Friday, December 26, 2014

How Far Will You Follow?

For most of my team, Thailand is the farthest we have ever been from home. The food, language, weather, and customs are much different from everything we experience in America. In the past couple of weeks, we experienced for the first time squatty potties, sticky rice for breakfast, and milk bubble tea. In our time at the Tamar Center so far, we also experienced God and His power in awesome ways. 

Just last weekend, we participated in a Christmas party held for girls working as prostitutes. Although the women at the Tamar Center have been building relationships with these girls for many months now, this was the first time they had ever held an event like this, so we felt a little nervous about how many women would come. We spent time in fervent prayer for God to bring them, and for their hearts to be open to Him and to His love. 

We prayed specifically for five women to come. 

Over twenty showed up. 

Standing in that room as more and more ladies stepped through the open door, I felt like crying because of the joy bursting through my heart. God fought for them. He is still fighting for them. And as long as we follow Him out upon the waters, WHEREVER He may call us, we can be a small part of His plan. 







For my team and I, this is a trip. A long trip, yes, but a trip nevertheless. We all have return flights, plans for the summer at home, and families excited to see us in May. What has struck me the most during our time at the Tamar Center is the forever kind of obedience the staff here is practicing. They are here until God calls them somewhere else- however long that may be. They love the Thai people with their whole hearts, whether it be kids from broken families in a village four hours away, or women selling their bodies on the streets in the city. Serving joyfully, they love unconditionally, day in and day out. 

That kind of obedience to God's call and that depth of love for others has been both convicting and refreshing. Am I truly willing to follow Jesus wherever He would call me? It's a question that certainly seems to hold more weight here, as I begin to truly ask Jesus what He has for me in this life. But when you let God give you a kingdom-mindset, what higher call is there than to love others and make God known? 

Working with the Tamar Center Korat has already been a huge blessing for my team, and I can only pray we've been half as much of a blessing to the Thai people around us. Jumping into ministry here has brought us all so much joy, and watching God work has been incredible. Keep praying God will continue to teach us, grow us, and work through us during our time here!



Jacqueline Roig
World Race Team




Thursday, November 20, 2014

To be a Blessing....

Lying on a hammock at Lamnamrong village on a sunny Sunday November afternoon with thoughts of amazing blessings of God running through my mind i couldn't resist but to pen my thoughts into words all for His Glory.

It doesn't matter where you came from or where you live, each one of us desires to be blessed. Parents want their children to have more than they had, be it education,foods, clothes and good health. There is this universal desire to be blessed and it is found among all people everywhere.The blessings of God is much more than good health, food, shelter and a good job. God’s blessing includes our Salvation and our future heavenly home. God desires to bless us in ways that are spiritual and eternal.

We have a responsibility that goes hand in hand with our blessings. We can never orchestrate God’s blessings to us. We can only corporate with God’s way. When we try to bring God’s blessing through our own devising we will not accomplish what God has in store for us. It will require faith on our part to trust God and his ways.

No one ever can bless us like God can bless us through Jesus Christ. The world will always promise to bless and then disappoint. There is first temptation then destruction. What the future holds for us is beyond comprehension.We must face the future by standing on the promises of God. Our God has not simply poured out His blessing on us for us to stockpile them. God has called us out, set us apart to bestow his great Love on us. But there is much more than only that. God has blessed us for the same reason He blessed Abraham, to bless all the families of the earth.

2014 is winding up  with some  weeks left , its time to harvest this year's promises and labours sowed and toiled. Christmas is just a heartbeat away and all we can do now is to go out in God's name and live out  LOVE, CARE,  JOY, PEACE and be  a BLESSING to those who are in need and are seeking for all these things in wrong places.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Tamar Center Korat Projects in the villages


1.  Project Chicken & Project Frogs
Tuu and Somjit  were among the first and the only couple who  accepted Jesus in Non Tako Village. They are farmers, Tuu voluntarily cooks food for our cell group at Non Tako every Tuesday night

1. We have started rearing 30 local chickens for meat.
2. We have also started frog farming with 500 frogs for the first batch.


Please continue to keep them in your prayers so that this project will be successful but more importantly they will continue to grow in the Lord and their lives will make impact on other people in their village.




Tuu and Somjit in front of their chicken farm
First batch of frogs


2.  Project Shop Up-gradation
Pii Phon is a single lady who takes care of her mom, her autistic brother  and her grand daughter. She manages all that with a small shop in her house.
Pii Phon is the first lady who accepted Jesus and brought the gospel to Non Tako village. She has struggled a lot but God has been faithful to her. Currently our cell group meets in her house
 We have given her financial aid to help her upgrade her shop. Please continue to pray for Pii Phon and her family.
 
