Tuesday 28 February 2012

YWAM Ratchaburi Office Building

On the 9th of March 2007, YWAM Ratchaburi started renting our office building. Almost 5 years later, we are still renting the very same building.


It has been a blessing to have such a wonderful place to host teams and volunteers, and we have been especially blessed by the fact that the rent is very cheap and has never increased in the 5 years that we have been in it.

We feel that it is time that we begin to look at buying a building in the same block, rather than continually renting the one that we have been in for the past 5 years. The housing complex is currently fixing them up and buyers get a newly renovated building as opposed to one that is in dire need of quite a lot of repair (like the one that we currently rent).

After 5 years of teams and volunteers passing through Ratchaburi and graciously sleeping on the floor, in the searing heat of Thailand with only one ceiling fan per room, we would like to be able to have a place of our own that we can make our special place of blessing for teams.

Teams and volunteers work really hard while they serve with us - loving the poor, the young, the old, the imprisoned, the foreigner, and the persecuted in Ratchaburi. They serve the local church and work alongside the local government. They come with hearts to be a blessing, and to show the love of Jesus to the people in Ratchaburi province and the surrounding provinces.

To buy a new building, it will cost us 1,500,000Baht (US$50,000). While this amount seems impossible to us, we know that if God is in it, nothing is impossible.

Please believe with us for this building - that many more teams may be blessed while serving here in Ratchaburi!

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Prison DTS - To know Him and make Him known

To know God and make Him known. Simple. True.


But what does it mean for someone who is a believer, imprisoned for something that they did before they knew anything about Jesus Christ? Can they still know God intimately? Can they make Him known?


The answer can be found in Glory Church – located inside the Ratchaburi Prison in Thailand. Many believers gather together to worship God every week. The prisoners themselves run the service. They speak passionately of their efforts to share the hope that they have found in the Gospel with their fellow inmates. The church was started by the inmates a short while after YWAM Ratchaburi had been running a church-like fellowship around once every month.


A Prison Experience


YWAM Ratchaburi has been ministering in the Ratchaburi prison for almost 2 years now. Initially a small group of believers attended, but the group grew really fast, with people giving their lives to Jesus every time the YWAM group came to visit. Apart from the church style fellowship that YWAM runs in the prison on a monthly basis, YWAM also organizes concerts to be able to reach more of the inmates with the message of the Gospel – with more than 1000 inmates being allowed to attend at a time. After one such concert it was reported back to the YWAM team that “Christian fever” had taken over the prison – it was all anyone could talk about.


Where would you go to grow more in your faith if you were in a prison? If you were one of the leaders of Glory church inside the Ratchaburi prison, where would you gain more teaching? How would you learn more so that you could help the other disciples to grow?


This June-August, YWAM Ratchaburi will be bringing a PDTS (Prison Discipleship Training School) into the Ratchaburi prison. We will be opening it up to receive 50 inmates - 50 inmates who have the opportunity to touch the lives of 4,500 men and 1,000 women while they are inside the walls of the prison, and countless numbers once they are released.

We are looking for staff  to be able to start the school. We need people who have completed their DTS and have a heart to disciple others. If you have completed your DTS and are thinking about staffing a DTS somewhere, please contact us to see if you could be a part of this amazing opportunity to help men and women of God grow.

We need sponsors who will come alongside us to help these 50 inmates to see this P-DTS become a reality. The running costs of the DTS will be around 230,000Baht –for 50 inmates that’s only 4,600Baht (US$150) per inmate. Would you be interested to sponsor one of our brothers or sisters to do their P-DTS? You could be a part of their story – helping them to live each day to know Him and make Him known.