September 29, 2022 | Miami, Florida, United States | Libna Stevens, Inter-American Division News
Inter-American Division’s Education department will be holding a special online final competition this Sabbath, Oct. 1, 2022, at 4:00 p.m. Miami Time, to crown its final regional winner to represent the Spanish-speaking unions throughout the territory. Fourteen primary or secondary teachers will test their knowledge of the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to win a trip and get the chance take part in decision-making meetings with Inter-American educators and church leaders before the end of the year in the Dominican Republic.
Coined as the Path of Knowledge Festival, the online event is the first of its kind to test teachers on their knowledge of Adventist heritage from two books by George R. Knight called “A Brief History of Seventh-day Adventists”, and “A Search for Identity: The Development of Seventh-day Adventist Beliefs.”
“It’s very important that as teachers, educators, employees and church members, we understand the history of the church and maintain our identity as Seventh-day Adventists, the aspects that make us unique as a church, and our purpose as a church organization to fulfill the mission at hand,” said Dr. Faye Patterson, education director for the church in Inter-America, and main organizer of the event.
“We especially want our teachers in our Adventist education system to understand their identity as Seventh-day Adventists, understand the particular culture and transmit that to the students enrolled in our schools,” said Patterson.
Nearly 90 percent of the 10,000 primary and secondary teachers across the more than 700 Adventist schools are Seventh-day Adventists, she said. The opportunity to impact students is clear as teachers need to be mission focused with 42 percent of students who are part of the church’s educational system who are non-Adventists, added Patterson.
The competition event began earlier this year and included teachers competing at local schools, then regional conferences/missions, until competing at the union level before reaching the IAD for final competition. Three final winners will represent the English, Spanish and French speaking unions. The winners from the Belize Union and French Antilles Guiana Union have already been determined representing the English and French speaking territory.
The idea of the competition event was born after an activity during a meeting with teachers revealed that many of them did not know many of the details about the history and development of the Adventist Church, said Patterson.
The 14 finalists competing on Oct. 1 will get the chance to answer 50 questions during a special online program held during a day when the church honors teachers during the territory-wide annual Teacher’s Day celebration on Saturday, early in October.
Finalists for the Spanish speaking unions include:
Central Mexican Union: Alejandro Meza Gómez
Chiapas Mexican Union: Lidia Alvarado Cupido
Dominican Union: Rosanna Ybelis Feliz
El Salvador Union: Maricela de los Ángeles García Pérez
Guatemala Union: Esdras Enrique Reyes Urizar
Honduras Union: Joel Martínez
Inter-Oceanic Mexican Union: Juan Carlos Ventura López
North Colombian Union: Javier Augusto Marín Vargas
North Mexican Union: Gadiel Solís Padilla
Panama Union: Pedro Ríos
South Central American Union (Costa Rica): María Del Mar Acosta Vindas
South Central American Union (Nicaragua): Leyla Garth
South Colombia Union: Henry Ramírez Molina
Southeast Mexican Union: Rebeca Noemi Flores Hernández
To watch online competition from Panama on Saturday, Oct. 1st, 2022, at 3:00 p.m. Panama Time or 4:00 p.m. Miami Time, go to live.iadnet.org