Bringing the good news of the gospel to others is always a personal matter, but for Ted N.C. Wilson, a vice president of the world church, a three-week series of lectures in Derry, Northern Ireland, was particularly close to his heart.
Bringing the good news of the gospel to others is always a personal matter, but for Ted N.C. Wilson, a vice president of the world church, a three-week series of lectures in Derry, Northern Ireland, was particularly close to his heart. Many of the meetings were held at the City Hotel, a few hundred yards from the docks where Wilson’s great-grandparents departed for a new life in America.
“There is a much greater visibility for the Adventist Church [in Northern Ireland] because of this lecture series,” Wilson said.
Wilson, and his father, retired world church president Neal C. Wilson, were each given civic plaques by Mayor Shaun Gallagher, an event featured in the local newspaper. The local congregation is also opening its doors to a youth program.
Attendance at the series “was measured not by hundreds, but in tens” of people, and while attendance was consistent, years of religious factionalism have engendered some resistance on the part of the general public, he said. Only one person was baptized at the end of the series; another professed a desire for baptism and several others may be baptized in the near future.
“I learned a new respect for the parable of the sower,” Wilson told ANN in an interview. “I learned to value every soul. The people who were most interested were people who already had an interest in Biblical understanding.”
Among those attending the nightly “Revelation of Hope” lectures were members of a “born-again Bible study group,” Wilson said. The group asked for further instruction, and were put in contact with local Pastor Anton Kapusi, who is also conducting a series of follow-up lectures on the book of Daniel.
Joining the father-and-son team were Dr. Peter Landless, associate director of health ministries for the world church, who presented a nightly series of health lectures, and youth volunteers from Australia, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland, who “were excited about evangelism,” Wilson added.
