God's beautiful creation can be experienced throughout the Inter-American Region.
>From the more than 280 natural beaches of Cuba, to the rugged coastline of Haiti,
to the lush vegetation in Jamaica - all show the majesty of our Creator.
Haiti, a country that was recently struck by a terrible earthquake.
Cuba, an island that was at one time isolated from the world church family.
And Jamaica, a beautiful country that is a center of Seventh-day Adventist education… Three
islands, three languages, three countries that represent the vast diversity of millions of
Seventh-day Adventists that live in the Inter-American region.
What do they have in common?
What motivates and inspires them?
Let's find out.
[MUSIC]
January 12, 2010 is a day that changed the lives of
the people in Haiti forever.
A devastating earthquake happened that no one expected.
Over 300,000 people were killed-and thousands were left homeless.
But amidst this devastation, this destruction, stories of love,
service, and resilience, emerged from the ashes.
Nearly everyone you meet in Haiti, lost loved ones during the earthquake.
Jacque St. Vil was no exception.
After the earthquake hit he rushed home to find his house completely destroyed.
He dug through the rubble to find his wife and children who were trapped inside.
They didn't die the first day.
I took my wife, my children...and then the next day,
they died.
They died close to the house, because at this time, there was no hospital available…so they
died in the street, near the house.
I was overwhelmed, but I wasn't desperate.
Why?
Because I know when Jesus comes back he will get them, because they died for sure in the hands
of Jesus.
Jacque took this deep tragedy to God.
He put all his faith in the rock of his salvation, and the Holy Spirit did something truly
remarkable with his life.
The day after he lost his earthly family, Jacque began sharing his faith with others.
I was preaching to all the people that I saw that were discouraged,
that Jesus is coming back.
And those who died in the hands of Jesus, they have hope.
Hope for a new future, hope for eternal life.
So they don't have to be discouraged.
As Jacque shared his faith, he met with some who couldn't believe what he was saying.
They said "you're preaching to people about Jesus, but why didn't this Jesus save your wife
and your children?" I stood firm on my conviction, and I was still preaching because it was
only Jesus who could do something for them.
They found that I'm a courageous person, because I've lost my wife,
my children, and then they realized that I'm courageous.
The same thing that happened to Job is happening to me.
I gave this gospel to everyone, to more people than I can count.
Jacque was truly revived by mission.
He was filled with the spirit of God, and it gave him the strength to use this tragedy to
share the transforming love of Jesus Christ.
My dream is to stand firm with Jesus until he comes back.
To hold on until he comes to get me to go to heaven - it will be a marvelous joy to meet my
family there with Jesus.
The Seventh-day Adventist work started in Haiti in 1879 when John N.
Loughborough and William Ings sent a box of books and tracts by steamship from Southampton,
England to a port in Haiti.
The box was not addressed to anyone, so the shipping company left it with an Episcopal
missionary in the country - who in turn distributed the books and tracts to other Protestant
missions around the country.
A young couple studied the tracks and began keeping the Sabbath.
They wrote for more material and began distributing it to their friends.
Ten years later a Seventh-day Adventist came to the island and baptized this small but growing
group.
Today there are more than 350,000 members in Haiti, worshiping in packed churches
every week.
I visited the Christ-Roi or Christ the King Seventh-day Adventist Church,
one of our many crushed churches around Port-au-Prince.
The members here have an unwavering faith, and I had the opportunity to help lay the
first stone for the new church that is being built.
The earthquake didn't only destroy houses and churches, it crippled schools as well.
We're here on the campus of the Adventist University in Haiti.
A terrible earthquake took place here, as you can see here in the men's dormitory-it's going to be
repaired soon.
But amidst all the chaos, all the difficulty and the trials, and challenges,
we found a beautiful story and we want to tell you about it.
In 1921, the Adventist Seminary of Haiti opened near the northern coast of the island.
The school started small with just 8 students and 2 teachers.
Thirteen years later in 1934, the school was moved to Port-au-Prince.
It has continued to grow over the years.
In addition to the university, the campus now holds primary and secondary students.
During the aftermath of the earthquake more than 15,000 people descended on the
university campus, living in a tent city, receiving medical attention from the nearby
Adventist hospital and water from a emergency purification system.
I'm Evlose François Bosil and this is where I live.
Here's my workplace, I work at the Adventist University of Haïti.
