Our New Blog

As part of the brand name transition from Your World Missionaries to The Vital Message, we have migrated our blog over to a new blog name.  You will now find all of our blog posts at http://blog.TheVitalMessage.org.  All future blog posts will happen from that blog address.

In Christ,

Wayne

http://TheVitalMessage.org

---------------------------------------

Pastors Wayne & Tammy Brown and Rebecca

Assemblies of God Missionaries to Thailand

PO Box 92714

Lakeland, FL 33804-2714

home phone: (954) 724-3026 

cell phone: (954) 673-6946 

e-mail: Wayne.Brown@agmd.org 

Financial Support: https://secure1.ag.org/contributions/detail.cfm?LedgerID=D228E68B-633B-45AC-8D69-12C1E4146351

The Vital Message - Our New Brand Phrase

For the past four years, we have used the brand phrase "Your World Missionaries" on all of our materials. It was a great slogan that clearly defined the scope of our ministry. We were missionaries who worked worldwide. Now that we are blessed to be able to take a field assignment and focus in on one country, the phrase "Your World Missionaries" just doesn't do the trick. We need something new. A few months ago I asked all of my friends and connections on facebook and a business network called LinkedIn to consider this need, look at what our new ministry in Thailand, and help us to develop a new brand phrase and associated graphics. Thus started a journey into the world of branding that I had never ventured too deeply into before. And, I think we have come up with something that is descriptive of the focus of our new work in Thailand. That new brand phrase is shaping up to be "The Vital Message" and will be accompanied with a relevant graphic. Here is our though process behind the new brand phrase.

When you define the two primary words that make up the phrase The Vital Message, you find the following.

Vital

• existing as a manifestation of life 
  
• concerned with or necessary to the maintenance of life 
  
• full of life 
  
• fundamentally concerned with or affecting life or living beings 
  
• of the utmost importance 
  

Message

• a communication in writing, in speech, or by signals 
  
• a messenger's mission 
  
• an underlying theme or idea
  

Vital speaks of life, from its creation to its termination and all things in between. It also speaks of importance, in life or otherwise.
Message almost speaks for itself. It is the art of or the product of communication. Our work in media is centered on a core message, an underlying theme that God loves everyone and wants them all to be with Him.

Now, considering the two individual words, lets bring them together into our new brand phrase.

The Vital Message

• A communication that is full of life 
  
• A messenger’s mission that is of the utmost importance 
  
• The idea that God is fundamentally concerned with the lives of His creation
  

Given the urgency of reaching the Thai people with the gospel and given God's urgent call on our lives to be the ones to go and proclaim the truth through media and through our work with university students, we believe that this brand phrase -- "The Vital Message" -- works well as a unique identifying phrase for our new ministry. Over the next few weeks you will see changes to our website, blog, newsletters, photo archives, video archives, and facebook causes and personal pages that reflect this new brand phrase. And there will be a new website address that incorporates this new brand phrase. All of these changes will include a new graphic logo that will clearly identify our ministry.

We are excited to have this new brand phrase and graphics available as we launch our itineration cycle for our ministry in Thailand. We hope it helps in clearly communicating what we will be doing and the urgency we feel in doing the work that God has called us to do.
In Christ,
Wayne
http://YourWorldMissionaries.org
---------------------------------
Pastors Wayne & Tammy Brown and Rebecca
Assemblies of God Missionaries to Thailand
PO Box 92714
Lakeland, FL 33804-2714

home phone: (954) 724-3026
cell phone:     (954) 673-6946
e-mail:           Wayne.Brown@agmd.org 

Financial Support: https://secure1.ag.org/contributions/detail.cfm?LedgerID=D228E68B-633B-45AC-8D69-12C1E4146351

The First Week - It Was Amazing!!!

Well, we have finished our first week of itineration and WOW, what an amazing week.  If the next 51 weeks are anything like this past one, it is going to be an amazing time of blessing in our itineration.

We started the week last Sunday with two amazing services at Greeneway Church in Orlando.  Pastor Mumm is the senior pastor and is also a missionary kid from Thailand.  On top of that, he has his PhD in media.  What an awesome blessing!  We were able to have lunch with him and his family, including his mother.  His mom and dad were media missionaries to Thailand in the 70's and 80's and continue to produce programming for other countries in the Asia Pacific region.  Greeneway blessed us with a generous offering and a commitment for monthly support.  Praise the Lord!!!

For Sunday evening, we were able to visit one of the churches that currently supports our ministry – Bushnell Assembly of God.  This little town on I-75 has one of the most powerful and anointed Pentecostal churches you will find anywhere.  It was a personal and spiritual blessing to be able to return to Bushnell and update them on our past work and on what’s to come in Thailand.

