Update 05-20-07

Sad News Again
As you know from my previous blog entry (too long ago), we were expecting to bring home our 3rd little girl this May. Sadly, though, Charis Hope Bragg died in the womb though, at 17 weeks so we will have to wait until heaven to meet her. In April we found out that we were expecting again (very unexpected) and were very excited, seeing this as God's way of helping us get through the tough time of not being able to have Charis on the day she was due to come. Last Tuesday, however, Andrea started bleeding; and our worst fears were confirmed on Thursday when the doctor's office told her that her pregnancy hormone levels were dropping quickly. We have had a miscarriage just four months after the still-birth of Charis. This time was sadder and harder in some ways but much easier to deal with in other ways. Through it all though, we know that God is in control and has a purpose in everything that happens. We know that this will allow us to grow and to trust him more after all is said and done.

Andrea has two more follow-up doctor appointments; they will be making sure that the miscarriage is complete and doing some blood work to see if they can find out a cause for the three miscarriages she has had (she had one between Laura and Rachel also). Please pray that these appointments go well and that they will be able to find the reason for the miscarriages. They have said in the past that it was a "protein-S deficiency" but they are not sure about that anymore.

Other News

School
I just finished my 4th semester last week. I now have completed 45 hours of the 91 hour degree. I will be taking a summer class in July which will put me at 48 and over the half-way mark. It still seems like forever away. My summer class will be in "Contemporary models in counseling" and next Fall I've already signed up for Old Testament I, Spiritual Warfare and Evangelism in Missions, and "Topics in Missions." I've still been able to make really good grades; I really love being able to take these classes and I know that they will be extremely practical for our future in missions.

Work
At the end of March I started working full time for Humana insurance company. I work from 7:30 until 4:00pm Monday through Friday so I will be taking all my classes at night for the time being. The job is good, not too strenuous on my brain so I am still able to concentrate on school when I need to. Also, I am able to ride the Louisville city bus from our apartment to within a couple of blocks of my building every morning - this really helps me to set aside time to get my reading done (this was much harder to do when I was working at home with Laura and Rachel for some reason). I do miss being with Laura and Rachel everyday though - I really got used to being Mr. Mom. Thankfully though, Andrea is now able to stay home with the girls - this is something that Andrea and I believed God wanted us to do. He has provided this job and a way to get to and from work everyday. The pay ends up being about $1,000 less than what Andrea and I combined to make last year but it helps when we do not have to buy gas twice a week anymore.

Nepali Group
We are still trying to reach out to the Nepali in the Louisville area. We still have a Bible study in one of the Nepali homes. Last week we watched the first half of the "Jesus Video" in Nepalese (their native language) and we will watch the 2nd half tomorrow. Please pray that they will continue to allow us to come into their home and pray that they will respond to what we have been teaching. As of yet they APPEAR to understand what we are saying but have not responded yet. Last week I met with one of the professors here that was a missionary to India and Cambodia, and a native Indian who has planted 23 Nepali churches in India. They were able to give me some good pointers and to pray for us.

One thing that I think God has been teaching me lately is that we need to trust Him even when things look hopeless. When I read Hebrews 11:36-39 it reminds me that some faithful people were called to trust God all the way up until they died, not having physically seen his promises yet. We don't have anywhere near the amount of faith that those people had, but we have the Spirit of God that gives us the strength to keep walking and trusting Him. There are several areas in our lives right now that seem hopeless - but we know that God is faithful and good. He has been faithful to us in the past and throughout history - by His grace we will trust him no matter what He brings to us!

Thanks again for taking the time to read this long blog entry and most importantly, thanks for praying for us. I'll put some pictures Laura and Rachel up on the "family blog" - go to braggky.blogspot.com if you want to check them out. We love and miss everyone back home.

ChadB

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Long Overdue Update - 03/14/2007

This post is long overdue. There has been a lot happen since the last posts dealing with our "sad/hopeful news." I've been sick with a very bad cold for almost 2 weeks. Today I went to the clinic on campus and the doctor prescribed an antibiotic for me. Thankfully I've been the only one to come down with it.

This past weekend we went on a trip to Asheville, NC to go to a "memorial" for one of Andrea's aunts that died unexpectedly last week. We had a good time considering the reason we were going and the mountains were beautiful as always. I was able to go on a couple of hiking "adventures" through the woods with the girls.

We have registered Laura for kindergarten for next fall. This seems crazy to me – people are not lying when they tell you that they grow up quickly!

Next Monday (March, 19^th) will be Andrea and my 13^th wedding anniversary. Speaking of time flying by! One cool thing about being in Asheville last weekend is that Andrea and I spent some time there on our honeymoon.

Below is a quick update on school, work, church, and the "Nepali group."

School

This semester I am only taking 6 hours (that's 2 classes). The first is New Testament II. I really like this class, mostly for the reading and the memorization it requires. Both of which I tend not to do unless I'm forced to for a class. But when I do it helps me to see the benefit of Scripture memorization. I had a mid-term on Monday night and I believe I did fairly well on it. There were some tricky questions though so we will see.

