Inter-America

In Inter-America, students set aside books for special day of prayer

Division-wide event observed in more than 1,000 schools

Alajuela, Costa Rica | Libna Stevens/IAD/ANN

Thousands of books, notebooks and pencils were put away as Seventh-day Adventist Schools across the denomination's Inter-American Division canceled their academic programs April for a day of worship and prayer. The day was specially designated to focus on the division's Constant in Prayer initiative--a prayer effort launched earlier this year, which falls under the Adventist world church's Revival and Reformation program for a renewed, committed life with Jesus.

More than 1,500 students, teachers, parents, leaders and community leaders gathered for a special prayer program at Central American Adventist University in Alajuela, Costa Rica, one of hundreds of campuses where division church leaders participated.

Putting aside regular class programs and dedicating that time to prayer symbolizes "the high importance we are emphasizing on prayer and the main objective of an Adventist education, which is to establish a closer communion with God," said Gamaliez Florez, Education director for the church in Inter-America.

The initiative was the first such division-wide event and was conducted in the more than 1,000 primary, secondary and university campuses, Florez said. Earlier this month, Adventist schools across Mexico, The Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos held prayer vigils, prayer sessions and focused on the importance of prayer.

There are about 173,000 students attending Adventist intuitions in Inter-America, and slightly more than half of those are Adventist.

Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America, spoke on the importance of prayer and the need for spiritual revival through prayer and bible study, as the program was streamed online.

"Prayer is the best medicine to help us with the fear we may have," said Leito, addressing hundreds of school-aged children and young people in Costa Rica. "God does answer prayers. But if you cherish sin in your heart, if you are unwilling to forgive, if you pray selfishly and if you pray without faith, then your prayers may not be answered," he added.

"Our prayers to God are simply an expression of our relationship with God," Leito said.

Schools across Costa Rica and the rest of Central America and the Caribbean celebrated the prayer initiative as students participated in prayer for special requests, prayed for community leaders, sang and marched in their communities.

In Guatemala, students and teachers of El Progreso Adventist school marched for miles and stopped to pray for other schools in their community.

In El Salvador, thousands of students, parents and teachers set out to sing and pray through special programs in public parks with local government leaders and police officers in attendance.

In Honduras' Bahia de Angel Adventist school, in which 90 percent of students are not Adventist, students and teachers participated in prayer sessions, testimony and worship during the day.

In Haiti, more than 500 students and teachers at Adventist University in Diquini, participated in a program which emphasized prayer as a powerful resource. Prayer was offered for parents, teachers, government leaders and education authorities in the country.

In St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, students and teachers prayed in groups and learned about the importance of a prayerful life through several organized prayer stations where local pastors prayed with them.

Leito said he plans to make the initiative an annual event.

The Inter-American Division includes Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and the five northernmost countries in South America.

For more information on the special prayer revival throughout Inter-America, visit praying4revival.org or estamosorando.org.

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