BY
LIBNA STEVENS, assistant
communication director, Inter-America Division

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America
will launch a virtual week of prayer for the 3,200 pastoral families across the
territory starting this weekend via the internet. The special online event will
begin with a live program from the Inter-American Division (IAD) Headquarter
Office in Miami, Florida, January 31, 2014.

“Our main focus is to strengthen the unity of the
pastor and his family, let them know that we value their ministry and are
concerned for their well-being in general,” says Pastor Héctor Sánchez,
ministerial secretary for the church in Inter-America, and one of the
organizers of the event.

Pastors in the IAD are ministering to two, three,
four, and as many as 10 congregations across the territory, says Sánchez, so
“it is important to emphasize that they need to pause and take time to be fed
as a family.”

The week of prayer will start off with a live
program on January 31, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time, and continue with prerecorded
programs until February 7. The programs will be available for viewing and
downloading so that families can gather together when it is most convenient
during each day of the week.

“We want to encourage every member of the
pastor’s family to draw close to the Lord and strengthen their ties as a family
so they can bring about sound support to the church,” says Pedro Iglesias, IAD
Family Ministries Director and co-organizer of the event.

Messages to be featured will address the pastoral
family as a whole, the pastoral marriage, the pastor as a husband, the pastor’s
wife, the pastor’s children, devotional habits for the pastoral family, and
more.

The virtual week of prayer will close with a live
program on Sabbath, February 8, 2014, at 4:30 p.m. The live programs carried on January 31 and
February 8, will be transmitted in English, Spanish and French.

To view the live and prerecorded programs, visit our web channel, by clicking here.