Leighton Ford Ministries remembers our friend, the Rev. Dr. L. Wesley de Souza, who taught theology, leadership, mission and evangelism, spirituality, and church revitalization at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia. An ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, de Souza and his wife Vanice planted Communitàs, a Luso-Brazilian Ministry of the Atlanta-Roswell District of The United Methodist Church.

Wesley had many ties with LFM, including a personal retreat with Leighton while finishing his doctorate at Asbury. Later, he participated in several of our mentoring gatherings. From those times, he started some mentoring communities in South America, one which met for at least thirteen years. In 2017, he became the Director of the World Methodist Evangelism Institute and brought in Kevin Ford to consult and reframe the organization.

Mark Slaughter, LFM’s Director of International Mentoring, said this about Wesley: “He was an amazing missiologist, theologian, and professor. His main role was Professor of Evangelism at Candler. However, he had many other roles including Director of the World Methodist Evangelism Institute with a passion for bringing together the whole Wesleyan family in evangelism. In his many efforts and mentoring, he was incorporating the LFM mentoring model!”