At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, San Francisco was rocked by a devastating earthquake. On the 100-year anniversary, every home was shaken again — this time, by a book. What’s Next? Are you PREPARED?, a special edition of the last 11 chapters of The Great Controversy, was delivered to every residence — 414,406 homes.
Beginning the first week of April, book sightings were widely reported. “One lady who attends the Philadelphian Adventist church and her own first-day church excitedly shared that two Sunday church members had the book in their hands as they entered church, eagerly asking if others had received the special mailing,” reports David Hudgins, pastor of the San Francisco Philadelphian and Rainbow churches. “They also asked their first-day pastor to utilize it [the book] to study with the entire church.”
“In Redwood City, another church member saw the book lying open in a home he was working in,” reports Mark Ferrell, pastor of the San Francisco Central church.
On the website — www.whats-next.org — the first two Bible study requests received were for Japanese and Tagolog. “And we’re getting a lot of requests for studies in Chinese,” says Ferrell.
A melting pot of languages, cultures (30 percent are Chinese), socio-economic barriers and radical lifestyles (25 percent are homosexual), members, pastors and conference leaders have long asked the question, “How do we reach the people of San Francisco?”
This past October, a prayer group was started, intentionally asking God that same question. Participants included pastors and members from several of the city’s churches. Nearby Bay Area members joined in. A 17-hour daily prayer chain was organized with more than 50 people praying in 10-minute segments for San Francisco.
When Ferrell met Steve Peden, evangelism coordinator of Project: Steps to Christ (www.projectstc.org), an ambitious idea emerged. Peden’s organization had just completed a mass mailing of 250,000 Steps to Christ to Washington, D.C., residents. Would something like this work in San Francisco?
With the 100-year anniversary looming, this might be the perfect time for something radical. At the monthly evangelism planning session, Ferrell presented the mass mailing idea.
Prayer Works
A project of this magnitude is costly. The initial proposed budget was $262,000. “We’re not going to worry about the money,” Ferrell told the team. “We are going to pray.” As the Lord moved on hearts, members also began digging deep into their pockets. “And the money just started coming in.”
In addition to the giving of local members of money, talents and time, the Pacific Union Evangelism Endowment committed $45,000, and the Central California Conference camp meeting evangelism offering contributed $20,000.
The infrastructure for follow-up is extensive. The website offers studies in numerous languages, as does the book's interest card. The Voice of Prophecy Bible School is handling the study requests. Personal home visits will be done by church members trained by a team of SOULSWest Bible workers. Free books and Doug Batchelor’s "Final Day Events" DVD are also available upon request.
“I have seen God working in marvelous ways. It has increased my faith and makes me want to work for God,” says Donna Cline, the assistant personal ministries director and prayer outreach coordinator at the Central church.
