In a matter of weeks the Seventh-day Adventist Church added eight new congregations in the capital city of Tanzania, Dar-Es-Salaam, according to G.G. Mbwana, president of the Tanzania Union Mission.

An estimated 3,700 people were baptized after a six-week series of public meetings in Dar-Es-Salaam run by Fitz Henry, a businessman and lay-evangelist from Jamaica. Mbwana reports that the September 9 baptism is the largest Tanzania has ever had following a single evangelistic effort.

Mbwana says that there is an acute need for church buildings to house new members.  “We are forced to conduct two church services in seven of the existing churches in Dar,” he says. “In the near future we will need to build ten new churches in the city.”

The Adventist Church has operated in this eastern African country since 1903 and there are currently 230,000 baptized members worshiping in more than 2,500 churches and companies.