Itineration is Coming

The first term of ministry for The Brown Family is quickly drawing to a close. Our next itineration cycle will begin in May 2009. In less than six months our assignment with Book of Hope will be complete and we will be back in the Peninsular Florida district, going from church to church to share the great things that God has done and is going to do through our ministry.

Our current term of ministry has been exciting and productive. In spite of a difficult fight with cancer, Wayne has been able to travel the world with Book of Hope, coming alongside pastors and lay ministry leaders on nearly every continent. Those travels have seen him reaching out to various communities with teaching and preaching, encouraging believers to reach their own communities for Christ and equipping them to use the Book of Hope movie called The GodMan in their evangelistic endeavors. Through The GodMan, we have seen over 15 million children and youth reached with the gospel message.

Our transition from ministry to itineration will also include a major change in assignment – an assignment that will result in our moving to Bangkok, Thailand. In Thailand, Wayne will be able to leverage his experience at Book of Hope to help the Thailand Assemblies of God and our Thai missionary fellowship to develop a media ministry program. That new media program will provide powerful new tools to reach the people of Thailand with the gospel.

The Brown family will have the additional blessing of working with the Mobilization International Ministry Experience. MIME will be a full-time internship program for Assemblies of God university students in their sophomore or junior years. The program allows students to gain practical missions and ministry experience while completing their educational requirements through distance learning. We will be working to build a family environment where students work, play, and minister together. This part of our assignment will allow us to serve as house parents to these college students while they are away from home. Those who know of our nearly 20-years as foster parents know how much this opportunity means to us.

The start of our itineration will be here before we realize it, so it is time for Wayne to start the process of calling pastors to scheduling services and meetings. Due to the urgency of the needs in Thailand, our new Area Director has asked us to shorten the upcoming itineration cycle and be on the field by the end of 2009. We will be working aggressively to schedule every service opportunity from May 1 through mid-December 2009. We need to be in services every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening throughout this period. We are also looking for opportunities to minister in banquets, conferences, and small group meetings throughout the week and on the weekends. Finally, we are looking for opportunities to come and visit with pastors and ministry leadership who can help us in reaching our schedule and support goals.

We need to raise about $4,000 in new monthly commitments and over $40,000 in cash during seven months of itineration. In addition, we have been asked to raise $35,000 toward the construction program that will build the residentual facilities for the students and for our family. We must raise all of these funds by the end of November 2009 in order for us to receive our field clearances in time for a year-end departure. There are three things you can do now will help us to reach our scheduling and support goals:

1. Pray! Seek the Lord for how He would like you and your church to respond.
2. Schedule! Send an email to Wayne indicating that you want us to call you right away to schedule a service or meeting. This will help us prioritize our calling schedule.
3. Give! Take a proactive step toward helping us accomplish our goals by giving a financial gift to our ministry and making a commitment of monthly support now.

• Financial gifts can be made online via credit card at https://secure1.ag.org/contributions/detail.cfm?LedgerID=D228E68B-633B-45AC-8D69-12C1E4146351.
• Pledges for monthly support can be made at http://worldmissions.ag.org/agwm_commit_form.cfm?AcctNo=293917.
• A pledge form can be downloaded at http://worldmissions.ag.org/downloads/PDF/commit_form_s.pdf and either emailed, faxed, or mailed according to the instructions on the form.
• Checks can be mailed to:
  Assemblies of God World Missions
  1445 North Boonville Avenue
  Springfield, MO 65802-1894
  When mailing a financial gift, be sure to designate “Wayne Brown – 293917” on the memo line.

Thank you for helping us to bring the good news to all the people of Thailand. We look forward to connecting with you very soon. If you have any questions, please contact Wayne at 954-673-6946 or 954-724-3026. We appreciate any help you can give us in this effort.

An Important Announcement - We Are Moving To Thailand

Tammy and I want to inform you of a change in our ministry assignment with the Assemblies of God. Our first term as Assemblies of God missionaries will end on April 30, 2009. At that time we are scheduled to go on itineration to raise funds for our second term of ministry. Our second term of ministry will be served in Bangkok, Thailand, where we will be working with a college internship program, directing a new media ministry work, as well as working with youth ministries across the country. We are excited about the new doors the Lord has opened for us and the opportunity to serve on the filed.

