- An evangelisation campaign in Rwanda by the Seventh-day Adventist Church has resulted in at least 10,000 baptisms. The massive campaign, counting on satellite transmitted evangelisation, also left the Rwandan capital, Kigali, with a rebuilt Adventist church that can seat a total of 15,000 persons - one of the largest Adventist churches worldwide.
According to information facilitated to afrol News by Christian Schäffler of the Switzerland-based Adventist headquarters, the Christian group of some 13 million members worldwide can now count on a hike in its baptised Rwandan membership. The church society - known for its adult baptisms and belief in the soon return ("advent") of Jesus - just has finalised one of the largest mass conversions in recent years in Rwanda.
The broadcasted Rwandan evangelisation campaign, termed "It Is Written", has been running via satellite for some time. In Remera, a Kigali suburb, the local Seventh-day Adventist church then hosted the conversion ceremonies, culminating in the baptism of adults. The Remera church so far has been visited by between 12,000 and 14,000 people for the concluding meeting of the evangelisation series.
Mark Finley, Director of the 'It Is Written' evangelisation campaign, said that he originally had planned to rent a stadium to conclude the campaign. One of the Kigali stadiums seated 15,000 people and the other 35,000. However, logistics and financial reasons removed the stadiums from consideration, Mr Finley explains.
Instead, by redirecting some financial resources, renovations at the Remera church were completed, creating not only the conversion venue but also a facility where large area meetings can be held in future. "The facility is believed to be one of the largest Seventh-day Adventist church buildings in the world," Mr Finley said.
The American evangelist added that the Adventist Church in Kigali and in Rwanda as a whole were benefiting from the new building. There had been a provision of 135 bicycles for local pastors and 13 motorcycles for departmental directors to use in their travels; and 2 million pieces of literature, including 50,000 Bible lessons were given in the Kinyarwanda language.
- A final piece of outreach involves the construction of a low-power UHF television station, which is now distributing the 'Hope Channel' [an Adventist church TV network] to 50,000 homes in Kigali, Mr Finley explained.
The evangelisation campaign that has been so successful for the Adventists in Rwanda has also been also running in several African countries. Along with three satellite downlink sites in Kigali, a further 183 satellite locations throughout Africa brought the Adventist message to an estimated 200,000 people nightly, in 15 languages, according to information provided by the Church.
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