Day -1: Itinerary and Prayer Requests

Dear friends and family,

It's hard to believe that in a few short hours I'll be landing in Manila! The closer I get to my trip, the more I realize how much I need to depend on God spiritually, emotionally, and physically. I'm so incredibly excited to see what He's doing and to serve and love children whom He knows by name and whom He loves unconditionally!

I've attached my itinerary for prayer purposes. I'll be mostly working with children in various ministries in orphanages, schools, and camps. It'll be my first time flying alone, so I ask that you keep me in your prayers.

July 1 – Arrive in Manila (12 hr flight to Taipei, 2 hr flight to Manila)

July 2 – Shalom Birthing Clinic and a feeding in the slums at Tondo  

Sunday, July 3 - Attend CWC (church)

July 4-6 – Redemptio Christian School 

July 7-9 – Home of Joy Orphange

July 10 – Attend CCF Alabang (church)

July 11 – Orphanage in the Valley 

July 12-13 – Camp New Beginnings, a camp for street girls 

July 14 – Back to Seattle

Prayer requests:

- Please pray for the various children and individuals I may come in contact with, whether through the ministries I'll visit or just on the plane and throughout my travels. It is my desire that others see the joy of knowing Christ through my words and actions, and that maybe God will give me an opportunity to share about my trip during my flights!

- Please pray for the various ministries I'll be visiting and the amazing missionaries, pastors, and workers who serve the Lord so faithfully. Pray that He will use these men and women as lights in their community and that His blessings, provisions, and strength will be poured out upon them. Pray that their ministries will be effective and that He will continue to sustain them as they work for His glory. Pray especially for the Nichols family and for Redemptio as the school continues to expand in the Floodway community!

- Please pray for me spiritually. In the last few weeks, the Lord has really been revealing the idols of my heart and drawing me to Him. In addition, I've been struggling a lot with hormonal mood swings and a lot of emotional ups and downs, and I know God has been using that to teach me to cry out to Him for strength and endurance. 

I know I won't ever feel spiritually ready for this trip and in a lot of ways, I feel inadequate to face the journey ahead. I feel like I struggle so much in my own life with sin and other issues that I don't feel worthy or capable of representing Christ or sharing about Him. 

However, I also know that the Lord uses those who are imperfect and weak and broken in order that His glory and His goodness might shine all the more brighter. This verse from 2 Corinthians 4 comes to mind:

"For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us."

I know my jar is broken and I continually fail my Father every day, but I know He can use my weak and trembling heart to show others how wonderful and good and gracious He is. It's okay that I'm not perfect because I am a living example of how He can take broken people and transform their hearts. 

Please pray that the Lord would use me and strengthen my relationship with Him, teach me true humility and joy, and give me a servant's heart. I want more than anything to be a blessing to others and to cause others to see how wonderful God is.

To conclude, while I was in the middle of devotions the other day, I came across 2 Thessalonians 1, and I ask that you'd pray for me using this verse. 

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Global missions is truly a great adventure to see God at work and to allow Him to work in us! I'm excited to be able to join that adventure for two weeks, and a big thank you for your prayers and support. I'm overwhelmed by the generosity of my church family, and I hope to keep this blog updated daily (hopefully)!

Salamat po! For His glory,

Amanda

Beauty in the Brokenness: Reflections After a Week of Working Alongside Sacred Road Ministries

"If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail."

{Isaiah 58:10-11}

Spending a week at the White Swan reservation in Yakima, WA, left more than a few dried splatters of paint on my arms and dirt under my nails. How can a week living and learning and loving under a 105 degree sun, holding a child grimy with dirt in your lap or slathering slate blue paint on walls and caulking cracks in between boards or singing God's praises with tens of youth or watching the interns love and care for and carry and give piggyback rides and pour themselves over the children with the most beautiful smiles that must touch the heart of God Himself not change someone? To see a ministry living and active and completely overflowing with service in the footsteps of Jesus and to see the changed lives of the children and youth and interns and the beautiful church building and the hearts of those serving. . . how could it not leave an impact on my life? 

To wake up to a beautifully arid landscape and to see Mt. Adams framing the dry landscape and finding roadkill a few miles down West Wapato Road and to arrive at church only to pack a sack lunch and head off to a wonderfully challenging day at worksite painting and roofing and building to bless the community only to arrive back in the afternoon for kids club and to hold and carry and play with the young and dirty and forgotten and yet their smiles and their beautiful, bright eyes just stay with me until we head back to rest and fellowship under the light of a golden, full moon.