My second class is an online class; it is Cross-Cultural Church Planting. This class has proven to be very helpful and will probably get more practical as the semester goes on. It has been very good for the Nepali Bible study group (see below).

Work

Big news on this front. I was able to get a job working full-time for Humana last week. I don't actually start until March 26^th. This will allow Andrea to stop working at her job on the seminary campus and be home with the girls. More than likely I will ride the bus from our apartment complex to a couple of blocks from the Humana building downtown. It will take about an hour each way on the bus but this will give me plenty of time to catch up on reading.

Church

Things are going well at church. We went through a diaspora recently with some of our people moving to other cities. We have planted new churches in New Orleans and Cleveland within the past year. Our community group numbers fell off a little because of this but attendance has been back up recently. Our group is no longer meeting in our apartment but meets in the home of another couple in the group and I split the group leadership with someone else now. This gives me more time for school and the Nepali group (see below).

Nepali Group

We have been meeting in the homes of one of the Nepali families on Sundays at 5:30 pm. The studies seem to be going well but there are definitely some language barrier problems. We are attempting to find some Nepali Bibles and give them to 11 Nepali families in the Louisville area. The cost of the Bibles and the "Jesus Film" in Nepali will be about $250.

This Sunday (the 18^th) we will be meeting in Dan's home (he is the Nepali believer that will be leaving soon to help with a Nepali church plant in Dallas, TX). He has invited 5 families to attend and he says that they will all be there. We will have singing and Bible Study/preaching after we enjoy an authentic Nepali meal cooked by Dan.

Also, I've been in touch with a church planter in Baltimore who has planted a Nepali church in Baltimore within the last year. He's pointed me to a place that we can get some Nepali Bibles and resources.

I've met with one of my professors (he also attends church with us) to talk about the Nepali ministry and about interviewing one of the Nepali men for membership within the church. He has expressed an interest in joining the church and the professor and I will be the ones conducting the interview. The professor said that he thinks that we may be underestimating what God has in mind for this Bible study. I believe and hope that he is right.

Overall, I'm very excited about the Nepali ministry. At times it is discouraging with the language barrier and with the lack of response but I really believe that God is going to do something with this group of Nepalese in Louisville.

Thanks for taking the time to read this long update. I know they wouldn't end up being so long if I would only update more often. :) And thank you especially for remembering to pray for us!

ChadB

Part II - Our hopeful news

Part II (make sure you scroll down to read Part I first).

I wanted to post a follow-up to the previous blog post (our sad news), one that tells how we are able to deal with the death of Charis. Even though the events of the last days have been extremely sad they have not been devastating.

To others this could be devastating; and it would have been for us if it were not for the reason for our hope. To have the hopes of bringing Charis home have been smashed. We will not be able to watch her grow or hear her voice – her cry. We will not be able to learn her personality or watch her interact with her two older sisters. These are the kinds of things that we lost when Charis died. We did not, however, lose a child - we know that she was not ours just as we know that Laura and Rachel are not ours. They all belong to God and since this is the case we can give Charis back to him knowing that He is trustworthy with her life. He keeps her life (Psalm 121:7).

We know for certain that she is in God's arms. We know that we will see her someday and we will know her when we see her. We know this from the promises of God's word. This is the reason that our loss is not devastating – the reason that when we held her for a very short time here and then had to let her go we can grieve "with hope." We gave her the middle name "Hope" because we can grieve with hope – we have a hope to see her at some time in the future. We do "not grieve as others do who have no hope" (1 Thess 4:13) and we do not hope as others do who do not have the gospel.

It is the gospel that gives us the peace (and hope) that we have in a time that might bring others to despair. We know that without the gospel and the story of the human fall as told in the gospel that there would be no explanation for the death of a child. There would be no satisfactory explanation for any evil in the world. It is impossible to adequately explain evil from any other world view. No religion – NO OTHER view of God and man can explain it. It is the gospel that tells us that this present age is under a curse. This curse is the reason that Charis died before we were able to meet her.

This curse is because of our sin and the sin of our ancestors. But the gospel does not leave us with the curse – it tells us that the curse has been broken by Jesus Christ. It tells us that God has brought us back to him through Jesus Christ. We know that because we trust in Christ and His provision that one day we will see Charis again. And we know that because of God's grace she is in heaven with Him right now. She died before she was physically capable of accepting/rejecting Chirst* – and His grace is the only thing that could bring her to Him (see scripture references below) - we will see her whole and not broken.

We know from the Scriptures that Charis is in God's hands – we know that He keeps her life and that we will see her again. This is the reason for our hope – this is our hopeful news.

One resource that has been good for us is a sermon series preached by John Macarthur. He does a great job explaining what I've rambled about above. :) Please follow the links below to see the transcripts:

The Salvation of Babies Who Die Part I
The Salvation of Babies Who Die Part II

Here is the challenging conclusion to his first sermon – one that helps us to refocus:

All children who die before they reach the condition of accountability, by which they convincingly understand their sin and corruption and embrace the gospel by faith, are graciously saved eternally by God through the work of Jesus Christ, being elect by sovereign choice, innocent of willful sin, rebellion, and unbelief, by which works they would be justly condemned to eternal punishment. So, when an infant dies, he or she is elect to eternal salvation and eternal glory. So, dear one, if you have a little one that dies, rejoice! Count not your human loss; count your eternal gain. Count not that child as having lost, but having gained, having passed briefly through this life, untouched by the wicked world, only to enter into eternal glory and grace. The true sadness should be over those children of yours who live and reject the gospel. Don't sorrow over your children in heaven; sorrow over your children on earth, that they should come to Christ. This is your great responsibility, your great opportunity.

