I want to introduce you to one of two new heroes of mine. You will agree that she is stunningly beautiful. Her raspy voice steals your heart. Incredibly independent. Nurtures and dotes on her babies (and her little brother to his joy and dismay) like no other. Quite a jokester and teaser even at a young age. And, unfortunately, ornery just like her father.
So why is Naomi Jo Brane a new hero of mine . . . Well . . . it is one thing when as a adult, you decide to turn your world upside down by moving to another country, to enroll in language school, and to attempt to learn another language while trying to survive in a foreign culture. But as a 4 year old, you really have no say in the matter. You must simply go where your parents go. And though kids tend to adjust to change better and easier than adults do, it is still incredibly difficult and stressful for them. I can’t tell you how proud I am of my daughter Naomi for embracing a new culture and language with such grace and courage. I stand overwhelmed at how God has protected and carried our children in His Arms during these challenging transitions and answered countless prayers lifted on their behalf. But I will allow Naomi to tell you all about it.
- Naomi’s “Maman” (as she now calls me)
“Bonjour! Je m’appelle Naomi et je suis 4 ans.
So what is it like to move to a country where they do not speak “my” language? Well, let me tell you. The first week in France was great – mommy or daddy did not have to go to work and we just played together – I was starting to think that moving to France wasn’t such a bad idea. And then daddy started talking to me about going to preschool. Yeah, I am usually a bit shy, OK really shy, but after a while I warm up to the school. But I had no idea what was in store for me.
When we walked into la maternelle (what the French call their preschool), everyone was jibber jabbering, like they were talking baby talk like Josiah. I could not understand anything. Mommy and Daddy met my teacher, Maitre Erik, and then daddy started talking about coming back to pick me up at lunch. WHAT???? These people are talking baby talk and you are going to leave me here?? What kind of parents are you? What will I do if I have to go to the bathroom? My teacher had to pry me off of daddy as I started crying b/c I was scared (you would have cried too). But when daddy came to pick me up at lunch, I was not crying. I thought I had survived my first day of preschool in France. But no, it was not over. After eating lunch at home, daddy walked me back to preschool for the afternoon. Oh la, la . . .
While all the other kids did their school work in the afternoon, I would lay my head on the table and take a small nap. My teacher said it was OK for me to do this. He had no idea how exhausting it was to listen to people speak French all day and not understand any of it. No one else really speaks English in my class. My teacher speaks a little bit of English but most of the time, he cannot understand “my” English. I still do not say any words at school despite attending an after school tutoring program to help me learn French.
I say a few French words but only at home. Maman (that is what I call my mommy now like the other French kids) assures me that a lot is happening inside my little brain and one day, I will burst out speaking fluent French. Right now, I am just soaking it all in. And, I am starting to really like mon maternelle (Check out the pictures of my classmates and teacher and you will see why. This is my Uncle Jaisen’s new internet photo business- check it out. http://branestorm-mission.openphoto.me/photos/list
Maman sets up play dates with Isis, another kid in my class, so I can become friends with her. While maman tries to talk to Isis’s mom in French, we run around on the play ground at the park or play dolls in her room. My favorite part of play date is the goûter- it is the French 4 pm snack – Miam miam !! (yum yum in French)
Though, I like school, I love being home even more. Maman says that I am the best big sister- check out the pictures- I am not sure exactly why Josiah looks SO scared or is crying- it is just me his big sister coming to play with him. My big sister Anna is awesome and lets me play with her and her friends. Hannah and Corrie are our best friends b/c they are American and speak “our” language. But 
we have just become friends with 2 French kids that live near us and we like playing with them. I think maman loves eaves-dropping on us. She says it is cute to listen to us use one and two word French phrases with them. I just learned how to ride my bike this week and yes, also had my first accident with a swollen lip and all. C’est la vie!!
Maman says that she is super, super proud of me because everyday I go to school without complaining or whining now. She tells me that going to a new school is hard enough, but to go to a new school where I cannot speak or understand the language or know the cultural norms of school is really tough. She even says that I am one of her new hero b/c of how brave I am.
Though she tells me that she is very proud of how well I have adjusted to a lot of the changes, she reminds me that God answered so many prayers that have been prayed for me by many of you. Mommy prays this Bible verse for me from 2 Corinthians 12:9.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”.
In my moments of weakness like when I am feeling insecure or scared or overwhelmed b/c I do not know what is going on around me, Maman asks God to allow His Power to enable me to feel strong in Him, to feel secure and safe and confident. And I know that God has answered so many of these prayers. Just look at how well I am doing here. So MERCI beaucoup for praying for me as I made this big transition in my little life here in France and please continue praying for me and my family.