When I left last week, I was filled with worry over my own life, and the pages in my journal were filled with fear and uncertainty and insecurity. I was focused on my own hardships and struggles and the little things someone said or did. But arriving at Yakima, my view of myself and God were disoriented and torn from their self-centered perspective. I had to ask myself, do I believe that God is sovereign over all this pain? Is He is control over the physical and sexual and emotional abuse of the children and the economic hardships of the families and the alcohol and drug problems and the broken hearts and uncared-for toddlers? Is He in control and active in the hurting community with mothers younger than me and children wandering around with only diapers and lice in their hair and those who are hurting, hurting in ways that I could never imagine?

And when I looked around and saw the changed lives and the love poured out on the very least, I could say yes. Yes, God is working. Yes, God is turning many towards Him through the examples of His children working faithfully to bring Him honor and praise. I saw the lives on the interns and families and those who trust in Christ, and I saw lives of joy and peace and contentment in the Lord and His work. He is in complete control over each situation, and He is so very, very good.

And if He is control of the abuse and the pain and heartache and the things that break my heart, is He not also in control of my own life? Of the little things that make me worried, of ruined to-do lists, a few hurtful words, healing friendships? Is He not holding the whole world in His hands, holding the lives of those in White Swan and holding mine as well?

Your plans are still to prosper

You have not forgotten us

You're with us in the fire and the flood

You're faithful forever

Perfect in love

You are sovereign over us

And tonight of all nights on July 4th, drunken parties and abuse and the brokenness rages on more than ever in White Swan, and as I reflect on this fact that's so, so wrong, I can't help but cry out and weep over the pain, knowing my God weeps as well. I take comfort in the fact that God's name Emmanuel means God with us, and God not only with me, but God with White Swan and each suffering child and hopeless mother and wounded father and God with Sacred Road, blessing that ministry and allowing it to blossom. God is in the pain. He hears the cry of each child, and He holds them close in His arms. But He's not just leaving the hurt as black and deep as it is, but He's working and moving, creating something glorious and hopeful and peaceful and beautiful, an oasis of joy and beauty in the midst of the blackest pain.

This week I had the chance to "come and see," and I saw. I saw brokenness, but I saw beauty. The beauty of Jesus' heart beating and His love poured out to the children and youth and adults, and I saw the beauty of changed hearts and lives of people once living in sin brought to His feet. I saw the beauty of the interns and teams and families faithfully and diligently working in the heat to love those who Jesus loves. Life is full of brokenness, but we do have a God who is sovereign over our worries and fears and a God who turns our brokenness into something beautiful to shine brightly because of the hope we have in Him. 

Although we are weeping 

Lord, help us keep sowing 

The seeds of Your Kingdom 

For the day You will reap them 

Your sheaves we will carry 

Lord, please do not tarry 

All those who sow weeping will go out with songs of joy 

The nations will say, "He has done great things!" 

The nations will sing songs of joy

To Sharpen Iron: 3 Lessons Learned from Worldview

It wouldn't be stretching the truth to say that Worldview changed my life. Again.

As I think back upon this past week, I see the faces of my small group. Girls who changed the way I see God's heart. Who stood by each other through bleary-eyed mornings and tough lectures and intense discussions and six-pack-developing laughter. I see my small group leader Michelle, who imparted words of wisdom I will never forget and who sacrificed her time and energy and heart to six girls last week. I see the faces of our next generation, guys and gals who stand side-by-side, cupping the truth within our fragile hands. 

And we are not afraid. Not afraid to ask the tough questions and wrestle with issues of government and law and biblical authority. Not afraid to step onto the streets of greater Seattle to witness to the Light. Not afraid because we have been trained to testify to the Truth.

I have the greatest admiration for these young men and women, who have a desire to know God and know Truth. For when we know God, we know Truth. And Worldview enables us to know both God and Truth. And to not only know Truth, but to share it with the world and empower others with what we've seen and learned. 

-

1. Richard

On Wednesday, all 160+ students headed out to Fremont and Queen Anne for evangelism, armed with tracts and God's truth. And that's where I met Richard and my eyes were opened to God's heart. 

Here was a man, stubborn in his belief that the Bible was contradictory and illogical. That the maximum IQ was when two people converge and how the Bible undermines women and promotes slavery. How the Bible was full of errors, while he himself was the supreme authority on what was right and wrong. How he believed he would simply disintegrate in death and how he believed he was a good person. 

Oh Lord, forgive him, for he did not know what he was doing. Open his eyes. Break through to his heart. Show him Yourself in all Your glory and grace and love.

