The Thomas Newsletter 

Hello everyone!

Fall is quickly approaching. I think we can all relate that time seems to fly by faster and faster. We especially felt that when we celebrated our baby boy Ezra’s 1st birthday on September 4! We celebrated together as a family, and Stephen and I decorated the house “farm themed” with the motto, “Holy Cow, I’m One!” It was a sweet time starting the day with church that Sunday morning, doing some farm-themed games when we got home, then we finished it off with some homemade birthday cupcakes and a few birthday gifts. Noah felt like the birthday boy too since he enjoyed the fun theme and cupcakes. He even helped Ezra blow out his candle!

Additionally, Noah completed in his first bike competition at the end of July. My in-laws bought him a Strider bike, which is without pedals, last year for Christmas. This type of bike allows young children to gain a much better sense of balance early on. He placed 2nd overall, in his age range! Not bad for a boy that has never been exposed to bike races before, huh? After the races, all he wanted us to play were the songs “We are the Champions” and “We will rock you.” We are grateful to God for these delightful family memories.

Regarding the land, we are advancing in the process, and it seems like we will soon reach the light at the end of the tunnel! Stephen got a letter of intent from the bank which took a couple of weeks. The landowner also had a list of items to complete. We hope that we will soon have a place for the Abraham Project Panama (APP) to take root.

Also, we are currently looking for workers to help us carry out the vision of temporarily housing abused and neglected children while we work with their families for reunification and share the Gospel. Our short-term goal, currently, is to find a good architect to map out all that we want to build so we can get that into a builder’s hands. A long-term goal is finding a social worker to help us. We are praying for a Panamanian who shares our vision to help us advance the calling God has placed on our lives.

Stephen took a fundraising trip to the US in August. God has been extremely faithful in providing our funding to live on the field. This has allowed us to focus exclusively on raising funds for the ministry. However, Stephen felt it would be prudent to start raising funds for our family again since we now have 2 kids and new obligations. Since we just completed our goal of raising funds for APP, for now, please pray that God would move on our behalf so that we can continue to faithfully serve where we are called.

Lastly, please join us in praying for Panama. Recently we went through nearly a month of multiple road closures and strikes. While there wasn’t much violence, road closures were more common. In fact, they were so common that many basic supplies such as food and gasoline were becoming scarce in many parts of the country. The protests were mainly against government corruption and the high cost of living. The

government is now bowing to the demands and subsidizing many things, such as gas, medicine, and basic foods. However, they are only doing so for 3 months at a time, due to the high cost. We pray that solutions will come to the officials and representatives of the unions leading the strikes so that the people of Panama can have more lasting peace.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. God bless!