Hearing God's voice in prison

Extraordinary things have been happening in a small room in the Ratchaburi Central Prison. Since the beginning of June this year, fifty of the inmates have gathered daily to join in the YWAM Discipleship Training School (DTS) that is being held there. Many of the students really had very little idea what they were letting themselves in for. Most are new in their faith and many had never owned a Bible of their own before the start of the DTS.
 
During one of the weeks, the students were learning about the subject of: “Hearing God’s Voice.” One of the students had to do some extra work duties on one of the days and wasn’t able to attend the DTS class. He went somewhere to be alone and took his class notes and his Bible and prayed to God:” God, I really want to be in the class today and I am disappointed that I am not there.” He then opened His Bible and found the story of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. He was really touched by the story and had a wonderful time reading his Bible and praying.
Little did that student know that while he was reading that very story, the DTS staff were washing the feet of the Prison DTS students. Students were so touched by the symbolism of what the DTS staff did for them – a gesture that would bring many people to tears, but even more so in Thailand where feet are considered lowly and untouchable (many of the students expressed that not even their own parents would have done something like that for them). Tears flowed freely from many of the students and hearts opened to understand the love of Jesus in a new way.
One of the students wrote a note to the YWAM staff saying: “'I don't know exactly how to explain what I want to say because I am someone who is usually not very bold. However, what happened yesterday helped me to know many things about Jesus - because for someone to come and wash someone else's feet is not an easy thing. Nobody has ever done something like this for me in my life. I was really touched. It caused the tears to flow from my eyes - not tears of sadness, but tears that flowed from God's great love shown through you. I know now how great God's love is - that God has allowed you all to come and help us to know God more. I know that God is real and that God loves me so much. Thank you so much. I will walk in His ways, in His will in every way.”



 
The DTS student who missed class that day was shocked when he heard from his classmates what went on in the classroom while he was gone. It was a very special lesson for him in “Hearing God’s Voice.” He may not have been able to be in the classroom, but God wanted him to be included and he heard God’s voice for himself.

The fifty Prison DTS students are in for an incredible journey…. And this is only the beginning.

Follow the journey on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PrisonDtsYwamRatchaburiThailand

Rice Seeds Child Sponsorship Program 2012

The new school year started today. The kids in our sponsorship program were excitedly waiting for the school bus this morning along with all of the other children in the neighborhood. For most of the children in the neighborhood, this is just another school year, but for the children that we sponsor we know that every year that they are allowed to stay in school counts. Every year is a sacrifice for their families and we are thankful (as we know the kids are) for some of the parents who have begun to see the value in having their kids stay in school.

For 2 years now, we have had sponsors for the Burmese children in our sponsorship program and we are grateful for each and every sponsor. Over the past year however, we have begun to reach out to other children, both Thai children in our neighborhood and children in a Karen community about an hour away from where we live. These children also desperately need help to be able to stay in school, and we would love to find sponsors for them.

Would you consider sponsoring a child to stay in school? For only US$30 a month, you could help one of these children continue pursuing their education - we believe for some of them, it will be a helping hand towards a better future.Our hope is that some may grow up to be a helping hand to their own community - helping to stop the cycle of poverty.

If you would like to sponsor a child to stay in school you can give online:  http://www.ywamthai.org/donate/?to=Ratchaburi 

A Second Rice Seeds Library

There is a community of Karen migrants that we began to reach out to around a year ago. Most of the parents have very low paying jobs, if they can find jobs in their area at all. Many times families cannot afford for the children to stay in school and they are forced to take their children out of formal education and send them to work at the end of their primary school years.

This is not a unique story, and is one that can be heard in many slum areas throughout Thailand, as well as in many other places in the world. Each person however does have a unique story of their own, with hopes and dreams that perhaps will never come true because of the family situation that they were born into. 

With around fifty children in the community, there is much hope that the future of the community need not be as grim as it now appears - should someone just step in and help them to continue on with their education.

Just as we have done with the Burmese community in Ratchaburi, we would like to find sponsors for some of these children to stay in school. We cannot force them to continue on with their education, but with friends and supporters standing alongside us, we hope to at least offer the chance of a better future to some of these children and their families, should they so choose to walk that path with us.

Presently, we don't have sponsors for any of the children, but we do have plans to build a library for the Karen community as we did with the Burmese community. A place in their own community where they can go to do their homework, study the Bible, have toys to play with, and books to read.

We will be starting to build this library during the third week of May 2012. Right now we have no books, or games. Just a few second hand toys, a small starting budget and a dream of a special place where these kids can be safe, and feel the freedom to nurture their dreams.

Do you have second hand books/toys or games that you would like to donate? Would you like to bless these kids with some new books or games? In a project like this, every donation truly makes a difference, no matter how small. 

You can donate online here. (please specify in the note that the money should be allocated to the Rice Seeds Library) Or contact us to find out more about donating second hand items to the library.

Rice Seeds Summer Fun

Summer fun with our Rice Seeds kids.

Special thanks to the DTS team from YWAM Skien (Norway), who have loved the kids and planned wonderful activities for them throughout the past 3 weeks!

B-Boy Ratchaburi

Taylor is an 18 year old American who finished his DTS with YWAM in Bangkok. He decided to come and spend some time serving with us in Ratchaburi before returning home to continue on with his university degree. We love having volunteers like Taylor and have been really blessed by his openness and willingness to serve the community in Ratchaburi. Taylor has also found something that he is passionate about that we were not yet involved in and he has taken the chance to dive in and start a brand new ministry all on his own. Taylor speaks of his experience with YWAM Ratchaburi below:

 "My favorite ministry that I am involved with is the break-dancing ministry that I started.  During my DTS my outreach team went to Pitsanulok and we got the chance to evangelize and fellowship with a local break-dancing crew.  God blessed my time there very much and gave me opportunities to develop relationships and speak truth into a few lives.  Coming to Racthaburi I was sad that I wouldn’t be getting the chance to work with break-dancers.  Little did I know God had another plan.  My first week here I saw a break-dancing crew and exchanged numbers and now I go and spend time with them four times a week. 

My time with them has been amazing.  In such a short time I have been able to build strong relationships with many of them.  They are beginning to open up to me about struggles in their lives, and God has given me opportunities to show His love to them.  This week I had  a dinner with them.  At the dinner I had a chance to share the gospel with them as well as give my testimony.  I got to know them better and look forward to more opportunities to share with them.

Please keep my friends in your prayers and pray that God gives me opportunities and courage to share his amazing love to them." 

If, like Taylor, you are looking for a place to volunteer, consider coming to spend some time with us here at YWAM Ratchaburi.

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!

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.

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.