Hispanic Churches See Growth During Outreach

Story by Andre Hastick

During the recent Reach Chesapeake coordinated evangelistic campaign, 23 Hispanic churches throughout the Chesapeake Conference participated in spreading the Adventist message of hope in their respective communities.

In preparation for the meetings, each Hispanic congregation engaged their community through small groups, says Pastor Orlando Rosales, director of Multilingual Ministries for Chesapeake. These Biblebased small groups met in members’ homes and focused on felt needs of friends and family members. After the small group gelled, members invited participants to an evangelistic series. This served as a natural bridge for recently connected newcomers.

As a result of the doctrinal and relational prework, new attendees were able to make decisions to accept Christ and the Advent message just after one week of seminars, says Rosales.

Prior to the meetings, Clarisa (pictured, with Rosales) accepted an invitation from her mother to attend the Baltimore Spanish church. Though she worked on Sabbaths, she began attending church regularly and also joined the choir. When the congregation launched a 40-day prayer plan and daily call, she joined in with them. As a result, when the time came for the Reach Chesapeake meetings, Clarisa exclaimed, “I felt a direct call from God, and I gave my life to Him.”

On one Sabbath alone, 18 people joined the Baltimore Spanish church, in addition to numerous other baptisms during the conferencewide evangelistic outreach.