ch ch ch changes

So I have been totally slacking here lately on the whole blogosphere, and I have a big excuse why: I have had a lot of big changes happening lately and have not had the chance (or desire, to be honest) to sit down and blog about everything. Have you ever gotten so far behind in something that just the thought of trying to catch up seems super overwhelming and intimidating? That's exactly  how I have been feeling.

So first off, let me tell you that I have officially moved back to Alabama from Oregon. The timing was right and a lot of things fell  into place at the right time for me to move on; so I did. I am so forever grateful for all the friends and experiences that I gained during that chapter of my life and I will never regret moving there, and so far I don't regret moving back. I officially moved June 2 to come home, but I've only been back in Bama since June 6 because we had a mini vacation in Nashville after I flew in on the 2nd. I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing family and friends again and I am looking forward to jumping head first into ministry at Lifepoint. Man, I have missed that place. I went back for the first time this past Sunday and it was like I never left. Like a breath of fresh air after feeling like I was sinking for so long.  With all of that being said, my blog will be going through some major changes in the next few days/weeks. For starters, I'm still technically considering myself a part of The Crash team, but I am not currently with them in Oregon. I hope to join back up with the officially again wherever they head to next. I am kind of tossing around the idea of a blog name change, and while I contemplate that decision, I will be making some layout changes and possibly making new buttons(if I end up changing my blog name, obviously.)

One thing I ask is that you all please just hang in there with me as I make this transition into a new beginning of a new chapter in my life.

What will I do now? Good question. I do know that I will be going to Mexico in July(thank You, Jesus! I sure do miss that place!) and then I plan on getting a job in my hometown for the summer, going back to school in the fall to finish my Religious Studies degree(only one more semester!), and going to India in December. After that, good question. One thing I do know, it's all in God's hands from here!

Creation Celebration

In my last post on April 22(forever ago, I know. I know... I am slacking) I mentioned at the bottom of the post that The Beautiful Mess was having the first official service project in the Whiteaker neighborhood that night. Well, since it was Earth Day, we kind of unofficially named the project "The Beautiful Mess Earth Day Creation Celebration."
These are the posters(designed by Mr. Zach(Herb)Gideon) that were posted throughout the neighborhood to get the community talking and wondering who The Beautiful Mess is and to let them know what we were planning;

We met at 5:00 at the Eugene First Evangelical Church on Monroe and 8th on Sunday evening and broke up into teams to go into the community and clean up garbage, debris from the recent snow storm we had, old furniture, or anything else anyone in the area needed and wanted us to do. We then went on to invite them to dinner with one of these:

This was given to people we helped or just random people we met on the streets. We went back to the church to eat tacos/taco salads provided to us by a community group from The Shift Church in Albany, Oregon. 

There were a lot of good conversations and fellowship and all in all we had about 60+ people sign in at the registration table to join a clean up team. 

It was pretty awesome to see a community come together to serve and show the love of Jesus. Here are a couple of pictures... some taken by me and some not... of the evening.

And here is the sign up table crew(some of them):

Woo hoo! These guys did an awesome job setting this whole event up, and we were truly blessed at how the whole evening went and we look forward to doing the next project soon!
This coming Sunday... and every first Sunday of the month from here on(assuming it does well) we will be hosting an open mic night/coffee shop type deal and we hope to draw in people from the community to perform things like poems, art work, singing, telling a story or testimony... just whatever happens. We will serve coffee and desserts and hopefully get to have some really great conversations with people. Can't wait to see where God takes this crazy, Beautiful Mess.

Life on a Mission: Guest Post

My blog is titled:

A Day in the Life of a Crash Team Member

But what does that mean in my life? 

Today I am guest posting on 

So, click on over to read about things that are, in my opinion, the easy and hard things about "Living Life on a Mission."And while you are at it, go visit Kerrie's store: missionary kerrie's for some super cool clutch purses/iPad cases HAND SEWN by Kerrie to support her(and her husband's) trip to India! (Yes, in case you were wondering... the same India trip I will be taking!)

Missionary Friends

I am so lucky to have friends who love the Lord and follow Him anywhere in the world that He may lead them. Check out my blog post from the other day about missions HERE. This is going to be a short(maybe) sweet and link filled blog post(inspired by Quinton Williams) just to spotlight some of these people.

Brooke Davidson: She has been to Mexico mission trips with me and has recently returned from Nepal where she spent July-December serving the Lord. We picked her up at the airport in Atlanta and were so amazed and blessed by the stories she told us on the way home. No way is the Lord done with Brooke and Nepal, you can hear her passion for the Nepali people in the words she speaks. She is also a dear friend of mine who I look up to and respect! She doesn't have a blog, but follow her on twitter @brookeisaflower.

Kerrie Williams over at The Williams Post: Life on a Mission. She and her husband Wade have been on many foreign mission trips including Mexico(Kerrie and Wade), India(Kerrie and Wade), Jamaica(Kerrie), and Uganda(Kerrie). Kerrie is the Missions Coordinator at Lifepoint Church and can be credited(but not without God, of course!) with the success of many many foreign and local mission trips with people from Lifepoint. I am not too good to admit that Kerrie and Wade are both role models in my life, for sure. I long to have the giving hearts that they have. They seriously are two of the most giving people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. I have been so blessed to know them and to have the opportunity to serve with them in Mexico many times and India next January.

