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.
• Tarjeta de crédito. 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 aquí 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.

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 La Paz and Sucre, Bolivia, November 24 – December 9, 2023

Trip Purpose:

We will facilitate a coaching workshop for three days of our first week for Food for the Hungry (FH)– Bolivia leaders including a few leaders from other ministries. This will be held in La Paz close to FH’s national office. The second week in Sucre we will facilitate an Adult Learning and Bible Telling five-day workshop with Food for the Hungry leaders and their local team leaders. We will also have conversations with FH leaders as to how to organize ongoing training with them throughout the year.

 Praises and Prayer Requests:

• Praise God for this amazing opportunity to work with a well-known and successful Christian development organization, Food for the Hungry International-Bolivia! We are no longer working with Compassion International – Bolivia as their Colorado Springs office has another program that they want them to follow. We wish them well. FH wants to see their partner churches and communities gain a strong sense of ownership and empowerment in effectively reaching out to their own communities, long-term after their partnership with them ends. They are inviting us to walk alongside them in the process of improving their organization and methodologies to more effectively see the kingdom of God expand through their work throughout Bolivia. What a privilege!
• Pray for our three-day coaching workshop with FH leaders and a few other leaders we are also training, including our Navigator leaders. Gary, Merri Lee, and I will facilitate this workshop for everyone else. Pray for people to understand Christ’s empowering leadership. Pray for a strong desire to grow in participants to be a more empowering leader, and pray for some excellent experience in coaching, and a commitment in the months ahead to practice these skills. Pray for FH leaders to see ways to improve their organization’s leadership culture to become more empowering, with a growing strong value of developing the leaders they have and work with.
• Pray for our Adult Learning workshop for people to understand the “why” behind the way we facilitate, to desire to learn how to teach in this way, and to commit to taking some practical steps to grow personally and especially for those who will be on local D4D teams, that they will practice this method of facilitation.
• Pray for our Bible Telling workshop for people to see the value and effectiveness of studying God’s word in this powerful and involved way. Pray they would catch the vision of this method and that they would commit to practicing it. This skill often brings a strong “win” to those beginning to implement Discipling for Development in their churches and communities. This is a powerful way to connect people in our churches and communities to Bible study in a much more accessible way than using traditional preaching or teaching methods.
• Pray for our team:
  • 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 and will facilitate a few lessons with Katia interpreting for them.
  • David Thomas – Evangelical Friends Missionary blessed to partner with The Navigators D4D in this new work in Bolivia and a former missionary kid 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 in Latin America.
  • Sergio and Mónica are Mexican Latin American Navigators.
  • Marcia and Carlos are Chilean Latin American Navigators.
  • Cintia Huayhua – FH worker, Friends church member, future missionary hopeful.
  • Stefanie and Rodiz Chambi – Friends church members, and future missionaries to the Middle East. Stefanie has been translating our material into Spanish!
• Pray for God’s favor, blessing, and grace to rest on us! Pray for wisdom and Holy Spirit insight as we walk alongside FH a YWAM leader, his local church in Santa Cruz, and a Bolivian Friends missionary couple to the Chiman people.
• Pray for health, strength, energy, excellent Spanish, and excellent communication with all those participating in these seminars.
• Pray for safety in travel for all those coming (often a day’s drive from their cities). Pray for health for everyone during the two weeks of seminars.
• 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 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!

Bless you!

David Thomas

The post Join David Thomas in Prayer for his November/December Trip to Bolivia! first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

As I read back on my Pre-Trip prayer requests, I’m amazed at how thoroughly God answered our prayers. We reached our trip purpose by facilitating two excellent Discipling for Development (D4D) 5-Day Foundations Workshops. This was the first time we had ever tried facilitating with all new D4D facilitators except myself. Gary Hipp paired us up well creating three teams led by Bruce, Judy, and myself. I got to facilitate with Monica who grew up in Bolivia like I did, but then in her adolescence had to flee the country for political reasons. The other two teams facilitated very well including the two Navigator couples from Mexico and Chile. Gary and Merri Lee oversaw the whole workshop, but I stayed ready to intervene if and when the other two teams needed it. I grew in my ability to oversee the whole workshop when Gary and Merri Lee couldn’t be present.

