Heart of Isaan

YWAM Ubon Community Houses

2011-10-16T12:46:00.001+07:00

The house we have been renting since May 2010 has now become a YWAM Ubon Community House. In Ubon there are two of these houses at the moment. They will be used to house incoming teams, short-and-long-term staff, visitors, and DTS students. At the moment we are living with Pedro, Ice, Top and Sek in our community house, but this week the 4 boys will be moving into the new community house in town. This is because we, YWAM Ubon, have recently converted our internet cafe to a youth centre which reaches out to youth through music, English teaching, computer/internet services and a football ministry. The youth centre is situated in town and the boys have decided to move closer (1 minute drive away) so that they can be helping at the youth centre more often. We will continue to stay in our same house (around 15 minutes out of town) which will also be the home of around 10 female DTS students and staff from March-August 2012.

We are all excited and nervous about this new opportunity for the boys to live in a different house with more of our YWAM Ubon teammates, James and Keni. We've been taking care of Ice, Pedro and Top for 2+ years, physically and spiritually, and now it is time for them to step out and take responsibility in their own separate roles with YWAM Ubon and Heart of Isaan (which will also be known as YWAM Ubon Performing Arts). Our house is still open to them any time if they need us. Please pray for them in this time of adjusting to a new environment, living with different people and taking responsibility in new roles of the ministry.

Note: For those who have a part in supporting Ice, Pedro or Top financially, this support is still very much appreciated by them and is passed onto them each month. It will help them with food, toiletries, other living expenses, staff fees and transport in this new season as they live in the new community house. Thank you so much for supporting them as they serve God and work for His Kingdom in Isaan.

September 2011 Update

2011-09-05T18:11:00.005+07:00

Dear friends,

Please click on this link to see our update for September - you will probably have to download it as a PDF file.

http://gallery.mailchimp.com/35829f65f381d8c3552b8e9ab/files/newsletter_september2011.pdf

News Update - A New Date for the Revival Concert in Chiang Rai

2011-08-31T15:11:00.002+07:00

To all our brothers and sisters,

Due to frequent changes in the weather and flooding in Thailand this season, there are many houses and roads in the mountains in Chiang Rai that have been flooded, closed, and affected by landslides. Therefore, Pastor Surachai from Chiang Rai (who is in charge of the Revival concert we've been planning) and our team from YWAM Ubon have decided to change the dates for the concert from the beginning of November 2011 to 13th-15th January 2012. By this time, the roads should be open again and the flooding gone down. This will make planning more convenient and also enable more people in the hill tribes to travel to the concert venue. We still ask for your prayers in everything that has to come together for this concert to take place, in finances, safety and God's provision.

Thank you so much

June 2011 Newsletter!

2011-06-30T15:12:00.003+07:00

Dear friends,

Please click on this link to see our update for June. It may ask you to download a PDF file. If it does, click yes because that is our newsletter :-)

http://gallery.mailchimp.com/35829f65f381d8c3552b8e9ab/files/newsletter_june2011.pdf

Update on Noom

2011-05-22T11:42:00.000+07:00

Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts and messages in this time. Noom is doing much better. The operation on Wednesday night was fast and successful. More so, the doctor gave a report on Thursday morning that Noom's appendix had ruptured, probably on Wednesday morning, and was lucky to be alive and well! We know that this is because of God's hand on Noom in ways that we didn't even realize.

The fluid from the appendix is poisonous but was able to be cleaned out during the operation. However, this caused Noom's stomach area (particularly the intestines) to become inflamed, causing more problems now like bloating, vomiting green and yellow fluids, constipation and pain. On Friday night the pain was very strong and Noom had trouble breathing, so he has had to be connected to a few tubes/machines. However, what he is experiencing now is all normal for the recovery stage of a ruptured appendix, so we are confident and in faith that the dangerous stage is over.

As for an update in finances, God has already provided through many of you about 50% of what we need for the hospital fees - Praise God and thank you so much to all those who have helped us out in this area! Because Noom is needing to stay longer than we expected, the hospital fees are climbing much higher than we thought and we would like to ask you all to continue praying for God's provision in finances. We hope that Noom will be able to be discharged from the hospital in the next couple of days.

Thank you all so much once again for all the prayers and support you have sent our way! Everything has made a big difference and helped to keep our family strong and on the road to recovery.

God bless,
Love Karis

Urgent Prayer Request

2011-05-18T20:30:00.000+07:00

Dear friends and family in Christ...

Sorry we haven't posted on here in awhile! Alot has been happening - the soccer program went well but was cut short after Noom injured his shoulder and had to get an operation. Since then he has been recovering. We also went to Bangkok for a week-long YWAM course and then to Pattaya to help some friends in their ministry with slum children - only for a few days before coming back to Ubon. We now have a team with us for a couple of weeks. Things have been a bit hectic and overwhelming this week before the team's arrival, and now we have a much bigger need that we need prayer for...

This morning at around 5am Noom woke up with very severe stomach pains, nausea and vomiting. I (Karis) took him to the hospital at around midday where they tested him and found out that he has appendicitis. He is in the operating room as I write this so the doctors can remove his appendix. This is his second operation in less than 2 months (the first one being on his shoulder as I mentioned above).

Please pray for protection for him and our family and team in Ubon. Pray there will be no complications during or after surgery and that Noom will heal fast. Please also pray for God's provision of finances for this time. The first operation (on his shoulder) was at a public hospital and free, but this operation is at a private hospital and we have no medical insurance. We need to pay 33,000 baht (over $AU 1000) along with the fee for the hospital room, other medical bills and tests. We are expecting it all to come up to around 60,000 baht ($AU 2000+) but we know and trust that God will provide for His children. He has never let us down. Please pray for peace and strength for us in this time.

Also, another bit of exciting news which is a huge praise point and also a prayer point for this time especially: I am 3 and 1/2 months pregnant and don't want any stress or over-thinking to have an effect on our unborn baby. Please pray for protection for the baby, and pray for me that I will give to God 100% this situation, Noom, and many other situations in our lives at the moment!

Thank you so much and God bless you all
Karis Piawong

This Month's Soccer Program - From Noom

2011-03-17T09:05:00.000+07:00

We thank God for the week that has just passed, for the football/soccer activities in the village that went really well because of the grace of God. After preparing for 2-3 months, we were able to hold a tournament to help build relationships in the village. There were 6 teams that came together to play. The results: we received great responses from the teams and people in the villages as well as the other teams that came to take part.

At the same time, younger people and children in the village observed, learnt, and even showed more interest in playing soccer. They have shown a desire to come together and develop their skills and abilities in playing soccer. They are showing an interest in taking part in the soccer program that I want to run in the village from the end of March until mid April. We want to help build these children up and reach them through soccer. In order to do this we will run the soccer program in my village and will have a schedule for soccer training in the morning from 6:30-8am and in the evening from 4-6pm. This will be for the under 16’s in the village (around 12 people are interested).

We are really excited at how God is using soccer ministry to build relationships and share His love with people who have never experienced it. This then gives us the chance to explain through both words and actions what God has done for them. This is our main goal in running these activities.

I am really thankful to God and to all of you for your continued prayers and support for us. We are very in need of this support from our family in Christ and always will be. Thank you so much!

If anyone is interested in finding out more, becoming involved or supporting this project through sending sports supplies, please contact me at numlek@gmail.com or for those in Thailand you can call me at 084-483 9883.

Bpa Tia Cup Complete!

2011-03-16T18:27:00.000+07:00

THANKYOU everyone for your prayers and support in the last couple of weeks as we prepared for and ran the Bpa Tia Cup (a soccer tournament for youth and young adults in Noom's village). The tournament went only for 2 days (14th-15th March) but the planning and preparations were taking place for more than 2 weeks beforehand.

The tournament was a success, giving us the opportunity to build relationships as well as be a witness of God's love to the people in the village. God even gave us the grace and opportunity to play Isaan worship music over the loud speakers during the breaks. We believe that through this tournament, whether it be through hearing the music or through watching the lives of the Christians involved, Noom's village and other surrounding villages were able to see and hear more about God. Praise God for His protection over the teams as they played, and for His willingness to use us humans to take a part in His will!

Personally, I (Karis) enjoyed my first chance of being involved in the running of the tournament by taking down scores and keeping an eye on the schedule, but would have loved to have more of a chance to talk to the women in the village and build relationships one-on-one. I am praying for the opportunity to do more of this and for the courage even though I don't have too much of the Isaan language.

Praise God also that the teams who were involved in the tournament were able to experience a kind of playing without fights, seriousness and yelling, but more so they were able to just have fun.

Thank you once again for all your support and in the next couple of days we will be updating more about the soccer ministry to come in the upcoming weeks.

Revelations - from Karis

2011-03-01T11:14:00.000+07:00

Throughout the week of prayer from 21st-25th February, there were many things God taught me and many revelations He gave me. I would like to share just a few of these with you all. I pray that God will use these to touch your hearts as I strongly believe that the revelations were not just for me but for all of God’s creation. I feel that God has entrusted some of these words with me for the purpose of sharing them with others.

During the last week, God used movies, books, the Bible, and prayer to speak to me and challenge me.