(Passages: Psalm 22:9; Psalm 121; Psalm 139; Job 3:16-17; Ecclesiastes 6:3-5)

*The Scriptures say that anyone who has the physical capability of accepting/rejecting Christ yet does not dies in their sin. If someone is physically capable and does not accept Christ – even if they have never heard they spend eternity separated from Him. For a more full explanation see the reference to the John Macarthur sermons above.

Part I - Our Sad news

Well, I'm not sure if this place is the appropriate place to be putting my thoughts down but I thought it might be good for me to get my thoughts written (actually typed) out. It will be good for me I think and maybe good for others to read and respond. I think I will post this in two parts - one that describes what happened and what we went through and one that describes how we've been dealing with it.

Part I.
Last Thursday (01/04/06) afternoon Andrea and I found out that the baby we had been looking forward to having at the end of May had died a couple of weeks ago. Andrea had gone into have the doctor check things out and they were unable to hear a heartbeat. The nurse listening for the heartbeat wanted to do an ultrasound to see what was going on inside the womb. What she found was that instead of being at 19 week size - the baby had stopped growing around 17 weeks - AND there was no heartbeat.

At this point Andrea called me from her cell phone as the nurse went to get someone else to check out the ultrasound. It was completely unexpected and sent both Andrea and I reeling. We both had had fears that this would happen (natural feelings) but thought that since the baby had made it so far that we were really out of the woods. So, I went to the doctor's office to pick Andrea up and we just cried and prayed for a while. It seemed like a bad dream - we were both numb.

The doctor told Andrea that she had two choices - to have a "D&E" (where they would simply pull the baby out like an abortion) or to go through the process of inducing labor and giving birth to a dead baby. Out of respect to the child that we would not be able to meet this side of heaven we chose to have labor induced. Thankfully Stephen and Jasmine (my brother and sister-in-law) came up and took our two daughters (4 and 2 yrs old) back down to GA to stay with my mom.

Monday morning we went into the Drs. office and they confirmed with another ultrasound that the baby had died - this was my first look at the ultrasound that confirmed the sad news. They eventually moved Andrea over to the hospital and started inducing labor. We had hoped that this would be a quick thing and that we could get it over with as fast as possible. Unfortunately Andrea had to go through hours of labor.

Finally at 3:39am Tuesday morning she gave birth to a little girl. We named her Charis (Greek - meaning grace). She was so very small – 4 ounces and 7 inches long. We were given the option to hold her and we both agreed that we would like to. All of the nurses and techs walked out of the room and left us alone for as long as we needed. We looked at our Charis that we would not get the privilege of watching grow up and cried and prayed some more – this was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my whole life. With tears in our eyes we gave her back to the nurse – we would not be taking her home as we had hoped since we found out we would be having a new baby.

Andrea had to stay in hospital until about 2pm on Tuesday – still having contractions and very sore. We came home that night and rested and have basically been resting ever since. We have had our friends from church come over and bring food to us and have had lots of people praying for us and encouraging us.

To any normal person this would have been devastating I am sure. Make no mistake – it has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to face – but it has been our faith and our faithful God that has seen us through. Something that might have been devastating turns into something that can bring hope. I will talk more about this in the second part.

End of Semester 3

I had finals this week - so that means that I have reached the end of another semester. I'm still working part time for Noble Systems (the company I worked for in GA). I am able to work about 20 hours a week so that is good. They ARE a little slow about paying me sometimes so there are times when money is VERY short, but it usually catches up.

Work Situation
Andrea and I are still praying/debating/discussing what we are going to do about her staying home once (hopefully sooner) the new Bragg baby is born. I had applied to work at UPS part time (keeping my part time work with Noble) because they give benefits to part time employees. I don't get benefits from Noble and Andrea is basically working now only for the insurance. The bad news is that I found out that UPS is only hiring seasonal workers until Jan 1st - they don't give benefits to seasonal employees. So we are looking for other options. I may end up going back to UPS in January but we will see.

The Nepali Group
The Nepali group hasn't really gotten off the ground yet. Two of the guys that would be in the group are in school as well and they have been going through the same things I have with end of the semester fun stuff. We are hoping to get that started next week and I will be leading the group through a study on the birth of Christ. They don't really know much about Christmas other than what they get from American culture (not good). I am really excited about this and hope we actually start meeting together for Bible study next week.


