Our First Video Blog

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To my dutch friends..

In Holland we made little video for my dutch friends and supports. If you weren’t able to watch it, you can watch it here online.

Sunny Summer, Back in Denver!

Dear Friends!

We have had a really awesome couple of past months. We were able to lead an outreach a seven week outreach to Thailand!  We had the privilege of seeing God move powerfully and it really strengthened our faith.

It has been great to lead an outreach together. We learned a lot from it and we definitely want to do it again. Actually we would like to bring another outreach team to Thailand next year. Watch our final video!

After our trip, we spent some time reflecting and resting and were even able to spend some time back in Holland. This was actually our first time we were back after our wedding for longer than a few days. We spent more than three weeks in Holland and had a great time with our family and friends. Internet and Skype are awesome but there is nothing better than just siting and talking face to face and enjoying each other company.

Two weeks ago we came back to Denver and dove right back into our work at YWAM. It was awesome to work at the base again, seeing the new students coming in, being part of a great community and spending the Summer months in Denver. After being rather busy in Holland we feel like we are getting some structure and rest.

Our Summer quarter started on June 28th here at YWAM Denver, with four schools!  One of them is the new School Of Communication. We are really excited for this school, because it is one of the new core courses of YWAM and it doesn’t run in a lot of locations. Along with all the basic theories of communication, we also made it into a fun and creative school. The true heart behind the school is that we learn to communicate what God puts on our heart, in a good, professional way, so our message will be received in all different cultures, audiences, and age groups. A major focuses for this school is practicing and learning the basics of Design, Public Speaking, Web, Writing, Video, and Photography.
I, (Merel) have been involved since the conception of this new school and it has been really cool to see it grow more and more into the form it is now.
We started with three students for School Of Communication;  Jamie from Wisconsin, Michael from Holland/Slovakia, and Laken from Pennsylvania. It’s a small school, but we are really excited for it. Because of the size, we can give the students a lot of personal attention and help them to figure out what their part is in the communication process.

School photo

My new small group, Laken & Jamie @ Red Rocks.

So it has been a very excited quarter! We will keep you updated! Love to hear from you guys too.

Love,
Jonah & Merel

Last update from Thailand – Phuket

Greetings from Thailand,

It’s almost hard to believe, but this is our last outreach update! Our team had a great time working with SHE ministries here in Phuket and we have seen God work in great ways. This past week, close to 60 people made up of 3 YWAM Teams and 2 World Race Teams invaded the bars of Patong to bring the light of Jesus. One really cool thing that we were able to be part of is the fruition of a dream for SHE; a bar, called Coyote, has allowed the YWAM Montana team (some of whom are very talented musicians) to play in the bar. So, we packed out the bar with missionaries until we spilled out into the street and worshiped God together. It was really interesting to see the responses of some people as they walked by. Many of them stopped and watched for a long time. They were drawn to our singing and it lead to some great conversations. The bar must have liked it, because they have been invited back to play twice after that!
The teams that come to SHE, don’t always get to see direct results of their effort to reach out to the bar girls, but just during our time here, 5 girls we have been building relationships with in the bars, have come to SHE and have filled out an application to change their lives and work with SHE! Praise the Lord!
During the last couple of days, we have been debriefing our team and bringing our time of ministry here to a close. On Monday night, we will take a night bus to Bangkok and then we fly back to Denver early the following morning. Please pray for safe travels and also for our adopted team member “Bank” (B-Money). He wants to do a DTS, but is also a little afraid to go back home into a total Buddhist environment. It’s awesome to hear his testimony of his time with us and we pray that God continues the good work He has begun in his life. Pray also for our team as we transition back to Denver on to the last week of DTS.

Thank you all for your prayers!
Many blessings,
Jonah&Merel and the Thailand team.

Thailand Team Update Phuket & 1 year anniversary

On Wednesday evening, we took a 12 hour night bus to Phuket where we are now staying to do ministry with SHE (Self Help and Empowerment). SHE focuses on reaching out to the many bar girls in Patong and helping them to get out of the sex industry by teaching them a new trade. Since SHE began reaching out here, they have helped at least 80 girls find different occupations and many of them have now become followers of Jesus as well! Our ministry begins at about 9pm as we go out in groups and visit the open bars and talk with the girls and offer them an opportunity to come to SHE for English classes and help to find a new source of income. We usually get back a little after midnight and then we spend time praying for each other and for the girls we talked to in the bars. Fortunately, we can sleep in a bit in the morning and then at about 1, we send part of our team back to Patong to pray for the ministry the following evening, as the remainder of the team stays at SHE to work on other projects around the SHE facilities, painting, cleaning, carpentry, etc. As you might be able to imagine, the spiritual climate here is quite heavy. It’s difficult to see the bar girls selling themselves and seeing so many western men taking advantage of them. However, the ministry has been amazing so far and several bar girls have showed great interest in coming to SHE for a change of lifestyle. Please pray for our team to have the strength and boldness to continue to reach out to these girls and be the light of Christ. Also, pray for our sleep at night. Many of our team members have been having a difficult time sleeping because of the heat and the manner of our ministry. Pray for us in this last week to finish strong!

