Venezuela: Adventists participate in city-wide impact throughout capital city

A young Seventh-day Adventist holds her locks of hair with a smile after getting her haircut, in Caracas, Venezuela, on Aug. 8, 2014. Some 350 church members donated their hair to help children and women with cancer throughout Venezuela during the church’s city-wide impact earlier this month. Images courtesy East Venezuela Union/IAD

August 16, 2014 | Caracas, Venezuela | Josben Rodriguez/IAD Staff

Hundreds of Seventh-day Adventists took a week off from their busy schedules for a major community impact event in Caracas, Venezuela, from August 4-9, 2014.

Pastor Josney Rodriguez, president of the church in East Venezuela is interviewed by a television station during the city-wide impact, Aug. 4-9, 2014.

The six-day impact saw more than 2,000 volunteers bring a smile, share hope and beautify and offer help in dozens of parks, streets and communities throughout the city.

The initiative coined as “Close to you Caracas” is part of the church’s big city-impact to reach out as a church body and let city-dwellers know about God’s love through acts of kindness, said Pastor Josney Rodriguez, president of the church in East Venezuela. It is the second annual coordinated impact effort to reach the city’s population of five million, he added.

Young people cleaning streets throughout the capital city.

Church leaders and members from churches in Caracas and throughout the rest of the eastern part of the country worked together to feed the homeless, visit hospitals, offer vacation Bible school to thousands of children, perform concerts, offer counseling, give free medical screenings, clean up streets, beautify parks and schools, plant trees, pray with onlookers, spread messages of hope at traffic lights, and more.

“This year we come with new challenges, one is hair donation for children and women battling cancer which we have joined the Senosayuda and Friends of the Child with Cancer Foundations to provide 200 wigs to people suffering from this terrible disease,” said Pastor Rodriguez.

A church member volunteer smiles while donating blood during the massive blood drive during the Aug. 4-9, 2014.

A blood drive also took center stage during the six-day initiative to benefit hundreds of needy patients across hospitals in Caracas.

“These are important activities to save lives and bring smiles to those who may have felt at times like hope was lost,” added Pastor Rodriguez. “We want to see a Caracas moved by the love of God, letting them know that we are close to them, willing to do them good.”

The event was covered through national television, radio stations and the print media.

Free medical screenings were offered throughout the city during the initiative.

The city-impact initiative themed “Smile God loves you” provided more than 35,000 new contacts for the church, leaders said. The initiative also took place across the country in the city of Maracay in June. Maturin will also hold a city-wide community impact in December, organizers said.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in East Venezuela is one of two major church regions in Venezuela with more than 130,500 members worshiping in 456 churches and congregations. The West Venezuela Union overseas the church in the western part of the country.

For more on the Seventh-day Adventist Church in East Venezuela and its annual city-impact in Caracas visit adventistasvenezuela.com

To view hundreds of photographs of the Close to you initiative, click HERE