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!!!!!