Denver is a city full of surprises. Water boils at 200 degrees rather than the normal 212. Baseballs travel 10 percent farther. It might snow in the morning then hit 75 degrees in the afternoon.

Yet Adventist church members in Denver may have experienced the biggest surprise of all. From April 16 to May 22, they saw visitors pack the Teikyo Loretto Heights University auditorium night after night, eager to hear Pastor Mark Finley, speaker/director for It Is Written Television, and It Is Written’s associate speaker, Pastor Shawn Boonstra, powerfully proclaim God’s Word through the Revelation of Hope series.

These meetings impacted thousands of lives. More than 2,400 people registered for the series—1,400 of whom were not members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. There were also many people in the audience who never officially registered.

Attendance was “exceedingly, abundantly” more than anyone had anticipated, and It Is Written decided to hold two programs per night—one at 4:30 in the evening and another at 7:30. Finley and Boonstra presented their messages on alternating nights as they explored Revelation’s prophecies.

Decisions for Baptism

To date, more than 600 people have made decisions to be baptized or rebaptized. These numbers delighted local pastors, and they found themselves in a unique predicament—they lacked enough robes to keep up with the demand! Fortunately, the number of robes in stock proved sufficient after several male candidates agreed to be baptized in their own clothes.

On the afternoon of May 22, the final day of the series, hundreds of people packed into the university’s indoor swimming pool area for a major baptismal ceremony. Sixteen pastors entered the pool and baptized in excess of 150 people in one hour.

By the end of the series, local pastors had already baptized a total of 433 people. “This proves once again that evangelism still works in North America,” said Boonstra. “It happened before our very eyes in Denver as the result of prayer, planning and the synergy of ministries, pastors and laypeople.”

Orlando Magaña, evangelism coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Conference, echoed this thought when he said, “Our church members have caught the vision of what can be accomplished when everyone works together. They’re already asking for another series!”

Six Years in the Making

It Is Written and the Rocky Mountain Conference began planning for these meetings six years ago when Pastor Ed Barnett of the Denver South Church suggested that the conference invite It Is Written to come to the area for a full evangelistic series.

Once everything was approved, the preparation began. “Before you even begin to plan your sermons, you need to ensure that a plan for follow up is already in place,” said Finley of the preparation process. “To be truly effective, an evangelistic series must include comprehensive pre-work and a plan to nurture new believers and Bible study interests once the meetings have concluded.”

And prepare they did. Intensive Bible work began more than a year before the meetings started. It Is Written held three local events to support the main series. Eight hundred people attended Finley’s archeology school, 180 attended Mark and Ernestine Finley’s Natural Lifestyle Cookingschool, and 800 Spanish-speaking people attended a two-week series by Está Escrito associate speaker, Milton Peverini, titled “Aun Hay Esperanza” (“There Is Still Hope”).

Church members handed out tens of thousands of invitations to the meetings, and many churches held their own “Unsealing Daniel’s Mysteries”video series to introduce local residents to prophecy, then invite them to the longer “Revelation of Hope”series.

A large team of volunteers and pastors joined with It Is Written and the Rocky Mountain Conference to blanket Denver with Bible studies. This team included pastors who attended Finley’s “Pace-Setters” evangelism training school, students and instructors from the Amazing Facts College of Evangelism, Bible instructors, event coordinators, pastors, laypeople, thousands of prayer warriors around the country and many others.

Once the meetings began, the volunteer outreach continued. At least 100 church members and more than 10 pastors participated in the “Revelation of Hope”series, in addition to Spanish and Vietnamese translators, children’s program coordinators, musicians, a PowerPoint graphics artist and a signer for the hearing impaired. For six weeks, four days per week, these volunteers arrived at the meetings at 3:30 p.m. and stayed until 10 p.m.

Special Stories

Every person who was baptized can tell a miraculous story of God’s grace and power. Here are just a few:

-Ann took a wrong turn while driving downtown. She passed an Adventist church and felt impressed by the Holy Spirit to stop there. She exited the car, nervously entered the sanctuary, and introduced herself to the pastor and a few of the church members who were there for a prayer group. They welcomed Ann warmly. The pastor handed her a flyer for the “Revelation of Hope”series, which started the following night. She and her husband faithfully attended the meetings and both were baptized on May 22. She exclaimed, “I know that the Holy Spirit led me—and changed a wrong turn into a right decision!”

-At the end of one of Boonstra and Finley’s baptismal classes, Finley asked if there were any questions. Michael, an ex-Marine in his 50s, stood up. In a booming voice, he nervously asked, “Would God accept an old sinner like me who has been living with a woman for a long time and wants to marry her before his baptism?” The 150 people in the class sat in stunned silence—including Priscilla, the woman who was living with him. Without hesitating, Finley responded, “Michael, is that a proposal?” The Marine smiled and said, “Well, Pastor, I guess it is.” On May 20, Pastor John Kress of the Denver First Church performed Michael and Priscilla’s wedding ceremony, and two days later the newlyweds were baptized.

-Ken, the son of a conference employee, had been in and out of the church for 20 years. He decided to attend Finley’s archeology school. When Finley invited the archeology attendees to register for the “Revelation of Hope” series, not only did Ken decide to attend, but he also brought some friends with him. He listened intently to all the meetings and—unbeknownst to his family—started taking baptismal classes. When his mother asked him, “Are you going to watch the baptism on Saturday?” he did not say anything, but simply smiled at her with a twinkle in his eye. On Sabbath afternoon, both he and one of his friends were baptized.

Local pastors anticipate many more baptisms in the following months as they continue to study the Bible with meeting attendees. Rocky Mountain Conference President Jim Brauer said that he cannot recall another evangelistic series that has impacted Denver like It Is Written’s “Revelation of Hope.”He said, “We are so impressed with how everything came together, and we hope that these new church members will give us a new shot of energy and vision as they walk into our churches. People with first love are wonderful to have around!”

More to Come

In the coming years, It Is Written will continue its evangelistic outreach in North America and around the world. From now through the end of 2006, Pastors Boonstra and Finley will hold major meetings in Caracas, Venezuela; Kigali, Rwanda; Seattle, Wash.; Kiev, Ukraine; Ottawa, Canada; and Chattanooga, Tenn. To learn more about these ongoing events, view the Denver “Revelation of Hope” photo album, or watch the telecast online, please visit www.itiswritten.com.