Posted in General Posts by Amy Christian on 4/22/2010
It's hard to describe Bangla Road. The road we go down daily to prayerwalk and then later go out to talk to the girls. I've tried to write blogs about it, but it's so hard for me to describe the scene, the emtions, the warfare. Ashley Higgins who is with us from another squad just made a video that describes it well.
Posted in General Posts by Amy Christian on 4/15/2010
As the World Race is coming to an end, I decided I would continue blogging. My new blog site is www.amykaychristian.blogspot.com. Many people have been asking, so what's next? Where will you live now? What will you do now? So many questions as to which I don't have an answer. I do know that our life is in God's hands and that our footsteps are ordered of Him.
Here is the plan for now. We will arrive in Midland April 29th!!! We will go spend time with my sweet sister and her amazing family for a few days. It will be on my sister's birthday! Then we will head back to Midland for... not sure how long... a week or so? My mom and a few friends will have a welcome back party for us on May 8th, which you are all invited to! THANK YOU MOM!!! This will make it nice and easy for us to be able to see and visit with all of our Midland and nearby friends and family. We also hope to show some pictures of our trip.
Then, we will gather our things and head to Hallettsville, TX! I am really looking forward to this. We will stay with Jared's mom and step dad for a while. We will also get to go to Jared's sister Charity's wedding! We are so happy for her and her soon to be husband Blake! Not sure how long we'll be there or where we're going from there. We have prayed about this and this is where we have peace, so we will follow peace! I am really excited about being able to spend time with my other side of the family; they are amazing, sweet, and so much fun! I know I will learn a lot, esp in the kitchen. Thank you all for sticking with Jared and me this year, following us around the world. Thank you to everyone who has given to either our World Race account or personal account. Thank you sooo much for all of you who have stayed dedicated to pray for us this year. We couldn't of done this trip without all of your support!
Posted in General Posts by Amy Christian on 4/13/2010
This month, which is also our last month, I have been with a group of 10 girls in Phuket, Thailand doing ministry in the bars. Jared is with the guys doing "man-istry," about 13 hours away from me. Yes, I miss him so much! He is out in the country on about 500 acres of land. He is really enjoying his time there. Our group of girls are working with an organization called SHE Thailand (Self Help and Empowerment). We go into the bars and talk to the girls working them who are also prostitutes. Most of them come from Northern Thailand looking for work to support their families back home. Most of the girls tell us that they don't like their jobs when we ask them, so we tell them about SHE. SHE offers them a place to live and work. They will be given a salary once they decide to quit their jobs and work for SHE. They live here and work making jewelry and baking cookies and chocolates for the first three months. During this time they really focus in on a lot of healing for their soul, talking to them, praying for them, and telling them about Jesus and what He has done for them! After three months, if they seem to be doing good they train them to work at a hotel restaurant. They are offered a way out!
The one street alone that we go down "Bangla Road" has over 200 bars and about 1200 girls working the bars. This is where the tourist go.
A former World Racer came for a couple of days who is working on a new project dealing with human trafficking. She gave us some statistics:
60% of the men flying into the Bangkok airport are going for the girls, but they make only 10% of the men that use these girls. The majority is Thai men. 40% of Thai men's wives get AIDS because of their "hobby."
Thank you for supporting me by prayer and financially. This is one wild place that we pray the Kingdom of God over. Jared and I still need about $1500 in our World Race Support account. If you would like to donate please click on the "Support Me" on the left hand column.
Posted in General Posts by Amy Christian on 4/9/2010
Please read the previous blog titled "An Inheritance" before reading this one.
So how do we receive this sort of an inheritance?
Honor is the key to receiving our Kingdom inheritance.
Though this blog is a form of honoring Glenn Smith, this in its self is not the only way to honor him. The root of the word "testimony" is a word that means, "do again." Every time we repeat the stories of God's invasions into human history, we are calling Him to reveal Himself as the same God today. For this reason, we cannot truly receive our spiritual inheritance if we mean only to applaud the accomplishments of our ancestors. We do not honor the memory of God's heroes by just remembering them. We only honor them if we imitate them by coming to know the God they knew and calling Him to bring His Kingdom in our day.