Here you can see the University's First-Aid Room.
During the earthquake, the hospitals were so filled with wounded people that I had to set
up a field hospital, there under those trees.
Being here reminds me of painful memories.
I remember they brought a young man who was not very old, and the hospital refused to accept
him because they were overwhelmed, and they brought that young man to me.
We did our best to help that young man.
We sent people to buy medicine, but unfortunately they didn't find the medicine that they
needed.
And finally when we found something to help him, in spite of everything that we did,
that young man died in my arms.
In this frightening, stressful, chaotic environment, Evlose was revived by mission.
By leaning on God she was able to work tirelessly to help all of those around her.
Glory be to God for the opportunity he gave me, to take care of more than 8,000 people
who were injured in the earthquake.
Just 60 miles northwest from Haiti, across the Caribbean Sea, sits the island of Cuba.
We're here in beautiful, historic, Havana, Cuba.
More than cultural and history, this place was chosen in 1994 for a fascinating project that
would involve many nationalities and some very exciting activities.
The first missionaries arrived in Cuba in 1903, and began self supporting colporteur and
medical work.
The first church was organized a few years later in 1905 near Havana.
As time passed the church slowly but steadily continued to grow, and by 1932 there were 1,000
members worshiping in churches across Cuba.
The church in Cuba, recognizing the great need to have stable solid places of worship,
and also training, decided to ask Maranatha Volunteers to assist them in this great,
important project for the nurture of the church.
There are many challenges involved with building churches in Cuba.
But since in 1994, hundreds of churches have been built, and many more have been refurbished.
Maranatha Volunteers International is one of those great organizations that just
really helps people in practical ways, as well as in spiritual activities.
Here in Cuba they endeavored to assist with renovation and construction of churches,
assisting in a tremendous way with the establishment and nurturing of the seminary,
and very importantly, engaged in helping to refurbish, and to re-establish the printing
facilities in this country, so that the word of God could go out like the leafs of autumn.
>From a practical standpoint there are very important aspects that really help to make a
project go.
And here in this project there were four essential elements.
The first one was financial participation in donations.
The second one had to do with volunteers actually giving of their time in this project.
The third facet was local construction participation.
And the fourth was perhaps the most important, and that was full participation of the church
here in Cuba.
As a result of this great project, we're seeing renewed enthusiasm and exciting
spiritual growth.
Church members are inviting their friends and their relatives to church to study the
bible together.
And the Holy Spirit is working in a marvelous way to change lives right here in Cuba.
Cuba is also home an Adventist Seminary where each year more than 100 students come for
education.
But until 2011, there was no church on campus.
Now after 3 years of construction, there is a Seventh-day Adventist Church
building on the seminary campus.
We open this building, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Amen.
We've just completed a most joyous experience in Havana.
The inauguration of this extraordinarily beautiful pavilion and assembly hall which
will be use for church, for classes, for baptisms, for all kinds of things,
right here, on the campus of the seminary in Havana Cuba.
What a creative way for Maranatha Volunteers International to share God's
love and the salvation that he offers to each of us.
What a demonstration, a wonderful demonstration of love, dedication,
and Christian partnership.
The lush, island nation of Jamaica was once described by Columbus as "the fairest isle
mine eyes ever beheld…"
The long coast has a tropical maritime climate,
and the air cools as you climb into the Blue Mountains.
Jamaica was ruled by the English for more than 300 years, and the English language is still
spoken, along with what is known as the Patois, also called Jamaican Creole by linguists.
Our first Seventh-day Adventist church was organized on the island in 1894 with 37 members.
Today the church in Jamaica is thriving, with more than 250,000 Seventh-day Adventist Church
members.
I recently met with the Governor General of Jamaica, who was appointed by the Queen of
England, and acts on her behalf when she is not in the country.
Sir Patrick Allen is also a devout Seventh-day Adventist, with a PhD from Andrews
University.
Before his appointment as Governor General, Sir Allen worked as a pastor,
and educator in Jamaica.
But Patrick Allen is not alone, we have passionate believers working in their communities
across the island.
We're here on the campus of the Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville,
Jamaica.
Students from the department of computer and information sciences have won a lot of
prizes in the Imagine Cup.
Now the Imagine Cup is a world wide global competition sponsored by the Microsoft
Organization.
These students, here at this university, are representative of the excellent teaching and
training in Seventh-day Adventist colleges and universities worldwide.