Please continue to lift us up in your prayers. This is a big move for all three of us. We are being asked to shorten our itineration cycle and be on the field by January 2010. With a $40,000 cash budget and over $4,000 in new monthly commitments that we must raise, this shortened itineration cycle will be a very busy and difficult cycle. Without the Lord's intervention and provision, the fundraising goals we have set will be impossible to meet. If you would like to help us reach either of these budget goals, please visit our website at http://yourworldmissionaries.org/, then click on the Support link and go to the "How Can you Give to The Brown Family?" page. And pray for us as we work to quickly fill up our itineration schedule and look for other opportunities to gain the support of churches and individuals throughout our district and across the nation.

Student of The Year

Rebecca was recognized as Broward County's Student With Disabilities Student of the Year this weekend. This first picture is Rebecca shaking hands with the Master of Ceremonies at the luncheon.

This second is a picture of Rebecca with her award. It was a very exciting day for her and a special day for her parents.

More Good News From the Cancer Center

I had my follow-up at the cancer center this week, including a new CT Scan. The place where the suspected tumor was is now just an empty spot in my upper right lung. No tumor, no nothing! Whatever was there is now gone! My oncologist is very happy as are we. Thank you for your prayers concerning this issue. I am now in cycle eight of my chemotherapy program, with one more cycle to go after this one. It will all be finished in mid-December. Please continue to pray for a minimization of side effects and for no further cancer concerns.

Cancer Update

I am a blessed man! I am currently in the middle of my seventh cycle of chemotherapy. I am dealing with some side effects, but none that are too difficult. The Lord has really blessed me in this regard. In fact, in a few hours I will board a Delta airliner and fly to start a 15 day trip that will take me to Saint Petersburg, Kiev, Warsaw, Sofia, and Paris. God has been so very good to me as I've endured these many rounds of chemotherapy. My next major milestone is on September 11 and September 15. On the September 11 I will have my next CT scan. On the September 15 I'll visit with my Oncologist. Your prayers for a good report and confirmation that the situation I experienced in the Spring has truly been a miracle healing from the Lord will be much appreciated as will prayers for safe travel and effective ministry in Europe. And finally, please keep Tammy and Rebecca in your prayers as they stay behind for Rebecca to start a new year of school and for Tammy to catch up on some work at Book of Hope.

Summer 2008 Newsletter

Our Summer 2008 newsletter is now available online. Click here to go immediately to this newsletter. This month’s newsletter focuses on Rebecca’s summer, our new Speed the Light vehicle, and a special wedding announcement.

Thank You Speed the Light

Rebecca is showing off her new Speed the Light van. She and her parents extend a very big thank you to the youth of the Pen-FL district of the Assemblies of God and to Speed the Light.

She enjoys getting into the van through the rear. No more driving around and around the mall parking lot looking for a special wheelchair accessible parking place.

The ramp folds down out of the rear of the van at a very easy angle to roll into place within the van.

Once in place, Rebecca sits comfortably between the two modified second row bucket seats in the middle of the van.

Social Networks - Are You Connected to Us

Collectively, social networks are among the fastest growing categories of Internet websites. Within the USA, MySpace is the biggest social network and facebook is growing rapidly to catch it. These social networks have become great ways for friends to stay in touch, especially when there are miles or even oceans and continents separating them.

Over the past several months, I have been investigating social networks for Book of Hope. They are very popular among youth around the world and we are looking for ways to connect with them for the purpose of evangelizing and promoting discipleship activities on the web. As my investigation progressed, an amazing thing happened, my friend network started to grow. Friends from school, friends from church, friends from our district churches whom we met on our last itineration, even fellow missionary friends from around the world. Tammy and I both are now using facebook as a significant means of keeping in touch with our friends, without regard to what country we are in on any given day. Even Rebecca is getting into the social network arena with her own page.

Another means of staying in touch on social networks is through applications. Facebook have an application called Causes. People can join Causes even if they are not your direct friends. And friends can recruit people to join a cause, helping the cause's network to grow even larger. We have created a cause called The Brown Family - Your World Missionaries. We use this clause to communicate ministry updates as well as special prayer requests. If you are on facebook. please click here to go directly to the cause. Once there, to join our cause, click on the Join link under our picture on the right side of the page.

