Hey all,
We are back in our basement apartment. Football camp just finished up, so now that we have a little time to breathe again I thought I should update you. We are both heading into our final year at Dordt. I took a job this semester as the youth pastor at Covenant CRC in Sioux Center. This is a very exciting opportunity. Erica is looking for a job right now, so if any of you have any fantastic opportunities feel free to let us know. Hope all is well for you. Take care.

The rest of my life???

So, I imagine that many of you are wondering, "Hmm... now that you have spent all this time in CA doing ministry for the summer, what are you going to do with the rest of your life??" To which I would reply, good question.

It has been a very interesting summer with some unexpected and even tragic twists and turns along the way. As far as a calling is concerned, I feel that I am called to love people where they are at. I am passionate about living life with those around me and helping them through their struggles and rejoicing and partying with them in the good times. I know that God will continue to open and close doors vocationally as he has planned for me. If that takes a little trial and error, which it may, I have to accept that. You see, I don't feel as though God can open or close a door until I take a step or maybe even a leap in one direction. I am confident that he has a plan for me and he will use us for his good and we will be completely satisfied chasing after his will for us, but this is also a journey. I would love to say that after this summer I have everything figured out-- that God slapped me accross the face with his will for me and I know what to do for the rest of my life, but that would be a lie, and who am I to tell God what to do?

I do know that I am open and willing to go where He leads be that into a marketplace filled with hurting people or into a full time role as a pastor. No matter where I am, I know I will be involved in the church. Likely in youth, outreach, and worship...I just don't know if I'll be the one preaching the word via the pulpit.

Please continue to pray for discernment for me, but for all of us as well. Pray that God would show us needs in our own neighborhoods and communities. Pray that he would bring a neighbor to us who need the hope of the living gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray that he would act through us, even though we feel so small and powerless when we start to compare ourselves. (Just a quick note on this-- as hard as it is-myself included-, don't compare yourself to others because it only belittles who God made you to be and gives you less confidence in the gifts and abilities he has given us.) Pray that we would all understand our place in the body of Christ, and come to love that role as we bless the rest of the body and touch the lives of those outside the church.

Thank you for being you. You rock, have a fantastic day.

The love of God...

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:16-19

Imagine a love that strong, that deep, that passionate. When I read the phrase "a love that surpasses knowledge" I have to stop. This blows my mind, and I think that is the point. To be loved so much that we cannot even comprehend it is humbling and awe-inspiring. Last night in church the pastor talked about the fact that there is nothing on earth that we can do to make God love us any more, and there is nothing we can do to make him love us any less. He loves us so much that it surpasses anything we can understand. He is not going to love us anymore if we attend every church function, give generously, work for the welfare of the poor...none of this is going to work. He simply can't love us any more than he already does. He already gave his life for us. That is finished. over. done for. As much as we attempt to screw up life, we cannot make God love us any less, for we are all his children. The worst things we can do don't even come close to his love and his sacrifice for us--the price he paid for you and me.

From this, don't go on living just like we always have, because that's what so and so did and that's the way that we have to do it. No! God created us each indivually to passionately know him and his love for us,and then to go out and show that love to others. Live life as someone who cannot screw up! God loves us so much! He created us for himself. Live in the freedom of the knowledge that God is beyond our comprehension and his love wraps us up in a 'blessed confusion'. Grace is not fair, and I don't get it, but I love it.

The verse continues on in verse 20, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine, acording to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

a little crazy?

So part of my internship is that I am attempting to read a lot of books, which is a bit of a change for me since I'm not exactly a huge reader. Well today one of the books had an interesting challenge that I would like to try with you. The book told a story based on a statement in the bible where Jesus says, "Ask whatever you will in my name, and you shall receive it." Obviously this is not a blank check, and the bible talks a lot about asking within the will of God, but here's the challenge: Pray for something for six months and see what God does. Pick something you're praying about and bring it to God every day for the next six months without fail. What is one area of the world, one cause, one need that's bigger than you can handle, what is one thing you can pray for the next six months?
I am going to pray for God to use me in extraordinary ways vocationally. I am going to pray for clear direction as far as this whole business/ministry decision is concerned. Hopefully he'll do something that I just can't miss, I know he can. If you like you can share what you're thinking and I'll pray for that as well, but find something and pray.