Let's go and talk with some of them.
Fellas it's great to see you.
I'm just so excited that you are part of the Imagine Cup team - and I just want to let you know,
I'm proud of all of you.
The Imagine Cup is held in a different place around the world every year,
with a mission to empower student technologists to achieve their hopes and dreams in both
their personal and professional lives.
Over 300,000 applications from around the world are received to be part of the competition each
year - and a team from Northern Caribbean University has been part of the world finals
multiple times.
What was it like to be on that kind of creative, dynamic team, and allow God to use you?
Well for me it was an exceptional experience just to know that I could use the skill
sets that I gained here at NCU, and to represent this noble institution not just in terms of
technology, but being a witness to the world.
I personally have gone further into my study because I noticed that there is a need out there,
and people need to be reached with the love of Christ.
And so it has lead for a personal study in my life.
Is there one thing that maybe encapsulates the feeling of being part of a very creative
team, and realizing that God gives that creativity to you?
In terms of ideas, it is good to know sometimes the ideas you get come directly from God.
Because when we entered the Imagine Cup, we were thinking, what could we think of,
what could we create, that could actually get us a ticket to Japan.
And God gave us all.
We prayed and God gave us an idea.
(Amen!) And that idea (I'm glad you prayed.) took us to the world finals in Japan.
So its a very beautiful thing to pray and see God in everything that we do.
We carried around the motto: "Together Everyone Achieves Much." (Beautiful) And no point
in time we saw one person stand up and say, "I'm going to take over and I'm going to be self
centered." We went with that motto: "We can all achieve much if we work together."
Participating in the Imaging Cup was an experience where I got an opportunity to meet persons from
different ethnic backgrounds, and also to demonstrate the skills that were acquired at the
Northern Caribbean University.
And also to prove the God that I serve, that if I believe in him, with hard work I can accomplish
whatever I set forth to do.
These students are living a life of mission.
They all depend deeply on the support of their savior, Jesus Christ.
Jesus for me - Wow!
He's my all.
Jesus is my life source.
He's my reason for living.
He's my source of survival, He's everything to me.
One word.
A rock.
I mean sometimes in this life you may be bogged down with challenges,
and problems, and just to know that you can pray, that is a reassuring thing.
Jesus is my all in all.
He's my strength, my support.
He's my redeemer and sustainer, and my friend.
He's my closest friend.
He's the one that I can lean to whenever I'm distressed, whenever we need ideas,
whenever we need upliftment.
Jesus.
Jesus is my everything.
Jesus is also my inspiration.
Every idea that I've ever conjured, everything I've ever done I attribute to Jesus.
Jesus is my personal savior.
And one thing that I can tell you is Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to me.
The one true friend that I can say I can turn to, to converse with,
to share my daily drama with.
He is the reason I am who I am today.
Jesus is my everything and I encourage everyone to make Jesus the first place in your lives.
You've seen incredible activity, incredible people in the country of Haiti.
Where destruction and difficulty all around allowed people to truly serve others.
In Cuba, the you've seen the altruism and commitment on the part of people to really make a
difference and help do something in a very special way.
In Jamaica you saw that creative group of young people, who are just so dynamically involved in
focusing upon accomplishing a mission.
All of these people have been revived by mission.
Now their activities and their dedication will not save them, but I want to tell you,
we are saved by grace and a relationship with Jesus Christ.
And when you have that relationship the love is produced in your life to carry
out that dedication, that service, and that loving kindness to others.
The people in the Inter-American region have been revived for mission through the power of the
Holy Spirit.
Now I don't know what God has in mind for you exactly, but I know that he wants to reach your
heart in a powerful way to help you to be a dedicated servant of God.
To show service, and love, and kindness for others.
The Holy Spirit wants to enter your heart, and bring into your life a renewed sense of his
presence being revived for mission.
Lets pray, as we ask God to do just that in this moment.
Our Father in Heaven we thank you so much for the incredible power that comes into our lives
when we place ourselves at your feet.
Thank you for the illustrations we have seen regarding people who were so filled with your
Spirit, that your love flowed out from them in service to others.
They were revived for mission.
And Lord right now, we claim that potential for each of us, and for all those who are
watching this program.
Thank you for hearing us, in Jesus name we ask it, Amen.
Thank you for being with us.
We'll see you next time.
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