April 4, 2011 – Port-of Spain, Trinidad…Libna Stevens/IAD
Under the banner of the Constant In Prayer initiative, a spiritual revival and reformation emphasis launched throughout the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Inter-American Division (IAD) territory earlier this year, hundreds of Adventist young people in Trinidad and Tobago took to the streets of some of the most violent and drug-stricken communities. Their mission: to offer hope and prayer for a renewed life in Jesus.
Packed in six 25-passenger busses, young people were transported from the campus of Southern Caribbean University-an Adventist institution–to reach out to nearby violent communities. They distributed magazines on the importance of a connection with God through prayer and study of the Bible and prayed with anyone who welcomed them.
It’s the type of outreach activity run by Adventist churches across the island and the surrounding islands several times every quarter for more than ten years, says Pastor Clive Dottin, youth ministries director for the church in the Caribbean, who heads out with the young people each Sabbath.
The outreach groups are called missionary action groups which meet every Sabbath and join together in regions.
The difference now, says Pastor Dottin “is that we are focusing more on prayer initiative in our already organized ministries to reach those in need.”
So far, the church in Trinidad manages several organized support groups offering help to those who are grieving, in gangs, recovering addicts, the abused, and those suffering from diseases like AIDS, in hospitals, and in prisons, as well as helping young people in schools make positive decisions.
“Our main focus continues to be to rescue the young people of this world from addictions and temptations,” says Dottin, who, together with church leaders, launched a 12-18 month plan to involve young people visiting and praying in homes throughout the Caribbean region. In addition, the plan seeks to reach one million young people in need.
In the La Mango community, a bus load of young people knocked on doors and offered prayer. It’s one violent community where drugs and murders are so common, says Dottin. He stops by to pray and encourage John and Anne Taung-Aki, a retired couple leading the unpainted cement-block La Mango Adventist Church in the middle of the community.
“We had some problems here [in La Mango],” says Dottin. “This has been a tough, tough area. It took a long time to establish a church. Some guys would bring marijuana joints the size of your hand into the church, but God is good.” Today there is a group of 30 members meeting each week and regular visitors seeking hope and recovery.
The church, like many others in dangerous communities, also serves as a bridge to addicts seeking to participate in the drug-rehab centers run by the church on the island, according to Dottin. So far the church-run centers have had a success rate of 60 percent, says Dottin. The national success rate is below 20 percent.
“Prayer is the key that opens and locks every door,” says Dottin, who has been working with the youth for more than 32 years. “When you go into these violent areas and you rescue those people and they change, and then you see they are teaching computers, they are mathematicians, and teachers, in medical school, praise God. That gives you what physical oxygen cannot give you.”
It’s that oxygen that keeps him breathing and leading out the youth every Sabbath even at his 61 years of age, he says.
Offering that opportunity to young people is what the church needs to do today, says Dottin.
“What we have to do is to create opportunities for them to witness. Young people want to witness, young people want to be good, young people want the Holy Spirit to operate in their lives but they face peer pressure, the gangs, drugs and everything,” he adds.
“Our youth love distributing literature, visiting, praying and counseling in these missionary action groups,” says Dottin. “They have their own struggles and they are the best to reach other youth.”
For now, Dottin relies on the more than 78,000 young people across Trinidad and Tobago and the rest of the islands comprising the church in the English-Caribbean region to work towards touching the lives of more than one million young people by the end of next year with Constant in Prayer initiative and a renewed life in Jesus Christ.
For more on the Seventh-dayAdventist Church in the Caribbean and its ministries, visit http://www.caribbeanunionadventist.org
Resources
Constantin Prayer: http://praying4revival.org
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prayer-Revival/137873816275961
Spanish Resources
Constantesen la Oracion: http://estamosorando.org
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Constantes-en-la-Oracion/173416709365170
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Constantes-en-la-Oracion/173416709365170
