Jeffrey K. Thompson was working as a photojournalist in the Bahamas in 1975 when he decided to join the Seventh-day Adventist Church - an award presentation for a government official in Nassau he was covering was actually the first night of an Adventist evangelism campaign.

Now in his last month of a 17-year stint as president of the church in the Cayman Islands, Thompson said he still thinks of himself as a journalist; and now a historian, having recently authored the book “Legacy of the Pioneers—the History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Cayman Islands” to be released June 21 in Georgetown.

The 220-page book documents the birth and growth of the Adventist religious movement in this tiny Caribbean nation. The country’s top government official, Governor Stuart Jack, wrote one of the book’s two forewords.

“We [Adventists] are one of the largest denominations in the Cayman Islands and we have a good working relationship with the government,” Thompson said. About 3,300 people in the country’s population of 45,000 are Adventist Church members.

“If people can recognize where they’re coming from then certainly they’ll have a better appreciation of where they are and the possibilities of where they can go,” Thompson said of the church’s history that began here in 1894. Caymanian sea captain Gilbert McLaughlin first joined the church in Honduras and brought teachings back to Grand Cayman, one of the nation’s three islands. McLaughlin later donated land for a church.

Upon becoming president of the church here in 1990, Thompson said the church’s goal was self-sufficiency. In 2004 the church here earned “conference” status making it financially self-supporting and no longer considered a “mission field.”

Since then Thompson credits significant membership growth to lay evangelists. Six Adventist churches have been established in three years, bringing the total to 15.

“When, as Adventists, we get lay people involved in evangelism, growth is phenomenal,” Thompson said. “We have to do whatever we can to empower them.”

Adventists have long maintained a strong development and relief presence here. Governor Jack mention’s the church’s aid during hurricanes that routinely pound the islands.

“It was a tremendous opportunity for us to display love in action,” Thompson said of the church-sponsored stress management seminars and gospel concerts provided for displaced residents in temporary shelters.

The nation is known as a banking center, a destination for scuba diving, tourism and for a small town called “Hell” - mostly a post office and shops overlooking a black limestone formation.

“We get about 2 million visitors here each year; I’d say all of these visitors, if they don’t go anyplace else, they go directly to Hell,” Thompson said.

Thompson said the church’s treasury department recently received a donation for a building fund there.

“We hope someday to literally build a church in Hell.”