Isaac And Brittany .com

Thursday December 20th All of you are invited to chilly Denver CO. for a fundraiser raising money for the work in Sierra Leone.
Together we can find ways to accomplish incredible things in Sierra Leone. You all here at home are the biggest pieces of the puzzle for what is going on. Take time and consider coming and being a part in a bigger way.
There is going to be another email sent out with specific directions etc... We love you guys and hope to see you there!
Love Brit and Isaac

Hello all
We have sent for the orphans finally. I will take a couple of days. One family member went to get them. They were living on the far side of Sierra Leone. We have used the money in part already to buy mattresses and lots of extra rice and a lot of other little things in preparation. We will have only about a week with them before we come home to visit.
Pray that we will be prepared, and that pastor Andrew and his wife will have a lot of grace for all that is needed.

Hello everyoneThis is Isaac I just wanted to write and share my heart a little about how Brit and I are doing. Being a missionary is really interesting. We are having to learn so much. There are so many problems all around you at any given moment, for us to choose what we will invest our energy and love into is something that is being worked out. If we were to answer every cry for help we would be led around and around and burn out. And yet one thing that we believe is to 'stop for the one' which means to try to the best of our ability to be like Jesus to them. So it is a challenge to find the balance. Pastor Andrew too tries to do too much sometimes because of all the needs and when you do that you are left with incomplete efforts and incomplete results. We have, however, seen some of these 'ones' really changed since we have been here. One youth well call 'Bill' recently quit smoking marijuana and started interpreting for Brit and I in church. He has now obtained a well paying tech job and so now he can support his son. I love seeing the grace of God do that kind of thing. There are many many other really encouraging stories. We live in a tension everyday. If you take on all the problems its too much and you just grow cold. If you dont do anything than you are missing the point alltogether. So we are learning. The answer of course is to become more like Jesus. No problems overwhelm Him, all was paid for on the cross. So we need to grow in 'the knowledge of Him' as Paul the apostle talks about. The Holy Spirit is really helping us. We are growing in compassion and love as we go out and interact with people. It is amazing what having the love of God in your heart can do. Yesterday I saw a man we pass by everyday, Mr. Bolo. Before reaching him love just rose in my heart so instead of the normal greeting I was really happy to see him. He in turn told me about his strained back. Because of the love in my heart it was easy to believe God to heal him and sure enough He did! Continue to pray for us as we have so much more growing to do. We love you all. Isaac and Brit

Today Pastor Andrew and I went to the hospital to visit his aunt. She had gone in the middle of the night because of severe dehydration. Pastor explained that many people die from this kind of sickness. We went and prayed and after a few miniutes we could all feel the power of God enter the situation. The woman actually began to shake and then she began to praise Jesus! We left and later learned that she was released from the hospital just after. Two days before we were in a village in which we are establishing a new church. We split into two groups and walked around the nieghborhood meeting people,praying for them, and sharing the word of God. Towards the end we went and prayed for a man named Francis. He explained that his legs were going numb and he had a lot of pain in them and in his back. It sounded to me like a slipped disk in his lower back which was likely because he is a construction worker. We prayed for him and the pain left and his mobility and feeling were completely restored. He was rejoicing, he was soo happy! Amen! We are going out today to follow up in the community and then we are going to clean a large warehouse which the Lord has provided for us to start the new church!
Love Isaac and Brittany

This is a picture of Brittany in our room. It is a really wonderful room and we are so grateful for it.

This is the way the rest of the house looks now we are going to add an upstairs and the plan is to house 15 or so orphans.

This is Andrew putting up a door he made on one of the bathrooms today. He made the door himself and he used 120 peices of wood (I counted :))

This is where Andrew and Angella and thier baby live. The inside is lined with cardboard. We are about to finish another room in the house and then they will move in. (We were so grateful they put us first and served us by letting us move in first)













This is Brittany with one of the peanut ladies we sat with them today and met an orphan kid named Ahmado(standing). Brit stops and buys peanuts and talks to them everyday.


