2021 Camp-Meeting : A first for Mauritius

A big first in the local Seventh-day Adventist church landscape has been the on-line camp-meeting, held from 6 - 15 August, 2021, with a participation of hundreds of church members throughout Mauritius and abroad. Some have already requested a repeat of this enriching experience! Let us give you a glimpse of this vibrant spiritual meeting, rich in inspirational preaching and spiritual experiences, each one containing increasing blessings. It all began in 2019 when, the meetings of the executive committee approved and created a camp meeting committee. Camp-meeting had the purpose of emphasizing the Inreach and the Outreach around the theme “Disciple Arise!”. This meeting, which originally was to take place at the churches Phoenix campus would have brought together specially invited international speakers, and included many workshops and training sessions, exhibitions of the departmental activities, and recreational activities for the children. This programme was meant to be centred around the theme “Disciple, Arise!” with the aim of sharing evangelistic vision of FEAM. “The objectives of this camp-meeting were very clear from the outset. It’s purpose was: To inspire our church members to remain faithful to Jesus by getting ready for His Second Coming; To focus the attention of our Church on the biblical teachings on the Second Coming of Jesus; and, To inspire our church members to a deeper involvement in the Gospel work”, according to the President of FEAM, Pastor Ellsworth Baxen. But as we all know the first wave of the Covid-19 struck, which disrupted our original camp meeting plans at the beginning of 2020, as well as in 2021. All the dates scheduled had to be adjusted; but, as time passed, the covid related logistic and health issues compelled the leaders of FEAM to come up with another way to organize the camp-meeting. Thanks to technology, Zoom and social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube were chosen to host this camp-meeting. Topic and actors The topic was changed to “Ena lespwar Zezi pe revini” (There’s hope, Jesus is Coming). The speakers, Dr Ganoune Diop, Pastor Jean-Noël Adeline, Dr Gerson Santos, Dr Cédric Lachenal, Pastor Busi Khumalo, and Professor Bruce Bauer joined our initiative. Every morning at 5:30, we had a season of prayer and reflection, under the guidance of our local pastors; the evening meeting began at 20:30. Each message presented contributed to the awareness of the imminence of the second advent of our Lord Jesus, announced in Bible prophecy, and to the strengthening of the faith of our church members, in order to bring about a revival by opening our hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit. On the final day of our camp-meeting, we had a Maha Kirtan, which gave us the opportunity to invite our non-Adventist friends of South Asian persuasion. The number of our church members who connected during these seasons of prayer was unprecedented. They connected on Zoom or YouTube morning and evening. In order to keep the enthusiasm generated by this camp-meeting, a weekly session of prayer was organized on Zoom; the book shared as a topic of reflection was Step by Step to a Spiritual Revival, by Helmut Haubeil. The camp-meeting was also followed by a week of prayer and revival, with Pastor Jean-Noël Adeline. “We felt the presence and unity of the Holy Spirit and God’s intervention during these moments, and even during the prayer meetings held later in several churches throughout Mauritius. Let God be praised for this!” Follow-up The two lockdowns we experienced were moments of uncertainty for many of us, particularly concerning working members, or students. And yet, Outreach has not stood still. On the contrary, it was an opportunity to experience God’s grace in an unusual way, and to invite non-Adventist persons to attend our camp-meeting and the week of revival on Zoom or YouTube.

Annum Kaully - Goodlands Group

For Sister Annum Kaully, of the Goodlands Group, the difficult situations of these last two years were opportunities to draw nearer to God and to do missionary work: « I invited many non-Adventist persons to connect to the Zoom and participate in prayer. It was a pleasure for us to rise early in the morning. I even persuaded my friend Anabelle, whose husband is a Tamoul, to secretly watch our programmes: campmeeting and week of revival. God answered all my prayers », she says.

She says also that, although she was without work, since she works in the

tourism branch, she has lacked nothing: « I was able to restrict my needs, to send my children to Canada for their studies, and many other things. » But it does not mean that everything was easy: « During this period, I went through the most difficult moments in my life. Yet the messages I heard and the seasons of prayer in the morning during the camp-meeting have strengthened my faith and given me victory by the power of the Holy Spirit. God does not come personally, but He sends persons on our path to support us. I am extremely grateful to Him », Annum says.

Priscilla Philippe - Bambous Church

For Priscilla Philippe, a member of our church of Bambous, this camp-meeting allowed her to learn to pray with the promises from the Bible: « I have learnt to pray with greater faith, and the messages have strengthened me. Psalm 32.8, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you, has accompanied me, and I have claimed its promise several times. It was also an opportunity to share the Gospel with two managers of the company for which I work. Although I have been working for this company for 27 years, I had never spoken of the Gospel with them;

but I wished to seize this opportunity. I have also been able to share my faith with two non-Adventist persons, one of whom found the peace he was looking for, and is now following Bible studies », Priscilla says.