More than 7,700 Columbia Union Conference members recently attended Caravan of Training meetings at 24 sites across the union.

Before the meetings, Rubén Ramos, Columbia Union vice president for Multilingual Ministries, and his team distributed 19,000 copies of Como Compartir A Jesús to churches across the union with the goal of helping the readers understand why they need to get involved in mission.

During the meetings, international evangelist Alejandro Bullón and Ramos further encouraged members to get personally involved in evangelizing their communities. Bullón challenged attendees to use Christ’s method of befriending and caring for people.

“The goal of the caravan is to help every member realize they need to be involved in mission — not to make sooner the coming of Jesus or to help the church grow. That isn’t the reason [for the caravan], the ‘why’ is because we want to grow and keep our relationship with the Lord strong and full of life,” says Ramos.

“To bring a friend to Christ through love is not a spiritual gift,” adds Ramos. “It is a spiritual need.”

Local conference Multilingual Ministries directors and union staff have set a goal to baptize 3,000 people and start 1,000 small groups in 2017. They also hope 1,000 church elders will each host two weeks of evangelism efforts. Plans are already underway to celebrate member involvement in 2017 at a celebration December 8–10 in Ocean City, Maryland.

The Caravan of Training follows on the heels of 2015 Caravan of Hope evangelistic campaign, through which more than 600 people were baptized across the Columbia Union.

— Click here to read the original article from the Visitor magazine.