Each morning during the NAD Year-End Meetings, attendees gathered for worship before any business was conducted. There was prayer, Scripture reading, and the theme song for the weekend, “Come, Holy Spirit.” 

Friday’s devotional was presented by Cyril Millett, executive secretary of the Adventist Church in Canada. He began by sharing a news story about a newborn left on the doorstep of a couple in Canada. He also shared how in South Africa, baby abandonment was so prevalent they created a baby drop-off wall where you could leave an infant in a safe incubator which would alert hospital staff as soon as the door to the incubator was opened. 

“Globally we lost 40 percent of baptized people between 1965 and 2000,” commented Millett. “People are being left without adequate support after being baptized and that’s baby abandonment.” He encouraged the church to support those we bring into the church until they get their feet under them in their new reality. 

“We need to show our lambs love and support as they journey in this faith walk with Christ,” he said. “We need to consider our part in the process because we are our brother and sister’s keeper.”

On Sunday, Hubert Morel, vice president for administration and executive secretary for Mid-America Union, presented the devotional. He urged listeners to spend daily time with God — to do as Isaiah did and go to the temple to talk to God about how he could reach the people.

“God does not demand a golden vessel from any of us,” Morel pointed out; “but rather He demands a clean one. This is why we must go every morning to receive his grace. Yesterday’s grace was for yesterday and we need a new batch for today.”

Morel encouraged the church to follow the example of Isaiah to allow God to work through us. “Personal revival always precedes personal reformation,” he concluded. “Isaiah offered himself despite his inadequacies. Are we prepared to do the same?”

Ted Huskins, executive secretary of Lake Union Conference, gave the devotional talk on Monday. He started out with the story of a young Irish boy shipwrecked on his way to America. He saved a two-year-old child from drowning and they were the sole survivors of the wreck. 

“Hundreds of ships wrecked along the eastern seaboard, and for centuries, no one helped them,” Huskins shared. Finally, a group decided to do something about the poor souls whose lives were at stake when the ships were sinking. Volunteers formed a group called Life Savers of the Humane Society and any time there was a wreck, they did their best to save as many lives as possible. Their mission statement: “You have to go out, you don’t have to come back.”

“We are called to be lifesavers,” Huskins said, citing Romans 1:16 and Matthew 16:25. “You have to go out, you don’t have to come back.”

The final devotional was presented on Tuesday morning by Celeste Ryan Blyden, executive director of Columbia Union Conference, who shared her experience putting together her talk. “God directed me to look who’s in the room when determining what to say this morning,” she shared. Then she set the scene of the apostles gathering in the upper room. 

“This was the Holy Spirit’s waiting room,” she said. “Men from all walks of life, who matriculated Jesus’ seminary program for three and a half years, complete with internship experiences, tests, and trials, and were about to become church planters. Joined by some of the women in Jesus’ life.”

The people in the room, Blyden suggested, were not there by accident. “God wanted us to see them in the room so we would identify with them and know that if God will use people like that, He can use people like us.”