Karen church opening

When we met the people in the Makaam Waan village a few years ago, they spoke to us about the vision that they had to build a new church. Their old bamboo church structure desperately needed replacing. It seemed like a distant dream from the desperately poor state of most of the villagers, but we prayed together with them and encouraged them to continue pursuing the vision.

The journey has been thrilling to be a part of as we have watched God provide little by little until finally on the 31st of December 2015, we were able to participate in the official opening of the long awaited church building.

What does this mean for the village of Makaam Waan other than no more leaking roof during the many a rainy Sunday morning church service and no more fear that visiting honored guests would fall through the many holes in the battered bamboo stage? It means that our Karen brothers and sisters have journeyed together, not only with us and with each other, but with our faithful God - and He has proven Himself faithful no matter the obstacle. It means that their faith has grown as they have been challenged to believe beyond their circumstances in a God that is great enough to fulfill even those things that may seem impossible. It is a testament to God's faithfulness like a rainbow or an alter of remembrance, so that those who were involved in the vision can share of the great things that God did on the way to seeing the church building finished.

Every Sunday morning, the beautiful Karen voices of Makaam Waan village will ring out in unison in a ballad of praise to Him who is most worthy. Our prayer is that He will be known intimately by them.

The Lord's Tents Camping #7

On the 12th-14th of October we hosted the Lord's Tent's camping #7. 

So many tents! 60 children and 20 adults on our camp this year.

The Lord's Tent's Camping started as a project a couple of years ago with a small group of Burmese kids that we were ministering to. We had realised in the time that we had spent with the children that because of the circumstances in which they grew up, they did not dream big dreams for their future. Most knew that they would never make it past primary school and that their life would be in construction. There were walls stopping their dreams, and we wanted those walls to be broken down.

We had the kids each think up a small short term dream. Something that they had never done but wanted to do. They each wrote them down on a piece of paper and together we picked one out of a hat. It belonged to a little boy - he had never been camping and his dream was to camp in a tent and sleep in a sleeping bag. Together we prayed with the kids, raised funds and the dream of the Lord's Tent's Camping was born.

Now 7 years later, most of that first small group of Burmese kids are all grown up. Two of the girls are in second year university - this year, they played a role in helping us lead the camp. But now there are not just a small group of children. One little boys dream of camping in a tent and sleeping bag now is a tool that inspires other children like him to dream beyond his community. 

Approximately 60 children attended this year - some refugees, some the children of Burmese migrants, some Thai children - but each with a story, and each with the potential to dream of something bigger for their lives. We hope that they were inspired this week, not so much by us, but by each other - that they will see freedom to dream in the eyes of a friend, and have the courage to take down those walls in their own heart. 

Words of encouragement written by the kids

Cooking their own food

Cooking in bamboo over a fire

Evening activities

Mam's house

Mongkhon is our dear staff member with a heart as wide as the ocean - he gives literally everything that he has away, filled with compassion for anyone in need and hardly ever thinking about himself. Anyone that has met Mongkhon can testify to his kind heart. He is always looking for a way to help someone in need with what little he has himself.

Mongkhon has a very dear sister whose name is Mam. Mam is in her 50's and lives in the family house that was built, rather poorly, many years ago. Mam is often not well and lives alone in the house, cooking and selling food to make just enough to get by on her own.

Mam's house was built as many are in the slums without proper foundations. It has a wooden floor and is built over an area of water, which causes serious flooding in the rainy season from water seeping through the floor.

The greatest concern that we have for Mam right now is that the floor of her house has begun to sink. The sinking floor is causing the wall to pull away from the roof, which could fall in on Mam at any time. If the house is still standing in June, when the monsoon season begins she will practically be living in water.

