YWAM Ratchaburi November update

“Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again – rejoice!” Philippians 4:4

When months go by without an update from us you can be certain that it is not because we have nothing to say, but rather that we have much to say, but often have run out of time to say it! We have begun to prepare ourselves for Noiy to take on the new position as Central Region leader of YWAM Thailand as we mentioned in our last update, while still continuing the ministry here in Ratchaburi. New things excite us and we are truly excited about what God has for us in this new position and to be a part of what he will continue to do in Ratchaburi.

Radio show

There are also new things happening in the ministry in Ratchaburi, one of which is that Noiy was invited to speak on the military radio station about Christianity during the month of October. The host enjoyed the show so much that she invited him to come back again.  The next radio show will be at the end of this month. If you are in Central Thailand and would like to listen, you can do so on FM 99.25 MHz from 14:00-15:00 on Saturday the 27^th of November. Please pray for Noiy as he shares - it truly is an amazing open door through which we believe so many Thais can be reached with God’s truth and love.

Rice Seeds Child Sponsorship

Our Child Sponsorship Program is now into its fourth month and we are so thankful to the sponsors who are helping the families of the 18 children involved to stay in school. Our hope is that when the new school year begins in May 2011, families will be willing once again to allow their children to stay in school when they would otherwise have stopped school and begun working (usually at the end of Grade 6). Please pray with us, and if you feel on your heart to help with the sponsorship program please contact us – we still need sponsors!

December

We had planned a camping trip for the Burmese children’s church during the month of October, but the trip fell through and we had to postpone it until December. It is coming up on the 17^th -19^th of December and the kids are really excited. We have found another beautiful location that we have been granted use of for free! Praise God for the things that He puts on our heart to do that we don’t always have the finances for; He always has a way of making possible!

December is always an exciting month for us with the Christmas parties that we run. It is a chance to share God’s love and to be a blessing to those who are really in need during the Christmas season. This year we will be running Christmas parties in the Burmese community that we work with and a mentally handicapped children’s home, as well as a many alongside churches that we work with both in Ratchaburi and the surrounding provinces. If you would like to give towards our Christmas parties this year, please contact us. We always collect second hand clothes from people in Thailand for distribution, but we also purchase non-perishable food items for the people in the community and provide a meal at the Christmas party. If you are in Thailand we would love to have you join us this year!

Family 

It’s been more than a year since Noiy’s father passed away now, and while his mom and sister have been attending church most weeks, they just didn’t seem to be growing in their understanding of what it meant to be a Christian. Noiy made a commitment a few months ago to meet with them and teach them the Bible once a week and they have since grown a great deal. Discipling one’s own family members is a unique challenge –please pray for Noiy, his sister Patchali and his mom Piew.

We have just had a short but wonderful visit from Bronwyn’s mom and will have her dad visiting with us in December.  We are also planning a visit to South Africa in February/March 2011, so lots of special family time coming up in the next few months.

An answer to prayer

We have begun travelling to visit different ministries in the Central Region to see what is in store for us next year and we are truly blessed by what we have seen. There are many more visits to come and much more travelling to be done. Noiy is doing some of the trips alone at this stage, but we hope that next year we will be able to do many of them together. One of the things that we have been praying about since considering taking on the position is a helper for our family – someone who can help us at home when we need to work, and who can come and help us take care of the kids when we need to travel and have meetings. We have found someone to help us – and what a blessing she has already been! Her name is Daow. Please pray for Daow – she is wonderful and our children love her – we would love to also have the opportunity to lead her to Jesus while she is working with us. 

 Much work is ahead of us – but we take every day as a new and exciting challenge. To quote Dr. Seuss:  “Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So… get on your way.” 

Blessings

Noiy and Bronwyn

The Lord's tents Camping 2!

 In April, we helped to make the dreams of a group of Burmese children come true by taking them camping for the first time. With the help of friends who helped us to purchase tents and sleeping bags for the first camp, the trip was a huge success. We now have the equipment that we need and have decided to take the kids camping a second time.

On the weekend of the 22-24 of October we will be taking our Burmese Children's Church kids on a camping trip. The team from Kings Kids Thailand will be joining us again and we are looking forward to more learning experiences for the kids. Our prayer is that they will learn more about living life with Jesus and that He will meet them where they are at during the time on the camp.

Please pray for the time that we will be camping and also for the time leading up to the trip. We had to contend with some spiritual warfare during the last camp with some of the parents having dreams that harm was going to come to their children and then preventing them from joining us for the trip. We pray that this time all of the kids will be able to join us and that the parents would be happy to let them do so. We also pray for  protection during the camping trip and travel to and from the campsite.

latest news update

Child Sponsorship Program

This month will be the third month that we will be helping 18 children in the Burmese community with

the cost of attending school. Thank you so much to those of you who have contributed to this. We

believe that this is a small step towards big change in the community. We would like to see the kids stay in

school – and while we cannot make that decision for their families, we believe that helping to lift the

financial burden will help the parents to make the decision to keep them in school for longer. This past
week we were astounded when a donation came in for three children’s school fees from someone who had never met us, or them, and just happened to read about what we are doing on our website. Sometimes we feel like we are alone in this fight for the kids, but when we hear stories like the man who just read about what we are doing and gave, we remember all of you, and so many more, who belong to the same Christian family as the kids in our Sponsorship Program. Please continue to remember our small group of kids in your prayers and if you would like to help them financially (only US$30 per child per month).