I had the chance to watch The Nativity Story, as I wanted to observe Mary’s relationship with God (I’m a visual person!). I was shocked at how, even though at times many things/people were against her, she still stood strong in God’s promises for her life. Not once did she get mad at God for “destroying her life” but she was willing as she said, “I am the Lord’s servant, let it be done as you have said” and then accepted the consequences. Because God saw her obedience, and because His plans for her were GOOD plans, He stuck up for her to Joseph - and finally, Mary had someone to walk alongside her, someone to believe that she was telling the truth. Through this God’s message to me was SURRENDER. Submitting to God and to His will for our lives will make the bond of our relationship with Him stronger and stronger.

I also had the chance to read “The Heavenly Man”. God challenged me through Deling, Brother Yun’s wife. Their life was unimaginably hard, but she trusted God and continuously surrendered to Him and died to her own desires of a “safe and stable family life.” When her husband wasn’t in prison for God, he was traveling and sharing the Gospel. But she never condemned Yun for giving up so much of his family life. She expected that he would give it up in order for the Gospel. And all of a sudden, I saw Mark 8:35 and Matt 10:39 in a new light! That day I was praying for my relationship with my husband, Noom. If I try to cling onto my life (in this case, marriage) by holding onto all these expectations of things Noom should be, I will lose it (whether that be through losing the passion or through losing even more than that). But God showed me that if I am willing to give my marriage life up (lay down all my expectations and desires) and follow Him, I will have a strong marriage life. God also revealed to me many things that I need to change in order to bless my husband. He gave me the word SACRIFICE for my family life (marriage life and life with the guys we look after). With ministry, God showed me through prayer how important it is to be a servant leader and I will definitely be working on this more.

During the week He also led me to Matt 14:22-33 which is the story about Jesus (and Peter) walking on the water. When Peter stepped out, he had faith because he was focused on Jesus. But as he started to take his eyes off Jesus and focus on the wind and waves (everything that was coming up against him) he doubted and started to sink. But still, as he called out to Jesus, Jesus reached out and saved him immediately. I felt like God was showing me that I needed to have more FAITH. Also, stepping out in faith might appear dangerous sometimes, but we are never in a dangerous place if we’re doing what God calls us to do - and even when we doubt (as long as we call out to Jesus) He is there to lift us out. On the day God showed me this verse, I was praying for healing. He gave me many revelations on his grace and mercy in our lives, and even though some of us may not experience healing in this life, because of what Jesus has done for us we can experience total freedom and peace with God (and that alone is already so much more than what we deserve). Will we have consistent and persistent faith that God can heal us? And until the day we receive healing, will we stand and praise God for what He has done and is still to do? Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (and the Spirit of the Lord lives inside us). I was told I’d never be able to fast again because of my stomach problems. But I have fasted, with no stomach pain, only because of the grace and mercy of my Lord.

As I prayed for our town, again I got the word SACRIFICE - and the revelation that we can bring the word of God through offering our own lives as a living sacrifice for Him, ie. dying to our own desires and choosing to do what God wants, living to worship Him. This is all we need!!

There were many things God showed me which I am still processing. If anyone wants to know more, please feel free to contact me! Thank you to everyone who held me in their prayers during the week - they really did make such a difference!

News Update

2011-02-15T19:51:00.002+07:00

A copy of our first email update for this year...

Dear friends and family in Christ,

It’s about time we sent out our first update of 2011! God has been doing many things in our lives since the New Year.

For me (Karis), I have entered a season of fasting. I felt like God wanted me to start off the New Year with a month of fasting from technology and prayer for our ministry, especially for the boys. I did this fast in January, being the first month that we officially “launched” our ministry. I now feel that it is time for me to take a chance and fast from food. This is a big step for me as all my stomach problems started after I came off a fast (in the wrong way) in February 2008 - 3 years ago! I feel it is finally time to start fasting again, and this time to come off it in the right way.

The reason I am telling you guys this is because I would like to invite you all to pray with me and for me in this time. The fast will start on 21st February and finish on the 25th. Please pray for God to protect my stomach and heal it in this time. Please also join with me in praying for the topic in each day, that God will show me promises in the Bible to claim and pray over these certain areas:

Monday 21st - Relationship with God - to be more in love with Him as each day goes on, and for this to be my source of energy and joy.

Tuesday 22nd - Relationship with Family (Noom) - for God’s continued protection and blessing over our relationship. Also pray for the Holy Spirit to convict me in any areas that I need to change in order to be a better wife.

Wednesday 23rd - The guys we are looking after (Pedro, Ice, Base and Top) - for complete surrender between them and God, and for God to in turn provide them with their own monthly support.

Thursday 24th - Continued healing for my health - in my stomach (I have already received about 90% healing for my stomach problems in the last year) and also in some other more personal women’s health problems.

Friday 25th - Our town Ubon Ratchathani - the people, especially for the children and youth who have problems, and for the pastors and churches to be united.

These are the topics that I got when I asked God what He wanted me to focus on.

Each of the guys have also been challenged to fast in the last month. They just finished a fast from internet and mobile phones in the beginning of this month, and some of them have chosen to continue to fast from their mobile phones for the rest of the month in order to have more time to seek God’s will in the different circumstances they are in.

Just quickly before I finish this update, I want to give you a quick summary of what God has been doing in our ministry and some praise points. In January we had two teams come to help us. These teams were an incredible blessing to us and focused mainly on prayer and children’s ministry. We thank God for bringing these teams to help us build a foundation of prayer in the month that we launched Heart of Isaan.
We also spent alot of time in Noom’s village in the last month and were able to build many more relationships with the children. God provided finances for the football tournament which we are organizing for next month as Noom went to visit many of the families in the village and explained what he wanted to do with the tournament, and many of these families gave donations. Praise God!
God also provided a new laptop computer for our ministry, in order for us to be able to make more videos, songs and better-quality postcards. This was a very special gift which God provided for us through many of you who gave money specifically for my 21st birthday. THANKYOU!

We cannot thank you enough for your support. Please remember that everything that happens in our ministry is a result of your prayers and support and we are very grateful!

God bless,
Love in Christ
Noom and Karis Piawong

Revival Worship Camp in Chiang Rai, North Thailand (with different hill tribes in the mountains)

2011-02-14T15:47:00.001+07:00

There is a pastor named Ajun Surachai, from a mountain village in Chiang Rai, who we help support in his growing ministry and aim to take a team to help once a year. He has contacted us and asked us to run a revival concert in his area. He is a man who serves God wholeheartedly and has lived on basically no support for years, so we plan to do this concert to bless his ministry. It will take place in January 2012 for 3 days (13th-15th). The revival concert will be for the hilltribe people (Karen, Auca, Lahu, and more). We are expecting that there will be 2000+ people who will come, those being Christians, new Christians, as well as people who have never even heard of God. The concert will include worship, teaching, opportunity for healing from sicknesses, and performances in thai dance and dramas in order to communicate God’s love (if we can find a team to help in this area). We would like to ask everyone to start praying for us now as we prepare for and plan this big 3-day concert. We believe God will use the prayers we pray in these next few months to bring incredible blessings to the hilltribe people in North Thailand.

We would like to ask prayer for:

many people to come, even more than we expect, and that they would have a supernatural experience of God
for unity in the Christians in these hilltribe villages
for wisdom as A.Surachai and our team work together to plan the concert
for the finances in that whole month (January), as our team goes to Chiang Rai, that God would provide the money for food, travel expenses, diesel etc, and especially the financial needs for the concert to take place.
for safety as we travel, that God will protect us from danger

It is never too early to start praying, even though we won’t be leaving until January, there are still many things that we need to do (and need God to provide for) in these next few months in order for us to be able to go and have a positive effect. God has never let us down so praise Him for this! If you would like to know which specific things we need in order to make this concert happen, please contact us or see the Support Us page. These things are also needed for our ministry as we run many other similar programs in the future.

We, along with many of you, have been praying for the opportunity to do a concert like this for a long time! Thank you so much for standing with us. Now, God has given us the opportunity and we want to welcome it with open arms. We feel very excited for the things that God has in store.

Teams

2011-02-06T14:44:00.000+07:00

God has been doing many things as we officially launched Heart of Isaan in January. In the last month, we had two teams visit us - both of them were huge blessings to our ministry!

The first team was from a church in Melbourne, Australia and very gifted in prayer ministry which was a great first team for Heart of Isaan as God desires for us to lay foundations through prayer! The team did a lot of prayer walking, prayer driving, evangelism, prayed for other Isaan people, as well as blessed our own team through prayer and prophesy. It was a great start to 2011 and a great start for this ministry! We all felt challenged to be prayer warriors even more.

The second team was a World Race team from America. They were also very gifted in prayer ministry, but what's more is that they loved playing with children and God used their games, English teaching, and songs to help us build relationships with many different people in schools and Noom's village. One of the English camps resulted in a family being very curious about who Jesus is and what He did for us, even though we taught English and didn't even mention Jesus. They knew that we were followers of God, and God used that to open the door for that family - and for us to share - when they came up to us and asked us who Jesus is.

God used these two teams to bless Thai people in more ways than we can imagine, and we know that He has answered each and every one of their prayers that they prayed for the Isaan people while they were here.

Sharing in Australia

2010-11-24T15:26:00.001+07:00

We have now finished our times of sharing in various churches and other groups in NSW, VIC and ACT. Praise God for this time of sharing more about Heart of Isaan and how we work. Pray that God will use things we have said to touch peoples hearts. Videos coming soon - and photos are on our Facebook page.

