More than 175 attended the Pacific Union chapter of ASI (Adventist-Laymen’s Services and Industries) convention April 29 to May 1 in City of Industry, Calif. Former General Conference President Neal Wilson and Loma Linda Campus Hill Church Senior Pastor Dr. Hyveth Williams were featured speakers.

ASI — the organization of Seventh-day Adventist lay persons involved in professions, industry, education, and/or services — exists to promote, train and encourage its members to share Christ in the secular marketplace. Each year, the organization collects an offering to support several pre-approved evangelism projects.

New Beginnings, a complete evangelistic series on DVD, received a lot of attention during this year’s meeting. “Members in Action” featured reports by many who had experienced great success using the New Beginnings series. Dan and Karen Houghton told about their trip to the Philippines with a group of people to find out if “anyone” can do evangelism with these DVDs. The group conducted 10 campaigns in 10 locations and baptized a total of 3,000 people. One year later, as a result of those new Adventists converting others, the number had grown to 12,000.

$17,000 of this year’s offering will go toward buying at least 35 sets of lessons, DVD players and related health lessons in both English and Spanish which will be used by laypersons to conduct public evangelism meetings. In addition, ASI has voted to launch the “Elijah Campaign,” which will employ the New Beginnings DVDs to initiate 7,000 evangelistic campaigns conducted by youth throughout the world.

The board also voted to contribute $1,500 to Heaven Bound Lifestyle Center, which provides life-changing services for prison inmates who are transitioning to general society. The center is based in the Nevada-Utah Conference. An additional $1,500 will go to Right Arm Of Love, an Arizona ministry that uses health booths at fairs and follows up with evangelistic campaigns.

The national ASI convention will be in Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug. 4-7. Visit www.asiministries.org for more information.