A Quickening Light

In the spirit of human kind’s joy in significant dates and nice round numbers, I write this entry.

From the soft carpet between my toes and Veggie Booty in my tummy to warm Southern Californian sun in my eyes and the Pacific within reach - it is hard to imagine that a month from today I’ll be moving to the DR Congo. But that’s just what I’ve been doing, imagining and visualizing what it will be like to live in Africa again. I'm remembering past trips with similar circumstances but with a long-term mentality. I can prepare as much as I want, but there are always surprises to be had, growth to grow, lessons to learn.

In that, I am savoring my time here.
It has been beautiful and much needed.

With my one-month mark upon me, I am turning from resting to preparing with more intensity. Daily life is visa applications, vaccinations, medical exams, new boxes for storage, more clothes to Goodwill and many lists.
I love lists.

And Now... Now

Whew, officially consolidated!

From here on out I'm over sending mass emailed newsletters. I'll blog like the rest of the sane world. Readers, read at your leisure. 5 years of letter archives have now been transfered into a confusing mess that gives the appearance of a manic world trip taken in record time while maintaining all the deep life lessons learned along the way.

Currently, I am dog-sitting in San Diego, listening to the wind whip through the palm trees, in a state of limbo and should have been in bed hours ago.


I will be working with Medair at their DR Congo field office sometime in the near future.
Facts will follow when I have them.

Good night.

22 February 2010

A San Diego Open

For those of you in San Diego...

Hey guys, I just wanted to send out an open invite to join me this Wednesday
night (Feb 24th) at my housechurch in Clairmont. I'll be talking about my
life and work in Hong Kong and it might be a stellar opportunity to not only
hang out, but get more info on the organization I'm working with if you or
anyone you know is interested in development work, life abroad and such.

Its always a potluck and this week's theme is Mexican food! Really casual
atmosphere with super fun and welcoming people whom I love. We generally eat
from 7-8, play some music and then I'll share and answer questions before
presenting the obligatory grab-bag of trinkets from abroad :) When I was
living here, Wednesday nights were always the highlight of my week because
it is always a good time.

So, know that you are welcome to come. Just email me and I'll give you
directions as well as gap filler options for food.

Hope to see you there!

With love,
courtney

10 August 2009

Down to the Wire

Hi Guys!

As September is fast approaching, I am working through some final logistical
things. This email is primarily for those who have committed to partnering
with me financially either with one time gifts or monthly amounts, or for
those who are thinking about it. As all staff members at CRI are volunteer,
we rely on sponsors to come along side us so we can break the cycle of
poverty.

The Itinerary:
There has also been confusion about my itinerary, so let me clarify here.
September 3rd I leave LAX.
September 4th I arrive in Hong Kong for a 12 hour layover, drop off my
luggage, meet with a few people at CRI and then get back on a plane for
Bangalore, India.
September 24th I arrive back in Hong Kong after being in India celebrating
my friends' marriage for 3 weeks.
After a few move in days and jet-lag adjustment I will start work officially
on the 28th (my mom's birthday)!

Any Itinerary/Support Questions:
I obviously have paid my own way for India and for half of the ticket (how
great is it that I needed to buy just one ticket). I am in need of one time
donations for the Hong Kong leg of the trip, as well as the fee for
extending my "layover" from 12 hour to 12 months on my way home. Also there
are the general start-your-new-life-on-the-other-side-of-the-planet
expenses. Any funds that come in during the month of September will go
towards covering those costs. Beginning in October I will be using monthly
support (as well as one time donations) for housing, food and living
expenses.

Thank you so much for your support though this time, both emotional and
physical! It has been a tough year and I know that this next year won't
exactly be a piece of cake... but I prefer ice cream anyway! I expect to
work hard, but I also expect that the work I will be doing will change the
lives of people around the world who previously had no hope. What an amazing
honor. And what an amazing gift it is to know that you are right there with
me, doing the work in the capacity you can. We've all got something to give,
its just a matter of how we chose to :)

Much Love,
courtney

2 August 2009

Courtney's Official (as it gets) Hong Kong Letter

Greetings Friends!

