Outreach.
School's evangelism by women ends with 101 baptisms in Espírito Santo
Women from Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Espírito Santo experience one week of theoretical and practical classes, also they experience public evangelism.
South American Division (SAD)
[Brazil] A group of 130 women from Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo gathered in a School’s Evangelism program, innovative just for women. The event took place in Colatina, northwest of Espírito Santo, between April 28 to May 4. In about seven days more than a thousand people decided to study the Bible and 101 were baptized.
By the morning, the group got together for Bible theory classes, lectures from Pastor Luís Gonçalves, who responsible for the Evangelism department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church for eight countries in South America. Classes as biblical study ideas and themes, how to develop it, prepare it, how to appeal, and even how to approach people were discussed. “The goal is these women get to learn and to finish the course strengthened and trained for their own churches, where they can involve other women in their special evangelism program which will happen in June,” explained the Department of Women’s leader for the state of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo, Sara Lima.
To Nilde Marques Santiago, who was participating in those classes, it was worth her trip. “I don’t get tired of thanking God for giving me this opportunity. I learned so much. I know I am coming back to my city more dependent of God and more prepared to preach for many people as I can.”
In the afternoon, these women went to visit families in their own home throughout the city. The visited ones and the community in general were invited to a special event in the evening, a specially adorned ceremony to debut the program “Revelations of Hope.” The preacher was Pastor Luís Gonçalves, and as for the musical part, the singers Cynthia Nascimento, Laura Morena and Paula Chacon were there to brilliantly use their voices to help with the cause.
Forgiveness stories, marriages, families, healing stories among many others permeated the baptism tanks which touched the audience very much. Also, enlarging the physically present audience, more than 518,000 Internet users watched the program through the Facebook page “Arena do Futuro” (literally translated as “Arena from the Future”).
One of the most significant and remarkable stories was from the municipal persecutor and head office of Colatina’s city Mayor, Alexandre Pinheiro de Oliveira. A former Adventist, after watching two evangelism programs that week, he decided to be baptized. “I got out from the Seventh-day Adventist Church for a while and I was living a meaningless life. I previously had tried to come back again, and this evangelism event helped me in my decision to go back,” explained Alexandre.
Published in the Mosaic newsletter, 2019 Q3, Summer issue