    The highlight of this time for me was watching how Christ’s strength was made perfect in our weakness. Most of us had crises right before coming that could have been quite distracting (including two family members losing their jobs, business difficulties while away, breaking eyeglasses right before coming, forgetting hearing aids, etc.) So many of us were untried in D4D facilitating. One of us was actually quite anxious about public speaking and was amazed at how much she grew in her ability to facilitate. Our hosts were very gracious.

There were many “aha” moments, and many excellent conversations. It was always a challenge to get people back from their small groups where they were sharing with each other, or pursuing the scriptures together.

We stayed on time, and even ahead of schedule, and yet were able to go deep and have important discussions as our participants connected with the Holy Spirit and the material. The participants’ interaction was dynamic and energizing.

Both organizations, Food for the Hungry and Compassion International Bolivia already understand the gospel to touch all of life, not being limited by a spiritual only gospel. There were a number of areas like this where we already share an important worldview perspective on the Gospel.

One leader explained how the church is like salt that was supposed to flavor society and make it palatable, but instead now preferred to stay in the saltshaker. Discipling for Development can be a renewing force helping church leaders proactively disciple their people and also help them to reach out and bless their communities. People talked about the church not just being located in the community, but actually becoming an integral part of the community.

I especially enjoyed facilitating one of my favorite lessons, “Community Based (or the Three Circles).” Both organizations could see that they are “Community Involved,” in their work because of the budgets, money, and programs behind them. This can be good but often leads to dependency. We all desire to empower those we are serving.

Food for the Hungry wants to work with us to try and move to become a more empowering organization. Compassion is limited in their ability to try new things, but they brought together various pastors of churches they have worked with in the past who are interested in whole-life discipleship for their own people and in being salt and light in their communities.

I sensed Holy Spirit’s presence with me and thoroughly enjoyed using my Spanish.

We will be interacting with Pablo (YWAM-Bolivia) and Marina (Compassion Bolivia) who are the ones interfacing with the church leaders we will be connecting with.

Within Food for the Hungry – Bolivia we will be interacting with Marcio to mentor the top leadership team, and with Ivan, Cintia, and two others for the Facilitator team who we will be coming alongside to mentor the local community facilitator teams.

Pray for the right time and the right facilitators to train our Bolivian Friends (INELA) church leaders in Discipling for Development. Through a series of misunderstandings, they were not able to participate in our seminar last week.

Participants were left with two tasks to work on in the next few months. Review the lessons from this Foundations workshop, being attentive to what the Holy Spirit is teaching them and develop a Personal Development Plan that they can share with their teammates. Some teams will be meeting weekly, and others every two weeks. Pray for sensitivity to Holy Spirit’s work, and for people to form some clear goals to be growing in.

Pray for the right people to emerge from the two large groups of workshop participants, people who we will be investing in over the next three to five years (ready, eager to grow, putting things into practice, taking steps forward, forming and training their own teams).

Bless you!

David Thomas

The post David Thomas’ Post Trip Report from Bolivia! first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Thank you so much for supporting me and our team in prayer!

This has been a very good trip.

