Thank you for praying for our D4D Trip to Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, Bolivia from November 13 – 24, 2025! It was a great trip, and I want to share one Saturday morning with you.

 Would you like to meet a “ripe,” ready, eager-to-learn whole life discipleship team? Just as a mango matures to the place it is “ripe” and ready to pick and eat, so a team can be “ripe” and eager to learn. I’m going to share from our three-hour visit to the Cochabamba team.

 What makes this team ripe?

• They are organized and used our time together well.
• They know their lessons, and instead of only studying the first required eight-lessons have gone much further than we expected. We love their initiative!
• They shared how their current lesson of Resource Mapping had taught them about their local community including which languages their neighbors speak.
• They are using the lessons, like “Seven minutes with God” on how to organize a quick daily devotional study with their families. One man lives in a home with 12 people, and his grandkids ask him, “When are we doing our Seven Minutes with God today?”
• They are an eight-person team and have five small groups in their homes where they are facilitating the lessons with their families and some neighbors. We haven’t yet asked them to do this! They are taking the initiative!
• We came ready for a devotional study, but they had one already prepared!
• We tested their level of teaching in an adult learning style where facilitators ask questions to guide the group, instead of the prevalent rote-memory education system including preaching and most teaching they are used to. They have room to grow in this area, and now that they know what we are looking for I’m expecting to see some growth. We will also do a full workshop in Adult Learning and Bible Telling next year.
• We got in one lesson on making Personal Development Plans so they can better apply lessons they are learning to their lives. Their level of participation in this lesson shows that Antonio has been using adult learning methods and they are eager to participate.

I have coached some good teams, and Gary Hipp has coached even more. We both felt that this is the ripest team we have ever encountered this early in the process. This was Rodiz Chambi’s first coaching trip, and he said, “Now I know what a ‘ripe’ team looks and feels like!” I am excited to coach this team along with Rodiz and Pablo, giving them an excellent example as they help us coach other teams in the Santa Cruz area. By God’s grace, their eagerness to learn, along with the transformation we will be seeing in their lives, families, church and community will be a valuable foundation to grow a whole-life, disciple-making movement on!

Back Row left to right: Marcario Salva, Rodiz Chambi (coaching with Gary Hipp and David Thomas) Pablo, Rolando Vasquez. Front left to right Veronica, Isidora Chipana (Marcario’s wife), Pascuala Aruquipa, Bernardo Mendoza, and kneeling on the floor Pastor Antonio Mamani (D4D Team leader). They belong to the “Iglesia Vida Para Todos,” a Friends church in Cochabamba.

I included this picture here with their names because some of you like to pray for these people by name. Your prayers make a difference! Thank you in advance for investing prayer in their lives. It is my privilege to coach this group, and to focus your intercession in the place where it is going to have a great impact. Thank you for joining us in prayer!

The Lord bless you!
David Thomas

Planting whole-life, disciple-making movements

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Psalm 67:1-2

The post David Thomas | December Update first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Discipling for Development trip – Thailand, Jan 7 – Jan 18, 2025

David and Debby spent the Christmas holidays in Thailand with their daughter Alandra. She is teaching for a year in South Korea. They visited her in Incheon and then brought her to a warm climate for the holidays. Debby returned home, and David joined Scott Purser on January 9.
What is going well with our Lahu, Thailand Discipling for Development team?

• Yosapa loves building relationships in the village. He has a great relationship with his wife, Abba, and their two sons. A lot of our success comes from his ministry over the years, especially discipling and mentoring MaoPa as he disciples new believers and pastors the new local church in JaSoPa.
• Mana chose a good wife. He is smart and likes to study and prepare lessons.
• Scott Purser & Ronald Mazune coached our D4D team well on two trips in 2024. Ronald is from Uganda and has a lot of experience. His participation during my sabbatical has been valuable.