Matthew 10:41 says "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward." The Lord takes it personally when we honor the Christ in someone else. Bill Johnson teaches that when we receive a prophet in the name of a prophet, we have access to the realm that that person lived in. We may never be called prophets, but something spills over into our lives. There are mantles, realms of God, revelations, and levels of anointing that the individual operated in that we have access to, simply by honoring.
Glenn Smith entered his home in heaven February 8, 2010. He started and ran the Bible school that Jared and I attended. He was my spiritual father. He taught me more spiritually in the five years I knew him than anyone else in my life. He walked me down the aisle when I got married. He loved his wife, Ann. He loved his children and grandchildren. I always wanted a Papa since both of mine died before I was born, and he was that for me. He was a giver. He was always helping people in need, and people not in need. He would give to those he was close to, but also to total strangers who weren't even asking for money. There were times when I was short on money to pay my bills while in bible school and Glenn and Ann would ask how I was. I would say "O I'm fine" when really I wasn't, they would ask if I needed money and I would say no, yet they still gave. It was always just what I needed or more than I needed. Glenn was a teacher. He could teach the deep and secret things of the Lord that had been revealed to him, in such a simple way. He was an apostle. He has help start so many ministries. He made everyone laugh. He knew how to have fun. He could minister to all types of people, animals tooJ. He knew how to evangelize. If the people in his path weren't born again already, they soon would be. He had a way with people. He had stories. He had jokes. He had compassion. He had love. He had and knew Jesus Christ.
Those are only some of the great qualities of Glenn. He didn't store up and hoard all the revelations the Lord has given him, he demonstrated them and taught them to others. He knew that Jesus Christ was the same yesterday, today and forever (see Hebrews 13:8). He not only knew it, but had a revelation of it. Because of the deep knowing and revelation of that scripture, the power of God was made manifest. It wasn't just mere knowledge to him in his head, but it was how he lived his life. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. This was defiantly something that was in his heart
Even though Glenn is no longer on this earth, his legacy will live on. He has so many spiritual kids that he has taught God's truths and revelations to that will go on for generations. Not just because they were taught, but also because Glenn demonstrated these truths in his daily life. Glenn knew the power in the name of Jesus and in the Blood of Jesus. He has taught us, not just about it, but how to apply it! It has become a part of our lives and it will now go on for many generations. He understood teaching and raising up the generations below him and he did that all over the world.
Reverend Glenn Smith was born January 1st, 1935, and passed after a short but valiant fight against complications from pancreatic cancer surgery on February 8th, 2010, in Dallas , Texas .
Funeral services were held at 10am on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010, at First Baptist Church in Midland . Graveside services followed at 4pm in Resthaven Memorial Park in Lubbock . Visitation was held from 5pm to 7pm on Friday at Ellis Funeral Home in Midland . Arrangements are under the direction of Resthaven Funeral Home in Lubbock .
Glenn served in both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy. He attended and graduated from Baylor University Medical Center 's School of Radiology . He was a PRCA rodeo cowboy and clown in earlier years before committing his life to the Lord at the age of 37 and becoming an ordained minister.
Glenn is the granddad of the rodeo and other cowboy/cowgirl ministries. He was an apostle to the cowboy world, preaching Jesus to those who have never heard of Him. Signs, wonders, and miracles followed as the lost received Jesus as Savior and Lord, and churches started following his works.
Glenn and his wife, Ann, were the pioneers and the first full-time ministers on the rodeo trail starting at PRCA rodeos. Later, from these cowboy church services began college, high school, youth, and senior pro rodeo services. The couple founded Rodeo Cowboy Ministries in the 1970's, also known as International Western World Outreach Center with headquarters in Midland , Texas . Glenn paved the way for other ministries. He preached at the first cowboy church service at the NFR with the PRCA Directors' approval in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and also many other rodeos.