Next time you see me, I will be speaking in French. Grandma Brane is scared that I am going to forget how to speak English- Never!!
Au revoir,
Naomi
It’s March already. Actually, March is on it’s way out and soon April will arrive. Signs of spring are in the air. Flowers blooming, trees budding, etc…. (I think you get the picture). There are signs of new life appearing everywhere and of course, the weather is getting warmer as well.
Life is changing for us as well. We have entered into a new stage in the transition process where we are beginning to miss America more and yet at the same time France is becoming a place where it feels more comfortable to “hang our hat” for this year until we move to Burkina Faso.
Not to be self-centered as there are many things I could write about, but today, I’m going to focus the attention of this blog update on moi (me) and tell you some of the things that have been going through my mind as of late.
Right now, my head is still above water, but I can tell you that some days are more encouraging than others. For someone who sees the glass ½ full or overflowing at times, I rarely get discouraged in life, but many times language learning can be a quite discouraging. I so badly want to understand what people are saying, to understand how the language works, and to be able to say what I want to correctly. Each day as I learn new concepts, I see just how difficult it is to learn French. It is easy for me to get discouraged when I feel like everyone else “gets it”, but I don’t. Discouragement can really start to set in when I reflect how hard I am working and yet often I feel like I’m getting now where. It’s a good thing feelings aren’t always a true sign of reality. I try to remind myself that I’m doing my best and that other’s have been in the same shoes I’m in and somehow got it, but, it’s still hard. So, I’m learning to be patient.
I often remind myself as to why I’m learning French and I’m really thankful for my drive to learn. In case you don’t know… (I was the kid in school who studied language because I absolutely HAD to do it to graduate). Now, I’m conjugating French verbs, learning about direct objects, indirect objects, pronouns, etc…. in my spare time. Boy, my grade school teachers would proud of me now! This drive to learn French for both myself and Suja has certainly been a gift from God.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the importance of loving God with our mind. This has been something I’ve meditated on in the past and something that my brother has certainly challenged me with over the years. It’s been interesting to see how I’ve even been able to put that into practice in my French learning. To be honest, there are days when I don’t want to even say “bonjour” to someone, but at the same time, I find myself at night, after the kids go to bed, trying to comprehend what we learned in class that day and doing homework with Suja. Of course, we’ve had to balance this with times of rest from French as well. As long as we can maintain this balance, keep our heads above water, and avoid discouragement, we will be able to thrive not just survive in learning French.
The One who knows all things, including all the grammar rules of the French language, walks alongside us. He has not promised us that we will learn to speak French well, but He is with us through the process. And as they say here in France… bon courage!
Tom
Wow, so much has happened this past month. Our lives have been turned upside down. A month ago, we were living in Cincinnati, still trying to sell one car and give another one away. We were saying good-byes, spending time with family, visiting our favorite restaurants like Skyline Chili for one last time, and even finishing up our support raising before we left. Whew!
Now, on month later, we are in France. Our kids are in French public schools. We have French phones, a French bank account, and an apartment. We buy foreign foods. We don’t drive, but instead walk or ride the bus or train. We went from being professionals to being beginner students. There are new rules, a new culture, new routine, and a new language to figure out. Life can be quite confusing.
So, I thought I would update you on how we are doing. Let’s start with our kids. Our prayer (yours included) was that our kids would have a smooth transition. God has given us a gift in this area. Our kids have adjusted to the food, the apartment, and even their school very well. They love going to school. They both have teachers who know a little bit of English and Anna has a French learning class along with her regular first grade class. She is picking up a lot of French and she’s only been in school 2 weeks! Naomi loves her teacher. She thinks her teacher says “cats” and “dogs” all day. So, who knows what French words she is hearing that sounds like “cats” and “dogs”. We couldn’t be happier about how are kids are doing! Keep praying that as we continue to transition, that our kids will continue to do well.
Josiah has been doing well in the daycare while we are in class. I feared that Suja would have to miss class because he was hungry or fussy, but that simply hasn’t been the case. Sometimes he has a hard time sleeping at night, but at least he’s sleeping when we’re in class!
Now for us… Well, the past two weeks have been a real learning curve. Peu à Peu, “little by little” we are learning. We’ve had to get our bearings straight… “Where are we again?” We’ve had to get to know other people and a way of life and we’re also learning French. Each new group of students that come in is assigned a teacher and that teacher stays with that group of students through their time of study. God has blessed us with probably the best teacher at this school. His name is Alain and he’s been teaching French here for over 20 years. He is known for being great at teaching pronunciation, but besides that, he’s simply a magnificent teacher.
