Senators at the Congress Building in Bogota, Colombia, were recently visited by a group of Seventh-day Adventists to highlight the church’s values on strong families.  Church leaders, along with a Pathfinder group, met with the president of the senate, 20 other senators and more than 80 officials to offer the this year’s missionary book Hope for Today’s Families the church is distributing across the globe.

Ernesto Macías Tovar, the president of the Senate, thanked the Adventist Church for the book and for the prayers uplifted for his work and his family. Macías was joined by Former President of Colombia and current Senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez, during the May 20, visit.

“I like to see how children and adolescents take part in your work because it gives us a great example,” said Uribe after receiving a book from a Pathfinder.

Jorge Luis from the Senate General Secretary’s office praised church leaders for their work in strengthening families.

“It is said that the family is the cell of society in the entire world, and from it comes a series of principles and values that one comes to practice in social and work life,” said Luis.

“Respecting the different ideologies that may be established in the congress, personally, I think that divorce should not be practiced,” said Luis. “When you decide to get married as the Bible says, it is for life, it would be a dishonor and a fault in the eyes of God.”

For church leaders it was very important to uplift the family values that the church preaches and believes, shared Pastor Joel Hernández, president of the Los Llanos Orientales Conference. It is the second time since 2016, that church leaders paid a special visit to the Congress building to distribute the book of the year.

“As we took this book to the highest government levels we were saying that it is something very transcendental, that the message echoes and can have a powerful effect in any place in the country and how much Colombia needs the message of a family with hope,” said Hernández.

Pastor Moisés Prieto, personal ministries director for the church in the South Colombia Union, said that every person needs to know that there is hope and a blessing for families. “I am sure that this book will be a blessing to those who work in congress and especially who work in protecting the family,” Prieto said.

More than 710,000 books have been distributed in Bogotá, a city with over 8 million, this month. Books were given out on the streets, in parks, in businesses, police stations, military bases, mayoral and municipal offices, health institutions, and more, church leaders reported.

Leaders noticed through national statistics that in 2018 alone there were 23,079 divorces in Colombia, and so far during the first quarter of the year, 5,250 divorces have been registered.

Hope for Today’s Families is the missionary book voted by the Adventist world church to be a witnessing tool for strengthening families. The book is authored by Willie and Elaine Oliver, family life ministries directors for Adventist World Church.
 

There are more than 161,300 Seventh-day Adventists worshiping in 1,072 churches and congregations in the South Colombia Union.

To learn more about the church in South Colombia, visit unioncolombianadelsur.org

This article was originally posted on the Inter-American Divisions news site