The week continued with the 2009 Peninsular Florida District Council meetings on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  We shared the missions table with the Wade family on Monday. They are dear friends and fellow missionaries, heading to a very difficult country that is in the news almost daily.  I consider it an honor to share time and space with this amazing family.  Dr. George Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, gave Monday night’s Council message.  Prior to his service, we were blessed to attend the Speed the Light banquet where Rebecca and her wheelchair accessible van were part of the headline promotion for the event.

Tuesday was a day of honoring others at the District Council.  It started with the memorial service in the morning to honor those AG pastors who passed away since the previous District Council.  Then there was a missions luncheon in the afternoon and the missions service on Tuesday night.  All the missionaries at the District Council paraded before the assembly and were announced by our District Superintendent.  That was followed by a very moving missions service and offering for our 2009/2010 missions focus on Cuba.  Brother Hector Hunter was the guest speaker along with Pastor Dan Betzer from Fort Meyers.  The night was capped off with a retirement reception for Pastor Betzer who is stepping down as the district missions director.

Wednesday was the final day of District Council.  The morning was filled with a Wisdom Conference where my friend Pastor Russ Jones made a presentation on using media and technology in ministry.  He was followed by several other speakers, including a great presentation by Pastor Max Yeary.  Wednesday night was the annual ordination service and our dear friend Jaimee Silva was among those receiving her ordination.  We enjoyed a celebration dinner with her, her parents, and her grandparents.  These are three generations of Assemblies of God missionaries serving in the Asia Pacific region.  Amazing!!!

We finished our week off with a special surprise birthday for a very dear friend of our family – Dawn Dick.  It was a full week with lots of ministry, lots of reconnecting with friends we have not seen in four years or more, and lots of driving.  Things will get back down to normal on Monday when Wayne will return to calling churches and scheduling services.  Please be in prayer for his scheduling work.  He has 50 services scheduled, but we need 150 in order to raise all the money needed to go to Thailand.  Pray that the scheduling work will be successful.

Our next presentation is in chapel at OneHope on Wednesday, followed by a service on Sunday morning, May 17, at Way of Life church in Plantation.  We will also be visiting New Destiny in Loughman and River of Life in Oviedo this month.

April 2009 Newsletter

Our April 2009 newsletter has been posted to our website.  This month's newsletter celebrates the conclusion of our work at OneHope and over 20 million children and youth who have received a presentation of the gospel through the movie The GodMan.  You can find that newsletter at http://hqmail.agmd.org/~wayne.brown/TheBrownFamilyChroniclesv5n2.pdf.

What An Excellent Idea

On the evening of February 15, 2009, we were sitting in the lobby of the Best Western just off of I-95 and Jacaranda Blvd in Venice, FL.  We had been asked to wait there with two other families who were in town for a missions banquet at Venice Assembly of God.  The other families were our good friends, the Wades -- Missionaries to Israel; and the Michaels -- Missionaries with Chi Alpha at the University of Florida.  What a surprise when 6:30 roiled around and a limo pulled up in front of the hotel.  Pastor Gill came in and told us that we will be riding to the church in style and that we would be the honored guests for that night's events.

This was Rebecca's first ever ride in a limo.  Just look at how excited she is.  She cheered all the way from the hotel to the church.

It was a very special night, with each of the three families given a time of honor, presented with gifts, and given a special award that Tammy is holding in this picture.

We could never express fully enough how appreciative we are to the folks at Venice Assembly of God for the outpouring of love that gave us on this special night.  Thank you to everyone at Venice Assembly who worked so hard to make this possible.  We truly love you and know that we are loved by you.

Returning to Haiti

What a joy it was to be able to return to Haiti in April.  For about 18 months I had the pleasure of filling the temporary role of Regional Director for Haiti and the other island countries of the Caribbean.  During that time I developed a strong friendship with Dan, Liz, and Joey Carl, missionaries from Nebraska who have been serving in Haiti for many years.  The Carls are the national directors for OneHope and have overseen the distribution of millions of books.  They launched the OneHope movie ministry in Haiti with the French dub of The GodMan and have provided valuable input for creation of a Creole dub of the movie.  Dan was instrumental in developing a five year plan for reaching every child and youth in this country.

The purpose of this trip was not for ministry or for program development.  It was to fulfill a promise I made to Dan when I was stricken with cancer in 2007.  That promise wast to come back to Haiti once I was well and to hike to the top of one of the mountains near the Carl's home.

Wayne and Dan beside Dan's house.  The mountain ridge in the background is the range that we will be hiking in a few minutes.

Looking down on the city of Port-au-Prince and surrounding neighborhoods from the top of the mountain we climbed.

I cannot begin to express thanks enough to Dan and Liz and their son Joey for the love they have shown me over the past few years.  They are more than ministry partners with OneHope.  They are true and beloved friends and I will truly miss working with them.