It was in that moment that I saw God's heart break. I saw a glimpse of God's immense pain for this man. He was God's beloved creation that He had sacrificed His only Son for, and yet he remained hostile with his sick heart in direct defiance of everything good and right and pure. Psalm 81:13 reads, "Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!" That day, I felt God's heart cry out in pain. I felt God's agony when He looked upon His creation and saw a disobedient people.

Yet, at the same time, I felt utter frustration, like I was beating against a wall of stone. 

For how do you describe light to a blind man? How can you simply make someone see the box of lies he's been living in all his life?

That day, my eyes were opened and I saw the thousands upon thousands of people so blind and lost and dead in Seattle. Not just in Manila, but here in hip, coffee-drinking, tattooed Seattle. We are surrounded by the living dead. 

Yet, so often, I am so selfish. I have the antidote to the poison permeating the world's population, yet I do nothing. I sit home on couches and watch TV and go about my daily business, when people are living and dying in their sin in direct rejection of the Truth.

Oh Lord, how can I be so selfish that I would withhold Your life-saving grace to the blind?

Richard showed me God's heart. And for that, I am eternally grateful. Please pray with me for Richard. Pray that God would turn His heart around that he might see God's eternal, unchanging, unconditional love and accept Christ as Lord over his life.

-

2. Devos

Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. And it is my privilege to study God's Word. 

Growing up in a Christian home, we take a lot of things for granted. Often times, I read my Bible because as a Christian, it's the "right" thing to do, but I forget that Christ bought and paid for my relationship with Him. Jesus died for me, so I can know Him and love Him. 

Similarly to romantic dates, we have the opportunity to "make a date" with Jesus. I don't mean that to be cheesy, but it's true. People who are in love with each other treasure each moment spent together and cherish each opportunity to spend time with one another. It's never a chore or a burden, but a gift. 

It's the same with Christ. He loved us so much He died for us, and how do we repay Him? By treating His Word and our relationship with Christ as a duty or another task on our to-do list? Something to skim through each morning, so we can move on with our day?

Father, forgive me for abusing this beautiful gift of having a relationship with You. Draw me ever closer to Your heart.

Do we have to pray? Do we have to read the Bible? Do we have to do devotions each morning?

No. But we get to. We get to approach the throne of the Almighty God whenever we want and open His Word to learn more out our Creator and Heavenly Father. We get to make a date with Jesus whenever, wherever. 

And so often we forget the immense privilege it is to approach our Lord Jesus through prayer and through His Word. 

-

3. Government and God's Truth

Recently, I've been struggling with imposing my own Christian standards on unbelievers through law and government, regarding issues like gay marriage. 

One day at Worldview, I got to eat a meal with one of the speakers at Worldview, along with some other debaters and speechers. Mike Schutt explained it, not as imposing morals found in Scripture, but as upholding the Truth, found not only in Scripture, but in the natural order of things. Regarding the issue of legalizing gay marriage, he explained it as looking at how men and women were created physically and the natural process of childbirth and sex. Instead of only looking at Scripture to find what legislation to approve or oppose, he taught that upholding Truth was the more correct principle to apply to situations regarding religious beliefs and government.

And that really helped me reconcile the issue, because as a believer, it's important to always look first to God's Word. But realizing also that God's Word is truth and the natural order of the world supports truth helped me see that there are more reasons to endorse legislation than simply religious beliefs. And that'll help me in turn explain my political opinions to an unbelieving world.

-

Worldview Academy was incredible. It revived my personal devotions and strengthened my desire for evangelism. It united me with my brothers and sisters-in-Christ, who sharpened me as iron sharpens iron. It taught me incredible truths of leadership, apologetics, and worldview and satisfied my hunger for intellectually challenging, biblical teaching. For what God has done through Worldview, I am eternally grateful. 

Worldview changed my life. And I would highly suggest you to let it change yours.

{To watch the Seattle video, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm5Y2J624_Q&list=UUvhBE_nSIkeioS6_OX5yr4Q  }

Philippines Blog

Dear Reader,

If you're interested in learning about my missions trip to the Philippines in two weeks, you can find my other blog here: 

http://missiontothephilippines369.blogspot.com/

I plan to blog daily during, before, and after my trip, so subscribe if you would like to be updated with photos, quick thoughts, or ways to pray for me and my team. I am so blessed to have this opportunity to share God's love with the community there, and I'm excited to see what God will teach me through this trip.

Thank you for your prayers!

In Christ,
Amanda

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power."
{Isaiah 40:28-29}