• Our five facilitators besides myself did a great job in their first experience facilitating these three workshops with our Discipling for Development (D4D) lessons.
• Our six hour facilitation in La Paz on Saturday was the best and had excellent participation. Santa Cruz was the second best, and we did well for our first seminar in Cochabamba. We found that people are not able to get to a 6:00pm week-day meeting on time, so we lost an hour of time for our two workshops in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz.
• It was great to have participants ask us good questions and show lots of interest. We have several church groups interested in our coaching, including Friends churches. They would like us to help coach their missionaries working with the Chimani people in the jungles. There were also some people with the Assemblies of God, and a Friends church in two of the cities who would like to disciple their communities holistically. A YWAM leader in Santa Cruz also showed interest.
• A few leaders of large denominations are not as interested as D4D does not offer money or projects for the development branch of their church denomination structure. Also the holistic approach doesn’t fit their spiritual discipleship vs physical development paradigms. This is good, because we need those people who really want our coaching.

• Of special note was the interest of two Christian NGOs, Food for the Hungry – Bolivia, and Compassion International – Bolivia. Both have had successful ministries, and they both feel they have not yet experienced the wholistic, empowering community transformation they have wanted to see. They are encouraged by Discipling for Development’s experience, and want us to train their leaders and staff, and enter a long-term, five-year coaching relationship! We have not worked with these groups in this way before, because they bring in outside money and projects in the communities which often results in dependency. We are being attentive to what God is doing. Back in 2007 God led the Navigator D4D team to begin coaching their first church group (Evangelical Friends Church of Rwanda) because God was clearly leading, and everyone on their team including Debby Thomas and Augustin Simparinka were so hungry, ripe, and ready for D4D coaching! That was a worthwhile investment! May the Lord lead us well now!
• It was a pleasure for me to be a part of this team. Judy took the finances, Gary did the overall leadership, Merry Lee organized the devotionals, Cintia took care of us in La Paz, Rodiz in Santa Cruz, and Henry Nogales in Cochabamba. Merry Lee coached one facilitation team and Gary in the other. As the main D4D mentor with Spanish I was able to focus on the key parts I had. Stefanie Chambi became my right-hand person as she clearly understands D4D and is able to clearly communicate as well.
• Gary was able to recover from an intestinal problem, and Judy as well from a cold that turned into bronchitis. Thank you for praying for our health!

“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

Thank you very much for surrounding me and my team with your effective prayer!

David Thomas

The post David Thomas Post- Bolivia Trip Prayer Update first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Prayer Update: Navigator D4D Exploration and Relationship Building Trip

To Cochabamba, La Paz and Santa Cruz, Bolivia October 17-24, 2022

David Celebrating Illimani’s appearing out of the clouds January 2022

Queridos amigos,

David Thomas along with Gary and Merri Lee Hipp, and Judy Camp will be flying to Bolivia to connect with umbrella organizations that can give covering to begin our Navigator, Discipling for Development (D4D) work in Bolivia. Our purpose is to also connect with leaders who are interested in whole-life discipleship, to invite some to join us in an early 2023 D4D Foundations workshop. Out of those people who participate in the late January workshop we hope to develop some ongoing partnerships.

The Travel Advisory from the State Department for Bolivia is “Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution:”
There is a “paro,” a strike or a city-wide “lock-down” planned to start Friday the 21st in Santa Cruz. We will fly into Santa Cruz the night of the 21st. They are demanding the national census be taken so that more resources can be allocated to their growing population. This means the city will be locked down. Our plans for Saturday morning will probably not work to meet in person, and we might have to present online instead. Roads will be blocked, so travel from and to the airport can be complicated.

How can we pray together for this trip?
My parents, Hal and Nancy Thomas, have served as missionaries for many years in Bolivia. Dad shared that he was always trying to connect a mostly spiritual gospel to the many physical, economic, agricultural, … (all of life) needs people faced. As he has come to understand Discipling for Development, and our work in Rwanda, Africa, he feels the timing of this trip is a Kairos moment, when God wants to connect the experience we have in D4D with a surge of hunger for a holistic gospel and for the empowering discipleship and leadership development that are a part of our D4D culture.
• Pray for divine appointments, for God to lead us to the people he is calling us to partner with!
• Pray for good health in the altitude: Cochabamba is 8,000 feet, and La Paz is 13,000-11,000 feet!
• Pray for excellent communication between Spanish and English!
• Pray for good listening on our part and discernment of how Holy Spirit is leading us.
• Rodiz and Stefanie Chambi will join us for all the travel within Bolivia. Pray for blessing for them as they take time out in their busy lives. Pray for excellent times together as a team!
• Pray for excellent connections and relationship building with various Christian leaders!
• Pray for Almighty God’s favor, grace and blessing to rest on us this trip!