Pii Phon, her mom and her brother

3. Project Mobile Fruit Shop
Pii Sathit is a single mum of two daughters , she is a daily wage earner. Her works are cutting grass , cutting sugarcanes, and whatever job available to her in the village. She also has a responsibility of taking care of her two daughters and her old aged mum.
We’ve helped her fix her motorbike become a mobile fruit shop. She will drive her mobile fruit shop to different daily markets. Please continue to uphold this family in your prayers.
Pii Sathit and her two daughters

The mobile fruit shop


Friday, June 6, 2014

My One Month Mission Experience in Thailand with Tamar Center Korat

The month or so that I spent working with Tamar Center Korat completely reshaped my view on missions. And that's saying a lot coming from me, raised in a family actively involved in missions for (at least) four generations.
I always thought missionary life was more of a fate than a choice, and not a happy one at that. I never considered myself suitable for missions. Street evangelism, volunteering in refugee camps or leading Sunday school in some village in a faraway tropical country is simply not for me. I really don't deal well with the sun. I'm not that much into kids. And I'm just not interested.

That's what I kept saying for years and look where I ended up: doing children's ministry in Thailand—the hottest and sunniest place I've ever visited— and not only did I survive but I had the time of my life. Because, I came to realize that those were just excuses covering up the fear that if, indeed, I did end up on the field, I wouldn't have anything to give.
And it turns out that I have.

In Thailand I finally saw that missionary work really is all about loving people. Simple as that. Sure, I knew it before, but now I know that it actually does work in practice. That loving is in itself practical. It is playing with the kids; greeting the neighbors; helping out with cleaning; cutting down a tree; binding a bleeding toe; accepting a gift; teaching origami or simply smiling - all those simple things that I and my team had been doing, sometimes without even thinking. 

Understanding the value of such small acts has been a huge lesson for me: I can actually make a difference with the skillset that I have. I don't have to become the missionary stereotype to bless and serve people. God can use me the way I am wherever I am -  this has been the truth He has been drilling into me throughout my outreach. God is the one doing the heavy lifting anyway, so I should just relax, enjoy and be ready to act whenever human hands or smiles are needed.



And then there was the Tamar Center Korat  team itself. I don't think I've ever seen a group of people working so cohesively as a team. What inspired me the most was observing them live out the love with both passion and perseverance. Week after week, year after year they have been going to those villages that  we also visited. And they didn't have the advantage of being the blond newcomer to smoothen the way like I did. Sometimes people would be indifferent, sometimes they would be angry and sometimes they would backslide, but the team would keep on going back. Hearing all those stories I really came to admire the team and I wish I could grow to be more like them: that I could learn to serve like them and love persistently like them. 

And if people like the Tamar staff is what people in general have in mind when they talk about missionaries, then not only am I willing to accept the term but I would be proud to be called as such. That's quite a change, no?

Rosinka Babashkina 
Finland/Russia
DTS outreach team from Lonavala, India
“Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” 
― Martin Luther King Jr.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

What does it mean to show the LOVE of GOD @ Tamar Center Korat?

You're the God of this City 
You're the King of these people 
You're the Lord of this nation You're the Light in this darkness 
You're the Hope to the hopeless 
You're the Peace to the restlesFor greater things have yet to come 
And greater things are still to be done in this City 
Greater things have yet to come 
And greater things are still to be done here

(Street Evangelism Worship@ Yamo Korat)
Ministry @ Old Age Home Korat
“Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.” – Romans 15:7
Street Evangelism @ Yamo Korat
English Camp Ministry
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
(Matthew 18:10 ESV)
Children Ministry @ Ban Mai Village
Jesus said, "Don't stop children from coming to me! Children like these are part of the kingdom of God."
(Reaching out to children @ Ban Nongte Surin)
Jesus loves the little children,

All the children of the world. 
Red and yellow, black and white, 
All are precious in His sight. 
Jesus loves the little children of the world. 


(Children Ministry @ Non Ta Ko Village)
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."(Children Ministry @ Lam Nam Rong Village)
“We must cherish one another, watch over one another, comfort one another, and gain instruction that we may all sit down in heaven together.”Village Cell Group Fellowship@ Non Tako Village
Juvenile Home
Ministry to Women Shelter Home (Naree Sawat)
Free English Classes
(Kindergartners)
@ Tamar Center Korat
Kindergarten

University and Adult Group

Primary