The wooden floor through which the water seeps

Mam looking at the floor that has sunk and pulled away from the wall

The growing gap between the wall and the roof

Now to most people reading this story, evacuating Mam from the house that could collapse at any moment seems like the simplest solution. However, Mam does not want to leave the house and she is the last family member living in the house that holds the house certificate (an essential document in Thailand) for the whole family

Mongkhon wants to help his sister to strengthen the structure of the house, lift the floor and add some pillars to help the house to be more stable. He wants to repair the ceiling and do what little he can to make the house a safer place for his sister, who doesn't want to move out of the house that she has lived much of her life in.

He estimates that it will cost around US$1000 to do the bare minimum in fixing the house. If you have met Mongkhon while serving with us and been touched by his huge heart for others, would you consider giving in some way towards something that is so close to his heart?

If you would like to make a donation towards this project, please contact us and we will let you know how it can be done.

Building the church

There was a morning in the little Karen church in Suan Pueng a few years ago that I finally came to a deeper understanding of the plight of the refugee. A few of the youth were standing in front of the church singing a Thai worship song, and the words cut deeply into my heart. Not for myself, but for the girls that were singing it.

The song was a prayer, asking God to 'heal our land', and it was then that I began to think about what it must feel like to not have a land to call your own. Not a piece of land, that's your own, purchased with money that can be worked for, but a land that accepts you as it's citizens and gives you the rights that should be granted to citizens of every country. The Karen are not citizens anywhere and many that live in this particular village come out of the refugee camp nearby, some having lived there for more than 10 years before finally coming out and living in Thailand.

We have known the people of this particular Karen congregation for around 4 years now. They are our brothers and sisters. We love their children as our own. Everyone that visits them is blessed by just being with them. They are a beautiful people, with hearts that reflect more of the heart of Jesus in their hospitality than can be explained in words - but anyone that has been there knows what I am talking about, because it is an experience that blows you away and changes your own heart forever.

When we met the people of this village, we had no idea that they had in fact just been through a very traumatic situation. Many months later, they shared this experience with us, and our hearts broke for them. The church that they worship in is a bamboo structure typical of the Karen people. However, bamboo structures are usually supposed to be replaced every 2-3 years and theirs has been around for almost 8 years and they have never been able to afford to replace it. The roof leaks, the benches are falling apart, there are holes in the stage - and most importantly, the church was built on borrowed land. When we met them, they had almost saved enough money to finally purchase a piece of land to be able to build a new, more permanent, more stable church building. The week before we arrived in their village for the first time, someone ran off with the money, never to be seen again.

It has been a long journey since then as we have walked alongside them through this situation. We challenged them to raise the money themselves as a congregation for the land again - through tithes and offerings from the minimal wages that they receive working in construction. We rejoiced with them when they were able to purchase the land last year. We came together in faith with them and found sponsors for the church toilets - the very first thing that was built on the land just a few months ago.

Late last year we were approached by a school in Bangkok that wanted to get involved in a construction project and we suggested this one. We will be starting the foundations with them next week and building some of the wall surrounding the church property.

This is so exciting for us and we know that even though they are not citizens in this land, or any land - having their own permanent church structure, on their own land that they as a church have purchased, is something very special indeed. They themselves are the church, and it is not any building or structure or government that can dictate their worship of God. Yet, we long to worship together with them in their new church building when it is finished :to rejoice in the faithfulness of the God who has brought us together as one family, across borders and cultures and regardless of language barriers and financial difficulty and lack of citizenship.

We will begin the foundations in faith, but we need partners to come alongside us and help us to join with our Karen brothers and sisters in this vision. They together as a church have raised a lot of money from their small salaries to purchase the land and begin the building. In order to finish the entire church building, we, together with the church will need to raise up to 850,000 Baht ($26,000).

Would you consider being a partner of something so special? If you have visited this village and would like to give something back to them as a community, this is your chance.
If you have never visited them, we challenge you to give towards this church as a step in faith that maybe, just maybe one day you may make it here to meet these beautiful people. 

