Inter-America: church prepares for most ambitious coordinated community initiative ever

Miami, Florida, United States…[Libna Stevens/IAD]

Seventh-day Adventists all across Inter-America are preparing for the most ambitious community outreach project ever attempted in the territory: provide a meal for one million of the neediest people in Inter-America. It will be a division-wide activity that will take place on Oct. 11, 2008.

Designated as the “Day of Kindness and Compassion”, the event is being coordinated by Inter-America’s Youth Ministries department and Inter-America’s Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA). The effort is designed to promote awareness for the less fortunate who go hungry everyday, and will highlight World Hunger Day, celebrated on Oct. 16 every year, says Pastor Bernardo Rodriguez, Youth Ministries director for the church in Inter-America.

“We are on the last phase, preparing for final permits in each of the communities which will be benefitted with this activity,” says Pastor Rodriguez. “All of your church unions [or regions] have been coordinating with government and local community officials to make this wonderful program a reality.”

Pastor Rodriguez and Wally Amundson, ADRA director for Inter-America, met earlier this year with youth ministries leaders and ADRA directors from throughout the territory to plan and coordinate.

Amundson says the activity was adopted by the entire territory as a result of an annual initiative begun by the ADRA office in Colombia in 2006, where thousands of Seventh-day Adventists donated less than $2.00 for each meal and distributed boxed dinners to thousands of poor families (click here for story).

“This kind of a project caught the attention of church leaders in the Inter-American Division [IAD] last year when over 80,000 people were fed by the coordinated efforts of ADRA and church members in Colombia,” says Amundson. A vote was taken by IAD’s executive committee last year to implement the project.

In Mexico, with four major church regions, there are plans to distribute some 300,000 boxed meals throughout the country on Oct. 11, says Amundson.

“We have been so impressed by the response from the unions for this initiative,” says Rodriguez.

In Central America, more than 250,000 needy people will receive boxed meals. Colombia plans to distribute more than 100,000 meals. Church members in Puerto Rico have been active in collecting funds on the island to help their neighboring church members in Haiti during the activity. In the French Antilles Guiana region, the church has significantly increased the number of meals to be distributed.

“We are very excited and are sure that this activity will be a great blessing, not only to those whom we will serve in the community, but all church members volunteering,” says Pastor Rodriguez.

“It is impossible to contain or stop enthusiasm,” says Amundson., “The nearly one million volunteers needed to make this project a success are discovering how easy it is to make a difference in the lives of their neighbors with simple methods and means available locally.”

Special programs will be held throughout community centers and parks in Inter-America on Saturday, Oct. 11, starting at 3:00 p.m.

A special program from Bucaramanga, Colombia–the city in which the initiative began three years ago, will be transmitted live over the internet on Oct. 11 at www.interamerica.org. During the program, church members will cater to more than 1,000 homeless and misplaced families of the city, with a special dinner and musical program.

For more information on Inter-America’s Day of Kindness and Compassion, visit us at www.interamerica.org