Brett and Bronwyn

Posted by Bronwyn:

Being a camp counselor is the most amazing, impactful, fun, and exhausting job you can have in the summer.  It’s a chance to be silly, goofy, and utterly ridiculous by dressing up in costumes (mostly made from things you find around camp), singing crazy songs and shouting chants (being the loudest cabin is an understood competition), playing games that are sometimes messy that you would never play anywhere else. All this while quickly making some of the best friends of your life with fellow counselors while being looked up to by (and often imitated by) your campers because you have just made being silly, goofy, and utterly ridiculous cool!

When going through our stuff preparing to move to Kenya, I came across some pictures of my time as a resident camp counselor.  I wish I had more because there was much ridiculousness that was not caught on camera (or maybe that is a good thing) since it was sadly before everyone was able to easily carry a phone around in their pocket.  Also, shaving cream fights and mud hikes are not camera friendly.  I did come across photos from our “Olympics”.  Your cabin group got to choose a country to be and we were Tanzania.  Now, we didn’t really know anything about Tanzania but it was fun to say and more creative than just being France or Germany.  Plus, Brett’s cabin group had been Tanzania the last two summers.  If you had told my ridiculous camp counselor self that one day I would be living and running a camp next door to Tanzania, I would have said you had had one too many pillow fights with your elementary campers or that the need for a week of rest and sleep was starting to get to you.

As we are interviewing college students to come be camp counselors this coming summer, I get excited to hear about their desire to share the love of Christ with campers and their passion to be role models and have a lasting impact.  However, most of them have no idea the impact that being silly, goofy, and utterly ridiculous is going to have on them as well!  We can’t wait to sit back (not that you get to really sit at camp) and watch God work in and through our 2018 Camp BlueSky Counselors!

Please keep these counselors in your prayers as they are also having to raise their support for the summer and send anyone interested in being a part of this amazing team of guys and girls our way!

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Yesterday Bronwyn and I took the 107 miles journey South to Tupelo to meet with Jeff Robbins and his wife Shari. Jeff and I used to work together at JIFF (Juvenile Intervention and Faith-Based Follow-Up) working with teens court referred to the program. Now Jeff is the pastor of Cornerstone Church in Tupelo, MS. We decided to meet at the church before going to lunch and as soon as we pulled in the parking lot we saw Jeff working on something but with a big smile on his face which seems to always be there. Normally we would have embraced but Jeff had been feeling a little sick so we elbow bumped and he took us on a tour of the church. Cornerstone looks like what a church in Tupelo should look like, rustic wood floors and decor but with a modern style. The church was divided into room and areas for all ages with appropriate furnishings for the younger ones and special places for the older students. As a youth minister and camp director it’s exactly the kind of stuff I like to see at a church. He showed us the sanctuary and it was also homey yet functional which seemed to be exactly what they were going for. They currently have 3 Sunday Morning services which is amazing and I am sure can be quite the logistical game of Tetris on Sunday mornings. After the tour we ate and caught up at Kermits, a really cool local restaurant right on the strip. I had an amazing hamburger and  we shared our story of our call to Kenya and how God was working in our lives. We are excited that as a result of the meeting we will be sharing on January 21st at the church, the day after my birthday!

We had posted on Social Media that we would be in Tupelo and if anyone wanted to connect we would love to see them. It just so happens one of the BlueSky staff, Nick Young is from Ponotoc, MS so we met with him and his wife Hannah at StrangeBrew coffee shop. Nick was the only BlueSky staff person we had not gotten a chance to meet so it was great getting to spend time with them. It’s great when you meet someone and sit around a table and within just a few minutes you realize that you’re pretty like minded and you remember that it shouldn’t be too surprising because God is building a pretty amazing team at BlueSky in Kenya and He would want that team to have unity. We sat and shared life for a long time, conversation was easy and I don’t believe there was ever a lull. Makes me just that much more excited to get to Kenya and work with this amazing team. After coffee Nick and Hannah went to do some shopping and we had made dinner plans with friends who live in Tupelo but we had a little time to kill. So we went to Walmart because like I said, time to kill. After picking up some 75-90% off Christmas supplies we head to Russ and Anna Polsgrove’s house.

