Merry Christmas from the Browns!

Below is our annual Christmas update from Pam:

Christmas 2016 Greetings!

It is that time of year again! We have experienced a wonderful year of God’s blessings. Kevin continues to pastor at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church and as of January, he will begin his 12^th year of ministry. We moved to having three services last year, and not that numbers are everything, (but they do represent souls), we are averaging over 600 people in our three services. Kevin’s weekly Two-Minute Tuesday’s on Facebook have had an amazing impact and were viewed by over 160,000 people.

Kevin and I will celebrate our 26^th Anniversary on December 22^nd. I am in my 17^th year of homeschooling and now spend the majority of my time teaching Clara and Andrew and managing things around here. It’s also a blessing to participate in the Praise Team and work with various ministries at church when I am able. I LOVE being Nana to my two sweet granddaughters! This past year I tore my ACL while doing mission work in China. I had surgery in March and although it was a long and painful recovery, I am so thankful to be back to “normal.”

Kandace will be 19 in January and is getting close to completing her Associates Degree. She continues to sing with the church Praise Team, as well as teaching dance and violin. She also started working at Cook’s Sporting Goods this summer. She is crazy busy and enjoying life. She went back to FASA in Nashville again this summer and sang at the Country Music Hall of Fame and The Grand Ole Opry. She loves going there and reconnecting with so many dear friends and fellow musicians. In 2017 Kandace plans to travel back to China and the Philippines to do more mission work. Kandace also loves spending time loving on and taking care of her precious nieces.

Clara is now 11 and has surpassed me in height! She is in the 6^th grade is still dancing and advancing in her violin studies. Her favorite subject is English, like her mother! J Clara was able to travel in October with Kevin and Kandace to the Philippines and participate in the work there. She really enjoyed the experience and wants to go again in the future. Clara is still Charlotte’s best buddy. Charlotte calls her “Cuh-Cuh.”

Andrew is also 11 and in 6^th grade. He is still learning piano and has turned his focus to engineering and building. He is meeting each week with a generous man in the church who teaches him about engineering, cars, and other projects. Andrew is in “hog heaven” learning about these things. He really likes math, like his dad! J Charlotte calls him “Adoo” and loves to play hide and seek with him.

Josh and Katy moved into their new home in the spring. Josh is still employed at Wilkes Communications and enjoying his job there. On November 11^th at 7:58 a.m. Evelyn Ruth Isaacs was born at WRMC weighing 7 lbs. 1 oz. Charlotte became a big sister just before turning two on November 23^rd. Katy is doing great and is a wonderful mother. We enjoy having them close by so we can see them often. Charlotte is talking all the time and always doing something funny. She and little Evelyn are blessings for sure!

We are so thankful for all of God’s blessings this year! We pray that you and your family enjoy a wonderful Christmas Season and remember that the greatest gift is Jesus Christ, who came to earth as a humble baby, to become the ultimate sacrifice so that we may be saved! He is worthy of all praise! Merry Christmas!

Love,

Pam and all the Brown Family

Here’s today’s Two-Minute Tuesday about the importance of “Saving Our Households.” It’s my heart and I know if I fail here, then it doesn’t matter what else I accomplish in this life.

http://subsplash.com/mpbc/v/4dsqx8q

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A White Christmas?

Short answer…

No. Not likely this year at all.

Not in North Carolina at least. The weather pattern will go from being bitterly cold, (as I mentioned a while back), with even a bit of frozen precipitation potentially, (early Saturday morning), to a more relaxed and warmer pattern toward the last week of the month (week of Christmas and into the first of January). This is the December 21-27 outlook:

There will be no white Christmas with that look for sure. It’s just too warm. We’ll be in the low to mid 50’s with that look, about 5-7 degrees above normal. We will still have a wetter period, but it will be just wet, not frozen. See below.

What’s going to be interesting is what happens after the first of the year. There is a fight in the upper atmosphere over the Arctic and into Siberia. Where is the coldest air going to lodge? Will it be over Asia or will it be over Canada? Last week and this week (coming Thursday/Friday) the coldest air has split toward North America and NOT Siberia.

