October 6, 2006 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [Mark A. Kellner/ANN]
Nearly 300 registered delegates to the Seventh-day Adventist world church's fall Annual Council were given vivid reminders of the important contributions of lay ministries to the outreach work of Adventists around the world.
In a Friday evening devotional service, delegates heard stories of supporting ministries which enhance the work of the church on a global scale. Lightbearers Ministry, whose co-director Ty Gibson was the devotional speaker, has provided more than 500 million pieces of literature for the church to distribute worldwide, including 14 million Bible study correspondence course lessons for use in Africa.
Adventist World Aviation, whose president, Don Starling, addressed delegates, is dealing with a dozen requests for mission aircraft. Already, one plane is credited with saving the life of a critically injured Adventist pastor in the Philippines; by providing rapid transport to a hospital, the pastor was able to recover and return to ministry. In the mountains near Guadalajara, Mexico, an aircraft supplied by the group has ferried food, medicine and other supplies – as well as the Gospel message – to a small community, some of whose members live in caves. Today, 30 of these people are Adventists and two have gone to college, one preparing to return to the group as their pastor.
A pioneering broadcast ministry, The Quiet Hour, continues its outreach today by supporting more than 400 evangelistic meetings in 2006 alone. The group has also helped in the construction of chapels overseas and the distribution of “millions of Bibles,” according to Seventh-day Adventist Pastor Bill Tucker, a third-generation leader of the ministry.
Recently, Pastor Michael Porter, who is now chief executive officer for The Quiet Hour, held an evangelistic series in Mongolia, an area the group first helped to reach years earlier. Forty-six new people have been baptized, and Dr. Jaiyrong Lee, president of the Adventist church's Northern Asia-Pacific area, thanked Porter and the ministry for their work.
These vignettes were part of a program prepared by the Office of Adventist Mission. Along with the presentation to delegates, the Hope Channel, the church's television network, carried the broadcast live as well as streaming it via the Internet.
The devotional program followed a brief, pre-Sabbath business meeting in which the agenda for the following days was approved. Following a Saturday, or Sabbath, worship program, business meetings will begin Sunday.
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