Many blessings, Jonah & Merel and the Thailand team.

P.S. On April 30th Jonah & I celebrated our first year Anniversary. We planned a little get away to an Island, Coral Island, nearby the coast of Phuket. It was really a great time, it felt like a mini-vacation although it was only 24 hours. We are still very happy with each other and would certainly do it all over again!

I cried / 3 stories that touched my life

The boy…
In the village we daily fed the little children of the school, and there was one little child, he was small, dirty and very under fed. He probably had a kind of illness going on, but to me he looked more dead than alive. He came to our program and was not able to feed himself, so I ended up helping him. While he was eating the thought came to my mind, this kid is not able to fight in this world yet, he is too weak, to skinny and didn’t really respond well. I was praying for him that God made him strong, so he was ready to fight in his not easy life.
This day a group of Buddhist believers who wanted to bring Merit (Buddhist bonus point for the afterlife) came to the village and brought a little snack box with a dessert and gave every kid 100 Bhat (3 dollars). My boy had already eaten more than he probably had for a long time. So i packed his 100 Bhat in his lunch box and was trying to teach him how to hold it tightly so he wasn’t going to drop it while he was looking for his way home.
When it was time to go everybody left already, all the kids run home but my boy was still sitting on my lap. He didn’t move, he didn’t had a brother or friend to drag him alone. I thought for a moment, this boy is not going to survive and it made me cry.

I saw the boy one more time, 2 days later, during one of our afternoon programs. He was looking already so much stronger than before. He could have had a sickness the other day, but I believe that God heard my prayers as well. I hope he is going to survive in this world and change the lives of many people in the village.

The mute lady…

Today we went to the slums. We walked through it and visited several homes. People are really friendly and kind of shy when they meet ‘fallings’ (foreigners). We went to a home with 4 old ladies. The pastor from the local church already made some relationships and adopted one of their son. We prayed for all the sick people, and they kept bringing in more and more people so we were able to pray for many. One lady, she couldn’t speak, never had, because something was blocking her throat. We prayed for her and the pastor was trying to make her speak, and after some practicing she was able to say Hal-la-luh-ja, Thank-you-God! It was amazing and she was so happy. God did a miracle and started the healing process in her.

94 year old lady…

The last house we were going to was difficult to get to. We had to walk on a old wooden walkway, which was partly rotten and gone. While we were walking a bunch of dogs were barking to cheer us on. We came to this house and 2 old ladies were there, they had become Christian 6 months ago. The oldest lady was in her nighties. She couldn’t really control her pee anymore, because it was smelly inside. She was a very cute old woman, white short hear, tiny, sitting on her mattress. I couldn’t really understand what was wrong with her. We had a time for prayer for her and we encouraged her with sweet words. John from our team, bended over and gave the old lady a big hug. She started to tear up. An 94 year old lady was crying! It was really touching and it made me cry too.

New Video from Bangkok

Check out our new video from Thailand.

Love Jonah & Merel

Outreach take II – Bangkok

Sawadee Kah from Thailand.

Thank you for all your prayers! Know that you are in our thoughts too.

We have been working in Bangkok with the ministry BJD that is reaching out to University students. We are living in a big student house with a boys and a girls side. All the students who are living here have become Christians through this ministry. We have taught English and played sports everyday with them to build new relationships. We invite them over to English class and to Tuesday worship nights.
We also went to the slums area where we were able to see how the people build a living on piles of trash. We talked with the people and were able to pray with them. This week we will spend some more time with this ministry as well.

We also had a day of free evangelism and we felt like we had to intercede for Thailand and the protests going on right now in Bangkok. So we divided into two groups and interceded and worshiped in two strategic area’s of the city. It was a great time and also our new team member ‘Bank, (aka B-Money’  had a good time worshiping with us.

