When YWAM Ratchaburi started, God spoke to us about touching every generation and every area of society. We have truly seen this begin to come into play through ‘Love Ratchaburi’. When we started running English camps at some of the small local schools, we never could have imagined that God would open doors for us to run seminars with the doctors and nurses at the hospital, the government workers at the local municipality and even the a group of retirees. Many of the camps and seminars were even organized and run by the local municipality for us.
A large part of what we do in Love Ratchaburi is in serving the local church. Many times the churches are small and have very few, if any staff. Often the pastor not only preaches, but sometimes leads worship all on his own too as there just isn’t anyone else to help him. We have found God leading us in creative ways over the past 4 years in how to serve the church here.
One of the churches that we serve has many youth as well as access to a supply of Bibles and tracts to distribute on a regular basis. Before we started helping them, they didn’t know where to begin. We have been taking teams to minister with them. They distribute Bibles in the factories nearby during the factories lunch breaks – on any one day there are about 1000 people working there! Although we helped them begin to do this, the youth in their congregation now have the experience to do it when we are not with them.
Two years ago we were contacted by one of the churches who were wanting to reach out to a certain community but didn’t know where to start. We started a Saturday children’s outreach for them and after a few weeks their youth helped to take over. This ministry is still running successfully after 2 years. When we have teams of volunteers we often take them to hang out with the kids on a Saturday – what a blessing to see God using the Thai youth to teach the children about Him.
Many of the members in the churches are elderly or live far from the church and don’t have transport. While some of the churches run home churches during the week to reach those members, they can’t all be reached on a regular basis as there are just too many. We take teams and volunteers to pray for these members and help serve them in whatever way we can. Sometimes they need help farming their land, sometimes they need help preparing their goods to sell at the market, other times they just need a friend and some prayer and encouragement.
We have loved seeing three new churches being planted since we have been in Ratchaburi – and not just seeing it, but helping in the process. What a joy to see new areas reached for Christ!
The churches in Ratchaburi have now joined together regardless of their differences, to host a Christmas evangelism event at the end of each year. As YWAM Ratchaburi, we are a part of the committee that organizes such events, and meets together with the pastors and church leaders once a month to pray and worship together.
We continue to run English camps and seminars, but have seen God leading us to ‘Love Ratchaburi’ through His body, the church, in so many ways. As we continue to help start new ministries and train up church members, we are blessed to know that we are a part of a greater family – working for One Kingdom – no matter what ‘church’ we belong to.
YWAM Ratchaburi
Noiy & Bronwyn Prommathat
Niran Hills Village
145/485 Moo 8
Dontago Muang
Ratchaburi 70000
Thailand
+66-81-382-4438
