Adventists roll out annual community service campaign
Starting this Sunday, Seventh-day Adventists across the country will embark on the annual ‘ingathering’ campaign – a community service outreach during which the church solicits funds from the community to help with its humanitarian programme.
Last year the church spent well over $55.3 million in humanitarian assistance, which ranged from the construction of homes to school feeding programmes among other initiatives.
In an invited comment, Director of Community Service of the Guyana Conference of Seventh-day Adventist, Pastor Jumoul Sancho, quoted John Holmes who said, “There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.”
The Seventh-day Adventist Church last year built this house in Amelia’s Ward, Linden
He said this is exactly what the annual harvest ingathering of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is all about.
“Your generous contributions in the past have enabled us to reach down and lift thousands of persons throughout Guyana in the past.”
According to Pastor Sancho, during 2017, the church was able to build and renovate 10 houses for homeless persons and a few bus sheds in several communities.
“Our 223 congregations in Guyana have given out more than 6000 food hampers to the needy; 30 churches conducted weekly feeding programmes for school children and the elderly; moreover, we have had free health fairs conducted in several communities,” Pastor Sancho said.
He added that “many of our churches have also offered relief for fire victims as well as medical, education, transportation and welfare assistance.” This year he said the church’s desire is to lift more persons higher and as such is inviting to once again give generously and “help us bring hope to hopeless.”
Meanwhile, Pastor Sancho gave a breakdown of how the funds solicited last year were used: $28.8 million went to 30 weekly feeding programmes; $15.3 million was used to distribute over 10,000 food hampers; $6 million was injected into building and renovating 10 homes; $1.8 million was spent on relief for fire victims; $1.225 million on education assistance; $250,000 on building three bus sheds; $1 million in medical assistance; and some $960,000 on transportation assistance.