Please continue to pray for us. It is really overwhelming to see all the need here, but in Jesus we are not overwhelmed. We long to get the orphanage started and to continue to learn to love and minister His love to the people here. We are glad we are here and feel that the Lord has put us right were we fit. We have become such good friends with Andrew and Angella (the pastor and his wife) it is real fellowship with a real connection at the heart. God is watching us and taking care of us at every move. Our trip here was filled with setbacks but God did miracles and now we are in our new home. We are loved here and we are protected and safe from harm. We love you and miss you all.
Isaac and Brittany

Some of you may have read my post in June about Minito the boy who the Lord directed me to. In the ensuing months I had to deal with the cultural and personal issues surrounding being friends with an 11 year old in Mozambique. First of all most of the children from the village love to come to the Iris base because the westerners play with them and sometimes give them things (shirts, chocolate, etc) Actually they have become proficient at minipulating the new visitor into giving them stuff. They sell the clothes often and buy cookies or whatever else they want. I learned that since I had shown special attention to Minito that there were extra expectaions. Minito would not settle with being treated the same as everyone else and would walk off in a huff if I gave somthing to someone else. Isaac became a vending machine. The other thing is that the majority of Mozambiquan parents dont show a lot of affection/attention to their children. 'Play' was lost during Portugese rule and oppression of the Makuah people. The children arent just there for stuff (although that is the initial reason) they stay and grow attached because of love. I had to learn to ignore the games/minipulations and just find ways to have fun, to joke, to play. I saw the fruit. Under the tent one day we were all worshiping and the Spirit of God came in power, everbody was just getting wrecked. Minito came in and was following me around. I decided to do an experiment. I thought 'Minito knows Jesus and so the Holy Spirit lives inside of him...Im gonna have him pray for people' As we went around praying for people (Id direct him to put his hands on someones shoulder for example) People started falling over and Minito became a praying machine. He was so excited that God was using him to touch people! Another time that was really touching was when I learned that he was not going to school when I confronted him he just began to cry. He cried and cried and after that he almost always went to school. We became really good friends. It showed me that even when people just want to use you, when you love them it overwhelms everything else. Minito walked to the airport(2 miles) the day we were leaving just to say goodby. This time we both cried and I knew that God had put us together to teach us both how to love.

Waiting 12 hours until our overnight flight into Freetown. Ive been reading Matthew 9 where Jesus is eating in the house of a tax collector nammed Matthew. The pharisees wanted to know why Jesus ate with the tax collectors and 'sinners'. I think, and the scripture goes on to point-out, that it was because in the heart of Jesus is mercy.
Jason Upton has a song on his new album about Martin Luther King Jr. Jason Upton prays at the end and askes the Lord for mercy because we 'kill all the beautiful people... we cant deal with beautiful people.' He prays for the peacemakers to be revealed.
Jesus was a beautiful person, the most beautiful person. To sit and eat with someone at that time was to be identified with them. To be identified with sinners blew the religeous peoples' minds. This story is a window into the beauty of the heart of Jesus and the heart that he wants us to invest in.(Rev 3:18) Humility for the purpose of serviice. Not just any humility, this humility comes with a cost because to be a 'beautiful person' goes in the face of the worlds system. Actually it spits in the face of the worlds system (...our weapons are mighty) Because when a standard of love is raised up which makes the comfortable uncomfortable and they react. To be humble in love is a transparent place because it is 'Christ through you the hope of glory'. So as we go to Freetown we pray we can bring transparency, mercy, and love to dine with those that the Lord puts before us! To bring peace and help to turn the world right side up. In Jesus mighty name, Amen!

A week from tommorow we are getting on our plane for Freetown, Sierra Leone. Brit was asked if she was sad as everyone else is going home and we are just beginning. She realized that she wasnt, she said she can feel its not time to go home yet. I actually wonder if we are heading home :). Its not to much of a streach to think that way. The Lord has been blessing us. For instance living in a house with 8 other people as newlyweds was awesome somehow. We dont try to figure out why too much, we just know that God is making a way. Our hearts are ready though, mine actually aches because I want to be there. Brittany and I will be setting up our first little home. Sorry about not having pictures yet. I forgot the cord in the states and so it has been difficult. We love you all so much and we just ask for your prayers as we start our lives as missionaries.

