Illinois—Richard Fearing was a mentor to many young Adventist pastors during his years of ministry. He used to say to them, “Make sure you keep stirring the evangelism pot.” That is what Hope for Our Day has done for the Illinois Conference. Here are some of the ways in which the “pot has been stirred.”

Right from the beginning, Illinois members got involved in the training aspects of this initiative. Hundreds from the Illinois Conference attended the training session in South Bend, Indiana. Later, over 90 completed the speaker training offered in Merrillville, Indiana. So many more were turned away that a Spanish training event was scheduled in Chicago, where 130 potential evangelistic preachers attended.

At this writing, we are still receiving reports from the field, but here are some highlights.

At our small, 31-member Princeton Church, a layman, Harlan Hudson, preached a series of meetings that has resulted in one request for baptism, and an additional 13 or 14 people are at various stages of preparation. The church is being revitalized.

A prophecy seminar is being conducted in Crystal Lake as part of the Total Employment program, (a joint church planting project shared by the Illinois Conference and Andrews University). On the first night, a lady attending the meeting told the speaker she had read the book, Seventh-day Adventists Believe ... from cover to cover and believed it all. Another guest turned out to be the mother-in-law of a man who came with a church member to our men’s retreat at Camp Akita. Coincidence, or divine appointment?

Julio Juarez, Illinois Conference Hispanic ministries director, conducts week-long reaping meetings in 14 churches each year. The Bible study interests of the church members are invited to come to these meetings where they are called to make a decision for baptism. Ana Hernandez, attending the South Hispanic Church meetings, approached the pastor and said, “I don’t want to be considered a visitor any longer. How can I become a member?” Ana has been baptized, and now her two daughters are preparing for baptism. She has also invited three of her friends to attend the church, and they are going to be baptized. There are 27 people in the visitors' Sabbath School class—so many that they had to move out of the sanctuary into the fellowship hall.

In the Hispanic churches, twelve meetings were also conducted by young adults, resulting in numerous baptisms.

The Centralia District in southern Illinois has four churches in it. Florin Liga, Centralia Church pastor, reports that he and three laymen presented seminars in all three church areas. In Centralia, Darren Thompson attended with his wife. One night, his wife asked if it is a sin to do tattooing. It turns out Darren made his living as a tattoo artist and became convicted he should quit his business. Darren stated, “I recognize that I am damaging people’s bodies.” He and his wife are being baptized, and his mother is coming to church with them.

Around 25 people have attended the evangelistic meetings at the Chicago Romanian Church, taught by Edmund Constantinescu, a pastor from Atlanta, Georgia. Most of the Romanian Evangelical pastors asked their members to attend these meetings and pick up the free sermon tapes offered each evening.

Seven people were baptized at the Polish Church after their series, “The Passion of Christ.” Alfred Palla, Polish Church pastor said, “Four people came to the meetings after buying my book on Biblical eschatology, sold in Polish bookstores in Chicago.” This meeting has been a major inroad for the Polish Church into its ethnic community.

The real impact of an evangelistic initiative like Hope for Our Day cannot really be fully measured in a period of time or by attendance figures. These do not take into account the changed lives of church members who have committed their lives to evangelism.

Stirred up by Hope for our Day, Viorel and Michelle Catarama, Hinsdale Church members, ordered 30,000 copies of The Passion of Love, a book containing the final chapters of The Desire of Ages. To date about half of those books, along with Bible study enrollment cards, have been distributed in Hinsdale and Naperville. This project has been taken on by young and old alike. Hinsdale Pathfinders and students from Broadview and Hinsdale Adventist academies have gone door to door distributing these packets. Approximately 200 people have been involved in this project.

The Illinois Conference says "Thank You!" to the leadership of the Lake Union for challenging us to move out of the pew and into our world to share God’s grace.

Ken Denslow, Illinois Conference president