Some 700 Seventh-day Adventist lay-people from six Asian nations met on Jeju Island, Korea, August 21 to 25 for the region’s largest-ever lay-evangelism training event. The gathering marked the Northern Asia-Pacific launch of Go One Million, the church’s worldwide initiative to prepare 1 million lay people for personal evangelism by mid-2005.

The “Go One Million Festival of Laity” featured four days of training seminars, worship, music, and drama. John McGhee, Go One Million coordinator for the Northern Asia-Pacific region, said the event truly demonstrated the skills and commitment of lay church members: “All four featured speakers, 24 story tellers, 26 dramatic artists, 62 teachers, 98 musicians, and 601 disciples are not denominational employees,” he said.

“You are the first of 130,000 graduates who will be trained and equipped to inspire hope through compassionate action within the next four years,” McGhee told the participants.

The Go One Million project in the Northern Asia-Pacific region is built on a three-fold foundation. First, special resource kits have been developed to provide evangelism materials for participants. Second, Go One Million training centers are being set up to provide intensive training. So far, 100 centers have been identified which will also become community centers for health promotion. And third, church leaders report that so-called Sabbath School Action Units are being established where participants in Go One Million “can find support and encouragement.”

The lay festival attracted a multi-national group, including some 500 delegates from Korea, along with representatives from Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, and Mongolia. Currently, there are about 500,000 Adventists in the Northern Asia-Pacific territories.