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
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