Posted in 08 Kenya by Brian Cooke on 5/5/2012
I’M HOME!!!!
Ladies and gentleman, I am back on the continent of Africa for the first time in over a year!!! I can not tell you how amazing it feels. I have never felt more at home in my life. Technically America is ‘home’ obviously. I spent the first 20 years of my life there, but it never really felt like ‘home’. As we were flying to Kenya I couldn’t stop looking at the map of our flight route. Every time the little plane moved a centimeter my heart skipped a beat because I knew I was that much closer to Africa.
Now, I do NOT cry very often, but I could have lost it on several occasions while landing and getting settled at our hostel. Getting off the plane in Nairobi being surrounded by Africans once again simply overwhelmed me. It feels natural for me, it feels like it’s normal for me to be here. I try and tell people that I am African….but they don’t believe me for some reason!? They ask me where I’m from and I say Malawi…..then they laugh in my face.
I think I’m black….
I’m not going to lie!! I walk the streets and really wonder why all the locals are staring at me? I forget sometimes I’m white L . If I’m the only white person in any situation I think that I’m black and it’s normal for me to be there and no one notices that I don’t have the same color skin as they do. The only way I snap out of it and realize I AM white is when I go to shake someone’s hand and notice that the 2 skin tones are not similar in the slightest. Silly Brian!!! I walked through the market and my heart started pumping with excitement!!! I LOVE the market!! I love the little hole in the wall shops and tiny ally ways. It’s where I spent a lot of my time when I was living in Malawi. Again, I wonder why everyone looks at me funny and why I’m being overcharged for everything?! I just don’t understand!!!
Anyway, I am in love with Africa and it’s people and I am so happy to be HOME!!! Lord, thank you for AFRICA!!! I feel like the first 7 months of my race have been preparation for this, for right now, for Africa!!! I am getting ready to take Africa by storm!!!
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Posted in 07 Malaysia by Brian Cooke on 5/5/2012
This month was MANistry!! I was so excited for this month. I was excited to learn what it meant to be a real man. To know what a brother in Christ really is. To grow spiritually with men. The second ½ of the month we were building the walls for a future house church / community center. That looked like mixing cement and laying bricks most of the month. I’m pretty much a professional mason now! It was good to work with my hands and it felt great to see what we accomplished when we were finished. Now, I should have made this list at the beginning of the month, but I’m doing it now. These are just some of the things that I learned this month that I think are qualities that make up a man of God.
A man of God humbles himself till it hurts
Honors women to the up most and treats them like queens
He always seeks ways to put others before himself
Fights for the worst, so others can have the best
Encourages others to the point of exhaustion
Challenges others out of love to brings them to a higher place
He constantly seeks ways to get closer to God.
To bare others burdens to no extent
To serve everyone before themselves
Consider others better than himself
A man of God prays, for everyone, anytime, anywhere for anything
Those are just a few qualities that describe a man of God that I learned this month, but there are many more. I am here to tell you that no one if perfect. I certainly don’t portray all of those qualities to the best of my ability. But I try. I try my best everyday to improve myself and make myself a better person, better follower of Christ and a better MAN of God. So let me ask you, do you portray these qualities? If yes, how could you be better at them? And if no, what are you waiting for?
MEN OF GOD RISE UP!!!!
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Posted in 07 Malaysia by Brian Cooke on 4/27/2012
I have found what breaks my heart.
For a while now, God has been making me notice these random people everywhere I go!! People who you wouldn’t usually talk to. So I’ve been realizing that the Lord has been breaking my heart and drawing me to love the people who never get loved. Last month in Vietnam it were the drug addicts. Today it was a man sniffing glue on the side of the road.
I was walking down the street going to the beach and I saw this guy yelling and making a scene a little further ahead. I got closer and noticed that he was mentally challenged and had something in his hand. Now the normal person would run…and FAST, but I am not a normal person. I go up to him, say hi, shake his hand. I asked his name and he said something which I honestly can’t remember, but the last part ended in oooooooooooo which is the only part that stuck in my head because it was funny to me that he kept going. I then looked in his hand and saw that he had a tin of glue. He had glue all over his hands, nose and mouth. He was high as a kite. All I wanted to do was cry and hold him in my arms.
What really got me upset were all the people around who were laughing at him and thinking that he was the scum of the earth. That’s not fair!! Just because he made a few wrong decisions in his life and sniffed too much glue to make him challenged doesn’t mean he is any less of a person that they were. He didn’t know tons on English so I honestly couldn’t preach the Gospel to him or tell him that what he was doing was horrible for him, so the only thing I could do was pray, and pray I did!!! I also snuck the glue tin out of his hand and put it in my back pocket to throw away heheheee.
