Brollier Family “Needs-letter”
June 2007
What We’ve Been Doing
We’ve both started taking an online course as a part of our involvement with PBT, and it’s been fascinating to have the Bible open up to us on a whole new level. Lessons point out such things as: God’s plan in Scripture to bless the world through Abraham’s descendants, what Jesus was talking about when he spoke about the Kingdom of God, and why the Jewish scholars of Jesus’ time were expecting a different type of Messiah. While these have been a great blessing to us, they’re also very time-consuming to take seriously.
Health of Our Family
We’ve also been having several different health problems. Brent broke his left ring finger in February and had to have his ring cut off. Laura suffered from an inner ear infection on top of some other unknown illness (flu? / bronchitis?) and went into the emergency room in April. We’ve also been sick quite often. Thankfully, none of these illnesses have interfered with visits from our family coming from out-of-state. We also were well enough for our trip to speak at our old home church in Illinois at the beginning of May. On the positive side, we’ve already met our medical deductible, so health care will be much less expensive the rest of the year. ☺ However, we just had our home inspected for air quality and mold was found all throughout the air ducts! Please pray for resolution of the problem and for our health while living here.
God Redirects Our Steps – Staying in Florida For A While Longer
After taking a look at our budget, we’ve realized that it’s not the Lord’s timing for us the go to Dallas just yet. Please pray for us as we wait on the Lord. School is expensive. Our PBT budget for going to Dallas is over $3,000 per month. We should be able to move even if we get to approximately 85-90% of it, but at the moment we have 20% of our PBT budget raised. We just renewed our lease for another six months, so our revised goal is to raise enough support to start our training in Dallas in January 2008. We know the Lord will provide for us in His timing.
Our First Speaking Engagement
In May we were able to travel to the Wheaton area in Illinois (Far West suburbs of Chicago) where our home church had graciously extended an offer for us to give a “Missions Minute” in service. It was our first speaking engagement, and we were quite nervous in the weeks leading up to it since our practices had been a bit bumpy. Thankfully, our nerves were calmed as soon as we were up on the platform. God certainly was merciful to us at the time of our talk since our actual presentation went so smoothly. It was absolutely wonderful to be there and to know that God has been leading our lives to that very moment and is continuing to lead us to the mission field.
Wheaton’s Wonderful Welcome
It was a short visit to Wheaton, and we were unfortunately unable to see the multitude of friends that we’d made in Wheaton during Laura’s three years and Brent’s 10½ years there. We are very grateful that we were able to visit with the people that we did, and we enjoyed our time immensely. We will just have to try to reunite with those we missed on this trip when we swing back into Wheaton in the future (not sure when, of course). It was great to be back and felt so good to be at home as if we had never left! Many thanks to the Awalts, the Wachsmuths, the Lashleys, the Woods, and Rich Lyon, who all provided for our needs while we were visiting. May God bless all of you for your kindness!
Pioneer Mission Institute (PMI)
We just returned from PMI, a one-week conference with PBT in Dallas, TX. We attended classes, which further instructed us with practical advice for preparing for the mission field. Some of our class topics were Partnership Development, Spiritual Preparation, Mental Preparation, Physical Preparation, and the Ministry of Translation and Literacy. Along with attending classes, we had the opportunity to view presentations from the various fields in which PBT missionaries serve. What a blessing to see what God is doing on the field! It also was an eye opener to see the need for more translators. There are so many who do not have the Word in their own language! Needless to say, this week was physically and emotionally exhausting, but we were spiritually renewed. We know God is continuing to lead us even though He hasn’t yet revealed to us the field on which we will eventually serve.
Cultivating Partnerships
Praying for missions and giving to missions is a unique kind of opportunity for you to minister to people you may never even meet! We really want you to know that this ministry can be yours too. Although you may not be able to go, by partnering with us, your prayers and gifts will be reaching the nations. ☺ You will play an important role in God’s plan to reach the whole world with the Gospel. As part of a Bible Translation effort, the materials our team produces will continue to impact the Church long after our direct work with the ministry is over. If you are not already involved in this manner,
we’d encourage you to pray about becoming a part of our team.
Our Summer Itinerary
We will be traveling to visit Brent’s family in New York this summer, and while we are there we will have opportunity to speak at some local churches. If you will be in the area, we would love to see you at one of these events. If you’d like to see us outside of church while we’re there, just get in touch with us using our phone or e-mail below.
· First Assembly of God Port Jervis, NY August 5
· Soar Like an Eagle Ministries Milford, PA August 11
· New Life Christian Fellowship Matamoras, PA August 12
We are always looking into visiting other churches to share our vision. If you’d like for us to come and speak in your church, please contact us and we’ll see how we can make that happen.
Ever-Entertaining Ethan (08/19/05)
Ethan seems to have reached his terrible-twos early. He’s still our darling little guy (35 ¼ in. tall and 30 lbs.), but he has learned how best to try our patience and our living space. He has learned how to climb on everything. We have had to move even more of our belongings to higher heights out of his grasp. Praise the Lord for child-safety locks (or as we like to call them: parent-sanity-savers). Ethan’s favorite words lately are “truck,” “no,” and “mine” usually said emphatically. Please pray for wisdom. He is more active than either of us could imagine. We are blessed though – he keeps us fit! He has been a fun guy with whom to experience life’s simple comedies. He makes us laugh at things we normally would miss simply because we might be too busy to stop and hear a funny noise or such. We have stopped watching TV since he is a very good mimic. Ethan has become our entertainment! The other day, he was playing “peek-a-boo” with a picture of his grandparents by ducking down and popping up to say “boo!” How can we not love this little buddy even when he tries our patience? I bet that’s how God feels about us.
Praise Reports & Prayer Needs:
· Praise the Lord for giving us a successful first speaking engagement!
· Praise the Lord for spiritually refreshing us at PMI.
· Pray that we cultivate partnerships as we seek our next goal of beginning our necessary linguistic training at GIAL.
· Pray for direction and guidance towards the people group among whom we will eventually minister.
· Pray that God will raise people to partner with us in prayer and financial support (currently at 20%) of our PBT budget.
· Pray for the health of our family.
· Pray that the Lord will help us to begin practicing more powerful family prayer suited for the mission field.
How to Give
Thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf! If you feel led to financially partner with us as we prepare for service with PBT, please make your check payable to “Pioneer Bible Translators” and send it to our address. All gifts made payable to PBT are tax deductible. (Any gifts payable directly to us are not tax deductible.) Per IRS regulations, we request that you do not include our names on the check. Also, several individuals have asked if they would be able to contribute by either Direct Deposit or Credit Card. PBT does both of these. If you would like to know more about both of these options, please contact us and we will send information.
Blessings to all of you!
As always, let us know if you do not wish to receive our “Needs-letter” and we will no longer send it to you.
Address:
Brent & Laura Brollier Pioneer Bible Translators
218 Hancock Bridge Pkwy. Apt.6
Cape Coral, FL 33990
239-470-9992
E-mail: chuckles@sputnik1.org
Pioneer Bible Translators
7500 West Camp Wisdom Rd
Dallas, TX 75236
972-708-7460
E-mail: pbt@pbtusa.org