For 27 years they published "The Conqueror" Magazine/Newsletter teaching us how to overcome and be victorious in life. Glenn helped start Vaqueros En Cristo in Mexico and Rodeo Cowboy Ministries in Australia . This couple preached in Russia before the Iron Curtain first came down. They have preached at a lot of camp meetings on ranches over the years. Glenn never slowed down--he preached right to the end of his life and then went on to glory.
Glenn is survived by wife of 50 years, Ann Smith; children: Ken Bryce and wife Carol, Carla Pledger and husband Zack, Bunny Brookshear, Pam Thompson and husband Charles, and Kay Silver and husband Sterling; grandchildren: Justin, Travis and Ashley Bryce, Jeff Pledger and wife Michelle, Cody Pledger and wife Amanda and Brian Pledger and wife Sara, Leigh Thompson, and Nikki Brookshear; and great-grandchildren: Ethan Dishman, Blake, Wesley, Haley Aadin and Emilee Pledger and Ava Rossin.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you make a donation to your favorite charity or ministry.
Posted in General Posts by Amy Christian on 4/8/2010
This blog is to get the reader ready
for the next blog:
Jared and I just finished reading a
book called Supernatural Ways of Royalty, by Kris Vallotton and Bill
Johnson, from Bethel Church and Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry.
In the last part of the book they talk about the inheritance we receive and the
inheritance we pass on. Bill expresses the importance of understanding
that it is by inheritance that God wishes to establish each generation to
advance His Kingdom and what that makes us responsible for. When we
receive an inheritance, we are freely getting what someone else paid a price
for. Inheritance makes each generation responsible to both receive and
honor what has been passed on from the previous generation, and then pay their
own price to make it grow so that the next generation starts out ahead of
them. In the book it talks about what constitutes the inheritance of the
Kingdom and what we receive from our royal history and what we are to give
those that follow us.
After God established His covenant
with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, Moses made this statement: "The
secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed
belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this
law" (Deut. 29:29 NKJV). "Revelations," or the "things which are
revealed," is the inheritance of the Kingdom. The importance of
revelation from God's perspective is so great that the Bible says we perish
without it (see Hos. 4:6). Revelation does not come to makes us smarter
or give us better doctrinal statements. Revelation is first intended to
launch us into divine encounters, where the nature of God is understood and
demonstrated through human experience. If revelation does not lead us to a
divine encounter, it only works to make us more religious and arrogant; because
the nature of knowledge is that it puffs up (see I Corin. 8:1). If we
have knowledge without an encounter, our pride can actually prohibit us from
encountering God.
If revelation is meant to be the
inheritance of the Kingdom, it is clear that God intends for more than
information to be passed on to the next generation. The fruit of
revelation is personal transformation and supernatural demonstration of the
nature of God. Therefore, the inheritance of revelation is the
inheritance of models, heroes who became a revelation of God's nature, and
testimonies of their teaching and exploits.
Revival always comes through
revivalist, men and women of God who become so gripped by a passion for God's
kingdom and so surrendered to the King that He commissions them with authority
and power to bring the Kingdom through prophetic revelation and signs and
wonders. They are pioneers and trailblazers, bushwhacking their way into
enemy territory and claiming it for the Kingdom. They are given spikes in
human experience that can be clearly recognized as the fruit of a supernatural
anointing.
Ok, now think of the men and women
who have really impacted your life, your mentors, your spiritual mothers and fathers,
how are you honoring them? Are you
living out what they have taught you?So
many of the movements that began with these great men and women, far from
seeing an increase in power and anointing, have only seen decline. There
are probably a couple of reasons for this. One is that, while the
children of revival may have recognized and applauded the miracles of God which
their fathers demonstrated, they were unwilling to endure the ridicule and
persecution their fathers faced. Another reason is that they failed to
understand the principle of inheritance and the nature of the kingdom. As
a result, they built monuments to the past instead of realizing they had a
responsibility to take it to the next level for the following generation.