Next Semester
I'm scheduled for 12 hours next semester and 3 hours for a class in January. In January I'm taking "The History of Missions." Here are the classes I'm taking in the Spring:
Introduction to New Testament II
Introduction to Church History II
Christian Apologetics in Contemporary Ministry
Personal Evangelism

Keep praying for us as it is hard sometimes. We get homesick and down when we start worrying about the future (our house, student loans, our bills). We know that God is in control and He will work everything out that needs to be worked out. We believe him - we doubt ourselves sometimes but we know the God that we serve is able to do anything!

The Nepali Group

I met with Dan (not his Nepali name) from Nepal, his wife Mandira(sp), Nathan, and Katie tonight at Dan and Mandira's home. Mandira made us some Nepali tea which was very good (made with milk and lots of spices). We talked about the possibility of creating a bible study for the Nepalis tonight and Dan says that this is a great idea and that it is needed very much. He is a believer from Nepal and has been trying to witness to the other Nepalis in the Louisille area (he seems to know dozens of families). Dan is a very strong Christian who shares the gospel with his fellow Nepalis every chance he gets. He was very thankful for us being there tonight and very thankful for our interest in reaching out to the Nepalis. I'm sure there will be more details on what will happen with these bible studies soon - I would just like to ask you guys to pray for us - for wisdom to know what to do, and when to do it. Pray that I don't so overload myself that I get burnt out and don't have time to spend with Andrea and the girls (the higher priority God has given me).

Saturday we will be going back over to Dan's apartment to meet some of the Nepali families. They are having a baby shower for Mandira (who is 8+ months pregnant) and it will be a great chance for us to get to know some of the families we have not met yet. Pray that this goes well and that God will give us courage as we seek to reach these people with the gospel.

Thanks, as always, for praying for us!

More on the "Big News" and other stuff.

Okay - so we are very excited about the new Bragg that is on the way. Everyone keeps asking me if I want it to be a boy and the answer, of course, is yes. If it is a girl, however, I will also be very happy having 3 girls would be awesome - I know she would be as lovely as Laura and Rachel. We have been debating on finding out the sex of the baby beforehand (like we did with Laura and Rachel) or just waiting until the new baby arrives. I think we have decided to wait but time will tell how my patience wears on me. :) It will be fun to wait - anticipation is good.

Because of this new Bragg on the way, we have started making plans for Andrea to quit working and come home to be with the girls full-time. I have an interview with UPS on Thursday morning and would be working there part-time if I get the job. The pay is not very good but they give full benefits to part-time employees and their families so that is the main reason that I have applied there. They also give "tuition reimbursment" to students that work there part-time. In addition to doing this with UPS I would still be working part time with the job that I am doing now (from home) which pays much better. I will also continue to take a full load of classes so that I can finish the degree in a reasonable time frame. We have been praying about this and talking with other seminary students who are doing the same thing and think that it is the right decision.

All of the above is an area that we need people to pray about for us. Pray that I would be able to physically do all that it requires (I know I can with God's help - and by remembering that it will only be "for a season").

Also, we need prayer about us getting a new vehicle (a van since we will have 3 children to put into car seats). Of course this is not an immediate concern but it is something that we need to be thinking about in the near future.

Another prayer concern: our community group is going to be combining with one of the other groups that is small and I will be splitting time leading instead of leading a group on my own. This opens the opportunity for me to possibly lead a community group for Nepali (people from the country of Nepal) families that have been coming to our church. Most of the people that would be in this group would be non-believers and open to the gospel. Pray that I would get the opportunity to lead a group like this. I have talked about it with our pastor here and he thinks it is a good idea. These families have been coming to our church because they were invited by a lady that is a seminary student - they are unsaved but have been faithful in coming to the service every Sunday. They have not been very involved with a community group because (I think) becuase when they come they do not feel comfortable enough to open up in the groups. If we have a group that all of the Nepali families can come to hopefully it will get them to come more regularly and get them to openly dialogue about the gospel.

Thanks for praying for us you guys!

Big News!

We just found out that Laura and Rachel will be big sisters. The new arrival should arrive at the end of May. Please pray for the health of the baby and Andrea and that the pregnancy will go well. We are all really excited - when we told Laura and Rachel they were both excited. Rachel asked if she could hold her baby right now. :)

Sept. 06 06

I'm (Chad) almost finished with my 3rd week of this semester. It seems to be going pretty quickly and I am really enjoying my classes. Hebrew is the most challenging so far. It seems a little easier than Greek was but right now it is pretty tough; we have tons of things to memorize. Once I finish this semester I will be completely finished with the mandatory language classes and my Systematic Theology classes. Those are some pretty big hurdles to be over - I will be glad. It seems like I have so far to go until I finish the degree but when I look back at what I've done so far I realize that it's not really that far off.

Laura and Rachel started pre-school today. We are taking them to the church that our church is currently meeting in so they are very familiar with the surroundings and they both had a really good day today. Taking them to pre-school helps me to be able to work more hours and get more studying done. I was finding that really the only time that I can get concentrated studying/homework done was after the girls went to bed.

The Marriage & Family Enrichment class that Andrea and I are in has been great. We have to read a few books for that class and one of them is "Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas I really like it - very challenging and helpful at the same time. I highly recommend it though I'm not completely finished with it yet (I'm on the 2nd to last chapter).

