WORLD NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

Dominican Republic: Evangelism Efforts Yield Thousands

multi-year evangelistic effort by the Adventist Church in the Dominican Republic finished its most recent phase with a two-week series of meetings in the capital city of Santo Domingo. Uplinked to 60 locations in the country via satellite, as well as by cable television to 100,000 homes, the series resulted in nearly 21,000 persons responding to the call for baptism.

According to Cesario Acevedo, president of the church in the Dominican Republic, the outreach began in March 2002 as a joint project of the church's ministerial, lay, women's ministries, and youth departments.

"This satellite campaign was an extraordinary experience for us," says Acevedo. "It allowed us to [enter] homes we otherwise would not have been able to enter. Our responsibility is to evangelize not only in our own territory but also to the entire world. Thousands and millions of people--a large part of the world--were able to see the broadcast via satellite and through the Internet." he says.

The March meetings were preceded by numerous church events involving international evangelists, 150 pastors, and thousands of lay members. Hundreds of thousands of pieces of literature were distributed and numerous Bible studies were conducted, all in preparation for the satellite series, held by Pastor Jere Patzer, North Pacific Union president.

Campaign efforts have already begun for 2003's 12-month effort, with the theme of "Building a Happy Home." It will conclude in March of 2004.

Along with broadcasts to the Dominican Republic, the two-week series was produced and transmitted via the Adventist Television Network to North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean in English, with Spanish translation on stage, and simultaneous translations into French and Portuguese. This allowed thousands of other locations to participate in the meetings.

More than 175,000 Adventists now worship in 1,040 congregations in the Dominican Republic.                                    --Adventist News Network

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