Praise God too that all health stuff has been checked. I (Karis) have been diagnosed with functional dyspepsia which just means chronic stomach aches due to the way my stomach functions. We are not sure how it started, but I understand it will be an ongoing thing which only encourages me to take care of myself more (ie. not eat too much spicy or salty foods, eat on time etc).

To everyone that has been praying for us - Thank you so much! We return to Thailand on 4th December.

Praise and Prayer from Karis...

2010-11-01T11:06:00.000+07:00

We are still in Australia and will be for another month. We have been catching up with friends and family as well as sharing about Heart of Isaan in some different churches and other groups.

Something else I have been able to do in this time is get a few health check-ups for problems that have built up over the last few years in Thailand. Praise God for the opportunity to do this and for the support we have recieved - doctors and dentists have offered to do different check-ups free of any extra charge. This is something we are so grateful for. It has really helped me and given me the freedom to check my stomach problems and other concerns while still having the finances to keep things going back in Thailand. Praise God!!

This Friday I am having a gastroscopy (free of extra charge!!!) and would like to ask for prayer that this test would give answers to stomach pains that have occured almost every day for the last 2 and 1/2 years. Tomorrow I am also going to the doctor to check out lower abdominal pains that have gotten worse in the last week. Please pray that God would reveal what is causing this pain before we leave Australia and go back to Thailand in early December.

Thank you for all your prayers and support, and God bless!
Love Karis

Ministry Opportunity for 2011 - we need teams!!!!

2010-09-21T06:46:00.000+07:00

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ

We are so excited to be a part of God's work in Isaan, because we know that He loves Isaan people and that He is moving through the work that all our family in Christ are taking a part in. So we feel excited to be a part of this blessed place.

An important value of Heart of Isaan is relationship-building through cultural and sports evangelism along with teaching language. This is how we communicate and bring the love of Christ into the local community. So the Heart of Isaan Ministry uses many styles of evangelism and works with many communities in different villages, using music, sports and english teaching to reach kids in the schools. We have started doing this program in Noom's hometown and village - English teaching and football/soccer coaching.

In the last year we had a part with some of the guys from the village in soccer tournaments where those who won would get a trophy. Everyone did impressively well and our team came 8th in the tournament. We had believers and unbelievers in our team (some of who had never heard about God in their lives). After that tournament, God started to give me a passion about youth who like to play soccer. God helped me to see and understand that this is yet another way for me to share about the Good News with youth and others in the villages who are involved in sports, through building relationships and having a part in their community life and each individual's lives too.

Therefore, in 2011 the Heart of Isaan Ministry wants to start a Christian soccer team in Isaan in order to give us an opportunity to reach out in the village and at competitions/tournaments.

Our goals...
To make a way for the children to hear about Christ
To build relationships and share Christ's love with others
To help the village children have a foundation in their soccer playing
To encourage the children and point them in the right direction

The Heart of Isaan Ministry would like to invite anyone who enjoys soccer to take part in this project - it will run for 2 months starting in March and ending in May. For anyone else, we would be very grateful for your prayers for this time.

The program for the village (with youth and adults) running between March and May 2011 will consist of:
Spending time together in worship and prayer
Practicing in our football teams
Competing for a trophy in the tournament from 1st to 15th May 2011

The program for the village (with children and youth) running between March and May 2011 will consist of:
Building relationships with people in the village
Teaching English, running an English camp
Teaching football to the children aged around 9-15 years old
Running games in the school
Sharing from the Bible
Visiting families of the children etc.

If there is anyone interested in taking a part in this blessing for Isaan (in the Ubon province) please contact me for more details at heartofisaan@gmail.com, noomandkaris@gmail.com, or 084-4839883 (Noom)

God bless
Love in Christ
Heart of Isaan Ministry

สวัสดีครับพี่น้องในพระคริสต์

เรารู้สึกตื่นเต้นที่ได้เป็นส่วนหนึ่ง ในการรับใช้พระเจ้าที่ภาคอีสาน เพราะเรารู้ว่าพระเจ้ารักคนอีสานและพระองค์กำลังเคลื่อนไหวอย่างมาก ผ่านทางการรับใช้ของพี่น้องในพระคริสต์ที่ภาคอีสาน เราจึงรู้สึกตื่นเต้นที่ได้เป็นส่วนหนึ่งของพระพรนี้ด้วยเช่นกัน

ความสำคัญของพันธกิจ หัวใจอีสาน heart of isaan คือ การสร้างความสัมพันธ์ ผ่านทางการใช้วัฒนธรรม กีฬา และภาษา เพื่อที่จะสื่อสารและนำความรักไปสู่ชุมชนในท้องถิ่นนั้นๆ พันธกิจหัวใจอีสาน จึงมีรูปแบบในการประกาศหลายอย่าง และทำงานกับชุมชนหลายๆที่หลายๆหมู่บ้าน ทั้งเรื่องดนตรี,กีฬา,และการสอนภาษาอังกฤษ ให้กับน้องๆในโรงเรียนต่างๆ เราเริ่มต้นทำจากหมู่บ้านของหนุ่ม เกี่ยวกับการสอนอังกฤษและฟุตบอล

ในช่วงปีที่ผ่านมาเราก็ได้มีการรวมตัวกัน ของคนที่ชอบฟุตบอล เพื่อที่จะเข้าร่วมแข่งขันชิงถ้วยรางวัล รายการหนึ่ง ซึ่งผลที่ออกมาถือว่าน่าประทับใจอย่างมาก เราเข้าถึงรอบแปดทีมสุดท้าย ทั้งที่ในทีมเรามีทั้งกลุ่มผู้เชื่อและไม่เชื่อ (ซึ่งจริงๆพวกเขาบางคนในทีมเรา ไม่เคยได้ยินเรื่องเกี่ยวกับพระเจ้าเลย) หลังจากครั้งนั้นพระเจ้าเริ่มใส่ภาระใจให้กับผม เกี่ยวกับวัยรุ่นที่ชอบเล่นฟุตบอล พระเจ้าทำให้เห็นและเข้าใจว่านี้เป็นอีกวิธีหนึ่ง ที่พระเจ้าจะใช้ในการประกาศข่าวประเสริฐ กับวัยรุ่นและกลุ่มคนในหมู่บ้านที่ชอบเล่นกีฬาต่างๆและฟุตบอล โดยการสร้างความสัมพันธ์ และมีส่วนร่วมกับชุมชนและชีวิตพวกของเขาได้

ดังนั้นในปี 2011พันธกิจ หัวใจอีสาน เราจึงมีภาระเกี่ยวกับการเริ่มต้นทีมฟุตบอลคริสเตียนที่อีสาน เพื่อที่จะใช้ทั้งในการประกาศในหมู่บ้านและที่ๆเราร่วมแข่งขันด้วย

เป้าหมาย
เพื่อสร้างความสัมพันธ์ และแบ่งปันความรักของพระคริสต์ให้กับคนอื่นๆ
สร้างฟื้นฐานให้กับน้องๆ เกี่ยวกับเรื่องของฟุตบอล
แบ่งปันความรักของพระคริสต์
แนะนำ,หนุนใจน้องๆ
ที่สำคัญเป็นการสร้างและปูพื้นฐาน ให้กับเด็กๆที่จะได้รู้เรื่องเกี่ยวกับพระคริสต์

ดังนั้น พันธกิจหัวใจอีสาน อยากเชิญชวนให้พี่น้องในพระคริสต์ท่านใด ที่สนใจและชื่นชอบในกีฬาฟุตบอล เข้ามามีส่วนร่วมกับเราในครั้งนี้ด้วย เป็นระยะเวลา 2เดือน ช่วง มีนาคม-เมษายน 2011
และเรายังคงต้องการคำอธิฐานเผื่อจากพี่น้องทุกๆคน

โปรแกรมกิจกรรมของทีมในช่วง เดือน มีนาคม-เมษายน 2011
ใช้เวลาสามัคคีธรรมด้วยกัน
นมัสการ,อธิษฐานด้วยกัน
ฝึกซ้อมฟุตบอลด้วยกัน
เข้าร่วมแข่งขัน ฟุตบอลถ้วย ช่วงต้นเดือน 1-15 เมษายน 2011

ตารางทีมสำหรับชุมชน....มีนาคม-เมษายน 2011
สร้างความสัมพันธ์กับพี่น้องใชหมู่บ้าน
การสอนภาษาอังกฤษ (ค่ายภาษา อังกฤษ)
สอนฟุตบอลให้เด็กๆ อายุ 9-15 ปี
เล่นเกมณ์
แบ่งปันหนุนใจเกี่ยวกับพระคัมภีร์
เยี่ยมครอบครัวน้องๆ ฯลฯ

ดังนั้นช่วงเวลาแห่งพระพรนี้ ท่านใดสนใจอยากเข้าร่วมเป็นส่วนหนึ่งของพระพรร่วมกันกับเราที่อีสาน จังหวัด อุบลราชธานี
สนใจติดต่อ รายละเอียดเพิ่มเติม ที่ noomandkaris@gmail.com, heartofisaan@gmail.com, or 084-4839883 (noom)

ขอพระเจ้าอวยพร
รักในพระคริสต์
พันธกิจหัวใจอีสาน

Hello from Australia! :-)

2010-09-11T16:24:00.000+07:00

Dear all our family in Christ

How are you all?

