"I had just shown Dana, her husband and her eight children the Bible Stories and was beginning to show them the Conflict of the Ages series," reported Emily Gibson, a student at SOULS-West in Scottsdale, Ariz. "Before I could continue, Dana stopped me. She related how she had dreamed about a voice telling her to gather her children together, and as they did, a small black cloud in the sky appeared, then got larger and larger, until it burst into light." Dana and her family purchased all the books Emily had in order to learn more about the Lord’s return.

In the first year at SOULS, students take classes and do field work designed to help them grow spiritually and train them to be leaders in the literature ministry. The second year focuses on advanced training in Bible work, preparing students to mobilize a church for outreach evangelism. Not only will the students learn to give Bible studies, but they will learn to train church members and other students in the how-to’s of personal evangelism. At the end of two years, students are qualified to be career literature evangelists, MagaBook industry directors and other ministry leaders.

Located on the campus of Thunderbird Academy in Scottsdale, Ariz., SOULS-West is the Pacific Union’s training college for outreach evangelism. In the past two years, SOULS-West has had 12 students work with churches in Arizona, Utah and California, helping to develop a focus on outreach evangelism. They hope to have 14 students working in Nevada and Arizona this year, along with 15-20 students leading in student MagaBook programs this summer.