Partner in Prayer

Dear Friends and Family,

We are writing today to share some exciting news with you. And before you get too excited…NO…we are NOT expanding our family!! We are inviting you to join us in prayer as we answer the call of God for us to serve Him with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Panama. Yes, we know this is a drastic step! Mark began to feel called to full time ministry in October of last year. We have been praying very hard about what this call on our lives means and how we are to go about fulfilling it. God placed Panama on Mark’s heart and again we began to pray. God has revealed in some interesting ways that this is the path that he has for our family at this time.

Youth With A Mission is an international volunteer movement of Christians from many backgrounds, cultures and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. YWAM is involved in many ministries touching the lives of millions of people in over 150 countries. Their purpose is simply to know God and to make Him known. The doors in Panama have recently been more open than before to the gospel. YWAM Panama is working in the schools, with orphans, with the disabled, through children’s ministries such as Kings Kids, and reaching out to indigenous tribes.

To qualify to be on staff with YWAM you must first complete a Discipleship Training School. The Discipleship Training School (DTS) is designed to help its students understand God more deeply, live more like Jesus and identify their unique gifts and purpose to use in missions. DTS is an intensive, residential training course which begins with an 11 or 12 week classroom phase, followed by an 8-12 week outreach. DTS emphasizes cross-cultural exposure and global awareness, preparing students to answer the call to "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations" Matthew 28:19. This is our first step. Mark and I (and the children) have been accepted to spend 5 months in Central America attending the DTS offered through YWAM Panama. We will board a plane in January and make our way to Panama for training. Where God will lead us from there, we are unsure.

We are excited and terrified. We know that God is able to do AMAZING things through a willing vessel and we want His spirit to flow through us. You can read more about YWAM Panama and the ministries that it’s involved in at www.ywampanama.org.

Thank you in advance for your prayers! We know that “the Lord hears the prayers of the righteous.” (Prov. 15:29)

In HIM,
Mark, Kim, Camber, and Cooper Thomas