November 20, 2017 | Miami, Florida, United States | Libna Stevens/IAD

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America has been preparing to launch its Year of the Child and Adolescent initiative in 2018 and will seek to reach as many local church leaders with a special launch program that will be streamed live over the internet on Dec. 9, 2017. The Year of the Child and Adolescent initiative will seek to reinforce Christian values and encourage youngsters to study, live and share the message with their friends and neighbors wherever they go.

“One of the goals of this initiative is for the church to create more awareness as to the importance of involving children in all facets of the church for mission,” said Dinorah Rivera, children’s and adolescent ministries director for the church in Inter-America. “To get more children involved, we need to help them strive to possess a character like Jesus, learn to have a spirit of service and mission, and become part of church’s commission to reach others for the kingdom of God.”

Rivera said that the live program will help focus on the role the initiative will play in the world church’s initiative of total member involvement in the mission of the church.

At the heart of the 12-month initiative is building character traits through a “Talking Backpack.” Patches and pins with each character trait such as truthfulness, courtesy, respect, gratefulness, forgiveness, punctuality, service, responsibility, obedience, integrity, optimism and kindness can be earned every month and displayed on their school backpack to let others know what it means to be Christlike.

Churches can connect to the live streaming program on Sabbath, Dec. 9, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Miami Time, at webcast.interamerica.org.

The launch program will include messages from top church leaders, round table discussion, discussion of available new resources, demonstration of the theme song, successful reports from several Inter-American Division territories, and more.

To learn more about Inter-America’s Children’s and Adolescent Ministries, Click HERE

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