Henry Avelino Rodríguez had no idea that inviting his boss to hear him preach would lead to winning the highest award television offered in his nation.
Henry Avelino Rodríguez had no idea that inviting his boss to hear him preach would lead to winning the highest award television offered in his nation. In November of 2003 Avelino received his second Art and Sciences of Communication Award honoring excellence in community affairs programming.
For the past six years 28 year-old Henry, a member of the Adventist Church in Guayaquil, Ecuador, has been hosting a nationally televised program called “SOS: Solidaridad Para Obras Sociales” [Solidarity for Social Work]. SOS is a weekly telethon that has been broadcast live every Tuesday night in Ecuador for the past 11 years. Its goal is to raise funds to help poor people, and the sick to recover their health.
Every week, Henry’s job is to motivate his television viewers to contribute financially to the telethon, which lends financial aid to the economically and physically down-trodden as well as victims of natural disaster. According to Channel 7, SOS raises an average of US$4,000 per week since Henry became host. His personal best is raising US$24,000 in one night.
Henry says that he became host of SOS as the result of inviting his supervisor to listen to him preach at his local church. Several days later there was an opening at the station. “My boss remembered my sermon and he said, ‘Henry can do it. He is [an] Adventist. He believes in God and has faith in Him.’ And so then they proposed that I work on this program and it has been one of the greatest blessings in my life.”
Henry has gone on to win two of the three nominations he has received for the highest award given by Ecuadorian national television.
In his acceptance speech in November Henry dedicated his prize not only to his staff and family, but “To those who need help, the neediest, this prize is theirs as well.”
Two weeks after receiving his last award, the National Congress gave Henry special recognition for the work of SOS on behalf of the neediest people in Ecuador. Congresswoman Sylvan Ibarra presented the award in the Ecuadorian Parliament.
“I have seen their work up close and have seen that the main component of this work has been love and solidarity,” said Ibarra. “I am proud as an Ecuadorian to be able to count on an institution such as SOS, that when a child, when a young person has extended their hand asking for help, they have been there for them.”
“Receiving this from the National Congress is a great honor,” responded Henry at the award ceremony. “It is a commitment to go on with our work. It is really the work of our viewers, those who work on SOS, the people who donate to SOS, and all those in need because it is the stimulus to continue to help them.”
Every day Henry can be found in the homes of the people that are helped by his program, in the hospitals with the sick, or at the sites of natural disasters listening to their stories. He then relays the sad tales to a national audience every Tuesday night. According to Henry’s estimates, the program has helped 7,000 people in its 11 years.
Many say that the transparency of his work is the reason that viewers continue to contribute week after week. Henry believes each week he is used by God.
Church members say that, thanks to Henry’s work, the Adventist Church is well represented in society. Henry also assists the Adventist Church in south Guayaquil, where he is a lay preacher as well as the founder of the only youth church in Ecuador, with 190 young people.
Despite Henry’s personal success he takes little credit and is quick to offer this advice: “In everything that you do, every task you take on, every action you do, always do it realizing that it’s for God. You’re not doing it for other people. Your life needs to be a testimony. We are Christians and we should work and behave as such, loving and helping everyone. If we do that we will be successful when we walk together with God.”