Local JaSoPa village pastor, MaoPa (maroon shirt), washing his wife, Eme’s, feet, and Yosapa (D4D team leader) (grey shirt) washing his wife, Abba’s, feet. This is part of one of the lessons they have been teaching on how to have a healthy, God-honoring marriage.

Join us in praying for:  

• Pray for unity on our D4D Team, especially between Yosapa and Mana.
  • Yosapa leads through building relationships in the community. He loves to visit and join people in the fields or at whatever they are working at. He is practical and “hands-on.” He struggles with long-term planning and preparing lessons.
  • Mana is more intellectual and can do well with lesson planning. Pray for him to grow in trusting God, in rejoicing, and in working well with Yosapa, his leader.
• Discipling in the Village of JaSoPa with marriage lessons.
  • Pray for Christ’s transformation in the lives of these new believers, especially in their marriages. Pray for each couple to gain the specific insight they need to apply in their marriage relationships that will lead to growth.
  • Pray for insight and thriving for MaoPa and Eme (the pastors) in their marriage.

How can we help the Thailand D4D project finish well within the next 1-2 years?

• Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.” I am reminded how dependent on God we are for success. In Discipling for Development, we use key discipleship, coaching, facilitation, and community development skills, and we operate within well-reasoned and practiced Biblical principles. We do our best, and we depend on the Lord of the Harvest to multiply our effectiveness “way beyond all that we can ask or imagine!” Pray for God’s wisdom and favor to rest on us and on our Lahu brothers and sisters!

JaSoPa village families participating in D4D show the priority list of themes they plan to study, believing as they work through these areas using the Bible and a problem-solving process they will begin to move out of poverty and improve their lives. This priority list is what we will be discipling them through in the next couple of years ahead.

Thank you for joining us in prayer on this trip!

David Thomas

The post David Thomas: Join in Prayer for My Trip to Thailand! first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

  

This Christmas season, we celebrate Jesus, “Light of the world!” We remember, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it!” At the very beginning of creation, “God proclaimed, ‘Let there be light, and there was light!” I am so grateful God continues to command his light into the darkness, the chaos, the barrenness of our lives and world. Now, his promise is, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea!” May God make “His light shine in our hearts so we can know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Christ Jesus,” this Christmas season!*

I am grateful for the privilege of taking a sabbatical from June – October this year. Debby and I celebrated our 30^th anniversary! Our first two grandkids were born. I enjoyed being available to invest in relationships with our children. As far as my personal growth goes, three main points stand out: I rest in his love (my place of identity), I host his presence, and I submerge everything under his blood.

I am grateful for all of you who pray for me, and support me financially. If you have a need you would like me to pray for, please let me know. I have several ongoing requests I am holding up before Papa, pressing in for healing and breakthrough in his perfect timing.

If you are not on my monthly financial support team, I invite you to ask Holy Spirit to see if he would have you join us. The button below will take you to my online giving page!

May you be blessed this Christmas season!

David Thomas

Planting whole-life, disciple-making movements

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Psalm 67:1-2

* John 8:12, John 1:5, Genesis 1:3, Habakkuk 2:14, 2 Corinthians 4:6

The post David Thomas Lightcome End of Year Newsletter first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Dear Friends,

I am excited to announce that EFM is allowing me to take the next four months as a sabbatical switching my work focus from my ministry to growing in my primary relationships with God, my Debby, and my children. I have come to realize that I have held my ministry and my calling over my family. What a gift to understand this and to have the next months to turn this around. God led Adam into an amazing calling of ruling the whole earth, and they worked hard together naming the animals; fully understanding them, and learning how to steward them. Yet in the middle of all this fulfilling work, God said, “It is not good for Adam to be alone!” Adam first of all needed a deep, intimate relationship with God, then a deep intimate relationship with Eve, and out of these two primary relationships would flow the rest of life; including his calling and ministry. So, I am taking this time to bring my Debby and our kids and their families back into the right, high priority in my life.

