Apple Cider and Brown Bread Walls

This past weekend I got back to the city!! I had an afternoon full of a Young Life training (www.younglife.org), some much needed time with some of my closest friends, 2 nights of sleepovers with college girls, time with two of my most missed kiddos, and painting my future apartment!!

I cannot thank the people who helped me enough. They gave their whole day, and felt it for days more!! (We were very sore!!) Thanks to Rebecca, Jon, and Mom, I now have "Apple Cider" and "Brown Bread" walls.

My apartment will be in the Sunshine (sunshinegospel.org) building. As soon as I finish up on this support, I will be moving up there!! Floors and kitchen still need to be put in but hopefully will be done soon! If you can contribute any way- from construction work to providing some needed appliances, email me at brittneyrost@yahoo.com! Thanks so much for the push to get me in that Apple Cider apartment!

4 Years...

This past weekend I was able to get to the city!! Chicago welcomed me with open arms. One of my favorite and most looked forward to times was spending a night downtown with two beauties.

The two girls I got to see are the first Sunshine kids I met two years ago. On the right is me and my little 9 year old, who grew into the beautiful 13 year old teenage girl in the picture beside. The transformation she has made has been amazing because of the transforming power of Christ.

On the left is my 6 year old who, with all her spunk, is now 10 and the biggest but most loving 10 year old diva ever.

These two girls, sisters, were 6 and 9 when I was introduced to them as their tutor at the library. Four years

and lots of weekend trips to Indiana, girls night outs, fitting room fashion shows, and highs and lows later, these two have grown into beautiful young women. I am so challenged by the questions they ask, the love they give, and they way they challenge me in my walk with Christ! As the holidays come up, they

have been asking for months to come home to

see "Grandma", aka my mom. As a bargain and discipling tool, I told them that if they can memorize the Christmas story, Luke 2:1-21, with me, that they will get a trip to Elkhart. That night I got texts asking about the verse! How exciting for us to do this together and focus on Christ in this season. It's a hard task, even for me as an adult, but I don't doubt that these beauties can do anything!!

As I think about the journey with these girls, I can remember temper tantrums, tears, giving up, lots of smacking of lips, rolling of eyes, even yelling at me. Yet with patience and wisdom given by God, I've ventured down the road with these girls, seen them give their lives to Christ, and observed the role that sanctification has played in their worlds. My little one hasn't snapped at me in at least a year. The oldest one has been an angel, the last time I can remember anything happening was over a year and a half ago and was followed by asking for forgiveness and seeking repentance. To see that in our kids- THERE IS NOTHING LIKE IT. I can't think of a better testimony.

Please pray for my girls. Life doesn't get easier as teenage complications come their way. We all can remember the drama and harshness of that period of life. I know these girls love Christ with all their hearts and I love them with all of mine.

Commissioned

This past week was a big one here in Elkhart. Not only was it Missions Conference at my home church, First Baptist Church of Elkhart, IN, but I got commissioned by them to hit my field, the South Side of Chicago!

As I grew up the picture of a missionary that was painted to me was of a person in the jungle, sharing the word with an unreached tribe. It was the couple that moved to Africa to work with orphans. It was maybe even the single woman in Italy. Never did I know that a missionary could be a person within the States. I didn't know that someone could work in a school with unreached kids and be considered a missionary, let a alone be only two hours away in Chicago. I even butted heads with a missions professor at a certain college I graduated from, who persistently discredited my work within the United States and told me that I could never be a "MISSIONARY" in Chicago. I think she looked in the wrong dictionary when she researched that definition which excluded the work of God in inner-city Chicago. The Dictionary I used called it a COMMISSION to me to reach these kids on the South Side that don't know Christ (Mt 28:19-20).

The point here is not for me to vent, though much of that occurs when I see the narrow definitions for reaching people for Christ. This past week at the Missions Conference at First Baptist, I spoke to different groups of people of all different ages. Sunday night was my time with the elementary kids of the church. As I shared my heart, showed a video, and pointed them to God's heart for the city, one little girl seemed to be abnormally interested. She sat at the edge of her chair raising her hands with numerous questions. One of the last questions she asked was, "How long have you been a missionary?" I hesitated for a minute. What many would say is that I am just started. I just got commissioned so I have technically only been a missionary for a few days. However thats not the answer I gave that 9 year old.

See Christ isn't someone we can only share when we're commissioned by a body. I've been a missionary since I first started telling my friends about Christ when I was little. I was a missionary to my public junior high and high school as I led friends to Christ at the lunch table. I was a missionary in college when I would stop and share lunch with a homeless woman. If only we as Christians could grasp this concept. I sit here in Starbucks typing up this blog and I am a missionary to these workers that see me here with my open Bible by my side. We are missionaries wherever we go! We must throw aside the hindering definitions that say we are only a missionary if we raise support and fly to another country. NO! We are all missionaries as we spread the Hope to those around us in this lost world.

One of my favorite Christian rappers puts it best, "There ain't nothin' wrong with you goin' over seas, but there's people on your own street that need to be freed. If you wanna do a mission you don't gotta look hard cuz theres people who need to hear the Truth in your backyard." -Thi'sl

I pray God, may you grant us all hearts and eyes to see the mission field all around us.