Hello everybody
We got back on Saturday from our trip to Lachinga in the Niassa province of Mozambique. A lot of driving in the back of a truck. Beautiful terrain, mountanous, spacious, amazing. Nianga (sp?) is one of many rites of passage in Africa. Not all are harmful but Nianga is. We learned of its wickedness from a lawyer's assistant who last year had to take the police with her to get the 6 year old daughter of a missionary back from the witchdoctors... I hugged her after she told the story, as soon as I did she began to cry and tears welled up in my eyes... the little girl was abused and beaten but the scariest part was that after two days with the witchdoctors, the little girl didnt want to leave... The lawyers assistant recounted being beaten herself afterwards by an entire village because she helped the little girl. As we drove past villages we saw flags raised proudly and women dancing in the streets as they waited for the witchdoctors to pick up thier boys who for one month had undergone preparation for Nianga
We brought the gospel in the spirit of I Cor 1:23-24 "but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."
The Government has not made any laws against Nianga we learned because culturally there is such a facination about it even among government officials. The hope for this province lies in Jesus.
We stayed at an orphanage run by an Australian family with 6 children of thier own and 10 orphans. The first five of the children had been ones whos grandmother had taken them there for safety just before last years Nianga. They had been with relatives who were going to give them over to the abuse.
The villages we went to had never heard the gospel before. But God is doing an amazing thing. Hundreds and hundreds came to the Lord while we were there. Our translators cousin who was lame began to walk again after not being able to for a year and a half. Four churches were started, one in a village that had been compared to Sodom and Gommorrah. Change is coming and it needs the power of God... we are praying... God can do what only God can do. We left behind a missionary couple and another one arrived to help shortly after we left. "the harvest is plenty but the laborors are few" The problems in Niassa are spritual and those that are there who carry His Holy Spirit will be led by Him unto the freedom from the presence of Nianga. The Yao are beautiful people whos cultures the Lord is redeeming for himself.
We stayed at the orphanage which was like "little house on the prarie" with no electricity and water pulled from the well. After we left we learned that the children at the orphanage began to have dreams and visions of Jesus and the chains breaking off of Niassa. The littlest one described that she saw 'Jesus sitting on his 'big chair'' He was calling her name and the Lord is calling each child in Niassa by name.

We are going after the school on the extended outreach. We are going to a province 12 hours away called Nassia and to a city called Litchinga. What we have heard about the area is really disturbing and the hope that is in Jesus really necessary. When we get there it will be for the last weeks of a six week period where the witch doctors take the 5-6 year old children to the bush and sexually abuse them. Much of northern mozambique has never heard the gospel. The Makuah were previously the largest unreached people group in the world. (Our base is surrounded by Makuah villages) Where we are going one village has been reached with the gospel and they have subsiquently made it illegal for the witchdoctors to continue with this practice. There is such a need for the love of Jesus and a need for a display of his power in the Spirit of Isaiah 61 "to set free the captives". It is going to be a tough two weeks. Pray for the safety and unity for our team, we have such awesome people we are going with. Pray that the people of the Nassia province will know Jesus "Agora!"
Ate Logo!

The Holy Given School is coming to a close and it has been a really amazing opportunity. Thank you all of you who helped support us in going. I have learned a lot about two-thirds world culture in Africa. For instance if someone asks you for your stuff sometimes they just want you to joke with them because they want to be your friend. In class we have learned the theology of missions and all about the kingdome, it has been a real blessing to have this time here before we go to Sierra Leone. God knows what he is doing without Him we are totally unprepared. With Him we see time and time again that we have everything, absolutly everything we need.
We have had amazing miracles during some of the outreaches around the Cabo Delgado province. The mute have heard, the deaf have spoken, the lame have walked. Jesus is on the move. We have all recieve so much impartation of the heart of missions, of the heart of the Father, just by being here and watching how things are done. Hiedi and Rolland had a question and answer time today. It is really incredible to hear them say "We were just this mom and pop operation" and really see that that is what God has used... humility and an absolute belief in the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ.

Hello Friends and Family!

Isaac and are in Africa and we are both doing really well. We have
finally settled in and are getting used to our new surroundings. We
have met some truly amazing people and have been so blessed by these
new friendships. The school has been amazing and we are both learning
so much. We can barely keep up with all of the changes!

One day during class there was a guest speaker Che Ane. He was
talking about trusting the Lord with our finances. Towards the end of
his session he felt like the Lord was asking him to take up an
offering as a sign of us letting go of control of our finances. The
next day when we got to class Heidi began to speak. She started off
by telling us an amazing testimony. She told us that yesterday as the
accountant of Iris was figuring numbers for the month of June they
were $10,000 short of meeting the needs of the base. In order for
things to continue as normal they needed $10,000 in cash that day.
She informed us that it was impossible to wire cash in one day and
they didn't know what they were going to do. She went on to tell us
that this unexpected offering that Che Ane took plus a few other
donations she received that day totaled $10,040. Talk about an
example of trusting the Lord. It was amazing!

Although our experience has been amazing it has also been really
hard. This journal entry gives a little window into what has been
going on in my heart.

June 24, 2007

"Father, I give you my heart with my friends and family at home. I
feel so connected with everyone from home and I want to love them and
take care of them but it is impossible to do so. I want to love them
and want to take care of their hearts but I can't. I want to watch
you do your beautiful work in them but I can't. How do I let go? How
do I trust that your hand is big enough and strong enough to love the
people that I love so much? How do I let go when all I want to do is
hold on? I feel like I am leaving the very things that I poured my
heart and life into.

