Saturday, February 6, 2010

Christian meetings begin in Rome, opposition fails to stop event


Photo by "bezaleel31" on Flickr under
a Creative Commons license.
A series of Christian evangelistic meetings in Rome, began tonight, Feb. 6, just four days after “high ranking authorities” managed to shut down the use of an auditorium for the meetings.

The Italian Union of Seventh-day Adventists had signed a contract with Leo the Great Auditorium for the use of their hall, but were faxed a cancellation notice from the center on Tuesday evening, Feb. 2.

“What we feared has actually come to pass,” said Pastor Shawn Boonstra, the presenter for the event and director of It Is Written. “We have a back-up plan, and nothing is going to stop the preaching of the everlasting gospel here in the city of Rome.”

Event organizers found a large church and worked to develop overflow seating. They had people stationed at the old meeting place and had busses transport attendees to the new meeting place.

After the opening meeting ended, It Is Written filmed a video update with Pastor Boonstra at the new meeting location, describing how things went that night....

“And I know what you’re wondering: Did anybody come?” said Boonstra. “Well, the auditorium here at the church was packed full, and we had an overflow room down stairs that was also full. And God has absolutely answered your prayers!”

The event gained publicity, perhaps due to recent end-of-the-world movies, such as ‘2012’. An Italian national news station, RAI TV, played video clips from popular disaster movies as they interviewed Boonstra and Daniele Benini, president of the Adventist Church in Italy.

The evangelistic series will not be broadcast on TV due to costs and complicated logistics, according to an It Is Written video update. The event takes place from Feb. 6 to March 6, 2010.

Below are the most recent video updates from Pastor Boonstra (as of writing). The videos are from It Is Written:







Opening night:



Road to Rome Video Updates
Official Evangelistic Event Website (in Italian)

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seventh day adventists church members in Curacao salude you and are keeping you in our prayers.
We know that GOD will do amazing things through all of you. May the good Lord keep blessing and keep looking on to you in this mission!!

Sabbath said...

Sabbath day is one of the most important days of any religion. I think we should just let them do what they believe and don't try to stop them. I that is what they believe let them.

Unknown said...

Just wait for week two Romans! I will be back here to see how the crowd reacts to some of the harder teachings. Praise God... interesting.

Anonymous said...

The whole world (at least in Adventism) has been praying for you Pastor Boonstra and your wonderful team out there at the 'headquarters' in Europe. I wish I could be there just to enjoy the atmosphere of the real thing! If no one else from the Pacific posts a comment, I am doing it especially on behalf of the many lay preachers in this region of the world! God bless you all. (Speaker and Director, End Times Ministry, Vanuatu.)

david@thetestimonies said...

I think this is awesome! Is someone able to post here an update as to how this went down? I couldn't believe that the hall had to be changed! I praise God that the first night went so well.

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Note: Comments expressed are those of the comment author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position or opinions of A Sabbath Blog.

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