New staff

We welcome two new staff members to our base. We have been praying for a long time that God will send more workers to our ministry. He has answered our prayers through these two young men. You can read more about them and their stories below.


Name: Khu Wah
Age: 21
Favorite food: Apple

My story:
I grew up in Deawi, Myanmar, but I was born in Ka Ta Kua. My father’s name is U Toe See and my mother’s name is Naw Sun May. My father is a farmer and my mother cooks in the home. I have five brothers and two sisters. A missionary told me about Jesus and he told me that Jesus saved me already. I believed because I had no hope in my life. After I died, I didn’t want to go to hell. I looked at my life and was full of sin.

Why I joined YWAM:
I think that YWAM is a good spiritual family, they know the way of God well, and they teach Christians God’s way of truth. I know that YWAM’s purpose is to teach people to know God’s will more. God called me here after I arrived here and met YWAM Mae Sod.
I staff here now, and next year I must be a student in the Discipleship Training School (DTS) because I want to know God’s will and I want to grow my spiritual life.

My dream for future:
My vision for my future is to learn the will of God. I must take the DTS. I want to study Thai language because I must talk about Jesus to Thai people and make them Jesus’ disciples. I plan to do this by obeying everything God tells me to do. I will preach in the market and hand out tracts about Jesus. When someone believes in Jesus I will bring him to our mission and disciple him regularly.


Name: Eh Doh Soe
Age: 25
Funny story: God created goats. All goats eat grass, but I have a goat that eats rice every day. I don’t think that it is healthy for goats to eat rice. It is funny when I think about this.

My story:
I was born on the Thai/Burma border in Shoklo refugee camp on July 2, 1985. I have three brothers, of which I am the oldest. My father’s name is Saw Pantee and my mother’s name is Naw Eh Hser. My father died when I was five years old. I want to see him, but I can’t. Most of my family members are Christians. My mother loves God and loves to study the Bible. She is very kind and friendly. She also teaches children in Sunday school.
I heard about Jesus when I was a child, but I did not believe in Him. Throughout school, we had a Bible study every week. In high school I first started following God a bit, but did not really believe. Just before I graduated I started following him more closely. After this I took the Discipleship Training School (DTS) with YWAM and became very close to God.

Why I joined YWAM:
My friend, who had taken the DTS told me about what YWAM is. I wanted to learn more about God’s calling for me. This is the reason I joined YWAM.
I have much experience with YWAM. The best thing about YWAM is that, during this time, the Holy Spirit came in my life, cleared my mind, opened my eyes, and made me close to Him. I also learned about the Trinity: the father created; the son is the way; the Spirit is the counselor. Also, in YWAM, they encourage people to worship God freely and personally.

My dream for the future:
I want to share God’s word with my people, the Karen people, and have a relationship with villagers of other religions. I also want to tell Jesus’ good news and teach songs to children so that they can grow up knowing God. Overall, I want to go share the gospel anywhere I can and teach people about salvation.
The ways that I will accomplish these things are to listen to God’s voice as he directs me in each area, to make new Karen worship songs, record them on an album, and teach them to my people. I will show Jesus’ kindness and humbly serve others. Another great way to preach the good news is to teach English at the same time.

Wonderful Esther

We have the great pleasure of introducing our second daughter,Esther, to all of you. She was born the 19th of June, healthy and strong and mum was in the hospital only an hour before she came. Ever since she has been the loveliest, easiest, most smiley little girl you can imagine. The two sisters totally adore one another. So far so good:-). They both fill our house with a lot of fun, laughter, kisses and hugs. We are so blessed to have these two miracles come into our lives.
A short testimony about Gods faithfulness. Two weeks before Esther was born I was submitted to the hospital with dengue fever. The Friday before Esther was born the doctor declared that by blood platelets had recovered. God saw us through it all. Brought us healing, health, strength and brought Esther to this world on perfect timing. He is sovereign and knows all things!

Hsar Moo Paw, Liv Jorun, Hannah and Esther.

Steps towards unity

As I write this, ten pastors are on their way home after today’s third prayer meeting with pastors from different denominations. Last time we had only three people coming all from the same church. Today we had an amazing time were people came from many different churches. Afterwards they said that they wanted to get together even more often and we could tell that everyone were very encouraged after praying together.
We have been hoping that our base could become a place where people from different denominations can come together without feeling uncomfortable because it’s not their denomination. These pastors expressed this today, that they see our place as a “non-dangerous” zone in a way. It’s really great for us to hear that. It's been on our hearts to do this for many years and now it's really happening. Praise God!

Mini DTS

I’m sitting here by the computer feeling so grateful for what the Lord is doing. I just came back to our house after a great evening with staff and students in the Mini DTS where we had a time of speaking blessing and encouragement into one another’s lives. We could really feel an atmosphere of great appreciation and love for one another. Our words truly have power.
We started the Mini DTS eleven days ago and it’s been eleven amazing days. Many of our students have given their lives to Jesus for the first time. Most of them have experienced the Holy Spirit working in their lives somehow. Many give testimonies about how God has given them a new freedom after choosing to forgive people that have hurt them in the past. Students are sharing how the truths from Gods Word about unconditional love, salvation, The Holy Spirit, Gods grace, forgiveness and many other things are making a deep impression on their lives.
It seems like God has put this Mini DTS together for a special purpose. Our seven staff are functioning so well together each with their giftings of teaching, building relationships, serving practically, leading worship etc. Our nineteen students are more open than any other group we have had with us here in Way Te Loo. They seem to really soak in everything they hear and experience like sponges that are super thirsty.
Glory to God! He is so good and faithful. We can only stand amazed to what He is doing in the midst of us.

