Vanuatu has hosted its first ever French-speaking evangelistic series, which concluded on Sabbath, December 10, with a baptism of 19 people, including children.
The three-week series was held at Erakor village on Efate Island, and was attended by many people. Louis Kalnpel, a member of the new French-speaking Adventist Church at Port Vila, was the speaker.
Among those baptized was a man originally from Erakor village. He lived near the venue where the series was being held, but wasn’t aware of the meetings until he received an invitation during the final week. He attended each night, saying that he was discovering precious truths about Jesus he had never heard before in his former churches. He made a decision to leave his church and join the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
There was also a couple who was baptized with all of their children.
Since its first meeting on July 16, the French-speaking Adventist church has grown to 107 members. The church has been adopted by the Ernas Seventh-day Adventist Church as its sister church. Services have been held in various churches while members have been looking for land to build their own church. Their prayers were answered when a member of the Ernas church gave them land where they plan to put up a temporary house to hold their weekly meetings and worship services in 2017.
The French-speaking church is an initiative of the Vanuatu Mission, which aims to have 270 new church plants and 2000 groups involved in discipleship by 2020.