I love the grace of this time to lay down my calling, my ministry, my intercession, my D4D teams and projects, and to focus on becoming all that Papa has created me to be. I also physically need this time to fully recuperate from a nine-month parasitic infection.

All my Discipling for Development teams are in good hands. Gary Hipp is leading the Bolivia D4D team with amazing people from the US, Mexico, Chile, and Bolivia. Scott Purser with Navigators USA is leading our amazing Thailand D4D team accompanied by Ronald Mazune working with Navigators Uganda, and also our former D4D coach for our team in Rwanda. Our various Rwandan D4D teams are currently led by Nsabimana Tertullien along with Gerard and Augustin. EFM is also progressing well on its Luke 10 Initiative of starting at least 5 new fields with 10 new missionary households by the end of 2025. I am free to take the next four months to release, rest, recover, reflect, renew, and re-establish my priority relationships, refocus, realign, and at the end of my sabbatical time re-engage in the amazing ministry God has given me.

I am including two videos I took in Thailand this last January- February 2024 trip. The first video is a one-minute view early in the morning above our special Discipling for Development village of JaSoPa (above). The second video is six minutes long and is for those interested in praying with me over JaSoPa village. I pray “Let Your Light Come!” as well as pray through the Lord’s Prayer and Isaiah 61:1-3 (below).

Thank you in advance for praying with me for a more intimate and trusting relationship with Papa, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit through this sabbatical time, as well as for some wonderful growth in my relationships with my family! Pray also for the full restoration of my gut health and physical strength!

I won’t be sending updates until it is time to reengage in four or so months.

Bless you!

David Thomas

Planting whole-life, disciple-making movements

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.” Psalm 67:1-2

The post David Thomas June 2024 Lightcome Newsletter first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

The last few months in Denver for me have been a whirlwind of activity! God has been moving in many hearts in the city, especially my own! I want to say a huge THANK YOU as I am fully funded with my training in Whole-Life Discipleship with Discipleship for Development. I will always need more prayer partners and I invite you to pray for me and with me during this time! So far, we have been through units focusing on spiritual formation and transformation and are currently studying incarnation. We will continue to meet weekly until October 2024.

While I am learning I am also able to put my learning into use right away through relationships! The number of Venezuelans and migrants from other countries continues to grow in Denver. I have been blessed by being able to be a missionary within my own city as I prepare for a ministry in a foreign field with a multicultural team!

Denver Friends Church (DFC) has responded by opening a shelter for 29 people to be housed overnight. The shelter is set to close on 3/30 and the people staying there will have a 21-day stay in another shelter instead of being put out onto the streets! During the time that it has been open, the church and surrounding community have responded by volunteering for a few hours or throughout the whole night and have housed 105 people. Multiple meals have been prepared and hundreds of mouths have been fed, including on Sundays and Wednesdays during church activities! The love of Jesus is apparent through the open arms of the people of DFC and it has been a humbling and honestly quite exhausting experience for all of us.

While I have not had much to do with actually running the shelter I have had the privilege of worshiping every Sunday with new friends and new believers in the beautiful language of Spanish! Many still live in shelters and many have been able to get their documents to find work and housing. Many want to come to the church service because of the community, fellowship, and encouragement they receive from each other and from the Word of God. In truth, we have planted a whole new church! At most, we have had 90 people in attendance and it has never been below 30! Praise God! On Easter, we will worship all together as one body before Christ who has risen indeed! AMEN!

A big blessing I have had is to have an apartment close to the church to be able to host people! I have been able to open my home for migrants to cook, eat, and be warm! We cook and eat together and have conversations about Jesus and everyday life. One of the biggest blessings for me has been my friendship with Mae. Her family of 5 now have their paperwork, an apartment, jobs, and peace from the Father. Please pray for her and her husband Alex who have chosen to get married after 20 years together! Please also pray for the salvation of their three boys: Moises, Christian, and Leonardo.

