Adventist volunteers increasingly coming from Latin America

October 09, 2014 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ansel Oliver/ANN

The Adventist Church’s Inter-American Division set up a volunteer recruiting booth at a youth congress in Guatemala in August. Division leaders are ramping up promotion of the volunteer program, which offers university students and recent graduates the opportunity to serve in another country for two to 24 months. Image by Daniel Gallardo/IAD

Latin America is becoming a growing supplier of international volunteers to the Seventh-day Adventist world church, a trend that underscores how the historic mission field is increasingly providing support to other regions of the denomination.

Church leaders say steady growth in numbers from the Church’s South American Division is the result of deliberate management and promotion of the Church’s volunteers program, which sends university students and recent graduates as missionaries abroad for two to 24 months. Volunteers serve in schools, clinics, ministry projects and administrative headquarters.

South America last year sent 136 volunteers, or 12 percent, of the denomination’s 1,100 volunteers. That figure is a marked increase since 2000 when the division sent 2 percent of the Church’s total volunteers.

Additionally, the Inter-American Division over the past year has increased its promotion of the volunteers program, which has long plateaued at a low level. Leaders there hope to boost the number of outgoing missionaries from the division, which is the largest of the denomination’s 13 divisions by membership.

The renewed focus of the program in recent years is giving more young members in Latin America an opportunity to offer their talents for service, gain cross-cultural awareness and help clarify their own future plans, Church leaders say. Both divisions have held several large-scale rallies supporting mission, and several more rallies are planned.

The growing numbers of volunteers is even prompting leaders at the world headquarters to urge world administrators to create more volunteer positions to meet growing demand.

“It’s exciting to see the growth, but we need to think about seeing if there could be more places for volunteers to serve,” said John Thomas, director of Adventist Volunteer Service, speaking to a meeting of the denomination’s executive secretaries earlier this week at the world headquarters.

Thomas said there are a high number of vacancies, but most are in specialized skill areas. More general service opportunities are needed, he told leaders this week.

“I think the door is opening for Church leaders to realize they can use volunteers in ways not considered before,” Thomas said.

The Adventist student missions program has its roots back in 1959 when leaders of Washington Missionary College in the United States sent a student to Mexico for three months. It took decades for the program to grow and become formalized.

The denomination’s North American Division is still the top supplier of volunteers to the world church. Last year, North America sent 563 of the world total of 1,098 volunteers, or 51 percent, according to Adventist Volunteer Service. Significant numbers over the years have also come from Europe, Australia, South Africa, Australia and the Philippines.

Thomas said there is a “good correlation” between the number of volunteers a division sends to the number of division staff solely dedicated to the volunteers program. North America has three. South America has two.

He tells regional leaders that if they lack the budget for a volunteers coordinator, that position itself could be filled by a volunteer.

Still, a few challenges remain regarding the program’s international growth, including cross-cultural understanding and language. Thomas said divisions need to address the adequate training that is needed to make volunteers more effective. He commends the North American Division and the Southern Asia-Pacific Division for gathering their new annual batch of volunteers for several days of training before they enter their term of service.

“North America has been able to see tremendous success of volunteers ready to serve instead of fumbling for many months while they learn to adjust to their new environment,” Thomas said. “Both sending and receiving divisions need to offer cross-cultural training for volunteers.”

Also, the vast majority of positions require English speakers. South America in recent years has added English language instruction in many Adventist elementary schools, but it will be awhile before significant numbers of volunteers can serve in locations other than Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking nations.

South America, though, has made mission a priority, and dozens of English-speaking members and couples are successfully serving around the world.

Support for the volunteer program in South America comes from top leadership, and each local union and conference administrative unit has a designated volunteer coordinator to administrate and promote the program.

The South American Division has nearly 2.3 million members, according to the Church’s 2014 Annual Statistical Report.

“There is a significant awakening of the missionary efforts toward the countries within and outside our division,” said Debora Siqueira, volunteer coordinator for the South American Division. “[We] have a high number of young people among our members, and many are motivated to serve as a student missionary as they learn about the volunteer program.”

Janelle Scantlebury, IAD assistant executive secretary, says efforts to boost student missions programs across Adventist universities across Inter-America is going strong. IAD file photo

In Inter-America, efforts to promote volunteers increased last year when assistant executive secretary Janelle Scantlebury presented statistics on the student missions program to leaders at the division’s mid-year meeting. She received the go-ahead to create and implement a program to promote the volunteer program.

“I found our numbers [of volunteers] were not a good reflection of our membership,” Scantlebury said. “We were receiving 27 volunteers and our sending figures were no different.”

With nearly 3.7 million members, Inter-America is the largest of the denomination’s 13 divisions and one of the fastest growing. The territory includes Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and the five northern-most countries in South America.

Scantlebury, a native of Trinidad, created a plan to launch a missions program at each of the division’s 13 universities. Six have been created so far. The division has also held a major rally for missions in Guatemala, and two more are in the works for English- and French-speaking regions of the division.

“We are geared up for mission and will seek God’s guidance regarding the way forward,” Scantlebury said. “Soon you will see more of our volunteers in every corner of the world.”

—For information on volunteering, visit your university mission club or visit adventistvolunteers.org.