More than a Reunion

LOGOI
Aug 29
3 min read

Our Thompson family is working on a long overdue family reunion. We are mom, four sons and wives, 14 grandchildren (12 married) and 22 great-grandchildren with two more on the way. We are spread across the country from the East Coast to the West Coast and two families living abroad.

Determining a date is always tricky with job responsibilities, school, and family plans. We know that no matter the date or location we select, not everyone will be able to attend for one reason or another including ever increasing travel expenses.

On second thought, maybe we could all wear Hawaiian shirts, pretend we’re on the Big Island and just “Zoom” call.

We feel like we’re constantly having “reunions” here at LOGOI with our large extended family scattered throughout the Spanish world. We recently wrote about one of our National Missionaries in Chile, Juan Luis Guerra, in our Missionary of the Month newsletter. “I’ve known LOGOI since I was a seminary student” he told us. “LOGOI’s Bible resources are very helpful for my personal spiritual life as well as preparing for work with my Bible study groups and evangelistic campaigns.”

We love Chile and it truly is one of the most beautiful countries to visit. But our “reunion” with extended family members like Juan reminds us that our job is to help, equip, and encourage national pastors and leaders. Their job is to take God’s Word into their communities and joyfully proclaim the gospel in word and deed. What a great partnership!

Back in November of 2023, we had a reunion with Edgar Arreaza in Guatemala. We said he was like a “Swiss Army knife” of talents and abilities which God has given him with his enthusiastic way of taking the Gospel to his community. Edgar and his wife are devoted disciple makers and we are thrilled we get to help them along the way.

These reunions, by the way, are costing LOGOI roughly $5 per month. As much as we’d love to fly to Guatemala and Chile and have face-to-face reunions, the airfare alone would cost us more than helping, equipping, and encouraging over 20 national missionaries (at $60 per year).

I’ll never forget a mission trip to Venezuela many years ago. It was a wonderful reunion with the group we took and the people we helped and encouraged. I was sitting alone with the pastor having a cup of coffee learning his plans and dreams. I then asked him what he thought about our large group that had come to “help” them.

He looked at me rather uncomfortably not wanting to give his true thoughts. Finally, he said, “Please don’t be angry with me because we are so grateful you are here. The truth is, however, with the costs you spent to bring this group to help us, we could have planted one or two new churches, equipped dozens of leaders to help grow our churches, and even provided food kitchens for the poor in our communities.”

It wasn’t very long after that encounter that this thing called the Internet came available to the masses. We at LOGOI jumped on it, adapted our delivery systems to work with it and made it available for free to anyone who could use it. Last year, that number was in the hundreds of thousands.

Our Thompson family reunion in 2026 is going to be wonderful. There will be lots of hugs and laughter. We will joyfully invest some of our money for all the expenses of getting together knowing each dollar will be worth it. I’ll probably even let my brother Gregg beat me in golf again (it’s irritating because he beats me every time even though I’m so much better than he is).

When we look at those family reunion expenses, I already know I’ll smile knowing it will be well worth the costs. I’ll also think of LOGOI and our $5 reunion costs…and I’ll smile knowing how well those dollars are invested and the impact they are having for “Equipping God’s people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12).

Thank you for your prayers and financial gifts. Please keep them both going. We are so grateful for your partnership in joyfully proclaiming the Gospel.

Forever!