David Thomas | Whole Life Discipleship

Deep in the hills of northern Thailand, in the small Red Lahu village of JaSoPa, transformation is quietly unfolding. Located 1.5 hours from Chiang Rai, this isolated village of 16 families is experiencing the profound impact of discipleship, faith, and sustainable development.

This journey began when Yosapa, working with The Way Foundation (TWF), connected with MoPa, a passionate church planter. MoPa completed Bible training through TWF’s Pastor Evangelist Training and felt called to bring the gospel to JaSoPa. He and his wife, Eme, traveled by scooter to the village, building relationships and leading Bible studies. Over time, families began responding to the message of Christ. What started with the wives eventually led to husbands coming to faith and making public testimonies of baptism. With the village headman’s approval, a church was built.

For eight years, the Discipling for Development (D4D) team, including Scott Purser and David Thomas, has partnered with TWF to equip them to guide a community through sustainable, holistic transformation. They are currently coaching Yosapa and Mana TWF’s D4D team as they disciple couples in JaSoPa. The process is intentional and relational, proceeding at the pace of those being mentored. Over the last year, they have led discussions on biblical marriage and will soon move into lessons on financial stewardship, income generation, and addiction—issues deeply relevant to JaSoPa’s reality.

JaSoPa’s history is complex. The village was originally founded as an outpost from Myanmar into Thailand. Young men in the village supported their families by making just two trips a year across the border. Discipleship in JaSoPa is not just about faith—it’s about breaking cycles of poverty and addiction.

Lebo and Abo were among the first to embrace Christianity. Initially, Abo’s understanding of faith was superficial—he became a Christian because foreigners had provided resources. Both men struggled with addiction and often engaged in violence. Abo, known for his temper, has started to be calm and learn things like treasuring his wife. His wife, in turn, has grown in self-control and learned to use kind words. Villagers are noticing these changes, watching as transformation takes root.

Lebo was raised in a Buddhist temple. Even after accepting Christ, his addictions continued. When confronted by neighbors, he realized that his witness was compromised, and he finally committed to sobriety. Now, he and his wife are building a future. They have expanded their home, started farming dry hill rice and corn, and are growing 500 coffee plants as a long-term investment.

These changes are not just personal; they are communal. The villagers are beginning to see a new way of life—one where faith is not just a label but a transformation of the heart and home. As our D4D leaders continue to walk alongside these families, it is hoped that JaSoPa will become a model for other Lahu communities across northern Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, and beyond.

Join us in praying, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done in JaSoPa, as it is in heaven.”

Download this month’s prayer letter here…

The post April 2025 Prayer Letter 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.

David Thomas | Whole-Life Discipleship

Have you ever asked what your ROI, your “return on investment,” will be? As missionaries Debby and I invested twenty years of our lives in Rwanda, and many of you invested prayers and financial support right alongside us. What is our ROI for that twenty-plus-year investment?

I got to visit Rwanda this past January, and I was amazed to see how much has changed in the culture of our Friends churches over time. I remember as a young missionary in the late 1990s and early 2000s how church leaders would come to me asking for help. Some couldn’t pay for their kids’ school fees. Others couldn’t pay for family medical expenses. I remember some of their children dying from things like malaria. Most didn’t own their own homes. Many leaders felt it was the responsibility of the mission and the national church to provide for their needs. This was a weight beyond the resources of our family, the church, or EFM. It was too heavy for me to carry.

On this trip, I noticed how much has changed over the years. With a deep trust in God and a “nitwe tubikora (we will do it)” mentality, Rwandans have taken responsibility for overcoming many of the barriers they faced. Many leaders have bought land and built their own homes. Three pastors showed me the land they bought and thousands of trees they’ve planted for their retirement. I got to talk with our superintendent Aaron Mupenda whose leadership in the last ten years has been instrumental in helping stabilize the church and pastors in particular. Every pastoral family now has quality health insurance. Most have some stable income from the church and also have family businesses to supplement this income. Many leaders are saving together, as well as loaning to each other.

Our Discipling for Development leaders actively demonstrate homes and lives that steward well the resources they have been given. Groups of leaders from the denomination’s executive council down to local savings groups meet together regularly encouraging each other to follow through on their families’ holistic, personal development plans.

Pastor Gerard took us around the countryside within miles of his church of Rugarama, where we toured four new church buildings. Pastor Vincent with his wife Bernadette of Burera Friends invited us into their new home. They have six children, four in high school and two in university. They pay for all of them to study! He is a farmer and an amazing pastor motivating others to follow his example, and stewarding well all God has given them.

