Every eye must have been on him as he stood in his hometown synagogue, accepted the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and read: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Imagine the response when, after giving the scroll back and taking his seat, he added, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4)
In that brief but very dramatic moment, Jesus declared his purpose for coming. He was on a rescue mission to fulfill God’s promise: sacrificially winning our liberation from sin and death, providing mankind with an invitation to spiritual freedom, as well as physical, emotional, and social relief.
Following Jesus’ example and in accordance with the mandate of Scripture, Multiply seeks to engage in that same holistic style of ministry: sharing the Gospel and addressing the needs of the whole person to facilitate transformation.
When Multiply’s Carmen Owen began sharing Jesus with young women in a juvenile prison in Northern Thailand in 2011, it wasn’t with the idea of establishing a holistic ministry. Following nine years of church planting, she and her husband, Andy, were serving in leadership roles—Andy as Southeast Asia Regional Team Leader, and Carmen as Member Care Facilitator. Together they also facilitated culture and language training for new Multiply missionaries arriving in Thailand. Visiting the prison was simply something she did in her free time—on the side, with the help of a growing ministry team—to share the love of Jesus with young incarcerated women.
But God, in his supernatural creativity and compassion, had something much bigger in mind.
“That began a journey I never saw in my life trajectory,” Carmen recalls with a laugh. “For many years, we had been fruitfully church planting and some beautiful churches had been planted. That growth meant that our team needed to divide to train more leaders who could make disciples and plant more churches. And yet, it still felt like something was missing in our missiology—new believers needed discipleship training that was also holistic and sustainable.”
Carmen says she and her ministry team witnessed God impacting hundreds of lives. As more and more young women in the prison began responding to the redeeming love and power of the Gospel, dozens of women committed to following Jesus wholeheartedly in baptism. “Many of them were discipled, following Jesus faithfully inside the walls, desiring to see their lives change, desiring to experience something different when they got out.” But, once they were released, Carmen says, it felt like “throwing them to the wolves” without an established support system.
It quickly became apparent to Carmen that while the girls in the prison were receptive to the gospel during their sentences, they were extremely vulnerable upon release. Many exited the prison as disciples of Christ, but found themselves immediately confronted by an oppressive, toxic environment of poverty, abuse, drugs, and sex trafficking.
“When we realized this was where our believing disciples were going, because it was really the only option for them, we started praying and asking the Lord for an opportunity to do something different. We knew discipleship needed to look different—they needed the opportunity to follow Jesus in a whole new paradigm. That’s when we started a program called Freedom Textiles. We began to train girls inside the prison to sew and invited them into a small business program once released. Little by little, we added other trades.”
“We didn’t have a grand trajectory of business as mission, we didn’t have a business plan. We didn’t have a lot of resources. But we had faith.”
Though they could see what God desired for these girls and women—an abundant life as growing disciples of Christ—they didn’t know how to get them there. So, together with missionaries Cynthia Friesen and Sandy Fender, and national partner, Siriwan, they prayed.
“We didn’t have a grand trajectory of business as mission,” Carmen admits. “We didn’t have a business plan. We didn’t have a lot of resources. But we had faith.”
That led to the birth of Naomi House in 2020—a sewing business and safe haven for at-risk women and marginalized families that serves as a center for discipleship, worship, prayer, and a catalyst for community development and outreach.
“These women, whatever their stories, struggle to get work,” Carmen explains. Naomi House provides them with an income, an identity, and quality of life. “Many have worked in sweatshops. Many have worked in human and drug trafficking. Many have worked the fields where they are unpaid and only receive daily meals.”
In Naomi House, the goals are discipleship, empowerment, and for the women, their families, and their communities to be transformed by the gospel. This ministry provides a wage that will sustain them, allowing them to plant their own gardens and pursue education that can help break the poverty cycle. The Naomi House is also committed to seeing the families of these women reunited and restored, as well as providing education for their children.
“There are many methods and many avenues for building disciples, for reaching the lost, for planting churches. What we’re doing is missional business. The bulk of the leadership is in the hands of our national partners so that they receive advocacy and favor as they work in partnership with social workers, prison officials, and local schools.”
Naomi House now sews for several companies in North America, and also markets their own brand in Thailand and North America.
“Our vision is to see every woman who comes to Naomi House go back to their home village to share the Gospel through their testimony.” Siriwan and her husband, Wichian, continue to disciple Naomi House women and families to follow Jesus, and lead others to follow Him.
Carmen, Siriwan, and their team are amazed and humbled by the impact Naomi House has had. They are so grateful for the mutual partnerships between Naomi House and friends in North America.
Carmen says she has prayed, “‘Lord, thank you for allowing me to see all of this beauty—the beauty of what you’re doing in Thailand and the beauty of the journey from the beginning to where we are now. This is truly what God’s love looks like.”
GIVE
You can be part of what God is doing through this unique and timely ministry. Your financial support for Naomi House will help transform lives and communities in Thailand.
multiply.net/naomi-house