So this was just a little insight into my heart and what I’m learning today. I also encourage you all to go and seek out the people who no one seeks out. Talk to the homeless people who hundreds of people walk past everyday. Talk to them!! They are human beings and the Lord loves both of you EQUALLY!!! No more, no less!! Talk to them, show them love and tell them that God loves them even more!!! Jesus hung out with the worst of the worst, the prostitutes, tax collectors, because He knew that they were no more of a sinner than the pastor down the street.
Be love :)
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Posted in 0 General Posts by Brian Cooke on 4/19/2012
Dear P squad,
My name is Brian Cooke, and you changed my life.
Most of you know my story, but this is to let you in a little further. I met you all in late November at your 4 month debrief. I was the hostel manager at Mabuya Camp in Lilongwe Malawi. I was not Christian and made fun of you all behind your back before I had ever met any of you. You walked off 3 busses wearing “I love Jesus” shirts…..seeing this, I….. along with some locals took a shot of vodka at the bar in preparation. I spent Thanksgiving with some of you (Stacey Compton 2 years in a row). I heard some of your stories about the first few months of your race. I met Mr. and Mrs. Hines, Sean Smith and your amazing WR coaches, the Day’s. I even spent my 21st birthday with some of you!!! But what you don’t know about me was…..I was watching you, very closely….. And from watching you, talking to some of you and getting to know most of you, you led me to accept Christ 1 month later and my life has been a roller coaster ride ever since.
P Squad, I can not thank you all enough for what you have done in my life. I stop dead in my tracks sometimes, (like I did today and decided to write this) and think about how much the Lord used each one of you to bring me to Him. How much you have done to help me with my walk with Him. If it wasn’t for your continual words and prayers, I would not have continued to walk with the Lord today. And for my race, I could NOT have done this with out your words, prayers and amazing financial support!!! It baffles me to think of what my life would look like right now if you all didn’t come into my life. I hear stories from other people on my squad about meeting a world racer and deciding to go on the race. But to think about how blessed I am to have met an entire squad!!! 65 amazing men and women of God, blows my mind.
I am in Malaysia right now writing this. My month 7 of my race and your month 11. I am looking at photo albums from our contact with pictures of YOU!! We are building a church that YOU started. YOUR hands laid the bricks that I am building on. Lucas, Phil, Michelle, Julian, Colby, Alexandra, Alicia, Rachel, Cristal, Falco YOU were here!!!! This BLOWS MY MIND!!! I am on month 7 of my world race just having accepting Christ almost 1 ½ years ago. I will spend month 11 in Malawi, where I first met you and accepted the Lord.
Crazy to think, but you want to know how I accepted God? It wasn’t from you preaching the Gospel a million times, I only heard you talk about Jesus to me a few times actually. It wasn’t the worship music you played on the couches right outside my bar. It was the way you lived your lives!!! It was how you loved each other!! It was the way you loved ME!! You didn’t even know me and you loved me!! It was the way you loved the Lord and LIFE!!!! THAT is what turned me to Christ. It was Jesus’ love that exuded out of your pours, words and actions!!! That is amazing!!! To think, you all were at debrief and were there to relax after a 72 hour bus ride from hell!!! Yet the time when you were suppose to be relaxing and calming down….you changed my life!!!!
I want to go through each one of you and thank you all, but I can’t. But I do want to highlight one of you…. Ms. Stacey Compton, come down to the front please…
If you didn’t know, Ms. Compton went from being P squads logistics to B squads squad leader, and I couldn’t have been more excited!!! Stacey, you were such a calming soul to be around my first couple of months, a familiar face to look at and know you have my back. But most of all, a constant reminder of P squad as a whole. A constant face to look at and tell myself, SHE changed my life. YOU and your entire squad changed my life!!! Stacey, you have been such an amazing blessing to me on my race and I love you so much!!!
So to sum up this letter in a few sentences. P squad, thank you for changing my life. I love each and every single one of you with all of my heart and will never forget what you did for me and how much you changed my life.
