Nov. 07, 2011 Brasilia, Brazil

Felipe Lemos/ANN staff

Hundreds of South America Seventh-day Adventist leaders and their spouses spent a recent Saturday morning distributing copies of The Great Hope.

The missionary sharing book is a modern-language version of Adventist Church co-founder Ellen G. White's The Great Controversy, which church leaders say traces God's leading throughout history and provides answers for today's unsettled world.

Adventists worldwide have pledged to share millions of copies of the book with friends and neighbors in 2012 as part of the world church's Revival and Reformation initiative. In the church's South American Division alone, leaders plan to distribute 42 million copies of the book. The region is known for wide-scale distributions.

The October 29 distribution was a preview of the main distribution, which is set to begin next year in March, church leaders there said. In one region of Brazil alone, more than 120 pastors and their spouses handed out five thousand copies of The Great Hope. Similar distributions were conducted in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.

One recipient, restaurant owner Rosa Maria Dantas Ferreira, welcomed the copy of The Great Hope she received. She told church leaders that the book was the motivation she needed to seek God.

Erton Kohler, Adventist Church president for South America, said the distribution comes at a time when people worldwide are looking for answers. The Great Hope offers a balanced, Biblical perspective on the world's final events, he said.

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