Ephesians 3:20-21
“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.”

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

David Thomas

The post David Thomas Prayer Update: Navigator D4D Trip to Bolivia- October 17-24, 2022 first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Amados Amigos y Familia,

Nos gustaría compartir con ustedes nuestra alegría y gratitud a Dios por la hermosa oportunidad que nos dio a mi esposo ya mí de ser parte del equipo para ir al viaje de visión de Lucas 10 a Bolivia en enero. Los invitamos a alabar a Dios porque pudimos ver como Él está obrando de una manera tan especial con nuestros hermanos y hermanas Amigos en Bolivia. Realmente fue un viaje que superó nuestras expectativas. ¡Alabado sea el Señor!

La Paz
El martes 11 de enero, después de un viaje de cerca de 24 horas, en medio del tiempo de una pandemia que presenta muchos desafíos para viajar internacionalmente, y subir a cuatro aviones, llegamos a la ciudad La Paz, Bolivia en Sudamérica. Esta hermosa ciudad esta ubicada en los valles de los Andes con una altura de mas de 13,000 pies (4,000 metros) sobre el nivel del mar y se estiman unos cuatro millones de habitantes. Una de las maravillas de Dios que se puede apreciar al visitar Bolivia es el lago Titicaca considerado el lago mas alto en el mundo. Estuvimos fascinados por la hermosa vista del lago y el panorama de la ciudad de la Paz. ¡La creación de Dios es realmente impresionante!

INELA
Fue un privilegio estar participando por primera vez en las sesiones de la Junta Anual Boliviana denominada INELA (por sus siglas en inglés) que significa Iglesia Nacional Evangélica Amigos. Este fue un evento de cuatro días donde se reunieron alrededor de 400 pastores y líderes de iglesias Amigos de todo el país. INELA celebró recientemente su 100 aniversario. Nos impresionó escuchar que se informó que alrededor de 300 iglesias formaban parte de esta Junta Anual, ¡eso es alrededor de 6,000 miembros de Amigos! Es importante mencionar que el tema principal de la reunión de este año fue “Caminando la Senda Misionera” basado en el versículo de Romanos 10:15. Nuestro equipo se conmovió por el énfasis en el tema de las misiones, desde los sermones, los invitados, las canciones y hasta la decoración.

El Equipo
Nuestro equipo Amigos de Estados Unidos estuvo formado por Daniel Cammack- Director de Campo de EFM, Ken Comfort(quien fue hijo de misioneros en Bolivia y mas tarde Ken y su familia sirvieron muchos años en Perú), David Thomas (quien creció en Bolivia como hijo de misioneros también y sirvió como misionero en África por casi dos décadas), Roy Lujan (representante de la Junta Anual Amigos del Noroeste), y mi esposo y yo. En verdad estamos agradecidos con Dios por permitirnos hacer equipo con estos gigantes de la fe, quienes han dejado huellas importantes en el Reino de Dios.

El propósito principal de nuestra visita a INELA como equipo de Estados Unidos fue para animar e impulsar a la iglesia Amigos boliviana hacia una visión mas global. Es impresionante como Dios se ha movido a través de la iglesia de los Amigos para alcanzar a la gente de Bolivia con el Evangelio habiendo iglesias ya plantadas alrededor de todo el país. Pero ahora, lideres nacionales están sintiendo un fuerte impulso a mover a la iglesia boliviana a salir de su Samaria para ir hasta lo ultimo de la tierra para proclamar a Jesucristo a otras naciones. Estamos conmovidos de ver como el Señor de la mies esta desafiando a los Amigos de Bolivia a salir a los campos. ¡Goria a Dios!

