Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas and many blessings to everyone for 2013! We hope and pray that you were all blessed during the Christmas season with that precious time with family, friends and new revelations of God's love for you. If it weren't for the gift He has given us, there would be no Christmas. And there is no Christmas for many who we meet each day. We are blessed to be a blessing - and in being a blessing, we are blessed.

It's been a crazy time for us this month. There has been fruit from ministry, and many of us know that usually fruit doesn't come for free! There have been many trials that have come our way since Christmas outreaches started, mostly to do with health in our family. 

On 28th December, the first day of the Season of Praise concert which we've been planning for months (and it has been in our long term goal for years), our little boy's breathing pattern suddenly changed. He had caught a cold a few days earlier, but on 28th his number of breaths per minute increased by 75%. He was wheezing and using every muscle in his chest and neck to breathe. His oxygen levels were at a low 92% and white blood cell count raised to 27,000 (normal range is 5,000-10,000). A chest x-ray showed that he was fighting an infection in his lungs and he was diagnosed with pneumonia. Since then, I've been with him in the hospital, and the Season of Praise still went on and was a huge success. We are so thankful to God for giving us (including Eliyah) the strength and peace to push through this obstacle, as Noom was still able to lead worship at the concert and come back and visit us in the hospital a couple times a day. The concert finished last night and so did Eliyah's infection. He is still coughing every now and then with some phlegm, but his oxygen levels and breathing are back to normal. Even when he was sick he was a happy boy, except during procedures.

                      

Below is a picture of the Season of Praise last night (29th). Thank you for all your prayers for this event! Many pastors and Christian workers came and worshipped and prayed together in unity. Relationships were restored, feet were washed and communion was taken as one big family and as a symbol of unity. In order for revival to come, we need to be unified, so this is an important step towards revival in Ubon. 

Christmas Outreach

The month of December is always the busiest month for us! This year, it has consisted of band practises for Noom every week day, and the last two weeks we have travelled around Ubon (and other provinces) to use Isaan and Thai music to share the real meaning of Christmas.

Here is our schedule for the rest of the month. Please keep us in your prayers, especially the music team. Please pray for the hearts of the Isaan people to be opened to receive God's love. Please also pray for protection in travelling and for the local churches who are doing the same as us.

21st Dec - Art & Fon's village. Art and Fon are YWAM Ubon staff. They have recently started a children's ministry in Fon's home village about 10km out of Ubon city. Fon's mother and sisters, along with Art and Fon, are the only Christians in their village. Many have never heard the Good News.

23rd Dec - Paw & Mae's Village. Paw and Mae are the only Christians in their village and have been doing children's ministry for many years. It is our desire to support them in this by sending teams to help them, especially at Christmas time.

24th Dec - Local Hospital

25th Dec - Christmas celebration

26th Dec - Local church outreach

27th Dec - Cancer Center

28th-29th Dec - Season of Praise Concert

Some of the music team at Noom's hometown last Sunday

House update

Many of you on Facebook may have read that the owners of the house we rent were unable to pay off their mortgage and the bank is taking the house. At the time we posted on Facebook, we understood that we would have to be out of the house within weeks. However, we are still here! The process may take up to a year.

When we heard the news a few weeks ago, we casually searched for a new place to rent. Casually, because we know that God has it all in control! After a few days of searching and finding nothing but closed doors, we started to feel that God had something different in mind for us. Many friends who saw our update on Facebook encouraged us to buy a place, but we pushed that idea aside as it just seemed impossible unless God did something extraordinary. However, our desire was definitely to have a small, cozy place of our own. Then, some close friends shared that when they were praying for us, they got the word "promotion" and sensed that this meant "from renting to ownership"...WOW! So this is where we are now. We're excited for what God has in store for us, and in need of His guidance as to what steps to take next. We don't know if He will lead us to buy the place we're renting (from the bank), to buy a smaller place in a townhouse complex, or to buy some land and build on it. We also don't know when He will lead us to buy and are aware that it will be in His timing, not ours!

But for now, as we enjoy what may be our last days in our current place, here are some pictures of what we've been calling "home" for the last year, the first year of our life as parents :-)

Front view

Looking into our room/house from outside the bathroom

Eliyah's play area outside, our place on the right, and our bathroom and kitchen in the back of the picture

It was just one room until we moved in and Noom used this wood and some pictures to make a wall so it could be more like a house with a bedroom and living room!

Living room, bedroom on the right

The cleanest you can get with a toddler!

