A two-week evangelistic meeting run by the Central Malawi Conference Women's Ministry department ended on August 22 with 150 baptisms across four centers in Kapiri, Dedza, Malawi.

The campaign ran from August 9–22 and was designed for communities with little prior experience with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. About 30 of the 150 baptisms took place in Sitolo Village, which had no Adventist members before the meetings began.

Church leaders said the response at Sitolo was the clearest indication that the campaign had reached its intended audience, and that villagers who were not baptized have since asked about attending services.

Steven Banda, one of those baptized, said the meetings gave him a fuller understanding of Scripture than he had previously held, and that this settled a decision he had been weighing.

"I have always wanted to be part of the Adventist community, but I did not have the opportunity," Thokozani Davison, another person baptized at the campaign, said. "Through attending this crusade, I have finally fulfilled that desire."

She said the Church's willingness to serve others had shaped her decision.

The newly formed congregation at Chikoleza is meeting in a temporary shelter. Smartha Hoka, Women's Ministry director for the Central Malawi Conference, and Peter Chibwato, Mtakataka district pastor, have appealed for support for a permanent building, saying a fixed structure would accommodate the growing congregation and provide a stable base for continued evangelism in the area.

The 150 baptisms mark the largest number of baptisms yet for the Central Malawi Conference Women's Ministry department.

The original article was published on the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division news site.