With that being said, we’ve not exactly become fluent in French in 2 weeks. Learning French is a lot of work and learning another language is quite humiliating at times. This week, I told my teacher that he was my wife. Everyone in class laughed. Another day, I think I told the lady at the grocery store that my baby was “very months” old instead of “three months” old. Then there was yet another day we 
bought cherries from a local fruit market. When we went to pay for them, we found out that they cost about $15. We didn’t know enough French yet and plus it would have been rude at that point to tell him we didn’t want them.
On the plus side, we’re learning a lot! We study about 2-3 hours a night and more than that on weekends. We’ve had to memorize how to spell all 66 books in the Bible in French. We’ve learned 2 Bible verses and we are constantly adding to new words and phrases to our vocabulary daily. There is certainly a difference between learning something and knowing it as our teacher reminded us. Knowing it is having the ability to use what you have learned. I’m not sure how much of what I’ve learned, I can use yet, but I’m getting there. I’ve been really encouraged to see students who have been here longer and to see their level of French. So, although I still fear learning French, I have a lot of confidence in my God, my teacher, and this school, and therefore ultimately in myself. It’s funny how driven I have been to learn it. I think it’s because I really want to know it for a greater purpose. I work on my French as though I’m working for the Lord, not for myself or anyone else (see Col. 3). My prayer is that I can my French for His purposes, and that the words of my mouth may be pleasing to Him.
So, that’s what’s going on here in Massy, France with us after week 2. We’ll keep you posted in the weeks to come.
We arrived in Massy (a suburb just outside of Paris) on Dec. 28th. Traveling went much better than expected. We had 9 large 50lb bags and a bicycle along with carry-on luggage, strollers, etc… The bicycle got to fly for free (something we didn’t expect). All the bags arrived including the bicycle. We arrived in France on time and that taxi drivers were right where they said they would be. We were welcomed nicely at the school. One fellow student helped carry our luggage in, another family bought us our first baggette. Everyone we met offered us their help. The only thing that went wrong during our travels was that Josiah (our 3 month old) was quite fussy during the flight from Chicago to Paris which meant extra lack of sleep for Suja.
We registered the girls for school, visited 3 bakeries (one of them 3 times in one day), and we took the girls to see the Eiffel Tower. We’ve been to the grocery store, unpacked, and are still adjusting to the time change, but so far our transition in going well. Of course, we are in the “honeymoon” stage in the transition process where everything is new and exciting.
School starts this next week. We have no idea what we are doing for New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. Today we learned where the train station is nearby. Everyday we are learning something about French culture, where to get something, or learning the name of another student here at our school, Les Cedres.
I love to talk when I’m around others. Tonight at my visit to the grocery store, I was trying to ask the lady a question at the check out counter. The only problem was that I couldn’t speak French. After a few hand jestures and a couple mispronounced French words, I was able to get my point across. I look forward to the day when I can buy groceries, hear the announcements on the train, read a newspaper, and even talk about God in a conversation…. all in French.
On that note: Bonne année! Happy New Year!
Yeah…. our visas arrived yesterday. Now, it’s onto organizing, packing, and figuring out all the logistics and details. The details eat up your time and it sometimes means contacting several people and collecting other’s opinions before being able to make a final decision. For example, we are still trying to figure out how to get from the airport in France to the school especially with 5 people and probably 10 pieces of luggage. We haven’t figured out what is the wisest thing to do in terms of a phone when are are there? We still have to cancel any phone or utility type services we have here and get rid of 2 cars. Then… we are still trying to decide what to take and what to leave behind.
So, while we deal with all of that, I’m struggling at times to think about Christmas. That may sound bad, but let me just say that my relationship with Jesus is more than just getting into the “Christmas spirit” or thinking about the Christ child during December. Christ is so much integrated in me. This is what it’s like to have him as Lord. So, everyday my eyes are on Him… and everyday I’m reminded of how I need to strive to walk in His ways. I say this in all humbleness.
So, although many details need to be worked out in the next 19 days, at least one of those (the visas) has been solved… Thank you God!
Some of you have been asking how our meeting with the French Consulate went on Wednesday up in Chicago. So, I thought I would fill you in. Before going to the consulate, we had organized and made duplicate copies of all the documents requested from the consulate website. So, the next step was to turn them over to the consulate at our 10 minute meeting on Wednesday. We had dropped the girls off with grandma and grandpa and so it was just Suja, I, and little Josiah. The plan was that the consulate would tell us what documents she wanted to see and Suja would find them in our organized folder, and then I would hand them to the consulate.