EFM en el proceso hacia su meta de enviar 10 nuevas familias misioneras a iniciar por lo menos cinco nuevos campos misioneros, ya tiene en mira 11 lugares alrededor del mundo para llevar a cabo viajes de exploraciones llamados Lucas 10 viajes exploratorios. Uno de estos 11 lugares es en la selva de entre Ecuador y pero donde se centra un grupo étnico no alcanzado llamado los Shuar. Unos de los propósitos de nuestro equipo, aprovechando el sentir que hay de hacer misiones de INELA, fue invitar a esta fuerte Junta Anual a asociarse con EFM para juntos ir a explorar y quizá mas tarde formar equipo para llegar a mas etnias no alcanzadas, como en el caso de los Shuar.

Nuestra participación
¡Damos gloria a Dios! Ya que fuimos conmovidos por ver los corazones tan receptivos y el interés que se podía sentir cada vez que tuvimos la oportunidad de compartir acerca de misiones en talleres, predicaciones, paneles de preguntas y respuestas, y en platicas con lideres durante las comidas o tiempos libres. Fue algo muy hermoso ver la sensibilidad de las personas al toque del Espíritu Santo, después de compartir en predicaciones, y pasar enfrente a arrodillarse al altar para rendirse a los pies de Jesús en respuesta a su llamado de la Gran Comisión.

Fue emocionante ver que en INELA esta abiertos y están pidiendo mentoria de los de mas experiencia, en este caso a EFM, para saber como levantar misioneros, como levantar fondos, como enviar, aprender a tener un cuidado integral para los obreros, etc. ¡Ellos están ansiosos por saber como!

Después de las sesiones de la Junta Anual, se hizo una invitación a todos los que asistieron a un planificado seminario de misiones, al cual un día antes solo se habían inscrito menos de 10 personas. Nos llevamos una sorpresa al fue al ver que no paraban de llegar personas muy interesadas a aprender mas acerca del tema de misiones, al final, fueron aproximadamente 70 personas que estuvieron presentes en este seminario en donde mi esposo y yo tuvimos un tiempo para compartir de nuestra experiencia en el campo misionero y hablar del proyecto de VM32 de la Junta Anual de México.

Nuestra Profunda Gratitud
Estamos profundamente agradecidos por que Dios nos permitiera tener esta maravillosa experiencia, por poder hacer nuevas relaciones y amistades de entre su pueblo, poder hablar de lo que nos apasiona, palpar la preciosa cultura boliviana, probar y experimentar nuevas deliciosas comidas, sentir su amor a través de la hospitalidad y generosidad de las dos familias que nos hospedaron y toda la gente con la que pudimos relacionarnos que tuvieron tantas muestras de cariño hacia nosotros, como tomarse el tiempo para atravesar la ciudad en un terrible trafico solo para llegar al aeropuerto a despedirnos. ¡Tan abrumador, en el buen sentido de la palabra, todo lo que Dios nos permitió vivir y lograr en este viaje!

Finalmente, gracias a cada uno de ustedes por formar parte de nuestro equipo con sus oraciones, su apoyo y sus muestras de amor que hacen sentir que Dios nos abraza a través de ustedes.

Sirviendo al Señor,

Maria Giron (y Edwin)
EFM Mobilizador de Misiones para Amigos Hispanos

The post Giron’s Viaje a Bolivia first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Dear Friends and Family,

We would like you to share with you our joy and gratitude to God for the beautiful opportunity he gave my husband and I to be part of the team to go on the EFM Luke 10 Vision Trip to Bolivia in January. We invite you to praise God because we were able to see how he is working in such a special way with our Friends brothers and sisters in Bolivia. It was truly a trip that exceeded our expectations. Praise the Lord!