Just a short update to let you know that we are in Australia! We arrived here on 7th September and will be here until 4th December. We are thankful that the weather has warmed up this week (although we are still cold, hehehe) and are also thankful for the opportunities we have had to see kangaroos and other Australian things :-)

The others in our family/ministry are staying in our rented house in Ubon (except for Nut as he has just begun his DTS in Bangkok). We are still providing for them while we are here and have given them a schedule to follow in the time that we are away. For those of you who are financially supporting our ministry, please note that your support will be greatly appreciated by Pedro, Ice, Base, Wii, and Ging, as they continue to serve God with the "Heart of Isaan" ministry while we are in Australia. On that subject, we are excited to announce that Ging has just received Christ into her life! Thank you everyone for all your prayers for her! She is excited about the opportunities in the next 3 months that she has to serve this new King of her heart before we get back and start to disciple her properly. Until then, we will be sharing with our brothers and sisters in Australia :-)

We would love to catch up (with those of you who live in Aus) in the next few months! If you would like a schedule of what we are doing, please contact us! Please also contact us if you would like to catch up and we can make a time and place :-)

We also want to invite anyone who is in the Canberra area to come to Brindabella Baptist Church on 10 October at 10am to find out more about the Heart of Isaan ministry. There will be Thai-style worship, performances, videos shown, an amazing testimony shared, and a short 10 minute talk on missions. Please contact us for more information or for the address of the church.

Thank you for partnering with us in our ministry, and may God bless you!

Love Noom and Karis

More Pictures of the Building Project

2010-08-26T10:41:00.000+07:00

Making the outline for the doors ^

Making the tin doors before connecting them to the bathroom

Building Project

2010-08-23T12:06:00.000+07:00

We were very blessed with a donation from a church in America for our ministry and are using this donation to build 2 bathrooms outside the boy's room (where Nut, Base, Ice and Pedro stay) and to make some beds as well as get more fans for their room. This week, all the guys are busy building.

We thought it would be fun for those of you who have never been to Thailand to see how bathrooms and plumbing are done here!!.........

So...Here is a list of the things you would need to do in order to "build a bathroom" in Thailand.
1. Make a deep hole in the ground for the waste to be "flushed" into - if there is an existing hole, find it and open it up to check if it can be used (then close it again!).
2. Dig a tunnel in the dirt connecting your new bathroom to this larger hole.
3. Put a pipe in the tunnel and cover the top of it with dirt or cement, leaving a connecting pipe from the squatty potty to the main pipe.
4. Buy bamboo, or bricks and cement, and use them to build the walls.
5. Buy the squatty potty and place it on cement or bricks so it can be "stepped up onto" and place it down so the waste can flow into the pipe underneath.
6. Use sticks, bamboo, or wood for a door - and a nail and string to "lock" the door when the bathroom is in use.
7. Make a grass or tin roof, leaving a space between the roof and the walls for a light to be connected.
8. Make a hole in the back of the bathroom for water to escape when someone takes a shower.
9. Buy a bucket for showers, another bucket to "flush" the waste from the squatty potty into the pipe and the underground hole.
10. Put a light globe in the bathroom and connect it to electricity with an extension cord running from the house (if it rains, be very careful when you turn on the light!)
11. Test the bathroom!

Here are some pictures of our building...(so far)

Laying the bricks and digging the tunnel connecting the bathroom to the sewage hole

Taking turns digging the tunnel - was hard work to break the concrete that was already there and our dagger broke too!

Teamwork - digging the tunnel and building the walls

Two walls finished on the first day!

Placing cement over the pipes

The second day: Pipes in and covered with cement, more of the walls built

The third day: Placing the squatty potty's on the bricks, making it easy to "step up", and placing cement around the outside to make it look cleaner

Building the wall in between the two bathrooms and placing the other squatty potty down

The next two photos are the beds that the boys made for themselves on the second day...

More pictures coming soon!!!!

Wii and Ging

2010-08-16T12:43:00.003+07:00

In the last couple of weeks Noom's brother and sister in law have been staying with us. Their names are Wii (Noom's brother) and Ging (Wii's wife). We have seen God work through their hearts in many ways since they have come, especially in Ging's heart. Ging is only 17 years old and has been married to Wii for almost a year. Their marriage was forced but they were in love which made them very fortunate. Wii has known God for a few years but still has not understood what it means to be a Christian and has been involved in many of the village's ways of living. We have been concerned for them for awhile now, and have felt like God would bring them to live with us at some point.

Since coming to stay, they have both opened up their lives to knowing more about God, and we have seen God show Himself to them both but especially to Ging through a dream, a deliverance, and through the works of the Holy Spirit. Two weeks ago, while living in the village, Ging never thought she would come to know THE GOD that she has heard us talking about in the past. But just last Thursday night (about a week after God answered her first ever prayer through a dream that she had) Ging had an encounter with the Holy Spirit during a revival meeting. Ever since that day she has felt a battle of the 'old' and 'new' going on inside of her - causing her to experience headaches, shocking nightmares and many emotions. After receiving prayer from Noom's aunt, she still felt the same way. After 3 days of feeling like this, she realised that she needed to pray HERSELF and cut any spiritual warfare that was going on inside of her. She took the initiative to pray, and as she was praying everything disappeared - her headaches and nightmares stopped right then and there! This is a HUGE praise point and testimony of God's power, and the power that He has given to us as His children! This is also an answer to YOUR prayers, the prayers of everyone who supports us in this way!

We are sharing these things because we need your continued prayers for this ministry, especially for Wii and Ging. God has made Himself known to them in the last couple of weeks, and has made clear His love for them too. But at the same time there is a constant battle going on as they are in the middle of making the most important decision of their lives! Please pray for them, for protection and strength in the things that God has revealed to them in the last couple of weeks. And please pray for protection and wisdom for us as we disciple them. And don't forget to praise God for His power and the miraculous signs that He has done to show Himself to them!!!

Update from July 2010 - A summary :)

2010-07-31T11:38:00.000+07:00

Sawatdee Krap (Hello!) to all our brothers and sisters in Christ,

We hope you are all well.

Firstly, thank you so much for standing with us in the last month through prayer and financial support. We could feel the power of prayer protecting us in all the different things God had us do in the last month. We also received some donations just in the last couple of weeks and want to express how much this has helped us. These things always come just at the right time. THANK YOU.

We are going well and have had a great month of JOY and busy-ness. We have just come back from the village where we taught football and played games with the kids. This is something we are now planning to do every month, as we have a goal to take the Gospel to this village (where Noom grew up). We also had a chance to help a local church in their ministry to the prison and have more plans in August to help more churches as they minister in the villages (by running concerts and using the Isaan culture to evangelize). PRAISE GOD for giving us these opportunities!

Next week Pedro and Ice will be graduating and coming back from their DTS in Khon Kaen. They will be living with us as well as Nut and Base. We also have another friend living here: Katie, who serves God in Sisaket (the province next door to Ubon) - she is staying with us during the week days.
Along with this, Noom's brother Wii and Wii's wife Ging have come to visit us from the village, but we are not yet sure how long they will be staying. We are excited for this opportunity to help them learn more about God. As you can see, our family has grown a lot!

Please pray for this part of our ministry which is focused on family. Pray that God will continue to provide enough finances each month to pay the bills, buy food etc. Please also pray that when everyone gets here and lives together we will have enough rooms and bathrooms for them all! At the moment we have just 2 bathrooms in our house (one in our room and another one that everyone else shares). We also have just 3 bedrooms for 4 guys, a married couple (Wii and Ging - if they stay for a long time), and Katie. We are praying about building another room and bathroom for the guys. We can only build with wood and bamboo because the house we are living in isn't ours but it is only rented - so we can't build a proper cement room. To build another room will cost about 10,000 baht (around $AU 400) but only 3,000 baht to build another bathroom (Just over $100).

Please also pray for us with finances for our car. It is due for new insurance and registration in August, as well as some maintenance, and we want to get it done before we go to Australia in September (because there will be other people using the car when we go). God has blessed us so much with this car, and we try to use it as a blessing to others as much as we can :)

Lastly, another PRAISE point is that we had the opportunity to record some songs in the last month! You can listen to them on this site at http://heartofisaan.blogspot.com/p/music.html

We have posted photos and videos on our Heart of Isaan Facebook Page for you all to see (there is a link on our website to these photos). Please take a look at them and enjoy the results of your faithful support with us :)

Thank you for making a difference in Thailand,

May God bless you all,
Noom and Karis

Prison Ministry

2010-07-16T11:00:00.002+07:00

Written by Karis...

What does one feel the first time they walk into a prison? There are many mixed feelings - and yesterday we experienced excitement, fear, nervousness, shock, thankfulness etc. We were excited and thankful about the opportunity to share with the people there but we were scared because of the risk, and nervous to perform.

What does one feel when they know inside that they are a good person, but make one crazy mistake in the heat of the moment and end up locked up for the rest of their lives? Oh no, these feelings aren't mixed at all - it's all depression, struggle, desire for freedom again.

What does one feel when they don't even know that they deserve another chance?

But what does one feel when they are told about a way of hope, of love, of light, of freedom? All are curious, many are interested, some will choose it, a few will follow it, and a couple will make it. But no matter how many people will end up in this way of love, it is our responsibility to try and show them.

