A God-sized Mission Beyond Dreams in Houston
Brittany did not want her ministry to focus on children. She had a desire to reach women, but God had something grander in store when she joined Global Gates as a missionary in Houston two years ago.
He placed her in an apartment complex with neighbors from 17 different countries. Open Doors puts out the annual World Watch List of the worst countries for where Christians face persecution. Brittany has neighbors from seven of the top 15 countries on this list.
She is leveraging her location for the sake of the gospel. One day two girls saw Brittany outside walking her dog. They ran up to say hello and pet the dog. Brittany knew they were Christians and asked if they wanted to do a kids’ Bible study (KBS). They responded with an emphatic yes.
KBS has expanded. It has grown from two to 13 children. It has kids from four different countries and kids from outside of her apartment complex. KBS gives her ministry opportunities with adults, because it connects her with parents.
God has blessed her with a vibrant outreach to Muslim women, too.
Brittany has a Muslim friend who has a seven-year-old son with severe autism. This woman moved from Central Asia to Houston to join her husband right after they got married. She didn’t know English when she arrived. They started a restaurant and she became pregnant. Tragically, her husband died from a heart attack 20 days after their son was born.
Brittany shared the gospel with this woman soon after they met. She also prayed with her and gave her a contextualized version of the Gospel of Luke. She has continued to discuss Scripture and pray with her.
But this woman’s son disrupts their visits and demands constant attention due to his special needs. Brittany doesn’t let any of this keep her from showing Christ’s love to this woman.
“She’s had a hard life,” Brittany said. “She’s raised this wonderful boy as a working single mom, but he’s difficult.”
Brittany also built strong relationships with a group of Azerbaijani Muslim women. She shared the gospel with them. They haven’t believed yet, but they take her their prayer requests. She prays for them in Jesus’s name and has seen God answer prayers by meeting the needs of these women.
Brittany has befriended a Turkish family, too. She has studied the Bible and Qu’ran with them.
She has even had time to study the Bible with a group of Indonesian Muslims.
“You can see why it’s hard for me to narrow it down to a single unreached people group when the Lord’s like, ‘I have something different for you,’” Brittany said.
Global Gates’ Pathways Texas Internship has marked her second year in Houston. This training program has been an equipping and empowering experience for her.
“Pathways, I love it,” Brittany said. “I highly recommend it. I’m excited for this next group to come in. This is a great opportunity to get training, so you know there’s no excuse for not being able to share the gospel.”
“Houston is the perfect training ground, because it’s so diverse. You have these amazing mentors. I love the people that work here and serve here.”
This has not only been a season of learning and growth for her but one for applying the tools she has acquired, too. Now, she has the foundation to engage the nations around her and to mobilize the church to do the same.
For example, part of her training has been to learn how to host and deploy short-term teams. The first team she hosted and deployed was a group of 49 middle schoolers.
“I was meeting with a neighbor from Pakistan in my apartment complex,” Brittany said. “Her son comes up and asks when are the middle schoolers going to come back to see him. He even said them by name. If you don’t think short-term missions has an effect it absolutely does.”
Brittany is seeing the impact of her work, and her experience with Pathways has been a major part of it. God is just beginning to reveal the work he has in store for her, and it’s greater than she asked or imagined.
–Ben Doster, Director of Communications, communications@globalgates.info
