Recently, Hawaii’s Adventists have shown a reinvigorated commitment to the Great Commission to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”

Church members and pastors visited various continents far and wide from the islands of Hawaii, taking with them Bibles and the Gospel message. There was preaching, teaching, Bible studies, evangelism and baptisms. The Lord used their aloha spirit and willing hearts to advance the kingdom around the globe.

For example, Hawaii’s own Eric Washburn, currently a junior theology major at Pacific Union College, traveled to Cavite in the Philippines to preach the Three Angels’ Messages and salvation through God’s grace.

“We had 17 of us total that went with Global Evangelism,” explained Washburn, who had recently been, along with his brother Chad, a pastoral intern at Kapolei Seventh-day Adventist Church. “About 14 students were from PUC and one from Walla Walla College. I was the only one from Hawaii. It was awesome. Each night was a humbling experience for me.”

Washburn confessed that he “was experiencing God as much as the audience was.” Clearly the Spirit of God was convicting “hearts and minds to turn to Jesus.”

At the end of the evangelistic series, Washburn praised God for 24 baptisms from his series of meetings. There was a grand total of 401 baptisms from all the meetings.

Other examples of global evangelism based from Hawaii include Michele Seibel, who journeyed to Iceland to lead a prayer conference, and Pastor Kurt Unglaub, who took Jesus to West Africa.

Michele Seibel reports that their prayers sparked a revival in that otherwise cold North Atlantic isle. Iceland Conference President Gavin Anthony expressed great appreciation for her having traveled all the way from Hawaii to lead out in the prayer conference.

Pastor Unglaub of Diamond Head Church “preached and teached” his heart out in the heart of Africa, according to locals. And the numbers confirm the reports: 43 people were baptized into the Tantono Seventh-day Adventist Church through the labors of local evangelists who prepared the ground for Unglaub’s messages. This is one of several trips he has made in recent years to that remote area. To date over 300 people have been baptized and seven groups have been planted in the Burkina Faso area of West Africa.

In this age of uncertainty, one thing is clear in the minds of Hawaii’s Seventh-day Adventists: God is using these isles as a staging ground from which to develop disciples and disciple makers.