Some of us tend to look at prisoners and think that it's all over for them. But that's not how Jesus did it. He saw inside. He saw their hearts. They aren't just criminals. If they are, then we all are - everyone in the human race. They are just people who made mistakes, like we all do, but theirs had bigger consequences.

Some people end up in prison because of stealing. But do we ever look at WHY they stole? Did they steal money in order to provide their starving family with food? Did they steal money in order to win the heart of the girl that they loved, who's parents only accepted "rich" guys? These are all understandable reasons to do the wrong thing, especially if they didn't know any other way, especially if they didn't know Jesus.

Some people end up in prison because of murder. But WHY did they do it? What if they made a mistake in the heat of the moment and shot a man who was abusing their mother, their sister, their wife or their daughter, in a desperate fight to protect the people they loved? They get caught and are seen as "criminals" for the rest of their lives. Or what if they were fired from their job, their wife cheated on them, they had a few drinks to try and take the pain away, then got into a car and caused an accident, when in the first place all they wanted was to numb out their pain by having a few drinks? Of course, none of these things are right, and they cause A LOT of pain and suffering for the people who are affected by them, which is why consequences like being put in prison have to take place. I am not disagreeing with prisons. Most of the consequences are just. But I ask these questions to help myself see that some of these prisoners had good or "understandable" hearts even in doing the wrong thing. They just made awful mistakes.

Some people end up in prison for sleeping with a girl under 18 years old. But what if this girl was willing to do it and even suggested it - then her parents found out and told the guy (who had NO money) to give them 80,000 baht? What if he couldn't do this, so they told the authorities that he slept with their daughter who was under 18 and he was then thrown into jail? He had never heard of God's way, so how was he supposed to refuse the offer to sleep with an attractive girl who WANTED to sleep with him?

Some people end up in prison from selling drugs. But what if this was a one-off, what if they desperately needed money for their family and they got into the wrong group and were caught?

Their punishment matches their crime, but does it match their hearts?

Jesus calls us to be compassionate (SEE their hearts) and LOVE them. Jesus also calls us to GO where they are and REACH them. And lastly, to leave the judging to Him.

The stories above are all COMMON stories in prisoners. Some are true stories from friends of mine who were lucky not to be caught and have now heard about Jesus and changed their ways. Some are true stories from my own husband or people in his family, who were also lucky not to be caught. Not many people thought they deserved another chance, but Jesus did. Not many people thought my husband deserved another chance. Now, he is a living testimony of how much a man can really give his life to God - I have never seen anyone give themselves to God like he does - which is why we want to give others a second chance, a third chance, a seventy-times-seventh chance.

Why? Because that's what Jesus has given us.

Recording

2010-07-08T17:28:00.001+07:00

This week we have been recording songs. Thanks to one of the local churches that lent us their sound system and recording equipment, we were able to record songs of better quality too. We have put together a short and fun video for everyone to watch - it shows a bit of what we've been doing.

Background songs at the end are from some old recorded clips from a couple of years ago. The newer ones are coming soon!

If you have problems playing it, please check it out on our Heart of Isaan Facebook page!

God is Moving

2010-06-25T22:09:00.001+07:00

After a busy week (especially after a busy day today) we are excited about the things God is doing.

We have been joining with another missionary, Kris (and her team), in trying to help the Christians of Ubon be unified and pray together for revival.

Before and after today's meeting (there is a meeting with the Christians in Ubon once a month) our worship team faced some spiritual opposition which actually encouraged us more than discouraged us. Opposition comes when we do something RIGHT in the Kingdom of God that the evil one wants to stop. Because of God's work against this opposition, our worship team grew even more closer together and had the chance to support each other, learn more about each other, and forgive each other. Our worship team had a good discussion in the afternoon which started heated and ended in some inner healing for a couple of the people on the team.

Not only that, but during the prayer meeting with the pastors, missionaries and other Christians of Ubon this morning, we felt the Spirit of God in the room and moving in peoples hearts. It was a time of crying for some, claiming the promises of God for others, and unity along with desperate prayers of healing the land for others. This is the first step to revival: unity amongst the Christians. Please pray for more healing and unity between the Christians in Ubon. There are still many people who we hope will be a part of these monthly meetings in the future.

Please also continue to pray for Kris and her team as they initiate these meetings and contact the different Christians in Ubon. Please pray for protection for them in this work that puts them right on the spiritual battle lines! Please also pray for our team as we have been given the responsibility of leading worship for the first year of these meetings. Please pray for protection over our team too, and especially that God would keep the unity within us.

Here are a couple of pictures from today's meeting...

Thankyou so much for your faithful prayers and support, for making all these things happen. May God bless you all!

A Cry for Help—In Need of a Kidney

2010-06-14T19:29:00.002+07:00

While in Bangkok doing Noom's visa the last couple of weeks, we had the chance to visit some relatives of Noom: Lui and Noi. Lui is one of Noom’s cousin and Noi is Lui’s wife. They have been married for about 4 years and don’t yet have children. Just 6-7 months ago, Noi began to get sick and was taken to the hospital. She was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease, a disease that she unknowingly got from her mother (who died from it 2 years ago). When Noi found out 6 months ago that she had this disease, it was already too late to stop it as her kidneys were already almost completely gone.

Two times a week, Noi gets on the back of the motorbike with Lui and goes to the hospital for treatment. This 2-times-a-week treatment at the hospital keeps her alive as a machine does the same job of a kidney by removing waste from her blood (this treatment is called hemodialysis). However, this will only help until Lui and Noi run out of money to pay for the treatment. When they run out, Noi will die. Lui works as a motorbike driver and sometimes only makes 50-100 baht a day ($2-$4). When Lui runs out of his savings, he can do nothing else for his wife. Noi’s only chance is a new kidney, and fast. With the continued treatment, she is still very weak and frail. She can only drink a limited amount of water each day. A new kidney is her only chance to have a strong, healthy body and normal life. It is her only chance to be able to have children. But there are many other people waiting for new kidneys, and by the time Noi gets one through the hospital, it might be too late. Noi is only 29 years old.

Lui and Noi are not yet Christians. They have a Bible (the New Testament) and have been reading it. We have told them that God has the power to heal and they are very interested in the story of Jesus. We know that God’s will is for them to come and know Him and to see His works in their lives. We also know that God’s will is to heal Noi, whether that be in heaven, or on earth: through a donor, continued provision for hemodialysis, or a miracle.

The future is unknown for them, so please pray for their salvation and God’s provision.

Some videos of God's work :)

2010-06-02T18:41:00.000+07:00

Below is a video which shows a bit of what our ministry does :) While the World Race team was visiting, the local church took them for outreach in one of the local slums. There, Noom performed one of his own songs "Maa Terd Rao Kao Maa" which means "Come, Let's Come" and it's in the Isaan language, encouraging them to come to Jesus. When Nut and Base came to stay with us, they made up the guitar solo and drums, which is why we were able to finally play one of our songs and use it for outreach. It went OFF and the women and team had a great time building relationships and dancing together!

This next video is nice and short and was made by one of the women in the team, Charity. It shows what they did in their month in Ubon serving the church and also shows a bit of our ministry too.

Our house :)

2010-05-28T17:18:00.000+07:00

Thankyou everyone for praying for us and supporting us so faithfully. Thankyou especially for your prayers in the time we were looking for houses!

God led us to a house at the other end of town which is just great for our ministry. It has 3 bedrooms and another room outside which gives plenty of space for the 4+ guys we take care of. It is also good quality and not the kind of house that will flood! We have moved in faith that God will provide the extra finances needed each month to pay rent, as we saw how God really opened the door for this house and blessed the relationship we have with the owners. Now we are praying about whether God wants us to take a loan and buy the house by paying a little more each month. It all depends on how He leads us and provides for us!

This is the front view of the new house:

We have also attached some pictures of the time spent with the World Race that just left. They were a huge blessing to us. The first photo shows Nut leading worship and Karis translating for him. The second photo shows Noom performing one of his songs (this was at a slum at a program that the team did) and it also shows Nut playing guitar - a great example of our ministry. We are hoping to post a video of this in the next blog. The last photo was taken on the night before the team left at the house where they were staying.

Thanks to the World Race team and to all of our supporters for making the last month a memorable month in our lives and in the Kingdom of God in Isaan! Please be praying for us these next 2 weeks as we're in Bangkok and applying for Noom's Australian visa. Pray for favor and for a visa that allows Noom to stay in Australia for the 3 and 1/2 months that we are planning :)

GOD BLESS YOU ALL.

House Hunting

2010-05-20T23:05:00.000+07:00

The 6 month commitment with our house has recently ended and ever since that time (a few weeks ago) we started feeling like it was time for us to move to another place. Then, last week after a rainstorm our roof leaked and the strong wind blew the rain inside (we have no door, just a gate closing off the house) and some of our floors got flooded. Since then we have been looking for a house before the rainy season comes. We spent some time praying last week and asked God if He wanted us to stick it out this year and stay in the same place, but all 4 of us (Noom, Karis, Nut and Base - the boys staying with us at the moment) felt God said it was time for a new season and time to move on, even though we (Noom and Karis) didn't want to move (despite the troubles, we really like this house and have worked hard to make it look the way it does).

