Hello everyone!
It brings me great joy, and great pain to tell you that we have just finished our three month Lecture Phase of our current school. The past three months have been a roller coaster of a ride for everyone involved. The teachers were absolutely amazing, bringing truth to every single student’s life. Granted, not everything has been a piece of cake. We have had our troubles this school, just like every school does. We’ve had to send one student home, one student left voluntarily, and another student felt like they weren’t supposed to go on Outreach. Saying good bye to those three students was not easy, but God knows exactly what He’s doing, and we have to trust that whatever happens on Outreach is the greatest thing for the remaining students.
Our last speaker of the school before Christmas break was Nick Savoca, the base director of the base here. He spoke on evangelism. As always, he delivered a very energetic teaching, covering every major and important point about evangelism. On Friday, we all went into the city to participate in a mini outreach. We set up three Prayer Stations in various parts of the city. For those of you who don’t know what a Prayer Station is, it’s a portable table with a banner that says Prayer Station, and it’s just a place where people can come to receive prayer about anything and everything in a very non-judgmental way. Nick Savoca had the idea for Prayer Stations while in the city about 15 years ago doing a prayer outreach one afternoon. Now, there are Prayer Stations on every continent.
We have two separate teams getting ready to leave for Outreach this week. One team is leaving tomorrow for India and Nepal who will be working with church plants, orphanages, churches, as well as doing mercy work also. They are all getting really excited about finally leaving, after the previous three months of preparing for the day of departure. The second team leaves on Friday for Washington D.C. While in D.C. we will be helping the new YWAM base there launch their new Prayer House. We will also be participating in the March For Life march on the 23rd of January, walking under the K.I.D.S (Keep Infants with Down Syndrome) banner. After the march, we will then drive back to New York for a quick one day turn around, and then head to Cambodia for two weeks. While in Cambodia we will be working with human trafficking victims, orphanages, as well as recovering prostitutes. After our two weeks in Cambodia, we will be traveling on to Bangkok Thailand where we will be doing a lot of the same work as we did in Cambodia, working with human trafficking victims, working in the orphanages, as well as recovering male and female prostitutes. It is going to be a very heavy and hard month for students and staff alike so please keep us in your prayers while we are gone.
Thank you to anyone that has committed to supporting me monthly, it is very much appreciated! And to those of you who have sent a one-time gift, thank you!! It is very much appreciated as well. It means a lot to me knowing that people are supportive of what I do. And to those of you who have committed to praying for me while I’m here on staff for the next two years, I feel those prayers every single day!! Thank you!! I appreciate every single one of you so much!
With the wind,
Mark Vaccaro