It is up to us to take all the godly
things we have been taught by our parents, spiritual parents, mentors and the
people in our daily lives and apply them to our lives and teach the generations
after us. We must learn from those who have gone before us, so we can be
the world changers, one generation at a time.
Posted in General Posts by Amy Christian on 3/28/2010
Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't written a blog in a long time. Our laptop broke on our waaay looong ride from Mozambique to South Africa. I'm not sure what happened, but it no longer turns on. It was probably the worst ride of the trip and had one too many bumps.
On a better note, my mom bought me a new laptop for my birthday! THANKS MOM!!! It seems that I have so many blogs to catch up on. For now, check out my team mates blogs. They have some nice picture blogs. Warren did a blog about the Food Distribution that we did on Saturdays, as well another Feeding we were able o help with. Enjoy the pictures! I really enjoyed he food distribution. We were able to make the food in the mornings and then package it up and hand it out at lunch time.
Kelly Kramps picture blog of Malaysia is a nice over all view of what we did. There are also pictures of a lion dance on her blog. We were there during the Chinese New Year so the lion dance was going on everywhere for the month, along with the loud drums they dance to.
Posted in General Posts by Amy Christian on 1/4/2010
Our interpreter Collins, Jared, and I were walking through the village when we came upon a house where the family was outside preparing their lunch. They welcomed us to come over and visit with them. We spent some time talking to them and then we prayed for their specific prayer requests.
The next day we decided to go visit them again. They were so happy to see us, they were much more open and more talkative. They told us that their boy had a name that meant "trouble" and they wanted his name changed. They felt that his name might be influencing his general behavior.
Jared asked them who had originally named the child and why they had named him a name that meant trouble. One of the older sisters shyly said that she had named him, but she did it when she was young and did not know what the name meant. They asked Jared and I to give their son a new name. We looked at each other in shock! Jared said that we would pray and ask the Lord what his name should be. The parents said, "it's not a big deal, just name him". SO we prayed!
After we prayed, Jared asked them if a name popped into any of their heads. They all said no. The mom said "the ball is your court; you two give him a name". After standing there for quite some time, not knowing what to say, I finally thought of a name that I felt would be a nice name, "Jonathan". Jonathan means gift of God. Our translator asked the family if they liked that name and they all raised their hands as if they were voting.... yes they liked it! It was hard for me not to laugh through all this. I asked them if I could see their son, thinking they would bring a baby out, but nooooo,....a boy that was sitting nearby listening to this conversation stood up. This was the child. He was around the age of 12. He had been sitting there the entire time, through this entire process. I asked him if he liked his new name and he said he did. I told him that it was very important that he liked the name or we could change it, but he said he liked it. So, he shall be called Jonathan! In the picture, Jonathan is the boy on the far left with 3 of his sisters and 1 brother.
I have already named a child without even having one! News spreads fast in the villages and every one knows everyone else; most seem related in some way. Even while we were still there talking to them we could hear a lady down the road yelling out calling him by his new name and laughing. Everyone in the village seemed happy and liked his new name!
Posted in General Posts by Amy Christian on 1/3/2010
The first house we went to while
doing ministry in the villages near Lilongwe, was the home of an older
couple, the Jackson's. They are Christians and attend church in
their village. We asked if they had a prayer request before we
left and they asked us to pray for their health. Mr. Jackson told
us that he has tuberculosis and his wife has high blood pressure. As I
prayed for the wife she said that she felt her heart rate go down
immediately.
The next day we went to visit them to
see how they were doing. Mr. Jackson was so happy to see us. As
we walked up he came out to greet us. He told us that his wife
slept through the whole night without waking up. He said that she
usually wakes up in sweats every night and has to go outside to get
fresh air. Mr. Jackson told us that his wife knew we were coming
to the village again today so she had gone to look for us to give us
her praise report and ask for more prayer. Mr. Jackson also informed us
that all his symptoms of tuberculosis had left his body as well.
Behind us is where he sews and makes clothes for people. He
told us that it was easier to work now that all the hiccups had
stopped! We were so happy to rejoice with him and praise God. Our
God is a good and healing God!
