(l to r) President of the South Bahamas of Seventh-day Adventists Paul Scavella, Founder of 3ABN Danny Shleton, General Manager of Dear to Dream, Dr. Yvonne Lewis, Senior Director in the Ministry of Tourism Carla Stuart and Director of Religious Tourism Dwight Armbrister.

Nassau, Bahama s- The founder of Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN) said the second largest Christian network in the United States intends to build a studio in The Bahamas.

President of South Bahamas Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Pastor Paul Scavella, introduced Founder of Corporate Consultant and Past President 3ABN Danny Shelton, to Senior Director in the Ministry of Tourism Carla Stuart and Religious Tourism Director Dwight Armbrister during a courtesy call on June 27.

General Manager at the Dare to Dream Network Dr. Yvonne Lewis was also present. She is a former backup singer for heavy hitters in music like Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Roberta Flack, Bob James, Quincy Jones and one of America’s number one jingle singers.

Mr. Shelton was in town for the South Bahamas Conference’s Camp Meeting as 3ABN aired the first day of the meeting live on its network, which was supposed to have reached over one billion people across the globe.

Mr. Shelton said the network has already donated several cameras to the South Bahamas Conference.

“We are planning on bringing more equipment to build a studio so that we can produce programming from The Bahamas by the people who live here in The Bahamas. They could take advantage of the nine satellites that reach virtually every continent on earth,” he said.3ABN beams its television and radio programming via its satellites that carry it to virtually every inhabited continent. It is the second largest network in North America (in terms of owned and operated UHF stations). It has a down home approach and does not feature large fundraising efforts or telethons.

Mr. Shelton expressed his admiration that Bahamians were proud to say that they live in a Christian nation.

“When many governments of the world, including our own in the U.S. seem to be kicking God out, you actually have a department that is about being spiritual and about the Lord. We love this because this is how we can get the Gospel out because we believe that God has people in all churches.

“So we would love the opportunity to come and work with people of all different denominations and to work with Pastor Paul.”

Pastor Scavella explained that this year the South Bahamas Conference made an effort towork closely with 3ABN to share the Bahamian religious experience with God to the rest of the world.

“It is our intention from here on in to not only support the religious experience among our own people, but also to those who visit our shores while encouraging others to come and experience God here in The Bahamas from within our church setting as well as those with whom we are connected,” he said.

Dr. Lewis introduced Dear to Dream, which is a new network from 3ABN. It focuses on the challenges confronting inner city residents and produces programmes to address those challenges.

“We have the same message as the parent network but in a different packaging. It is really targeting minorities,” she said.

Officials hope to introduce it to The Bahamas soon.

Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Tourism, Mrs. Stuart said the opportunity to host 3ABN as well as benefit from the exposure of the network has been tremendous for The Bahamas. She added that she hopes that 3ABN will continue to partner with The Bahamas, as religious tourism is a priority.

Mr. Armbrister added that the month of June has been an incredible month for religious tourism in The Bahamas.

“We have seen a group coming in from the African American Episcopal last week and this week is the South Bahamas Seventh-Day Adventists Conference. I think it is going to go well for our country as we send to the world what we do here,” he said.