Students and staff in the Mini DTS,

Hsar Gu Gu teaching about unconditional love.

Fun and fellowship.

Naomi

Time goes by really fast and it's already more than 3 months since we welcomed Naomi into the world. Our beautiful daughter was born on January 13. It was an amazing experience seeing her for the first time. For about 8 months we had been praying for her and longing to see her. Suddenly we could hold her, Gods perfect creation. She is such a blessing to us and brings lots of joy to our family. What a special gift from God. We are forever thankful for the miracle of new life.

Gu Gu and Maria

Days of inspiration
The 9th—12th of February we arranged a conference that we called “Days of inspiration”. We gathered a group of former DTS students, some pastors and we also had a DTS team from Norway visiting. We were really blessed to have Tom and Diana Hallas and Jeanette Montgemory coming to speak to us. Tom Hallas is the leader of YWAM in the Asia and Pacific region. Diana is his lovely wife and Jeanette his assistant. They make a wonderful team and were an incredible encouragement to all of us. As the Karens are so afflicted by the war and have no homeland Tom has over the years had a heart to share with them about their identity in God. While they are denied their identity as a nation and their rights as individuals in this world, God has a special place for them as adopted sons and daughters and heirs to the Kingdom. It was some very special days were people really could see their sonship in God and that they belong in the fellowship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in a powerful way.
We also heard from Diana about women’s place in the Kingdom. She exposed some of the lies that people believe about women’s lesser value and bigger responsibility for the fall in the Garden. So deliberating and an eye opener to many of us. Jeanette encouraged us beautifully about being positioned with God by His throne in all kinds of situations. We were so blessed by her gentle and honest words.
We would like to do similar seminars especially for people that have done DTS’s here for them to be refreshed and strengthened to live life with God in their different life situations. We were so blessed to have them back her for fellowship and for a time to share some of the challenges they have been facing after coming home from DTS.
Liv Jorun

Tom Hallas.

Diana Hallas.

Eager listeners.

Anita from Norway's experience

Every day is an adventure. A new experience. A new day where God reveals his heart in a new way. His heartbeat pounding proudly for the Karen people. A bigger understanding of who God is through this people. To see how different people praise God in a different but a wonderful way. To understand more of your own culture and what diversity really means.
Wow! It is hard to sum up an amazing month in just a few words. For a Norwegian girl who just turned twenty it is hard to find just one highlight to talk about, cause I am so stuffed with different experiences! My team and I have visited three different villages, worked a lot with children, done some practical work and had a lot of meetings, drama and singing. We also worked as English teachers at Noh Bo Academy, something that was very challenging but a lot of fun. We will never forget all the beautiful faces of the Karen People and their amazing hospitality.
In the second village we visited we really experienced how God is at work through any situation. We were supposed to have a big open air meeting but had to cancel it because John cut himself in the arm with a machete. It worked slightly different from the Norwegian axe. Hsar Moo Paw, John and Laurel went to the hospital. Back in the village were five Norwegian together with a bunch of Karens full of expectance.
After a while we sat down with the guitar and started to sing; Some in Norwegian, some in English and we also somehow got through the three Karen songs that we know. The family we lived with, their relatives and neighbors came to listen to us. After a while we realized that there was a need of extending our report oar and God challenged Gunhild and me to dance for them. They laughed and clapped. Later they sang a bit for us before they asked us if we had something more to share. We had some dramas but we were missing some of the players and we had no one to explain the dramas. But then we realized that our cook, Saw Oo, knew all these dramas from his DTS so he could share something about each of them.
We hadn’t prepared anything but still this was the best meeting we had during the whole trip because God really was there with His Spirit and His peace. Even though we couldn’t communicate with each other verbally there was something stronger that bound us together: The love for Jesus and each other. In situations like this we really understand what divine appointments mean. We often think that when we’re going to share the Gospel we need to be good at preaching, have a beautiful singing voice or a catchy drama. “If we are clever God can use us!” But God has said in His word that it is when we are weak that we are strong. When we admit that we don’t have anything to give in our selves, God comes with His plan which is far greater than what we can plan ourselves. When He is Lord we might not have the full control over the situation but God is really in control and He will work with His power and love that exceeds human understanding.
For me this how I really want to live my life. Every hour, every day, a whole lifetime.

Pastors hand in hand

Two months ago our team in Way Te Loo talked about the vision for our ministry and what we want to see happen the coming years. One of the things we talked about was unity among the Christians and the different denominations. We decided to work towards meeting with pastors in the different Karen churches for regular prayer and our goal was to get started by July 2010. But God’s ways are higher and better than our ways.

One day in December a missionary from one of the Karen congregations came to our house and invited us to a meeting. A lot of pastors were gathered to receive information about a TV-campaign with Billy Graham here in Thailand. The missionary that came wanted the group of pastors to get together the same afternoon and talk about how we can reach every village in this area by working together and so we did.

We had our second meeting the 9th of January to make the big decision; do we want to stand together both in prayer and in ministry or do we want to continue working separately like before? Very few people arrived at our YWAM base here in Way Te Loo which was the location for the meeting. At first we all thought it would be a fruitless meeting were we wouldn’t be able to make important decisions because the main leaders hadn’t arrived. But a few minutes into our meeting some of the key leaders in the area came and the talk we had became very positive and fruitful. The result of this meeting was that we will meet together regularly for prayer and we will also look into the possibility of doing some outreaches together. What a breakthrough!

God had been working in both our hearts and other leader’s hearts to bring His plans for the Karen church to pass. God’s heart truly is unity and the body of Christ standing together fulfilling the great commission instead of wasting time and energy disagreeing about unimportant issues. The last months events have really showed us how God is at work, and that He can do much more than what we hope for.