Wilson, (a Brazilian missionary) and I have been leading English classes throughout the week with MMA fighters online from Brazil. We have been praying and exploring about formulating a more concrete program plan as well as opening up our classes to others. Since this class is online there is the potential for migrants from here to be able to be involved. I have begun a Teaching English as a Second Language (TEFL) course to be able to learn more about teaching and also to have a future avenue for ministry. Please pray with us as we discern the right direction and make plans for how this can happen. May God lead our efforts!

Prayer Requests:

• Pray for DFC and the volunteers who are tired and in need of a break, but who have also been incredibly blessed themselves by this ministry.
• Pray for the 40,000+ new migrants in Denver and for the city and its inhabitants to embrace our new family with God’s loving wide-open arms.
• Pray for the Iglesia Amigos that has been planted right in our laps! Pray for wisdom, guidance, intimacy with the Holy Spirit, and teamwork amongst a multilingual and multicultural ministry!
• Pray for me, that I keep my path straight and my eyes focused on Jesus. Pray for good time management amidst the chaos and true rest.
• Please pray for the English class ministry online in Brazil and the currently forming ESL classes at DFC.

In Christ,

Cassi Coleman

The post Cassi Coleman is Fully Funded! first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

David at home in La Paz, celebrating the sun shining on Mount Illimani after days of his mountain being hidden in the clouds!

Trip to the cities of Santa Cruz, Cochabamba & La Paz Bolivia | February 27 – March 11, 2024

Trip Purpose:

After our Discipling for Development team purchased tickets for this trip, we learned that Food for the Hungry-Bolivia was no longer able to continue a coaching relationship with us, so this trip has switched from the original purpose of exploring and deepening our relationship with FHI-Bolivia to holding a one-day vision casting workshop for 50 participants coming from former FHI-Bolivia church connections. Food for the Hungry is hosting this last workshop for us in Cochabamba. In Santa Cruz, we will connect with Rodiz and Stefanie Chambi as well as with Pablo and Karen Peñaloza. Pablo’s church in Santa Cruz is the only committed church so far, so we will be getting to know them and their context better. I will also connect with Friends Church (INELA) leaders to see if they might want to include some churches in the Discipling for Development process along with us.

Other team members will be flying out on February 28 and back on March 8.

Stefanie and Rodiz Chambi are walking with their baby Eden Rose with Cintia Huayhua walking between them. David Thomas is standing on the right with Pablo Peñaloza. These are the key people we are mentoring.

Praises and Prayer Requests:

• Praise God for good relationships with leaders working for Food for The Hungry and Compassion International, even though they have not been able to continue working with us. Some leaders have taken up our offer to personally disciple/coach/mentor them. Pray for these relationships to be a blessing to these leaders and pray for grace for them to grow as Holy Spirit leads them.
• Pray for God’s favor, blessing, and grace to rest on us as we connect with key leaders God has led us to mentor: as we get to know Pablo Peñaloza, his wife, Karen and their six children, and his local church setting in Santa Cruz. Pray for a deepening relationship with Rodiz and Stefanie and baby Eden Rose. We will also see Cintia Huayhua who has a good discipling relationship with Merri Lee and Judy.
• Pray for health, strength, energy, excellent Spanish, and good communication with all those participating in the one-day whole-life discipleship vision casting seminar (Wednesday, March 6) with church leaders invited by Food for the Hungry – Bolivia. Pray for safety in travel for all those coming (often a day’s drive from their cities).
• Pray for favor for me and Rodiz as we meet with various Friends (INELA) church leaders to see if they would like to participate in our Discipling for Development coaching with a few key churches they would like to see adopt whole-life discipleship.
• Pray for me. I am learning to be continually centered, grounded, and rooted in Christ’s love. I know that I am his “beloved ‘huios’ (son, heir, family representative), that Papa is pleased with me, (that he trusts me), that his delight rests on me.” (Luke 3:22) Pray for these truths to root deep down in all aspects of who I am.
• Pray for my Debby to have a strong sense of Papa’s presence with her and pleasure in her as she is alone while I’m gone. Pray for all the grace, favor, Holy Spirit insight, and wisdom she needs in her leadership roles.