As I was crying out to the Lord a thought came into my head. Jesus
left His home too. He left Heaven, the Father, and everything He was
used to. He came to earth and became nothing. He was born in a manger
to a poor family. He lived life on earth and died a really painful
death. But why did He do it? He left His home for love. He left
everything comfortable for love. He became like us in order to love us
and lead us to the Father. So my question changed from looking back
to looking forward.

How do we become love? How do we leave our home and become nothing to
serve others? How do we take the low road for the gospel, for the
Kingdom? We left home and now it's time to love. We are walking like
Jesus. We are following in His footsteps. And He learned how to
depend on the Father for everything. He learned how to walk in
perfect union with the Father, completely abiding in Him.

So, this is the challenge set before us. And even though we have only
just begun we are learning to walk like our Savior.

We love you all so much.

Brittany and Isaac

Dan here (Isaac's brother)... just wanted to post some links to photos from the wedding & reception: Wedding Photos | More Wedding Photos | Reception Photos | Breakfast Photos at Lighthouse

This was written in London, we just never posted it....

Hello friends and family. We made it to our first destination….London!
We are loving it here and are so thankful for time to rest before we head off to Africa. We had lunch at some little Italian place in some off part of London it was so fun! Our Guidence System in the rental car (which talks) has saved our butts!!! It’s been really fun to drive around and we have commented many times that our mothers, because of their driving, would be dead meat here ☺. The driving is so crazy.

We have had a lot of time to reflect on the wedding and we are still so amazed by what happened that night. It was perfect and powerful and more than we expected. We were so blessed by all of you that were able to attend. We felt so loved, celebrated, and supported the whole night. Brittany was the most beautiful bride. My favorite part was when I sang to her during the ceremony, she was absolutely stunning.
We sat and wrote all the wonderful moments of the night. So many little happenings blessed us so much. Some of my (Brittany) favorite moments include
Johnny calling himself a woman during the ceremony
Dad’s toast
Isaac’s song
Comments of people who God touched
All the people who were ministering (praying) for each other during the reception. (Isaac’s addition)
We would love to hear from some of you what you were blessed by…so comment if you have anything.
We will write again with some pictures of our honeymoon soon! Thanks Andy and Betty We are leaving tomorrow for Pemba Mozambique for the Holy Given School of Missions for the next three months. Pray that we adjust well and find the measure of grace Jesus has for us there.
(Update...God has been so amazing to us in our time here we feel like we are still having a honeymoon a lot of times and the Lord just keeps bringing to mind and perserving in is the testimony of how faithful he is and how much love He pours out on us...Read Psalms 92 for more insight :)

Brit and I wanted to comment that we love your 'comments' so please keep em coming. We miss you all tremendously!

I realized the other day that this is really a school. The Bakers and Leslie Ann Leighton have constructed a really great curriculum and we are taught every day under a big tent about so many things. We have books to read, assignments to finish, projects to tackle. Along side of us are 200 mozambiquan pastors at the school. They have a different curriculum but some of it crosses over and we eat meals together. ‘Ontem’ (Yesterday) Heidi sent us out to the village for some real learning and she sent us with the pastors, because we need them!! It was such a good point made. My understanding of what she was saying was that we cant do any missions work without help and when we engage and learn from the culture we go into, when we humble ourselves it does something very powerful. So we went, four of us westerners, four pastors, and a bunch of children hanging all over us. A Makuah village is a sight to see. There is layer upon layer upon layer. Mud houses skinny alleys, high bamboo fences, and lots of activity. The pastors stopped and talked to women and men and shared the gospel. We prayed for two babies for healing. One woman received Jesus after the pastors explained the death and resurrection of Jesus. (I made friends with a village guy named Chilo, I am going to give him ‘like a mighty wind’ by Mel Tari tomorrow because he knows English and asked if I had any books he could read) Heidi wanted us to make some friends, to get out and engage, it felt like it was acting like Jesus to do it and so it was such a blessing. I am learning so much and my appetite for missions work is getting big. I love it and I love that my heart is becoming bigger (It is definitely not as big as it needs to be though ☺).
Isaac

Before we went on outreach I was talking to all the village kids and the Lord pointed one out to me to be friends with. His name is Minito. In this culture boys are not valued very highly. It is a challenge here it has not been all good for 300 westerners a year to come to Pemba. Many of the children are always asking for everything which was not the case at first. Now we are instructed not to give to them which is hard because they do not have much. It is more important of course to look out for them in the long run. I love giving Minito my friendship, it is teaching me so much, it challenges me a lot but I love it. Its also hard getting to know him because of the language barrier I know ‘um poco’ Potuguese and he knows ‘a little’ English. But love transcends…
Isaac