I have known Russ since we worked together at Camp Lake Stephens 20 years ago. He has been one of my dearest friends and favorite people for pretty much all of that. Russ is currently the pastor at Origins Tupelo and he and Anna have three amazing kids, the oldest of which they adopted from Ethiopia and if I’m being honest she is my favorite seven year old on the planet I’m not related to. We were also thrilled that Ben and Lindsay Rossetti came (with their 3 kids) they had  also worked at Camp Lake Stephens, did I mention Anna worked there? I should have because here we are three married couples who had all worked  at the same camp right around the same time.

 

If you have ever been around camp people there is a shorthand and an intimacy that goes way beyond normal. It was favorite meal I have had in a long time.  We sat at a bid Henry the Eighth banquet table surrounded by a pretty chaotic seen of chocolate and blueberries, Nerf bullets, lightsabers, and Legos, it’s pretty much what I imagine heaven to be like.

We drove home and crashed after a long day but a day full of friends, fellowship around Jesus, and sharing our story of what God is doing in our lives. Pretty much a perfect day.

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It’s the first day of 2018 and in just a sort time we will be leaving the United to States to live in Africa. It still seems unreal sometimes, this time last year I had just received a promotion at the YMCA and was planning for what I thought would be the continuation of my ministry there. God had different plans for both Bronwyn and I. As I have said more than once I had never felt called to the mission field and always felt like Memphis would always be my home. I felt hard wired to this city and new the ministry we were doing here was vital. That’s all changed now and we are heading off to start a new life together in Nairobi, Kenya.

However, we still need a few more people to partner with us and join our support team. We have to be at 80% to leave and my last calculation put us at about 73%. Our most urgent need is to have monthly supporters come along side us and commit to pray for us and help us live and do ministry in Kenya. I know I have probably sounded like a broken record these last few months as we have worked to raise our support but honestly if I didn’t believe so firmly that what we are doing is a call from God on our lives I wouldn’t be asking. Also before we ever made the first ask, Bronwyn and I became donors to BlueSky ourselves and not to our own account but to make sure there was funding to help assist those who need some fee assistance to attend our camp. I’ve always been very proud of the work we did in Memphis  helping those who wanted to experience our programs, a passion that will continue in Africa.

So please, prayerfully consider joining our team “Brett and Bronwyn in Kenya”. The impact your dollars make could very well allow youth and teens from all over the world hear the gospel for the first time. Also please like and share this post so others can hear our story and hopefully be blessed and encouraged by it.

Thanks, God Bless and Happy New Year!!

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You never really know how your going to react in a crises until you are in a crises. It’s why CPR/First Aid classes are designed the way they are so hopefully when you are faced with a life and death situation you become like Ray Allen shooting free throws, it’s all muscle memory. In the summer of 2003 Bronwyn and I were leading backpacking trips for the entire summer for Camp Lake Stephens in Oxford, MS. A former counselor from the camp and good friend was working as a youth director for a church and wanted to take a group of his teens on a trip. We were going to the Sipsey, Wilderness in northwest Alabama. It’s a pretty remote area that is at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains. It’s actually a trip down into a huge sunken land mass pushed down by weight and time. It’s a beautiful place full of giant trees and water falls with an ecosystem all it’s own. Lyle was and is an avid outdoors man, he knows his way around a campfire and how to pack for a trip like this. His youth group, not so much. But we had taken youth and teens on trips before that may not have known exactly what they were getting into before so we could make this work, plus they had their youth leader with them. It was going to be fine.

We cut the trips into several days, the first one involves a lot of hiking and getting deep into the woods and camping next to the biggest tree in Alabama and a beautiful waterfall. The second day was a much shorter hike and we camped next to a river with some cool rapids and a nice place to swim. As we were walking down to the river it happened. Lyle got bit on his toe by a rattle snake, a little baby rattle snake. I was standing next to him when it happened and totally went into muscle memory. I ran back to our campsite, which wasn’t super close and actually took a short cut up and through an area called the eye of the needle. I grabbed the snake bite kit and sprinted back, all the while remaining calm and I began to administer first aid. Now if you have ever been in this situation you may already know that there isn’t really much you can do, it’s all just to make sure the patient remains calm because you are doing something. Ultimately I knew we would need to hike out and I would need to drive him the roughly 20 miles to the hospital. Now Lyle was awesome, I don’t think he ever got even the slightest bit panicky and as we were hiking out my only real job was to make him walk slow to keep his heart rate down so the venom wouldn’t spread. We walked, and talked and acted like he hadn’t just been bit by a snake that although improbable could kill him. There was literally poison in his body. We got to the van and I began to drive to the hospital, on the way there he looked at me and said, “I’ve always heard it’s worse to get bit by a baby rattler than a full grown one”. Something I had in the back of my head but would have never said. I just looked at him and shrugged like I had no idea and had never heard that in my life.

