Inter-America: Discipleship training program brings record high baptisms for first quarter

April 7, 2012 -Guatemala City, Guatemala….Libna Stevens/IAD

Nearly 6,000 Seventh-day Adventists and visitors packed theParque de la Industria Convention Center in Guatemala City, Guatemala, tocelebrate Inter-America’s Vision One Million discipleship program during aspecial satellite event held Mar. 31, 2012.

The event commemorated the six-month-old program, which waslaunched throughout the Inter-American Division (IAD) territory in an effort torecruit and train church members to witness in their communities.

“Today is a very special day for the church inInter-America,” said Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in IAD, duringthe live program. “We estimate that more than one million visitors areattending our churches today.”

The program marked an important phase in Inter-America’shistory as the church intends to train one million disciples, bring one millionvisitors to church on the last Saturday of the first quarter of every year, andbaptize one million people by the year 2015, leaders said.

Vision One Million is designed to motivate church members tointensify their evangelistic efforts to baptize new members into the churcheach first quarter.

Some 125 new members joined the church through baptismsduring the live program at the convention center, adding to the hundreds ofbaptisms being held throughout Guatemala and thousands more throughoutInter-America.

During the satellite event, Pastor Balvin Braham, associatedirector of the ministerial association for the church in Inter-America andorganizer of the event, announced that 68,187 baptisms took place throughoutthe IAD during the first quarter of this year, the most baptisms recorded in theIAD in a three-month span. Thefinal tally of baptisms was reported at 72,629 baptisms. In recent years, dueto the efforts of the Pentecost and More program, baptisms reached between48,000 and 58,000 in the first quarter.

Vision One Million, said Pastor Braham, “has the intent ofassisting each believer to live in readiness for the coming of Christ.” Accordingto Braham, essentially it’s recruiting members who want to be committed toliving a spiritually renewed life, fostering functional relationships withwhomever they come in contact with and addressing specific needs within thechurch and in the community.”

Already, theVision One Million initiative has mobilized pastors, administrators, directorsand members in an orchestrated venture to motivate each believer into apersonal spiritual revival through a daily prayerfullife and studyof the Bible which leads tosharing the good news of salvation in their communities, said Braham.

The two-hour celebration brought top church leaders of theIAD as well as evangelists from throughout the division territory, toparticipate during the live satellite program transmitted through The HopeBusiness Channel, Esperanza TV, and 3ABN Latino.

Evangelist Robert Costa, associate ministerial secretary forthe Adventist world church, was the keynote speaker. Costa addressed churchmembers and especially the more than 2,800 visitors brought into the conventioncenter as well as television viewers to seek God’s rest and be ready for eternity.

“God has something special for you,” said Costa. “Happinessbegins with faith and following what the Bible tells us for it shows us the wayto follow,” added Costa as he appealed to members and visitors alike to committo a life in Christ and to sharing the gospel.

Costa was viewed via satellite downlink at hundreds ofchurches in Guatemala, as dozens of districts throughout the country concludedtheir week of campaigns, numbering 1,000.

“In Guatemala, we are happy that some 19,000 visitors havebeen brought into our 650 temples today,” said Guenther Garcia, president ofthe church in Guatemala. With itsVision 60,000 in Guatemala, church leaders have already seen what a differencethe recruiting and training initiative has done throughout the country.

In the span of six months, the church has trained some35,000 disciples as part of the Vision One Million initiative since it began inOctober 2011. As a result, the new disciples have been responsible forpreaching, giving Bible studies and retaining a total of 6,093 new members,according to Garcia.

“We are thankful for our own Vision 60,000 because it hasbrought a new push, a new sparkle to train our committed laypeople,” saidGarcia. He said the program has accomplished more in the last six months whencompared to other efforts in the last 10 years.

Local leaders highlighted the work of Vision One Millionduring the program and honored 25 laypeople who have been active in evangelismwork in the 30, 40, or 50 years since they were baptized.

A group of newly baptized members also received a specialcommemorative medal for being part of the more than 6,000 new believers whojoined the church up to that day in Guatemala.

In South Mexico, more than 77,000 visitors were reported tohave been attending churches across the region during the day and over 16,000baptisms as a result of the evangelistic efforts in the first quarter, churchleaders reported.

In Jamaica, nearly 14,000 visitors made their way acrossdozens of Adventist churches to join the division-wide efforts of Vision OneMillion. Government officials were among the visitors in Kingston. About 300community leaders, friends and neighbors attended the Mandeville AdventistChurch in Central Jamaica.

The church all across the island took to the streets as partof the initiative and distributed hundreds of Great Controversy books. Thechurch in the central region also marched through the streets with messages ofhope and anti-violence. Leaders in Jamaica hope to have some 75,000 trained disciplesby 2015.

So far the church throughout the IAD accounts for some526,000 trained disciples under the Vision One Million initiative.

As the church in Inter-America continues its Vision OneMillion discipleship program throughout its territory, leaders will continue toencourage and strive to involve more and more church members active in the morethan 100,000 small groups to expanding the church and the community with amessage of hope.

The church plans to celebrate next year’s Vision One Millioninitiative at the end of March through a special celebration program inColombia.

Nigel Coke contributedto this article

For more on Inter-America’s Vision One Million discipleshipprogram, visit http://visiononemillion.org/

View our photo gallery of the event at http://www.flickr.com/photos/interamerica/6887942890/in/photostream

Resources:
Vision One Million: http://visiononemillion.org/

Revival andReformation webpage: http://praying4revival.org
In Spanish: http://estamosorando.org
French: http://praying4revival.org

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English: http://www.facebook.com/praying4revival
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