{"id":24617,"date":"2023-05-22T12:15:12","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T18:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/?p=24617"},"modified":"2023-05-22T12:15:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T18:15:35","slug":"david-thomas-post-trip-report-from-rwanda-burundi-and-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/news\/david-thomas-post-trip-report-from-rwanda-burundi-and-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"David Thomas’ Post Trip Report from Rwanda, Burundi, and Thailand!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Friends,<\/p>\n

I had an amazing trip to Burundi, with a short visit to Rwanda followed by a week of coaching in Thailand. I gave a post-trip report at Friendsview and was amazed at how many of the prayer requests from my pre-trip briefing were answered: In bold are my pre-trip prayer requests, followed by the answers.<\/p>\n

Pray for my growth in moment-by-moment discernment of Holy Spirit\u2019s voice and guidance on this trip!<\/strong> I had a greater awareness of Holy Spirit\u2019s presence, a greater sensitivity to his moment-by-moment leading than I have had before. I also felt a greater ability to focus, to think clearly, and to be calm and centered. This for me was the best part of this trip.<\/p>\n

\"\"Pray for encouragement for our Rwanda D4D team\u2026<\/strong> Yes\u2026<\/p>\n

Pray for Rwanda and Burundi Friends leaders to catch father\u2019s heart for the lost\u2026 Pray for clear steps forward in pursuing their growing missionary sending vision!<\/strong> We started the conference by listing out the key organizational components needed for missionary sending, then measured each example given according to these criteria. We finished with Rwanda and Burundi listing out the clear next steps to be taken in their journeys to build the structure needed to send out missionaries themselves. We finished with a high sense of ownership and excitement to take the next steps forward.<\/p>\n

\"\"Pray for my facility and ease in translation between Spanish, English, and Kinyarwanda. We will have three leaders from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador sharing how God has led them to send missionaries to Cambodia.<\/strong> This connection was especially important as our African friends learned from our Central American friends in their story of sending missionaries to Cambodia. There was the sense, \u201cIf they can do it, so can we!\u201d My language links between Kinyarwanda and Spanish grew daily. A special highlight was when Holy Spirit helped me translate Luisa\u2019s testimony on Sunday from Spanish into Kinyarwanda, which was well understood by a large Kirundi speaking congregation.<\/p>\n

\"\"Pray for God\u2019s abundant grace to be over The Way Foundation team \u2026 pray for unity and growth as a D4D team for Yosapa and Manat!<\/strong> This was a huge answer to prayer as I discovered Yosapa is now empowering Manat, working with him as an equal team member, planning together, and delegating to him important responsibilities including facilitating lessons.<\/p>\n

I got to observe Yosapa and Manat working together as they prepared Friday\u2019s plan. Then I got to observe them facilitate their lessons with the Lahu leaders from the two villages they are working in. Yosapa is an excellent facilitator and is mentoring Manat well in his growth in facilitation.<\/p>\n

\"\"Pray for excellent translation and stamina for Achi Po, Jason Byers, and Julie in Chiang Rai, Thailand!<\/strong> Achi Po and Jason served us well with excellent translation. They have improved a lot in the last year. Julie is our best translator, and she gave us two days. All three are involved in other ministries, Jason as a counselor, Achi Po as a teacher with his father Charlee, and Julie as The Way Foundations accountant. Their gift to the D4D team in translation is invaluable. One amazing thing about this trip was arriving Monday morning to find Yosapa and Manat each with a stack of the key five lessons printed in front of them \u2013 lessons they needed to learn this week to lead their villages in the next seven months. Julie especially (with Achi Po helping with one lesson) made this possible!<\/p>\n

\"\"The crazy thing about my coaching time in Thailand is the back story: I found out at 9:30pm Sunday night that my fellow coach, Scott Purser was recovering from COVID-19, and that I would be coaching on my own starting the next morning. I was completely calm! We had an excellent plan, and the coaching needs of the team didn\u2019t deviate from it. I depend on Scott, his wisdom, his excellent coaching, his moment-by-moment insight, his humor, \u2026 I appreciate going back and forth with each of us taking the next part of the coaching or lesson. This time it was up to me (and Holy Spirit). I followed Holy Spirit\u2019s leading with moment-by-moment decisions, excellent coaching questions, excellent guidance, and a lot of joy in the process.<\/p>\n

I could write ten more pages detailing how God moved, of the state of our D4D teams, of my observations of the growth and maturity of the Rwandan Friends Church, of personal testimonies of God\u2019s blessing in families. I am so aware of God\u2019s presence and favor and mega grace! He loves \u201cdoing way beyond all that we can ask or imagine, according to his power at work within us (Ephesians 3:20-21)!\u201d I am so blessed to be doing this work, seeing Christ\u2019s transforming power at work in people\u2019s lives, and looking ahead to generations more who will be blessed through them! Thank you for being a part of my team!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I am in a new season of seeking out more partners who will give financially on a monthly basis. I am currently supported at around 64% of my budget needed to take these coaching trips. Pray and ask Holy Spirit if he would have you join my team. There are four ways to give:<\/p>\n