Every amount will help us to make this a reality. If you would like to give towards this project, you can do so here, (please make sure to specify in the note that the amount needs to go to the 'Karen church' and notify us by email so that we can correctly allocate the donation)

Alternatively donations can be made to:
please send checks payable to "YWAM Montana" to: 
"YWAM Montana, 501 Blacktail Rd., Lakeside, MT 59922, U.S.A.".
Please don't write anything else on the check and include a separate note indicating that your donation is for "Project 3551, YWAM Ratchaburi".
 (if you donate via YWAM Montana, please send us a note when you have made the donation so that we can allocate it to the church building).


(Photo credit: Karina Palamarchuk)

The joy of a shared marble

'What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others...' Nelson Mandela

For most people who are not born into poverty it may be difficult to understand that people who have little are often more generous with the little that they have than those that have much.

My children have many friends from many different walks of life. They are missionary kids, growing up between worlds, even though they have Thai passports by birth. They have Thai friends who speak Thai, Thai friends who have been raised in English, friends from Australia, America, Canada and New Zealand. They are friends with the Burmese children in our area. However the children that they love to play with the most of all, are the Karen children who live in a small make-shift village on the border of Thailand and Burma.

Why do they like to play with those children the most? Their lives are so uncluttered. I would like to use the word uncomplicated but with the complex issues that they face growing up in extreme poverty and without citizenship in any country,  that simply isn't true. What I mean by uncluttered is that they have so little 'stuff'. There are few possessions to be had, and what they have, they share without a second thought. No parents have to come and intervene to make them share. It is their natural inclination.

This is not something that is behavior that has been taught, but rather an attitude that has been learned from the way that they see their parents interact with others. Everything is shared. As poor as they are and as little access as they have to whatever it is that they may need, they are always thinking of others. Just last weekend when we were in the village, a friend from Bangkok brought some second hand clothes for the villagers. The response of one of the leaders in the village was: "Next time you come, don't forget to bring more winter clothes. We know some people who live on the Burmese side of the border who live in the forest. It is very cold in the winter and they have nothing to wear." I had to ask myself, if I struggled to get by every day, would my attitude have been to think about someone else in need?

In the past few months we have spent a lot of time out at the Karen village with teams of volunteers. In all that we have given, and all that the teams have done, I am never convinced that we are the givers and not in fact the receivers in this relationship. For all that we teach and all that we do, I think each one of our volunteers, including our own family, learns and receives one hundred times more. I know that for my children, countless life lessons have been learned playing in the dust and climbing the trees together with their Karen friends. Probably one of the greatest is this:

One marble shared among many friends can bring more joy than a room full of toys kept to oneself.

My Karen friends have made a difference in my life. How much money you have is not the limiting factor on the difference that you can make to the world. Share what you have been given and the joy will be shared.

The strength to start again

Thongdee, Ae, Saoda and K

“I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.” F. Scott Fiztgerald

What does it look like to have the strength to start again? It takes courage. It takes strength. However, without someone cheering you on from the sidelines, it can be a very lonely journey.

The four people in the picture above have each begun to start again. In fact they have been on this journey for some time now. One of them is a very talented musician that was living a life that he was not so proud of, 2 of them were just recently released from prison, and one of them lived a large part of his life as a refugee. 

Life if full of circumstances that make it difficult to stand up when we make a mistake. When someone makes the decision to stand up and start again, we want to be cheering them on. Thongdee, Ae, Saoda and K are on a journey of redemption together - their stories, although  somewhat different, have a common denominator - each one of them believes that God has called them to serve Him in some way or another.

Together they left Ratchaburi at the beginning of June 2014 to attend a 6 month Discipleship Training School with YWAM Ubon Ratchathani in the north east of Thailand. They are desiring to learn more about God's plans for them. They are desiring to continue on in this journey to live a life that not only they are proud of, but that the Heavenly Father is pleased with.

Each one of the four need to raise US$1000 for the 6 month Discipleship Training School that they are involved in. We are here to cheer them on in their journey, but we need others who are willing to stand up with us and cheer them on from near or from far. We need people to join us in prayer for them. We need people to help them to cover a small amount of the fees of a 6 month experience that to them, is invaluable. 

