27 June, 2017

First Grade Teacher Creates a Praying Classroom in Puerto Rico

Little Nancy raised her hand when teacher Maria de la Paz Rodriguez asked whether any first graders had a prayer request at the Seventh-day Adventist school in Puerto Rico. “Please pray for my dog,” the girl said. “We can include your dog in our prayer today,” Maria said. After hearing all the children’s prayer requests, Maria prayed for Nancy’s dog. Then she went to a piece of paper in the corner of the classroom chalkboard. The paper had two columns on it: “Reasons to Pray” and “Reasons to Say Thank You.” Maria took a black marker and wrote “Nancy’s dog” under the column for “Prayer Requests.”

27 June, 2017

A Church Leader in Jamaica Says Nothing is More Powerful Than a Good Example

When Adrian Cotterell enrolled in 11th grade at a Seventh-day Adventist boarding school in Jamaica, he had no interest in Christianity. He didn’t believe in the soon coming of Jesus, and thought Adventists especially were foolish for worshiping on Saturday and refusing to eat pork. Adrian chose West Indies High School on a hilltop in the central city Mandeville because he thought it was like other boarding schools where students could have parties.

23 June, 2017

Honored by Britain’s Queen and Heaven’s King in Belize

The most exciting day in the young life of Leticia August was when her mother sent her from Guatemala to live with her grandmother in neighboring Belize. Her parents were staunch Sunday-keepers, and Leticia was tired of being told that she couldn’t behave like the other girls. “When I moved, I said, ‘Yes this is it!’” Leticia said. Leticia started going to dances and parties. She felt like free at last. But she worried nearly every day, “What will happen to me if I die tonight?”

22 June, 2017

Collaborative Efforts Result in 1,500 Baptisms in El Salvador

More than 1,500 people were baptized at the end of “Impacto Salvador,” a series of evangelistic meetings in El Salvador, last March. The meetings were a joint endeavor with the Atlantic Union Conference church region in the US, under the direction of Dionisio Olivo, Atlantic Union Conference Hispanic and Portuguese ministries vice president, and the El Salvador Union Mission. Atlantic Union officers, departmental directors, conference administrators, and pastors all participated in the meetings as they presented evangelistic messages simultaneously at 38 different churches in and around the capital city of San Salvador.

21 June, 2017

Former L.A. Gangster Helps Run Adventist Hospital in Mexico

Robert Gonzalez Medina liked to tease his mother. Whenever gunshots were fired at their home, he would cry out, “Mom! Mom! They hit me!” Mother was a good sport, and she played along with Robert’s game. “Oh no!” she said every time. “What will we do?” But the gang violence was no joking matter. Robert grew up in a violent Los Angeles neighborhood. When he was 5 years old, his older brothers joined a street gang. People from other gangs drove by their house and shot at it, trying to scare his brothers.

15 June, 2017

‘You Have All the Symptoms of AIDS’

I started to drink after getting married at the age of 20, and then I started to smoke. Soon I was an alcoholic and a chain smoker. I loved going to parties. My wife was baptized after attending an evangelistic series by a pastor named Richard Perez at a Seventh-day Adventist church near my home in the Mexican state of Tabasco. But I refused to get baptized. Twice. My lifestyle took a toll on my body after 13 years, and my back began to ache badly. I went to the local medical services, and they gave me medicine that didn’t help. The next day, I went to the Southeast Adventist Hospital. Doctors ran a battery of X-rays, blood tests, and other exams, but they couldn’t find anything wrong.

14 June, 2017

Adventist Church in Puerto Rico Provides Day of Respite to Female Inmates

elcoming three-dozen women from a correctional institution in San Juan, is one of the biggest highlights of the year for Pastor José Alberto Rodríguez, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Puerto Rico, and his wife, Christina. The couple, who live in Mayaguez, have opened their home to these women every year for the past six years. The institution in San Juan is a type of halfway house facility for those with criminal backgrounds serving the final period of their sentences. The bus ride to Pastor Rodríguez’s home in Mayaguez takes about three hours, and when the women arrive they wear nothing but smiles on their faces. It is an opportunity for them to spend time away from their problems, their troubled past, and an uncertain future.

5 June, 2017

In Panama, Adventist Pastor Remembers Ministering to Former General Manuel Noriega

From the moment he found out that General Manuel Noriega, a former military dictator in Panama serving a sentence in France, was going to be extradited back to Panama in 2011, Seventh-day Adventist Pastor Jose Daniel Sánchez knew he wanted to meet him. Noriega, who died in prison at 83 last week, was captured when the United States invaded Panama in 1989, and sentenced him to prison for drug trafficking, money laundering, and other charges. Noriega served 17 years in the Federal Correction Institution in Miami until 2007, then served a sentence in France, and was serving a two-term 20-year sentence for money laundering and the murders of his opponents in Panama.

30 May, 2017

In Jamaica, Bus and Taxi Drivers Get Free Health Screenings

Scores of bus and taxi drivers were the beneficiaries of free health check-up last weekend, during a “Know Your Numbers” health drive organized by the Three Angels Pharmacy with support from members of some local Seventh-day Adventist Churches, health agencies and companies in Mandeville, Jamaica. Two hundred and forty of the approximately 400 persons registered were bus and taxi drivers who received the opportunity to be tested for Body Mass Index (BPI), blood glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure, eye and HIV, on May 27-28, 2017. Healthy lifestyle and general counseling along with prayers for those who requested it were also done. A volunteer medical doctor was also available.

22 May, 2017

In Mexico, Tragic Bus Accident Leaves 17 Dead and More Injured

Seventh-day Adventists in Chiapas, Mexico, are still in shock after a rented bus carrying 46 church members, mostly young people, fell into a 90-meter ravine yesterday killing 16 and sending 26 to nearby hospital. One 17-year-old girl died this morning because of her injuries, bringing the total to 17 deceased, church leaders said. The group was returning from a large youth spiritual retreat held on the beach in Costa del Sol, in the Pijijiapan district, on the pacific coast in southern Chiapas.

18 May, 2017

Evangelist Cop Baptizes Colleague and Five others during Evangelistic Series

Police Corporal Wayne Bartley who serves as a church elder in the Ocho Ríos Seventh-day Adventist Church in St. Ann, Jamaica, allowed the Holy Spirit to use him to spiritually arrest one of his colleagues and five other individuals during an evangelist series he conducted recently. Bartley, who has been in the Jamaica Constabulary Force for the past fourteen years believes that while he works to keep law and order in the country, he has a commitment to God to recue persons from the clutches of sin and point them to Jesus Christ.