wfn.org | Christian Mass Baptism Held in Tanzania

[APD <APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com>]

June 28, 2001
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
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Christian Mass Baptism Held in Tanzania

Mwanza, Tanzania.  More than 10,000 people were baptized 
June 23 in what Tanzanian Seventh-day Adventist Church 
leaders are calling the largest baptism ever in the 
history of the church in East Africa. More than 
40 Adventist pastors from across Africa baptized 
some 2,800 people at a single site at Lake Victoria, 
the world's second-largest fresh water lake. On the 
same day, more than 7,000 people were baptized at sites 
around south Nyanza and surrounding regions. Most of 
those baptized had been prepared by local pastors or had 
completed Bible study courses, say regional church leaders.

Another baptism for an estimated 1,000 people is planned 
at Lake Victoria for June 30, reports Steve Bina, 
secretary of the Adventist Church in Tanzania.

The baptisms come as a satellite evangelistic series, 
entitled "Africa for Christ 2001," continues to draw 
nightly crowds of between five and seven thousand 
people at a stadium in Mwanza, Tanzania.  The three-
week event, which began June 16, is being broadcast by 
Adventist Global Communication Network across Africa, 
India, and Europe. [Editor: John Banks for ANN]