Love, your brother in Christ,
Brian Cooke :)
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Posted in 07 Malaysia by Brian Cooke on 4/19/2012
Guess what this month is….It’s MANistry!!! If your not familiar with World Race terminology, manistry is a whole month where all the MEN of the squad break off from the women and do ministry with each other. So this month is it!! MANistry in Malaysia = Malanistry!!!! There are 16 guys on the squad so they broke us into 2 teams of 8. We haven’t had internet for the month so I’ll recap the first ½ so far. We are living in the jungles of Gua Musang Malaysia. We are doing manual labor on a palm tree oil estate. We don’t actually harvest the plants to make the oil, but we see it getting done. But we are fixing up some odd and end jobs around the property to help out. One of our big jobs was to make a prayer mountain, sound daunting huh?! There is an area on top of a big hill where you could sit, pray, worship or do what ever you want, there were seats and a table. So we did what we could to fix it up and make it look good. We cut down tree branches so it had an amazing view of the mountains and a really nice sunrise in the morning. We alsopoured concrete and made stairs, a ramp and a patio to worship on. We also did other jobs around the property too. Our month is pretty chill for the most part, we work in the morning and have the afternoon off, with the occasional night church. It’s really nice just being surrounded by strong men of God 24/7!!! Just men being men this month people, and it’s great!!! We do a men’s Bible study on Acts every morning!!! This is going to be a good month folks!!!
It gets better…we didn’t take any days off the first ½ of the month and decided to…go to Singapore!!!! It was a short bus ride away so we took advantage of the opportunity and went!! (All expenses came out of my personal money, not your donated money) We went to the zoo, bird park, night safari, dolphin show and my best friend Dan and I watched the sun set on the beach at the southern most part of continental Asia!!!! It was a jam packed weekend that I will never forget. Even though we went for leisure, I never forgot about the Lord and I was thanking Him the whole time!! I couldn’t believe how blessed I was to have the opportunity to be there. I also had some really good conversations about Jesus with some taxi drivers and locals.
So if that was the first 2 weeks, who knows what we will do the next 2 weeks!!! Stay tuned!!!
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Posted in 06 Vietnam by Brian Cooke on 4/19/2012
It’s 3:00 am April 1st and I’m wide awake….
We leave for the airport at 6:00 to go to Malaysia for month 7 of the race…. And I can’t go to sleep!!!
If you couldn’t tell, Vietnam has been one of the best months I’ve had on the race!! We didn’t know we would even come until 2 months ago, but man am I happy we did!! Where we are staying is in the backpacker, crazy district in Ho Chi Minh City. Right down the street are all the crazy bars, we live next to the Bourbon St of HCMC pretty much, which is cool!! Crazy and a lot of fun, but you see the down side of it too. We have gotten hassled all month to buy…
Sunglasses
Lighters
DVDs
Shoe shines
Maps
Fans
And when we say no to all of those, they ask
Marijuana…NO!!
Heroin….NO!!
Cocaine…. NO!!
Girl…NO NO NO!!!!!
I’m kind of use to that from everywhere else I’ve been, so I politely say no thank you. One of my side projects of the month has been to make friends with some of the people who sell those things instead!!!! I shouldn’t even call it a side project because that should just be normal for us. We should want to be friends with everyone and show love equally to everyone we come in contact with. One of the things the Lord is teaching me this month is to seek out the people no one else seeks out. Talk to the people no one talks to, be friends with them and show them love that they haven’t seen before. I am horrible with Asian names, but I’ve made friends with, banana guy, bread lady(her name is Giam), shoe shiner guy (his name is Minh), moto parker (his name is lynn), Dvd guy, smoothie lady, all the surrounding hostel workers, all the waitresses at a bar we go to for live music, all the workers at a coffee shop where we do ministry, doner kabob guy, most of the street sunglass sellers. I feel like a local!! I walk down the street and just wave to everyone, smile and say hi, and they do the same back. One of my favorites is Lynn, he parks motos down the street and I see him everyday. Most nights I just go and sit on a moto next to him and talk and hang out with him. At the beginning of the month he asked me to buy marijuana everyday, but now he asks what I did that day and how I am.
So tonight I just couldn’t go to sleep, I didn’t know what to do with myself. So I went out!!! I went to go talk to Lynn. I sat next to him on a moto and just sat, we talked, but I just sat and soaked. At this time in the night it’s very different from a few hours before. All the prostitutes are out and about, drunk people stumbling into taxis, the late night bar scene. So I sat on a moto next to Lynn and looked around, soaked…..and prayed!!! I was surrounded by sin. There had to have been 20-30 prostitutes sitting around, some talking to each other, some eating. Guys coming up to me asking to buy all kinds of different drugs and girls. Lynn knows I am not here for any of that so he tells them all to stop asking and go away. I have seen all of this stuff before, but God gave me new eyes for it tonight. Sitting on a moto, on a busy street corner in Vietnam, surrounded by so many people that I could have helped and talked to. These beautiful girls are sitting there laughing with each other and look as if they are happy, but I know that their not and are waiting for some guy to take them home for the night. That breaks my heart every time!!!
