Members of the Heroes: The Bible Trivia Game team met with professionals from the Adventist Technology Institute (IATec), which specializes in technology and software development for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America, for a collaboration meeting. The purpose was to explore how gamification and technology can boost the Adventist mission in this territory.

"It was an incredible day that we spent together at IATec. They welcomed us very well, and it was great to have this immersion to get to know them better—what projects they are developing and how the church in South America has been investing in technology," says Jefferson Nascimento, project manager for Heroes.

The day's meeting involved moments of integration and dynamics between the two teams as they discussed how technology, software, and games can be used for the Adventist mission of preaching the message of the Bible. In addition, Pastor Williams Costa Jr., director of the Communications Department for the General Conference, and Pastor Guillermo Biaggi, GC vice president, shared devotionals and messages of inspiration to the group.

For Maria Eduarda Sousa, who used to be a systems developer and currently works in the area of contract licensing, the meeting opened up new horizons: "It was great to learn more about the project, the technologies used, and all the development applied," she says.

IATec and Partnerships

Regis Reis, IATec's general director, shares the institution's mission: "Our mission is to support and help the church in South America to fulfill the goal of preaching the Gospel so that Jesus can return." He also emphasizes the importance of partnerships like this one, which challenge employees to direct resources to essential projects.

Around 40 IATec employees took part in the event, which was coordinated by Nascimento and Pastor Sam Neves, associate director of Communications for the GC. Although it is a new area for the Adventist Church, the collaboration between Heroes and IATec aims to generate more opportunities for technological innovation for the mission in South America.

The event ended with a dynamic in which groups of participants thought about how to apply gamification to one of IATec's applications and explored new ideas and possibilities for games that can be used to reach other people for Christ. These ideas planted seeds of technological innovation that could bear fruit in the future.

First Meeting of the Communications Team in Brazil

The visit by the Seventh-day Adventist Church's global communication leaders also had a second part, with a team meeting. Due to its multicultural nature, the church has freelancers in several countries. Therefore, the trip was an opportunity for everyone to move away from virtual meetings and have personal contact with each other.

The event, held at the Adventist University of São Paulo (UNASP), Engenheiro Coelho campus, on August 30–31, 2023, brought together people from Heroes, Adventist News Network (ANN), social networks, and Portuguese-speaking pastoral care teams. The meeting allowed for the exchange of experiences, spiritual moments, training in the area of communication, development, and interaction between the teams.

Pastor Costa points out that an opportunity like this "is indispensable for the Communications teams to identify with the current reality and dynamism and to be able to adjust to changes quickly."

The original version of this story was posted on the South American Division Portuguese-language news site.