Teams

During the month of August, we had a team of volunteers with us. It is always wonderful to see how the ministry opportunities just open up when we have more people helping us. The team spent a large amount of time in the Burmese community, not only with the kids, but also with the moms. We had a very special time together on Thai Mother’s Day.

We also had the opportunity to return to the local prison with the team – this time to teach the Bible. The prisoners who had invited Jesus into their hearts on previous visits took communion for the first time. The team also purchased a guitar for the group of prisoners that will gather together to worship.

We hope for many more opportunities to take teams into the prison.
   

                          

Family

Our family is excited to announce that this coming April, Noiy will be taking on the position of Central Region

Director of YWAM Thailand. This is a decision that we have prayed and sought council about for many months. Thank you to those of you who prayed along with us, encouraged us and shared your thoughts with us –we appreciate each one of you and are so grateful that we have such a large family that we can trust. If you would like to see more about the region that we are involved in, please go to the YWAM Thailand website – click on locations, and then central region to see all 5 provinces with their different ministries.

This does not mean that we will stop the work that we are doing in Ratchaburi. We will continue to live here and do what we were doing, but will also have added responsibilities with the new role. We will be doing a lot more travelling to visit ministries in other provinces. Something that we are praying about is possibly selling our family vehicle and purchasing a new one to help with the travels. Our vehicle has done us well in and around Ratchaburi, but some of the places that we will be travelling will be quite far out and we are concerned that our little car may not be so reliable off the beaten track. We have been looking around and the second hand cars that would best suit our needs are all around 350 000Baht (US$11 000). At the moment this is just something we are praying about as we don’t have a cent towards another vehicle. Please pray along with us and if you feel you would like to contribute towards this need – please let us know.

Something else that we are praying about is a trip to South Africa in Feb/March 2011. It’s been a while since we have been back to South Africa and we have planned a slightly longer trip this time in the hope that we can catch up with more of you. We are also hoping to be able to spend some time sharing about what God is doing here in Thailand in some churches/cell groups/youth groups – so if you would like to have us come to yours, please let us know and we will see if we can arrange it.

Naomi turned one this past week and Daniel is now almost 2 and a half. They are bundles of energy most of the time but they keep each other entertained quite nicely these days – making life slightly easier for Mom and Dad. We love watching them grow and look forward to see what new things they will learn each day. In Thailand, most children start school at the age of 3. As Daniel will turn 3 before the next school year begins, we have begun to pray about where he will attend school. There are not that many options in Ratchaburi, but we trust that God has the right place and timing for Daniel as He has placed us here. Please pray for wisdom for us as we consider this decision.

Blessings

The Prommathat family

Noiy, Bronwyn, Daniel and Naomi

Mother's Day

God made something so special when he made the relationship between a mother and her children. Without a mother, none of us would exist. She is the one that God uses to bring life to us and to nurture us. She is the one that serves her children selflessly, sacrificing many things that her children may never know about. Yet, so often a mother is not shown the appreciation that is due to her.

The 12th of August is Mother's Day in Thailand. It is the one day that children take a few minutes to thank their mother for what they have done for them. This year, we decided to take the time to help the children in the Burmese community that we minister in to make their mother's feel loved.



The kids prepared and practiced a song and a skit for weeks in advance. We had a team of volunteers with us and they shared a message. The highlight of the morning however, was when each of the children fetched a bucket and a towel and washed their mother's feet. Many of the moms and their children were in tears as they expressed something in this gesture that perhaps any number of words that they could have spoken could not have expressed. The morning ended with every mother receiving a rose from each of their children.

There are so many ways that we can minister love in a community. We know that each of the mothers in the community was touched by the love of Christ during the time that we were with them on Mother's Day. We pray that God will continue to open the doors of their hearts for us to build on the relationships with them in the months to come.

A helping hand out of the cycle of poverty

Many people in the world are born into poverty. It is not something that they choose, and many times it is something that they simply cannot choose to get out of. They grow up going to schools that have below standard equipment and a shortage of teachers. Most of them must drop out of school early on in their lives to help their family pay the bills.

Two years ago,we stumbled on a community in Ratchaburi that we believe God has called us to show His love to. They are a community of Burmese laborers, living and working on a construction site. Most of the children were born in Ratchaburi and have never been to Burma- yet they are not Thai. Though they are looked down on in Thai society, we believe that God has a special plan for each one of them. We have been working with the community in different ways over the past 2 years – mainly with the children.

We believe that if given the opportunity, certain people will be able to step out of the cycle of poverty. It is not everyone who has the strength of character to make such a change, but then, too few poor people are ever given the chance. In order for the children in the community that we are working with to stay in school for longer, families would have to have carry the burden of keeping them in school. This is beyond what they are able to do, but we see it as a way that we can help.

It only costs US$30 for one of the children in the community to attend school for a month. Only US$30 – but yet that US$30 is usually just too much of a burden to continue beyond 6^th Grade for these families. There are 18 children that we are hoping to find sponsors for – to be able to attend school and to be able to have the opportunity to study further. Our hope is that given the opportunity,  that these kids will have the strength of character to begin to step out of the cycle of poverty. Would you consider giving that chance to one of these children?  Please contact us if you would like to have a part in this project: ratchaburi@ywamthai.org  or  bronnismith@yahoo.co.uk or take a look at our sponsor/prayer page to see more details on how to send donations to YWAM Ratchaburi.

The 18 children in need of sponsorship