Thousands attended the first satellite seminar series to be hosted by a francophone country in the Western Africa region of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Nov. 8 to 30. The series, featuring speaker Doug Batchelor, was broadcast by the Adventist Television Network from Yaounde, Cameroon, to 24 countries in 23 languages.
According to “Visions For Life” organizers, some 6,000 people gathered every night at the home of Cameroon’s national football team, a multi-sport stadium in Yaounde. Church officials were able to use the stadium at no cost and they say this is the first time a religious organization has been granted permission to use the stadium.
“In preparation for the meetings, more than 30,000 Bible studies were given by church members,” says Luka Daniel, president of the church in the Western Africa Division, or region, of the church. “They were held by people of all ages and by both men and women.” The Bible studies were followed by nearly 1,000 small group mini-campaigns, run by a team of ministers and lay volunteers and coordinated by Gabriel Boakye-Dankwa, director of the church’s Office of Evangelism and Global Mission for the region.
A medical team from the United States also cooperated with local health workers to conduct dental and medical clinics at the stadium.
Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, has a population of 1.5 million; Cameroon has a population of 16 million. There are some 100,000 Adventists worshipping in nearly 800 churches in the country.