But, what about the rest of winter? Will it split off and we get what’s called a “polar vortex split,” where a piece of the polar vortex rotates our way (like we will experience Thursday/Friday of this week)? Or will we have more of a zonal (west to east) flow of weather from Pacific to Atlantic. For our good winters, (if you like snow), we need a south to north (active southern jet stream) that ejects moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. Our best snows come up I-85 from Atlanta. It’s too early to tell. I’d say it’s 50/50 on whether it will be a colder and more snowy winter versus warmer and drier. We’ll know a lot more in another couple of weeks and I’ll update you. 🙂

I continue to be concerned about what’s taught in our colleges. I talked about that today in my Two-Minute Tuesday. I wrote this preface on Facebook…

“Progressive Liberal Christianity-Like My Loose Treadmill” Forgive me for the length of this video…it’s 6 minutes. However it is critical. The video will describe what some are seeking to do to subvert orthodox Christianity today. To change the doctrines and orthodox meanings of the basic and foundational tenets of Scripture, (doctrine that has been accepted and practiced for centuries), to a loose theology that perverts these doctrines by watering them down or changing them altogether, is seriously and fearfully damning to many unsuspecting and very impressionable souls. What is more shameful is that this type of perverted theology is being taught under the guise of “Christianity” to our young people in many of our colleges and universities and even some churches. What is to follow is one example from the University of Southern California. Thanks for watching and spreading the word! 

http://subsplash.com/mpbc/v/njqvfqg

Have a great week!

Kevin

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Praising God! She’s Alive!!

Take a look at these two pictures:

Kandace walked away from that with a sore neck and some minor cuts and bruises. Literally, I could have been planning my daughter’s funeral today, but instead, I’m praising the Lord for His protection and goodness to my daughter and my family.

It’s crazy! This all happened right below the house. I mean literally within 1,000 feet of our driveway. Kandace had come home for lunch after church. She works at Cook’s Sporting Goods. They are open the month of December before Christmas from 1-5 on Sundays. She is a cashier. So, she ate and off she went. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, she inadvertently let the right front tire drop off our narrow road (Boone Trail) and she overcorrected and then fishtailed right into the ditch. She wasn’t even up to speed yet. The airbags didn’t even go off! And she walked away.

Cars can be replaced. My daughter can’t!

Can I tell you that I didn’t sleep good Sunday night. I dreamed about Kandace all night. I dreamed she died in one dream and then she lived in another. I dreamed she was in the hospital on IV’s and wires everywhere to she was in a coffin. It was a fitful night. My Fitbit recorded that I was restless throughout the night (it shows little red lines) all throughout the night. Yep, it was fitful!! I felt like dirt yesterday. But, even in all of that, all I could think of was the fact that she was alive! She’s alive! My precious 18-year-old is alive!! Oh my word!! I’m so overwhelmed with gratitude!!!

You see, I don’t have to endure looking at the pictures of her all over the walls of our house and cry gut-punching tears because she’s not here. I don’t have to plan a funeral and console my children and my wife! I don’t have to clean out her room or her closet and decide what to do about that room. She’s alive!! Oh, thanks be to God! Thank you Jesus!! She’s alive!!!

That’s me and my girl and I’m wiping tears as I type and look at that picture. I’m so humbled by God’s goodness! The trooper, (Hall, a godly man and good man) told me, “If she’d hit those poplar trees square, it could have killed her.” The man who pulled the car out, Ronnie Everette, who is the best mechanic around, said, “Kevin, I’ve seen people hit just right in these situations and it kill them or maim them for life.” I’m listening to all of this standing in the pouring rain in my black suit.

You see, Pam had called me while I was on the way home from church. She said, “Kandace has been in a wreck (my heart jumped), but she’s alright (I breathed a sigh of relief). She’s in the ditch right below the house.” Well, at that moment I was coming up to our driveway. I let off the brake and just kept coasting down the hill and then I saw the back-end of the car. I knew what Pam had said, but my heart went to my throat. And then I saw Kandace and Pam standing there on the side of the ditch. I parked and ran to my girl and hugged her so tight! She kept saying, “I’m so sorry daddy! I’m so sorry! It happened so fast!!” I consoled her and hugged her and so did Pam and I looked to heaven and rejoiced!

Yes, standing there on the side of the road and hearing that trooper and Ronnie both say, “She’s lucky to be alive.” Well, that makes a man weak at the knees. Eventually I told Pam to get Kandace into the van and warm her up. She was shaking. It was 43 degrees and pouring the rain. So, I stood there as the trooper was in his car filing his report and Ronnie pulled the car out of the ditch. Just me and the Lord and rain pattering on my umbrella…and me in my black suit. And the Lord whispered, “Kevin, it’s okay. I’m watching over your family. You pray that to me every day and I’m listening. Your prayers have been answered right before your eyes.”

Hey moms and dads, if you don’t think your prayers make a difference, they do! If you think you are too busy or wasting time to pray over your children in the dead of night or in the morning when we you leave for work, this is another testimony to the contrary. Prayer is the mechanism God has given us to beseech His throne and it works. I saw it again on Sunday afternoon from a ditch right below my house. And you know what? I’m praising God!!

Kevin

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