The Brackett's in Malaysia

Packed in!

January began a new school year for us at Harvest Centre.  After acquiring and renovating two additional floors during the holidays, we have an UNBELIEVABLE 700 STUDENTS!  Needless to say, it is rather crowded and hectic!  This of course comes with new challenges as well as opportunities.  Please continue to pray for our teachers and students as well as we continue to adjust.

Thievery

We have experienced 3 break-ins during the last month!  I won't go into details but my laptop, Pastor's laptop,the church LCD projector, and some equipment / tools have all been stolen.  The loss of my laptop was especially bitter as it had 100% of my data.  Photos, teachings, research, recipes, music, videos...everything, gone... with no back-up.  We are trying our best to secure our premises, but with 10 floors and 700 students, it is incredibly difficult.  Please pray for this situation.

Youth Alpha

AsI said before, having 700 students presents new opportunites.  Our newYouth Alpha intake has about 30 youth and I am now running a group onThursday as well with about 15 more students.  It is quite a handful to prepare and plan but I am really happy to be at this point in the ministry to where things are happening on their own.  It is nice to say, "Hey, there are way too many people here." as opposed to "Why is no one here."  Please pray for many lives to be impacted. 

Tough Month, but Thanks to All

All in all, this month has been a difficult start to the year.  The cost of a replacement computer as well as college fees was a massive hit on our finances but Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle was a tremendous blessing,assisting with much of the cost of both the school fees and the computer, so we extend a grateful thank you to our partners at Smithtown as well as all of you who continue to pray and support us! Let's look forward to a fruitful 2010!!

Recently, Rosie & John-Michael flew to East Malaysia to train preschool teachers and Nikao and I took the Youth Alpha group for our weekend away (Holy Spirit weekend). 

Youth Alpha Weekend Away

About half way through our weekly Youth Alpha sessions, we take our youth away for a weekend.  This gives us an opportunity to break away from the normal environment, have a little fun, and cultivate an environment that limits distractions.  We always look forward to these (Holy Spirit) sessions because this is where many of them really experience God for the first time.

This occassion did not disappoint.  All of the youth, christian and non-christian, experienced God's presence in a powerful way.  It was a really powerful time.  We also went to the famous Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary for a few hours.  That was a lot of fun.  Not only did we get to ride the elephans bare backed, Nikao also fed the young ones with lots of cucumbers (after initially being forced by me :wink. 

Rosie's trip to Sarawak

While we were off riding elephants, and experiencing God, Rosie was off in East Malaysia experiencing teacher training and a preschool graduation.  Over the past few years, we at Harvest Centre have established several preschools in towns and in the villages of East Malaysia.  The training of the teachers in these preschools is an ongoing process and Rosie was able to spend a week training about 20 teachers.  It looks like she may be traveling a lot more in 2010, continuing to train teachers in different parts of the country.

Faisal Cup 2010

For those of you who need a review on what the Faisal Cup is, please check out a couple of short videos which can be found in our video section here. 

This year's Faisal Cup was another HUGE event with unbelievable hours of planning.  There were over 40 teams involved this year with over 1,000 people in attendance.  This year, we even had some refugees from Afghanistan in the tournament! 

I have been training our soccer team since February and I'll be honest, it has been tough.  Some students thought they were moving to Australia (but got swindled and were sent to a detention camp) and left our school.  Other students who remained constantly struggled with commitment to the team and practicing with excellence.  Through it all though, we stuck with it and arrived at Faisal Cup.

During the tournament, I coached the Under 16 soccer team and we also had an Under 18 team and several different netball categories for the girls.  The day was overcast through most of the morning with some light rain in the early afternoon.  That was a GREAT blessing, as the Malaysian sun is not very kind during soccer tournaments. 

So how did our team fare?  Well, the Under 16 team did surprisingly well.  We advanced to the semi-final game, which needed penalites to decide the 1-1 draw.  We won the game in dramatic fashion as Ayub denied shot after shot and Farouk slotted home the winning goal. 

