Hi Friends!!

I have to tell you about some of the beauty and the love that is going around right now.

Back last year My brother Samuel and I met a beautiful girl named Jessica Cortez over myspace/facebook and soon after that Samuel met her in Israel during his 2 months with the Fulfillment Fest. When Jessica got back to the states I met her in Joplin, MO for an afternoon. And the Lord started knitting our hearts together. We became best friends.

Around Thanksgiving time I went to go see her in Grove, OK. And I found out that she was in love with my brother. (who knew!?) So to make this a short story on her Birthday in December (the day she ended her 1 year Nazirite Vowel) Samuel sent her flowers and asked if he could pursue her heart. They began their relationship via skype. She’s in Redding, CA as a 1st year student at Bethel School. Samuel is living in NC.

They have been falling in love for the last 4 months or so…

So last Saturday Jessica boarded a plane to Israel on a mission trip w/ her school. Little did she know that Samuel boarded a plane and arrived 3 hrs before she did. On Wed March 11th her team took her to the beach in Caesarea. It was a special place for her because in Oct 2007 She had an amazing encounter with the Lord at that spot. Below is the video… it starts with Jessica telling why this beach is so important to her. And then Samuel comes walking down the beach and surprises her.
He’s holding a pomegranate… which is a symbol of “love” for both of them.

Please watch the video.. and cry if you’d like. My brother is a hero!

CONGRATS SAMUEL AND JESSICA!!!!

Hi friends!!!
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a delightful Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years…etc…

Just wanted to give a small update on all the things that have happen and or about to happen.
Since Thanksgiving its been non stop crazee!!

Brandon and I ended our 5 years with TheCall this past month. Saying goodbye to people we’ve been running with in prayer/fasting/bound4life/jhop. It was a bitter sweet time, But we are both so glad to be done.

We are getting ready for this next season, that looks very challenging and complicated. On Jan 11th we are officially moving out of our apartment and putting a lot of our stuff in storage here in KC. Brandon is moving in with his dad in Joplin, and I am moving in with some dear friends of ours here in KC. Brandon begins a full semester at Missouri Southern next week, and I will continue working Wed-Sat at Bridal Extraordinaire. Sat night or Sunday morning I will drive 2 hrs a way and go see Brandon for Sat night/Sunday night-Wed Morning. Then I will return and work for my 4 days/3 nights. My job is such an amazing job and i love what I do. Moving to Joplin and trying to find a job there will cut my pay more then half way. Brandon is going to be looking for a full time job, while he is in school full time.

This plan is going to continue until we can hardly handle it anymore. =) PLEASE pray for us, grace.

Brandon will finish his final year of college and come out with his Major in Spanish, a Certificate in Medical Interpreting, and a minor in Russian.

In other news, my brother Samuel has begun pursuing the girl of his dreams. My dearest friend Jessica Cortez. Its been so amazing to watch the Lord join these two hearts together. I love them both so much!

For Christmas, Brandon and I drove about 17 hrs to Vass, NC to spend Christmas with my parents and both sets of my Grandparents. We spent 10 days with my family. It was such a fantastic time and we were so sad leaving.

I’m going to post some favorite pictures from the last 2 months. I hope you enjoy.

Love and blessings…
Rivkah & Brandon

1st Picture here is a photo shoot I did w/ my dear friend Shelley Paulson. Our model is a friend- Joanna Reyburn.

Christmas Time!

Home for the Holidays

Our parents bought Brandon and I a Mac Book Pro for Christmas… My dad made us do a house hunt w/ clue finding our gift…
This is a picture of the moment we found out what it was…

My brother recorded this album back a few months ago. And he is trying to get it into peoples hands. This CD is so life changing. It unfolds the whole story of Hosea in a beautiful way…

Samuel spent a few years studying the book of Hosea, and then he wrote the album.

Click on the album above to download it. He’s giving it a way free till Nov 1st.

It is amazing!

Hi friends..

Last Monday we returned from DC, where we spent a week getting ready for TheCall DC on Aug 16th. Around 50,000 came to the national mall for a day of prayer, fasting, and repentance. It was amazing..

Brandon worked so hard on the slides for the whole day, He did an awesome job. The whole Call team really worked hard and pulled it all off…

I got to shoot photography with a friend of mine  (www.shelleypaulson.com) the whole day of TheCall. I learned so much.

The day was incredible. It was one of thee best Calls we ever had. Prob my 3rd favorite!

I want to share a few pictures from the day that I took… I’m posting more from the day of TheCall as well as the pre call gatherings on my www.flickr.com/tirzahphotography

TheCall CA is on Nov 1st – Join us for 40 days of prayer and fasting before the elections..We need a shift.

This is the video for TheCall Cali..

I’m just going to share some raw thoughts…

Well, I only have two semesters of college left and it would be stupid for me not to finish school. My last full semester was fall 2004 right before I had two dreams that instructed me to quit school and my translation job and move to DC to do the first JHOP internship. (on a side note, I’m so glad I did (on many levels (including finding the love of my life (Beka)))) – interesting usage of nested parentheses…

I’ve worked for TheCall now for almost two years and it has been amazing. I’ve been serving in the area of IT (computers and stuff), but honestly, I’m getting bored with it.  It really has been incredible and exciting mobilizing a nation to fast and pray, but the Lord has seasons set aside for our lives, and we feel like he’s beginning to lead us into a new season. Fixing computers and making technology work isn’t my life calling.

As I’ve been adjusting to the responsibilities of providing for my family, I’ve been looking into ways to make money. I’m finding that I really like business, finance and investing, and I even contemplated pursuing a career in real estate or finance in some capacity. But in all of that, I realized that I was compromising my dreams. Even though I really enjoy business and investing (not that I have money to invest or anything), business isn’t, in and of itself, my calling.  It doesn’t make my heart come alive. I would hate to look back decades down the road only to realize that I gave up my dreams and passions to pursue money.

So I’ve been asking myself, “What makes my heart come alive?” I don’t want to lose sight of that. What makes my heart come alive? What makes Beka’s heart come alive? The answer?

Both of us have always dreamed of the nations… particularly Europe. I have always loved languages. I love to translate. I love to learn. We love to experience the cultures of other nations.

So, we’re knocking hard on these doors. I’m actively pursuing going back to school this fall. We would be moving to Joplin, MO, my hometown, so I could finish school at MSSU. (It’s the cheapest, fasted route for us to go for several reasons.) We’re hoping that it will work out so that we can spend a semester in Joplin and then we could move to Spain in the spring where I’d be doing a student exchange…

I’m hoping I can rack up some scholarships and grants in the fall which will carry over to the spring in Spain. We’ll see. If this is the Lord’s will, he’ll open up the doors and prepare the way before us.

A semester in Spain would make us both incredibly happy! We’d be in Europe. It would help me make some great strides with the Spanish language, and I think it would really help me break into the field of freelance translation.

Eventually, I hope to master translation from several languages into English, and to even be an interpreter (Spanish <-> English). I can see business tying into this heavily. Maybe I’ll even start an international translation agency or something. We really just want to be in the nations.

Anyway,

Brandon

I haven’t blogged in a long time. I’m back. I think I’m going to start blogging again, but I don’t have much time right now. It’s 8:45 AM and I still have to finish getting ready for work. We’re moving TheCall offices this morning to a house–it’s really nice and there’s a lot more room.

In the meantime, check out the new TheCall DC Promo…

Brandon