HOW WE WORK
Relationships First. Impact That Lasts.
We believe meaningful change begins with understanding the people, needs, and opportunities already present. Our approach is relational, practical, and designed to build strength that continues long after an immediate need is met.
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LISTEN & UNDERSTAND
CONNECT & EQUIP
BUILD FOR THE FUTURE
We begin with people—not programs. By listening to local leaders, families, ministries, and communities, we work to understand the real need before determining how Best Life can help.
We bring together resources, expertise, relationships, and support to address practical needs and strengthen the people already involved.
We look beyond the immediate solution to find opportunities for lasting impact through education, leadership and ministry development, and building sustainability.
WHAT WE SUPPORT
Our Areas of Impact
Every community and situation is different. Our nonprofit work in Bali responds to the needs and opportunities in front of us, focusing resources where they can create meaningful change and greater possibility.
EDUCATION
HEALTH & ESSENTIAL NEEDS
Creating access to education, training, and opportunities that equip people with knowledge and skills for the future.
Helping address essentials that affect quality of life: housing stability, health, dental and vision care, access to clean water, and other practical needs.
LEADERSHIP & MINISTRY DEVELOPMENT
Investing in leaders through mentoring, education, training, strategic support, and resources that strengthen their ability to serve others.
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITY
Supporting practical solutions that help individuals, families, ministries, and communities become stronger and more self-sustaining.
WHERE IT BEGAN
One Relationship Changed Everything.
Best Life's work in Bali didn't begin with a program or a strategic plan. It began with a relationship—one that would eventually connect people across countries, cultures, and communities around a shared desire to serve.
The story begins long before Best Life ever existed.
MEET THOMSON & BERTHA
Lives Shaped by Faith, Purpose and Perseverance
What began as a series of seemingly ordinary moments would eventually connect Thomson and Bertha Talomanafe, their family and their church in Bali, with Scott and Shannon Gordon in a way none of them could have anticipated.
Thomson serves as pastor of Elim United Pentecostal Church in Kuta, Bali—the same church John and Sue Downs planted decades earlier. When Scott and Shannon traveled to Bali, a “chance” meeting with John and Sue led them to a church service. Through John and Sue, they met Thomson who was serving as Sue’s interpreter that evening.
After Sue finished speaking, Thomson “happened” to sit beside Shannon at a dinner of 25 people. A simple conversation began. Before the evening was over, Thomson offered to serve as Scott's and Shannon's guide for the rest of their trip—showing Scott and Shannon the Bali he knew, its people, its communities, and eventually, his own church and family.
MORE THAN COINCIDENCE
Some Meetings Change
the Direction of Everything.
Looking back, Scott and Shannon saw more than a series of chance encounters. One unexpected connection seemed to lead naturally to the next—each revealing another piece of a story they could not yet see.
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JOHN & SUE
The First Connection
Scott and Shannon’s chance meeting with John and Sue Downs opened the door to Elim United Pentecostal Church in Bali.
What looked like a coincidence was becoming a connection, and connection was birthing purpose.
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THOMSON
An Unexpected Introduction
At a church meeting, they met Pastor Thomson Talomanafe who was serving as Sue’s interpreter.
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A DINNER
One Conversation
Later that evening, Thomson happened to sit beside Shannon. A simple conversation became the beginning of a friendship.
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BALI THROUGH HIS EYES
A Relationship Begins
Thomson offered to spend the rest of their trip showing Scott and Shannon his Bali—its people, communities, church, and family.
WHAT THEY SAW
The Needs Were Real.
So Was the Potential.
As Thomson welcomed Scott and Shannon into his community, they began to see Bali beyond the places most visitors experience. They met families, spent time with church leaders, saw children and classrooms, and learned about practical needs that often stood between people and greater opportunity.
They also saw something equally important: strength already present. They encountered people committed to their families, their faith, their communities, and a better future. The opportunity was not to arrive with all the answers—it was to listen, build relationships, and come alongside people already doing meaningful work.
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They didn't see a community waiting to be rescued.
They saw people worth investing in.
THE STORY BEHIND THE MAN
Long Before They Met,
Thomson Had Been Building A Life Of Service.
In 1982, Thomson left the extreme poverty of Timor Island at just 12 years old, determined to continue his education. He traveled to Bali by cattle boat, cleaning stalls and bathrooms to earn his fare.
Once in Bali, he slept on the streets and on restaurant benches, working to earn the money needed for his tuition. Eventually, he became involved with a Christian youth group—a connection that would help shape the direction of his life.
In time, Thomson married Bertha, and together they began building a family and a life rooted in faith.
Then, in 2002, everything changed.
Thomson became critically ill, beginning a battle that would last roughly six months. During that time, he made a commitment: if God allowed him to recover, he would devote his life to ministry.