In the championship game, we played a taller team, but played fair, although we missed several great opportunities.  With the score tied at 1-1, the pace became frantic at the end with the other team assaulting our goal.  Ayub made 4 fantastic saves in a row, denying the opponet the victory, but injuring his ankle in the process.  The game finished at a draw which of course meant... more penalties.  But alas, it was not meant to be for us this year.  Ayub's ankle injury restricted his movement and he wasn't able to save any of the penalites, as we missed all of ours.  So, in the end, we achieved 2nd place... which honestly, is much better than I anticipated!  Next week we will begin to train again and hope to win it all next year!!

Back in the saddle

Since we have returned from our trip to the US, we have found that the reintegration to life in Malaysia has been better than expected.  We really enjoyed our time with family and friends back home and truly believe that all of the extra prayers from loved ones have made a great difference.  Thanks to all who continue to support us financially or through prayer!!

Youth Alpha

We have begun a new Youth Alpha intake recently.  Having had such great results from our previous sessions, we were excited to begin with a new group of students, as well as those who wanted to repeat the course.  Please pray for those who go through this course as it is a great opportunity for them to explore the meaning of life from a Christian perspective.  Our previous group had at least 4 individuals who came to believe in this perspective so we are expecting great things this time as well!

Chronicles

From August 25th-29th, Harvest Centre held the first Chronicles Conference.  This conference functioned as sort of a networking of ministries which have a similar focus; children at risk, education, the poor, etc.  It provided a platform to share stories, which is the meaning of a chronicle, and pray and encourage one another.  Although I had to remain in Kuala Lumpur due to college classes, Rosie and the kids had a great time.  One concern was that many participates contracted the flu (possibly H1N1) while there.  All have been quarantined and medicated and are doing much better now. 

Faisal Cup

Our annual Faisal Cup soccer tournament for the underprivileged will be taking place on October 3rd.  This is a huge undertaking every year so please pray for the event and all the preparations that will need to take place.  I am coaching our team this year and it has really been challenging, especially with most of my boys observing the muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The past month has been a busy one for us:

Staff Retreat

Rosie and the boys got to go up to the beautiful, cooling Cameron Highlands for a staff retreat in March.  As they enjoyed fresh air, flowers, fresh strawberries and honey, I stayed down in Kuala Lumpur, took my college exam,  and worked in the cafe.  At least they had a good time:

Samsung Hope - $15,000 USD!!!

Electronic giant SAMSUNG recently had a contest between different charitable organizations.  By visiting their website and voting for the charity of your choice, you could help your charity win.  Well, we were in the mix, represented by our partner World Vision, who had agreed to give us the full proceedings to build another preschool in a rural area of Malaysia.  Over the course of 2 months, our children and staff voted countless times, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning.  Our rival made a fierce comeback on the final day of voting causing us to panic and really begin to hit the computers again!!  Our staff and children were up until the closing time of midnight and... WE WON!!!  So that means Samsung will give $15,000 USD to help establish another preschool for the poor.  We are very excited abou this opportunity and will keep you updated.

Harvest Cup

Sunway University recently hosted a futsal tournament (soccer in a tennis court sized playing area) to benefit Harvest Centre.  We also entered a team into the tournament and walked away with 3rd place!!  This is quite an accomplishment looking back at how far our players have come the last three years.  I even got an opportunity to play since the tournament was open for all ages!!

Youth Alpha

Youth Alpha continues to be the most fulfilling area of ministry for me.  We recently had our "Holy Spirit Weekend" and that was a lot of fun as well as an impactful time for many of our youth.  Several were really touched by God and we are greatly encouraged by what we see happening in some of their lives. 

John-Michael's Birthday

We celebrate John-Michael's first birthday on April 7th!  It really came fast.  I baked him a cake and the staff and children gathered around to sing.  It was a fun time.  Also, he is now walking everywhere and has one little tooth stump growing in. 

Trip to the US

As most of you know we will be traveling to the US this month.  Here are our official dates for those who would like to visit with us or ask us to speak in your church / youth meeting / etc.

April 22 - 30       Long Island, New York

May 1 - 3            Adams / Nashville, Tennessee

May 4 - 19          Knoxville, Tennessee

May 20 - 29        Long Island, New York