Love For The Land of Smiles

Amanda is an Intern alumni, and has been attending Church Eleven32 since she was young. She has always loved missions and people. This is her story:

For the past five years Amanda has spent a big part of her summer in Thailand. Throughout the year she longs for hot days on the goat farm, attempts to find good Thai food in Dallas, prays for the Thai people, and waits patiently to return to her favorite place on this earth.

Every summer that Amanda spends in Thailand, God shows her and teaches her something new; that you do not need to speak the same language in order to show love, that He is faithful in every situation, that when it comes down to it, God can be found in the simplest, and most unlikely places.

During her first year in Thailand, Amanda met a young girl named, Mint. When she returned to Thailand for the second time, she looked for Mint, but could not find her. On her third trip, she ran into Mint by accident and she had remembered Amanda’s name.

“Last year I led her to Jesus, and this year I got to talk to her about her relationship with Jesus. She was honest about not knowing how to talk to God but told me that it means the world to her to know that I come every year to see her,” Amanda says.

But Amanda’s trips to Thailand, as long as they are, always end so quickly. When she leaves Kanchanaburi and her sweet friend, Mint, her heart breaks. In spite of being nine thousand miles away for eleven months at a time, “[I] got to pray for her and with her and am believing that God’s got her the rest of this year.”

A year ago, Amanda and her team met a man who was unable to walk. The team prayed for him and encouraged him and his family. Miraculously, the man stood up, and was able to move. That same day,some of his family members gave their lives to Jesus and they baptized them.

“This year he is much healthier and moves way more and him and his family are alive and well,” Amanda says.

The best part about going to Thailand is “returning and building those relationships,” Amanda says. “Every year without fail, the relationships that were once new are now old friends that are used for sharing the unity of Christ with. One by one we are seeing a difference in these people.”

God leads us each to different things. For Amanda, He has lead her to The Land of Smiles. If you meet Amanda in the next eleven months, you will find that she is constantly praying for Mint, and the families she’s grown to love. And she waits, with anticipation, for her sixth adventure to Thailand.

“My heart is definitely for Thailand and the Thai people. I have big hopes and dreams for the future there.”