We believe that God will use ordinary people who at some point in their lives have had to start again, just like the four of them. We believe that as people are willing to stand up with us and cheer for people like these four individuals, that they will have the strength that they need each day, through the encouragement that they receive. If you would like to contribute you can do so here.
(Please make sure that you state in the note that it is for: YWAM Ratchaburi DTS students).

We also believe that God will use the stories of these four people to encourage others to stand up and make a change in their lives. If that is you, be encouraged - and may you have a team of people cheering you on as you continue to try and rewrite your story with God. If you know someone who is trying to gain the courage and strength to stand up and make a change - why not let them know that you are cheering for them. 

Dreaming beyond the rainbow

‘Every child has the right to a good education. Every child has the right to an education that develops his or her personality, talents and abilities to their fullest; an education that prepares him or her for an active adult life; an education that fosters respect for his or her own family, cultural identity, language, country, and the natural environment; and an education in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance and equality.’ (The United Nations Convention on the rights of the child, simplified version: article 28 and 29).

 According to the United Nations this is something that should be the right of every child – until they are 18 years old. However, we have met many children that have been denied that right for various reasons. As we have gotten to know the Burmese children that live in our area in Thailand, we have learned so much about the plight that they face. Most never study beyond 6^th Grade. Once they are not in school, they usually begin working in construction. Six years ago, we began to fight for the right to an education for 2 young ladies – we fought for them, not only for them, but for their entire community. They were to be the first, but certainly not the last. They were to be the example of what every child in their community should have the right to.

Wanlee and Tuway, six years ago had reached the end of their 6^th grade year at school. They confided in us that they desired to attend high school. Nobody in their entire community had ever attended high school. Did they have the right to attend school as Burmese migrants in Thailand? Although it is not without challenges, it is possible.  The right to an education was being withheld not by the Thai government, but rather by their own community. It was their own family - who did not understand the desires that these girls had to continue their education. It was their own parents who because of the extreme poverty that they were faced with would rather have had their daughters find a job at the age of 12, than continue their education. To some in the developed world, this story may seem unreal. However, Wanlee and Tuway’s story was not unique. In fact in the developing world, it is an all too common story of how extreme poverty takes away your right to choose your own future – all when you are only 12 years old.

What is unique about Wanlee and Tuway is their desire and exceptional courage to fight for their dreams. When they approached their parents with us to ask if they would be allowed to attend high school, we knew that it was the beginning of a difficult journey for them. Amazingly, their parents agreed to allow them to begin 7^th grade – and each year they agreed to allow them to continue on. There were times when there were threats of sending them back to work in Myanmar. We stood strong with them and cried many tears with them each time that their parents threatened to not allow them to continue what they had started.

In February 2014, Wanlee and Tuway graduated from high school. We are so proud of them and feel privileged to have walked this journey with them so far. However, the journey is not yet done. From the start, we have encouraged them to dream bigger. Last week, they left Ratchaburi to attend university in Bangkok. What seemed like a dream that was way beyond the rainbow for two young girls six years ago is finally becoming a reality. There is much work ahead and there are many struggles still to come – but Wanlee and Tuway have already beaten the odds in their own community. When Wanlee and Tuway were 12 years old, they dreamed dreams of having the right to an education. We hope that they will be the future advocates for the next generation. That when the time comes, they will stand up and speak for those who do not yet have a voice in their community.

Wanlee and Tuway would not be where they are today had it not been for the people that have encouraged, prayed for and helped to support them over the years. If you are one of those people – thank you for the part that you have played. To some, it may appear that two lives have been changed –  but we know that it is the beginning of so much more, for so many more children like them.

If you would like to send an encouraging note to Wanlee and Tuway, or if you would like to help support them in their dreams in some small way – please contact us: ratchaburi@ywamthai.org

‘Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy’.Proverbs 31:8-9