News
Providing Encouragement and Assessment
NAD Administrators Affirm Work and Assess Needs During Visit to the Guam-Micronesia Mission
Beginning January 4, 2024, a North American Division administrative team visited several islands within the Guam-Micronesia Mission for two weeks. “We wanted to provide encouragement and do an assessment of needs and see how we could better support the work there,” said NAD president G. Alexander Bryant.
Disabilities Ministries Annual Conference: A Historic Gathering at Living Hope Seventh-day Adventist Church
The last Sabbath of March 2025 marked the Disabilities Ministries Annual Conference, hosted this year by the Living Hope Seventh-day Adventist Church in Haymarket, Virginia. Representatives from across the country joined forces to share insights, with the event live-streamed for those unable to attend in person. This was a historic meeting with record-breaking attendance, signaling the church’s increasing emphasis on inclusion.
Prayer and Power Ignite St. Louis Launches Season of Prayer and Evangelism
On April 12, 2025, the Northside Seventh-day Adventist Church in St. Louis, Missouri, was filled with energy, unity, and purpose during the Ignite St. Louis: One Spirit, One Mission prayer symposium. Hosted by the Mid-America and Lake Union conferences, the evening event drew church members and leaders together to pray for God’s power and guidance leading up to major evangelistic efforts.
This Spring, North American Division to Host Second Pentecost 2025 Division-wide Prayer Meeting
On May 2, 2025, the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church will livestream a special one-hour prayer meeting. The first such meeting ushered in the 10 Day of Prayer on Jan. 8. NAD president G. Alexander Bryant shared that the division recognizes "our great need to stay in a mindset of knowing our continual need to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit;" and thus, church leaders felt compelled to host another event to enrobe in prayer the churches and schools engaged in community efforts and proclamation events this spring, as well as continue to invoke the Holy Spirit in all members.
Beyond the Pews: 2025 eHuddle Calls Church to Greater Impact
For years, White Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Church in Los Angeles, California, was viewed as the church that did not care. In January 2025, everything changed. On Tuesday, January 7, during their week of prayer, Arteaga and his leaders experienced three blackouts from heavy winds. The next morning, they awoke to “images that the city we love, our mission field, our home, was on fire,” Arteaga shared at the 2025 eHuddle — an evangelism and leadership think tank hosted by the North American Division (NAD) Ministerial Association from Feb. 24 to 26 at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
Sonscreen Film "Those Were the Good Days" Wins Award, Receives Accolades at Several Festivals
The Sonscreen Film Festival original short “Those Were the Good Days” has received the “Best Short Film North America” award at the Kids International Family Film Festival. The six-minute film, which was produced in collaboration with Pacific Union College, has also been named as an official selection of the upcoming Topaz Film Festival, by the Women in Film Dallas Scholastic Grant Fund, and was honored as an Atticus Award Finalist at the California-based Daddying Film Festival & Forum earlier this year.
Navigating Change and Embracing Mission at NAD Educators’ Convention Seminars
“We have to always be open [to] re-educating ourselves, reconfiguring and rethinking.” During the North American Division’s 2023 Educators’ Convention, held August 7-10 in Phoenix, Arizona, a participant in a seminar on the 21st-century challenges impacting educators highlighted continuous learning as the key to staying relevant amid technological advances, shifting societal and economic norms, and other changes. With 300 seminars spread across six breakout sessions, the convention underscored that the best educators are lifelong learners.
Against All Odds
Attendees of Ophelia Barizo’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) seminars at the recent NAD educators’ convention would never have guessed that she had been hospitalized just days prior. The smiling woman in front of them, a passionate STEM education consultant, showed no trace of illness.
Debra Brill, Former North American Division Vice President for Ministries, Passes to Her Rest
Debra Clements Brill, former vice president for ministries for the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, passed to her rest on August 27, 2023, in Jamaica, Virginia, after an extended illness. She was 71.