The Prophecies of Hope evangelistic series closed with 75 baptisms at Sandton Seventh-day Adventist Church, six of them from people who first reached the church through a screen. The series ran for 14 nights, from 18 to 31 October 2026.
It brought together the Southern Africa Union Conference, Northern Conference, SIDMEDIA and the local church, in Sandton, a district often described as Africa’s richest square mile.
Pastor Oetla Simankane, who pastors the Sandton church and preached each of the 14 nights, said the theme had been chosen deliberately. “Hope gives us the courage to challenge the status quo and believe that a different future is possible,” he said. “Prophecy gives us the conviction to remain steadfast, even when the circumstances before us seem forbidding.”
For Pastor Thulani Mkhize, Communication Director of the Southern Africa Union Conference, the partnership itself was the point. “Unity and collaboration at any church level with any leader or department only allows the gospel to move faster and further in reach,” he said.
Through SIDMEDIA, Adventist World Radio and the Hope Channel Africa network, the meetings reached audiences well beyond Gauteng.
A livestream, though, can only carry someone so far. A viewer can watch a sermon at midnight, be moved by it, and have no idea what to do next. That gap is what Adventist Inbox was built for: a digital follow-up platform developed by Adventist World Radio that gives viewers a way to ask for prayer, ask a question, or simply make contact.
Over the 14 nights it recorded 192 digital contacts across ten countries, among them Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, Botswana, Uganda, Namibia, the Cayman Islands and Canada.
All Things New: Prophecies of Hope I
Tshepiso Moseme, a member of the church who led the digital missionaries during the series, said the figure was not what stayed with her. “I realised that Adventist Inbox is not simply a communication platform,” she said. “It is a ministry of presence, compassion and connection.”
Prayer was the most common reason people made contact, with family, marriage and children the recurring themes, someone worried about a marriage, someone praying for a child who had left the faith, someone looking for work, someone facing illness or financial pressure.
One viewer followed the livestream for two weeks before reaching out to the team and telling them something of his own story. He sent them the hymn “I’ve Wandered Far Away from God.” The conversation moved to the phone, and he decided to be re-baptised.
For Mavis Mweemba, SIDMEDIA’s Chief Financial Officer, that sequence is what the campaign demonstrated. “I think this campaign has shown us that SIDMEDIA can help people take the next step after they hear the message,” she said. “The livestreams and wider digital distribution helped people encounter the message wherever they were. Adventist Inbox gave them a way to respond. That response is where the next part of the ministry begins.”
That next part needs churches rather than platforms, and Mxolisi Ncube, Human Resources Director for the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division and SIDMEDIA, sees the link between the two as the critical one.
“Through livestreams and digital platforms, SIDMEDIA can bring the hope of Jesus Christ into people’s homes and, through Adventist Inbox, give them someone to turn to when the message speaks to their hearts,” he said. “Together with local churches, we can listen, pray with them, open Scripture together and walk alongside them as they grow in their faith in Christ.”
Simankane said the 75 baptisms were not the measure he reaches for first. “We have witnessed people encounter God in deeply personal ways, experience answers to prayer, find freedom from spiritual bondage, turn away from sin, and surrender their lives to Jesus Christ,” he said.
“Each baptism represents a story, a journey, a decision, and a life surrendered to Jesus. For us, these are not simply statistics; they are 75 powerful testimonies of God’s grace.”
