Friends and family,
I hope this letter finds you well! As you may know, I am currently on an 11 month mission trip, in which I have been given the opportunity to travel to 11 different countries serving in whatever ways are needed. Right now, my team is partnered with a church in Malaysia. We are working in an orphanage, attending prayer meetings, teaching english, running sunday school, and covering this city in prayer! The spiritual heaviness is very real here, and people are very closed off to the gospel. We aren’t even allowed to talk about Jesus in public!
In the first month, while in Guatemala, my team was able to visit a hospital regularly. Most of the patients there were children who were seriously suffering from malnutrition. We had the opportunity to build relationships with the children and the parents, and pray over them. My heart was broken as I met one and two month old babies who weren’t given names yet, because they probably weren’t going to make it much longer.
In the fourth month, I lived in a displacement camp in the Philippines. All of the families there lost their homes to a typhoon. All of their possessions and some of their loved ones were lost in the disaster. I mett a little girl, Frixcine, in the daycare that I taught in, whose mother passed away in the storm. We heard story after story about how the storm radically changed people’s lives. We were able to build relationships with the people there and were invited to our neighbor’s traditional Filipino wedding!
The Lord has been teaching me so much while on this trip, about himself, about myself, and about other people. I have learned that He truly is greater than the boxes we put him in, than the rulers and authorities of this dark world, than the messes that we create. I’ve learned that I truly am created in His image, with unique gifts that He has given me to bring glory to His name. And I’ve learned that despite cultural differences, people are people, and they all have a hunger for a relationship that only the Savior can satisfy. I cannot wait to learn more about the heart of God over the next 5 months that I have left on this trip.
Thank you so much for partnering with me in this journey! I am writing to ask to you please continue to keep my team in your prayers! Some prayer requests I have are:
- Continued team unity! This is so important as we serve together day in and day out.
- True rest in the Lord and continued diligence for the next 5 months.
- Continued sensitivity to the needs of the world, that we wouldn’t develop hardened hearts after witnessing so much injustice.
- The hearts of the people we come in contact with.
I have a deadline for finances on March 1st. I still need $2,785 until I am fully funded. If I do not make this deadline, then I may be sent home. Please prayerfully consider supporting me. Donations are tax deductible, and can be made online at my blog, amandavanzant.theworldrace.org, by clicking on “support me.” Thank you so much for the financial support, consideration, and prayers!
God bless,
Amanda Vanzant