Outside the kitchen

The kitchen which I was VERY thankful to get (it used to be a bathroom and we knocked down the wall). Before we did this kitchen, we had to go over to the big house to wash dishes and cook.

Our place (taken from the big house)

Anyone ever wondered what a Thai style toilet looks like? This is our colourful bathroom :-)

Our place from outside. The big house (where we used to stay before DTS) is behind, on the same piece of land

So we don't know how much longer we'll be staying here, but we wanted to share pics with you all as we've grown quite attached to this place in the last year! We'll keep you all updated. Thank you for your prayers, God bless and MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all!!!

Growing in Faith and Opportunity

The last few weeks have been a trying time for us in our faith. We were faced with many unexpected fees due to a new music room, a broken down car, minor sicknesses and a trial of dairy-free eating. However, God has never let us down and we are constantly in awe at the fact that although we are so imperfect, He is full of grace and provides for us - right down to the very baht!

One day a couple of weeks ago, one of the Isaan guys on our team surprised me (Karis) with a few groceries that I had been desiring to have. This certainly wasn't the first time this has happened. Coming to the end of this month we were also faced with a surprisingly high (well, higher than expected) electricity bill. After an offering from our YWAM team, money from a couple of CDs sold and our remaining money for the month, we were again surprised and blessed to see that everything was JUST enough to pay the bills. Talk about God-incidence! (not coincidence).

However, life here is MUCH much more than just bills and finances.

For the past week and a half, Noom and the Worship and Performing Arts team have been working on a new music room on the block that we call our YWAM "base". They have been cleaning it, making it soundproof and ready for band practises. They also plan to open it for the public to come and use for a small fee to help support monthly living costs.

For our Christmas outreaches next month, we are excited to announce that so far we have plans to travel to 3 villages (in Roi Et and Ubon) where people have never heard the Good News of Jesus, and others where they have heard only very little. We will also be travelling to the town where Noom comes from and doing a concert in the local markets. Along with this we plan to do concerts in local churches, the cancer centre and the psychiatric hospital - where we have been involved in ministries in the past. We're very excited for these opportunities, however we know that God's timing is the most important thing (and we believe that is now).

As for an update on our building project in the village, we're excited to go and work on it once all the Christmas outreaches are over. We've been blown away by peoples support to get this building project finished! Not long to go now!

We sense that we are entering into a season of new opportunities. However, with these new opportunities comes trials where we are able to grow in faith. May God's will be done in our daily lives and may we remember that even with our plans to make a difference in Ubon, one of the most important things is to love each other and keep the unity on our team.

On The Mountain

Lately, God has been challenging us about the most incredible sermon of all time: Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  We forget all too easily the encouragements and commandments He gives to be hungry for Him, humble, merciful, pure, to be full of peace and to take heart when persecuted, to be salt and light, to obey His teachings, to forgive and restore relationships, to watch what we say, to give more than what is expected, to give generously in humility and with a willing heart, to pray in admiration of God, to have God as number one in our lives, to walk in faith and trust Him to provide for ALL our needs, to be understanding of other people and not judge what they do, to look at ourselves before condemning others, to ask and seek God, to be wise in who and what we believe, to have an intimate relationship with God, and to LOVE others, especially our enemies. Jesus then goes on to say that not following these commandments is like building our houses on sand with no strong foundation. WOW. I don’t know about you, but I know that I definitely build my house on sand once in a while. No – scratch that. I’ve been building my house on sand every day!!! And I’ll give you JUST ONE example as to how.

We are extremely blessed. We have been blessed with faithful supporters both in Thailand and Australia. Sometimes our support even comes from other countries. And I’d say we are faithful with the money we receive. I’d say we use it to expand God’s Kingdom in the ways that we have an opportunity to help. However, in our YWAM Ubon team there are about 4 faithful young men and 1 family – Thai and Lao – who have NO support.  Some days they struggle to buy 2-minute noodles or a couple of eggs for their mealtime. When we see this, we help them. But what about when we don’t see it? What about when we forget to check on them? What about when I’m at home, with a lovely vegetable soup and rice, along with a fruit smoothie for dessert, and snacks in between meals, and these young men and young family are at their rooms in town wondering how they’re going to even eat at all? Then we meet with them during the day, encourage them to find some work in the workplace to help support themselves, as well as all the volunteer work they do for YWAM Ubon, and we then come back home and forget to even think of them at our next meal.