At our church up here (Crossing) we had our 3rd baptism service this past week. The way they do it is to have the person getting baptized write a testimony and then have someone else read it for them while they are waiting to be baptized. Andrea read one of testimonies this Sunday - she did really good. The people were then baptized in a horse trough (outside in the grass) - haha - very cold water too. After they were baptized everyone clapped and cheered and shouted - it was great!

Our church up here is going to be moving to a new location in a couple of weeks. We've already outgrown the fellowship hall of the Episcopal church we've been meeting in. We are moving to a high school gym so that should give us plenty of room for a while.

Thank you guys for "Keeping up with the Braggs" and especially thanks for supporting and praying for us!

We love and miss you,
The Bragg Family

Pictures from the trip (part 2 of 2)

Hey, I posted an update from the trip in the previous post. I'm just posting pictures here so make sure you scroll down and read the last post.

Pictures from Romania Youth Camp '06 (click to see full size)

Post-Romania Update (part 1 of 2)

This latest trip to Romania confirmed several things for me. I love Romania and the Romanian people. I love the people from the Baptist Church in Sighisoara, Romania and the people from Ephesus Baptist Church.

We were able to see the beautiful countryside of Romania while we were there and, more importantly, able to share the gospel with some Romanian youth that haven't had a chance to hear it so clearly in the past. We broke the Romanian youth up into groups on this trip with the American youth leading groups of Romanian youth that were already believers, and the American adults leading the groups of Romanian youth that were not believers (most, if not all, had not been attending any church prior to the youth camp).

During our Bible study sessions the Romanian youth in the groups led by adults were able to ask questions about the gospel and they all seemed to listen intently. At the end of the week, 2 of the Romanian youth decided to accept Christ - that was the main reason for our trip! One of the guys was the guy that I shared a bunk with during the week. I thank God for everything He did on this trip!

Before this trip, and during this trip it was my prayer that God would confirm some things for me. Is He really calling us to international missions and could Romania be the place that He sends my family? I didn't get any kind of supernatural vision of handwriting on the wall (not that I was expecting or needing one) but I do know that God is still leading us, slowly but surely, to serve Him in the place only He knows at this time. I still feel very strong that He has called us to international missions. I also know that I have a deep love for the Romanian people.

Please continue to pray for us as we seek God's more specific direction. It is such a great joy to be on this adventure that He has called us to. Although it is stressful at times I would not want to be on any road that I am not depending on God for His daily direction. Pray that we will stay faithful to the God who is SO faithful to us!

A song that Drew Stone sang on one of the nights in the camp expresses how I feel. It is "He will Carry Me" by March Schultz - here is part of the song:

And even though I feel so lonely
Like I’ve never been before
You never said it would be easy
But You said you’d see me through the storm

And even though I’m walkin’ through
The valley of the shadow
I will hold tight to the hand of Him
Whose love will comfort me
And when all hope is gone
And I’ve been wounded in the battle
He is all the strength that I will ever need
And He will carry me


I'll post some pictures from the trip in the next message.

July 9th - Pre-Romania Update

picture of one of the bridges over the Ohio river - during a thunderstorm

Well, so much for updating this blog more often. :) I am always planning on updating it and it gets pushed back. I am really sorry about that because I do want to keep this thing updated with what is going on with us up here in Kentucky.

I finally finished my paper this week. This paper was for my apologetics class this summer, it was 20 pages and I'm glad that I finally finished it.

On the 4th we had a get together with some of our friends from our church up here. Somehow I got put on grill duty - I didn't burn to many hamburgers and hotdogs though.

I will be driving back home next week to take the girls to my mom's - they will be staying there while I go to Romania with the youth this year. I am very excited about the trip! Please pray for the group that is going and the group that we will be ministiring to while we are there.

While I am away, across the ocean, and the girls are down in GA, Andrea will be stuck here by herself. She will mostly packing for our move the week I get back from the Romania trip. We are moving to a new apartment complex when I get back. It will be less expensive per month but we are moving from a 3 bedroom apartment to a 2 bedroom. So we will have to trim down on stuff again probably.

Today I have been feeling extremely blessed!

• God has given me an awesome wife that supports me no matter what (yeah, the one that will be stuck here packing while I'm on the Romania adventure that God is sending me on). It would be awesome if someone from home could give her a call while I am away - It would pick her up I know;
• He has given me two beautiful daughters and I get to spend tons of time with them;
• He has given me an awesome church family back home (I really miss you guys) - today I got another card (with a check in it) from some of our friends at Ephesus. It is extremely encouraging to get those cards - to know that people are behind us, praying for us. I cannot describe how much it means to us - to get a card, especially when I'm feeling stressed out or depressed about being away from home makes my day! I realize that people are thinking about us, praying for us and believing in us;
• He is sending me back to Romania - and the money from the trip was completely provided for me (see the above blessing). I am very excited about this trip.
• He has provided for our every need;
• The list could go on and on with His blessings!