So we get to the hospital and by this time his leg is turning a sickly green and black. I ran in and told them what was happening, grabbed a wheel chair and went to bring him in. Now I use the word Hospital very lightly when I refer to this place. I mean it was written on the sign outside but it was not exactly The Med. They took him back and I we got him settled and I knew had to get back to my wife and his very non-outdoorsy youth group who had no idea what was happening and I couldn’t contact because it was 2003 and even now cell phones don’t work great in Sipsey. Plus it was getting dark and although I knew the trails pretty well anyone who has ever night hiked knows things looks very different when the sun goes down. I said my good bye and walked out just as the doctor opened a very big book and was running his finger down the pages and reading about snake bites. I looked at Lyle and assured him he would be just fine.

I hiked back in to where our group was with two flashlights and a walkie-talkie hoping when I got close enough they would either hear or see me. I’ve never seen too many rattle snakes in Sipsey but that night on the way to the campsite I saw three, including one that struck at me. I got back, assured everyone Lyle would fine and crashed. The next morning I got up and hiked back out to the van and drove a little until I could get enough reception to call and check on Lyle, they had transferred him to Birmingham to another hospital but said he was responding well to treatment and should be fine. He was and a few years later even started the Appalachian Trail with us where I gave him the very cool trail name “Snake Bite”.

You never know how your going to be in a life or death situation until your in one, all you can do is prepare and hope your ready when the time comes. What are you doing today to prepare yourself for the trouble that life may throw at you? I’m just happy that when I face trouble I know that I serve a God who says that “when I pass through the water and fire He will be with me”. Is:43. I’ll say again the God loves you and has a plan for your life. I know he loves me and has a plan for us, in Kenya.

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When working with youth and teens it’s always good to find common ground. That can come in a variety of forms but one of the best is to just be honest and share the stories from your life that helped shape you. I absolutely love sharing this story because at the time (eighth grade) it was incredibly traumatic even if now it seems a little silly. It’s also very self deprecating and being in a vulnerable position with youth and teens is definitely a place you want to be, at least if you want them to share with you. So here is the story.

At the end of 7th grade the school I was attending was closing, it was a satellite of the main campus of the private school I had always attended. Although I always knew I would eventually have to attend the main campus in high school this put me having to start going there in eighth grade, something I had not mentally prepared myself for. Although comparisons are never as easy as “The Breakfast Club” would like us to believe, in my mind it was like “The Outsiders” and I was a Greaser being forced to enter the world of the Socs’. That sentence had 2 movie references from the 80’s which automatically makes it one of the best sentences I’ve ever written. So, my school was closing and now I was moving to a new school where I didn’t know very many people and my jean jacket was not going to play very well. I definitely thought of myself as the Johnny Bender of the seventh grade.

I’ll skip ahead a little to the main part of this story. I was not fitting in all that well, however some of that probably had a lot to do with the fact that I didn’t expect to fit in very well, so it became kind of a self fulfilling prophecy. I can’t say exactly when it happened but in one particular class we had a substitute teacher and for some reason she wrote our names out on the board in cursive. I don’t remember what purpose it served but it doesn’t really matter, she did it. This sub was having a particularly tough time dealing with eighth grade boys so the room was already kind of rowdy. So imagine the scene, substitute teacher, rowdy classroom and then it happened, she wrote my name in cursive on the board. Doesn’t sound like too big a deal except when you write Brett in cursive if you make the “r” too skinny and the “e” too skinny it really really looks like BUTT. Well that was it, the class lost it. Not only had the teacher accidentally written BUTT on the board it was attached to someone’s name who was a relatively easy target. BUT wait, there is more. Just as the class was starting to come around someone remembered my middle name was Rogers and BUTT Rogers sure does sound like someone kids in the 80’s might remember.

