n many of the places where the church is growing the fastest, church leaders are discovering a hidden problem: illiteracy is preventing members from being able to read their Bibles or study a Sabbath school lesson, and limiting their ability to function in society in general. More than 3 million Adventists worldwide cannot read or write; nearly 1 billion people are functionally illiterate. But now church organizations are working together to bring the gift of literacy to our own members--and to the communities served by our churches.

Through the Partners in Mission program, Adventists in North America are addressing the specific task of reducing illiteracy in as many as 27 countries around the world. Members in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and New York have focused on the countries of Central America and the Caribbean, including Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, and Honduras. The program is being expanded to members in additional conferences in 2004-2005.

The literacy projects sponsored by North American members are conducted in Adventist churches, in members' homes, in schools, and in community centers.

Teachers are volunteers recruited from the churches and communities in which the projects are held. Funds raised by North American Adventists through Ingathering: Hope for Humanity are used to help provide the training, resources, and management of the overall program.

Partners in Mission is a special mission initiative developed by Ingathering: Hope for Humanity. Partners in Mission is funded by a portion of the Ingathering funds raised in participating conferences. For more than 100 years Ingathering: Hope for Humanity has been working directly with local organizations, conferences, and churches to support projects that build up churches and communities through humanitarian initiatives--in local neighborhoods, throughout the United States, and around the world.

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Maitland Dipinto, Ingathering Director, North American Division