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Posted in 06 Vietnam by Brian Cooke on 3/30/2012
This is 100% not writen by me and I take no cedit at all, all thanks goes to Chrissy!!! She explains our month so well.....
We have been all over the place this month. Unlike previous months, our schedule has been different every day. We've visited
pagodas
orphanages
a home for blind people
youth groups
a theology class
a home for men struggling with addictions
a home for unwed mothers and their babies
a school
parks to meet the locals
coffee shops to talk with students
We've also taken time to peruse the city and get a small taste of what life in Vietnam is like. The photos and video (all material courtesy of my wonderful teammate Vivian) should give you a small glimpse at how Team Salt Shakers spent Month 6 in Vietnam.
Top and Left: A Sunday school class we visited in a province 2 hours from Ho Chi Minh City. By the time we left they were experts at Simon Says and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Middle Right: A kids group that Vivian, Alyssa and I visited one night. They loved Vivian's rendition of Noah's Ark and suddenly became really engaged when cookies were offered as incentives to answer our questions about the story. Bottom Right: The school class we visited on our three day trip to a different province. The church provides a free school for kids in the area (up until the age of 6) who cannot afford to go to school. Don't think they get many foreigners around there so we were quite the spectacle.
Top: The home for men who are struggling with alcohol and drug addictions. We've joined with them in worship, we've prayed over them and we've encouraged them, but I think they've done more for us. Their joy is contagious and they are fervently seeking after the Lord. Middle: The Theology students! These future preachers, teachers and Kingdom bringers are awesome! We sang songs with them, shared testimonies, played soccer and laughed a lot. Bottom: The older Vietnamese women in this photo have amazing hearts. They minister to young, unwed mothers by showing them the love of Christ and providing them with a safe place to raise their babies.
Now for the non-ministry aspects of the month...
Top: A typical van ride with our team. Mouths open, arms wrapped around seats, heads down. It's how we travel. Bottom left: Brian showing our favorite and most dangerous form of transportation...the MOTO. Definitely not for the faint of heart. Bottom right: Canoes on the Mekong River. These ladies were no joke. This was bumper cars Vietnamese style.
Top left: Brian has eaten his weight in Frozen Yogurt this month. He even acquired a members card to Yogurt Space so he now receives a whopping 10% off each visit. Top right: Our beloved bread lady. She provided us with a baguette filled with egg, cheese and vegetables every morning for less than $1 Bottom left: The dreaded supermarket. Although it holds products that we hold dear such as milk, cereal and peanut butter, the chaos that goes on inside makes each trip an adventure. Bottom right: Smoothie Lady! She whipped up a delicious concoction of any fruit you would desire as long as you immediately sat down in a plastic chair when you arrived at her stand.
Month 7 begins in 3 days. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel to Malaysia!
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Posted in 0 General Posts by Brian Cooke on 3/23/2012
Hey everyone!!! We are officially 1/2 way throught the race!!! And our last deadline is NEXT WEEK!!! There are still a good handfull of my squadmates that are still not fully funded!!! I need your help!! Even if you don't know them, go stalk thier blogs and get to know the people that I travel with and have fallen madly in love with!!! We came into this together and we are leaving together, as a squad, but more importantly, a family!!! I can't do this with out them!! Here is the blog that my squad leaders made to motivate you......
http://thomaswensil.theworldrace.org/?filename=the-jig-is-up
Anything helps!! And when I say that.... I mean litterally $1!! It's $1 that wasn't in thier account before!! Anything that you can, $1, $5, $1,000 ANYTHING!!!! We love you so much!! Thank you for reading and hopefully you can share this for us!!!
Here is who still need support...
