July 21, 2022 | Miami, Florida, United States | Libna Stevens, Inter-American Division News

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Inter-American Division (IAD) has been preparing to gather more than 500 active lay preachers and lay evangelists from across the vast territory in Panama City, Panama, for a division-wide Festival of the Laity Congress Aug. 4-9, 2022.

The event is part of centennial celebration initiatives and activities organized this year, which have driven church leaders and lay members, or active church members, to double their evangelism efforts in sharing the gospel with the drive and passion that characterized early Seventh-day Adventist pioneers since the division was established in 1922.

“The proclamation of the good news of salvation has been and will always be our goal as Seventh-day Adventists and we praise God for the opportunity to celebrate so many of our lay evangelists, lay preachers and lay bible instructors who faithfully fulfill the mission of the church every day throughout their communities,” said Pastor Melchor Ferreyra, personal ministries director for the church in Inter-America and main organizer of the festival.

“We want to reaffirm our commitment to the task of reaching the greatest number possible of people for the Kingdom of heaven,” said Ferreyra. The festival comes after a 12-year hiatus since the last time the IAD held a Festival of the Laity in 2010.

“It’s been so overdue and it comes to shed light on the crucial role the layperson in Inter-America has played in growing the church hand-in-hand with church pastors to more than 3.7 million members today,” he said.

Themed “His Light Prevails”, the festival will draw more hundreds of outstanding laypersons as well as church administrators to the three-day event in Panama City, one of the handful of countries that once was a home to the Inter-American Division headquarter office decades ago.

The festival will include keynote presenters from the Adventist World Church and the IAD, mission progress reports, new paradigm evangelism training, media and preaching tools available, and more.

The opening ceremony will begin at 7:30 p.m. Panama City Time (or 8:30 p.m. Miami Time) on Thursday, August 4, 2022. The program will continue as follows:

Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 12:35 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. to 9:05 p.m.

Sabbath, 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 – 7:00 p.m.

To view Inter-American Division’s Festival of the Laity, on Aug. 4-6, 2022, go to webcast.interamerica.org

For detailed program and keynote speakers, go to festival.interamerica.org

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