Sunday we went to a small Thai Church where they asked us to share a message, two testimonies and one drama.
Our team did an amazing job in preparing, coming up with a theme and sharing their stories with the church. We also had a time of ministry for those who responded to the message. More than half of the church came to the front for prayer. God was really working during the service and we were happy to be a part of that.

This morning,  we picked colored bags out of the dump to bless the ladies who are turning them into nice purses for purchase. During the next couple of days we will be working with the slum ministry before we head down to Phuket on Wednesday evening for the last part of our outreach. We will be working with the SHE ministry that is focused on reaching out to the girls in the bars.

Our last contact Lawn and his students showed up twice last week to spend time with us. We were able to spend our free day with them and they will also come back to Bangkok before we fly out in a little more than two weeks. It’s great to have made such good friends here in Thailand.

Prayer points:
for our new team member B-Money, for God to reveal Himself in his life.
Pray for good health, no diarrhea!
For strength in Phuket

Many blessings,
Merel&Jonah and the Thai team

Doing life in a Thai Village

Greetings from Thailand,

We made it through the Jungle and we’re back to “civilization”!  We had a really wonderful time in the remote village of Pah-Mai (I’m sure I spelt that wrong, but is sounds something like it). The ten days we spent there really flew by and the team had a great time getting to know the children and loving on them. We also worked hard too. We built several rock dams in a river, worked a garden, painted, taught English, did skits and dramas and dances, sang a lot, and fed the children of the village.
We have made so many valuable friendships already. The Thai students that came to the village with us to help teach English have really bonded with us. They have been asking so many questions about God and we’ve been able to testify about our Faith. They even asked us for a bible in Thai. They like us so much that they want to spend another week with us. Even our contact, Lawn, has said over and over again how much he is impressed with our team and he even keeps hinting at wanting to spend the rest of the outreach with us.
As much as we have enjoyed being in the village, the students are happy to be back in a place where we can wash our clothes and perhaps even find some Air-Conditioning. Did I mention it was hot? It’s actually the hottest time of the year here with temps well above 100F and very high humidity.
For the next week, we’ll be in Phetchaburi at our contacts house. Tuesday is SongKran, a celebration of the new year with a country wide water fight. Throughout the week, we’ll be hanging out with the Thai students and continuing to invest in the relationships that we have been able to establish. After that, we are planning to head back to Bangkok.

Fun Fact:
It is the year 2553 over here in Thailand. (And still no flying cars! Is it ever going to happen??)

Prayer Points:
Continued health
NO malaria from our mosquito bites
For the situation in Bangkok to calm down and that we are able to continue on with our plans there.

Much love,
Jonah&Merel and the Thailand Team!

Watch our video from the village (6 minutes long) Jonah made it.. it is very cool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LP_4jGReSgVideo from the village

Sawaa Dee Kah!

Greetings from Thailand,
After 25 hours of travel, our team has arrived to Thailand, complete with all our luggage!  The team is doing really great and we seem to be already getting over our jet lag. On Thursday, we had an orientation with YWAM Bangkok, followed by a wonderful Thai welcome lunch and a scavenger hunt to experience and explore the Thai culture.
This morning (Friday) we traveled to Phetaburi to meet up with our first contact at a school. It turns out that the school had been really looking forward to meeting us all and we had a grand welcome waiting for us. (see attached pictures and the poster on the back of the stage) The school had prepared dances from 4 different parts of Thailand and a welcome celebration with speeches and a very tasty Thai lunch. This is the first time that this school has ever hosted a group of “farangs” (Foreigners) like us.  They didn’t know what YWAM was, so they researched it on the web and they really liked that YWAM stands for “To Know God and to make Him Known” , even though they are Buddhist. We felt very special and we were even called “super heroes” for coming to help the poor. Which brings me to my next topic: We will be leaving, dark and early, to the a remote village (of the Karen people group) on the border of Burma. We’ll be driving for 4 hours and then hiking in for another hour. We will have no internet, cell phone service or electricity for at least the next 10 days. This is also the first time this village has ever hosted a group like ours and they are super excited but also nervous about what to cook for us. We told them that we would eat anything they put before us (Pray for us!)
We’ll do our best to keep in contact during our time in the Jungle. Until then, “No news is good news”
Many Blessings,

Jonah&Merel and the Thailand Team

Some Thai culture lessons we’ve learned so far:
- Don’t tap people on their head, because that is the holiest part of the body
- Make sure your feet are down, and not pointing at somebody, because that means that you want to pick a fight or disgrace them
- We learned in the YWAM Thai culture orientation that we couldn’t make out with the Monks, because they have to go for weeks of purification. So.. we probably won’t then.