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.

Church leader training

For many years we have been dreaming about doing more to strengthen the churches in this area.
Now we finally got to start our first church leader training. We invited pastors and church workers from the villages around where we live.
We had such a great time. God did some wonderful things in our midst- revealing the truth.
We had good talks on the old vs the new covenant.
As most of the Karen churches are traditional churches, many of the things were new to them. Some are very excited about the new truths they have learned, others need to go home and think through what they want to choose to believe.
This is something we want to continue to do.


Church leader training, Way Te Loo, 9-11.09




9 pastors, elders or church workers came.

Paul Wilcox teaching, Hsar Moo Paw translating

Finding the truth in the Bible

LDC in Chiang Rai, Thailand

What a blessing! For 6 weeks our team had the opportunity to be students again together with 18 other YWAMers. We also had 11 staff who were there to model and teach leadership to us. They poured into our lives by sharing their experience, mentoring us, preparing creative workshops so we could get the most out of all the teaching.
We learned a lot about being leaders and have some great new tools to use in our team. We have a lot of hope for the future and feel inspired to continue even though being leaders can be challenging! It also had great value to us as individuals and our personal growth.

Some of the topics were: mentoring, team leadership, integrity, self leadership, roles and goals, debriefing, conflict resolution, spiritual gifts, DISC.

Teamwork

Building the highest tower


Personal mentoring


Learning from eachothers experiences

Prophesy workshop

We had a workshop where we went through the different phases of our lives.

Here Liv has finished her journey!

Creative worship on Psalm 23

Marriage seminars

A new ministry at our base is to focus on families. We want to see strong families, healthy marriages and content children. First step for us to see this happen has been to arrange marriage seminars.
The three seminars we have arranged so far have been great. The couples get some good tools they can use in their marriage.

Great teachers and eager listeners

An older couple learning things they have never ever heard of before

Good communication is important. Here Saw Ooh is explaining the picture and his wife has to try to draw as identical as possible without seeing the picture.

Commitment to your new family. Leaving the old family, uniting with your spouse

Having their first date together!