Feb to Apr 2020 Newsletter

Greetings
Friends

God is our refuge and
strength, a very present help in trouble, therefore, we will not fear….
says Psalm 46. Let us trust God.

This
season has been for us so far, an amazing journey of God’s opportunities. Life
will never be the same!  So what have we been up to?

Ministry Opportunities

Ministry in Belize

In March Donovan and Faith had an awesome week in Belize where we on shared on, A Taste of Happiness in Turbulent Times with 4 schools (over 1500 students). We also did a weekend leadership seminar at Trinity Assembly of God on Empowering Leaders for End Time Ministry. The Isaiah 61 anointing we prayed for was very evident and many students prayed to accept Jesus as their personal saviour. Hallelujah!

CLI Facilitates Spring
Break Missions Trip from Texas

While we were away our
staff and volunteers hosted a short term missions team from Valley Creek Church
in Dallas, Texas from March 8-15.  They went to nine (9) schools
where they shared the gospel through a powerful and provocative 15 minute drama
that challenged the students about what gives meaning to their lives, and
afterwards met with them in small groups and one to one follow
up.  They also did three work/construction projects (digging the
foundation for a house, building a wheelchair ramp and painting a library) for
which the persons were overwhelmed with gratitude. Thanks to our staff and
volunteers especially Sharon McCarthy, Grace Beckett, Nadine Piper and Meta
Dunn who hosted the group in our absence.  This was a two-week
missions activity, but unfortunately, Covid-19 prevented the completion of the
activity, but to God be the glory for all that was achieved. 

Opportunities
Presented by Covid-19

We returned from
Belize on March 13 only to be greeted with Covid-19 coming to Jamaica days
before our arrival.  We decided to close office and do
tele-counselling from home. We hosted our first Zoom prayer meeting, and we had
representatives from 8 countries where there has been a CLI presence including
Peru. 

For a long time we
have wanted to do webinars, but it seemed so difficult, however, we
hosted our first 2 free webinars: A Taste of Happiness in Tough
Times and What a Stress! Coping with Covid-19, on
April 5 and 6.  With very little promotion we had 81 persons on Sunday
and 77 on Monday from 8 countries and over 400 views on Facebook. With the
changes in Zoom on  Monday, some people said they were not able to
come in. The 2 webinars went well and we got great
feedback.   We even got requests to do both presentations again
with other groups.  

UPCOMING WEBINARS

Webinar 3 is scheduled
for Sunday April 12 at 5pm Jamaica time, Donovan will speak on, From
Worry to Worship. Look out for the link.

Webinar 4 is on Monday April 13 at
6pm Jamaica time on Money Management by our Board Treasurer,
Mr Bruce Scott of Price Waterhouse/Coopers.  

Other Opportunities

Donovan had the
opportunity to preach on From Worry to Worship on Zoom to the
members of Mona Heights Chapel on April 5.  It was a very interactive
message and many were challenged to worship, even as we are in this time of
trouble and testing. Donovan also had the opportunity to share on Gospel
JA FM on Coping with Loneliness and also Choosing
to be Happy.  Both interviews went very well. From this
Donovan has put together a presentation on The Seven C’s of Coping with
COVID-19.

Grief Counselling

Donovan did online
grief counselling via Zoom with an organization that had 2 deaths in 3 weeks
and with a daughter who lost her father to Covid-19 and a family that had a
tragic death.  

     
                     
                   
 Zoom Wedding Anniversary

We had an amazing time
of connection when we celebrated our 34^th Wedding Anniversary
on Zoom with family and friends on March 29, 2020. Donovan’s brother Derrick
and wife Sadra also celebrated their 23^rdanniversary on the same
date.  We had a blast. (Kindly see pics attached).

                                                       Social Media

We have updated our
facebook (chooselifeinternational), Instagram (chooselifeintl) and our website
(www.chooselifeintl.org)
so check us out.

                 
                     
                 Prayer Requests

Let
us pray for each other and for the nations of the world during this Easter,
that they will bow down and worship Jesus and look to Him who was crucified,
for salvation.  May there be a worldwide turning to Jesus during this
time and a miraculous stop to this pestilence.  

Continue
to pray for our children who are in medicine and their wives, one of whom is
also in medicine.  Pray for all of our health professionals both
locally and overseas.  Pray for all our senior citizens and those of
us who have underlying health conditions. Pray pray pray.  

Pray
that God will decide to be the sponsor of our free webinars and that through
this medium that many will experience salvation, healing and deliverance. We
look to God to do far more than we can ask or even imagine.  Please
be safe.  God be with you.

Shalom
shalom

Faith
and Donovan Thomas