Bringing hope

“Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.” George Iles

“Hope costs nothing” Sidonie Gabrielle

We are all human. We all make mistakes. We all make bad decisions. Most of us pick ourselves up and move on – learn from the mistake and continue life as usual. For a long time now it has been on our hearts to work with a group of people, many of whom will never live a ‘normal’ life again. They are the prisoners in the local Ratchaburi prison. There are more than 3500 prisoners.

One of the local churches in Ratchaburi has been going to share the Gospel in the prison every Christmas for the past few years. We have had the privilege of joining them for the past 2 years, but it has been on our hearts to begin to take volunteers to minister to the prisoners more than just once a year.




This past month we took our first team of volunteers (from America) into the prison. They spent time sharing with and praying for around 100 prisoners. Seven or eight of them had already converted to Christianity through the church coming over the Christmas period. On this day however, more than half of the 100 prisoners that attended asked to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.



Many of the prisoners have been in a place of hopelessness for a long time. For most, even their families don’t come to see them. Once they are in prison, they have nothing. Prisoners are given only two sets of clothes by the prison per year. Families bring them what we would consider daily necessities – soap, toothpaste, shampoo etc. Those prisoners whose families don’t come to see them go without such things unless there is a donation from an outside source. We know that bringing them the truth of Jesus Christ is the most wonderful gift that we can give them – eternal hope in a place where many had lost all hope. We also know that there are other ways that we can show them the love of God.

One of the things that we are hoping to do is to collect donations of men’s shorts and t-shirts (new or second hand) and toiletries to distribute to the prisoners. We have distributed Bibles, but would love to possibly start a Thai Christian library for them. We would love donations towards this too!

We are planning to continue to take teams of volunteers into the prison and want to specifically provide Bible teaching for the new believers while we are there. If you have a burden for prisoners and would like to come and serve with us, we would love to have you!

Love is what we want to bring to this group of men and women who are as special to God as you or I are - that they too may know the truth of God’s love and hope in it.

If you would like to contribute towards this project, you can do so online at: http://www.ywamthai.org/onlinedonations.php (please specify that the donation is for 'Ratchaburi' for the specific purpose of 'prison ministries').

YWAM Ratchaburi news - May 2010

“You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them. “ ~Desmond Tutu


Noiy’s family
We are reminded again this month of how it was that God lead our family to come and serve in Ratchaburi. We are on a journey with God of seeing Noiy’s family restored – not in a way that the world would imagine, but rather in God’s timing and way – one that we do not always understand. When Noiy’s father passed away last year, we saw Noiy’s mom become more serious about pursuing her relationship with God. She has certainly had her ups and downs over the past 10 months, but has recently been in a place where she has returned in part to her old life. This past week, her father (Noiy’s grandfather) died. He was old and fragile, but to lose a husband and a father within less than a year is something that can shake anyone’s world. We are thankful that we are still here – standing beside her as she walks through this – and helping her to make sense of her faith at a time when she really needs God.


A team of volunteers praying for Noiy's mom

Burmese families
It is not only because of Noiy’s family that God has called us to Ratchaburi. One of the communities that we work with is the community of Burmese laborers that live in our area. We interact with the community in many ways, but we teach the Bible to 18 of the children on a regular basis. Most of the children stop attending school when they reach 6^th Grade (around 12 years old) as they can then begin to work and help to lift the family’s financial burden. Over the past 2 years Noiy has been trying to encourage the parents to allow their children to stay in school for at least a few more years so that they don’t have to continue on in the cycle of poverty that their parents have always been in. We have seen some of the girls continue on for a few years, but never a boy. Three of the boys finished 6^th Grade at the end of the past school year(February) and have asked their parents about continuing on with 7^th Grade when the new school year opens in mid-May. Initially one of the boy’s parents said no, but he tells us that he has been praying and when he went back to ask his parents if he could enroll, they told him yes. We are over-the-moon! So excited not only that he has the chance to continue on in his studies, but also that he learnt a great lesson in faith. He learnt that God hears his prayers, and that He answers them. His name is Chaimon - please pray with us for him as he begins 7^th Grade this year.


Chaimon will start Grade 7 this month

New project
We have been considering other ways that we can help the families in the Burmese community to make the decision to send more of their children to study further. We are hoping to perhaps start some kind of sponsorship program for them (even the youngest ones) so that the families don’t feel that it is a burden to send their children to school. Schooling is free for them, but we have worked out that to pay for their transport to and from school as well as their meal while they are at school every day, will only cost $US25 per child per month. We are still in the beginning stages of drawing up the details of this project, but if you would like to be involved from the very start, please let us know!

April was an exciting time for us as it was the month that we held our camping trip for the Burmese kids. This is something they had been dreaming of for months and it was such a delight to be a part of seeing this dream come true. They learnt more about who God is and how special they are to Him. We know that it was an encouragement to them in their faith and we are so thankful to all of you who had a hand in helping this dream come true!


Teams
We have had a number of teams of volunteers already this year and are so excited about all that God is doing in the community and the churches here. We are currently hosting a team and are excited to report that they are the first team that we have been allowed to take into the local prison to minister.

Prommathat Family
Our family is also growing up so fast. Daniel celebrated his 2^nd birthday at the end of March and Naomi is now 8 months old. They love playing together, and certainly keep us on our toes. Both of them are very social and love to spend time with the teams of volunteers that join us. Daniel has taken to calling them all Aunty and Uncle and loves to hang out with them whenever he gets the chance.



Celebrating Daniel's 2nd birthday