In the time looking for houses, we have come across quite a few that we like. The only thing is that we’re looking at houses fit for our ministry – or at least fit for 6+ people to live in (at the moment we have opened our house to 2 other guys but when Pedro and Ice come back from DTS it will be 4 other guys plus us). We have come across a lovely house with 6 bedrooms. This 6 bedroom house could be used as a home for our staff (who don’t have financial support to pay rent) plus our family. The owner of this place said we can rent it for 10,000 baht per month ($AU 400) or buy it for 2.5 million baht ($AU 92,600).

Our other option is a different area of land with 2 houses on it. This land isn’t for sale but only for rent and the owner has opened the door to only one house (which is quite small). Please pray that if this place is God’s will for us, that the owner will open up both houses for us to rent so that we can provide housing for others plus have our own personal space. This place is 4,000 baht per month ($AU 150) but will probably be more if we are able to rent both houses.

There are many other lands like this in Ubon (with 2 houses on them) but all the others are only for sale (3+ million baht: $AU 115,400+). However, we can only afford to rent and to pay 3,000 baht per month ($AU 115) and the only houses available to rent at this price are big enough for just 2 people (more can live in them but there would be no personal space for us as a newly married couple).

Therefore we would like to let everyone know about our situation at this time and ask everyone to please pray for us to find a house before the rainy season. Please pray that God will provide us with a house that we can use for our ministry and will also give us space as a couple. Please also pray for our financial support, as no matter where we move we believe that we will need to start paying more for rent as we are financially responsible for all the people that come to live with us too (these people all serve God and don’t have any money to help with rent or to rent a house for themselves). Please also pray that we will be patient and trust God in this time for a house and for finances.

Thankyou so much for your faithful prayers.

For anyone who doesn’t yet know about Nut and Base, our next newsletter will share about who they are and what they are doing. If anyone would like to receive our newsletters every 3 months, please let us know: noomandkaris@gmail.com

Thailand Update

2010-05-13T11:55:00.003+07:00

Hey guys, please continue to pray for Thailand.
You can see a recent update of the events here: http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15806/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=ox8Q7xup

2010-05-05T17:42:00.002+07:00

From 29th April until 22nd May there is a World Race team visiting us in Ubon - and we are their translators! This is the first time we've been official translators for a team and we are seeing that it is a lot of work! But at the same time very rewarding.

In the first week we translated for them in the local church, for testimonies and short talks, games and activities, children's programs etc. Here are a few pics :)

Taking the team prayer walking in a town where there is only one Christian...

The vehicles that carry the team! The truck belonging to the local church and our pickup...

A photo of Karis with most of the team (a few of them were away on this day) at the border of Thailand and Laos...
Some of the kids helping the team to give out Bibles in 2 different villages...

Karis translating for the team at one of the church plants from the local church...

This week we may also go with the team on their 2 day border run to Laos. The next two weeks have not been planned out yet, but we are looking forward to the opportunity of learning more Thai and English. Please pray for us that God will give us the strength and the wisdom needed to translate for this team's wonderful message of salvation.

Short update :)

2010-04-27T12:26:00.000+07:00

To all our brothers and sisters in Christ,

How are you all? We hope everyone is well.

We are going well and have just come back to Ubon from Bangkok. On the way back we had an opportunity to go and visit Pedro and Ice at their DTS in Khon Kaen. They are going well and we could tell that they are growing more in God. It is a blessing for them to be able to learn more about God in this time.

This month we also have 2 friends visiting us in Ubon - they are praying about coming to join our ministry here. Please pray for all of us here. We are really glad that they have come to stay with us. Praise God for His provision and for everything that has happened with our family!

Thankyou everyone so much for continuously praying for our family!

This month our prayer points are:

1. Financial provision for our family
2. Financial provision for the DTS that Pedro and Ice are studying at
3. Please also pray for my (Noom's) visa for when we go to Australia in October

Thankyou and God bless!
Love Noom and Karis

Please pray for Thailand!!!!

2010-04-20T19:28:00.004+07:00

Please go to this website at the bottom of the post to see a video of the prophecies of Cindy Jacob for Thailand and please join with the Christians of Thailand to pray for protection! The page is in Thai but just press play on the video and it has both languages (English and Thai)...

http://www.gracezone.org/index.php/pray-for-thailand/836-cindy-10-03-25

A Thankyou to all those out there who support us!...

2010-04-06T12:26:00.000+07:00

Firstly, we want to thank everyone once again for standing with us and partnering with us in our ministries. We have come a long way in the last 6 months since moving to Ubon. Money wise, we have gone from having hardly any money to being surprised and full of gratitude every month as we feel each and every one of you helping us along. We now have around 60% of our monthly expenses covered, and the rest is filled with random donations from different people each month. We are so thankful for all of you and are blown away by the faithfulness of God in our lives.
God has been doing many things in our lives and ministry. Firstly, many of you may know that we weren't planning to start a ministry in the first year of our marriage - but God had different plans! He has led us to open our house for 3 teenage boys to live in, and for many other teenage boys to come for shelter in hard times. I (Karis) would LOVE to see girls coming in but are still waiting on God's timing for this! Just last night a teenage guy from the church came to share all his struggles with Noom, and we are praying about how God wants us to open our lives to him. The guys who "live" in our house are Pedro, Ice, and Top - although Pedro and Ice are away doing their DTS at the moment. God has also led Noom to start a football (soccer) team with both Christians and non Christians, with people from the city and the villages - all playing together in one team. This has been a great way for us to build relationships and be a witness of God's love to people who don't yet know Him.

Your money and support is not only going to helping us in our daily expenses but it also goes towards our ministry and the boys who we look after, as well as a few other people who we help each month. So we (Noom and Karis), along with Ice, Pedro, Top, our ministry, and all the people we are able to help can serve God because of the support that you all so generously give to us. Thankyou so much.

If you haven't yet seen the video in the last post, please take a look at it to see what we are doing here in Ubon. It is only a few minutes long and gives a good visual to those who aren't sure what we do in our days :) There will be another video coming soon which introduces our newest ministry: the football team, Immanuel United.

Again, thankyou so much for your generosity and faithful support in our lives. We would not be here and doing what we are doing without you.

God bless you all!

Life in Ubon :)

2010-03-30T16:12:00.001+07:00

Football Club - an excerpt from this month's newsletter (written by Noom)

2010-03-26T14:38:00.000+07:00

I have something special to share with everyone about the guidance of God in our family and ministry in Isaan. If everyone has been following our news you will already know that in the first year of our marriage and in Ubon we planned not to start our worship ministry but instead to have a break, learn more about each other, focus on married life and on building relationships with those around us. Through this we also planned to learn more about culture. Now we have been married for 6 months – thank you everyone for praying constantly for us.

In the time that we’ve been here we have learnt many things from God, especially how important it is to be prepared and ready all the time and willing to obey God in the things that He requires us to do and take a part in (even if it’s in a different timing to our own). Our obedience to God has led us to rejoice with the rest of our family. God is more faithful than we can understand, and He has shown us the importance of building relationships with the people in Ubon. With starting our worship ministry next year, God has taught us that it’s not next year when we start to build relationships but that is something we need to start doing now in order to produce fruit in the time that we do start our worship ministry (we need to be ready all the time).

The thing that we want to share and the door that God has opened to us in how to build relationships with other people is through football.

God has given me a heart to start doing a Football club in order to build relationships with other people (football is my main talent and hobby too). I have been able to build some relationships through this door already since coming to Ubon. So this year we feel like God is leading us in a ministry of continuing to build relationships with others. Many of my friends and I have come together to talk about different events and supporters. There are already many people (about 24 altogether), Christians and non Christians, who want to be involved. Therefore, we need people to support us financially in this area, in order to have enough money for games and tournaments, as in this time there are just 2 other people and us to take care of the financial side of things. But we don’t have enough.

Please be praying for us in this ministry, especially because the people in the group we are working with are not all Christians, and because we can really see that this idea has come through the guidance of God. Everyone who has come to us knows who we are and what we are doing. I am so thankful to God that He has opened a door for our ministry in Isaan, and something important is that I can see that through this my wife also has more friends in Ubon – whether they are Christian friends or not – but I believe that God has a plan.

Our prayer requests for the beginning of this ministry are:

Financial support for the Football Club.
Pray for wisdom in sharing the Good News with the group of helpers in our Football Club who don’t yet know Jesus.

Thankyou so much and God bless :)

Our Busy House!

2010-03-16T15:06:00.000+07:00

Thought it was about time I updated you all on what's going on for us at home at the moment.

Pedro and Ice are in Khon Kaen (about 4 hours from Ubon) doing a DTS with YWAM. Before they left, a teenage guy from Noom's village came to stay with us while he plays football with our local church here in Ubon, although this guy (called Jet) is not a Christian. He is still living with us and will probably be here for another month. Top, one of the youth from our church, is also staying with us and helping us to look after Jet. This is a big blessing for us because it means that we can still do things we are committed to doing and trust that Jet is with someone responsible. We miss Pedro and Ice alot, but our house is still busy with these 2 teenage guys staying with us and many frequent visitors. Every wednesday night we have a worship and prayer meeting, which Jet joins in on. Please pray for him. We have seen many changes including changes in smoking habits (given up immediately on the day of his arrival). His heart is open and he is willing to know more about God.

