One exciting part of this series was that toward the end, on a Saturday evening, the meetings were suspended and instead all the visitors were invited to the Church’s Fall Festival held at Harris Junior Academy. The visitors were given special passes so they could attend free of charge as well has take advantage of a free meal. The response was wonderful with almost all of the visitors attending the festival and having a wonderful time. The festival provided a wonderful opportunity to connect with the series’ visitors in a relaxed and fun environment.

In the past they have had the conference hold Share Him seminars, they have held Revelation Seminars but the pastor had not held a series. This year in January we decided I would hold a Share Him series. Before that happened though we started praying. We got involved in the community serving at the local food bank. We got involved with the City wide Christmas Stroll and had over 200 people walk through our door. We were able to visit and hand out literature. We also had people fill out cards for a drawing giving us contact names.

On opening night we had 15 people about double our normal attendance. Seeds were planted we pray they will germinate. We also had one member decide to be rebaptized and we were just able to celebrate that rebaptism. We also had 2 great grandchildren of a member decide for baptism and we are hoping to work that date out real soon.

Townsend also got involved with the Prophecies Decoded seminar. They haven’t seen any fruit from that series but again seeds were planted and I think a little watering went on. You never know what will happen in the future from what was done in faith.

Three generations in one family baptized!

More than 50 guests attended many, if not all, of the 22 nights of meetings. Jac Colon presented the seminar with topics ranging from “Angel Warfare” to ‘The Unpardonable Sin”.  ’dena Colon provided the inspirational music in song.  Pastor Colon ended each meeting with the salutation of “Follow the Lamb”.  This became the thread that wove the presentations together to create a powerful and insightful study through the Word of God.

A grandmother told of how her grandson had asked  questions about the mark of the beast just prior to receiving the invitation to the meetings. The timing was perfect.

Jac Colon delivers the message for the evening.

“These people are so friendly, whatever they have, I want to catch it!” said June.

Pastor Jose Galvez welcoming the guests and members.

Sixteen people joined the church organization, including three generations in one family that were baptized together.  In addition there are several who are continuing to study with Pastor Jose Galvez.

Follow-up includes a study in Revelation conducted by Pastor Galvez, and a Bible Marking class conducted by Bob Biegel, Adult Sabbath School teacher. “I was very blessed by the whole presentation, it was very well done” said Bob.

New members and friends of the Brookings church.

Now in the current evangelistic meetings I was giving. I decided to just pray for Brother Moses instead of trying to convince him to make a baptismal decision. 

One night I preached about baptism.  We had the baptismal tank filled.  I made a calling for baptismal preparations and Brother Moses stood up decided to be baptized that very moment.    He admitted that he hadn’t come prepared with a change of clothes, but was decided that this would be his night of rebirth. 

When he entered the waters he couldn’t speak,  he felt something he had never felt.  He was speechless.   After being baptized he still couldn’t speak.  When everybody greeted him on the way out he couldn’t speak a word. 

The following day he and his wife invited me, my family and Pastor Ricardo Castro on a fishing trip.  We enjoyed a relaxing day in God’s nature.  Here he told us about his spiritual experience.  He and His wife enjoy captivating God’s creation through paintings.  Throughout their home then have hundreds of beautiful paintings of our Lords creation that they have painted.  It was an enriching experience to meet this family.

We are still working with most all of the few contacts that attended the meetings. We have one individual that is extremely likely to be baptized in the near future. Because this is a fairly condensed series a few of the contacts made will need continued bible studies.

I must admit that because the church has not held any evangelistic series in such a lengthy period of time most of the members did very little to prepare. We did do a mass mailing to every household within a 10-15 mile radius, excluding only those homes that dipped into the Wenatchee area. The total mailing was just over 2,000 though. Following the NAD statistics we only had two or three attend from this mailing. With the members not doing much preparation the attendance was lower than hoped for or anticipated by many. However, those who attended did have the tendency to return.

As I began with, the greatest impact was on the members realizing that they need to become more active within their own communities. Realizing now what they should have done to prepare, as I had asked them to, they are preparing for the NET 2011 meetings including the hosting of the two lead-in seminars. The church is beginning to get excited about evangelism once again. So although there may not be instant visible benefits from this particular series, I believe the result will come. In addition to this DVD’s of the series are continuing to be passed out to friends and neighbors, the result of which we not see for some time. The series thus served as a catalyst to a new culture of evangelism with the church.

One man in his early 30′s told me on opening night that he had never attended a church of any kind in his entire life. He only attended to please his wife, but his interest has grown immensely. He is still undecided as to baptism, but he is attending church and showing real interest.

Another young man in his 20′s is a former Adventist who attended with his family just out of curiosity. He has now recommitted his life to Christ and wants to be reunited with Adventist church.

