Central Bahia Conference Headquarters Facade Photo Courtesy of Central Bahia Conference Archives
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Central Bahia Conference Headquarters facade Photo courtesy of Central Bahia Conference Archives. Central Bahia Conference NESIAS JOAQUIM DOS SANTOS Nesias Joaquim dos Santos The Central Bahia Conference (ABaC) is an administrative unit of the Seventh-day Adventist Church located in the territory of the East Brazil Union Mission (ULB). Its headquarters is located at the street General Mourão Filho, no. 19, district of Pilão, ZIP Code 44.003-102, in the city of Feira de Santana, State of Bahia, Brazil. The Central Bahia Conference field covers 123 municipalities in the State of Bahia, with a population estimated at 2,779,979 inhabitants. In the missionary territory of the conference, there are 34,386 members, 35 pastoral districts, 193 organized churches,1 and 315 companies of believers, totaling 508 congregations in its region.2 In addition, in the Central Bahia Conference territory, there are five educational units in operation. Namely: Feira de Santana Adventist Academy (CAFS), located in the city of Feira de Santana, with 532 students; Northeast Brazil Academy, which operates on the campus of Bahia Adventist College (FADBA) in the city of Cachoeira, with 963 students; Escola Adventista de Valença (Valença Adventist Academy) (EAV), in Valença, with 186 students; and the Escola Adventista de Santo Antônio de Jesus (Santo Antônio de Jesus Adventist Academy) (EASJ), in Santo Antônio de Jesus, with 220 students. In all, there are 1901 students in the four educational units mentioned.3 The fifth educational unit established in the territory of the Central Bahia Conference is Bahia Adventist College, which receives students in its boarding-school regime. Although it is located in the missionary field of the conference, the college is directly linked to the East Brazil Union Mission. However, Bahia Adventist College collaborates with the work carried out by the Central Bahia Conference. The college shares its facilities for certain events, and the pastors of the Latin-American Adventist Theological Seminary (SALT), are always giving lectures and training church members and workers. In the field of medical care, a teaching clinic operates in the territory of the Central Bahia Conference, under Bahia Adventist College administration coordinated by the courses in the health area of that educational institution. Operating in the neighborhood of Capoeiruçu, in the city of Cachoeira, the college clinic receives people from both the community and nearby cities, seeing around eighteen hundred patients a month.4 As for the area of social assistance, the field has the Pró-Vida (Pro-Life) project: a program for the recovery of drug addicts. This project is developed by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) East in the community of Belém and in the city of Cachoeira. Through monthly investments and generous donations, it is possible to serve up to 25 inpatients.5 Regarding communication, in the Central Bahia Conference territory, there are retransmitters of the TV Novo Tempo (Hope Channel Brazil) in the cities of Acajutiba, Barrocão, Cairú, Castro Alves, Crisópolis, Entre Rios, Esplanada, Fatima, Heliopolis, Iaçu, Inhambupe, Itaberaba, Itapicuru, Jeremoabo, Jiquiriça, Lage, Nazaré, Triunfo, Olindina, Quijingue, Ribeira do Pombal, Rio Real, Santa Luz, Santo Amaro, Santo Domingo, Sátiro Dias, Teofilândia, Tucano, Valença, Varzedo, Paulo Afonso, and Serrinha. In all, there are 31 relay transmitters installed in this territory.6 Through the Radio Novo Tempo (Hope Channel Brazil), the Central Bahia Conference disseminates the Adventist message in the cities of Jiquiriça, Feira de Santana, and Irará. In addition, the region embraces churches that broadcast their services via the Internet, such as the Bahia Adventist College SDA Church and the Espaço Novo Tempo (Hope Centers of Influence) of Feira de Santana and Cidade Nova.7 The Central Bahia Conference is an institution that has been in existence for 15 years and is fully engaged in its evangelistic activities. Currently the institution has 15 licensed ministers and 30 ordained ministers working in the territory. The total number of people serving the church reaches 236, including servers at the Multibom store, schools, church, and office caretakers.8 Origin of Seventh-day Adventist Work in the Conference's Territory The first place to receive the Adventist message in the territory of theCentral Bahia Conference was the city of Santo Antônio de Jesus. There, Antônio Leôncio da Penha, the first man to keep the Sabbath in the region, studied the events that most marked the State of Bahia between the years 1886 and 1900 at the age of 42. For him, the War of Canudos9 and the four years of a prolonged drought that decimated almost everything in Bahia were the most striking historical records in the state.10 Many claimed