If you watched the Sen Taang music video (in the previous post) you can see both Top and Jet. Top is the main actor, the guy in the video who has many problems and is touched by Jesus in the end. Jet is Top's friend in the video, the guy who pushes him away in a short 3-second scene. Pedro is the "singer" and Ice is the "guitarist". Noom is the real singer, guitarist and song writer. And Karis is the one who did the filming and editing. So this music video can give you a look at our whole family at the moment, the people that we are ministering to, and how we are working together! If you haven't seen it yet, see the previous 2 posts :)

Sen Taang - ENG version (English subtitles)

2010-03-11T18:44:00.000+07:00

Sen Taang - our first music video :)

2010-03-08T13:52:00.000+07:00

There will be an English version coming soon, just with English subtitles instead of Thai. The song is called Sen Taang which means "The Way" and it's written by Noom. It talks about the way in our life and how we come across many problems as we go along but that Jesus is always ready to be with us and walk with us no matter what happens. Enjoy!

Please pray for us to one day be able to have the equipment to do more and better-quality recording, plus make better quality videos...in order to share God's love through media, ESPECIALLY music and karaoke videos as these are things that Thai people LOVE.

God's Healing Power

2010-02-22T16:14:00.000+07:00

Just a quick blog to share some testimonies of what has been happening in Ubon in the last few days. A team from America visited and ran a seminar here in Ubon for both Christians and non-Christians about God's healing power and how to hear God's voice.

Here are just a FEW stories of what God has done in the last few days:

- On 19th Feb, the team prayed for someone who had heart problems for a long time now. This person felt a moving inside their body during the prayer, and after being prayed for he went to lift up something he hadn't been able to lift without getting dizzy. He could lift it with no problems. God healed his heart.
- On 20th Feb, I watched as a whole family of thais and 2 other teenage girls recieved God's Holy Spirit and broke down crying, overwhelmed with His love.
- There was a young woman who had something in her throat for the last YEAR that affected her breathing. Someone from the team was shown her situation by God, and spoke it out before she had said anything, so she came up for prayer. After praying the first time, she felt 50% better, and after praying the second time, whatever was in her throat disappeared and she could breathe.
- 21st Feb...the team shared in a thai church and after the service had an opportunity to pray for healing for anyone who wanted it. I decided to join in, and had the opportunity to help pray for an elderly woman who wanted healing in her ears (most of her hearing was gone). She was healed and could hear again. This same story happened with two other people the night before.

PRAISE GOD! These were all Thai people that were healed and experienced the power of God.

I will also be putting two more stories in our next newsletter (coming out in a couple of weeks) of God's power working through a teenage boy that we disciple. He is only 18 years old. If anyone wants to recieve our newsletters who don't recieve them already, please contact us! noomandkaris@gmail.com

Thank God for His work in Ubon Ratchathani and please continue to pray for protection for His workers!

God bless :)

YWAM's 50th

2010-02-07T20:30:00.001+07:00

Thankyou everyone so much for praying for us to get to YWAM’s 50th. God sent people to give us money to get there and pay registration, and He even provided the exact conference fees from a knock on our door the morning that we left Chiang Rai. He is good!

The conference was GREAT. We got a lot out of it and are so glad we went. We also had the chance to sit in on the DTS lectures the day before the conference. These lectures were about hearing the voice of God and were taught by Ellen Sanborn (the wife of Art Sanborn – a man who is literally a “walking miracle” and wrote an amazing book on what God has done) as well as her grown sons, Sean and David Sanborn. Just sitting in and listening to this family’s teaching was very insightful. On my DTS 2 years ago, Ellen actually prayed over me (Karis) and got a word that God was calling me to a dry land (which is where I am now!).

But yeah – We learnt many things through the teaching of Loren and Darlene Cunningham (founders of YWAM) at the conference, but in this blog I have just chosen two things to share…

Say “yes” to serving God
Loren and Darlene Cunningham shared so much about God’s faithfulness in YWAM and how it wouldn’t be this big if people hadn’t said YES to serving Him (whether it be by giving an amount of money or doing a job). This forced me to look into my own life and see how many times I had said “yes” to serving God even in the last few months – and not just saying “yes” but then doing it with a willing heart and a cheerful attitude. Yes, there have been times where I have done both. But there have also been times where I have said no – out of fear that it would have a negative effect on my husband’s and my relationship, out of fear that I would get worn out and tired, out of fear that our money would run out – the list is long. But God worked in my heart. Loren and Darlene’s faith brought revival, birthed YWAM, and brought them to every single country in the world (when they had no money!). YWAM is here, lives have been changed, and all because Loren and Darlene gave EVERYTHING (and I mean EVERYTHING) to say yes to serving God, no matter what could happen to them. God could use them. And if I compare this to my life in the last few months, I am not even close. There have been many times where I’ve shrunk back in fear, tiredness, shyness. But from now on, I will make a change. I will give God everything. I will die to my own desires (take up my cross) to follow Him, no matter what the cost. Faith like this is what will bring a transformation and revival in Thailand. Amen?

Before the conference finished, Tom Hallas (overseer for all of YWAM in Indo-China and a friend of Loren and Darlene who has been with YWAM since the beginning) shared about two questions that God had asked him in the beginning years of YWAM, and how God used those questions to encourage him to walk in transparency and humility before his team. He mentioned that these questions and their answers were what brought revival to a particular country: “In your life, what are you doing that you know you shouldn’t be doing? And what aren’t you doing that you know you should be doing?” We had time to wait on God and ask for the answers to these questions, and then stand up and promise God that we would talk to someone about our answers sometime in the next 7 days. God used these questions to show many things not only to me but also to Noom. As we were driving home after the conference, we discussed these questions together and grew even more in an understanding of each other and our struggles. Noom received a transformation from these questions, as well as many other things throughout the week.

How have I changed?
I am so determined to give everything to God, to surrender to Him, to be a woman of prayer and faith, to follow what He says, to spend more time with Him in prayer and listening to His voice, to spend more time in worship, to love people more and see them through God’s eyes…and MANY more things!!!! The conference taught us a lot individually, as a family, and as a ministry – and I believe there will be a LOT of change in our lives and our love for each other.

Above I have only gone into a little bit of depth on just TWO things! But there are a lot more. I have written up 2 pages of things I learnt that really inspired me to make a change. If anyone would like to know more, please feel free to ask (noomandkaris@gmail.com)

We are now back in Ubon and getting back into the hang of things here. Once again, thank you so much to everyone who helped us with prayer and/or finances in the last month and a half as we travelled – yesterday we worked out that with all the money we spent on diesel in the time travelling, God provided down to every single baht (by sending people to give us money specifically for diesel…AFTER we made the step in faith to go before we had all the money). In your lives, if you feel like God is telling you to do something, go and do it – don’t worry about the money. He has proven Himself to be SO faithful.

Loren and Darlene coming in at the opening night

Us with Darlene Cunningham (the mother of YWAM)!

Loren praying for Darlene before she shared on the last day

Leaders in YWAM

The Faithfulness of God

2010-01-26T16:31:00.000+07:00

Sorry we haven't been writing lately! Things have been quite busy here. But we have a lot to share on God's faithfulness in the last month! And we will share something that we need some help on too.

Firstly, as we updated before, this month we have been travelling to different ministries. The last update was when we were in Phitsanulok and about to travel to Chiang Rai to help the DTS Orientation Camp there. Well...on the way to Chiang Rai we had some car troubles. Our car has been having problems for awhile now and we have been waiting for God's timing in order to fix it. Just after leaving Phitsanulok, our car broke down and wouldn't start. Guess where it broke down? Right across the road from a car shop. The people at the car shop told us that we would need to wait until the next day for it to be finished, as they had to change a big (and expensive) part of the car. We prayed for 4 months already, to have enough money to fix the car. At this time, we had no money in our bank but had a car that couldn't be used again until it was fixed, so we prayed. Awhile before that time, a large amount of money was given to us as a donation. We kept it with Karis' parents in case of an emergency. This money happened to be exactly 14,500 baht. After praying, we decided to use this money to pay for the car. The next day after the car broke down, the owner of the shop who fixed it quoted his price: 14,500 baht. God provided the money before it happened, and the EXACT amount that we needed.

Another "nutella and crunchy peanut butter" story (although this time, with Ferrero Rocher chocolate): The day before my (Karis') birthday, I was in 7-Eleven and saw a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. We all know how expensive these chocolates are...but SO good! However, I was able to control myself because of our finances. That night, a friend gave me a birthday present, and when I opened it up, guess what it was? A box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates!

Now for the story that we are asking help for...

The YWAM 50th Anniversary (conference) is coming up. The founders of YWAM, Loren and Darlene Cunningham, will be there. It will also be an amazing opportunity to meet with YWAMers from all over the place, and to build relationships and networks. Up until Sunday night (24th Jan) we were planning to go. But on Sunday as we prayed and looked at our budget again, we realised that the expenses for this month were too much from all the travel, and so we needed to give this opportunity back to God. So with some struggle we decided not to go and started to make plans to go back to Ubon this week. But we also asked God that if it was His will for us to go, could He show us by sending someone to talk to us or help us the next day (Monday 25th - before we went back to Ubon!!!). In the afternoon of Monday 25th, after making some plans to go back to Ubon, a friend of ours came up to me and said that she had been praying all day and felt like she wanted to help us by paying our house rent so that we could use our money for the house rent to pay for the conference. She said that she felt God didn't want us to miss out on what He had planned for us to experience at the conference. Wow! So that night we prayed again, and we felt like God was giving back to us what we gave to Him. The YWAM Chiang Rai base (which we are staying at this week before going to Chiang Mai for the conference) has also agreed to help us and give us a discount on how much we pay to stay here this week. At the moment, we have about 50% of what we need in order to get to the conference. But we believe if it really is God's will, we will have the 100% by 2nd February (when we pay the conference fees and hotel. We have chosen a cheap hotel about 1km away from the conference venue). So we would like to put this out to everyone and ask for people to pray for us about this. If you pray for us and for God's provision, and then feel like God wants to use you, please let us know. If you don't feel like this is the right time to give, don't worry - your prayers are what is needed the most. We believe that God will provide some way! He always does.

