Haiti is a land that has lived under the shadow of dark folk religions such as voodoo for a long time. Economically it is one of the poorest nations in the world. In many places of the country it is a struggle just to survive. Thankfully there are strong Christian witnesses striving to proclaim God's truth there and live for Him. Recently Good Soil Evangelism and Discipleship Trainer Fred Seiferth and his friend Pastor Mike Vauters from Lafayette, Indiana traveled to a remote, economically depressed area of Haiti to lead a Good Soil seminar for 45 national pastors. Many of these pastors do not have much formal Bible training, so they were excited to partake in this fun and equipping seminar/workshop.

As with any Good Soil seminar, much of the training centered around the first Good Soil verb: Understand. A key to evangelism is helping people to "understand" the gospel. This word which is taken from the parable of the sower as told in Matthew chapter 13 carries the idea that we need to help someone "put the pieces in order" as if someone is assembling a puzzle. To illustrate this point, Fred and Mike had the pastors do a fun table activity where the pastors raced against each other to put simple puzzles together. The men really enjoyed that and fully understood the point that as Bible teachers our role is to help people "put the pieces in order" so that they can see the whole picture of the gospel.

What does that whole picture of the gospel look like? Careful study of the Bible shows that the full gospel message actually begins in the very first chapter of Genesis and is not complete until the very last chapter of Revelation. Good Soil Evangelism and Discipleship resources have been developed to help people tell this one big story of the Bible through linking together 40 individual Bible events chronologically. Two of these resources are "The Story of Hope" Bible study book as well as the corresponding 40-image printed visual set. Fred and Mike spent a good portion of the seminar equipping these pastors to use both.

The pastors enjoyed not only learning about this one big story of redemption through Jesus Christ but also practicing with how to tell it themselves. The hands-on nature of this training kept the spirits high and the time moving quickly. The Lord blessed so that each pastor was given a complete set of the printed images as well as two copies of "The Story of Hope." May the Lord continue to bless the efforts of these pastors to help their congregations "understand" this one big story while also equipping them to go out and tell it as well!

Want to learn how to tell God's story of hope yourself? Consider coming to one of our upcoming seminars!