is strengthening me for the task.

For next year the principal has offered me a position working in the library—I’ll be surrounded by books 4 days a week, I’ll be working with international children grades K-6, and I’ll be near our boys. God is so good.

Argh, Call Me a Non-Pirate!

Gillian here:
We've become known as the piracy police around here. We are determined not to fall to the temptation to buy from Peru's abundance of pirated movies. I can't help but think - why do we feel so entitled to own them? I will admit being extremely tempted to buy "bamba" (pirated movies). They can cost as little as 4 soles (just over a dollar!). We've seldom bought movies for ourselves, but, yes we do have a good collection of original DVD's that have mostly come to us as gifts from relatives in the States. But in South Carolina, we also got by with borrowing movies from friends, the library, renting on occasion, or going without.

So now we are delighted to discover over the past months that we have two local solutions to feed our love of movies withOUT participating in bamba. 1. Our local DVD Drugstore rents out original DVD's for 7 Soles (A little over $3.00), and they have a great selection. 2. The boys' school rents them out for 5 soles (about $2.50), though they have a limited selection of donated movies. We don't get to own the movies, but we can enjoy them as a special family date night from time to time, AND we can support a local business doing honest work OR the boys' school. YAY!

CRASH IN THE NIGHT!

Gillian here...
We were sitting in the living room around 9:30pm on Saturday, Feb. 9. The boys had been tucked in for a couple of hours, when we suddenly heard HUGE shrieking, crashing, and glass breaking in our back patio. I was so startled, my glass of Coke dropped from my hand, and we flew to the back of our apartment. Fully expecting to see a body lying in our back patio, we flipped on the lights to find NO body (thank God), but definitely a room full of glass and destruction. A full 3x4 pane of glass window fell from the 4th floor down into our 1st floor patio. We called our landlord immediately, and she rushed over, and the couple who owns the 4th floor apartment(ironically it is the engineer who built the building and his wife), came down and helped us assess the damage and clean up the mess.
A few factors added to the craziness.

1. I had a nightmare a couple of weeks ago that one of the Engineer's small children fell into our patio, and I told Justin about it. Thus, when the window fell, and the engineer's wife screamed, Justin and I were terrified we would see a person in our patio. We were both RELIEVED when it was just glass but extremely shaken from the fear we had.

2. The window that fell was from above our boys' bedroom window and therefore crashed right outside it. Normally we have the window AND the Shade open to get air to circulate at night, and then we close them when we go to bed. On the night the window fell, however, we had the shade down. Weird. The window itself was open, but with the shade down, the glass just showered onto their windowsill. Only a few little pieces landed on the foot of our youngest's bed. The falling window even left a huge scratch down their window, but it didn't break it. We are thankful to our Father for His protection.

3. Just two nights earlier at that hour, Justin and I had been out on our patio playing Scrabble. It weirds me out that I was sitting where that window fell at that same time just a few nights earlier.

4. The problem with the window is a design flaw...we have problems with the panes coming off their track all the time, but we never imagined such grave ramifications from this...These windows are everywhere in our building.

So let's just hope this problem is solved quickly or we will have to find ourselves another place to live. We can't go out on our patios until all the windows are fixed, which is terribly sad for the boys because they had a little kiddy pool that we JUST set up for them last week. I've felt anxious the last couple of days, just waiting for something to crash again, but I know my anxiety will calm down in a few days. In the mean time, we're just waiting to hear how they plan to fix the building.

Sigh...okay, now I feel well-vented :)

What?!? No "Hamburger Helper"??????

I cooked chili from scratch, and it tasted like normal!!! Thanks to an internet recipe and an English to Spanish cookbook, I'm well on my way to actually cooking remotely well. "So what?" you might say. But HOLY COW! Relearning to cook has been a challenge to say the least. I am not a cook by nature, so all of my recipes from home are easy, throw stuff together, recipes. One day, as I told a friend my woes about spending over an hour in the kitchen every night, she said, "Hey! I can give you some of my mom's easy casserole recipes. There's this one that just has tater tots, ground beef, and cream of mushroom soup. To fix it here, I guess you could just peel and shred some potatoes and brown them, and then cook up a packet of powdered cream of mushroom soup...Oh, well, I guess it's not that easy to make here."

Yeah, pretty much everything has to be sliced, diced, pre-cooked, etc. I had no idea how much I relied on cans of stuff. Peru HAS most of these coveted items, but at a PREMIUM, and only at certain stores. So I'm relearning to cook with fresh foods, which are extremely affordable here. One woman in particular gets extra praise for giving me one of the best helps since I arrived. Carol Larson, a great friend here in Lima, gave me a cookbook put about by a group here in Lima. It's in both English and Spanish, and it's a compilation of American/Canadian dishes as well as Peruvian cuisine- it even has tex-mex recipes! Not only that, but it has special helps, like a list of substitutions for American foods that we don't have readily available here. I learned to use Aji Panca instead of Chili Powder (my Betty Crocker cookbook seems to have left that one out). I can get cans of diced tomatoes, sure. But it costs more that DOUBLE what it costs to just buy a few tomatoes and chop them up...novel, I know, but I was honestly nervous about trying this out. I'm ridiculous. Many experiments have ended in calling for delivery, so I truly thank the Lord for calling us to a huge city. Also, when in doubt, they have jarred spaghetti sauce, ground beef, and regular pasta noodles. YAY!

We Have a NEW NEPHEW!!

Our nephew, Cooper Michael Adkins, was born just after midnight on Christmas Eve! He spent a little over a week in the NICU at the hospital with some complications, but he's home now and doing better. Praise God for His mighty works! Congrats, Mike, Jennifer, Cameron, Cason, and Colton! Give Cooper some extra squishes from Uncle Bubba, Aunt Gill, Alex and Nathan!