Hope Channel debuted a new experiential stand, "To the Ends of the Earth," at the ASI International Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, held July 29 to August 1. Built as a walk-through journey, the stand invited visitors to move from the stories of the mission field to a decision to help carry the gospel of Jesus to the world.

ASI, or Adventist-laymen's Services and Industries, is a network of business owners and professionals who share their faith at work. This year the group met under the theme "Hasten the Day, Prepare the Way." About 2,000 people attended, organizers said.

The stand rests on a simple conviction: the mission belongs to God, and every believer has a part to play. The experience treats media as a tool for that mission, tied to Hope Channel's goal to reach one billion people by 2030.

"One billion is never just a number to us," said Sam Neves, vice president for advancement, communication, and marketing at Hope Channel International. "It is one billion people with names, families, and stories who have not yet heard about Jesus." Reaching them, he said, will take the whole church, together.

"The vision was to create more than an exhibit," said Quei Montanari, the lead architect who created the stand for Hope Channel International. "We wanted to design an experience that would move people from discovery to meaningful participation. By shaping the booth as a journey, we invited each visitor to encounter the global mission, connect with its stories, and recognize that, despite the many resources available to us and the different institutions we represent, we are one global church, one family united in carrying the message of eternal hope to the ends of the Earth."

The journey begins at MissionCast, a podcast studio built to give voice to the people carrying the gospel of Jesus into the world. Season Cromwell, a Hope Channel field representative and program host, led the conversations, interviewing around 70 ministry leaders and attendees over the convention's four days. "I had the honor of sitting with them and listening to their hearts, listening to the work that is being done and has been done for a very long time," she said. "Every conversation was different. Every prayer was different. The Holy Spirit led the entire way."

From there, a wall of six screens carries mission stories from around the world. An interactive virtual-reality section lets visitors step into hard-to-reach places, beginning with an episode filmed in Alaska, with the Sahara and the Amazon planned next.

Then the experience turns personal. A wheel shows a face for each of 50 people groups with little or no access to the gospel of Jesus, and links each face to a Bible verse sent to the visitor's phone. Visitors draw a card about one group, write a prayer on paper that dissolves in water, and add their name to a prayer chain that began at Hope Channel's leadership conference in New Zealand in July and now travels with the stand. The design is anchored in Acts 1:8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (NIV).

For a room of lay members who spend their weeks in offices, clinics, and shops, the point lands close to home: the mission is theirs, too. At the first stop, 54 people signed on as monthly partners.

One theme kept surfacing, Cromwell said: the call to reach the unreached. "Most of the time I didn't even bring it up," she said, "but it is everything we are doing at Hope Channel International now and across the entire global network."

The stand is made to travel. The structure adapts to three sizes and opens on four sides, so visitors can enter from any direction. In October, Hope Channel plans to set it up at the General Conference Annual Council, where church leaders from around the world gather. The prayer chain keeps growing, one name at a time.

(Photos: James Neves / Diego Tavares)