Obama’s visit to Cuba boosts Adventist hopes
Havana, Cuba—United States (U.S.) president Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba has inspired hope among Seventh-day Adventists on the island that thawing U.S.-Cuban relations might lead to greater opportunities for evangelism.
Aldo Perez, president of the Adventist Church in Cuba, was one of 20 religious leaders selected by the Cuban government to attend Obama’s speech. “This was a historic moment where the church was placed among figures from both the government and religious organizations in our country,” Perez said. “We had the opportunity to witness a very eloquent speech with a call for reconciliation.” Conditions in Cuba have been favorable for the church in recent months. Last Sabbath, scores of young people took to the streets as part of the Adventist world church’s Global Youth Day. They wore ribbons saying “Jesus Loves You” while holding health fairs, cleaning up parks, and distributing food. Also in March, the authorities approved an Adventist Church request to use the 3,000-seat Heredia Theater in Santiago de Cuba for the final two days of an evangelistic series led by Dwight Nelson, senior pastor of the Pioneer Memorial Church at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Andrews University students held a week of evangelistic meetings and conducted small groups in Santiago de Cuba before Nelson’s presentations. Approximately 250 people were baptized as a result of the meetings.
Adventist doctors and nurses also actively share their faith across Cuba, said Dayami Rodriguez, communication director for the church in Cuba. “The work of the medical missionaries continues to strengthen in communities where there is no Adventist presence.”
Israel Leito, president of the church’s Inter-American Division, whose territory includes Cuba, said, “The church has done its part all these years by respecting the government and its regulations.” “Now it is in a position where it is enjoying opportunities to spread the gospel more freely.”
The Adventist Church in Cuba has more than 32,500 members worshiping in 460 congregations. The church also operates a seminary in Havana.
[Libna Stevens, Inter-American Division]
Shaky economy costs General Conference millions of dollars
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States— An unsteady global economy shaved 20 percent off the income received by the General Conference last year, and church leaders are reworking budgetary plans as they prayerfully seek to navigate the uncharted waters ahead. While tithe and offerings remained strong worldwide in 2015, exchange-rate losses linked to the fluctuations of regional currencies against the U.S. dollar cost the General Conference, the administrative body that oversees the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a total of $19.4 million.
“My fears that were presented in October actually came true,” General Conference treasurer Juan R. Prestol-Puesán said in an interview. Prestol-Puesán had cautioned church leaders at the General Conference’s Annual Council business meeting that market uncertainties might lead to the loss of millions of dollars in church income.
“We are looking at a very difficult year financially for 2017, given the number of programs and commitments that we have,” he said. “Where will the Lord lead us in this? We are going to have to take it one year at a time.”
Prestol-Puesán, speaking at the Spring Council at the General Conference’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, said this year’s budget was prepared months before the end of 2015, and planners had not anticipated such a significant drop in income. The General Conference operates in U.S. dollars, but 53 percent of its income originates in other currencies.
In all, the General Conference received $94.8 million in tithe last year, a year-over-year decrease of $2.2 million. However, it says, only three of the world church’s 13 divisions showed losses if the tithe was calculated in the predominant division currency. World mission offerings amounted to $84.6 million last year, a drop of $4.2 million.
Prestol-Puesán shared that the counsel given by Adventist Church cofounder Ellen G. White was as relevant now as when she wrote it more than a century ago. “ ‘Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us, of which we know nothing,’ ” he said, reading from The Desire of Ages, page 330. “ ‘Those who accept the one principle of making the service and honor of God supreme will find perplexities vanish, and a plain path before their feet.’ ” [Andrew McChesney, news editor, Adventist Review]