More than 30 volunteers went door-to-door to distribute 21K copies of The Great Controversy, a health magazine, and invitational flyers to the Houston neighborhoods surrounding seven churches from April 25th to 29th. The door-to-door effort resulted in more than 240 Bible study contacts.
“People are asking, ‘What is going on in the world?’” shared Nathan Krause, vice president for ministry and evangelism for the Texas Conference, during the mission trip. “A lot of people are open now to learning truth from Scripture. This is a great opportunity to share something that will make an eternal impact.”
Streams of Light International, organizer of the mission trip and a supporting ministry of the Adventist Church, has the goal of placing a copy of The Great Controversy in every home in North America by 2026.
The mission trip came about after SOLI presented a proposal to the Texas Conference to work together on a large-scale literature evangelism project. The proposal included plans for both a localized mission trip in the Houston area and also conference-wide participation from churches around the state to go door-to-door in their communities on Sabbath, April 29th.
The Houston Central church served as the host church and housed the shipment of over 25K books that were ordered for the mission trip.
“There are almost seven million people in the Greater Houston area, and many of these individuals have never heard the name of Christ.,” shared Pastor Rojas, lead pastor of the Houston Central church, during a panel discussion on Sabbath morning, April 29th. In addition to Pastor Rojas, panel participants included Joshua Reyna, director of Texas Conference Literature Ministries; Oleg Lotca, president of Streams of Light International, Pastor Elton DeMoraes, president of the Texas Conference; and Nathan Krause, along with panel moderators Stephen Gutierrez and Pat Humphrey.
In addition to local church members, mission trip participants also comprised individuals of all ages who traveled from across the United States to take part in this large-scale distribution effort. A daily children’s program helped accommodate the younger volunteers, who also spent time going door to door.
Mornings during the mission trip included two and a half hours of prayer, a plant-based breakfast, worship, and training. Following the formation of teams, participants grabbed a sack lunch, loaded into vans, and used maps provided by SOLI to navigate each designated area of outreach for six hours. Every morning and evening, volunteers spent time sharing their divine appointments and faith-building experiences.
“God has moved in our lives and we are brothers and sisters with one common purpose,” said Krause to participants during the mission trip closing program. “If this happened with a group of strangers in one week, imagine what could happen in a local church when everyone gets on board with a mission and say, ‘We have a three angels message to share with the world.’”
Speaking to our commission, Oleg Lotca stated, “When we put into practice what the Lord told us to do, there is so much joy. Our dream and our prayer is that this will spark a mighty end-time movement that will not stop until the close of probation. The idea is that the mission trip is just some fuel to spark a fire and that that fire will go back to your church, and that your church will ignite other churches.”
As a result of the mission trip, Pastor Rojas notes that his congregation are more excited in their discussions about missions, and many are getting more involved.
“I already have a couple individuals expressing wanting to get involved after their experience,” said Rojas. “A family of six have been attending our church the last month and a half, and they were excited about what they saw. God was definitely good to us!”
A video recap of this mission trip will be posted to the Streams of Light International YouTube channel.
Click here to learn about upcoming mission trip opportunities.