Mayaguez, Puerto Rico…[Freddy Sosa/IAD Staff]
During a special ceremony on April 11, Seventh-day Adventist leaders and members commemorated the 110th anniversary of the introduction of the Adventist message in Puerto Rico. The celebration, which took place in Las Marias Seventh-day Adventist Church in the northeast region near Mayaguez, drew more than 300 people to reflect on the circumstances surrounding the birth of the Adventist faith on the island in 1898 of which there are 36,000 believers today.
After United State troops entered Puerto Rico and won the Spanish-American War, one of the soldiers, David Trail, a member of the medical corps, settled in the small town of Las Marias. From that town, Trail wrote a letter to Seventh-day Adventist headquarters for a missionary to be sent to Puerto Rico.
“The people on the island are very friendly and there is no protestant church here,” wrote Trail. “The field is ripe for the message of Christ to be placed in this fertile soil.”
Upon receiving his letter in 1901, the church sent Albert Fisher from Lincoln, Nebraska, to Puerto Rico. Pastor Fisher settled in Las Marias and wasted no time in spreading the gospel. Unfortunately, his efforts did not last long. Typhoid fever took his life in 1902. But in spite of the brevity of his ministry, the gospel caught fire in that town which boasts seven Adventist churches today.
Edwin Soto, mayor of Las Marias, was present and presented an official document to Jose Alberto Rodriguez, president of the church in Puerto Rico. The document states, among other things, how proud the town of Las Marias feels for having been the first town in receiving by God's grace the Seventh-day Adventist Church of Puerto Rico.
Pastor Rodriguez outlined to those present the history of the Adventist message on the island and introduced Gary Krause, Adventist World Church's director of Adventist Mission. Krause spoke about the sacrifice of the pioneers in different parts of the world, how those missionaries founded groups and churches where there were none before, and that most of them never returned to their homeland. Almost all of them remain buried in the countries where they labored and loved.
Today, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Puerto Rico operates four regional offices, 290 churches, a university, a hospital, two radio stations, and 20 schools.
