ephesiansfiveoneandtwo

5/29/10

intern training 2010

every year josiah venture kicks off intern training with an "amazing race" for the summer teams serving across central and eastern europe. this year, 13 teams raced across austria, slovakia and czech while completing specific tasks with the race culminating at our training center hotel malenovice. i am very proud to say that team "latvia-joe" took home the amazing race crown for the very first time! around a hundred young leaders gathered together after the race for a few days of fellowship and training.

our team consisted of nick fletcher, susan paterson, amanda willmeth, jasmine herrick, spencer carpenter, allison menezes, and danise postula (with a few czech team members thrown in for good measure).

we had an amazing time together and made then made 15+ hour drive back to riga to begin planning for our first camp on june 13th. when you think of it, please pray for us! we covet your partnership through prayer.

the amazing race

WE ARE THE 2010 "AMAZING RACE" CHAMPIONS!

team latvia-joe consisted of the following champions...
amanda, zuska, susan, jasmine, josh, and myself

we pulled an amazing come from behind victory by going from 6th place at the beginning of the last day, to 1st place at the finish line.

we started the race at 12pm on wednesday and ended on friday at 3:17pm. we raced across vienna (austria), bratislava (slovakia), and brno (czech), to finally end the race at our training center in malenovice (czech). we got to see a lot of beautiful places and meet a lot of really cool people. here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip...

5/17/10

baptism

kitija & krista got baptized yesterday! it was a blessing to witness them making a public confession of Christ as their own Lord & Savior.

janis, thought something was funny...

jaycee & the girls

fletch & the girls

the girls & i

please pray for kitija & krista as they continue to follow Christ & mature in their faith!

5/1/10

youtube of the month: may

nike - the human chain

they always manage to come through with amazing ads

new apartment (cont.)

welcome to LTV cribs - the 2010 "joe brooks" edition

entryway (watch your head... it only took me 24 hours to hit my head HARD)

shower & toilet

kitchen

living room

bedroom

the view from my bedroom window

well, i guess thats it.

thanks for stopping by! feel free to drop in anytime. :)

SUSAN!!!

we added a new member to our josiah venture family today! susan paterson was a summer intern back in 2006 and 2007 and officially arrived in latvia as a full-time Christ-follower on april 30th. we are thrilled to have her as part of our team!!!

the welcoming committee

welcome hugs

susan & her new roommate agnese!

and uhhh... here is jaycee

ps-susan is from canada, please try not to hold that against her. :)

new apartment

i got the keys to my new apartment today!! im planning to clean it up tomorrow and move in when we get back from spring conference. i will put up a few pictures soon. :)

4/26/10

prayer days

i will be "out of the office" for the next two days. i am taking part in an annual meeting of christian leaders in latvia, called "prayer days." its "a time for the nation's spiritual leaders to come together for prayer, refreshment, encouragement, laughter and friendship." i am definitely looking forward to some undistracted time with the Lord!

4/19/10

church leadership meeting

on saturday, we gathered together the leadership teams of six of the churches that we are partnering with this summer.

it was exciting to see everybody in the same room!

gatis looking thrilled :)

our first camp starts on june 13th...

creative lesson planning course

4. 2. 3. 4. 4.

those were the number of students that we had in class every night. haha! again, not quite what we expected, but we tried to make the best of it!

kelly put the class in a good perspective by looking at a few things...

we were able to continue supporting the riga international bible institute. this was the first year that they have tried to develop their "christian education" program, which focuses more on youth ministry. its a perfect fit, because i know that kelly and i are more than happy to help anyone who wants to equip young christian leaders! :)
we were able to develop our own materials for the class and get them translated into latvian and russian (thanks to princess po & laimnesis)... which means we can re-use them in the future!
another upside was that we had a lot more freedom with a smaller class to try things that probably would not have worked with a larger group. in a lot of ways, these students were our "guinea pigs," with the new materials and how we taught the class. somehow, by the grace of God, we got very encouraging feedback on the class!
and on a more personal note, it was great practice for me. i have never taught in a class setting where i was using my own materials. it was a great experience!

thank you for all of your prayers!