Seventh-day Adventists in Romania concluded a three-week evangelism series March 16, an event that drew on satellite and internet technology to reach thousands of people both in Romania and around the world.
Seventh-day Adventists in Romania concluded a three-week evangelism series March 16, an event that drew on satellite and Internet technology to reach thousands of people in Romania and around the world. The series, broadcast from the chapel of the Romanian Theological Seminary, near Bucharest, was called “The Galilean,” and focused on the life and teachings of Jesus. The 16-meeting program was hosted by evangelist Lucian Cristescu, and was the first satellite series held in Romania to feature a Romanian speaker.
The programs were seen via satellite in 650 churches in Romania. Organizers report that the average nightly attendance throughout the country was 55,000 people, with 20,000 to 27,000 of these being visitors to Adventist churches. With simultaneous translation in six languages, the series was watched in countries across Europe, from Ireland to Greece, Spain to Germany.
Opening night brought many public figures and media crews to the uplink site. Razvan Theodorescu, minister for culture and religious denominations, told viewers, “I am very pleased to know that your church maintained a dignified stand and served the Christian teaching, served Jesus. You did that for a long, long time here in Romania, even under very difficult conditions. In our modern world, religions and denominations play a very important role—they are an integral part of the inter-personal, inter-community, inter-national relationships. For this reason I urge you, wherever you are: be Romanians, be real humans, be real Christians, be exactly what the Galilean, two thousand years ago, taught us to be.”
The uplink itself involved a multi-national effort, using equipment from U.S.-based Adventist Television Network and Adventist Media Productions, and Germany’s Stimme der Hoffnung. Production crews came from Stimme der Hoffnung and the Romanian Media Center. The satellite uplink was supervised by technicians from AMP.
In a message to the Adventist Church in Romania, Pastor Jan Paulsen, world church president, said the reports of the satellite evangelism series “have brought rejoicing around the world and praise to God.
“I want to commend you for both the vision which led you to do this, and the readiness on your part to share your witness, through satellite facilities, with many countries and languages outside of Romania,” said Paulsen. “It is clear now that it has been a great blessing. The name of Christ and the truth of his salvation are being proclaimed across borders, languages, and cultures.”
The Galilean series has also become the first religious series to be broadcast on national Romanian television. A television station began airing the series March 23, and the programs will run for five weeks on Saturdays and Sundays during early evening prime time. Several local television stations in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia have also begun broadcasting the program.
In a little more than a month, the Web site of the series, www.galileanul.ro, became the second most popular site of all religion sites registered in Romania, and was among the 30 most accessed sites overall. Some 11,000 people accessed the site during this period. With the help of a lay Adventist ministry, the series has also been available on the Internet, with an estimated 18,000 downloads. Organizers report contact from viewers in places such as Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. The Romanian Adventist churches in Loma Linda, California, and in Tel Aviv, Israel, also watched the series on the Internet.
Toward the end of the series, the Romanian Publishing House offered the book “The Galilean.” The first printing of 12,000 copies of the book rapidly sold out, and a new printing is being done to keep up with demand.