I am grateful for many of you who keep up with me on these trips and pray for me. Thank you! I pray God’s blessing flows into your lives in every way! If there is something you would like me to be praying for that you are facing, please let me know. I have several ongoing requests I am holding up before Papa, and I am trusting for healing and breakthrough in his perfect timing.

If you are not on my monthly financial support team, I invite you to join us! Ask, Holy Spirit to see if he would have you join us. There are four ways to give:

• Online. Visit https://catalog.friendsmission.com/thomas. You’ll be given the opportunity to indicate whether you are making a recurring or one-time gift.
• Credit Card. This may be given online (as stated above) or by calling the EFM office (303-421-8100) to give your information to a live person.
• Automatic Bank Transfer. Download the form here and email it Debby McElroy (EFM Bookkeeper) at debby@friendsmission.com. Please note that ACH payments are processed on the 10th or 25th of the month.
• Check. Mail a check to EFM, P.O. Box 771139, Wichita, KS 67277. Make sure to mark your check “Thomas Support” and note if you will be giving on a recurring basis (monthly, quarterly, etc.). Pay to the order of “EFM.”

David Thomas

Planting whole-life, disciple-making movements

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.” Psalm 67:1-2

The post David Thomas: Join Me in Prayer for My Trip to Bolivia (Feb-Mar 2024)! first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Thank you very much for praying with us over this trip. Our Discipling for Development coaching week was productive. My favorite part was visiting JaSoPa village, where we spent the night and also observed an excellent lesson with a root-cause analysis on garbage in the village. We were especially impressed with the high participation and excitement of the villagers as they talked about the negative aspects of trash and then the root causes of this problem.

This is their eighth root cause study. They have been studying the negative results of problems in their village, and the roots of these problems. Today happened to be a physical problem. It was encouraging to see in their discussions how they are integrating all aspects of life, spiritual, social, physical, economic, etc. as they seek to better understand their context and as they seek to find the key areas they want to problem-solve in a discipleship process in the next couple years.

Enjoy experiencing this moment with us, and thank you for your ongoing support of this work!

Check out this video to see a quick glimpse of what we do on these trips! 

Bless you!

David Thomas

Planting whole-life, disciple-making movements

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.” Psalm 67:1-2

The post David Thomas Prayer: A Post Trip Report from My Trip to Thailand February 2024 first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Chiang Rai, Thailand | Jan 24 – Feb 8, 2024

 Trip Calendar

For this prayer update, I’m going to include Scott’s prayer guide for this trip. It gives an excellent short history of our work with The Way Foundation in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Enjoy!

Thailand Trip – Purser Prayer Guide

Dear Friends,

Twenty years ago, David Kibbe, an American math teacher in Bangkok, saw the need in northern Thailand to begin a pastor and evangelist training program with a vision for training indigenous leaders in Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos (the Golden Triangle region). As he met with Lahu leaders, he learned that often church leaders were unable to articulate the gospel and had few resources and methods to study the Bible. Furthermore, he saw a clear need for discipleship and a vision for reproducing disciples (2 Timothy 2:2).

David and his wife Marilyn moved to Chiang Rai and began a small pastor and evangelist program among the Lahu. By 2012, the Kibbe’s son, Ben, also became a missionary to Thailand through Evangelical Friends in Ohio. Ben was instrumental in working with key Lahu Christian leaders to establish an official Thai ministry called The Way Foundation. The three-pronged purpose of The Way Foundation included the pastor and evangelist training program and also added a focus on planting new churches and focusing on holistic discipleship within Lahu villages. In 2016, Ben’s wife, Charity, a nurse, visited Colorado Springs (along with several of her prayer team members) and attended Discipling for Development’s initial ministry course called, “Foundations for holistic ministry,” a focus on using empowerment methods, whole-life discipleship and available resources to advance the Kingdom of God.