My name is Courtney, however, chances are you received this letter
because you know that. I am writing you to let you in on what I am doing
with the next year of my life and how you can be a part of it! I will be
moving to Hong Kong in September to work a fulltime volunteer position
with Crossroads.

If this organization sounds familiar, it might be because I worked with them
6 years ago. In recent months, life has opened up to an opportunity to work with them again,
and I couldn’t be more excited! I am a big believer in the resourceful work
CRI does to alleviate poverty throughout the world and I know the year
commitment I am making with them will bear much fruit!

CRI fights poverty both locally in Hong Kong and in developing nations by
equipping organizations in existence on the field with material goods
necessary to promote the work they are doing in their communities. We are
donated quality excess material goods (from beds to computers to medical
equipment) and match them to organizations that have a need for that
specific equipment in order to carry out the work they are doing. Among the
organizations we have aided are orphanages, job training centers, refugee
centers, schools and clinics to name only a few. Each dollar given to CRI
allows us to move goods worth $7-20 due to the unique model we work with.
This multiplication effect is evident when you look at the thank you letters
and reports we receive back from our consignees; one shipment can transform
an entire community.

Working with CRI was what set my life on a trajectory focused on fighting
poverty and injustice, returning to Hong Kong for this season seems to be a
natural full-circle-cycle. I am eager to bring to CRI what I have learned at
university and with other non-profits.

As I mentioned, this is a full-time volunteer position and along with my
coworkers, I receive no salary. Many have asked how I will manage
financially while I am there. That’s where you come in! I am looking for
people, businesses and organizations to come along side of me and sponsor
the work I am doing at CRI. Primarily, I aim to partner with people willing
to commit to a regular monthly donation that will contribute to my room,
board and other basic costs of living (a detailed budget will be available
for those who want to check it out). My goal is to raise $1,500 per month
and I already have $300 in commitments! One-time donations are needed at the
moment for initial travel expenses associated with starting up a new life on
the other side of the world. We are in this together!

A woman I was talking with the other night raised an excellent point; this
is an opportunity people to participate in the fight against poverty who are
not able to physically go to the front lines themselves. You are an integral
part of this equation! If you know of anybody who would be interested in
this work or the projects CRI is working on, please send them my way! Often
work like this is funded through referrals; so don’t hesitate to spread the
word!

If you are planning on donating, please email me so I
can add you to my growing list of sponsors!
Please don’t hesitate to email me back with any questions or a little good
‘ole fashioned “hi”! I love to hear what you are up to, and it will be
especially nice when I am gone.

You are in my heart,
courtney anne brandt

20 July 2009

What's going on with Courtney?

Hiya!

I hope this letter finds you in a place of peace and provision despite the
world around us. It is a pre-email to a letter I will send to you in a few
days, this being more of a personal reflection and introduction to the
official ‘support letter’ so you can better understand where I am coming
from. Nothing like getting a random letter from a foreign land out the blue!

I am writing from San Diego, where I am living only part time, while I work
a seasonal job in Santa Monica. Seasonal because I am making a big step in
September and moving to Hong Kong to work for Crossroads International! I
have worked with them before and have always known that one day I would
return, that season is upon me now. An innumerable amount of life changes
and decisions have led me to this point and are too many to name here
(though you can feel free to contact me and we can talk about it all)!

Suffice to say; I feel I have been preparing for this moment my whole life.
Crossroads is an amazing humanitarian aid organization that focuses on the
redistribution of excess material goods both locally and internationally to
the most needy and vulnerable people on the planet.
Their organization is four-fold:
Crossroads International distributes quality goods that will be
used by grassroots organizations working with impoverished people groups
worldwide. The Global Village offers simulated experiences of global need
that help people understand the daily life of those in need (much like the
work I was doing with World Vision!). Global Handicrafts sells fair trade
goods from people in poverty to support local artisans and small businesses.
Finally, Global Hand is much like a virtual Crossroads, providing a
‘matching’ website for public-private partnerships to connect their
resources and needs.