Family and Friends

"Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." --Mark 5:19b

It is really easy to take family and friends for granted. We were in Iowa for the last 2 weeks and were once again reminded of the importance of family and friends. We went through the tragedy of the death of JoEllen together, and walked side by side as we watched her in her final days. The support and encouragement of the family of God is tremendous. The outpouring of love for each other was immmensly needed and appreciated. We need to continue to live in community as we walk hand in hand this journey set before us.

Often I get so caught up in my own life and my own search for direction and calling that I neglect what is around me. I take for granted the love and support of those around me. So thank you. Thank you for living life with us, thank you for uplifting us in your prayers, and thank you for loving on us and each other. We are not here to merely live life until it's over. We are here for the praise and glory of our heavenly father who wisely placed us in community, in family, and in the grip of his grace and love.

Be encouraged. Smile. Embrace and appreciate those who make life such a joy.

Living the legacy

In football we talk a lot about leaving a legacy. Playing with integrity on and off the field so that those that come behind you will have an example to follow. The point of course is not so that you yourself look good, but to provide leadership by using your gifts to glorify God when 'the stage was yours' so that those you have impacted can continue to carry that torch to future generations.
Jo Ellen Kauk passed away yesterday morning. She leaves a legacy of a strong Christian woman who was dedicated to her Lord, her family, her career and her vocation. What an example of a godly individual committed to seeing the kingdom come both now, but also in its fullness. Right now she is experiencing the eternal prize that we all strive for, eternal life. What a glorious reunion she must be having with her family.
Please continue to be in prayer for Mark, Nate, Dan, Dave, and Trev as they go on here. Pray for the peace of God which passes all understanding to be with them. And ask that God would lift them up in their time of need would carry them when they may feel too weak to walk.

sorry for the delay...

So here's what's been up with us. Last Sunday we learned about Jo Ellen's situation. On Tuesday morning her situation worsened and we decided we needed to go home to be with Dan and the family. So part of the internship is on hold for now, but we feel this is very, very important. I spent Wednesday and Thursday in the hospital with Dan, but Thursday night I came down with a fever. The fever stayed around, so on Saturday morning we went in and I was diagnosed with Influeza A. Obviously, this was not my ideal for our trip home, but my fever broke Sunday night and I am feeling much better. We aren't really sure when we're going to be heading back. Right now we are much more concerned about Dan and the Poel/Kauk family. Thank you for your prayers there and please continue.
On a brighter side, being home has allowed us to spend some good time with Erica's family as we have moved in with them. We were also able to spend some really good time with Grandpa and Grandma Groeneweg today. It felt good to be able to sit down and hang out with them after hearing of all the changes while we were gone.
It feels like life keeps throwing a series of letdowns at us. This is really disheartening at times when all you hear about is bad news be it Jo Ellen, Coach Thomas, Grandpa, sicknesses, you name it. Amidst all this I thought it would be good to hear one encouraging story.

One day, a really really long time ago, some crazy father decided that he loved his children very much. He loved them so much that he wanted to spend his whole life with them. The only problem was that these children were rebellious and didn't understand what he wanted. So he did what only he could do. He sent the only biological son he ever had and allowed the other children to kill him, so that they could spend forever with him.

He loved us that much and he will always love us that much. That news is good, and allows us the opportunity of hope in all of these traumatic situations.

PRAYER REQUEST

JoEllen Kauk is in the hospital and in critical condition right now. She suffered a brain aneurism and is not doing well. Pray for a miracle. Have faith in our all powerful God to work out his perfect plan. In times like these all we have to hold on to is our faith. Pray for Mark, Nate, Dan, Dave, and Trev as they fight through confusing emotions right now, but pray especially for strength and peace in this messed up time. Our life giving God is so capable of providing this miracle, so pray like crazy.
"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'move from here to there', and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." --Matt 17:20
We, as holy children of the holy God, have been given the power of the spirit. Pray and have confidence in your faith and in your prayers. Pray boldly and pray for healing.

