Adventist Church in North Mexico Pledges Support for Disaster Victims

A damaged building remains uninhabitable in Mexico City after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit the city on Sep. 19, 2017, killing dozens of people and destroying dozens of buildings. Image by Abel Márquez/IAD

September 27, 2017 | Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon, Mexico | Libna Stevens/IAD

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in North Mexico pledged support for church members affected by the earthquakes in the country and those affected by the hurricanes which hit the Caribbean territory this month.

During a special video message, Pastor Luis Arturo King, president of the church in North Mexico, called upon the membership of more than 150,000 to join in prayer and give a day’s worth of salary to those left homeless recently.

Pastor Luis Arturo King, president of the Adventist Church in North Mexico.

“There are many people suffering, but we know that there are many people trying to help those who are suffering,” said King.

The North Mexican Union leadership will forgo using their special funds designated for church development and evangelism during the rest of the year and use them for assisting affected members in the central and southern parts of Mexico.

The union also took an action to invite its nine regional conferences and mission as well as four institutions to designate their church building development funds of the fourth quarter this year to be used for the victims of the disasters, said King.

“We ask you to join the group of church workers, teachers, pastors, and office personnel to donate at least one day of their salary once a month for two months,” appealed King.

Pastor King also said that 100 percent of the ingathering funds collected during the upcoming drive across the region will go directly to benefit those in the affected communities in Mexico and the Caribbean. “Those are specific funds that are always designated for the community in times of disasters, as our ingathering policy states,” said King.”

Church employees are welcoming the initiative which will start this month, said Pastor King. “Many are eager to contribute more than two salaries, even five salaries for some,” he said.  The church in North Mexico has a little over 1,330 church employees working in churches, schools, institutions, and administrative offices.

The decision to come to the aid of disaster victims was easy for the church administration, said Pastor King. “It was important to suspend our church development to help our brothers and sisters,” he said.

Upon hearing about the initiative by the church in North Mexico, Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America, praised the top leadership for their plans in reaching those in need.

ADRA volunteers help in the clean up in Morelos last weekend. Image by ADRA Mexico Noreste

“This is a great example of Christian love, very much seen across the territory time and time again,” said Pastor Leito.  “The church in Inter-America has shown their commitment to helping those in distress not only in the church but in the community, but I have never seen such scale in financial commitment as the North Mexican Union is planning for,” he explained.

Montemorelos University

Students and faculty at Montemorelos University held a donation drive for nearly a week to collect imperishable food items, cleaning supplies, and personal hygiene items to send to those affected after the earthquake in central and south Mexico.

In addition, a special offering was collected on Sabbath, Sep. 23, 2017, to help rebuild two Adventist schools that were destroyed in Ixtaltepec in the Inter-Oceanic Union territory and another in Tuxtla Gutiérrez in the Chiapas Union territory.

ADRA volunteers

Seventh-day Adventists from Monterrey drove more than 1,000 kilometers, over 19 hours, to cities in Morelos to clean up debris, offer medical services, and bring cheer to people in the aftermath of the quake of Sep. 19. The group of about 60 ADRA volunteers included doctors, paramedics, nurses, and rescue personnel.

The ADRA group was sponsored by the State’s Congress which provided supplies, transportation, and per diem for the five day trip from Sep. 21-25.

Marco González, coordinator of the governing party in Monterrey, spoke to the media last week stating that they looked for the organization that could travel immediately and offer assistance, so the local ADRA office was contacted.

“Our initial response turned out to be more about cleaning up debris, because that was the most needed first,” said Manolo Acevedo, coordinator for ADRA Mexico in the Northeast Conference.  Volunteers removed and cleaned up rubble and debris in the communities in Axiochapan, Contla, and Tepalcingo, said Acevedo.

Volunteers were provided with picks, shovels, wheel barrels, and more to assist in the city clean up.

“Our next response will be next week where we will distribute the food that we have been collecting in different donating stations in Monterrey,” explained Acevedo.

The plan is for an additional response to help rebuild some homes soon, he added.

The group of ADRA volunteers from Monterrey, Mexico, who traveled to several communities in Morelos to assist with clean up and medical services needed Sep. 21-25, 2017. Image by ADRA Mexico Noreste