Jeff Adams

Wow! These past few days have been a blur. Got back from Mexico City late Thursday night. Friday was occupied by running some necessary errands with Cheryl. Saturday, I taught my class in Shepherd School and then took our guest speaker, Dr. Bill Thomas, out to lunch with some members of our student mission council. Sunday was a great day as Bill Thomas shared his heart with us through ministry of the word.

I have been preaching from Acts 9 on the theme of Building World Changes, using the example of the transformation of the Saul the Pharisee into Paul the Apostle. Bill is a wonderful example of a world changer. A man who overcame all the odds to make the right choices and be mightily used of God.

Here’s a brief summary of the Bill Thomas story. He was born to a humble African-American home in South Carolina. His mother died when he was young and he moved with some of his siblings to New York City, specifically East Harlem. He came to faith in Christ at the age of ten in 1946. While some of his siblings made some unwise choices, Bill decided that he would give his life to Christ and prepare himself as best he could.

His quest for education took him through several colleges, universities and seminaries in several countries, culminating with a Th.D. Before he left East Harlem, he had taught himself Spanish and was working on French. His interest in languages served him well in his academic track and his later career as pastor, theologian and evangelist. He has lived in several countries, speaks five languages and preaches fluently in English, French and Spanish. He has been associated closely with Luis Palau since the 1960’s. For much of his adult life he has resided in Strasbourg, France where he still lives with this English wife. Their two grown children also reside in Europe, in England and France. What a blessing to sit under his teaching this past Sunday! He is a gentleman of rich wisdom and insight and communicates with power.

Today, was a flurry of meetings and trying to catch up and patch up after being out of the office most of the past two weeks. I deposited Dr. Thomas at Midwestern Baptist Seminary after lunch where he will spend the rest of this week. Tonight, I began to pack to leave yet again on Wednesday, heading for Spain, North Africa and The Netherlands. Tomorrow night, I’ll try to give you a quick idea of what I will be doing.