Mr. Jackson gave us a sack of fresh
mangos for stopping by and praying for them. He requested a Bible
and Jared and I were able to get him one. We also added a pen and
notebook to take notes for their Bible study. In the front of his
notebook I wrote a lot of physical healing scriptures and many
scriptures on peace and joy. They were so thankful. Thank all of you
who are helping Jared and me with our personal finances on this trip;
because of this we were able to buy the Bible, notebook and pen.
Please put this Godly couple on your
personal prayer lists and those of your church and small groups.
Pray for continued good health and prosperity for this aging couple.
Posted in General Posts by Amy Christian on 1/2/2010
We had a wild, dusty and hot ride
on the way to Malawi from Mozambique. We all rode on a large flat
bed truck that had a thick tarp over it. We were all squeezed in
there with all of our big packs. However, I am able to sleep
anywhere, and did not miss any of my sleep on the 41 hour ride.
Since we've been in Malawi we have
been helping a man named Shadrack. Shadrack is a church
planter. He has already planted over 60 churches in the nearby
villages. Each week we've been going into the villages and doing
door to door evangelizing. Our team of seven split into three groups.
Jared and I were together with our translator. We go door to door
telling the people about Jesus, praying for them, and inviting them to
the church. Many of the people told us that they knew very little about
Jesus, but really wanted to learn more about him. As we would walk door
to door all the kids would follow us laughing and yelling "Muzungu,"
meaning white person. Some were seeing a white person for the first
time in their life, some of the younger ones would run and cry because
they were so scared, all the older kids would laugh. They followed us
as we would go to the other houses listening to what we had to say. At
the end of the day when all of our groups would meet back there would
be many kids that had followed all of us all the way back. We
would spend time playing with them, singing fun songs, and teaching
them about Jesus.
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Please read Amanda's Blog
to see what happened and the deliverance that a young girl received
Christmas Eve! We all got to eat a nice lunch together on
Christmas and relax, it was great. We did secret Santa's within the two
teams that are here. The people that drew Jared and my name went
together and bought fruits and veggies for us! We were soooo happy! On
New Year's Eve Jared and I took our two translators to a service and
Amanda and Leigh came along as well. There had been signs put up all
over town about this service so we decided to go to it. It was great to
get to pray in the New Year with many other Christians. I was
delighted to discover that the service was in
English. I miss going to church services or any type of
Christian service so much. We go every week, but our team is in charge
of the service and one of the team members has to preach, so it is a
lot of preparation and work. It was nice to just sit and
receive!
Jared and I covet your prayers. We
are beginning to pray and consider our future in the USA. We are
requesting prayer concerning what we are to do when we
return. Where we are going to live, work, and all of that.
Pray for us to have opportunities in our career and job choices that
will bring glory to the Kingdom and provide for us financially as well.
Lastly, we still need some financial
help to finish our financial obligation to The World Race. We are
so thankful that some of you have made very generous pledges and are
extremely faithful to honor your pledges. We have been incredibly
blessed by these gifts. In addition, we still need about $1,500
that is not part of the pledged amount. Once that obligation is met, any extra money in our World Race account can be used toward reimbursement for trip expenses we personally paid
for before we left, such as health insurance, shots, ect. These items total approximately $3,000. If you
would like to donate to our World Race account, you can do so by
clicking on the "Support Me" button to the left. Also, if
you would like to give into our personal account that would be greatly
appreciated as well. You can send that to my mother. She has been a
huge help taking care of our personal stuff back home. Please
keep our finances in your prayers.
What a joy the past seven months have
been! Jared and I know how fortunate we have been to have this
opportunity and would like to spend time with all of you; sharing our
stories, pictures, and experiences and letting you know what God has
done for us and through us on this incredible journey. We
anticipate being back in the USA the first week of May! I am
still excited about where we're going and what we'll be doing, but I do
have to admit I'm getting really excited about being back in America.
