Merry Christmas :-)

Co-incidence? Chance? God!

Our latest newsletter went out last week. If you didn't get it and would like to be added to our list - please let us know!

Yesterday we (Noom and Karis) went for a "rest day" away from our house. We decided to go to Pa Dtam which is a place of rock formations - one of the famous places in Ubon. Just before we left, we came across a group of school children who wanted to take a photo with me (Karis). After the photo was taken, their teacher said he would be putting it up at the front of the school, so we asked where their school was and said we would come and visit. The teacher gave us his name and contact details, then told us a bit about the school: that it is very poor.

As we left Pa Dtam we were thinking and talking about the school, both with a heart to help them. We called the teacher and decided to drive into another province for the afternoon to visit the school and see if we could help them. Below are some photos of the school and surrounding areas. It is in a deserted place, out country and with limited supplies. Please pray with us about taking a team to minister to this school and about building relationships with them.

If we decide to help them by building or buying anything for them, we will post information and ask if anyone has a passion to help out with this particular school.

The photo the kids took with me

The surroundings of the village that the school is in

One of the classrooms - falling apart

The table where some of the 50 children can sit down to eat

A young village boy leads his cows through the school - his work when he is not at school is to look after the animals that belong to his family in order to make a living for his family

One toilet for the boys, one toilet for the girls - 2 toilets for 50 children

 

Some videos of us!

A big part of Heart Of Isaan ministry is to teach thai people how to worship God through their own culture (NOT transforming into westerners and only using the western culture). We believe that God created thai culture. This video above shows Karis teaching some thai girls a thai dance to perform for Christmas evangelism in ...the villages - this style of dance is a form of worship for the thais.



Below are some videos of Noom and Karis translating into Thai for the Korean team. There are 3 different languages in these videos!





Hope you enjoyed them :-)
God bless!

Visitors :-)

In the last few weeks we have had many visitors...and have many more to come!!

A family who are good friends of mine came to visit Noom and I a couple of weeks ago. They stayed for one week and were a huge blessing to us! We had a chance to take them to visit Noom's village and family - a future place of ministry for us! We have a dream to start an orphanage on Noom's family's land there in about 10 years time. It was a great time of encouragement for us both to have this family here. Below are some pics!!

^on the last night we all had a dinner with the ywam ubon team^ this is our leader Josh!

On the last day that my family friends were here, Ice also arrived. He is the 17 year old boy that I talked about in my last blog. He has now been with us for about a week and we have already seen growth and a change in his life! Please pray for God to give us both the strength to keep giving love and sharing our lives with Ice and Pedro. Here is a photo of both of them: (in thailand, guys can ride pink bicycles!)

Pedro is on the left, Ice is on the right:

And the same day that Ice came, a team of 12 Korean YWAMers also arrived in Ubon - the guys (6 of them) staying in our house. In the last few days we took the team to a village about an hour away and helped them in translation or whatever they needed as they ministered to the people there. They will be here for another week! Here are some pictures of the last few days with them:

Noom and I helped with translation - this is Noom translating from english into thai - there were 3 languages in this talk!

 

  Giving bibles to the children at a school we visited

 

The thais really love Koreans and were very excited to see them (especially the girls) - because they love Korean movies. Me too...I was very excited to meet this team because of all the Korean movies I have seen. It was exciting to actually see Koreans off the tv screen :-)

So there you go...we have a full house at the moment!

The Korean team is helping out our local church to build a house for one of the members in these next few days, and after that we will be taking them to do some ministry in Noom's village. They will leave on the 3rd Dec and we have 10 days until a team from Singapore comes! After that, my family is visiting and then it is Christmas time :D

I am happy to see Christmas trees up and for sale now! Hopefully we can buy a small Christmas tree in the next few weeks to set up :) A few years ago, Thailand had absolutely no Christmas celebrations, and I, being someone who LOVES Christmas-time, struggled with this fact. But things are changing. Christmas time for us missionairies in Thailand now means a huge opportunity to share about Christ!

Our monthly update...about a new teenage boy we are taking in

Hey guys!

If you don't get our emails and would like to, please comment on this blog with your email address!

This is a copy of our email update we just sent - have a read and let us know if you would like these updates too!

