An intentional, multi-year evangelistic effort by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Dominican Republic finished its most recent phase with a two-week series of meetings in the capital city of Santo Domingo. Broadcast to 60 church locations in the country via satellite, as well as by cable television to 100,000 homes, the series resulted in nearly 21,000 persons responding to the call for baptism.

According to Pastor Cesario Acevedo, president of the church in the Dominican Republic, the evangelistic outreach began in March 2002 as a joint project of the church’s ministerial, lay, women’s ministries and youth departments.

“This satellite campaign was an extraordinary experience for us,” says Acevedo. “It allowed us to [enter] homes we otherwise would not have been able to enter. Our responsibility is to evangelize not only in our own territory but also to the entire world. Thousands and millions of people—a large part of the world—were able to see the broadcast via satellite and through the Internet,” he adds.

The March meetings were preceded by numerous church events involving international church evangelists, 150 local pastors, as well as thousands of laypeople. Hundreds of thousands of pieces of literature were distributed and numerous Bible studies were conducted, all in preparation for the satellite series, held by Pastor Jere Patzer, president of the church’s North Pacific Union, based in Vancouver, Washington.

Campaign efforts have already begun for 2003’s 12-month effort, with the theme of “Building a Happy Home.” It will conclude in March of 2004.

Along with broadcasts to the Dominican Republic, the two-week series was produced and transmitted via ADSAT and the Adventist Television Network to North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean in English, with Spanish translation on stage, and simultaneous translations into French and Portuguese. This allowed thousands of other locations to participate in the meetings.

There are now more than 175,000 Seventh-day Adventist Christians worshiping in 1,040 congregations in the Dominican Republic.