La Paz
On Tuesday, January 11, after traveling about 24 hours, amid a pandemic that presents many challenges when travel internationally, and boarding four planes, we arrived in the city of La Paz, Bolivia in South America. This beautiful city is in the valleys of the Andes with an altitude of more than 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) above sea level and an estimated population of four million. One of the wonders of God that can be seen when visiting Bolivia is Lake Titicaca, considered the highest lake in the world. We were fascinated by the beautiful view of the lake and the panorama of the city of La Paz. God’s creation is truly awesome!

INELA
It was a privilege to be participating for the first time in the sessions of the Bolivian Yearly Meeting named INELA (for its acronym in Spanish) which means the National Evangelical Friends Church. This was a four-day event where around 400 Friends pastors and church leaders from all over the country gathered. INELA recently celebrated their 100th anniversary. We were impressed to hear that about 300 churches were reported to be part of this Yearly Meeting, that’s about 6,000 Friends members! It is important to mention that the main theme for this year’s meeting was “Walking the Mission Path” based on the verse of Romans 10:15. Our team was touched by the emphasis on the theme of missions, from the sermons, the guests, the songs, and even the decoration.

Our Team
Friends USA team was formed by Daniel Cammack- EFM Field Director, Ken Comfort (who was a missionary kid in Bolivia and later Ken and his family served many years in Peru), David Thomas (who grew up in Bolivia as the son of missionaries as well and served as a missionary in Africa for nearly two decades), Roy Lujan (Northwest Friends Yearly Meeting representative), and my husband and I. We are truly grateful to God, that he permitted us have teamed up with these giants of faith, who have left important footprints in his kingdom.

The main purpose of our visit to INELA as a team from the United States was to encourage and stimulate the Bolivian Friends Church towards a more focused global vision. It is awe-inspiring how God has moved through the Friends Church to reach people in Bolivia with the Gospel with churches already planted all over the country. But now, national leaders are feeling a strong impulse to move the Bolivian Friends churches out of their Samaria to go to the ends of the earth to proclaim Jesus Christ to other nations. We are moved to see how the Lord of the harvest is challenging the Friends of Bolivia to go out into the fields. Praise him!

EFM, in the process toward our goal of sending ten new missionary households to start at least five new mission fields, is already eyeing 11 places around the world to conduct exploration trips called Luke 10 Exploratory Trips. One of these 11 places is the jungle between Ecuador and Peru where an unreached ethnic group called the Shuar is centered. One of the purposes of our team, taking advantage of the feeling that INELA now has about doing global missions, was to invite this strong Yearly Meeting to partner with EFM to go explore together and perhaps later form a team to reach unreached ethnic groups, such as in the case of the Shuar people.

Our Participation
We give glory to God! We were touched to see the receptive hearts and the interest that could be felt every time we had the opportunity to share about missions in workshops, sermons, question and answer panels, and in talks with leaders during meals or free time. It was a very beautiful thing to see the sensitivity of the people to the touch of the Holy Spirit, after preaching, going in front to kneel at the altar to surrender at the feet of Jesus in response to his call to be obedient to the Great Commission.

It was exciting to see that INELA is open, and they are asking for mentorship from those with more experience, in this case from EFM, to know how to raise missionaries, how to raise funds, how to send, learn to have holistic care for their workers, etc. They are eager to know how!

After the Yearly Meeting sessions, an invitation was extended to all the attendees to a planned mission’s seminar, for which less than 10 people had signed up the day before. We were shocked when we saw that there were many people very interested in learning more about the topic of missions, and so at the end, there were approximately 70 people who were present at this seminar where my husband and I had time to share our experience in the mission field and talk about Mexico Yearly Meeting’s VM32 project.