What is our ROI (Return on Investment)? From my vantage point, from this recent trip, as my Dad says, “it is the normalness of God’s kingdom,” which is “way beyond all we could ask or imagine (Eph 3:21)!”

As we look forward, what an amazing privilege we now have to invest in future mission fields through our Luke 10 Initiative through prayer, time, and finances! Rwanda is now one of our partner yearly meetings actively planning to send missionaries to South Sudan, and we might have the privilege of partnering with them in this venture! Our ROI from past investments keeps on growing, and the ROI in our current and future Luke 10 Initiatives is full of potential.

 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!” Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

David Thomas

Download this month’s full prayer letter here…

The post May 2024 Prayer Letter 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.

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.

A Report from Chiang Rai, Thailand | September 20-30, 2023

Thank you for supporting me in prayer on this last trip. I felt Holy Spirit’s presence in many ways.

JaSoPa church members displaying the major five barriers out of 20 holding them down in poverty.

Mana and Yosapa facilitate a discussion in the church of JaSoPa.

•    At the beginning of the trip I got to go to the JaSoPa village with Yosapa, and I got to observe Yosapa and Mana work together as an amazing team with local pastor MoPa. I also got to observe them facilitate the “obstacles to our development” lesson along with witnessing the animated conversations, vote, and final list of the key obstacles they face.
• By the end of the week, they presented to me a calendar plan for the next four months and the specific obstacles they will be analyzing with the JaSoPa team members looking at the “bad fruit (results)” of various problems they face as well as the root causes of these problems.
• Continue praying with us and JaSoPa that they will come to see clearly and to own the problems they face. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s insight all through this process.
• Pray for hope to grow in them; that they continue to grow in seeing themselves as placed by God in their village to steward all that he has given them. Pray they come to see themselves with eyes of hope that they are God’s salt and light to bring his message of salvation to others in their village, that he wants to see his kingdom grow through them in JaSoPa!

Abo and Naloka share their resource drawings along with the large full village resource map behind them.

Mana and his wife, Naku, offering a delicious desert of bright purple dragon fruit!

• I appreciate walking this coaching path with Scott Purser who is an excellent fellow coach.
• On this trip I noticed a strong sense of ownership in Yosapa and Mana, for their plan for the lessons they are facilitating, for their discipling relationships in the villages, and for the great way they work together as a team. When I see this level of empowerment, I realize my work with them will be coming to an end. We still have a good two years of coaching through the Empowerment Phase, but the level of dependence on us as coaches is beginning to switch. This is a very encouraging observation.
• Our two days of coaching workshops went well with each participant experiencing one hour of coaching through their own issues as well as each participant getting to coach each other for one hour. Chalee appreciated the step of brainstorming out all the various options they could think of related to the issues they were discussing.
• It has been seven years since I made my first “vision casting/exploration” trip to Chiang Rai with Ben Kibbe and team. It has been six years since we have been formally following the Discipling for Development process, and by subtracting almost two lost years because of COVID-19, we are finishing our fourth year in our D4D process here in Chiang Rai, Thailand. This is very encouraging as we enter the last four months of the Mobilization Phase and get ready to enter the Empowerment Phase in February of 2024.
• I got pretty sick on Wednesday night with a fever, chills, an achy body, a debilitating headache, throwing up, and diarrhea. I slept a day and a half, got some tests done at a hospital and was able to fly out by Friday evening, sleeping again all day Saturday in Korea. I started feeling better on the long flight over the Pacific. I’m grateful Scott could finish up the important coaching of those last two days while I rested. I’m also grateful to have him to travel with as I made my way back home.

A cheerful old lady in JaSoPa.

Scott facilitating the coaching workshop with Jason and Yosapa on either side.

Dear friends, I am still in a friend-raising, fundraising mode seeking new partners that want to join me as prayer partners, and also as monthly financial partners. I am currently supported at around 69% of my budget needed to take these coaching trips. Thank you in advance for asking Holy Spirit if he would encourage you to join my team! 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.”

Thank you again for your prayers!

David Thomas

The post A Post Trip Report from My Trip to Thailand- October 2023 first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

The post Join Me in Prayer for My Trip to Thailand- September 2023 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!