Stuff we need prayer for:

• Please continue to pray for our house (the one in GA) situation. We still own the house and my Dad is still staying there but we really would like to sell it. It is not currenlty on the market (long story) but our goal is to sell it. We have an adjustable rate mortgage on it now and the interest rates have been steadily climbing since we moved up here. Not sure how much longer my dad will be able to afford the payments if they keep climbing and we are not able to refinance (same long story).
• Pray that the youth trip to Romania is used in a mighty way by God.
• Pray that Andrea is okay while the girls and I are away from her.
  
• Pray that our move goes well when I get back.

I WILL update this when I get back from Romania with what God did and hopefully some pictures.

Thank you guys for everything - especially your prayers!

Chad Bragg

June 12 '06

Hello all!

School Stuff!
I'm up late tonight because I have some "after hours" work to do tonight. These days I'll take all the hours I can get. I finished my Apologetics class last week and I really enjoyed it. It had to do with pluralism (the belief that all religions should be viewed as equal) which is what alot of people around the world believe. - even some former "evangelicals" have moved in this direction (no one with any high view of Scripture). I now have a few weeks to write a 20-page paper about the theory proposed by Paul J. Griffiths in An Apology for Apologetics: A Study in the Logic of Interreligious Dialogue. He argues in the book that every religion makes "truth claims" and that when they contradict another worldview/religion they OUGHT TO defend their truth claim as correct and the opposing one as flawed.

Community Group
We have had three new people come to our "community group" the last 2 weeks. One guy just came back from Iraq and the other two people are a young couple that is applying with the International Mission Board. They are all new to Crossing and are eager to find a place to plug in. I need to take some pictures of us having community group so you guys can see everybody. I will do that soon.

Crossing Church
A couple of things big going on at Crossing:
1)We are sending out three people from our church to go and plant a church in New Orleans. James, Amy (and their three kids) and Travis will be leaving us shortly to start the church, partnering with the North American Mission Board. Check out James' blog (you can even see a picture of yours-truly) here. We know that this is where God is leading them - join us in praying for them also.
2)The other big thing... "They Lyndon Fair". This is an event for people in the Lyndon area (here on the East side of Louisville) to come and play games, for kids to ride rides, get their faces painted, eat cotton candy and all of the other stuff that goes along with a town fair. The part concerning crossing is that we will have a booth - we are going to be doing face painting and making balloon animals. I practiced making balloon dogs yesterday - I popped about as many as I made. Hopefully things will go better next weekend. :) Pray that we will be able to make some good contacts with people who are disconnected from God and/or from a church.

New Apartment
We will be moving at the end of July from Woodbridge apartments to Maplebrook apartments (assuming our credit gets approved this week). The drive to school/work will be a little longer but the rent will be lowered enough to definately make up the difference. We are going from 3 bedrooms to 2 bedrooms so we will probably have to go through another cutting down of the "stuff" that we have to get it to work out.

More to come....

Thanks for praying for us!

The Braggs

Update 06/06/06: uh-oh... just kidding

Okay. So it has been over a month since my last update. I have changed the name of the of the blog to "Keeping Up With the Braggs" since that's what the link from the EBC link is called - Thanks for the link guys! Also, I hope to be updating the blog much more often with prayer needs but with more than that as well.

This week I am taking a summer class. It meets from 9am - 5pm (thought I've gotten out early the last two days). Uncle Joe came up Sunday night to watch the Laura and Rachel while I'm in class and Andrea is at work. It's been good to see my "little" brother this week. There is alot of reading for this class - "Topics in Apologetics - Pluralism and Testing Religious Truth Claims" but the class has been very interesting. If you know me then you know that I get very excited about apologetics. As far as grades for the class - I have a final on Friday and a 20 page paper that will be due a few weeks after the class is over.

Thanks for "keeping up with the Braggs" and thank you guys for continuing to pray for us.

May 06 '06 - update

One more week of this semester left to go. I have written 2 of the 5 papers that I had to write since the last update. I still need to write the Greek paper (due next Friday) and 2 of the reflection papers (on "let the nations be glad" & "through the gates of splendor").

It is hard to believe that I almost have 1 year of seminary finished. I was able to sign up for my classes for this summer semester and for next fall already. This summer I will be taking:

"Studies in Apologetics" 6/5/2006 to 6/9/2006 (this is an elective course)
"Strategies for Youth Evangelism" 6/19/2006 to 6/23/2006 (also an elective)

In the Fall I will be taking:

Elementary Hebrew (at 7am Tuesday - Friday...ouch)
Systematic Theology III (on Tuesday nights)
Marriage and Family Enrichment (on Monday nights - Andrea comes to this class with me)
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Things we are praying about:
We will be moving very soon after I get back from the Romania trip (7/23/06) and we are looking for a place to live. The place we are staying at now is nice but it is too expensive, we are looking for a place that has similar square footage but is about $150-$200 cheaper. Laura will be going to pre-school next fall and we will need this extra money to help pay for that (how crazy is that - Laura in pre-school?)

Our community group... Our pastor here in Louisville is moving out of our group to start another group from his home - just pray that our group stays strong and that we will be able to reach out to our apartment complex, inviting people into our group and inviting people into a relationship with God.

