"So what's up with Zambia?" you might ask...

Dear everyone reading this,

I am so excited to share some amazing news with you!!  Over the last few months and through a series of providential occurrences, God has deeply laid it on my heart that I am to go and minister to the orphan children of Zambia, Africa this summer!

Zambia is a landlocked country located in south central Africa.  Zambia has a population of 12 million people, but a full 1 million of these people are, in fact, children who have been orphaned due to the ravages of AIDS and other extreme poverty-related diseases.  The U.N. says that Zambia has the highest per capita orphan rate in the world, and ABCNEWS recently did a whole documentary on the plight of these children.   And although Zambia is some 10,000 miles away and seemingly forgotten, these children are ever before the heart of God.  And as such, God has now laid that burden on my heart.

I will be going to minister to the orphaned and vulnerable children of Zambia through an organization called Family Legacy Missions International based in Dallas, TX.  Family Legacy Missions International (FLMI) is a federally qualified, tax-exempt public charity whose mission is to alleviate the suffering of children on the other side of the world in Africa, while bringing the Good News of the Kingdom of God to them.   We will be working directly with the orphans each day:  playing games, teaching Bible lessons, singing songs, and just plain hugging and loving the kids.  Everyday, we will bus all of the orphan children into a giant recreation facility and give them an incredible day of discipleship, counseling, food, fun, and love – all in the name of Jesus!!

Yes, I am writing you today to ask you to partner with me on this incredible investment for eternity.  God has called me to go and I have committed to trust Him and follow His lead.  But going is only part of the investment required to serve these children.  Those who can’t go, but can pray for and financially support those who do go are fully equal co-laborers in this ministry project. 

The total cost for this trip is $ ­­­­5,150   and I really need to raise this money by April 1st.  Because I know that God has called me to go to Zambia, I am confident that He will also provide a way for me to go.  But I very much want you to be involved with me on this project so that you, too, will be blessed as a result.  Proverbs 19:17 says, that “when you give to the poor, you are lending to God, and that God Himself will repay you”.  Helping me to help these kids is an investment for which God will surely repay you – maybe in this life, but definitely in eternity.  

I know that you probably receive many letters similar to this one asking for support for one mission trip or another.  I also understand that even if you can’t support me financially at this time, I will still have your prayers while I go.  But please, consider the plight of these countless orphans, and give me and them the joy of seeing God’s hand at work to change their lives.  From the testimonies of those who have gone on this trip in previous years, I know that I truly will never be the same for having gone and I will be forever grateful for your willingness to invest in me and in the orphans of Zambia.  So if you are able, please send your tax-deductible gift in the enclosed envelope and be sure to write my name in the memo section.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support and may God deeply bless you!!

Serving HIS Kids,

Brandon Bronaugh

Compassion and

So, I've been reading the book Crazy Love, by Francis Chan. It's a life changer. Literally. Well, hopefully. I stopped reading it, though. But it was for a good reason. I finished it today. I'll be rereading it for sure, probably more than once, but not right now. Right now, it's on to C.S. Lewis. But that's for another time.

It's funny, though, how it's called "Crazy," yet Chan even says that it's really not. And he's right, it's not, or shouldn't be. Why is that we consider Christians who actually sell all they have to follow Jesus, or who really, really, love their neighbors as themselves, radical or crazy? Why are we amazed at the people who literally could not make it through a month of bills if it weren't for a miracle from God? If we trust God with our lives like we say we do, why are we so scared to put ourselves in situations where we have to rely on Him? I mean, really, it's nice to put an extra dollar in the plate, but if you don't get a candy bar because of it, so what? Now say you only have so much to live off of for the next week, but then you drop all but a few dollars in the plate, or you go spend it all on food, then give away all you can and only keep what's left for yourself. Do you really think God would watch you do that, and then let you go hungry? Would He let you make a sacrifice, trust in Him to pull you through, and then not provide for you? Then why not go do it! Go give away your last dollar, your only meal, your only free evening. See if He doesn't give you ten dollars, a banquet, or a free vacation! God even challenges you to see what He'll do! In Malachi 3:10, God says "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need." Yeah. God will literally pour down a blessing for you if you give back to Him what's His in the first place. Besides, you only get to keep it for so long anyway.