Well I knew right then that that was a name that was going to have to staying power. It was honestly just too good and to have happened so organically. If it had been part of an 80’s movie it would have been an amazing piece of writing but unfortunately for me it was my life.  And I know the next time you see me you are going to have to resist the urge to call me BUTT Rogers, I mean it’s really good but remember that even at 42 there is a part of me that is still that 8th grader trying to fit in and I think that’s pretty true of all of us.

I like to end that story by reminding everyone of Psalms 139:16 and Jeremiah 1:5. God made you and Butt Rogers very special. Oh, and if you could not tell the continent of Africa the BUTT Rogers story just yet, that would be great.

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Every year at Winter Break camp I like to ask the same question and tell the same story. Campers who have been coming for years have parts of it memorized and that’s just fine with me because  it means they remember the most important parts and I’ve done my job. I love to ask, “what is the best Christmas present you ever received”. There is nothing like the excitement of sharing your favorite gift. Inevitably it comes around to me and the campers who have been for years get to shout out that they know my favorite Christmas Present of all time was the Death Star Space Station. 

It was big and had all these moving parts, and I am utterly convinced the best things that ever happened in the Star Wars Universe happened in my bed room in that Death Star Space Station.  I remember being so excited because my name was on this huge box and I had no idea what was in it. I had already received the Creature Cantina from my uncle and had tons of figures but I never expected anything so amazing as what was in that huge box. Over the years we recieved other amazing Christmas presents, I mean that is me playing with a Hoth Wampa, and a Dukes of Hazard Race Car set while an Atari sits just beside me. If I had been wearing my Indiana Jones shirts this would have been the most 80’s picture ever. 

Last night we got to see the excitement of our niece and nephew as they opened Christmas presents, the joy of seeing what’s in the box and then the sensory overload of not knowing what to play with next. It’s a joy to watch and be a part of. Christmas is an amazing time for kids and it’s why I like to talk about it with camps. Bronwyn and I have always loved Christmas, before we were even dating I remember talking to Bronwyn about how much I loved Christmas, of course in they same conversation I talked about how much I loved Ultimate Frisbee, but still Christmas was right up there. 

But the real reason I love to share what everyone’s favorite gift they ever received was is so I can also share the story of the greatest gift we all ever received. Luke 2 tells the story of how the Creator and Lord of the universe came down to earth to live with us and ultimately die for us. It was His gift to humanity, His greatest creation, a free gift that just needs to be received. I’ve had the opportunity over the years to see many people receive that gift and it’s always greeted with pretty much that same kind of sensory overload. That knowledge that’s almost too great to bare that God loved you so much that He sent His only Son that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. Even typing it now I’m overcome with awe that I am loved that much. I don’t know yet if we will have Christmas camp in Africa but I do know that we will celebrate Christmas at camp, and I don’t mean just celebrate the birth of Christ I mean we will have “Christmas in the Summer”. I love to remind campers of what God did, to tap into that joy of the Lord and share the story of what is truly the greatest gift any of us ever received.

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Someone asked me the other day, why do we (meaning everyone and presumably especially Americans) hang on to so much stuff? It’s a fair question and one I think needs answering. We spend our lives accumulating stuff, television exists because we watch shows that are broken up with people trying to sell us more stuff, Christmas has become a holiday absolutely obsessed with stuff. Bronwyn and I aren’t even really “stuff” people yet we need to spend the next week going through our stuff. Everything we own falls into categorizes:

• Going to Africa (clothes, books, guitar)
• Things that go to Bronwyn’s parents house aka storage (pictures, heirlooms)
• Things we throw away (so much stuff that we don’t want and nobody else could want)
• Things we are selling (anyone need any Star Wars memorabilia?)
• Things we are giving away.

When we hiked the Appalachian Trail you would think we would have learned that we really don’t need much stuff. Everything we carried for six months had to fit into two backpacks. Our move to Africa is similar, we aren’t going to ship much over and are using it as an opportunity to get rid of so much stuff!

I’m not going to get into a big lesson here on why we don’t need half the stuff we own, mostly because I think we already know that. I’m reading a book on the economics of Africa and was fascinated that in some African languages there is actually a derogatory word for “someone who puts things in a refrigerator”. The meaning being what kind of person would put things into a refrigerator for later when there is a need somewhere for it now. I am actually very excited about getting rid of things I don’t think we need but even with that I’m having trouble getting rid of some things. Even things I know I’ll never need, use, or even look at. I like what Jesus said:

Luke 12:15English Standard Version (ESV)

¹⁵ And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Anything can become an idol including just owning a bunch of stuff. Bronwyn and I have made a commitment to be be wise with money and those who know us well know we always have been. We will go to Africa with no debt and very little real need other than housing, eating, insurance, you know things we feel we really need and the organization insists we have. So take a few minutes and ask yourself if you are letting things be an idol and also please take a moment to consider becoming part of our support team.Click here to support Brett and Bronwyn!