Strength for the home stretch (of this semester)... One more week to go in this semester and I have 2 finals and 1 more major paper to write. This past week I didn't get to work at all because of all of my school work. We know that this will catch up to us financially but we have faith that God will provide.
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Lord willing, we will be down at least a couple of times this summer. My mom will be watching the girls while I take my classes and while I am in Romania (we are looking for someone up here to watch the girls for one of the weeks I am in class so we don't have to make 3 trips to GA at $3+ per gallon).

Thank you guys for praying for us and thanks for keeping up with us on our Bragg mission update page.
For a more personal page of the Bragg's go here: http://braggky.blogspot.com/
For a link to our Kentucky church home go here: http://www.crossinglouisville.com/

For God's glory!
ChadB

Update - April 21st '06

Well, it's the end of the semester and it is going to be very busy. I have 5 papers left to write and 4 more books.

1. Missiology paper - "The Roma of Romania" - 12-15 pages
   
2. Greek Syntax paper - "Exegesis of 2 Corinthians 1:1-7" - 12 - 15 pages
   
3. Missiology paper - "A reflection on John Piper's 'Let the Nations Be Glad'" 3 pages
   
4. Missiology paper - "A reflection on Elizabeth Eliott's 'Through the Gates of Splendor'" - 3 pages
5. Spiritual Disciplines - "A refelction on Charles Spurgeon's 'Lectures to my Students'" - 2 pages

Books

1. "The person of Christ"
2. "Lectures to my Students"
3. "Through the Gates of Splendor"
4. "Let the Nations be Glad"

Needless to say I will be very busy.

Romania Trip 2006

Hello all,
Andrea and I have decided that this is the best year for me to try to go back to Romania again on the Youth trip of our home church. I am extremely excited about this. The dates of the trip are from Thrusday, July 13 to Sunday July 23. Some of you reading this will probably be getting prayer support cards from me soon. Please pray that God will provide the $1695 needed for the trip and that He will provide for the missed time of work (we know He will).
With the way Andrea and I feel about Romania we both think it is a good idea for me (and hopefully someday her) to be able to get back into the country and pray for God to speak to us about what he would have us do after training in seminary.
Thanks for checking in on us - and thank you very much for your prayers.

In Christ,
ChadB

April 1st Update

Hello everyone!
Just a couple of updates...
We had our meeting with the International Mission Board (IMB) rep on Thursday. It went very well. We were able to get lots of questions answered and were able to see what steps we need to be taking now in order to prepare for international missions. While there are other missions agencies the IMB is by far the best one to be selected by. The IMB is supported from the cooperative program of Southern Baptist churches and have the very best program for families going into international missions. We have had to fill out forms and have started the long processes of possibly one day being selected as career missionaries by the IMB. If we decide that God wants me to finish my degree here before heading to the field it will be about 3-4 years before we will know if we are selected by the IMB. There is another way however. We can take the 2+3 option which means I take 2 years worth of classes here in the states and then finish the rest of my degree on the field. This is what I would really like to do but it does not seem possible at this time considering some of the obstacles in our way. We know God will work it out with his perfect timing. Please continue to pray for us to have patience and wisdom to know exactly what God would have us to do and when He would have us do it.

The other update is about the church we are part of here in Louisville - It is a church plant on the east end of Louisville (see the post below for some more details). The church recently got its web-site up and I wanted you guys to go and check it out. Also there is a blog and a place where you can sign up to download the sermons from every Sunday. Take a look around the site and you should be able to find pictures and/or video of each of the Bragg women (Andrea, Laura and Rachel). To get to the web-site click the URL below. Let me know what you think of the site.

http://www.crossinglouisville.com

Thanks again for checking this blog and thank you especially for your prayers. We "covet your prayers."

ChadB

Update - March 15

Hey guys!
Here is an update of things you can pray for.

Laura - adjusting
Laura has really been acting out (angry) lately. Andrea and I are not sure if this is normal behavior for a 4 year old or not - but she has really been showing her temper lately, yelling at her sister and her parents. Please pray for her and for us in knowing how to discipline and how to best deal with her temper.

Wisdom - where will we be heading?
Please pray that God will confirm His will in our life even more. Andrean I have been praying for some time about getting a more clear picture of where God would have us serve after leaving seminary (though we still have a few years here probably). We believe He is calling us into international missions but would still like a clearer picture so we will be able to start preparing.

Also, remember the things that we asked for prayer about before:
Selling/Refinancing of our House (we need to come up with a plan - God's plan)

Student loans (again, we need to come up with a plan - God's plan)

Our meeting with the IMB Representive (March 30th)

Our "Community Group" (slowly but surely growing)

Financial Situation (pray for God's provision)

.:Encouragement from God :.

.:Encouragement from God :.
One of the issues Andrea and I have asked people to pray about is the student loan debt that we have. The debt is mostly from Andrea's degrees (we have been able to pay for my tuition through the military - they paid for 100% of my tuition while I was in and the G.I. Bill is paying for me to go to seminary). The main problem with this is that Andrea and I have been feeling more and more that God is calling us into international missions. If we are being called to international missions then we would seek to be selected by the International Mission Board (IMB) just before I finish my degree here in Louisville. The IMB has a policy that the people they select should not have large amounts of debt (for obvious reasons). This has been a big discouragement for us recently (trying to think about how we would work at paying this off when we are struggling to pay our bills right now).

