Welcome to the Baldwin Boomerang

We long to see people in every tribe, tongue and nation transformed for God's glory. Our mission is to share the gospel by producing effective, compelling media tools that people can understand in their own culture and language. We are preparing to serve as full-time media missionaries with Create International. Toward that end we completed an extensive missions training program called a Crossroads DTS at YWAM Perth, Australia and a secondary YWAM school called the School of Frontier Media in Thailand. We are currently on furlough in North America and hope to see you face-to-face in 2010!

Support Information: Our support goal is currently near 50%.

You may send gifts and donations for our support to our sending agency Ripe for Harvest and please designate Account #247 in the memo line without including our name on the check. You may then mail the check directly to:

Ripe for Harvest, P.O. Box 487, Monument, CO 80132

PLEASE note new address.

It can take up to a month and a half for us to see your donation show up on our report. Also, Ripe for Harvest is able to issue a tax deductible receipt in the USA, but YWAM in Thailand is not.

If you want to be added to our newsletter list or have additional questions, email us at baldwinboomerang @ gmail dot com

Monday, January 18, 2010

Vol 14f My*nm*r Memories 5: Sh*n People


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You can double-click the photos to see them bigger!

We've recently taken a photographic journey into the beautiful Sh*n countryside, now let's meet the beautiful people who live and work in this land.



On our way into and out of the Sh*n St*te we had to pass through a number of military checkpoints. The government uses these frequent outposts to restrict the movements of people around the country. In fact, much of the country is completely off-limits to tourists, and the military completely controls interactions between foreigners and indigenous peoples. We had secured passes to go to certain points, but we were not free to move about the country. Needless to say, this shot was taken discreetly.



The lack of an educated workforce with skills to use modern technologyy perpetuates the growing problems of the economy. However, along the roadsides between villages you will often stop at various vendors for refreshment. These stands offer the local people an opportunity to share their wares with travelers. The bananas from Southeast Asia are quite tasty.



And if bananas are not to your liking, there is also the watermelon women to help satisfy your cravings for fresh fruit. Suffering from decades of stagnation, mismanagement and isolation, the country is one of the poorest nations in southeastern Asia. Therefore people are very resourceful, using what they can glean from the land to make ends meet.



It is a very common sight to see men and woman carrying large loads along dusty roads. Not many people here have access to a vehicle. To move their produce and other wares from their fields to their markets requires a lot of sweat equity and a tough noggin'.


Here a woman sits at a cigar rolling device that allows her to make nearly 1000 cigars per day. This country is also one of the world's largest exporters of opium and drug abuse is a common problem among the population.


The country's slow economic growth has helped to preserve much of the environment. These woman do their best to support themselves by selling these fun pancake thingies.


And this man sells a sort of dim sum or dumpling filled with bean paste. If you like crushed bean, he's your man. After the cyclone devastated entire communities a few years ago, many men were forced into new occupations to support their families.


1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Great Quotes!

"I have been called and commissioned, through no merit of mine, to carry this message, to tell this story, to give this invitation. It is not my story or my invitation. It has no coercive intent. It is an invitation from the one who loved you and gave himself up for you. That invitation will come with winsomeness if it comes from a community in which the grace of the Redeemer is at work." - Lesslie Newbigin

God desires that we be like living signs of the kingdom, to provide visual aids of what life will look like one day when the kingdom is here fully. We will not bring the Kingdom or build the kingdom, but our privilege is to live out previews of “coming attractions,” revealing what this Kingdom will look like. - Tim Dearborn, "Beyond Duty."


“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all people cry, laugh, eat, worry and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends. Maya Angelou

"The Gospel is only good news if it gets there in time." - Carl F. H. Henry


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