No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9
Dear Friends, Looking at this verse and then reflecting on all that God has done in, through and around me over the past 2 years, even just in the past months, I can accept it for nothing less than truth. And not just in the “things that God has prepared” but just in who He is! I can’t help but just sit in wonder and awe of Him! And you are all a part of that! I hope you share in my joy and excitement in the things God is doing around the Nations and in your lives! The things I have seen and experienced and have had the privelege to be a part of in the last months, I am sure, are much more than what I have just seen and experienced. God is doing amazing thingsbeyond what I can recognize and even imagine- what a blessing to get to be a part of that. I hope that your holidays were full of joy and experiencing the reality of the Savior, as well as fellowship with friends and family ( an some rest!!). I spent my Christmas in Herrnhut, sharing in fellowship with few others that are serving here in our community. Although it was certainly different than being at home with my family, I felt blessed and couldn’t help but to reflect on this crazy life God has allowed me to be a part of with Him. The day after Christmas I headed out to YWAM Grimerude, a YWAM base located in Norway, which I will share about later. There, I rang in 2013 in worship with about 150 youth from Norway and looked ahead at what these next months hold for myself and the mission of building God’s Kingdom. In my last newsletter I shared about my upcoming move to Venice, Florida to plant a satellite training/ministry base of YWAM Herrnhut. I just wanted to quickly update you on that process and where we are as a team. We plan to have our whole team in Florida by the end of March. After much prayer and figuring out the processes of running a missions base in the US, we have decided to push back the DTS we originally planned to have in April, to January of 2014. This gives us time as a team to find a permanent location, get plugged into the local community, grow in unity as a team, as well as connect with the other YWAM bases and churches located in the South East region of the USA. Please join us in prayer as we are currently in search of housing and other necessities we have as a team! With that said, I will be in NJ and the surrounding areas in the beginning of March for a few weeks. I would love to meet up with you and just connect or share more about this next season of pioneering and my heart behind reaching the youth of America as well as Europe. If you would like to meet up, please let me know as soon as possible and we can schedule a time. I will have a limited amount of time in NJ but I would like to connect with as many people as possible!
NOR WAY Norway. What a great experience! Thank you to all who supported me with prayer and finances to have been able to take part in such an amazing opportunity! Not only was the country beautiful ( a bit too cold for my liking, but beautiful nonetheless) the people were incredible! I found it very interesting learning about this culture and how people interact. There was a team of 3 of us from YWAM Herrnhut that ended up going to the Awake Festival to teach about using arts on the mission field- what it looks like to co-create with God in reaching the lost. The time we spent teaching was very eye-opening to a lot of the youth. Out of the 150 or so students that participated in the conference, about 30 attended our specific seminars for the 3 days. At the end of the three days we had a group of the students who wanted to engage in a local outreach using the arts. So we headed to the mall on New Year’s eve, set up a canvas with different supplies and simply asked people what their dreams were. Through this conversations were started and we were able to encourage people and tell them what God thinks of them and share the Gospel. For the students it was very eye opening to not only do evangelism ( most of them it was their first time) but also how the arts could be used in that. During these few days of teaching I was also able to spend some one on one time with a few of the students just dreaming about the possibilities of what God wanted them to do with their artistic talents and how to apply those to building the Kingdom. It was such a blessing for me to be able to speak into the lives of some teenagers and help them to realize not only their potential but that God WANTS to use them to draw the Nations to Him. After the youth festval our team was able to stay for a few more Live a life in wonder days to take part in Norway’s national YWAM conference. It was a great time of networking for us and to just be in fellowship with others serving in the YWAM mission. I have already begun to discuss with other bases on how to connect more in ministry and strategy when it comes to doing short term trips (outreaches) during the DTS schools and in our inner ministries in order to be more effective! Join me in prayer for this nation, these people, and future partnerships! If you would like to learn a bit more detail, feel free to ask questions!
AM STER� DAM I am currently in Amsterdam as I am writing to you- a beautiful city that also fills my heart with aching. So much brokenness and deception and yet walking through the streets, passing the red light district and the plethora of “coffee shops” I can’t help but be filled with hope. I have had the privilege of being here at YWAM Amsterdam to take part in the Eastern European DTS Leadership & Training Workshop, which comes to an end tomorrow. It has been incredible and refreshing! I am here with about 23 others that are serving in Eastern Europe with YWAMfellowship, receiving training and growing in faith! With a lot ahead of me in what I feel God has called me to in this next season, I felt that it was time to step into some more training: to grow in my spiritual disciplines, in discipleship, and in wisdom and understanding. This is one of the practical steps that I have taken to help me down the path and I am so glad I chose to do so. Another thing that I would like to implement, is more reading material! If you know me, you probably know that I don’t really enjoy reading anything other than theology/philosophy/humanities/ practical christian living- type books. So. If you are one that enjoys reading the same, I would love to hear your book/author suggestions. Also, if you would like to support me specifically in this area- contact me and I can share my Amazon wish list with you at the moment! ( or, my birthday is coming up in just about 2 weeks, so if you want to , I’m all about Amazon gift cards :D ) That about wraps it up in what I am doing over here in Europe. Again- I will be in NJ for a few weeks in March and would love to connect with you and share more about this upcoming pioneer season in FL and more of my heart for ministry in the USA! I hope you are all blessed and have a wonderful day! I would love to hear from you!! - Amanda
Prayer Requests practical needs: - A CAR! Since I will be moving to the US, I am desperately seeking a car in order to be mobile! If you are looking to sell or give away a vehicle or know of someone that is, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! -Monthly, Quarterly or one-time financial supporters! If you are interested in helping to further my ministry, please see information on the right for details! - HOUSING. My team and I are looking for housing in the Venice/ Sarasota County in FL. Also, if you have any contacts for that area that you think would be helpful, I would love to get connected with you! - A deeper HUNGER to know God - PEACE in a time of transition!! Moving /packing/ all that fun stuff is one of my greatest stresses! - For more opportunities to disciple youth
Useful INFO: Address:
JMEM Amanda Crawford Untere Dorfstr. 56 02747 Herrnhut, Germany
Email:
akcrawford218@googlemail.com
Blog:
majestyinmayhem.tumblr.com
:
Financial Support Checks Made out to YWAM and sent to: Accounting Dept. PO Box 3000 Garden Valley, TX 75771-3000
**please attach a SEPARATE piece of paper stating that the check is for me, DO NOT write my name anywhere on the check, or it will be returned to you.