In El Salvador, Adventist students perform music through the streets

Hundreds of students from dozens of Adventist schools across El Salvador marched and played their instruments through the streets of Santa Ana, northwest of the country during a band festival celebration on August 24, 2014. The festival is an annual event organized by the Adventist Church to promote integrity and team work among students and promote values and positive messages to the communities. Image by Johnathan Castro/IAD

September 3, 2014 | Santa Ana, El Salvador | IAD Staff

Hundreds of students from across Seventh-day Adventist Schools marched and played their instruments during a band festival last week in Santa Ana, El Salvador.

Drum band members play as they march through the streets of Santa Ana in the northwest part of El Salvador.

Themed “Praising God with our talents,” the festival brought dozens of the 45 primary and secondary schools in the Central American nation to perform on their drums, trumpets, flutes, and cymbals in the city’s Central Plaza for a special program where the national anthem, pledge to the flag and a special prayer for Santa Ana were offered.

Each band played praise interpretations. Gymnastic teams and drill teams also performed.

“We look to strengthen the values in our young students with this activity,” said Roxy de Torres, education director for the West El Salvador Mission, reported the El País newspaper. “We are living in very dangerous times when our young people have so many worldly distractions occupying their minds.”

“We want to have your young people participate in such activities like these which promote integrity and team work,” Torres added.

Students and church leaders also marched holding signs and banners with positive messages, Bible verses, and messages of hope.

Many students left their communities at three o’clock in the morning to participate in the festival, meet other students and see new places, organizers said.

Women’s, youth, and children’s ministries leaders joined the city march holding signs and banners with positive messages, Bible verses, and messages of hope.

The event is one that takes place every year before civic activities done every September, organizers said.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in El Salvador operates five conferences and missions, and 43 primary and secondary schools. There are more than 218,000 church members worshiping in 692 churches in El Salvador.

For more information about the Adventist Church in El Salvador, visit unionelsalvador.org