You’re Never Too Young Or Too Old

Recently I (Tammy) went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic with Lakeland Florida's Victory Church. There were a total of seventy-seven people on this trip, twenty of them on my evangelism team. The youngest on the evangelism team was a nine-year-old named Kayla. The oldest was Fred, a man in his seventies. Both of them were among the first to volunteer to be in the dramas and to share how Christ had impacted their life. They knew that God could use them and that God did not care that they were so young or too old.

Our nine-year-old Kayla was a young missionary of amazing strength. Among all our team members, she was to fist to volunteer to give her testimony at the schools. In spite of her very young age, she showed great strength, even when many of those older than here were too shy step forward. Kayla knew that she had something to share with the children in the Dominican Republic. Her testimony told how she grew up with a mother who did not take care of her, who failed to provide food and shelter, who caused her to suffer through a lack of attention. But a few years ago Kayla's story changed and her testimony was birthed. Kayla came to Victory Church where she met a family who would become her new parents. Kayla told the children that if they felt alone, sad, or unloved, that there are people out there in the world who love them and that she loved them too, but most importantly, that God loves them.

Being the first to give a testimony was not easy for Kayla. In fact, this was the first time she had ever given her testimony. However, after sharing one time with the children of the Dominican Republic, she had such boldness and such confidence that she wanted to do her testimony at every school we visited. Throughout that week, many children were touched by Kayla’s testimony and by the dramas that the team performed. Kayla knew that she was not just tagging along with her new family on this mission trip. She realized that she too was sent by God to do His work. For this week, she saw herself as a young missionary. Please join us in prayer for Kayla. Pray that this spirit of ministry that God has birthed in her spirit in the Dominican Republic will continue to grow. Pray that Kayla will continue to seek Him and grow in His Word.

Learning to Lead in Kenya

I (Wayne) went to Kenya in June to attend an eastern Africa regional leadership meeting. This meeting provided an opportunity for leaders from our Book of Hope ministries and key partners from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to come together for training and fellowship.

Leadership training takes on many flavors. There is the aways exciting classroom lecture, where a topic expert gets up and tells everyone what they know about a particular subject. We had our share of lectures on topics related to leadership, partnership, collaboration, and even one from me on new techniques for using The GodMan.

Another flavor of leadership training involves team building exercises. Each afternoon, our team members would leave the comforts of our meeting room and venture into the cold misty outdoors environment. Out on an open grassy field, we participated in several different games designed to help us get to know each other as well as how to depend on one another. The photo above is an example. All the team members gathered in as near perfect a circle as a group of people can construct. Facing the center, they slowly stepped in together, drawing ever closer while maintaining the near perfect circle. When they had stepped in to the point that they were all overlapping their shoulders, each person turned to their left. They then placed their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them and again stepped in so the circle drew even closer. When each participant was only inches apart, they began to bend their knees and started the process of sitting on the knees of the person behind them. At this point they were all instructed to let go of the person in front of them. When they did, the entire group dropped onto the lap of the person behind them, but no-one fell and no-one felt the full weight of the person sitting on their lap. In fact, most people said if felt like a small book was placed on their lap. The purpose of this exercise was to physically demonstrate that when we all work together, we can accomplish a difficult (read that as heavy) task while individually only carrying a small part of the total load.

But my favorite flavor is the flavor brought by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Each day of the leadership conference started and ended with a time of worship, Word, and prayer. In the evenings, we would proceed the time of devotions with a report from one of our represented countries. Then, with the scope of ministry and associated needs of the country fully understood by all, we would gather around these leaders of the reporting nation, lay hands on them, and pray for the ministry. Our repeated prayer for every country was for the anointing of the Holy Spirit and protection of our laborers. Each team is trusting the Lord to provide for their needs and to protect them from attacks of the enemy. I encourage you to join us in praying for our leaders from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Pray for wisdom as they plan new ways to reach children and youth with the gospel. Pray for protection as they travel throughout their country and minister in situations that are frequently punctuated by violence. And pray for anointing, that the power of the Holy Spirit will always be with them and that all those they minister to will be receptive to receiving the good news.