This coming week our church plant in Delhi is going to be hosting a vacation bible school along with the other churches in Delhi. This is a great oppourtunity to impact the children and ultimately the families in one of the most drug/crime stricken areas around us. Please pray for open hearts and energetic leaders who can be a small part in forming lives for the Kingdom.
I am also going to be teaming up with our community development worker in the afternoons next week to raise funds for the Winton Life Center. Winton is another community which, like Delhi, has a lot of drugs, violence, and unemployment. Gateway has been very active in this community, but the funding is running dry along with the economy. I offered to go to a variety of businesses within Merced and Delhi to promote the Life Center and a sense of community. The hope is that the businesses will be able to see the positive effects of the Life Center and want to invest in bettering their community through developing and caring for the people within their community.
Please also continue to be in prayer for Grandpa Groeneweg as he fights the good fight and runs the race set before him. Pray that his wit and charm continue to lighten the hearts of those around him, and that he is able to enjoy life to the fullest. Pray that he, Grandma, and the rest of us are able to cast all our cares upon the Lord and rest in his assurance they he will comfort us in our time of need. Pray for more joy, love, and peace than ever before, and that our Life-giving Lord would continue to bless and lift up us all so that we can continue to join with all the saints praising God and saying, "Holy, Holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

apartment ministry

This past Thursday night Erica and I had the opportunity to go to a local apartment complex and help host a barbeque for the residents. The basic thought is that by going into a poor apartment complex where there is not much hope, we can simply give them that hope by loving on them for an hour or so. We do this not through the church, but through Americore because apartment managers are often more likely to let us in if we are "developing community". Joel and Erica and I were in charge of the games, and we played a version of soccer for about an hour and then of course some football. A good time was had by all, especially Erica who got to play "cheerleader" with Heaven, a little girl who didn't want to play soccer, but loves cheerleading. As the great husband that I am, I told her to go to Erica who I claimed knew how to cheerlead. Needless to say, Heaven and Erica had a great time, but I did get a bit of a look when she went over to Erica and said that Brandon had said she knew how to cheerlead... =)
Aside from playing with the kids, the highlight of the night was that the hispanic pastor with us was able to lead someone to Christ! God works in mysterious ways and often a BBQ and some kids games are all He needs to open a door that can forever change a life.

Here are some pictures from when my mom was here.

She came to Visalia with Donna and spent a few days at Donna's sister's house.

It was so good to be able to spend some time with her!

But if from there you seek the Lord you God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath. --Deut. 4:29-31

Circumstances in life often throw us for a huge loop. We feel as though we are going right along just fine, just getting comfortable it seems. Then something happens that completely throws us off track. It is here, in these times and in these places that we need to seek the Lord with all our heart and soul. For we have this awesome promise that we do have a merciful God who will not forget us, but will allow us to find him in the midst of what seems to be the most difficult times. He will be there. He will hold us up. And he wants us, his helpless, weak children, to fall into his arms of hope and love and rest in the assurance of his grace and his peace.

weekend, etc.

We had a great time seeing Mom Groeneweg on Wed/Thursday. She was up with Donna visiting Donna's sister in Visalia. Erica went with them Thursday for a well deserved ladies day out for facials...not my idea of an exciting day out, but they seemed to have an awesome time. This week I stayed busy again with different activies with the youth group, some meetings, kids camp, and working out. I met with Zeke who is planting a church in nearby Delhi, and I am planning on getting up there Tuesday. Overall the internship is going well, but I continue to look to see where God really wants to use me and where my passions meet up with the needs of those around me.

This weekend we took off to the beach. We were able to see the beauty of creation at its fullest. It's pretty crazy to look at the ocean and think that it just goes on forever... We stayed in Monterey and then drove up to Santa Cruz today. Here are the pictures from our trip. They were all so awesome so we thought we would share them all with you...enjoy!

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands of them and sent them off. -Acts 13:2-3

Right now Gateway is reading through the book of Acts as a church and going through a series of messages on it. These two verses really struck me today. "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Wow. It is so easy to get caught up in that word "called." Am I really called to this or that, or do I just think that it fits my skillset well? How do we know when we are truly called to something?

I think this passage is awesome because their calling comes directly from the holy spirit. They receive this calling and then they move right away. They go out and simply tell their story and the story of the people of God. How often don't I (possibly we), think that in order for God to use us we have to be some sort of spiritual giants who have all the right answers before we can take a step to telling others anything about the gospel. The beauty in all of this is that Christ wants to use me--he wants to use us-- where we are right now. In our weakness we are made strong.
2 Cor. 9-10 says "My gace is sufficient for you , for my POWER is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I a stong.