Mickey Wingrove - $4000 - mickeywingrove.theworldrace.org
Nikki Sienkiewicz - $2500 - nikkisienkiewicz.theworldrace.org
Taralah Neff - $1300 - taralehneff.theworldrace.org
Courtney Burks - $2220 - courtneyburks.theworldrace.org
Rachel Anderson - $2990 - rachelanderson.theworldrace.org
Vivian Zavala - $400 - vivianzavala.theworldrace.org
Andrew Ingrassia - $1200 - andrewigrassia.theworldrace.org
Channele Givargis - $1500 - channelegivargis.theworldrace.org
Brandon Boyd - $2858.95 - brandonboyd.theworldrace.org
Jordan Fath - $900 - jordanfath.theworldrace.org
Erica Floyd - $1200 - ericafloyd.theworldrace.org
Ben Coppock - $2700 - bennycoppock.theworldrace.org
Emma Halstead - $2500 - emmahalstead.theworldrace.org
Kearston Ambrust - $100 - kearstonambrust.theworldrace.org
Leanna Apland - $300 - leannaapland.theworldrace.org
Caitlyn Rogers - $1300 - caitlynrogers.theworldrace.org
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Posted in 0 General Posts by Brian Cooke on 3/23/2012
Every hand I raise
Every word of praise
Everytime I cry
Every tear you drop
Lord I'm thanking you
Every prayer I've prayed
Every gift you gave
Every time I cry
Every tear you drop
Lord I'm thanking you
Oh can't you see
I belong to thee
No matter why
Lord I'm glad your there for me
Every hand I raise
Every word of praise
Every time I cry
Every tear you drop
Lord I'm thanking you
Every prayer I've prayed
Every gift you gave
Every time I cried
Every tear you drop
Lord I'm thanking you
Every time I cried
Every tear you drop
Lord I'm thanking you
Every time I cried
Every tear you drop
Lord I'm thanking you
Lord, I love you with all of my heart and I can't stop thanking you for everything you do for us and everything that you have DONE for us!!! You are amazing God and ALL of the glory goes to you!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLPT6nucEdI&feature=relmfu
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Posted in 06 Vietnam by Brian Cooke on 3/19/2012
We headed to a local bar for the NC State NCAA basketball game the other night just to relax, be with some friends and watch the wolf pack kick some butt…..but that’s not what happened, we had an….incident…
My brother Ryan and I were sitting watching the game and we started to talk to these guys 2 seats next to us. There were 3 guys, all older, and had clearly had a few drinks in them to begin with. One guy ended up ordering a whole bottle of wine…for himself!! So we talked to them about little stuff, where we are from stuff like that.
Then he asked why we were here?
Ryan and I said, we are volunteering.
He asked, What do you do?
We said, We do a lot of things, but lately we are teaching English.
He was very drunk and not in a good mood and didn’t understand why we would travel around the world, not make any money, solely to help people.
He then asked who our boss was…..
I didn’t know any other answer but to say, Jesus!!!
….He didn’t like that very much….
So that made him explode!! If you haven’t guessed it, he is NOT a believer and does not support. But keep reading because it gets good!!
So Ryan and I keep our cool and answered his questions calmly and to represent the Lord the best we could. He was extremely rude, cursing, loud, saying horrible things, but the Holy Spirit kept us cool and collected. At one point he went up to Ryan’s face and said, “Hit me!! I want you to hit me right now!!”
I looked at Ryan and said, “Ryan, this is straight from the Devil, he’s trying to temp you, be strong in the Lord and resist snapping dude!!!” It got crazy for a while. He then went to the bathroom. While he was there, his friend that he was with apologized for his friends behavior. All the other people in the bar saw what was going on too and came up to us and told us that they had our backs and that we are being really good about the whole situation. While he was gone, Ryan and I prayed for him. We prayed for the Holy Spirit to overtake him and bring peace to him. He then came down from the bathroom and came right to us…..to apologize…..
He said, “I don’t want you guys to look at me as a drunk a**h***.” And all this other stuff. But Ryan and I kept telling him that he didn’t have to apologize and that we love him no matter what he did or said. That we are here to love on people no matter what their situation.
The game ended, NC State won!!! And we were getting ready to leave. We went up to these men to say goodbye and they got up and gave us huge hugs and apologized once again. His friend whispered in both Ryan and myself ear, “never stop believing, your doing an amazing thing.” Which was amazing!!
It was a crazy couple of hours, but starting out arguing about religion and what we are doing here, ended in hugs and keep in touches!!!
God, I love you!!!
Things I learned that night:
You ask for patience, Holy Spirit gives it immediately
You ask for the Holy Spirit to take over a person and make them think about their actions, he will
Our actions that represent Jesus, people see and take note, and they can tell that we love the Lord with all of our heart
That the Lord will protect me no matter what, where ever I am
The Lord is SO GOOD!!! And will always be there for me and have my back in any situation. Jesus is only a prayer away…
And that NC State is the best college basketball team there is and will the whole tournament!!!! :p
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