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We have something to share with you all and along with that becomes a very urgent prayer point for our family and the person involved.

A friend from the YWAM base in Chiang Rai called us about 2 weeks ago (in tears), because her son (a Christian) was being threatened to be taken and killed by an Islam kid in the school. She had nowhere else to send him and it definitely wasn’t safe for him to be in Chiang Rai anymore. She asked if her son could stay with us. But at this time, we have hardly any money (it's a big step of faith for us just to eat well or drive our car and trust God for the money!), and so everything inside me screamed: “No!! LORD, please! It is so hard to be taking care of one teenage boy already (Pedro) and having only been married 2 and ½ months!”. But in the next couple of days as I prayed about this, God challenged me with a few different things: 1. The verse in Matthew that says we need to give to everyone who asks us. 2. The verse that says “if you welcome someone in my name, you are welcoming Me.” 3. Empathy with the mother and seeing how much she might need to see at this time that God is still taking care of her, by providing a house and carers for her son.

So we called her and told her that we can take him in, and we will just need to remember and trust that when it gets hard, God will give us the strength. This boy is on the bus right now and will arrive tomorrow (Thurs 19th Nov). If he didn't come to stay with us in this time, he would be living in a very dangerous place. His name is, Ice, and he is the same age as Pedro. So now Noom and I have two 16 (almost 17) year old boys living with us. We are responsible for their food, transport, spiritual life, and everything that a teenage boy needs. But at the moment, as I said before, we are struggling with our monthly support and with Ice coming our needs for support are even higher. You may think we are crazy for taking care of two teenage boys when we have only been married for (almost) 3 months and have no money, but we are just doing what God has asked us to do. We don't know how long this will last and if God will give us more people to take care of, but we know that the safest place we can be is in His will. We trust that He will take of us.

So if you are reading this, please please pray if God wants you to help us! Just $5 a month will help us at the moment! But if you really feel that this isn't the way God wants you to help, then please be remembering to pray for us every day - for Noom's and my relationship (that we can have our own time together aswell), for Ice and Pedro (that they will grow in God and will really benefit from living in our house...if they leave, they have nowhere else to go but on the streets), for financial support, and for protection from spiritual attack. Please also pray for wisdom in discipling these guys.

Yes - please pray! We need this the most.

Also, an update on the house and farm which I asked you all to pray about last month - we haven't been able to start any of these yet because of the financial struggles. We have prayed alot about the farm and been able to see that we won't be able to start this unless God provides someone to take care of our animals full time (if we care for them, we will not be able to do our ministry that we have come to do). We are trusting that if God wants us to use a farm to help us with financial support that He will send the right people and the money to start it. If this happens, we will let you know for sure :-) Same goes with the house. We are just paying normal rent at the moment because that is all we can afford, but we know if God has a plan for us to buy this house that He will provide the money. So if you feel like God wants you to help us with any of this, please let us know :-) We are waiting on His timing. But for now, we want to focus on our marriage and on these 2 boys that God has given us to take care of.

Thankyou so much everyone for all of your support, and GOD BLESS!!!!!!!!!!!

Love Noom and Karis

A Girl, a Woman, a Sofa, and their God the Creator of All

There was once a girl, about 14-15 years old, who was given $100 from relatives for Christmas. Let’s call her…Lucy. Lucy was excited about what she was going to buy with this money, as there were many things she wanted. Soon after she received this money, she came across an orphanage for kids with HIV/AIDS and was very touched. Feeling like God wanted her to give up her $100 for this orphanage, she began to see all the things she had and the fact that she needed nothing more – but this orphanage was definitely in need. So with joy and excitement, feeling like it was the only thing she desired to do with her Christmas money, Lucy gave her $100 to the orphanage.

Many years later, Lucy was married and in a situation where she and her family were struggling with not enough money. She had been praying for a sofa for her house because she didn’t have the money to buy one, and some days she spoke out in faith saying “It’s OK, when it’s time, God will send someone to buy one for us” – sometimes she didn’t know if that was how it would happen, but she was sure God would provide because He promises to give His children what they ask for when they surrender to Him. There were a few things Lucy was praying for: a microwave, a mini freezer for her room to give her and her husband privacy in their full house, and a sofa. But she was praying for the sofa the longest.