 

Who doesn’t like a cool t-shirt! My dad had one when we were little that said, “You Toucha My Shirt, I Breaka Yo Face”. It was awesome, especially since my dad wasn’t really that type at all. Well this shirt will actually help support us as we head to the mission field in Kenya. It’s pretty simple, you purchase one and either have it shipped to you or you can pick it up from Bronwyn and I. Either way you are helping us and helping spread the word about our move to Africa and need to build a support team. Plus, every time you wear it can be a reminder to pray for us and the ministry of BlueSky. Just click the link below the shirt and you can own your own “Brett and Bronwyn in Kenya” T-Shirt.

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Marafiki Mia Moja means 100 friends in Swahili a beautiful language that is spoken in Kenya. Fortunately for us almost everyone speaks in English because Kenya was part of the British Empire from 1888-1962. It’s meaning is 100 friends and it literally took me 3 conversations with 5 people for me to get it right. Foreign language was never my best subject, I started to tell a story about taking Hebrew but I’ll save that for another time, just trust me when I say foreign language is not my best subject.

So why 100 friends? Well that is roughly what Bronwyn and I need to be fully supported in Africa, 100 people who were supporting us with $50 a month. The reality is we will most likely end up with far more “friends” than that. Although we have some amazing supporters who become 2 or even 3 friends the vast majority are making smaller monthly donations. And you know what? That’s just fine with us, who doesn’t want more friends! I think it would be amazing to have 500 people who were supporting us at $10 a month, not to get all Sally Struthers on you but that is like 33 cents a day. But more than that I’m sure of those 500 people, at least some would be praying for us any given day. That sounds amazing to me. I’ve had several people lately say they just couldn’t do $50 a month, no worries (by the way hakuna matata is also a Swahili word and it does in fact very roughly translate into no worries) just do what you can. $10-$25 a month gets us closer to our goal.

We know that God is going to provide for us, we also know that God probably isn’t going to provide for us with a suitcase full of money we mysteriously find in our attic.  We know that God is calling others to join in with us, maybe not in Kenya but by faithfully supporting us so we can do the work we know God has called us to. So, ask God if he might be nudging you to join our team. Every amount get’s us closer to our goal, and we are a registered non-profit so all donations are tax deductible and by using the link attached here the money will go directly towards supporting Bronwyn and I.

Lastly, our plan is still to leave in just over a month, so before long these post will get much better with tails of what we are doing in Africa and how God is working. We promise to keep our support team updated with what we are doing and how they can best pray for us.

Please consider joining and please share this article with others, tell people how you know us and encourage others to give as well. God is at work in our lives and we want to share what He is doing as a testimony to how Great our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is.

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It’s 36 days until Bronwyn and I are planning to board a plane and fly to Kenya for we aren’t sure exactly how long. Definitely years, and we are incredibly excited about the call He has put on our life to give up jobs, our home, even our ministry here and move to Africa. To be honest it doesn’t feel like a sacrifice at all, more like a gift. However, as of today we are not at the level of support we would like to be and because of that we are praying fervently for God to show us His plan for us. Discerning God’s will is hard but if it wasn’t hard I doubt I would be seeking Him as diligently as I am. And I am seeking Him, not a finger where God is pointing but His face, His Holy presence. As of right now the best way we have of discerning His will for us is the financial support, so we are praying about what we should do. Should we wait and not leave on January 11th or should we trust God and go knowing that He will take care of us once we arrive? Where we are with that right now is to wait on the support and this is why. Yesterday I went to Cherry Road Baptist Church to pray (my grandparents were actually charter members there) and while I was praying God gave me the word “Wait”. So I grabbed my bible and started to dig in and one of the first verses I came across was in Psalms 27. I love scripture that has been put to praise and worship songs I like, I mean have you read my Isaiah 43 story? This Psalm has a lot to say about being confident in Him and ends with: