Africa 2003 -- Hope for Our Troubled World

News

Report on VOP Satellite Evangelism Series in Africa

The Day of Pentecost came to Lusaka, Zambia on September 13 when over 3,000 were baptized at an Olympic pool. They included persons attending at the host site for Lonnie Melashenko's "Hope for Our Troubled World" evangelistic series, many others from satellite downlink locations at area churches, and hundreds who made decisions during the meetings held simultaneously across the city by 25 students from Walla Walla and LaSierra. Another 2,000 were baptized in Lusaka on September 20, the closing day of the Voice of Prophecy series.

Tens of thousands of baptisms are anticipated across the African continent, where an estimated one million persons viewed the end-time messages at 2,000 downlink sites in two dozen countries. Translators provided 18 languages for the ATN satellite event. Reception reports have also come from the United Kingdom and southern Europe.

In Lusaka, the Zambian president not only opened the series with his personal greetings, but stayed for Pastor Melashenko's message and then requested a satellite dish for his residence so that his family could watch the VOP series and future ATN broadcasts. The national television studios, ZNBC, also requested a dish to receive ATN programs that they will rebroadcast.

Discover Bible Guides in several languages will play a large role in grounding new members in Bible doctrines. About 1,300 persons attending at the host site in Lusaka completed the lessons during the series and received diplomas on the last Friday evening. Thousands of others in several countries will study the course in coming weeks. Languages include Bemba and Tonga for Zambia, Luganda for Uganda, Tswana for Botswana, and Kiswahili for Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Congo. (To see lessons in some of these languages, click here.)

More stories and photos will be posted here on October 16, 2003