Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic…[Libna Stevens/IAD]
Thousands of Seventh-day Adventists attended the Sabbath, June 26, climax of the week-long Youth and Laity Evangeliving Symposium held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. More than 12,000 people filled El Palacio de los Deportes Stadium while an overflow of over 3,000 listened outside.
The featured speaker on Sabbath was world church president Jan Paulsen, who, along with pastors and administrators from the Inter-American territory, congratulated hundreds of youth and laity for their tremendous accomplishment in the church. Paulsen encouraged and challenged delegates and church members alike to continue letting their light shine for others.
Under the theme “Living His Life”, 800 delegates made up of young people, laypeople, pastors, and leaders were united in demonstrating the gospel in their community, says Pastor Bernardo Rodriguez, youth director for the church in Inter-America.
“To do this we sat down and met in groups to study their vision for the contemporary church of today,” he adds.
Youth and lay people studied a series of questions addressing their needs from spiritual and financial support for youth activities, to how to become a friendlier church in the surrounding community, to how best to close the gap between the young and old people in the church. The delegates studied the concerns in the context of the local church, studying not only how to best win souls but retain souls.
“We set out to prove that the church as a whole can work together by bringing pastors, laypeople and youth for the first time ever, to sit, plan and discuss how to best do Evangeliving, [which is] living the gospel,” says Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America. “We achieved that by bringing these different departments and encouraging the church to function as one and not a combination of segments,” he adds.
Now that the symposium is concluded, the Inter-American Division will address the given answers and concerns with the purpose of implementing new youth programs and events at the local level according to each culture, says Dr. Carlos Archbold, education director for Inter-America. It is Archbold’s task to compile the answers submitted by the delegates who participated in the symposium.
The event was also packed with seminars on evangelism, family life, personal ministry, youth leadership, Master Guides and Pathfinders, witnessing, and more. Seminar speakers included General Conference leaders such as Baraka Muganda, youth director, Alfredo Garcia-Marenko, associate youth director, Johnathan Kuntaraf, associate director of Personal Ministries, Robert Holbrook, Pathfinder director, Maitland Dipinto, director for Hope for Humanity, as well as seminars by IAD leaders Mario Nino, Stewardship director, and Gordon Martinborough, Family Ministries director. In addition, the symposium featured nightly presentations given by delegates of each of the 15 unions of the division territory.
Another highlight of the event involved all delegates taking to the streets on Thursday, June 24, along with Pathfinders and Master Guides, in fifteen communities in the island’s capital of Santo Domingo, where they distributed 20,000 bottles of water, as well as literature. Part of the day’s community events included puppet ministry presentations in the street, and performances by drama and musical groups.
“It was so wonderful to see all the different cultures represented in our Division and how we can unite our forces to finish the work God has entrusted us by living the gospel,” says Rodriguez.
A portion of the concluding Sabbath activities involved special recognition of Maranatha International for its dedicated work in building 50 churches and eight schools on the island.
Don Noble, president of Maranatha International, and his wife Laura, were present, together with construction manager Darrell Hardy. Completion of the project is scheduled for October.
For more information on IAD Evangeliving and other programs, visit www.interamerica.org.