25 days until departure date.
A couple weeks ago, our family was commissioned at both White Oak Christian Church and the Markle Church of Christ. What a great time of encouragement for us. Many of you who were there, told us that we are being prayed for, that we are loved, and that God is going to do great things through us. Some of you showed your love in action by helping set up, tear down, and worked behind the scenes to make the services flow smoothly. It was quite humbling to have so much of the attention directed towards us during those services, especially when we were trying to keep God at the center. We were challenged…. challenged to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to as missionaries. We were warned to not be like the Rich Young Ruler, but to keep ourselves humble and not think that God owes us something because of our sacrifice of leaving the comforts of America. We were counseled to remember that we all play a part in reaching the Jula and that we are not more “spiritual” because we are choosing to be missionaries but reminded that like Paul told the Colossians, each of us are to do all that we do as we are doing it for the Lord Jesus himself… because in fact, we are.
Staring at us in the face, is a life change that we feel so unprepared for, and yet we know that the Spirit walks alongside us and never will He leave us or forsake us. As each day gets closer to our departure date on Dec. 27th, the emotional realities of leaving get harder to deal with.
This past week, I attended the National Missionary Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. Ironically, the theme this year was “Commissioned”. I learned a few things and was able to build my network of friends working in West Africa and abroad, but most of all, I was able to reconnect with friends that have been a real source of encouragement and financial support through our journey.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about how our lives are going to change a lot in the next 2 years alone. In the next 2 years, we will have moved to 2 different continents. Our understanding of European and African culture will grow dramatically and our spheres of influence will be completely different.
As I think about that, it seems at times when I come back that everyone else’s lives just stay the same. However, that’s not true. Everyone’s life will be changing as mine changes. It will be interesting coming back and seeing these changes. I anticipate coming back and seeing churches that have grown spiritually, individual lives that have repented of sin, and to see how God is using others to advance His Kingdom.
So… commissioned we are… commissioned to make disciples among the Jula.
Next step: French Consulate meeting on Nov. 30th to obtain our student visas. Keep us in your prayers.
When we started getting serious about missions a couple of years ago, this phrase “The time is now” was something that we mentioned a lot in conversation. We talked about how the “Time is now” to get more serious about serving God somewhere else besides “here”. Those days have come and gone and it’s been quite a journey to this point. For those who have walked some of this road with us… all we can say is “Thank you”.
The time is now once again as we prepare to leave in almost exactly 2 months! A range of emotions from sheer apprehension to the joy of serving our Lord run through our minds. We’ve taken several training courses, raised a lot of prayer and financial support, been encouraged, challenged, and reached out to in so many ways. I’m not sure I’d want to go through this past year again, but at the same time I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Here are some things that are going on in lives at the moment:
Some exciting news happened a month ago for those who don’t know. Our son Josiah Thomas was born on Sept. 19th. What a blessing He is and boy is he in for a ride of a lifetime with us as parents, moving to 2 continents in the next year.
The time is now to get our student visas for France. We’ve been working on it, but what a headache! Yet, just like everything else we’ve faced thus far, we just take one step at a time. The next step in this process will be visiting the French Consulate in Chicago. We could certainly use your prayer for this one.
The time is now for our churches to “send us off”. This next month, we having 2 commissioning services. One will be held at White Oak Christian Church on Nov. 6th at 7:00pm. The other will be held at Markle Church of Christ on Nov. 13th at 10:00a.m. We would love for you to worship God with us and be there to celebrate with us.
The time is now to finish up our support raising. We are almost there, but if you would be interested in joining us in our efforts to reach the Jula, you can simply donate by clicking on… Becoming a Financial Partner.
So, that’s what’s happening now. Soon, I’ll post a list of most asked questions and answers. With that said, if you have any questions or would like to hear more about our plans, please contact us! branestorm@cmfmissionary.org
The time is now to go to bed. We’ll keep you posted.
The Brane family.
This spring we learned about a simple illustration that helped us as a family see that in this journey into missions and in life, there are paradoxes. Some things in life turn out for our good and some things are just plain stinky. This isn’t a yin-yang kind of talk. I’m simply pointing out that life has it’s good moments and it’s bad moments.
