11 May 2006

India and Life

Good Evening (or morning or afternoon depending on where you are),
Here is the latest in my life. Please print this out and pray about it as
often as you are reminded of India, me or the world! The attachment is the
same as that which I have pasted below, I just wanted to make sure you got
it.

If you wish to receive real, live, paper mail from me or if I do not have
your current mailing address, please send it to me. I hope you don't feel
overwhelmed by all this contact I am sending your way... my vision is to see
us all praying and supporting each other as a body in Christ! Let me know
how I can be praying for you.

Much love,
court

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

Dear Family and Friends,

Over the past three years I have been running the gauntlet that is my life,
on the path that God has set out before me (Ephesians 2:10). Though it looks
chaotic to just about everybody, including me, I am starting to see a
pattern that matches the plans God has been speaking over and into me for
years. Most of you have received several prayer letters from me throughout
the years and may be wondering when I will settle down and be "normal".
Well, looks like never.

My 2005 service with the peoples of Burkina Faso, West Africa was one of the
hardest times of my life. So many of the assumptions I went with about
missions work got lost somewhere along the way. I came back with my ideas of
what international missions "should be" so shaken that I was beginning to
think I really had lost my mind. I have spent the last year trying to find
my feet again and wondering what was next, secretly hoping for stability. So
when God sprang the idea of serving in India on me, I thought maybe He was
crazy.

SEND Ministries (Serving and Evangelizing Nations in Despair) sends out
teams to spiritually oppressed and developing nations in order to partner
with local believers. This will be the India team's fifth year working with
pastors from their base in Bangalore. The work the team does looks like that
of a migrant worker. Following the pastor's leads, we go where the harvest
is plenty and the workers are few. This summer we will be planting churches,
as well as encouraging churches and believers who represent the one percent
population of Christians in a nation of over one billion people. The plan is
to base our work in Bangalore and work our way through Bijapur, Linksor,
Gokak and up through Kashmir. This year's team will be gone from July to
December and I am called to be on it. Maybe I am out of my mind (2
Corinthians 5:13).

I cannot express my appreciation to you for lifting me up in prayer and
supporting me all these years, it is just too wonderful for words. Knowing
you are praying for God to make straight this path I am walking is one of
the few things that keeps me going. I do not know what the future of this
path holds for me, but I feel your prayers and encouragement pushing me to
find out. So, as goes the story of my life, I will make my plans, but God
will direct my steps (Proverbs 20:24).

Please continue to pray as I go out. I am taking the fall off of university
at UCSD and will be returning to graduate in June of 2007. After that I am
praying about the direction God wants me to take. All I know is that it
won't look anything like "normal", but it will be so good (Romans 12). But
for now, be praying for India, that the light of God would shine upon the
faces of His children there and that captives will be set free.

Pray Upons
*Salvation/Encouragement of Indian Peoples
*Health and Travel Safety (10 July- 12 Dec)
*Team Unity and Zeal
*Financial Support (all needed before July)
If it is on your heart to invest in what God is doing (Matthew 6:19-20,
Philippians 4:17).

God never fails in providing for His work to be done,
and the results of your prayers are constantly manifested in my life
(1 Thessalonians 5:11).
Thank you.
May God's blessings fall upon you tenfold.

In His Hands,
courtney brandt


Bible citations:
*Ephesians 2:10*- For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

*2 Corinthians 5:13*- For if we are out of our mind it is for God, if we are
in our right mind it is for you.

*Proverbs 20:24*- A man's steps are of the Lord; How then can a man
understand his own way?

*Matthew **6:19**-20*- Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and
where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there
your heart will be also.

*Philippians 4:17*- Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that
abounds to your account.

*1 Thessalonians 5:11*- Therefore comfort each other and edify one another,
just as you also are doing.