Outreach
We went on an outreach last weekend. The name of the village continues to escape both of us, but the people do not. We are learning about a new culture…(Right now Brittany is freaking out because there is a rat in the room we are in (or a really big mouse)…welcome to Africa!!) Anyway, we did a weekend outreach in a village that was the last one on a long road close to Pemba (where we are). It is so close to Pemba and yet the people did not have enough food and were very isolated (the last couple miles we drove on a goat path). The Lord gave us favor as the leader of the village, a muslim, was happy to have us there. One man we talked to had been sick ever since he saw a witch doctor 21 years ago. It was a blessing to bring deliverance and hope to him as he received the Lord and burned his necklace from the witch doctor. I fell in love with the pastors we went with and two village boys named Paulo and Augusto who came as translators. They were so funny and so meek I loved their passion for Jesus. Here people see the dramatic need for the Lord and once He has them they are passionate about Him. Augusto introduced me to his mother the other day, he is 16 and already so powerful in the Lord. I prayed for him one day and saw that just his smile was so powerful for the Lord. Hallelujah! Amen! (everybody says that ☺) A lot of people accepted Jesus in the village and I saw 4 healings. Praise Jesus! I was so grateful for the opportunity to experience one aspect of missions work here. In just that one village alone there is so much need. The Lord showed me that in the prophesy about Jesus in Zachariah 9. Jesus comes in gently, riding on a donkey, bringing salvation. That was the word for this village. When people saw kindness and gentleness in us they opened up and their eyes opened up too to see the hope that is in Jesus. The Lord is moving throughout Mozambique, one village at a time, He loves these people and this is real revival, one village, one person at a time. The Lord is not done here though and it is so challenging to be a part of this school and see how the work is done, by becoming nothing for the gospel. In nome de Jesus Amen! (another thing everybody says)

Hello everybody
Brit and I are sitting here thinking of you all at an internet cafe in Pemba, Mozambique. We are going to post a few details about our honeymoon later but we forgot the file at home. We have been eating so well (thanks to goats, beans and vitamins) We just went shopping in town and are about to get eggs and fruit and head home. The school is amazing it is such an effective program, it equips people in every way I am so grateful to be here!
We went on outreach last weekend, for example, and we got to see the Lords work up close and personal. We were able to see healings and salvation and a whole village turned towards the Lord. I would like to write all about that in another post.
Basically everything has been well. We feel all the grace that is on us and it is so comforting to know that God's grace is in what we are doing. Brittany and I are growing together and just have had so much fun in all the growing and stretching.
Thank you all so much for coming to our wedding it was amazing!!
We love all of you and until next time.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
Isaac and Brittany

We are coming up on just over a week until the Big Day and our departure to Mozambique. It has been so exciting as it is winding down. The Lord's provision has blown me away in every area. We have found time for friends, gotten our plane tickets, visas, and luggage. We have purchased almost everthing we need and started to get packed. Brittany and I have been working together really well we have been planning each day and still somehow finding time for each other and the Lord. We are finding we have just enough time for everything. Family, friends, packing, moving, and the wedding. The Lord is so good! All the while Brittany and I are getting closer and closer. Its crazy how many details there are to get done. But by His grace we are getting them all done, and staying happy all the while. I never laugh as much in my whole life as I do with Brit. The Lord has shown His provision in other ways too. He healed my back today as we were at coffee with a friend. We were praying at perkins(brittany, her, and I) after the meal and she expressed that her back was getting really hot and wondered if either of ours needed prayer. I got excited and told her that mine did as it has been aching and really uncomfortable lately. The kind of pain that is really dull and annoying. Well she prayed for me and my back totally loosened up. I could streach probably three times as much as it could before and I feel soooo much better. Thank you Jesus!
Now the had part is going to be for me to stop messing with it (cracking it etc...:))

My friend's grandaughter has decided to support us. She started reading about Heidi and Rolland and realized how important the work of 'caring for the one' is. She has raised over $100 dollars in a week and her goal is $3000. Her money is not going toward our plane tickets. Her money is the overflow. Her life is an overflow of the love of Jesus. Her life is a sign of the prosperity of love that we are giving ourselves for. Her life is the heart of all of this. I am so blessed to be a part of such riches. She is 8 and I pray my heart becomes more like hers :)