Asia Hurricane Relief
Hello Everyone,
I just want to say a Big Thank You with all of my heart, this year we got to reach
out and impact more lives than ever before because of your faithful and sacrificial giving.
We saw so many miracles on this trip, and because there is so much, I will share
only highlights of our outreach inside of Burma, and then in the next email I
will tell you about the war-zone border. (See attached pictures below.)
It was a miracle that we were even let into Burma because of the recent riots.
At first they said no Americans but then on the last day that we could possibly
get a visa, I called the travel agent and she said, “Come now, they just took
the ban off.” Our whole trip was like that, even though it looked like we
shouldn’t go on the outside, God was working and opening seemingly impossible
doors. At every location we went to, the local authorities would come question
the hotel and the pastor that we were staying with. But because the pastor is
retired from the government, they let us continue with our program.
This year we brought Christmas to over 600 Orphans inside Burma. Like before,
this was the first time that any of the children had ever received a gift in
their lives, even though they were 9, 10, some even as old as 15. At one home
the pastor told me that a 9 year old boy went into the kitchen and starting
crying, the pastor followed him in and asked him what was wrong, thinking that
his toy might be broken, but the boy said, “No, I’m crying because I am happy,
all these years people come to visit us and they are kind to buy us rice, but
every year I ask God for a toy, and every year I think that I am going to get a
toy but I never do, and this year God answered my prayer and I am crying because
I am happy”.
This home had 130 children in it, and in addition to their toy, they got their
special “chicken dinner”, warm blankets, towels, school supplies and rice.
But what meant most to this child was his $3 toy.
One of the orphanages where we shared the 'Christmas Message' had about 200 children.
That night 130 called on Jesus to come into their hearts. They genuinely believed
and received the message, it was so precious! I knew that something was special
about it, I was going to cry during the alter call. After the meeting, our taxi
driver said, “I have never known what Christmas was about until tonight, nobody
had ever explained it to me like that”. I said, “Do you believe what you heard?”
He said, “Oh yes, yes I believe.” I said, “Then you received God’s gift for you
on Christmas, Eternal life through faith in His Son”.
Here is another Christmas Miracle for a man and his 200 children...
We usually buy rice but for some strange reason, I forgot to at this particular
orphanage. So we went back about 2 days later and bought 5 bags of rice for them.
The rice was delivered around 11:00am, and as soon as it was delivered they
immediately opened it up and started cooking it. I didn't know this but breakfast
was going to be their last meal because they had no more rice and no money to buy rice.
We didn't find any of this out until I was filming the director about the orphanage
and he broke down crying right in the middle of the filming and so we all started crying.
That’s when we found out that they finished the last of their rice in the morning and
didn't know where they were going to get their next meal. They had already borrowed
$800 worth of rice from the shop and borrowed another $200 worth of cooking oil and
all the shop keepers were demanding their money. So he had exhausted everything he had,
and was in the process of selling the building that the orphanage was in and moving
the children into a field with bamboo huts just to pay back the debt, and feed the
children...BUT GOD SHOWED UP JUST IN TIME!
We ended up taking him to the market and giving him the money to pay back the shopkeepers
and leaving them with enough rice for the rest of the month. Can you imagine what
it was like empowering this man to pay off the debt and restore back the dignity
of being Children of God in a religious society that looks down upon them as poor
and lesser...The scripture rose up in me, 'I was young but now I am old and I have
never seen the righteous forsaken or His seed begging for bread'! We are not meant
to be beggars...we are not forsaken...that was the message that was sent out on this day!
The man’s eyes were filled with tears as he was paying off his debt and they were
loading more bags of rice for him. Isn't this what Jesus did for us? He paid a debt
that we could not pay...today we saw Jesus! $1500 was all it took to change this mans
life, that’s all…$1500! What is $1500 to us? For this man it was a solution to his
problem, it was his freedom, and future, not only his but the future of 200 children as well.
In April we are going back to this orphanage to do a “Movie under the stars”.
We will bring our projector and a generator, and invite other orphanages to show
these children the Jesus film at night under the stars. This will be special for
them as it will be the first movie they’ve ever seen in their life. We are also
helping them with a micro-enterprise agricultural farm where they can grow vegetables
and raise pigs to help support the orphanage, so that the children will never go hungry again!
This is just what happened on our trip inside Burma, where 150 children received
Jesus in their hearts, this is not including our outreach on the War-Zone Border,
where thousands were saved, helped, and encouraged. But I wanted you all to see
and experience the “one” in the midst of the thousands. Because it is the “one”
that makes up the thousands! And that “one” who will in turn impact thousands.
So, thank you from the one:
The director that didn’t know how he was going to feed 200 children their next meal
The nine year old boy who cried because he received his first toy
The taxi driver who had never heard about Christmas
But most of all thank you for letting us be “Your hands to the one”!
Lana and The Team
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