With hearts full of hope and faces of happiness, 16 people from the national penitentiary of Tacumbú, in Paraguay, decided to be 'Restored in Christ' through baptism during an Easter evangelism event.

In 2013, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Paraguay took the initiative to build a temple in the penitentiary, with the aim of meeting the spiritual needs of those incarcerated there. The building was named "Hope Pavilion. " It was built in Pavilion 4, where there are more than 4,000 prisoners who are seeking freedom through hope in Christ. This initiative also fulfills the objective of the social reintegration penitentiary.

Under the leadership of Pastor Gregorio Limenza, every Sabbath they learn about the love of Jesus. They also decided to participate in the service every night of the Holy Week themed,'Restored in Christ'.

During the service, when the preacher made the call, 10 people decided to give their lives to Jesus and live connected to Him. The next day, six more people were encouraged and decided to be baptized.

On Friday, April 2nd, the baptism was carried out, which was directed by the district pastors Gregorio Limenza and Celso Arzamendia. Also, the pastors Bruno Raso, Vice President of the Seventh-day Adventist Church for South America; Evandro Fávero, Benjamin Belmonte, and Samuel Arce, President and Director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Paraguay.

All those present enjoyed every moment of the programming as they sang, prayed, and enjoyed fellowship. At the end of Holy Week, many people agreed to continue learning from the Bible in order to be baptized in the future.

“We are happy to see how the young people looked forward to the time of the Holy Week broadcast to enjoy the message, sing and make their prayer requests. Likewise, everyone joined in support of their friends who were going to be baptized and began to carry together the water to fill the baptistery. They are happy to know that there is hope in the hands of Jesus ”, mentioned Pastor Gregorio Limenza.

Holy Week online

From March 27th to April 3rd, the Seventh-day Adventist Church throughout Paraguay participated in Holy Week 2021 'Restored in Christ'.

Due to the sanitary restrictions that the government ordered, this special week was held online; therefore the Church was urged to be 'Connected to Save' with prudence and boldness.

Families and churches gathered together, with a maximum of 20 people at each location. The service was streamed via Adventistas Paraguay and Nuevo Tiempo Paraguay on Facebook and YouTube. Also, it was shared by the radio Nuevo Tiempo.

There were three special programmings each day. During the mornings Holy Week was shared in Guaraní with Pastor Lidio Vargas and in the afternoon Holy Week Teens, where adolescents from Adventist churches and schools participated. Likewise, at night there was a special program with Pastor Bruno Raso.

On Saturday, April 3rd, the program ended with a baptism caravan in different cities of Paraguay. As a result, more than 100 people gave their lives to Christ and 57 requested a Bible study through the contacts of Nuevo Tiempo Paraguay and esperanza.org.py .

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site