We don't need to be perfect people that are able to say the perfect things at the perfect time. If that were the case, we would have no need for Christ's sacrifice and the power of the spirit. As it is, Christ works through our weakness because our weaknesses force us to be dependent on him through the power of the spirit. We need to rejoice in our weaknesses as Paul says, for it is there that we meet God. We don't need to have it all together to be used by him, but we do need to be willing to be used. I pray that we are all able to accept the gift of grace that God has given us. However, after realizing the power of His grace, I pray that we would embrace our weaknesses and share openly and boldly with the hurting world around us.

Yosemite

On Saturday we went to Yosemite with Aaron and Ashley. It was SO beautiful! Here are just a few of the pictures that we took...it's kind of hard to capture the true beauty of the mountains and waterfalls but we tried our best :) We had an awesome time! Hopefully you will enjoy our pictures!

Pictures

Check out the slide show Erica made-- She is much more skilled in these areas than I:) There are pics of our trip, first house, anniversary, and apartment. Enjoy!

 

Pictures!!

Have I told you how much I love my wife?

Have I told you how much I love my wife? As of yesterday Erica and I have officially been married for 1 year! It was an incredible year spent together, and if the first is any implication for the next 60-70, I'm going to be very blessed. We celebrated the big milestone on Saturday by heading off to Fresno for a day of exploration, shopping, coldstone, and a fine dining experience at the Macaroni Grill.

We also got to go to church yesterday. We were both very excited for our first day at Gateway. It is one thing to work at a church, but it is another to worship with a church. Uncle Al preached in the morning service and Joel (our cousin) gave the message at the 604. We were introduced to the congregation and got to share a bit of our story within God's story with them. Once again, we are very thankful for you prayers, thoughts, and letters of encouragement. Let us know if there is any way we can uphold you in prayer.

Prayer Request

Bob and Anna are the wonderful people that donated housing to us for the summer. Bob built up the Malibu Boat company from scratch and then sold the company a few years back, but remained in charge of the operations. Well, today Bob is resigning from the company. The board believes that they need to go in another direction in this tough financial time even though Malibu is doing much better than other boat companies under his guidance. As it is please pray for Bob and Anna as they have poured years of their lives and passion into this company, and are now forced to step out and simply watch what happens.
The flip side of this is that Malibu owns the house that we are living in, so we are going to have to move to an apartment. Bob and Anna have said that they will continue to provide housing for us, which is very humbling considering their condition and we are extremely grateful. Praise God for the people that they are, but ask him to continue to give them strength in this difficult time in their lives.

Well, we are officially moved in. Sorry it took so long for us to post, but we don't have regular internet access at our house yet. By the way, the house we are staying at is quite the place. I told Erica when we moved in that she should NOT expect this for our next house:) It is quite large, so if any of you get the hankering for a road trip, we have a place for you to stay. Yesterday was my first official day of interning and we felt I should start it off as any good CRC church would--in a 3 hour meeting. We are still working on the definite terms of the internship, but right now are getting situated and introduced to a lot of the happenings around Gateway Community CRC. If you would like to check out the church, feel free to visit the website at www.gatewaychurchmerced.org. We are still looking for a job for Erica, so please pray for that. She had an interview at the church and was offered to basically be the homeroom teacher for 15-20 kindergarden through first graders from 8-5, but we felt that was a bit overwhelming and might not be the best fit for her. We feel a bit more training might be needed for a position such as that, right mom?
Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers, we look forward to hearing from all of you. Feel free to call, email, or post on the blog!

Leaving Saturday

We wanted to take a minute and thank everyone for all of their support. It has been both affirming and encouraging. Once again, thank you for your prayers. God is doing big things and we are just thankful to be a part of that. Please pray specifically that we will have a safe trip out. We are taking off Saturday for Merced! We can't wait to see what God has planned for our summer. Just the feeling of being in his will--which all of you have continually affirmed for us-- is extremely exciting and really limitless. It is our prayer that God would use us in amazing ways this summer. We are praying that he would stretch us and develop us for his purposes. God is good. Be excited!

in other good news...

God has continued to provide for us and our extended family. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and thoughts for us, we are praying for all of you as well. Early this week we found out that Erica's grandpa Groeneweg's biopsy came back cancer free! This was a huge answer to very many prayers. Her other grandpa, grandpa Vink was also in the hospital but was released and is doing better. Last weekend was Grandpa Schaap's big birthday bash. The entire Schaap side was out and it was really fun to hear all of Grandpa's stories about his life.