Our Deep Gratitude
We are deeply grateful that God allowed us to have this wonderful experience, to be able to make new relationships and friendships among his people in Bolivia, to be able to talk about what we are passionate about, touch the beautiful Bolivian culture, taste and experience new delicious foods, feel his love for us through the hospitality and generosity of the two families who hosted us in their homes and all the people with whom we were able to connect who showed so much affection towards us, like taking the time to cross the city in terrible traffic just to get to the airport to say goodbye. So overwhelming, all that God allowed us to experience and achieve during this trip!

Finally, thanks to each one of you for being part of our team with your prayers, your support and your demonstrations of love making us feel that God embraces us through you.

Serving Him,

Maria Giron (and Edwin)
EFM Missions Mobilizer for Hispanic Friends

The post Giron’s Trip to Bolivia first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

I am currently in Bolivia, participating in a Luke 10 Vision Trip! I would love for your prayer as I travel this month. Please also join me in praying for Jan Cammack who is participating in a Future Missionary Training Trip in Rwanda.

Bolivia Trip

Purpose of Trip:

Invite INELA to join us in exploring possible new mission fields through our EFM Luke 10 initiative. Encourage INELA leaders to join God on his mission and to mobilize their congregations for missions. For me personally, plant seeds of empowering, whole life discipleship among pastors and YM leaders in La Paz through a couple 1.5-hour workshops, and with leaders in the CCA church in Santa Cruz through a seven-hour workshop and Sunday morning service. Build relationships.

 Praises:

• Three young ladies (Stefanie Chambi, Cintia Huayhua and Anahi Tintaya) are taking the Navigators 10-month, online Discipling for Development training starting this January. Pray for them to engage deeply with God’s Word, and with principles and practices of whole-life discipleship that they can apply to their missionary work wherever God sends them for their whole lives.
• I especially appreciate a growing friendship with David Tintaya and with Rodiz and Stefanie Chambi. We have been meeting since the summer looking at how to influence INELA towards missions and whole-life discipleship.

Prayer requests:

• Pray for great connections with friends and leaders and for sensitivity to God-appointments, and what he is doing in each person.
• Pray for health and strength in the high altitude and that we would not get any stomach bugs. Pray also for protection from COVID-19.
• Pray for God’s blessing over whole-life discipleship seeds planted, that they would grow and bear fruit in the right people, and especially in the CCA church.
• Pray for my ease in Spanish, for clear thinking and communication and for excellent facilitation of the seminars and classes I’m teaching.

Jan Cammack’s Rwanda Trip

Purpose of Trip:

Invite Rwanda and Burundi yearly meetings to join us in EFM’s new vision of establishing 5 new fields with 10 new households by the end of 2025. We currently have 10 possible new mission fields and we are hoping Rwanda will join us in the South Sudan/Ethiopia venture and Burundi in the Tanzania exploration. This is also a time for Jan and Emmy to explore more their sense of call possibly to this region.

Praises:

• God is still in the business of calling people into cross-cultural missions. We have over 100 people on a list of prospective future missionaries. Thank God for Jan and Emmy exploring this call on this trip.
• I am especially grateful for godly leaders we have in both the Burundi and Rwanda yearly meetings, and I am grateful for Brad Carpenter and his focus to equip Rwandan’s going into cross-cultural ministry outside of their countries. I’m also grateful for Matt Macy and his EFM leadership and passion for missions. Also, Kevin Hoppock has given the EFM board valuable leadership and support over the years. This is a group God is moving in & bringing together.

Prayer requests:

• Pray for blessing on Jan and Emmy and the families they will be visiting at the beginning of the trip. They get to stay with some of my very good friends and experience their lives.
• Pray for safety in all their travels, and for health, including protection from COVID-19.
• Pray for God’s blessing and guidance on all leaders involved in the two days of meetings in both Rwanda and Burundi. Pray for them to catch and own a missionary sending vision.
• Pray for wisdom, blessing and encouragement for Matt, Kevin as they meet with leaders involved in the Rwandan Pastors Development Fund focused on small businesses.

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