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.

Please read her update below.

Evan and I met online last May and we have been dating long distance since then. Evan is from Indonesia and has been living in the States for the past several years. He is currently living in Virginia where he works in campus ministry with international students. It was really wonderful to have him come out to Cambodia for Christmas and to meet my community here, and we also had the opportunity to visit his family in Indonesia. We are really looking forward to spending more time together in person to give us space to discern our next steps!

Evan and me at Angkor Wat Temple in Cambodia.

It was so much fun to have Evan stay with the Swards during his visit to Stung Treng. We really enjoyed time together!

I’m extremely thankful to EFM for granting me this sabbatical. It’s a tremendous gift to feel supported not only in ministry but also in the more personal ways that God is leading me in this season. Part of my sabbatical will be time with Evan in Southern California with my family and around Granada (my home church), and part of my sabbatical will be in Virginia, visiting Evan and getting to know his community there. We are really looking forward to this time together!

We’d appreciate your prayers over this next season as we spend time together and discern our next steps. Please pray that we would continue to hear God’s voice and be sensitive to his leading. Thank you so much for praying with us!

We share this update with you because, as a part of the EFM family, we want to…

• Keep you up to date when there are significant changes in our EFM family.
• Demonstrate our care for Elise and Evan through this discernment process.
• Invite you to pray for Elise and Evan.

Thank you for your support, prayers and concern.

Because of Christ,

Stan Leach
Executive Director

The post News About Elise Paty first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Dear Prayer Partners,

The last time we wrote to you, we asked you to pray with us for our trip to Thailand for the EFM World Gathering. There was one point in our travel that the airlines couldn’t find our luggage, and we needed it to continue traveling. We waited for a couple hours trying to get this worked out – then finally it all showed up! Even the little stroller! We were so thankful for this answer to prayer, and it was just one of the first ways we felt loved and cared for by Jesus during our trip. So, thanks so much for praying.

Before the EFM Gathering, we took several days for a family vacation in Chiang Mai. It was amazing to explore a different culture with our kids – to see the wonder in their eyes and to hear them talk about similarities and differences to our home. We had a lot of fun together and built some special family memories. We also had to hear some complaints about the heat, about jet lag, about the food, and about the transportation. I think it was a good process to deal with the pros and cons together. We didn’t get a lot of rest because kids just keep us busy whether on vacation or not! But, we are very happy for our time together. Some of the things we experienced as a family were staying in a house on stilts, swimming, visiting water buffalo and bunnies at a rice farm, enjoying the sights and sounds and tastes of the night market, playing in indoor play places, seeing a Giant Panda and other animals at the zoo, and riding in tuk tuks. We also really enjoyed spending time with a special family that we can’t name for security reasons. It was amazing to see our kids play together, to relax and unwind a bit outside of our usual places of ministry, to share honestly about our lives, and to laugh at all sorts of things together!

As missionaries, we are so cared for. By our directors, by staff, by Yearly Meeting Superintendents, and by our prayer partners (and I am including you in that group!) That was the main thing I took away from our EFM Gathering. We heard teachings, we participated in discussions (but not business meetings), we worshipped together, we ate together, we participated in small groups, and were able to get to know fellow missionaries better. An amazing childcare team taught and played with our kids while we were in sessions, and even took Sarai to visit some elephants at a special elephant park! Some of my favorite moments were brief but sincere interactions with a few special people God put in my path. People who said, “I understand and relate with those difficulties” or people who said, “we’ve been following your news and we’re praying for you” or people who said, “you are very loved by God and very loved by us”. We could not be more excited to be a part of the EFM team and their desire to seek first God’s Kingdom and to let him take them anywhere in the world to do so!

The travel was really tough at times, but God got us through, and the trip was very worth it. We got home on December 10, and are settling back in and preparing for Christmas and the end of the year. As we wrap up 2022, we know we have so much to be thankful for, and we wish we could fully express how thankful we are that you are on our team. As you encourage us, let us encourage you: you are so loved by God and by us. Keep seeking his kingdom. And please let us know how we can pray for you.

Love,
Brad and Chelsea
Sarai, Gideon, and Ian

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