After about 3 months of praying, a family (close friends of Lucy) came to visit her house and felt like the house really needed a sofa. The woman from this family (we’ll call her Nina) was about to receive $100 for Christmas – to buy something that she needed. But after praying, Nina felt like God wanted her to give up her $100 and buy a sofa for Lucy’s family. Nina had also been praying about buying a microwave or a mini freezer for Lucy (because she knew that was something Lucy needed) but she felt like the sofa was what God wanted to give at this time. Nina felt like it would be like her own gift to see her friend receive a sofa, and also felt that she herself needed nothing and had only one desire as to what to do with this $100 Christmas money.

Knowing that $100 Christmas money is a big thing to give up, as it is a gift, Lucy struggled to receive what Nina’s family wanted to give her. But then she heard God speak: “Remember those years back when you gave $100, your Christmas money, to an orphanage? Now I want to thank you and give it back to you.” Before God spoke this, Lucy had forgotten all about the Christmas money she had given all those years ago. But upon hearing God’s voice and remembering, she realized that the exact amount of money she gave up all those years ago (her Christmas money) was the exact amount of money Nina wanted to give up to buy a sofa for her (with Nina’s Christmas money). And what a co-incidence (or not?) that the thing Lucy had been focusing on praying for the most was the very thing that Nina felt God wanted her to buy.

Yes; God hears your prayers. And yes; they sure do make a difference. And another yes; God wants to give His children good things. One more yes; when you give something up to God, He will give it back to you – sometimes the exact amount (to show that He is interested in the little things) and sometimes more. But He never gives back less.

Oh, and by the way – this is a true story :-)

Time with Noom's family - and a new looking house :-)

On the weekend Noom's older brother and family, as well as his father and a team from YWAM Bangkok came to Ubon. We went to the village for a night so that Noom's mum could have all her sons together, and then came back to our house with Noom's brother, sister-in-law and nephew. On Sunday the rest of the team with Noom's dad came and stayed the night. We had a big dinner and house-warming party, inviting our YWAM family in Ubon and Sisaket to come and join too :-)

God has also been very faithful since the last blog, and continues to meet my needs even in the small things (after nutella and crunchy peanut butter he also gave me pizza and then brownies). He also provided us with more monthly support and a donation to keep us going this month :-) We are hoping soon to get internet in our house for alot of reasons, one being so we don't have to use internet at cafes all the time, and another so we can blog more too!

So thank God for His faithfulness in the last week - it never ends! We don't have much materialisticly but we have so much in God :-)

Here are some pictures of the last week...in Noom's village with his family, at our house (while his brother Pan designs, giving our kitchen a new look!!), and the house-warming party.

 From left: P Pan with his wife P Gan, me, Noom's mum, Wii's wife Ging, Noom's stepdad, Wii and Noom

 

 Our nephew Poom

 

 Poom with his grandmother

 

P Pan painting our kitchen wall (see finished product in the second last photo!)

 

 P Gan and Poom

 

 Our house-warming party - with YWAM Bangkok, YWAM Ubon, YWAM Sisaket, and other good friends!

 

 Some of the team from YWAM Bangkok

 

 Breakfast time!!

 

Our hanging-out area after Noom made a nice glass-table and put some plants inside :-)

 

 View from the front of the house after cleaning up a bit

 

 A mango tree we bought through the provision of friends :-)

 

 Our kitchen - thanks to P Pan and Noom! P Pan painted the wall and gave us the idea of setting it up this way, like a cafe. Noom cleaned and set it up today :-)

And the last picture: our garden, the sitting area - everything made by Noom! (except the hammock)

God is interested in nutella and crunchy peanut butter too

One night last week as I was walking through the supermarket, I walked past nutella and remembered the days in Australia when I had nutella with toast. The thought went through my mind to buy it, but as I saw the price and with the financial problems we've been having lately, I knew it wasn't wise to buy it. Plus, I didn't need it.