that these two events were evidence that the world would end in 1900. After 1900 Leôncio constantly questioned himself whether there was any hope for humanity and what could serve as an anchor for people to lay down their faith. Meanwhile, the people of Bahia remained involved with mystical beliefs. The Catholic traditions in the region, for example, were strongly related to the mysticisms that came out of the syncretism between spiritualism and the afro cults, which dominated the city of Salvador11 and the Reconcavo Bahiano.12 Later Leôncio received answers for his prayers. He himself reported to Arnaldo Christianini,13 in later years, that he went to the countryside in search of a former partner, but when he arrived at his colleague's residence, he did not find him at home. While waiting in the room, Leôncio noticed a book on the table, and in that book he read the Bible passage of Exodus 20: “Remember the Sabbath day. .” That was the experience that marked the beginning of his conversion.14 After settling business with his former partner, Leôncio returned to the city and went in search of a Bible. As he was searching, he met the Baptists, who gave him the Holy Book but tried to convince him to keep Sunday. For this reason Leôncio began to preach in the square Padre Mateus at the street market upon a box of rapadura (jaggery, a coarse brown sugar), exclaiming that he was “the only man in the world to keep the Sabbath.”15 Some time later a citizen of Salvador went to visit the city of Rio de Janeiro. There he was approached by an Adventist canvasser who offered him a volume of the review “O Arauto da Verdade” (Herald of the Truth) (pioneer review in Portuguese language in Brazil, released in July 1900). Upon returning to Bahia and visiting the city of Santo Antônio de Jesus, that man noticed Leôncios' faith and offered him the address of the keepers of the biblical Sabbath he had met in Rio de Janeiro. Discovering he was not alone, Leôncio wrote to them. About three years later, Pastor F. W. Spies appeared in Santo Antônio and baptized Leôncio on October 2, 1907.16 In 1915 the evangelist canvasser Leopoldo Nabuco went to the city of Alagoinhas and found people interested in the message of hope and in keeping the Sabbath. For three nights Nabuco studied the Bible with those interested, who were later sent to the care of pastor Manuel Kümpel, who lived in Salvador. Thus came the second group of Sabbath keepers in the Central Bahia Conference territory.17 The third pioneer front of the hope message in that region emerged in the early 1930s, in the city of Cruz das Almas. Franco, an employee of the Municipal Government, sent his son Nem to study in the capital. In Salvador the boy was enrolled in a school where he met a classmate who was an Adventist. Through this friendship the message reached Cidade Planalto, the former name of the city Cruz das Almas. Franco was never baptized, but he was the representative of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the city for a long time. He received letters, literature, and many canvassers in the municipality.18 From Cruz das Almas, the message reached the municipality of Governador Mangabeira, 11 kilometers away, in a town called Queimada dos Borges. Martin and Antônio Borges were the first Adventists in the place. Then the message reached Jordão, known today as Geolândia, a municipality in the region of Cabeceiras do Paraguaçu. The first Adventists of the city were: José Pedro Damasceno, the father of Dr. Claudemiro Damasceno (who was responsible for the Legal Department of the Bahia Conference for more than 20 years); the couple Marcolino José Damasceno and Maria Madalena; and the parents of Maximiano and Pedro Damasceno. Starting from Cruz das Almas, the message also reached the city of Muritiba, 20 kilometers away. Among the first Adventists in the city, Sister Dalila Borges and Brother Filipe stand out. All this occurred in the 1940s, in the 20th century. Although the municipality of Feira de Santana received many canvassers, evangelistic efforts were really opened only between 1949 and 1951. It all happened through Gaudino Santana, Cristina Lima, Samuel Lima Aurelino, and Marlene Borges, children of Cristina. They were under the leadership of the canvasser Trajan Gonçalves Neto, who directed the first Sabbath School meetings in the city. As a result of these meetings, the first church was opened on Av. Presidente Dutra. In the same period, the municipality of Ribeira do Pombal was evangelized by Vicente Góes and João Gama, and the city of Araci by Laura Moura.19 Organizational History of the Conference With the growth in the work in the entire Bahia territory and the successful creation of the South Bahia Conference (ABS) at the end of 1998, the leaders of the Bahia Conference (AB) began to dream of creating another administrative unit to better serve the region. That was due to the fact that the South Bahia Conference founding brought good results.