Posted in General Posts by Amy Christian on 1/1/2010
November and part of December was spent in Mozambique. It was wonderful! We were only able to get onto the internet a couple of times and not for long the whole month. Hopefully, this long blog will give you a good picture of our work in Mozambique. Jared and I were excited about going to Mozambique from the time we saw it on the race route. We were not disappointed.
Our assignment was to help a local church in Vilanculos, located on the eastern coast of Mozambique, within walking distance (African walking distance) to the Indian Ocean. Our work with this church "Jesus for Africa" was to do outreaches into the local hospital, prison and neighboring villages. "Jesus for Africa" was founded seven years ago by Pastor Jaco and his wife, Maria. They have two kids, Maggie (10 yrs) and Rudo (9 yrs). This was an awesome family. Even though their home was very small, they made all of us feel very welcome.
We lived in our tents, camping on Jaco and Maria's property near a beautiful small lake. We had access to cold water showers and we had the luxury of a flushing toilet. On our first night camping by the lake, some of the Racers were awakened by lots of noise and yelling. Jaco had forgotten to tell us that the natives fish in the wee hours of the morning. They set out nets, then go to the other side of the lake and start hollering and thrashing the water to move the fish into the nets. This was a startling way to start our stay in our new camp.
All sorts of wildlife lived around us and they did not all have four legs. Some were pretty scary. One day we saw a Black Mambo snake and a Spitting Cobra snake. Jaco gave us a good lesson on recognizing these snakes and said that people are paralyzed within 20 minutes after being bitten by a Black Mambo and killed within two hours. Needles to say, both snakes were promptly killed.
Our weeks were very full. Here is a sample of our schedule. Sunday: Our team ran the morning and evening church services. Monday: Our day off. Tuesday: Hospital, prison ministry, and house visitations. Wednesday: Ran the healing service at the church at noon every week. Thursday: Hospital, prison ministry, and house visitations. Friday: Showed the Passion of the Christ movie. Saturday: House visitations and/or prayer walking.
Many people gave their lives to Christ as we ministered during the week. It was amazing to see how God worked! The people were so hungry for the Word and so receptive of the message. The first Sunday we were there a Muslim man who came to the service gave his life to Christ. He is a very influential man in the city. He works for the city. The following Wednesday a man who was working for Jaco gave his life to Christ. Jaco asked Jared if he would spend a lot of time praying and discipling him while we were there. They were able to spend many hours together praying, talking and reading the Word. This was a wonderful mentoring time for that young man to help him get his feet firmly planted in the Word.
Shortly after we arrived in Vilanculos Jared was preparing to teach at one of the Wednesday healing services when he noticed some of the older village kids had followed our team mates to the church. They had all been playing soccer and decided they would like to join the World Racers at church. Jaco also noticed these newcomers at the regular Wednesday healing service, so he asked Jared to change the healing message into a salvation message. This was definitely the hand of God working. Many of the guys confessed Jesus as their Lord for the first time that day. Jared spent time praying with them afterward as well. Praise God!
Their hospital is made out of UN tents. Their original hospital was destroyed in a cyclone in 2007. It really looks like what I have seen on the old TV show MASH (with mosquito nets). Some of our group spent lots of time in the burn unit. One man who was burned by an oil lamp over a huge percentage of his body just 2 days before we arrived has new skin growing on his back without any scars! By the time we were leaving Vilanculos, almost every person in the burn unit had been sent home, fully recovered.
Jaco wanted to start a prison ministry. This had been one of the things that he wanted our team to help with while we were in Vilanculos. The first time we went to the prison almost all the prisoners raised their hands that they wanted to receive Jesus into their hearts and confess Him as their Lord. We saw a change in the men from the first time we went to the last time. They seemed full of joy and on the last day we went to the prison they were singing praise songs. Jaco is continuing to go, even though we are no longer there. Please read my teammate Amanada's blogabout the prison ministry. It seemed that most the places we went people would want us to tell them about Jesus. I have never seen so many people wanting to hear about Jesus. Everyday our team was able to touch lives and teach about the love Jesus. We were truly able to be messengers of the Word this month.