At this same time I also saw crunchy peanut butter and the same thing went through my mind again. I wanted it, but knew we couldn't afford it, so I gave it up and walked away to buy the more neccessary foods that we had come to buy in the first place. As I walked away, in my thoughts I said to God, "Oh, God it would be so nice to have some nutella and crunchy peanut butter again, just once."

The next morning, our ywam leader came over for breakfast. As he walked into the house, he carried about 6 bags of groceries that he had bought for us. This was a surprise, it wasn't something we had asked him to do! But it was something that he had felt God wanted him to do for us that morning. So we unpacked the bags. In the bags we found some of the very things we needed that were running out and that we hadn't yet bought (tissues, eggs, apples, vegetables like lettuce and carrots). Also included were things like bacon, sausages, fruit muesli, and soup - things that I had been wanting for ages but haven't bought because we haven't had the money. But, of course our leader didn't know this. It was a real God-thing. By now, I had almost finished unpacking the bags, and there was one more left to open.

I started opening this last bag. At the bottom were two jars. I pulled them out. They were nutella and crunchy peanut butter. Not just normal peanut butter, but exactly what I had wanted: crunchy peanut butter.

Never doubt that God hears your prayers, and never doubt that He has the ability to answer them. Never doubt that if you take a step out in faith and give up the things that you want so much, God is your Father who wants to give you good gifts, and who wants to treat you. This isn't the only time God has done something like this for me, and I know it won't be the last!!

God's Provision and other God-things since moving to Ubon

Before we share, we want to say THANKYOU(!!!) to everyone who supports us financially and in prayer, because your prayers and financial support helped us to stay calm and trust in God in the last week!

We have had both discouragements and encouragements since moving, especially in the last week - but the encouragements have almost been overwhelming and more than enough to remind us that God is still with us!

About a week ago we found that Noom's main monthly financial support wouldn't be coming anymore. Before we knew this, while thinking we still had this financial support, we were really tight with money as we had about 70% of what we really needed each month. But after this news came, we realised we had about just 30% of the money that we need to spend, especially being in Ubon with everything more expensive and looking after both us and a teenage boy. We still only have 30% of the support we need, but are trusting God to give us what we need in His timing. It has been a great time of walking in faith for us!

God is good. At the same time that we got an email about Noom's support, we also got an email from a friend in YWAM Bangkok, which we read after the email about the support. This lady encouraged us on the things we are doing and gave us a very appropriate Bible verse (a promise from God that when we follow Him and obey Him, we WILL be blessed). After the fear and discouragement about money that we felt from the email before, this email really lifted up our spirits and reminded us that we are doing the right thing: following God. And therefore, He will take care of us. Our YWAM Ubon leader also gave us a verse that says the God who calls us is faithful, and He will be faithful as we follow Him. It also happens to be that a friend from YWAM Chiang Rai gave us a poster with this same verse on it when we left Chiang Rai for Ubon. One more thing: after sharing what happened with my mum, she gave us a verse in Romans 4 which speaks of God being faithful to His promises to those He has made righteous (and we are made righteous by faith. SO as long as we have faith that He will take of us, He WILL take care of us because He has made us righteous. Hope that makes sense!)

So about this same time, we realised that the money in Noom's account was quickly running out. I had my life savings in an Australian bank account (haha, which isn't that much!) - just enough to buy some kitchen stuff for our house and give us food and our car diesel for the next couple of weeks. So I transferred this money to Noom's thai account as soon as we could get to some internet. However, it was a bit late and because of the delay in international transfers, we came to the point where we thought we wouldn't have enough money to eat on the weekend. All three of us (Noom, I and Pedro) got together and worshipped, prayed, and interceded. I prayed that God would do a miracle and transfer the money to Noom's account in just one day (usually it takes 3-4 days, but in this case it would take more because it was transferred on Thursday, before the bank closes for 2 days on the weekend). As I was cleaning the house on Friday and praying to God, asking Him how we would have money to buy all the kitchen stuff that we needed, our YWAM Ubon leader, Josh, and his family just turned up at our house. They came in and looked around, and Josh said he could help us out with a table to cook on and some shelves - things they had but weren't using. We were amazed by this provision. But we had no idea what was in store for us the next day.