In 2017, The Way Foundation invited Discipling for Development to begin training their team in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand. They invited David Thomas, a missionary from the Evangelical Friends Mission, to be the liaison between Discipling for Development and The Way Foundation. David had effectively used the Discipling for Development method of ministry during his years in Rwanda. In 2018, David invited me (Scott) to form a small team of two to help coach the Lahu team through the five phases of Discipling for Development (preparation, exploration, mobilization, empowerment, and reproduction). Each year we make two or three visits to Thailand to coach, mentor, and train the team as they seek to disciple their communities in the hills of northern Thailand. About once or twice a month we also Zoom with two key leaders (Yosapa and Mana) to maintain relationships, talk about their work in communities, brainstorm together, and consider how to stir up the team towards love and good works (Hebrews 10: 24).

On this trip, David Thomas and I will team up to coach the team as they continue through what we call the mobilization phase. The mobilization phase is working with a community to help them identify and discover their strengths and obstacles and ultimately decide for themselves what areas they would like to receive training in to help their communities thrive. In the past few months, Yosapa and Mana have been traveling every other Sunday to two different Lahu villages and have been helping two small churches through this process. Recently, it has involved taking topics that the communities have selected such as a lack of Bible training or struggles with planning or problems between husbands and wives, and going through a “root cause analysis” process. What are the core roots of these types of struggles? As they continue to do this, they ultimately will develop a curriculum of topics they want to receive training in to help their community. As we meet, we will go through their conclusions based on their research.

Right: Yosapa and team members discussing barriers to their development in JaSoPa village’s ‘candy-wrapper vote’ in September 2023.

The last time we were with this team was in September 2023. On this trip, in addition to helping the team through the mobilization phase, we will follow up with a training we did on coaching methods. We will also get updates on how the Discipling for Development team (YoSaPa and Mana) is doing and work together with them in thinking through the next steps and training for the coming three months. Here are some specific prayer requests:

• In the words of 2 Timothy 2: 1, “be strengthened by the grace [power] that is in Christ Jesus.” We hope that insights in coaching this team will come from God, and not from our own human wisdom and strength. We don’t just want good ideas, but to know that God is the one who is empowering us all through the Holy Spirit.
• For health, energy, and strength throughout the two weeks. On short trips like these, it feels like you are only just recovering from jetlag by the time you come back home again. On our last few trips, we have experienced some levels of sickness. It is also very common for translators and other Lahu team members to experience various kinds of sickness.
• To be the aroma of Christ. The apostle Paul writes, “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians 2: 16). But we want to spread “the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere” (vs. 14). Please pray that Christ would be central in all that we do.
• To abound in every good work. “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). Often, we don’t know the full situation of things until we meet and begin sharing with each other. As mentioned above, we want to hold on to God who gives this grace for all times and all situations.

Thank you for praying through these areas as you think of our team in Thailand.

Warmly in Christ,

Scott

From David:

Scott and I will also participate with EFM’s field director Dan Cammack and former EFM missionary to Thailand, Ben Kibbe, along with The Way Foundation leaders as they seek to strengthen their relationship. They will be looking at how TWF and EFM can work well together in promoting the growth of God’s kingdom throughout the Lahu peoples with Bible training, leadership development, church planting and whole-life discipleship. They will be looking at the unique challenges of church planting in their context. We will be looking at how EFM can best partner with them to encourage them to be and achieve all that God has called them to.

Thank you-all for praying with us on this trip!

Bless you!

David Thomas

The post David Thomas Prayer Update: January 2024 Trip to Thailand first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

I’m in Musanze, Rwanda with my Discipling for Development team. We have two days of coaching together this Wednesday and Thursday in this first week of January. I made a short video to introduce them and invite you to pray with us for these special days of coaching.