Quinton Williams over at "Q Crashing" (linked to blog above) is the one who dreamed up and started the Crash Mission organization that I am a part of here in Eugene, Oregon. He has also been to Mexico on mission trips along side me, Brooke, and Kerrie and Wade. He is also living out a mission here in Oregon. He is the chaplain at the Eugene Mission where he has the opportunity to work with homeless guys every day providing them with hope, friendship, and love as well as speak at chapel meetings. He has dreams of making trips to India, Russia, Ireland and other places in the future all for the purpose of spreading God's Word to the ends of the earth. His wife Audrey at Q and A has also been to Mexico as well as Africa, Ireland, Arizona and other places. They have the sweetest family(2 girls; December-4 and Journey-1) and are great examples of what it looks like to "raise up children in the way they should go." Visit The Crash on Facebook.

My friends Aimee Jung, Chrystal Campbell, Brittany Rundt and Lisa Cain all also have passion for serving in Africa.

My cousin Ashley Lightfoot at Living this life for Him will be making her first foreign mission trip to Romania this summer!!!! I have watched her grow up and we have always okay, not always, but for the most part we have been really close and it is so exciting to see her step out in faith like this and follow God's commandment to us all to GO. Stay tuned to my blog in the next few days for a spotlight blog on her!

My fellow Crash team members Audrey and Quinton Williams, Alec and Holleigh Woodward, Luis Corona, Zach Gideon, Jeff Tennant, Derrick May, and Richie and Sharee Powell. I am so blessed to be able to work alongside people who are truly after God's own heart. I consider these people family and love that we get to run this race together everyday.


Rebecca and Roy Busby over at Until the Whole World Hears. I have known Rebecca and Roy since around 2008 when I made my first trip down to Mexico with Lifepoint. They are the missionary family that our team works with when we take our trips. I truly consider these guys my second(or 3rd or 4th?) family(have I said that about everyone else above as well? Maybe so, but it is true!) This past November I had the opportunity to go down an extra week before Lifepoint arrived, and I was amazed to get the inside "behind the scenes" look at all the things they do on a regular basis when there is not a group down there building. This family is one of the hardest working families I know. They currently have a mission house down in Reynosa, Mexico, on the "canal" where they live mostly. While you are at it, go check out their friends Bruce and Paula who are also doing ministry on the canal.


I have a lot of other friends who are missionaries and I am so so thankful for all of them. Please join me in prayer for all of these people as they step out in faith and do what God has called all of us to do!

Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. -Matthew 9:38

Hello, my name is...

Breanna! I am totally new at this blogging thing, but I have to admit, I was getting a little jealous of all of my friends(Audrey and Kerrie) that have blogs, so I am going to give this a try! Their blogs are pretty great, and this one is blah in comparison, but I have to start somewhere...just bear with me! So, back on topic. There is so much that I want to blog about first and I am not totally sure where I should start. Maybe with some pictures?

This is my mom(Tammy), my sister(Lexus), and me. This is from right before Christmas. I ventured home on a  long 6 week trip to Mexico (I will get to that in a minute) for 2 weeks, and then to Alabama for 4 long, but wonderful weeks. We went to a local park type thing called Nocollula Falls where they have a huge display of Christmas lights and such during the holidays. In case you can't tell, we were extremely cold!

I currently live in Eugene, Oregon, with a team called The Crash.We are here to change the way Christianity is viewed in a place that is the least churched area in the United States. We hope to build relationships, love on people, and show them the love of Christ ultimately so that they will want what we have, and that is joy in our salvation through Jesus. We will be here a minimum of 5 years, probably, and in that time period we hope to have a church up and going and be able to replace ourselves so that while some of us may stay, the rest can in turn move on to the next place so we can plant churches and change the reputation of Christians throughout the United States and the world eventually. This is a picture of some of our team this year:

Pictured: Luis Corona, Quinton Williams(holding Journey Williams), Derrick May, Audrey Williams, Breanna Rains (me!), Holleigh and Alec Woodward, Deci Williams.
Not Pictured: Jeff Tennant, Richie and Sharee Powell, Zach Gideon

Now! About Mexico... I LOVE IT! Should I leave it at that? Ha! I won't, but I definitely could! I have been going to Mexico with my church in Alabama since 2008, I think? Anyways, I have loved it since the first step I took off of the van onto the dirt roads! I sometimes wish that God would call me to move there so that I would have an excuse, but I know it is His timing and definitely not about my selfish desires.

This is Natasha with Rosa on her back and me with Dulce on my back. All of these people in this picture mean so much to me! Rosa and Dulce are just 2 of the 6 children in the family from the Canal, which is what the area we minister to is known as, that I consider to be my second family. They also have 3 brothers and a sister, and a mom and dad that love them and the Lord very much.

We do a lot of things in Mexico like:

Build houses. In this picture, I am looking up Spanish Bible verses to write on the inside walls of the newly built house. It is so important for these families to be saturated with God's Word, and we strive to help them with that. :)

Here I am painting trim boards for the house. This is obviously an important thing, because we want the houses to look nice, but to be honest this is the WORST thing in my opinion haha, I hate painting trim boards! But, all in the name of the Lord, right?! :)

This past trip, we had the opportunity to go to a wedding for a couple that means a great deal to some members of our team. They planned the date around the time our team would be down so that we were able to attend. It was truly an amazing time! We also got to play games at the wedding.

Like musical chairs! We played some crazy games too, like one where you had to grab hands with a bunch of girls and we all took off running as fast as we could through the room. It was insane and people were falling everywhere. It was definitely an experience I will never forget and I am so glad that we were blessed with that opportunity. 

I could go on and on about Mexico and Oregon, but I will spare you for now! I hope this blog doesn't fail epically, and if it does, oh well! Because I love to write and this will be a good place for me to keep everyone who is interested up to date on our journey here in Oregon, as well as my mission trips and just life as a church planter in general! Talk again soon!

To find out more about me and my family visit my About Me page!