Three administrative officials from the North Caribbean Conference (NCC) of Seventh-day Adventists, based in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, were in Anguilla for several days. They were assessing the functioning of the Church and discussing humanitarian and spiritual plans for improvement among other critical matters.
The administrators were the President of the Conference, Pastor Desmond James; the Executive Secretary, Pastor Wilmoth James; and the Treasurer, Ms. Sanida McKenzie.
Commenting on their visit, the NCC President said: “We are having dialogues and conversations across the ten member islands as we formulate our strategic plan for the territories,” he explained. “They are diverse but we want to be inclusive and, as we go from island to island, we are having conversations with the members who shape the agenda of the mission of the Church – and how it can be dove-tailed to be relevant to Anguilla and the other islands.”
He continued: “Anguilla has been doing pretty good. All of our islands were really devastated by the two category 5 hurricanes. We lost church buildings and so on; but we are robustly rebounding from the rubble and in many ways – financially and in terms of the mission – Anguilla is rebounding nicely although there are still some scars.
“As a Church, we are constantly seeking the most effective and efficient ways where we can man the mission – and in a technological-driven world we want to use technology to advance the mission. And so, as a Church, we have adopted new software that will incorporate our membership right across the world. We are introducing it here in Anguilla and making the necessary preparations to do that. Once you are a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, that software will make sure that we have all the data – and it would avoid repetition. We are a small global village and people travel from island to island. This software will make sure that once you are a member of the world SDA Church – wherever you are – that we have the correct and complete data of members so as to avoid duplication. For instance, if you were a member in Dominica and you move to Anguilla, and you try to put your date in the system here, it will say no; you are already a member in Dominica.”
Asked what some of the other new initiatives in Anguilla were, President James replied: “We want to find more dynamic ways to preach the Gospel and so, coming up next year, we are going to have preachers scattered across the territories including Anguilla. They will vigorously be sharing the Word of God in each island territory. That will begin on February 15 [2019] and we are doing the preparatory work right now.”
Commenting on his personal burden for the work of the Church, he stated: “My burden is that we can be relevant. In this day and age we want to preach the Three Angels Message and to bring it to every home and every heart. When we look at the world, its greatest need is Jesus. For all of its problems we believe that He is the answer, and so my burden is that I want a Church that can adequately reach men and women, wherever they are, with the Gospel so that we can meet their needs and satisfy them according to God’s riches and glory. And so my burden is that we can become relevant and adopt ministry models that will meet the needs of all the people in our territories.”
There are well over 20 million Seventh-day Adventists in the world-wide Church. In the ten islands of the North Caribbean Conference, to which Anguilla belongs, there are over 15,500 members. In Anguilla alone there are more than 1,100 members in three churches and two companies.
