Baptisms Reach 100,000 in Rwanda
Gisenyi, Rwanda—A total of 100,135 people have joined the Seventhday Adventist Church as a result of the May 13–28, 2016, evangelistic meetings at 2,227 sites across Rwanda.
Duane McKey, a key coordinator of the event, who oversees the Adventist Church’s Total Member Involvement initiative, said, “The Rwanda experience is nothing short of a wonderful miracle.” Rwandan church leaders have credited Total Member Involvement, along with much prayer, for the record number of baptisms. Members and newly baptized members alike were asked to bring at least one person to Christ, and many reached out to their communities with Bible studies and donations of new homes, livestock, medicine, and health insurance.
The Adventist Church is working with Adventist-laymen’s Services & Industries, a church-supporting ministry, to build 1,000 One-Day Churches for the new members.
Ted N. C. Wilson, president of the Adventist world church, said the “unbelievable achievement” in Rwanda “is nothing less than the power of the Holy Spirit in helping us see that the latter rain falls soon. The key was to have a joyful and combined effort between pastors and lay members under the Holy Spirit’s guidance.” Wilson, who led a series of meetings in Gisenyi, Rwanda, during the campaign, went on to say, “Let everyone, everywhere, humbly participate through God’s power in Total Member Involvement. World events on a daily basis tell us that Jesus is coming soon. Let’s fully commit ourselves to the Lord, the proclamation of the three angels’ messages, and His soon return.”
The next major evangelistic campaign, scheduled to be held in early 2017, will be held across Romania and much of the former Soviet Union. [Andrew McChesney/Adventist Review]
1,000 Adventists March Against Violence in Washington
Washington, DC—More than 1,000 Seventh-day Adventists gathered in Washington, DC, to pray, mourn, and acknowledge the killings of two black American men and five Dallas police officers. The march came after a series of deaths made international headlines over the course of three days. Church members marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the evening of July 9, 2016, in what Debra Anderson, one of the event organizers, called an effort to combat the silence, confusion, and lack of empathy that many felt following the deaths. “This is not a protest. This is a coming together of people of like minds to join hands in like faith and like purpose to pray for our nation,” Anderson told the crowd of church members. “We are in perilous times. . . . We are going to pray today more than anything else. This is about human dignity, human life.”
Several Adventist Church leaders, including G. Alexander Bryant, executive secretary of the North American Division, denounced the killings during the Washington gathering. “Many are now asking the question, what should we do? What should the church do? What would Jesus do?” he said. “Jesus . . . left us a formula, and the
formula is love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them who despitefully use you.”
Division president Daniel R. Jackson stated, “The church cannot afford to stay behind its walls of comfort. We must reach out to our world. We must be the agents of hope, and compassion, and healing in a fractured world.”
David Franklin, pastor of a Baltimore church, said, “You cannot afford to wait for the organizers of this march to pull together events and activities for you to participate in so you can resolve the issues in your community. The key to solving our issues is everybody realizing the power that you have in your own hand. You need to go home, get in your prayer closet, figure out what you can do, and then move out and make a difference.”
Looking ahead, event organizers devised a three-point plan that they are encouraging churches in the area to take: engage in a day of service in local communities to enhance the quality of life for our neighbors, attend workshops by local law enforcement agencies on executing the proper response when stopped by law enforcement, and address the issue of voter apathy with voter education forums and voter registration.
“We will not find political solutions to these problems. Jesus says, ‘My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid,’ ” Jackson said, citing John 14:27. “We must make personal determinations—we personally will commit to the ideals that Jesus taught. The effect of Christians must be felt.” [V. Michelle Bernard with North American Division staff/Columbia Union Visitor]
