{"id":25748,"date":"2024-01-24T13:49:46","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T19:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/?p=25748"},"modified":"2024-01-24T13:49:46","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T19:49:46","slug":"david-thomas-prayer-update-january-2024-trip-to-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendsmission.com\/en\/news\/david-thomas-prayer-update-january-2024-trip-to-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"David Thomas Prayer Update: January 2024 Trip to Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chiang Rai, Thailand | Jan 24 \u2013 Feb 8, 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u200aTrip Calendar<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\nFor this prayer update, I\u2019m going to include Scott\u2019s prayer guide for this trip. It gives an excellent short history of our work with The Way Foundation in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Enjoy!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thailand Trip \u2013 Purser Prayer Guide<\/p>\n

Dear Friends,<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

David and his wife Marilyn moved to Chiang Rai and began a small pastor and evangelist program among the Lahu. By 2012, the Kibbe\u2019s 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\u2019s wife, Charity, a nurse, visited Colorado Springs (along with several of her prayer team members) and attended Discipling for Development\u2019s initial ministry course called, \u201cFoundations for holistic ministry,\u201d a focus on using empowerment methods, whole-life discipleship and available resources to advance the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

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 \u201croot cause analysis\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Right: Yosapa and team members discussing barriers to their development in JaSoPa village\u2019s \u2018candy-wrapper vote\u2019 in September 2023.<\/em><\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n