Cochabamba, Bolivia | August 15- September 3, 2023

PURPOSES FOR THIS TRIP:

This trip is based in Cochabamba, Bolivia with a comfortable altitude of 8,000 feet. Our purpose is to facilitate two excellent five-day D4D (Discipling for Development) Foundations Seminars. The first week will focus on Food for the Hungry – Bolivia including the organization’s leaders and three-four local practitioner dream-team implementers. The second week will focus on two-thirds participants from Compassion International – Bolivia along with some local pastors and leaders from a few interested church groups (mostly from La Paz and Santa Cruz), including two Friends groups. Our D4D Foundations Seminar introduces participants to the biblical basis, empowerment perspective, and an overview of some basic development tools, along with our D4D approach to whole-life discipleship and community transformation. This introduction will allow us a common language and basis on which to continue building. We will also be in dialogue with our local partners setting the stage for the ongoing coaching needed for their organizations’ transformation in the next few years.

PRAISES AND PRAYER REQUESTS:

• Praise God for this amazing opportunity to work with two well-known and successful Christian development organizations, Food for the Hungry International-Bolivia, and Compassion International-Bolivia. These two groups rose to the surface out of our exploratory and vision-casting trips this last year. They both express a dissatisfaction with the results they are seeing as they work with local churches and communities across the country. These churches are not gaining a strong enough sense of ownership and empowerment in effectively reaching out to their own communities long-term after their partnership with these development organizations ends. They are inviting us to walk alongside them in the process of improving their organizations and methodologies to more effectively see the kingdom of God expand through their work throughout Bolivia. What a privilege!
• Join me in praying/declaring Isaiah 61:1-4 and Ephesians 2:10 over them and over all of us over these next three weeks! Jesus wants to shine his light brightly through them, through the many churches and denominations they work with in Bolivia, and especially through Christ’s bride, his body, and his church spread throughout Bolivia! Christ/we/they are anointed by Holy Spirit to declare the good news, to proclaim freedom, to set captives free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Jubilee) to push back the darkness, to comfort those who morn, to see people and their communities flourish with beauty instead of ashes, joy instead of mourning, and praise instead of heaviness, they will be oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord, for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins, and the places long devastated! These organizations and the churches they represent are the Almighty’s masterpiece, his amazing poem being written new (made new) in Christ Jesus, that they move into doing the good works planned long ago for them to do, walking with Holy Spirit the paths he’s prepared for them. I’m praying this over everyone individually to become all God has created them to be, and also over these organizations and the churches they influence. It is amazing to be offered the privilege of walking this path with them for the next few years!
• Pray for our Navigator facilitators coming from Mexico and Chile, to catch on quickly and enjoy the facilitation process, and to also learn from D4D and to catch a vision for how our whole-life discipleship could benefit the Navigators working across Latin America. Here is our team on this trip!
  • Gary and Merri Lee Hipp (American missionaries who coached our Rwanda D4D team. They are an amazing team who have led D4D for many years. Gary is our team leader. They are learning Spanish, but won’t facilitate very many lessons).
  • David Thomas (Evangelical Friends Missionary blessed to partner with Navigators D4D in this new work in Bolivia. Also, a former missionary kid to/from Bolivia)
  • Judy Camp (American Navigator ministry with Hispanic ladies in Los Angeles for many years)
  • Bruce Hook (American Navigator working with American Navigator missionaries and Latin American Navigators in member care)
  • Sergio and Mónica are with Latin American Navigators working in Mexico.
  • Marcia and Carlos are with Latin American Navigators in Chile.
  • Ninfa Apaza is a Bolivian leader with Compassion Bolivia, who will facilitate for the first time with us.
• Pray for God’s favor, blessing, and grace to rest on us! Pray for wisdom and the Holy Spirit’s insight as we walk alongside these organizations. Pray for health, strength, energy, excellent Spanish, and excellent communication with all those participating in our two, five-day seminars. Pray for safety in travel for all those coming a day’s drive from La Paz and Santa Cruz. Pray for the health of everyone during the two weeks of seminars. Pray for me. I have a strong sense of confidence going into this assignment. 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 be deeply rooted in me, in who I am.
• Pray also for me to be continually aware of Holy Spirit’s presence and nudging, to find a good rhythm of rest alongside the times of intense focus in facilitating and listening to others facilitate. Pray for growth in my emotional intelligence and awareness of everything and everyone around me. Pray for God’s favor to rest on me!

Thank you in advance for partnering with us in prayer for this trip!

David Thomas

The post Join Me in Prayer for My Trip to Bolivia- August 2023 first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.