The next day (Saturday) Josh called us to ask us to come to the internet cafe (this cafe is a way of support for YWAM Ubon) to pick up the table and shelves. When we got there, we were overwhelmed. Josh had shelves and a table for cooking to give to us, as well as 3 cafe-style tables, 8 chairs, a stove, gas, a sink, a frypan, a shelf/table for books, and another shelf/table thing which we're using to hold toiletries. All this, plus all the things that Noom's mum gave to us for the kitchen, is about 30,000+ Baht worth of things ($AU 1000)!! We were overwhelmed. I had to hold back tears as I was reminded, once again, that even in this time where we have just a bit of financial support, God hasn't forgotten us. It turned out that all the things we needed for our kitchen THIS WEEK in order to cook (which is cheaper than buying food, in Ubon!) and the furniture we needed for our house in order to unpack, were all the things that Josh gave to us. We didn't tell him what we needed, but he knew. Because God knew. God is GOOD!!!!

So now, our kitchen looks like a kitchen. We have tables to eat at instead of sitting on the floor in the kitchen to eat. We have shelves to put all our things on, and we were finally able to unpack all our stuff and feel like we're in a HOME. Praise God! Every single thing we have, God has given to us. He gave Noom a motorcycle a few years ago, a 6-year old CAR (but great quality!) to us for ministry, and even blessed us with a sound system, He gave us all the furniture that we have in our house, a HOUSE to live in, and He gives us food to eat everyday.

Oh, and by the way, the money DID take just 1 working day to transfer!! So now we have money for food, rent and diesel for the next couple of weeks :-)

As we said before, we still only have 30% of the support we need, and we have alot of expenses with Pedro's school, the car, rent for the house. We have NO idea how we're going to pay all of this every month, but we're looking forward to see what God does (maybe He will choose to use YOU to help!). He has taken care of us so far, and He will continue to do so. All we need to do is have faith, continue to give, and then watch what God does.

Please pray that our faith will continue to grow more and more!

Please also pray about whether God wants to use you to support us financially. If not, please PRAY and PRAY and PRAY for us! Praise God for His faithfulness, and take this blog and keep it in case something similar happens to you in your journey - be encouraged that our God is a God of love and faithfulness. Why do we need to worry? He knows all the hairs on our head. He has already built a bridge over the river that we worry how we will cross tomorrow.

:-)

Here are some before-and-after (or before-and-during) photos of our house after working on it for almost a week.

^ Noom's and my bathroom

Pedro's bathroom

^ Noom's and my room

 Entry way to the house

 

 

^ The guestroom

 

^ The kitchen

 

^ Living room

 

^ Pedro's room

 

^ Storage corner which Noom made a bamboo wall for! ^

 The view into the house from the entryway. Noom's and my room is on the left and the rest of the house is on the right through the garage-style doors

 

 These next 2 pictures are our car loaded with things for our house which were all given to us! The first picture is all the stuff from Noom's mum and the second picture is all the stuff from Josh and YWAM Ubon

 

 

 

 ^ This garden was like a rubbish dump until now ^

Noom is also my maintenance guy hahaha...fixing pipes for the washing machine

  

If you would like to help out by buying a piece of furniture (either for Pedro or for us), something else for the kitchen, or a fruit or vegetable tree for the garden (to help us save money on buying food), please let us know!!

If you would like to give to YWAM Ubon by helping us buy a building for the YWAM base we are starting here, please also let us or our leader Josh know (acts29thenaidus@yahoo.com)

THANKYOU!!!!!

Friend to Friends Project - a friend of Heart of Isaan

Friend to Friends Project is situated in Lampang, North Thailand. It was founded by close friends of ours, Tdai and Jumnong, just over a year ago. A year later, they are taking care of 5 young girls and hope to get the support to have a bigger place and welcome more kids.

Watch this video for more information. If you see this ministry and feel like you want to help them out, let us or them know.



This video was made by Heart of Isaan Videography

A few pictures of the first week in Ubon, Isaan

^ Saying goodbye to folks in Chiang Rai ^

^ Noom and Karis in Ubon ^

^ At Noom's village learning from Noom's mum ^

^ Cutting wood to make a bed ^

^ The children in the village searching for bugs to cook and eat ^

 

^ Pedro playing guitar and singing songs with the kids ^