Gil and Denise Thomas (Children – Sarah, Jonathan and Andrea)

E-mail: gthomas@abwe.cc
Website: http://www.thomas.abwe.org/
Field Address: Unizacao Vale Quente, Lot 3, 1E 2630 Arruda dos vinhos, Portugal
Telephone: 351 263 974 360

Mission Agency: Association of Baptists For World Evangelism (ABWE)
Mission Field: Portugal

Field Purpose Statement: To bring true hope and purpose to Portuguese by planting reproducing Baptist churches.

Ministry Assignment: Their principal role is to plant churches (evangelize and disciple believers and form them into churches and develop leadership). They are also involved in the leadership of the Portugal musical evangelism field.

March 2008

Dear Praying Friends,

We hosted our tenth choir festival in Portugal on May 17, 2008.  Below are highlights:

  • We had a host choir (Cant’ Arruda) 
  • 120 people (from 4 participating choirs) were fed at the church after the concert.
  • Over 250 people heard the Gospel in song and testimony
  • 5 unsaved people (3 from Cant’ Arruda) came to church the next day and heard the Gospel again.
  • The music ministry of "Vision" from San Diego Christian College

Thanks for praying.  Praise God with us for His working through this ministry.  Also, please pray for the choir members to be saved.  While we are gone during this next year for furlough, Miguel Fernandes (former intern and present Portuguese missionary partnering with us) will be leading the choir.  Pray that he will be able to gain their respect quickly as their "maestro," be able to have a strong testimony with them, and even see some saved.

"We have to keep chipping away at this one.  This is not going to be easy," commented Dr. Herweg, Andrea’s electro-cardiologist, yesterday during her appointment.  "We have to aggressively ablate the sinus node." 

The doctor went on to say that the diseased area is so extensive that it is like a sheet hung on a line and the work that was already done by the three other ablations are like holes that have been shot through it.

Many times we have wondered why Andrea’s contition has worsened so drastically.  Dr. Herweg explained to us that from bitth until she was 3 (before the open heart surgery), her heart was overloaded and therefore enlarged.  The complications form the scaring and cutting through the heart’s electrical system added to the problem.  Then, at age thirteen, she was misdiagnosed which led to ineffective treatment, leaving her heart in an overly accelerated state for these past 7 years. 

Her heat muscle has diminished in its function, therefore complicating the arrhythmia problems.

So we’ve set June 13 for the next ablation.  This time the doctor will not do a "burn" but will do the procedure cryogenically-he will "freeze" the area-because this procedure is able to cover larger areas.

There are other possibilities of further treatment (including putting in a new three-lead pacemaker or ablating the entirve A-V node) but he wants to ablate at least this next time and possibly more before anything else because "we have to get her heart rate down first.  I want to save changing the pacemaker to last."  The doctor is pleased that the high rates (250 beats per minute) have been cut out, but even after this last ablation, within a few days Andrea’s resting heart rate is still averaging between 90 and 104, with hundreds of episodes of 130’s and 140’s.  That’s what he wants to get within  norman levels.

Thanks for your faithful prayers and encouaging notes and calls.  We know God has an excellent plan for our lives and are trusting Him to carry it out in and through us.

Thanks for praying for me (Gil) during the month I was in Portugal alone.  I was able to see all our ministries covered for this next year.

His servants and yours,

Gil and Denise Thomas