• Pray I will listen well to Holy Spirit and to what Brad, Augustin, Gerard and Tertullien have to say.
• Pray I will have the wisdom and insight needed to respond with excellent coaching questions to the priority issues my team chooses.
• Pray that our being together will be a synergistic boost of encouragement and Holy Spirit insight for future direction.
• Pray that I will hear what Holy Spirit wants to say! Growing in my sensitivity to Holy Spirit and to quickly obey is my priority.
• Pray that my Kinyarwanda language ability will rise back up to a strong level quickly!
• I preach on Sunday, pray I’ll discern and put together the message Holy Spirit wants me to bring.

Thank you so much for supporting me in prayer! Your prayers make a difference!

May you be blessed in every way in this new year!

David Thomas
Planting whole-life, disciple-making movements
303-717-4519

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.” Psalm 67:1-2

The post David Thomas January 2024 Prayer Assignment first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Thank you so much for praying with us. It is hard to believe that there are only two months left in 2023!

Luke 10 Update:

Since we last wrote, Brad has been a part of two, second Luke 10 Exploration Trips to explore and discern if God might be calling Evangelical Friends Church (EFC) to start a mission in South Sudan and/or Tanzania. Hopefully, you have seen general emails from EFM about these trips as well as reports. But we will summarize here:

The trip to South Sudan took place September 10-17. Our group consisted of three Rwandan pastors and key church leaders, three who came from the US, and Brad on behalf of EFM.

On September 18th we visited a missionary training school in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Then from September 19 to the 24th, four Burundi pastors and church leaders and four from the US (including Brad) visited an area in eastern Tanzania.

On these trips, we visited with Christians and non-Christians in various communities attempting to see what God was doing in each of those areas and to see if he is asking us to join him there! It is so exciting to see the Lord increasing the passion and commitment of our EFC-Africa leaders to send their own missionaries out to unreached / under-reached people groups. In both South Sudan and Tanzania, we saw that the Lord is working and our African Friends sense that God is calling them to join him. As EFM we are still discerning what God wants us to do. In the next few weeks, EFM will have several meetings to discern the next steps in the decision-making process. Regardless of whether the Lord leads EFM to send missionaries to South Sudan and/or Tanzania, we look forward to finding appropriate ways to partner with our EFC-Africa Friends as they work to develop their own vision, strategies, principles, and practices for mission work. Brad has been asked to walk alongside them as they work on these things. This is an exciting time! But we also realize that we need the Lord to give lots of wisdom and courage throughout this whole process.

Would you please pray with us for EFC-Rwanda, EFC-Burundi, and EFM as each group works to be faithful to God and his calling for us as Evangelical Friends?

Family Update:

We praise the Lord for how he is taking care of us as a family. Though we go through some difficulties and times of travel and exhaustion, the Lord is faithful to fill us back up, renew us, and keep taking care of us!  We recently had the privilege to go and visit Chelsea’s aunt and uncle, who live in the south of Rwanda, over a long weekend, so we had some beautiful family time. The children are all healthy and doing well in school. Gideon continues to love soccer and plays every chance he gets whether at school or home with neighbor friends! Ian is sleeping better these days than he has in a long time and is usually pretty cheerful at school and at home. He tends to keep us laughing with the cute and/or smart things he says! Sarai has been enjoying some reading and writing projects at school and recently participated (and did really well!) in a skit project for her Kinyarwanda class.

Current Burundi Trip:

Brad and Simparinka are traveling to Burundi from October 31-November 3 to help mentor the D for D groups there.

Please pray that what God wants is able to happen, even though the trip is only a few days long. Please also pray for travel safety for the group, and for Chelsea and the kids at home.  

Thank you, again, for your partnership with us!

In Him,

Brad & Chelsea

Sarai, Gideon, and Ian

The post Carpenter Family: Update on Luke 10 and Burundi Trip Happening Now first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.