I hope you realize our gratitude to all of you for your support and continued encouragment regarding our summer plans. We feel that God has been very active in plotting our plans for the summer and we are extremely excited to watch his plan unfold over the summer. Pray that we can be pure insturuments for him to be used for his purposes, not our own.

Good News

We got some good news yesterday. We were originally planning on a Dordt summer ministries scholarship of $1000 to supplement our income for the summer. Well, we got an email from Dordt and ended up getting a $400 summer ministry scholarship. This was a little disappointing, but Erica reminded me that not only is this $400 we didn't have, but that God will provide in other ways (indeed she is my better half...). Last night I received a business scholarship for $600, which brings that right up to $1000:) We also heard from our friends that they would like to sublease our apartment for the two months we are going to be gone. This way we won't have to pay rent for a house we're not living in. God is good!

Jeremiah 29:10-12
10 This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

Passion Week

There is a part of me that really doesn’t like passion week. While it is a beautiful story of a God’s love for his children, so great that he would send and sacrifice his own, I just have a hard time with it. I hate to admit that I am the reason that Jesus died. From my own self-righteous, humanistic approach, I don’t like the dependency that it causes. For without God, I am truly nothing. Without him, I have no gifts, no abilities, NO LIFE. It is easy to look at the cross and say, “yep, Jesus had to come and die for their sins because they keep on sinning.” For those people. But me, He died for me? This realization causes a response on my behalf that I am not sure if I am comfortable with. It cause me, well it humanly obligates me to do something out of response. If someone took a bullet for me, I would no doubt do whatever it took for the rest of my life to ensure their happiness. However, someone took 4 nails and a spear to the side for me, took on hell itself, will ultimately crush Satan, and here I stand like this is no big deal. I cannot simply blame my sinful nature, because even my sinful human nature would respond differently than I have if a friend today did all that just so that I could have life. It just doesn’t make sense, and that is what makes passion week a bit uncomfortable to me. The crucifixion of Christ was not necessary. He didn’t have to do it. But he did! He died for me, for us, and for all the crap that we would do so that he could make up for it with his own sweat, his own blood, and his own tears. And here we are living our comfortable lives like it’s no big deal, just a free pass to heaven. This makes me uncomfortable.

God did something cool the other day. Erica and I have been considering the possibility of taking on an internship at my uncle's church in Merced, California. See, although it is my junior year in college already, I'm still not exactly sure what I want to do with the rest of my life as far as a vocation is concerned. So, the way I have addressed this is to dabble in many different areas. I have already had an internship in a small business and I am currently working for a non-profit. As the business-marketing/pre-sem guy that I am, there appear to be quite a few different paths my life could take me on--this is both exciting and terrifying... So this summer we decided it would be really good for me/us to take an internship at a church. The idea sounds great, but the practicality of being young, married, and very in debt does not exactly mesh well with moving half way accross the country to take an unpaid internship. Hang on, I'm getting to the cool part. So, the other day I was doing my devotions and asking God to give us a solid sign that would clearly tell us which way to go. He came through big time. As I was in the middle of praying my phone started vibrating. I checked it out and saw that I had a voicemail from my Uncle Al. He said that I should give him a buzz when I had a minute, so I called him right up. He said that 15 minutes ago (the exact time I was praying) he felt as though he should call a lady from their church. This lady, Anna, just so happens to be buying up foreclosed real estate around the Merced area and said that they were in a time of transition as her son was going to be moving out of a house, which is coincidentally located 2 blocks from the church. Anyways, my uncle told her about our situation and she said she would be willing to DONATE housing for us for the summer in the house her son had been living at! Wow. So, God pretty much took all my worries about being able to financially survive the summer and said, "Brandon, listen...I want you guys to do this...go!" What an immediate and definite answer to prayer. We are now planning on moving out to Merced, California for June and July where I'll intern at Gateway Community CRC. We are still looking for work for Erica, but trust that God will provide in his time. God is good.

Blogging?

Blogging seems to be the cool thing to do these days, so in an effort to follow peer pressure at all costs, I will give in. I hope not to simply rant and or rave about random things, but the possibility of that not happening is slim. The Huismans have officially entered the blogging world. look out.