I will be working with Crossroads come September and have committed to a
year of service with them. I have not received a specific job yet, and I
will keep you updated on that for sure! It will be along the lines of both
the work I have done with other non-profits (and the work I hope to spend
the rest of my life doing) working with international teams and grants,
making sure the people we are ultimately serving on the field are heard well
and that lines of communication are open between the giving and receiving
ends of this work.

It will be a fulltime volunteer position and I will be working on building
partnerships and finding sponsors for the work I am doing over the next few
months. I aim to gain a foundation of supporters willing to commit to a
regular monthly amount. I already have nearly $200 in monthly commitments of
the $1500 monthly goal I need to meet!

A friend of mine who works for a non-profit through the individual support
model gave me some words of wisdom the other day. I learned that over 50% of
his donations come from people who give less than $50 a month! So don’t be
discouraged if you want to be a part of this work but can’t afford much! If
you think what you can give is just a drop in the bucket, think about this…
if there were no drops in the bucket, it would be empty! That is one thing I
have learned working with a world in such need, you give what you can and
even if you can’t change the world, you can change one person’s world! In
this case, partnering with the work I am doing will be changing hundreds, if
not thousands of people’s worlds!

So I have a running tally of people who are planning on coming along side of
the work I am moving in to, let me know if I can add you to it! This is not
official (yet), just so I can be getting an idea of how many people can
partner with me and how much they are able to give. Like I said before, I
will be sending out a more “official” letter soon!

I hope all is well with you and your family! I am so grateful for your
financial partnership and prayer support both in the past and now, in this
new season I am moving in to! Let me know if you’d like to get together
before I leave. Also, let me know if you know anybody who would be
interested in partnering with me in this. Feel free to forward this on to
anyone that comes to mind who would be stoked on the work I am doing with
Crossroads!

Keep your eyes peeled for updates popping up in your inbox as I prepare for
this big step!

Take care,
courtney brandt

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

I’ve had a hard time categorizing reasons for my eyes’ redness and stinging dryness over the past four days. Could it be the 5% humidity and Santa Ana winds? Maybe that my eyes rarely have left the glare of 24-hour news coverage or the Internet’s updates that didn’t seem to come fast enough? Perhaps it is that I am holding back tears for fear of falling into a pattern of thinking that leaves me listlessly gazing at the end of the world that might not be that far off? Or could it just be that the ashes and thick smoke that meet me everywhere I go are not even offset by air-conditioned coffee shops at the coast?

Or, D. All of the above.

After an evacuation, several restless nights and days of naps and moving things from house to house… all houses, family members and such are accounted for on the Brandt front. I have received emails from Iraq to Jordan to Hong Kong asking how we are doing here. Thanks for your prayers and concern, they were heard.

We are not in the clear yet, but I don’t feel the need to wear a mask today and things seem to be relatively calm here in San Diego. Relative, that is, to the past few days.

Drawing Parallels in Proportions

Wednesday's house church was discussion based around the idea of asking from the Lord and receiving. Biblically we should be seeing results that in reality, often we are not. I find myself dwelling a lot on this thought especially in light of what went on in India while I was there. We walked those streets the same way Jesus would have, He was our group as we were Him. The result was miracles that rival anything found in the book of Acts (I'm convinced the only reason we didn't see the dead raised is because we didn't run into any dead people). I feel like I am not presenting this clearly... let me find the things the Lord had me write down that night.

James 1:6 - But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

Displacement Theory Revised:

While in a foreign land, feelings of insecurity, unknown, discomfort and such are common and commonly expected to be so. You are in a strange land, often without even a common tongue to tie you to those around you. This makes for an environment conducive to some heavy co-dependences. Clearly the only healthy form of such would be a full dependence on the Lord. This was the situation I find myself in often, my time in India was such. For instance, when I prayed for a woman and she began to slither on the ground in a manner defiantly not of human origin. I was up against a strong spirit of suicide that had gripped her for years and I had nothing to fight with but the few hints of direction I was getting from the Lord. Due to my complete lack of the slightest idea of what to do, I just took what little I was getting from God and clung to it then ran with it. God directed my prayers... now she is free and full of life. I could tell stories and give examples of being completely clueless and finding God in it... well, finding God as the only way out of it as well!

