Noom Piawong grew up in a small village in Ubon Ratchathani, North East Thailand. After many years of involvement with alcohol, drugs, women and being the leader of a gang, God transformed his life while he was doing a DTS in Chiang Rai in 2006. He made the committment to serve God and stayed on staff in Chiang Rai for another few years. Karis grew up in Canberra, Australia and moved to Bangkok with her parents in 2007. At the beginning of 2008, Karis went to Chiang Rai to do her DTS. It was there that God confirmed His calling on her life for Thailand and gave her a heart for Isaan (North East Thailand). Throughout the DTS God also showed both Noom and Karis the plan that He had for them to serve Him together. Karis stayed on staff in Chiang Rai for another year and in August 2009 Noom and Karis got married and moved to Ubon.
God has given Noom a heart for worship, youth, and the Isaan culture. In late 2009 Noom started the band “Heart of Isaan” which comes under YWAM Ubon’s Worship and Arts ministry. Noom and Karis worked together leading this ministry, as well as being guardians for 4 teenage boys who lived with them for the first 2 years that they were married. However, they really wanted a child of their own and in October 2011 Karis gave birth to their first baby, a boy named Eliyah Sartugan. It was after this that she started to feel the time was coming for her to start pursuing her dream of looking after young women who were faced with unplanned pregnancies. She is now studying to be a Birth Doula and hopes to be able to use those skills in Bethany Home, the ministry she is starting for pregnant women, under the Baan How Foundation, YWAM Ubon Ratchathani. Noom will continue to write Isaan music and lead the Worship and Arts Ministry as well as the Discipleship Training School (DTS).
