The Bible says, "And three thousand were added to their number that day" (Acts 2:41, NIV). Can you imagine that happening today in your local Seventh-day Adventist Church? Everyone would want to know how it was done and how they could replicate this great event.
First, we believe that prayer is the No. 1 way of starting any ministry, and God is the one who provides the souls won for the kingdom. He has chosen a people called Seventh-day Adventists to preach the last-day message of Revelation 14:6–12 and locally, He has called the All Nations Center (ANC) to this work for Him.
We have strived to do this by first bathing ourselves in prayer to seek God’s will. He responded with the outreach we have to Native Americans. While none of us are experts, we are all called and God is using us. There are 159 people “on the books” but we have many people in the valley who call the ANC their church home.
In May we had nearly 1,000 people come and enjoy the facility God has given us to reach out to the people of the lower Yakima Valley. We estimate more than 600 of those people did not have any Adventist background except what they experienced here.
Here is what they encountered.
A person who is staffing the ANC greets them with a smile and an attitude of service, no matter whether the visitors have experienced a death in the family, have come to a birthday party, a Quinceanera or are just stopping in to check us out.
When they come, we try to meet their needs as they use our facility and share however we can. In this day and age, very few people will come forward and accept the doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church through the more formal 27-night evangelism event that most churches host, so we have tried to make people comfortable here first, then meet their needs, make friends with them, and, finally, invite them to some more formal type of study and sharing.
While every church cannot “rent” their facility and it may not meet their community’s needs, we feel that most Seventh-day Adventists could be more involved in their communities. What are the needs, how could we meet them and a host of other questions need to be asked if you are in God’s front-line mission field, called church. If we are meeting the needs, (physical, mental and spiritual) God will do His part “and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).
If you would like to have a representative from the ANC give a Sabbath morning message in your church and talk about mission, please contact us at www.allnationscenter.org.
The All Nations Center located in Wapato, Wash., has a mission to reach out to the members of the Yakama Nation.
