The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America celebrated in Jamaica on Sabbath 9 February 2019, as more than 8,000 people crowded the Montego Bay Convention Center and an overflow area to worship and witness the results of intense evangelistic efforts and community-impact events across the island and other parts of the Inter-American Division (IAD) territory.
More than 200 new believers were baptised on site, and hundreds more joined the church across Jamaica and the Atlantic Caribbean islands, as well as parts of Central America, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela.
The event, which was streamed online, was Inter-America's annual baptismal celebration convention, coined as 'Lord Transform Me' ‒ an initiative that involves motivating every church member to pursue a transformation in Jesus through daily study of the Bible and a prayerful lifestyle, for total involvement in action plans and activities in sharing the gospel within their communities.
At the same time, 145 visiting evangelists came from throughout Inter-America, North America and Britain. The British representation were North England President, Pastor Richard Jackson and Pastors Patrick HerbertJeff Nicholson and Michael Simpson. Each of the pastors were assigned to different districts in Jamaica and conducted meetings each night for one week. The culmination of the meetings together with all the other evangelistic meetings held was the celebratory Day of Fellowship at the Convention Center where Adventist World Church President Ted N C Wilson delivered the main spiritual message to the large congregation. This service ended in the mass baptism that included South England Conference Pastor Simeon Esson, being one of the ministering pastors.
During his message, Wilson challenged each person in the audience and the viewers online to make a difference in their communities. "Be of service to others, share your walk with Jesus with others, proclaim God's love, His great law, and grace, the health message as a restorative message…pointing to Christ's soon Second Coming," he said.
Afterwards Dr Patrick Herbert commented, "it was a truly remarkable experience, preaching in a different environment and under a GC initiative international and national effort. Everything was well coordinated from Division down to local church. Everyone knew what the mission was."
See here for a full Inter-American Division report of the event.
See British video report.