He recovered.
He kept his promise.
That promise led Thomson into pastoral ministry. He, Bertha, and their daughters started Elim United Pentecostal Church in Kuta, Bali, where they continue to serve today.
OUR NONPROFIT WORK IN BALI
They Came to Bali on Vacation.
They Left With a Question.
Scott and Shannon did not travel to Bali looking for a mission. They were on vacation. But as events unfolded, they met people, heard their stories, and began to see needs they could not simply ignore.
What began as listening and relationship became an opportunity to come alongside in practical ways. They sensed that God had placed something unexpected in front of them—not a predetermined plan, but a question:
How can we best help here?
It started with one child.
As Scott and Shannon learned more about the families around them, education became one of the first places they saw an opportunity to help. What began as support for a single student grew as more needs became known.
THE FIRST YES
One Child Became Eleven... So Far
The first opportunity was simple: help one child stay in school. But as Scott and Shannon became more connected to Thomson, Bertha, and their community, they began learning about other children facing similar challenges.
One opportunity became another. One student became eleven.
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The First Yes
From One to Eleven
Post-Secondary Chance
One child. One opportunity to remove a barrier and make education possible.
As relationships grew, so did the opportunity to help. What began with one student has grown to eleven children enrolled in school so far.
The opportunity extended beyond children and teens. So far, one student’s complete law school education has been fully funded.
One yes made education possible.
Every yes since has made the possibilities greater.
WHEN NEEDS BECAME PERSONAL
Helping Where Help Was Needed
As Scott and Shannon spent more time with families in Bali, they began encountering needs that could not always wait for a larger program or long-term plan. Sometimes helping meant responding to the person standing right in front of them.
Clean Water
Clear Vision
Dental Care
One family needed reliable access to safe drinking water. A permanent filtration system provided a practical solution—free from the heavy metals affecting their water.
For people who could not afford eye care, help meant something as simple—and life-changing—as an eye exam and a pair of glasses.
When families faced dental needs they could not afford, support helped provide both preventive care and treatment for urgent problems.
WHAT GREW FROM RELATIONSHIP
Helping Met a Need.
Partnership Built Something More.
Over time, individual acts of support became something deeper. Scott, Shannon, and the initial donors they engaged were no longer simply responding to needs as they appeared. They were committing to long-term relationships with Balinese people who understood their communities, knew where opportunities existed, and were already working toward lasting change.
The goal was never to become the answer.
It was to strengthen the people already answering the call.
THE NEXT CHAPTER
And Then Came Best Life.
What began through friendship, faith, and a willingness to help grew into an ongoing partnership that needed a structure of its own. Best Life was created to carry that same relationship-first approach forward—connecting resources with people in need, strengthening local leaders and individuals already providing care, and helping communities build toward lasting opportunity.
Not a new mission.
A way to carry the mission further.
WHAT BEST LIFE BELIEVES
The Best Solutions Begin With the People Closest to the Need.
Best Life begins by listening. The people who live, serve, teach, lead, and raise families within a community understand its needs in ways outsiders cannot. Our role is not to arrive with predetermined answers. Our approach is to build trusting relationships, identify opportunities together, and help connect local vision with resources that can move that vision forward.
Listen first. Strengthen what is already there. Build together.
WHAT WE’RE BUILDING THROUGH NONPROFIT WORK IN BALI
Turning Relationships Into Lasting Opportunity.
Best Life exists to build relationships and meaningful, sustainable opportunity. By working alongside local caregivers, leaders, and communities, we help connect resources to places where they can make a lasting difference.
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Connect
Resources
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Strengthen
Capacity
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Create
Opportunity
Meeting Practical Needs
Equipping Local Leaders
Building Toward the Future
We connect financial support, materials, expertise, and other resources with locally identified needs and opportunities.
We work to provide community care providers, pastors, leaders, educators, churches, and other organizations with tools, training, and resources to help strengthen and expand the work they are already doing.
We invest in children, families, community contributors, and initiatives to strengthen greater stability and long-term opportunity.
The work may look different in every community.
The approach remains the same:
listen, connect, strengthen, build.
WHY RELATIONSHIP COMES FIRST
The Work Has Always Been About People.
One relationship can change
the direction of many lives.
Best Life began with people willing to know one another, to listen, and to respond when opportunities to assist became known.
That same belief continues to shape the work today. Lasting change grows through trusted relationships and partnerships that bring together local community contributors and organizations—those who already understand local challenges and possibilities—with resources that can help build a better future. Thomson and his family embody that kind of service. Through decades of faithful ministry, they have helped people find new hope, guidance, resources, and opportunities to build more meaningful lives.
Thomson was never simply part of the story. He helped show them how the story should be written.