You know, I've always noticed how other people will say that they need to work on something, or they need to fix something, or do something. Whether it's pray more, give more, love more, read more, whatever, I hear a lot of I-need-to's and not so many I've-been-improving-on's. In seeing this, I've also tried to make sure I don't fall into the same trap of thinking that admitting your problem solves it. In all honesty, admitting you have a problem in and of itself doesn't do anything for you. Realizing you have one, yeah, but just saying that you need work in an area of your life is, well, just saying something. So, especially lately, I've been thinking really hard about whether I've really been working on things that need working on, or if I've just been talking about it. In some areas, I really haven't been doing much improvement, but honestly, I think I've been making some really good changes. And I want to keep it that way. I want to always be improving, moving forward, running to Christ. The things that are most important always get the priority for changes, and I want Christ to be my number one priority.


Love. It's such a bad word. Love isn't bad at all, but the word love is. It's just so inadequate. There were like four different Greek words that translate to our word love (I don't know exactly how many, but there are several). So in the Bible, whenever it says "love," you have to look at the original language to see whether it's talking about brotherly love, romantic love, God's love, etc. I think we should have different words for love, too. It would make things less confusing. People couldn't just get by with saying "I love you" and meaning something else anymore. And songs might be harder to write...


On a tangent (I started the last paragraph last week, and I just got back to it, so I don't remember exactly what I was thinking at the time), but still related to love, I think it's funny how almost every single (secular) song is about love, and then the few that aren't are about things like running from cops, balloons starting a world war, or Amer'ca. The funny thing is, there are soo many songs, and people are constantly writing new ones! I'm not saying that people are unoriginal; in fact, I'm saying the opposite. Musicians are really creative to be able to write so much about one subject, yet have so many original songs. Yeah, maybe there are lots of songs that sound the same, but you have to admit that there are tons of original songs. And catchy songs.


I had some cake earlier. It was good, but it had nuts on/in it. That annoys me, but I still ate it, cuz it was chocolate cake. I'm gonna get fat.


Ok, I'm gonna write a little motivational list of stuff and events for myself, but you can read it, too.


Upcoming cool stuff:

• Tomorrow is November.
• Tuesday is the special Go! Missions thing for Breakaway at Central Baptist.
• After next week, we're basically done training the fish for the semester.
• There are only 4 more drills, and then we're done marching.
• I'm running in the Warrior Dash in 3 weeks.
• The t.u. game is the 4th drill.
• Junior rights in the bass section at or around the t.u. game.
• Thanksgiving.
• Dead week.
• Christmas break.
• Christmas Gospel Sings.
• Christmas.
• Possible bowl game in New York.
• I know what I want to be for Halloween next year.

Yeah, so that's some cool stuff happening soon. We get mini fridges at the outfit Christmas party, too. I mean, we don't actually get fridges, we get the privilege of having a mini fridge in our rooms next semester. I'm excited, cuz it's annoying not having one.


Ok, third time's the charm, right? I'm gonna try to finish this tonight. So, we had Breakaway tonight, and they had a GO! Missions conference, which is where a ton of mission organizations came and set up booths like a career fair, and you went to them and found out about what they do and stuff. They also had people speak about different regions of the world, and what was going on in them. I went to the Africa one, and that was really cool. But before that, I was going to the different booths, and I came to this one about a program called Camp LIFE. It's a camp for orphans in Zambia!! I don't know, I just got really excited when I was talking to the girl about there about it. She told me a little about what you do and stuff, and said that they really need more guys. It's expensive, though, so I don't know. I really want to go for two weeks, though. So, please pray that God would tell me by Nov 15th, the day that the price goes up even more, whether this is what He wants me to do or not, and that, if it is, He would provide the means for me to go. That's all I have for now. It's late and I need me some mee mees! Goodnight!