A retired First Christian Church pastor and his wife have attended every meeting, and they will become members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on May 7!

God has blessed us and we are rejoicing.

On Tuesday, February 8th, Dr. Stan Hudson began presenting a series of public lectures on the book of Revelation in Moscow, Idaho. The series was entitled “In the End.” It was meant to attract those who had enjoyed his series on origins entitled “In the Beginning.” Dr. Hudson, who pastors the Moscow/Pullman district, is more known for his creation/evolution talks in this academic community, but has built a base of interested people who will come to his lectures, no matter the subject.

The series was held at the old Moscow High School, locally known as the “1912 Building.” This neutral venue offered a better public response. Some 15 visitors came, with most continuing on to the church for follow-up studies. The local head of Moscow’s Senior Citizen Association wants to become an Adventist, and he’s already paying tithe and attending. Others are visiting more regularly the church, with prejudice breaking down.

Pastor Hudson has conducted this series before in Pullman, Washington, with some success, tied to his creation series as a follow-up series. This is the first time he tried it as a standalone, and expanded it to ten talks from eight.

The use of the 1912 Building, a local historical landmark, was also a success. And given its low rental cost, will be used again in the future.

People are “all the more interested in last day events, given some of the developments we are seeing in nature and in world politics of late,” says Pastor Hudson. “Yes, they are curious about origins and where we all came from. But they also want to know where we are all going. A significant question in people’s minds is whether there really is a hell or not. People want to know what happens ‘In the End.’”

The Moscow, Idaho and Pullman, Washington communities are heavily academic, being the homes of the University of Idaho and Washington State University, respectively. As such, they are secular and information-oriented. This fact has impacted the approaches the two local SDA churches have taken in reaching their communities for Christ.

In the last days of the week the Pastor Dovald presented to members and more than 20 visitors that attended each night, the need to form a club of couples.

We have already had two successful meetings, consisting of a presentation on a specific topic by the Pastor Dovald and then we eat together in the dining room of the Church. In this way we do friendship with the people and we can give testimony of what God has done in our lives.

As a result of this plan, we have had 7 baptisms. Others who have called for studies, and others who have changed their way of thinking about “Adventists”. We believe that the time and friendship are key factors in evangelism. Being interested in them and help them with their problems is breaking down barriers.

We pray that the Lord will give us the love necessary to arrive to the hearts of people who previously did not know in full Gospel of his word. And in this way, more people will join our Church in waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ!

Each Evangelistic meeting has its own challenges.  This one in turn, was no exception.  The last few months of 2010 had passed with the usual holiday celebrations.  The cold winter weather in January was immediate.  The expectations were not very optimistic.  We had a new leadership team at the Granger Seventh-day Adventist Church due to the recent nominations.  Some of the new leaders were not the most experienced and it added some pressure to the team.  But there was a difference; the church had begun to pray at 7:00 in the morning and others prayed at 7:00 in the evening for the power of the Holy Spirit.  The first night of the meetings had arrived.  They had distributed the flyers and knocked on doors.  Everything was ready and the room was beautifully decorated.  You could feel the anticipation and little by little the visitors began to arrive accompanied by the members who had invited them.

We couldn’t hide our joy, the church was completely full, thank the Lord.  We were witnessing one of the most blessed meetings in our church.  The teachers, in turn, received the children in a room especially prepared for them.  There was joy and the Word of God was preached with power.  We all learned a great lesson: “It is not by might nor by power, but by My spirit saith the Lord”.  On more than one occasion I thought, how different would our meetings be if we just stopped and looked more for the power of God! 

7 precious souls gave their lives to God through holy baptism.  This was our first meeting this year which is part of the soil preparation stage.  It was a wonderful experience and I pray that God will raise new Elijah, Elisha, Moses and Huldahs among us and that the gospel be spread “like fire in stubble”.  I want to be one of them, how about you?  Get encouraged!  The best times of our church are in the future, this is a promise.  Let us prepare ourselves to see the glory if God.

God’s message still changes lives. I can see it in the eyes that come to our meetings. Eyes that first were curious but cautious turn to eyes of wonder and joy. God can still change hearts, and we are witnesses to the miracle of what God can do for every soul that believes. The Holy Spirit inspires men and woman, but it takes a church family to do the work that God asks us to do. Our church family has welcomed our new members into our fold. It is the Spirit to bring people in, it is the pastor that speaks for Him, and the church family that keeps the people in the church. We all have a part to play, and we are grateful that we can be used in accordance to God’s will. Evangelism is how our church was built, and till the Lord comes lets continue to present God’s truth to the world, and the gates of Hades will not be able to stand against us!

Danny Kim – Associate Pastor of the Vancouver Seventh-day Adventist Community Church