Anyway, I said all of that to tell you about this encouragement that we got a couple of weeks ago. On Monday I had asked Billy to pray for us in this situation (along with others) and pray that we would stay encouraged in spite of the seemingly impossible mountain in front of us. Well, on Tuesday night, in my Missiology class, my professor just happened to mention (as if out of the blue) that he had a student at a previous seminary that felt a call to international missions yet had over $50,000 of student loan debt. He said when he checked up on the guy a couple of years later he learned that God had gotten rid of the student loan debt and that the student was now serving on the mission field in Nicaragua!

God used that story to really encourage Andrea and me to keep trusting Him - even when the road ahead appears to be blocked. We know that God is able to do the impossible; we've already seen it done by Him just getting us to where we are today.

Please continue to pray for us to stay encouraged and to remember that Jesus told us that "if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." (Matt 17:20)

Thanks again for your prayers!
ChadB

Highlights of things you can pray about (February)

Highlights of things you can pray about (February):

Selling/Refinancing of our House
We believe that we need to be moving in a direction of selling our house. To do this we will need to refinance it because the loan we have now is an interest only, adustible rate loan (ouch). If we can refinance then the payments my dad is making will start bringing the principle down so we can sell it in the future. We have tried to refinance in the past but haven't been able to find an appraiser that will appraise the house for enough to cover the current loan.

Student loans
This is something that has been a big discouragement to us as far as knowing that God has called us into missions and yet knowing that we have this giant mountain in the way. We have a large amount of student loan debt - and the International Mission Board will not select us with the amount of student loan debt that we currently have.

Our meeting with the IMB Representive.
We have a meeting scheduled with Dr. Panter from the International Mission Board on March 30th to go over some questions about selection to the IMB. Please pray for the meeting and also that God would just continue to guide us to where he would have us to be specifically. I've really been praying for this - and I hope that this meeting with Dr. Panter and my Missiology class can be used by God to give us a clearer picture.

Our "Community Group"
We have a small group from our church here in Louisville that meets in our apartment on Wednesday nights. Pray that I'll be able to do a good job leading (with all of my school work) and that we would be able to reach out to the people in our complex with the gospel. There are now a couple of guys in the same apartment building as us that I would like to be able to start a relationship with in order to witness to them. Neither is a believer and they are both at least semi-open to discussion about spiritual matters.

Financial Situation
God has been awesome to provide for us (especally through our church family) both before we left to come KY and since we have been here. We know that He will continue to provide for us but we know that doesn't mean we should stop praying for it. Money continues to be tight for (especially when I have to miss work for school from time to time). Pray that He will provide the finances and the peace that we need when it looks like we won't have enough.

Thank you guys so much for praying for us - and for reading this long message.

We love and miss you,
Chad & Andrea Bragg

FIRST UPDATE

FIRST UPDATE:

I know I said I would try to keep it short but since this is the first entry it may be a little long. Some of you may already know this stuff so you don't have to read it. :)

Crossing Church:
Since the 2nd week of being up here we have been going to a church that is a brand new church plant (meaning it is a church that has been recently "planted" or started), in the east end of Louisville. Andrea and I have been serving by helping with the children's ministry and by leading a "community group" in our own apartement. I believe this will give us practical experience for what we will be doing once we get out on the mission field. It has been great to be used by God to help this church which is seeking to meet a great need in the East end of Louisville. I'm sure you will be hearing more updates on Crossing in future blog entries. Go here for a link to the church's web-site( there's not much there yet - as the church just kicked off last fall).

School:
I started last fall taking 4 classes. Church History I, Elementary Greek, Systematic Theology I, and Written Communication. I really enjoyed my classes last semester but it was really hard to get back in the swing of going to school after so many years. I ended up doing very good in my classes and decided to take 4 classes again this semester (3 classes is considered full time). This semester I am taking Spiritual Disciplines, Introduction to Missiology, Systematic Theology II, and Greek Syntax and Exegesis. Much like last semester, I'm starting to feel overwhelmed with all of the work I have for each class - but I really do enjoy it.

Work:
I have been able to continue working for Noble Systems while I am in school. I do from home what I used to do when I was back home in Georgia. This has been a huge blessing. Andrea was able to get a job in the Security office on the seminary campus. She really likes her job and the people she works with.

Welcome

Welcome ---first entry---
I am starting this blog for those of you who have committed to praying for us - so you are always up to date with what is going on and what we need you guys to pray about. Our chruch family and friends have been great to support us with prayer, encouragement and even financially since we decided to step out on faith and go to where God is calling us (even though we are not exactly sure where we will eventually end up yet). I think this blog will be the best way to keep the most people informed about what is going on with us. We are so thankful for all of the support that you guys have given. God has truly given us a great church and great friends! I'll try to keep the entries short - I know no one has the time to just sit around and read a ginormous blog entry. Thanks for your prayers! -- Chad