Good Soil Evangelism & Discipleship (GSED) training was initially developed to equip ABWE missionaries for worldview relevant evangelism and discipleship in a broad range of cross-cultural settings around the world. It quickly expanded to include national church leaders in those countries in which ABWE serves and partners. Now those missionaries and national leaders are in turn training nationals who are seeking to go forth with the gospel.

One of the places this is happening is in Spanish-speaking South America where the GSED seminar is being used to train Latin American missionaries as they prepare to serve in creative access countries. As the church continues to grow in the global South, so does its impact on missions. Nearly half of the world’s top missionary-sending countries are now located in the global South. Missionaries from these countries often have a much easier time entering some of the restricted access nations of the world.

Lynell Smith, the Good Soil coordinator for Spanish-speaking South America, shares what a privilege it has been to be involved in team-teaching these missionaries. The students are dedicated and enthusiastic to learn and have really been encouraged and challenged by the training to reach the nations with the gospel message. One recent group of missionary trainees went on a short trip into the jungles of Ecuador. While they were there, they were asked by some of the local church leaders for training in evangelism in discipleship. Even though they had just begun being trained themselves in GSED principles and resources, they were eager to share what they had learned. They took what they had just learned about the 8 essential truths that form the Chronological Bridge to Life and passed it on to those leaders.

That same group of students ended up stuck in Ecuador for a while as the Covid-19 pandemic closed borders around the world. They continued to hold their training classes via WhatsApp video and other methods. One time when it was time for class, they found that there was no internet. This did not hold them back. Their creative solution was for the teacher to call one group of students and give them some instruction and an assignment over the phone, then hang up and call another group with the same instructions and assignment. Then they would return to the first group for feedback, more instruction, and another assignment, hang up and continue the process like that for two hours. The diligence and persistence of the students was amazing. The students finished the training while in Ecuador and participated in the GSED Trainer Certification before heading back to their own countries once they were permitted to travel again.

Pray for these Latin American missionaries and others like them from Brazil, the Philippines, and various other countries who are taking the gospel into many needy places around the world. Pray that their ministries might result in much fruit.