Gil & Denise Thomas
Good Soil Evangelism
Association of Baptists for World Evangelism
July 2025
We are almost halfway through the six-week ministry trip we told you about and for which you have been praying. Thank you so much for your faithfulness in praying for us! The Roots of Faith training in Old Testament and New Testament went well. About half of the students were missionaries with ABWE and the other half was pastors, church leaders, and missionaries from other mission boards.
Spencer Gequillana from the Philippines helped to make up the teaching team again. The last time he taught here was eight years ago. This time, his wife, Cheralyn, came with him and took the training. It was great to have him teach Old Testament with us along with Jon Stone from Peru, Dave Levy from EveryEthne, and Steve Winget who served in Hungary for many years. Randy, Spencer, Steve, and Dave Southwell taught the New Testament.
Then we were off to Elgin, IL, to participate in the GARBC Conference. We taught a couple of workshops and had a Good Soil display table along with ABWE and EveryEthne. We were able to have some good conversations with people who are already using the Good Soil training and resources in their ministries and we talked with several new people who we hope will take the training soon.
Gil and Randy will be teaching a Good Soil seminar in the BJU Seminary building on July 10 and 11. If you are in or close enough to Greenville, SC, consider coming to the training!
- Good Soil Seminars for seminarians, pastors, and church leaders
- Guest lecturing in seminary and university classes
- Teaching at retreats
- Helping with evangelism emphases at the schools
- Possible trips to train pastors overseas.
Pray with us that these opportunities will be blessed by God so that pastors and church leaders will effectively evangelize and make disciples. Pray that doors will continue to stay open and more will be opened to spread the gospel in this part of the country while we continue to work around the world.
We have plans to teach The Roots of Faith New Testament in Portugal in
January (and are looking at teaching The Roots of Faith in India in the fall). 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 some have responded to the need for training materials in Portugal—some of the $3800 needed for the printing of training manuals has already been given. If you would like to help, you can send funds to ABWE for account 011711-020. Thank you for considering this opportunity to put good training materials in the hands of Portuguese.
Please continue to pray for our travel to Kentucky (July 12-18) for our Good
Soil Leadership Strategic Planning Retreat . . . and for our participation in
ABWE’s Missionary Enrichment Conference (July 21-25). We will share Good
Soil training and resources with missionaries around the globe and teach three workshops. Pray that God will use us to encourage missionaries and move them forward in their understanding of biblical evangelism and discipleship.
