All posts by Brandy

2024 Highlights #3

Our Mexican tourist visas expired in May, and we returned to the US. We started serving at a few VBS events in a few different churches in June. The kids created a video for a summer camp in East Texas, and we presented at a career fair on missionary life (links to the videos in the comments).

Also, this summer we were honored to partner with Tributary Retreat Center in Arkansas to provide debriefings to multiple families. What is a debriefing, you might ask? It’s an opportunity to discuss past events in a safe environment, ask intentional questions (and games where kids are concerned), find those emotions and events that need processing (even those we didn’t even see ourselves), work through the hard things, find a healthy path forward, learn preventative care for ourselves and our families, to deal with crisis situations…there are so many facets to a good debriefing.

We traveled many hours and miles from our home base in Denton, Texas (where Hope is attending college) to meet with families at Tributary. We also provided a debriefing for a missionary family in Dallas, a much shorter drive. 😉 We’ve driven almost 10,000 miles since May to show these families that they are important. As our ’06 suburban with 260,000+ miles stranded us more frequently, we set up a campaign on Give, Send, Go to purchase a more reliable vehicle.

That campaign ends next week. Would you consider a donation so we can continue traveling to and serving those who need our care? https://givesendgo.com/GD9WA?utm_source=sharelink…

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2024 Highlights #2

We are so thankful for those who have been called to cross borders to share God’s love, those who share His love from where they are, and those who are called to help financially and prayerfully support the first two.

In February and March, we traveled north from La Paz to Loreto and then across the Sea of Cortez to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. We also traveled by plane to Guadalajara to visit several other missionaries and celebrate another couple as they retired from 40 years of serving cross-culturally. We partnered with a local church to provide a bilingual Easter Sunrise service. We had over 70 in attendance!

We are especially thankful for those of you who support us through Ankyrios International. Traveling to meet with those we care for goes a long way to show their value. And that travel isn’t cheap. We also provide all our care and debriefings at NO COST to those we serve. Therefore, it is donations from those of you that keep this work going! Thank you!

Will you consider a financial gift to Ankyrios International so we can continue caring for pastors and cross-cultural workers and their families? ankyrios.org/giving

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2024 Highlights #1

As we approach Giving Tuesday and the end of 2024 (oh my goodness!), we wanted to take a moment each day to share a few of this year’s highlights.

We began 2024 in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Over the last few years, we’ve developed sweet relationships with several missionaries there. We always look forward to our time in La Paz. We spent some time with a young family as they prepared to move back to the US and provided them with resources to help with the transition. Dennis met regularly with a pastor who asked Dennis to mentor him. We also spent time with other boaters, including a lovely woman who was a teenager in East Germany right after WWII. Her stories were incredible. We’re grateful for all the people we meet!

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Meeting missionaries where they are…

A quick video update

***We just realized we left off a family of 7 that we debriefed back in June. That raises our kid count to 21!

TCK Re-entry and Processing Retreat

Coming soon! We are so excited to offer a weekend retreat for ATCKs, ages 18-25.

Click here to complete the registration form.

Click here to pay the $100 registration deposit (select the TCK Retreat Registration).

March 2024: Heading to Guadalajara!

Watch the video on our facebook page.

2023 End of Year Update
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We are so grateful for many things this year and just one is all of you that follow and encourage us. Now that Ankyrios International is a recognized 501(c)(3), we are part of Amazon Smile. I’m sure many of you will be shopping at amazon this week. Please shop through amazon smile and support Ankyrios International. Thank you!! Happy Thanksgiving!

What is a TCK anyways and why are they important?

I’ve spent the last few months learning as much as my brain could absorb on TCKs and how we can better care for them and their parents. The momma and teacher in me love this expanded category in ministry. Read more below…

(I apologize for the overlap typing above. It’s not there when I edit, so I can’t make it go away.)

A little side note on the transition story above…I’ve learned over the last few months that saying goodbye is appropriate more times than not. I think in the military “See you later” became the preferred phrase because, well, the unthinkable could happen to your military service member and we just couldn’t bear saying goodbye. We desperately wanted to believe that they would come home and we would see them later. But saying goodbye to those friends that moved or when we moved would have in most cases helped my kids. We did see many of them again through travel or returning to the same duty stations, but our daily lives changed. The friends that we spent time with several times a week were now just a once in awhile phone call or maybe video call. Our lives changed and that needed the goodbye. Painful as it is, transition is a long process with no shortcuts. Ending one season well, and that means doing the goodbyes, helps us to start fresh in the new place.

An Overview of 2021 in Pictures (and a few words)