22 May 2019 | Paris, France [Christiane Theiss]
“Five years ago, I received a ‘Letter from Macedonia’”, Christiane Theiss, ASI Europe president states. “It offered IT services, webhosting, web design and software development. At first glance I thought that this was a marketing letter like many others I received in the past, but then something caught my attention:
‘We are looking for the most effective way on how to spread the Gospel in Macedonia, a country with a population of two million and about 400 Seventh-day Adventists.’
I mumbled softly to myself: ‘How does this fit together?’
Later, I met Sasho Stojanovski, the writer of this letter. He told me that their ‘Grace and Truth ministry’, which is fully financed by their IT service company HARIKALET, reaches 100,000 people weekly with evangelistic content on their website and social media platform. Every week, 25,000 people are engaging with their programmes’ question-and-answer sessions, hundreds of people have received personal bible studies, and five of their followers have already been baptised.
Sasho, a 33-year-old entrepreneur from Skopje, shares the vision behind the initiative: ‘Our main purpose is to help and support our Church to expand its influence and reach as many people as possible by using the latest technologies, including dynamic content and interactive methods.’
One of HARIKALET projects, ‘Adventist Online Impact’, offers premium websites for local churches, organisations and ministries at a very affordable price. ASI Europe loves initiatives and projects like this and hence decided to co-finance it.
Sasho’s project is just one of 17 projects from all around Europe that were presented during the 2019 ASI Europe Convention last month in Paris. More than EUR 220,000 was also collected to support these initiatives. What all the projects have in common is that they give support to our Seventh-day Adventist church in Europe in fulfilling our great commission.
The ASI Convention brought together participants from all over Europe, Africa, and the USA. It was packed with various reports about the work of ASI Europe – members sharing, inspiring, and motivating with living testimonies of missionaries, ministries and business people.
In 2017, ASI started a partnership with the North France Conference (FFN) in order to support their evangelistic programme, ‘Espérance 2019’. By joining forces including financial and speaker support from ASI, the original plan of the FFN to hold evangelistic campaigns at 20 sites was extended to 97 sites.
What a joy, that the members of the FFN could distribute about 500,000 GLOW tracts in the Greater Paris area in just 6 weeks. The GLOW initiative was also introduced to the FFN by ASI Europe. This then climaxed as, for the first time, an ASI Europe Convention was combined with an Evangelistic Campaign. About 500 visitors were welcomed each evening to listen to Doug Batchelor from ‘Amazing Facts’.
Finally, the close of the ASI Europe Convention was celebrated with around 1,700 members from the North France Conference in a special Celebration Sabbath. The day included a baptism of six young ladies.
The President of the General Conference, Ted Wilson, delivered a video message recorded specifically for the participants of the ASI event in Paris in which he expressed the hope that every church member is encouraged to be a testimony of the soon returning of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Are you joining the next ASI Europe Convention in 2021?”
What is an ASI Convention all about?
ASI Conventions are open for every person interested in spreading the Gospel. Hence the motto of ASI Europe: Sharing Christ in the Marketplace. ASI Europe Conventions normally start on a Wednesday, last up to the following Sabbath and take place in an easy-to-access European city. Details about the next ASI Europe Convention will follow soon.
Christiane Theiss is president of ASI Europe. Adventist-laymen’s Services & Industries (ASI) is a membership-based organisation of Seventh-day Adventist laypeople who are enthusiastic about actively participating in the Church’s worldwide mission. She is enthusiastic about how lay-members and business people are using their skills to ‘share Christ in the market-place’.
tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, editor; Deana Stojković, associate editor
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