Thankyou so much for reading our update. Praise God for His unfailing love and faithfulness in our lives - and in yours too.

God bless you all!

First Update of 2010

2010-01-12T18:08:00.002+07:00

Hey everyone,

Happy New Year!

We hope you are all well in this new year and have some good new year resolutions to fill :)

We have been on the road since 26^th December, first travelling 6-7 hours to a place called Nakhon Sawan (about 4 hours out of Bangkok). We came to this place to run a Christmas program, but we ended up staying for about 4 nights to help with some other things that came up, and to have a time of resting too, which was nice! After this, we went to Bangkok and stayed at Karis’ family’s house for a week and a half. This was also a relaxing time for us, and a chance to spend some time together without the distractions of ministry. During this time, we also had a chance to go to a lovely beach wedding, the first wedding we’ve been to since our own.

Now, we are between Bangkok and Chiang Rai (in a place called Phitsanulok). We left Bangkok on the 11^th and drove here to visit some good friends of ours who we will hopefully be working together with in the future. Tomorrow (Wednesday 13^th) we (along with these friends of ours) will travel to Chiang Rai to plan, set up, and help run the Orientation camp for the next DTS. If nothing else comes up, we are planning to leave Chiang Rai towards the end of January, take our friends back to Phitsanulok and then go home to Ubon, where Ice and Pedro are at the moment.

In the last month, Ice and Pedro have been helping out in the YWAM Ubon internet café and being “discipled” by one of our friends to get them ready for their DTS. Our leader has talked to a Thai DTS in Khon Kaen (another province in Isaan) and we will find out more information soon (about school fees and whether Ice and Pedro will be able to learn there). Please pray for Ice and Pedro at the moment, while we are away, because it is hard for these two teenage boys to live a godly life when we’re not there to help guide them. We are looking forward to getting back home, spending some time with them and helping them through the trials that have come up in the last month, but until then we need to trust them into God’s hands. Please pray. Thank you to those of you back in Ubon who have been helping to take care of Ice and Pedro while we are away.

We also want to thank everyone who has been supporting us in the last month through prayer, financial needs, and encouragement. We have grown a lot in the last month by seeing God’s faithfulness come through for us, to the point of Him providing money even for diesel for our car to do all this travelling. It has been an important time for us in our relationship to rest and spend time with just the two of us, plus an important time for us to prepare our ministry by the relationships we have been able to build in the last month. We believe that our trip to Chiang Rai in these next 2 weeks will also be an important time for us to build more relationships, serve YWAM Chiang Rai, and catch up with some of our old friends :)

So once again, thank you. Everything we do here would not be possible without our God and the support of our “backbone” – YOU and everyone else at the other end of this email :)

May God bless you all and give you a fresh start to the Year 2010.

Merry Christmas :-)

2009-12-25T20:31:00.001+07:00

Co-incidence? Chance? God!

2009-12-12T15:02:00.000+07:00

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!

2009-11-27T15:51:00.001+07:00

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 :-)

2009-11-25T15:41:00.000+07:00

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

2009-11-18T21:06:00.000+07:00

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

2009-11-17T17:27:00.000+07:00

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 :-)

2009-11-10T17:35:00.001+07:00

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

2009-11-03T14:30:00.000+07:00

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

2009-10-26T16:34:00.002+07:00

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

2009-10-22T10:04:00.002+07:00

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

2009-10-21T17:35:00.000+07:00

^ 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 ^

October Update - from UBON!!!

2009-10-20T20:57:00.000+07:00

Hey everyone - this is a copy of our last email update (sent out earlier on today). If you want to be on our email list, please email us at noomandkaris@gmail.com

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We want to thank you all for your support over the last 2 months as we have been getting used to married life, and at the same time, getting used to taking care of a 16-year-old boy together! We are all going well and have made the move from Chiang Rai to Ubon Ratchatani. We moved on 9th October and the next day went to Noom's village (about 1-2hours away), only just getting back to Ubon today. The drive from Chiang Rai to Ubon was just over 18 hours! Thank God for keeping us safe and providing us with this car just before we moved, so that we could take alot of our belongings with us. We also had a song-teaw (small truck) drive with us, taking the motorbike and some of the bigger wedding gifts we got. At the moment we are staying in a YWAM house with another member of YWAM Ubon, but will be moving into the house we are renting sometime this week!

We had a great time in Noom's village the last couple of weeks. In order to save money on furniture, Noom and Pedro spent most of the time in the village cutting up wood and bamboo to make our own furniture. They both made beds, chairs, and cut wood to put together a table. When I wasn't helping them, I was working on our new idea to raise support: taking photos, loading them onto the computer, editing them and adding motivational quotes or bible verses to get them ready to print off as posters and postcards. If everything works out, we hope to sell these in both Thailand and Australia to raise support for our ministry (those of you Aussies, make sure you're ready to buy some next year when we visit!!). Please pray for us to be able to have some starting money to print off these pictures.

We would like to ask you all to pray for us in a couple of other things too. At the moment, we are praying about buying some cows or sheep and breeding them to also raise support for our ministry. This is a very thai-style thing that people in the villages do to raise money. Of course, if God gave us the go-ahead for this, we would need some money to start off (to buy the cows and sheep) and then it would be a few years of taking good care of them before we could start breeding, so we would also need a volunteer to help us take care of them (we would keep them on Noom's family's property in his village, about 2 hours from where we live).

The other thing is that we are praying about buying the house we're renting. At the moment, we are renting 3,000baht per month (about $110 AU per month) but if we wanted to buy it, it just means we would pay 6,000baht per month ($220 AU) and after 9-10 years, all the money would be payed off. At this stage, if we keep renting we will pay 3,000baht per month and probably stay in it for 9-10 years, so there is no difference on the time, just double the money! We have a plan to move to the village in 10 more years, and if we had a house in Ubon when we move to the village, we could rent it out to someone which would also help with our support, or use it as a missionary house for missionairies to stay in. This house is a perfect house and in a great location. The option has come up for buying it (instead of renting) because there is someone else who wants to buy it. If we decided to buy it, which (as we said before) would just mean paying $220 per month instead of $110, it would be a big step of faith because at the moment we are only just scraping by with the money that we have. But if God says yes, we'll trust Him. So we have alot of praying to do! Please pray for us in making this decision - that God would make His answer clear in His perfect timing, that He would open and close doors to show us the way.

THANKYOU SO MUCH for your support through prayer, encouragement, donations, and committed monthly support. Thankyou for caring for the Thai people as much as God does!! And thankyou for being a missionary (no matter where you are) by partnering with us in our vision for this land.

We would love to hear an update from each and every one of you :-)

God bless you all!

Love Karis and Noom

Planning for the future

2009-10-01T14:09:00.000+07:00

Heart of Isaan has recently been into a couple of villages that we would like to help in the future - one near Lampang and one near Mae Suay - both in North Thailand.

In Lampang we made a support video for friends of ours who have recently started a kid's ministry, and in Mae Suay we took some clothes into one of the villages (that people had offered). In the future we hope to bring a band into both of these places and run a revival concert. Please pray for this dream!

The village near Mae Suay is an Auca village, with pastor "Ajun Surachai" who is really committed to sharing about God. Actually, since going on an outreach trip to help Ajun Surachai earlier on in the year, many other people and villages have come to know God through the work Ajun Surachai does there!

Also, as we were driving to Ajun Surachai's village, we prayed about which house to go to (as he has two houses, or more like "shelters", in different villages). We felt like God said to go to the first one. As we were driving, Ajun Surachai saw us on the road, he happened to be going that way! He told us we would need to go to the first house, and that we couldn't go into his actual home village because of the road (when it rains alot, even a 4WDrive cannot get through! That's when they use motorbikes). So thank God for leading us in that direction, leading us to see Ajun Surachai so we were sure we were going the right way, taking care of us and our car, and really showing us that even though it was a long drive just to give some clothes, it was what He wanted us to do and it was worth it.

Pictures and videos of both these places near Lampang and Mae Suay (as well as of our 4WDriving in order to get to there!) will be posted soon, but for now we don't have a computer as it is getting fixed! But the road was shocking in both places...lets just say that we are SO thankful to God for giving us a 4WDrive (and at this time, before moving to Ubon) so we could have the chance to serve the Thai people who live in the villages in North Thailand.

Moving to Ubon

2009-09-21T16:01:00.000+07:00

Welcome to the first blog :-)

At the moment we are in Chiang Rai and will be moving to Ubon (a province in the North-East) in the beginning of October.

Please pray for us that God will provide the money to move with all our stuff and that He will also show us to a good school for Pedro, a 16-year-old guy who lives with us and who we take care of.

Praise God for showing us to the perfect house to rent (pictured below) - a house with room for Pedro to have his own space and Noom & I to have our own space. It is also in a good spot, close to the lake and the town :-)