Nineteen young people came to several desert cites to share God's Word by meeting people face-to-face and offering literature for sale last November and December. All are training with SOULS — West, the Pacific Union’s outreach evangelism training school in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Spending two weeks going door-to-door in Indio, Coachella, Cathedral City, Indian Wells, Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs, they visited 23,000 homes, distributed nearly 4,000 books and received 83 interests for Bible studies. Working in the afternoon and evening they found 30 to 80 percent of the people at home, respectively. Dawn Fullerton, one member of the group, recalls meeting three Hispanic men.
"With three of them and only one of me, I was hard-pressed to keep up with their questions," she recalled. "As I quoted Scripture, I also shared my own testimony. They were amazed to see someone their age that had once had a lifestyle similar to theirs who had been totally changed. As I walked away, one man followed me, asking more questions. I asked if I could pray with him and then felt impressed to give him God’s Answers to Your Questions. I told him I would pay for it myself if he would read it. He promised he would. At the next house, a neighbor purchased a book and gave a donation large enough to cover the cost of the book I’d given away."
SOULS — West is for students who want to prepare for Bible work or literature evangelism. Over a two-year period, they intersperse one quarter of study and one quarter of front-line action. What they sell helps cover tuition for SOULS classes.
Together, the Southeastern and Southern California Conferences sponsor the literature ministries program. In addition to SOULS — WEST, it includes the Magabook program.
Ten students at La Sierra University (LSU) currently work with Magabooks under the leadership of Teddy Knapp. The students work about 12 hours a week in the community and earn, on the average, about $1,000 per quarter. The university matches these earnings dollar for dollar. These programs provide a life-changing experience for the students, an outreach to the community for Christ, and thousands of dollars for Adventist education.