We’ve been blessed a lot in the last 6 months. We haven’t felt tight in money because the DTS was on and our meals, petrol, and house rent were taken care of. However, now that DTS is over, in these last few weeks I’ve gone back to holding my breath like I did in the first 2 years of our marriage, wondering how we’re going to buy food to last us until the end of the month. When life gets like this, it’s tempting to hold onto every single baht you receive. But actually, we are called to do the opposite. When we find ourselves in need it's a sign that we need to give even more. The irony is that when we give of what we have, we will have more. But when we hold onto what we have, we will have less. Recently, Noom suggested that we start to SHARE EVERY baht we receive, to share with these brothers and sisters just like they were our own family. In other words, if we get 100, they get 50 and we get 50 – no matter what our needs are. It’s about taking care of our team, or as God sees it: of our FAMILY. When Noom suggested this I felt a huge peace, but I also became afraid. I started remembering again what it used to be like before DTS: to live by faith, and to have to trust God for everything, and now my eyes are open again. I can see the ways in which I have broken Jesus’ commandments in the Sermon on the Mount…

I haven’t been hungry enough for Him. I’ve been worrying about taking care of my son, taking care of my own health so that I can breastfeed my son, and about making sure my husband also has good health. But WHAT ABOUT THE YOUNG MEN ON STAFF WITH US? WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER FAMILY WHO ALSO HAS A YOUNG NURSING CHILD? Aren’t they just as important? Isn’t their value and their health just as important as ours? Doesn’t God love them just as much as He loves us? So I’ve been selfish, and I’m guilty of not loving and going the extra mile for those around me. I’m guilty of going out to buy a yogurt in break time without asking them all if they want something too. I’ve been judging them in a way, encouraging them to find a part-time job and take responsibility of their own needs, which IS important…but am I myself looking for a way to make money? No! I’m doing the same thing as they are: serving God and trusting that He will take care of me.  And there’s nothing wrong with that. As a member on the leadership team in YWAM Ubon, I haven’t been taking care of my teammates like they were my own family. And because of this I have fallen short. THANK GOD FOR HIS GRACE!

I don’t know what it will look like after this, but what I want our family and friends to know, for purposes of transparency, faithfulness and accountability, is that from now on the money that we receive will help Thai people even more than before. I don’t want to give just 10% or 20% or even 50%, I want to give my all to God’s Kingdom by being transparent, generous and merciful to those around me – first starting from my own team. Their needs – food, rent, petrol…need to be met. They are valuable, they are important. And God calls us to act as though others are even more important than us. In this particular season, God is calling our family to be His hands of provision for these precious brothers and sisters. And if that means bringing myself back down to their level of wondering how the next meal or the house rent will be provided, then bring it on. This is what being a Christian is all about. This is what LOVE is all about. If we receive, we give. If we have a lot, they will have a lot. If they have little, we also need to be willing to have little. This is how God wants me and my family to live – in faith that He will provide for our every need.

Please note: When money is given specifically for other purposes or special projects, eg. construction of the village house, setting up Bethany Home, direct sponsorship for a Thai staff or specifically for our family, we honour that and the money will always go to the cause that the donor wishes – if for some reason the money needs to go to another cause the donor will be contacted and asked for permission first.

Bethany Home

We are now sharing information about Karis' dream of setting up a teenage pregnancy counseling centre. Please see this link for more information! http://www.ywamthai.org/ubon/bethanyhome

NEW ALBUM!!

This is very exciting news - our first album is out! Please see the clip below for more details and a short audio from each of the songs. If you would like to buy an album please contact us.

DTS Orientation Camp

For the first 4 days of the DTS we held an orientation camp at Noom's village to help the staff and students settle into DTS life and build relationships with each other through team building games. After worshipping each morning we shared testimonies, DTS requirements and then ran activities in the afternoon and night. It was so fun and we hope and believe it gave the students a good start to their DTS!

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A favourite, the Spider Web Game...

Follow the Leader (which changes every few minutes!)...

Three of the DTS babies asleep during the morning meeting...

Worship together...

THANKYOU FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS!!!

For more pics please see our album on Facebook

DTS to start next month!

This year brings us our first DTS (Discipleship Training School) in Ubon Ratchathani! It will go for 6 months, beginning on 6th March, and includes 20 students from Thailand, Ls and Mynmr. The students will go on a few outreach trips in these 6 months, the last one being to Ls. We will greatly appreciate your prayers in this time, that the students will realise who they are in God's love and will find a loving place in our YWAM family here. More to come once the school begins :-)