Wanting. It's a condition of the heart we are all too familiar with. Perhaps you've been wanting something for a very long time. Perhaps in all your waiting, you've experienced great disappointment. The kind that makes you question your faith. If so, you'll find strength and comfort in the words of our guest writer, Koki Oyuke, who shares a bit of her Made for Brave story, all the way from Nairobi, Kenya. There are times you know you should burst out crying. Times when you're fighting tears as they stain the white of your eye because it's not a good time. There are people here. It's not dark yet. There's always a reason to cover, but when tears don't release they dive in deep. And you can feel your heart getting heavy―insides too full, tinged with pain that wants to Continue Reading
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How to Find Brave in Seasons of Unanswered Prayer
Newspaper headlines all over the world recently featured an amazing answer to prayer: my friend Andrew Brunson was freed from imprisonment in Turkey. My family cried tears of relief when this innocent pastor, persecuted for his faith, went free on October 12, 2018. What no newspaper could document was the anguish of prayer that seemingly went unanswered for two years. My family and I served in Turkey for 16 years, and Andrew’s case struck a chord with us because we lived in the same city. We also knew the nightmare our friend was living could have just as easily happened to us. We could hardly believe it when we first received news of Andrew’s arrest in October, 2016. We prayed each day, confident that God would free an innocent man. Yet the situation worsened rather than improving. Continue Reading
Shedding the Wallflower – Made to Brave Sisterhood
When I tell my children of my shyness and how painfully unsure of myself I was during my childhood and early adult years, they question if I am being truthful. The story sounds made up, to them. But it is true. I spent most of my first twenty-some years quietly looking around, unsure of myself and the world. I preferred to watch people, instead of participate; listen to people, instead of talk. I tried to avoid situations where I needed to talk in front of others and where I felt under the spotlight. I hated being asked something I wasn’t sure of. When asked a question, my mind usually went blank, then churned like a slot machine circling madly to land on the correct answer. Didn’t all questions have a right and wrong answer? I was terribly afraid of choosing the wrong one. With Continue Reading