Gil & Denise Thomas
Good Soil Evangelism

Association of Baptists for World Evangelism

August 2025

Whew! It’s good to be home after somewhat of a whirlwind six-week Ministry Trip. God blessed, allowing us to • Teach The Roots of Faith Old Testament in Harrisburg, PA, where we saw people grow in their understanding of God’s Word. • Teach two workshops at the GARBC Conference in IL, where we saw people learn how to share the gospel with people of other faiths and where we made some good contacts for future ministry. • Visit and report in three supporting churches—one in PA and two in MI. • Visit family in Michigan, West Virginia, and Maryland. • Co-teach a Good Soil Evangelism & Discipleship seminar at BJU Seminary. The people enjoyed the training and insisted on our third day of training—Trainer Certification—so we scheduled and taught that on August 1st at a local church in town. • Lead the Good Soil Leadership Strategic Planning meeting in Tennessee with 10 leaders in attendance. The time went very well and we came out of the meetings with a lot of work to do! • Teach three workshops at the ABWE Missionary Enrichment Conference in TN. We were busy, but that’s not all that happened in the world of Good Soil. Praise the Lord with us for . . . • ——— joined Good Soil Ministries as our Coordinator of Spanish Speaking Ministry. They are long-term ABWE missionaries who spent many years in Argentina before planting a Spanish-Speaking church in Florida. They bring a wealth of experience and leadership ability to the team. • ————-joined ABWE to be our future Good Soil Overseas Director. We first met them in Thailand where they were serving as missionaries and attended some Good Soil training. When ——- transferred to the home office of their mission, he told the president of the mission that he thought all their missionaries should have Good Soil training. The two of them came to ABWE for training and then asked us to bring the training to them in Arkansas. Now, several years later, God has called them to serve with Good Soil. Pray with us that God will supply their support quickly. • —————-joined Good Soil as Associate Director of Good Soil Ministries in the Philippines where they will help ———– with the ministry there and do travel ministry as well. ——–has been teaching Good Soil seminars for several years now while pastoring. This move brings him into the Good Soil ministry full time. —– are raising their support as well and need your prayers. Since we’ve been home, I’ve been working on the Teacher’s Guide, Student Worksheets, and Power Points for the Walk in Light curriculum. I’m nearing the end where I’ll send it to Jean for editing. Then I will move on to Walk as Wise. I’d like these done by the end of August so that we have the whole Walk Series done. Please pray for insight, clarity, wisdom, and fortitude to get these done soon. These will be valuable tools to use in a church classroom setting which will be downloadable for free. The first two curricula are already on at The Walk Series: Book 1 – Walk Worthy | Good Soil and The Walk Series: Book 2 – Walk in Love | Good Soil

Two quick notes about the future: We have plans to teach . . . The Good Soil Seminar at Heritage Baptist Church, Lakeland FL Sept. 26-27 The Good Soil Seminar at ABWE International Headquarters October 6-10 The Roots of Faith Old Testament in India October 14-25. This trip is in partnership with BJU Seminary at one of their satellite schools. The Roots of Faith New Testament in Portugal January 12-17. As we mentioned last time, the Portugal trip was postponed in 2020 when Covid hit. The pastors are eager to get this training for their people. We are so excited that God has answered prayer and $1000 has been given to cover the needed $3800 for the training materials in Portugal. If you would like to help, you may send funds to ABWE by https://give.abwe.org/checkout?page=359. In the +Additional Processing Instructions, please comment for account 011711-020. Thank you for considering this opportunity to put good training materials in the hands of Portuguese. The Portugal trip is in partnership with our AIBEM churches (Associação de Igrejas Baptistas para Evangelismo Mundial—Association of Baptist Churches for World Evangelism) in Portugal. Please be in prayer for our planning, travel safety, and materials for upcoming ministry trip, especially for a visa for India.