General Conference President Participates in Book Distribution at Historic Site

An event held at the Brazil Publishing House (CPB) on April 18 recalled a milestone for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Brazil. Impacto CPB was a moment of celebration for the distribution, over the past century, of 27 million copies of Ellen G. White’s book The Great Controversy.

“In just two years, we have distributed four times as many copies of The Great Controversy in Brazil as in the last century,” CPB general manager Edson Medeiros said. “It is an unprecedented milestone in the dissemination of inspired writings.”

Impacto CPB welcomed Adventist leaders from across Brazil and the South American Division, as well as General Conference president Ted N. C. Wilson. The program highlighted the story of Guilherme Stein Jr., whose journey is intertwined with the beginnings of the CPB and the book The Great Controversy. After reading the book, Stein accepted the Adventist message, becoming the first member baptized in Brazil. A few years later, he would also be responsible for the publication of the first national Adventist periodical, The Herald of Truth, in addition to writing several books and translating some of Ellen White’s works, including The Great Controversy.

An event held in the auditorium of the publishing house headquarters in Tatuí, São Paulo, preceded the book distribution. Then, almost 600 employees of the publishing house, together with church leaders and a group of 300 motorcyclists, traveled to Piracicaba, São Paulo, where almost 130 years ago, Stein was baptized, to distribute copies of The Great Controversy.

The little seed planted by Stein so long ago has born much fruit. Today, the city of Piracicaba has 2,500 church members, distributed in 22 congregations in five pastoral districts.

Global Impact

Wilson pointed out that the Adventist Church around the world has looked with admiration at the strength of the publishing work in Brazil and in South America in general. “God is doing extraordinary things through CPB and ACES [the Adventist publishing house in Argentina], and we want to express our recognition and gratitude,” Wilson said. “The sacred work of producing millions of books will reverberate for eternity.”

The Adventist Church in South America is celebrating the milestone of 329 million books distributed in the past 18 years. Out of those, 246 million have been distributed across Brazil. “But the challenge is not over,” SAD president Stanley Arco said. According to Wilson, “we need to go from city to city, from house to house, and from person to person, until everyone is reached.”

During his visit to the publishing house, Wilson participated in another historic moment for the CPB: the inauguration of a new press with the capacity to produce 18,000 pages per hour, print double-sided in color, and apply varnish, ensuring higher quality and agility to the process. According to Wilson, the CPB is the only one among more than 60 Adventist publishing houses that owns such a press, which will further add to its capacity of spreading the gospel message.

The original version of this story was posted on the South American Division Portuguese-language news site.