More than 20,000 people have been baptized as a result of what organizers are calling the most successful evangelistic series ever held by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Dominican Republic. The seven-night series, entitled “Jesus is the Hope,” was conducted by Adventist evangelist and leader Alejandro Bullon. Each program was broadcast live by 35 local television stations and cable networks, as well as by ADSAT, the church’s South American satellite broadcast network.

The venue for the event, the 15,000-seat Sport Palace in the capital city Santo Domingo, was filled to capacity every evening, with hundreds more listening to the broadcast outside the stadium. Organizers say that, counting those watching on television, there were more than 100,000 people who participated in the evangelistic series.

Pastor Armando Miranda, a general vice president of the Adventist world church, took part in the last part of the meetings, and Pastor Manuel Vazquez, a vice president of the Adventist Church in North America, was also present at the series.

Leaders of the Adventist Church in the Dominican Republic worked alongside pastors and lay people in the months leading up to the event, helping to prepare for the evangelistic series. Thousands of lay people conducted smaller outreach series and Bible studies, and more than 100 pastors went to the Dominican Republic from the church in North America to hold preliminary evangelistic meetings.