1 Corinthians 2:2 - For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

So, while the team and I were ministering in India last year, we were pretty much clueless save for the fact that God speaks and what He speaks is truth and light that breaks into whatever battle is at hand. We spent everyday conscious of our direct dealings with the spiritual realm as much as we did the physical and there were points where the two were hardly distinguishable.

Ephesians 6:12 - For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

In a sense we were displaced from our everyday lives, strangers in a strange land, completely dependant on God. So, what I am wondering is why I should not feel like that here, as I finish putting these thoughts together (over a month since I began them) sitting in an over-air-conditioned Starbucks with Trav writing on Luke at the table next to me. Am I not just as much a stranger in this land? I feel it here more and more. The deeper understanding I have of how God sees me, who He has made me and what He has made me for, the deeper parts of me understand that I am just passing through.

Psalm 84:5,7 - Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.

There are no borders from God's perspective and regardless of my physical location, I am just as much a stranger whilst just as much at home in Christ. This is where my solace lies, if Christ has made His home within me, then I am at home where ever my feet may roam. It is in this promise that I find peace in the direction that God has given me for the next season of my life. I am staying in San Diego. Each fleece I laid out and each variable at hand has shifted away from Hong Kong and though this makes my heart sad, it is a peaceful sorrow that simply longs to labor alongside the people in Hong Kong that helped shape my life and drew me closer into God's will for me. The peace that I have about staying on here in San Diego does surpass my understanding of what my plans were and the vision I had for the next few years of my life.

Proverbs 20:24,25 - A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way? It is a trap for a man to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider his vows.

It can be such a Christianese cop out to claim peace or not peace in a situation, and I understand the ease of which my decision can be written off as something that it is not. However, I have spent months laboring over this decision, and the past few weeks intently seeking God's nod of approval to send the email confirming my desire to go back to Hong Kong (the email that has been sitting in my drafts folder for over three months now). That nod did not come, and that is just fine.

Jeremiah 10:23 - I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.

I don't know what will replace these plans I have made, but I gave the Lord permission to direct my steps and that is what He has done. I see no open or closed doors, just a free horizon as far as the eye can see, reminding me how small I am and what an amazing God I have the opportunity to serve. I just pray I can walk it out worthy to what I am called to.

1Peter 2:11,12 - Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

To bring it back around; Lord, I believe... but help my unbelief.

I Wish I May, I Wish I Might

Thirteen days until I have a degree in my hands and am legitimate by much of the world's standards... and today I feel like just not doing it anymore. What if I don't turn in this paper that is due in an hour and seven minutes? What if I don't send an apologetic email with it attached and just stop now. That would be silly, yes. However, I am writing this paper on Tina Modotti and Frida Kahlo so I am feeling like everything is silly.

I can do this though. I just have been doing it for so long that the idea of not having to anymore is a bit more daunting than anticipated and I am glad to be waitressing on the boardwalk in Mission Beach instead of starting an internship in a cold place like D.C. or New York. Though every time I get hit on by a sloshed frat kid the thought of skipping town does ring clear in my ear.

Speaking of such nonsense, I am officially announcing that I am planning on skipping town (gasp). Not right away though. I miss my San Diego summers, my studio (converted laundry room) is four blocks from six decent surf breaks, a ten block skate to work and June gloom should be set to leave mid month. I'm waitressing now and will pick up another job when I graduate in two weeks...

... then in October, my dear friend Darla is set to marry her fiance, Vivek. I get to cruise out to India for the reception and will travel a bit to places we didn't get to see last time we were out there. I'll hit up Europe on my way out and Hong Kong on my way back (India's so far away it doesn't matter how you get there). So, providing I keep my living expenses down, I should be ready to go come the end of October. Hopefully Laurel will be joining me and hopefully it will be as rad as it is right now in my brain.

Fifty-eight minutes till my paper is due. That's not going to happen. I guess an apologetic email is in store. Oh well, I at least know I'll pass the class and I get to learn about radical women in the mean time which has always been a joy for me.