First, here is the link to a virtual open house we made for all of you :) we thought you would like to see what you have been pouring into with finances and prayers! Enjoy: https://www.brillalifeministry.org/brillalife-center
Second: I know this is longer than usual but that is because at the end I’ve included a little bit about how I am doing personally…got a lot of raw honesty down there haha
Looking back & Praises:
1. Our open house for the churches to come view the Brilla Life center went amazing! We had over 40 people come throughout the week. In addition to a handful of pastors we also had a midwife, a chiropractor, a police woman, and a woman who owns a café in town all show interest in helping in one way or another!!
2. During the open house, the sweet doctor we had asked to be legally responsible for the pregnancy center gave us her answer: YES!!! God is totally behind all this guys, it’s incredible!
3. I officially have 4 piano students that I teach individually on Tuesdays. So far I have been able to communicate with them with the little Spanish I have! Thank you for praying for that! The classes the rest of the Brilla team (Ben, Susie, and Alicia) taught went great these last 5 weeks as well!
4. With the help of my illustrator (my cousin!), and after hours and hours of working on them in Photoshop, I have officially sent all the illustrations for my children’s book to the publisher. We are also on the LAST ROUND of edits for the book (after reading and re reading about 100 times! Haha). I’ve done my part, now the publisher will take it from here and publish it! I am not sure how long that process will take. I will write another newsletter specifically about the book to give you all more details hopefully soon.
Looking forward & Prayer Requests:
1. Thanks to your donations, Susie and I will be able to attend the heartbeat international conference virtually! This organization works with and oversees 100s of pregnancy centers around the world! It will be such a huge blessing and wellspring of wisdom, connections, and information for us!!! Please pray it goes well, it’s all day Wednesday (tomorrow) to Friday.
2. I am currently pouring over all the resources and books I have (and have enlisted the help of a nurse friend over facetime) to put together many different nutrition teachings for the month of May! This will be our “soft opening” of the pregnancy center! We will start with these classes and see how things progress from there as we get the word out! Please pray as we go to hand out flyers in the community soon for these events, that people would respond well and come! (And for our protection as well) we are planning our first class for May 5.
3. Also please be praying God would provide translators for me as the rest of the Brilla team will be stateside for most of May! I know God will make sure I am not alone this month, He has already introduced me to many wonderful Mexican friends here who have offered their help.
4. Speaking of teaching and training… during the month of May I will be focusing a lot on training myself as well. I have several classes I need to take for continuing education for my nursing license and I will be renewing my CPR training online as well. BUT BEST OF ALL: Heartbeat international offers a basic OB ultrasound certification for nurses working in pregnancy centers. I will be able to do the learning portion online from here but am going stateside either June or July to complete the 75 scans I will need to do in order to get this certification. Please be praying that I will find centers and hospitals to complete these scans in. I already have one center confirmed!
All these classes I am able to take to further my education to further help those I am serving is thanks to YOUR donations.
Alright…PERSONALLY:
Last week I was out sick with a horrible cold the entire week (I'm better now). I actually haven’t been sleeping well for months and I’m not sure why. I’ve tried everything and nothing seems to help. I think the lack of sleep triggered getting sick, please pray I’ll be able to sleep again. It’s been really frustrating.
I am absolutely loving Mexico and the people I work with. I know without a shred of doubt that this is where I am supposed to be and I am really happy here. But if I’m being perfectly honest, I’ve actually been feeling super discouraged and defeated on many levels (which is odd in light of these HUGE victories!). I see this as an attack from the enemy. He sees that this center is about to open (and the book is soon to be published) and he is furious and using EVERYTHING he can to try and stop me. He is using doubts saying that I will just ruin everything, past failures and sins that say I’m not good enough to do this work, bringing up nightmares that I worked hard to overcome, homesickness, overwhelming hopelessness that says overall I am fighting a losing battle, sleeplessness, language frustrations, past and present relationships with people…you name it and he is using it! Yet he doesn’t seem to understand that he has already lost everything, DEATH DOES NOT HAVE THE VICTORY HERE, God has victory, and I am NOT backing down (always knew my stubbornness was good for something haha). I am determined. His voice is not the one I will listen to because it doesn’t speak truth, he cannot get between me and my Father. But it is still extremely difficult when he is constantly firing at my (already physically and mentally tired) mind all day every day. Please pray for my continued strength in this spiritual battlefield of the mind. I feel so weak and alone (this loneliness isn’t about not having people around me, I have amazing people around me! It’s more about not having anyone around me that knows who I am, I left all those people behind in France and I miss them so much. I am so thankful for video calls!).
One of the biggest frustrations for me right now is not being able to communicate with the people I need and want to because I don’t speak the language. The Brilla Team has been amazing at translating for me but they aren’t always around. I am practicing every day and trying to learn it as fast as I can but with every step I think I’m taking forward, its like I’m going three steps back. I just wish I was a lot further along than I am right now in light of the center opening soon, but I know I need to have grace for myself. I am trying the best I can and that’s all I can do. Please pray for me in this, I feel quite stuck.
I knew from the very beginning that I wouldn’t be able to do this massive task set before me…but I knew God could if I just continued to say yes daily. In all my weakness, places I fall short every day, and where I feel totally unqualified for this work, God will shine even brighter and that is my heart’s desire! So I will shout all the louder that I am weak so the more you will know that this work has been done by God! It is an absolute honor to be doing this work with God and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
If any of you is struggling with a “battlefield in the mind”, where you just feel the enemy is relentlessly coming at you, please feel free to message me anytime. I would love to be able to stand beside you in prayer. None of us are alone on those battlefields.