Amazing Ministry in Colombia

I was blessed to be able to travel to Colombia in February and to visit with some amazing ministry leaders.  Colombia has always been a difficult place to do ministry.  Between the fighting factions and the hostile enviornment, it can be very hard to get to those who need to know Jesus, much less engage in effective ministry.  However, even with those challenges, there are Colombians who are raising up to the challenge.

In my time in the Villavicencio area, I met the directors of several ministries, including one who is training up Colombian missionaries who are reaching out into the most difficult areas of the country.  These brave men and women are going into territory where guns and bombs are the order of the day.  They are taking the Book of Hope and The GodMan into these very difficult areas and bringing the Good News to children and youth all across the country.  They have truly embraced the OneHope mission of providing God's Word to every child everywhere.

After my visits with ministry leaders in Villavicencio, I was then blessed to be able to spend a few days in Bogota.  The purpose of our visit in this city was to meet with ministry leaders from across the country as they develop strategy for reaching the entire population with the gospel.  The Book of Hope and The GodMan will be an important part of that nationwide reach.  We are expecting millions of Colombians to be reached with the gospel in 2009 as a result of these meetings.

New Mailing Address

As we start our transition toward Thailand, we have opened a new PO Box.  We have family and friends who will monitor this address for us during our itineration travels and while we are out of the country serving in Thailand.  Our new mailing address is:

The Brown Family

PO Box 92714

Lakeland, FL 33804-2714

Itineration Prayer Requests

Dear Prayer Team,
We are now nearly 10 weeks away from starting our next itineration cycle. Please join with us in prayer for this upcoming itineration. We have a few specific prayer requests:

1. Pray for opportunities to be extended to us to visit churches in May on the 10th (AM & PM), the 13th, the 17th (PM), the 26th (PM), the 27th, and the 31st (AM & PM).
2. Pray for a full schedule of church visits in June. We currently do not have any services scheduled in that month.
3. Pray for the six Assistant Presbyters who are helping us with scheduling for the months of July through December. Pray that they will be effective in filling every service opportunity during those months.
4. Pray for our current monthly supporters, that God would continue to bless them financially so that they can continue to bless us every month and may even be able to increase their monthly support commitment.
5. Pray for those churches that we visit during this itineration. Pray that the Lord will bless them so that they can then be a blessing to us.
6. Pray that we always maintain a heart of gratitude toward those who schedule us for visits, toward those who support us with one-time offerings, and toward those who commit to supporting us monthly. Pray that we never forget the sacrifices that the members of these churches must make in order to help us to go to the field God has called us to.

In Christ,
Wayne
http://YourWorldMissionaries.org
---------------------------------
Pastors Wayne & Tammy Brown and Rebecca
Assemblies of God Missionaries to Thailand
PO Box 770274
Coral Springs, FL 33077-0274

Financial Support: https://secure1.ag.org/contributions/detail.cfm?LedgerID=D228E68B-633B-45AC-8D69-12C1E4146351

Our Budget for Thailand

We received word last week that our tentative budget for Thailand has been set. The budget breaks down as follows:

1. The monthly budget: $8,560
2. The cash budget: $22,550
3. The project budget: $35,000

The Monthly Budget

Our monthly budget provides the funds we need to meet the month to month expenses associated with our ongoing ministry work. These expenses include housing, food, basic living, transportation, office, communications, security, health care, and AGWM administration. In the case f our Thailand budget, it also includes some expenses for field ministries.
Before we will be authorized to move to Thailand, we are required to have enough signed monthly commitment forms to cover this monthly budget. The typical missionary will invest twelve months in itineration activities between terms. We are attempting to raise our budget for Thailand in under eight months. At the current time, we need to raise over $4,600 in new monthly support in order to meet our monthly budget goal.

The Cash Budget

The cash budget covers our expenses for getting to the field, moving expenses and household setup, language study, and any other initial costs related to settling into our assignment. During our short itineration period, we must raise a $22,550 cash reserve, while covering our itineration expenses, before we can leave for the field.

The Project Budget

We have one project for our next assignment for which we are currently raising funds. That project is a construction project to build the living accommodations for our family and for the university students who will be serving with us in Bangkok. The budget for that project is $35,000. Like the Cash Budget, our Project Budget is generally raised through one-time donations and offerings, and must be raised before we can leave for the field. Since this money is going to pay or construction that directly impacts our living accommodations, it is actually important that we raise this budget early in our itineration cycle.

How Can you Give to The Brown Family?

You can help us with one or more of the above mentioned budget needs by giving an offering now and committing to support us on a regular basis. For more details on how to give to our ministry in Thailand, CLICK HERE to visit our How to Give page.