A scavenger hunt, during which church members were split into teams, mobilized employees, leaders, and workers from the East Brazilian Union to collect at least a half ton of food for the “Mutirão de Natal” project. The event took place on Tuesday, December 8.

“Mutirão de Natal” is an outreach project from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Brazil and carried out throughout South America. The initiative has been in operation for the past 26 years. The objective is to gather donations to benefit needy families in the communities where Adventist congregations are located. Participants also give assistance to entities such as asylums, shelters, orphanages, and daycare centers. In the State of Bahia, Brazil, the initiative was recognized by the state’s government, which sanctioned Law No. 13,740 in 2017, establishing the State Week of Mutirão in Natal. The act was a public acknowledgment of the Adventist Church's food security project.

In the month of September, the director of Adventist Solidarity Actions Ação Solidária Adventista (ASA) for the Brazilian states of Bahia and Sergipe, Manoel Chaves, launched a contest for employees of the Eastern Brazilian Union. The challenge involved more than 60 people, divided into 10 teams, whose purpose was to collect food, clothing and toys. The groups also had to complete other tasks such as: preparing and labeling books to be delivered at Impact Hope; do a parody with music related to the “Mutirão de Natal”; decorate gift boxes; and be on time and present in the services. The collections will benefit Quilombola communities in the Quingoma neighborhood, in Lauro de Freitas, and two employees who work with garbage collection inside the condominium where the office is located.

Mobilization

For Chaves, the experience of involving employees in the Mutirão de Natal was gratifying. “This involvement only shows more and more the commitment of each servant to the mission of the Church. In addition to actively participating in the local church, they are not exempt from participating here as an office, thus encouraging other regional headquarters to do the same. This gives us satisfaction to see the level of commitment of each employee,” he said.

Chaves also mentioned a text by Adventist Church co-founder and author, Ellen G. White, who says: “Selflessness must characterize employees in positions of responsibility in the office, and they must be an example to everyone […]” (Selected Messages II, p. 196).

The result, he says, was so good that the administration decided to put this contest in the Church's yearly calendar for both the general office and the regional offices.

During the games, food, clothes and toys were collected. On the occasion, the teams that collected the most received a symbolic gift as a way of recognizing their success.

“In an atypical year as reported by the media all the time, crises come and go to show people's true colors. And we want to thank the Church in Bahia and Sergipe because we had records of collecting clothes, food and attendance not only as a Church institutionally, but each person,” added Chavez. “May this be yet another solidary Christmas for all of us, as the motto says: We can do more!”

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site