Our daughters Anna and Naomi have even learned this lesson. They learned about this concept while we were out in Colorado when their teachers gave them a pair of rubber ducks. One duck was a “yeah” duck…. Symbolizing those things in life, especially in regards to moving to Africa, that we see as good. The other duck was a “yuck” duck…. Symbolizing those things in life, and in moving to Africa, that we see as bad. Today, if you ask our girls what is a “yuck duck” about moving to Burkina Faso, they would say the weather because it’s hot. If you asked them what is a “yeah duck” about moving to Burkina Faso, they would say the stars, because you get to see so many of them.
I wish I could say that when you devote your plans to God, that everything works out just perfect and that life is just “peachy” all the time and the sun always shines and the grass is always green. I tend to be a very optimistic person, and see the “bright” side of life, but that doesn’t mean that I’m somehow immune to hard times. Like everyone else, I try to avoid them when possible, but sometimes life does hand you lemons and not lemonade.
A couple weeks ago, we had a “yuck duck”, when my transmission went out in my car. It was nothing I did. I just had a couple of bearings that decided to give out and chew up some gears in my transmission. In case you’re auto mechanically challenged, a transmission is one of those parts on your car that you hope never goes bad because it’s super expensive to get fixed! So, Suja & I had a decision to make. We only need the car for a few more months, but that’s the point…. We need the car. Option one was to not fix the car. The only good thing about this is that we wouldn’t have to pay to get it fixed. However, the car is pretty worthless without a transmission. Option two was to fix the car. This allows us to have a car that we can use and hopefully sell it when we leave. We chose option two and forked out some cash to get the car fixed.
This week, we had to say goodbye to two of my sisters… both of whom I won’t see again for a really long time.
Although there are “yuck ducks” in life, there have been quite a few “yeah ducks” that have come our way as well. This summer, we received some money back from the insurance and title company that we weren’t expecting after selling our house. This has helped us have $$ to pay for our car. We’ve also had some wonderful time with family in the past couple weeks and we are looking forward to our new addition this next month!
One thing I do know is that when life hands you lemons, the choices you make in those moments are important. In those moments, you can either choose to honor God in your attitude and actions or you can choose to dishonor Him. How we handle those circumstances is what ultimately matters.
It’s hot here in Cincinnati today. With temps in the mid 90’s and a heat index of over 100, it’s the kind of day, you really begin to appreciate air-conditioning, swimming pools, and ice cream. I’m reminded on hot days like today of where we are headed, Burkina Faso, West Africa.
Each day is another day closer to living and working among the Jula and we are thankful for how God continues to bless us and for all the training we have been able to receive this past year.
In June, we finally closed on our house! If you’ve been following our journey for any length of time, you’ve probably known that the selling of our house took much longer than originally anticipated. After 13 months of being on the market, it finally sold! We were told that our closing should be around the end of April. The end of April came and went. The end of May came and went and then we started to get nervous. At this point, Suja and I had both ended our current employment and we were wondering how much longer we would have to be making house payments. Finally, on June 16th, the deal was done and we had this burden lifted once and for all off our backs. Thank you for all of you who have prayed with us over this past year.
Over the course of this past year, the opportunities to bring up God in our conversations have been pretty plentiful. I was getting my haircut and the lady cutting my hair began to ask me questions about who I am, what I do, etc… So, naturally, I told her that I was getting ready to move to West Africa with my family. I let the bait just sit there a bit and waited for the next question. At last, she bit the bait again and asked me why I’m moving to West Africa? So, I had the opportunity to share a bit more about how my wife and I have had a desire to serve God cross-culturally for a long time….and so forth…
Recently, I went to visit Suja at the University of West Virginia. She has been there since June 13th when she began a 2 month tropical medicine course. Here she will learn about diseases that exist in other parts of the world including Burkina Faso.
On July 4th weekend, we went camping near the New River. She invited 3 of her female friends to join us. During the weekend, we did some hiking, swimming, and made some wonderful food around the campfire. The girls Suja had invited camping were from Canada and Europe. They were fascinated why so many Christians would give up their time, take a tropical medicine course, give up their professions, and move to help the poor and oppressed in the world. They could tell that these physicians took their Christian faith seriously. So, they began asking Suja questions during our hike and around the campfire. I sat back like a fly on the wall, listening to Suja tell them about her relationship with Jesus and why serving God was so important to her. I believe that was only a start to other conversations she will have with them over the next few weeks.
So, while we wait to work with the Jula, we are also reminded that our mission field is all those who are lost and a lot of times, those people are right in front of us.
Continue to pray for Suja and her conversations with her fellow students. Pray that we will continue to make each day count for Him.