Sureshkumar shared a story about a missionary who had gone to a country where he found a native man who had never been in contact with civilization. The missionary decided to take him to a modern city to show him around. The man was so excited to see the city with all the moving cars, and people, whose dress he observed with great curiosity and whose conversation he heard attentively. He was greatly amazed.

When they arrived at the hotel, the man was so surprised to see a glowing light globe, as he had never seen such a thing before—glowing light without a fire? He asked the missionary, “How does it work?” The missionary tried to explain the light and electricity to him, but the man couldn’t understand it. So the missionary decided to explain to him in a very simple way: “There is fire in it,” he said. To which the man replied, “That makes sense.”

By that time they had gotten into the elevator, and again the native man just could not understand. How does the box in the house move? Now the missionary already knew how to answer the man in the simplest terms, and he said, “There is fire in it.” The man replied again, “That makes sense.”

Later in the day, the missionary called his wife on the phone, and the native man looked on with amazement, wondering, “Why does he talk to himself?” He asked the missionary, “Why do you talk to yourself?” The missionary replied, “No, I was talking to my wife.” Again the man just could not understand how the phone works. The answer was evident again. “There is fire in it.”

Now the man understood that, if there is fire in it, the light glows, the box in the house moves, and the phone works. One day as they were returning from their daily walk, there was a power outage, and the traffic lights were not working. Things were not functioning properly in the city, and chaos ensued. The man quickly realized what the problem was and said, “There is no fire in it; it does not work.” This experience taught the missionary a great lesson—if there is no fire in it, nothing works.

Then Sureshkumar made an appeal to all the delegates to let the Lord guide their thoughts and mind, that human power may be put aside, and that the fire of the Lord may come and inspire all the delegates, so that His glory may be revealed in the plans made.

Felix Padilla presented the message, “By Beholding We Become Changed.” He emphasized the importance of keeping our eyes focused on Christ. By doing this our mind will become clearer, our faith stronger, and our hope confirmed. This will drive all doubt and discouragement away. Looking unto Jesus as our personal Saviour, we show our dependence on Him, and He will be our righteousness.

Aroldo Gessner shared a message based on 1 Peter 5:7, 8, “Casting all your care upon [Christ]; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”

There is no need for anyone to be anxious about the toils and problems of everyday life. For if we cast all such cares upon Jesus, who knows what is the best for us all, we can rest assured that all that comes our way is for our best, and that blessings will follow.

“If you feel yourself to be the greatest sinner, Christ is just what you need, the greatest Saviour. Lift up your head and look away from yourself, away from your sin, to the uplifted Saviour; away from the poisonous, venomous bite of the serpent to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.”1 Christ is just what we need.

D. Ivanov gave a very interesting presentation for the morning worship, entitled “Spiritual and Physical Maladies Healed.” He spoke about the human body and how marvelously it was created, emphasizing the power of the brain as being the “Boss of the Body.” This has a very important spiritual lesson for us. The brain is the organ that listens to the voice of the Creator; it has the capability to sympathize with everyone in need. This happens when the brain thrives and functions well. When this organ is abused and is not able to function, as it was intended to function when it was created, then the brain dries up. An image of a dry land with a dried-up tree was shown by the speaker to perfectly illustrate the direness of the brain when it is disconnected from its Creator.

The brain has a special ability to serve like no other organ. It serves all the other organs of the body. D. Ivanov drew a parallel to the greatest boss in one’s life—the mother. The interesting thing about mothers is that they are the bosses in our lives, because they serve us like no other human being their entire lives, and this is why they are able to exert the biggest influence in our lives. The speaker then mentioned Christ who was able to serve like no other human being, and this made Him the greatest leader of all time.

Peter Lausevic addressed the delegates and spoke about success. He asked the questions: “What is success? Do we want to have success as individuals?” He also prompted the delegates to reflect on what our goals are as individuals and as a church. We are here to discuss many aspects of the work, to discuss doctrinal matters. But we need to ask ourselves continuously: “What is our goal?” In the book of Joshua, we have the definition of success: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (1:8).

If we look at the pledge the Adventist Church took right at the beginning of the Advent Movement, it was one promising that they would be faithful to the law and never depart from it.

The speaker continued his sermon, stating:

“My brethren, this is my 6th delegation session. We made pledges at all of these sessions to keep the law of God and to lift up the standards, but have we? When we look back, we find failures along the way. We still have not succeeded. OK, we opened new areas, and we see great success, but have we kept the law? Have we maintained the standards that were established at the beginning of our movement? We need Jesus as our personal Saviour. Have you consciously surrendered your life to Jesus? If not, when we come together again in four years and analyze our resolutions, we will make more resolutions and declarations, but nothing will change. We need to surrender our heart to Jesus today, my brethren. If the message of Christ our Righteousness by Jones and Waggoner was accepted in 1888, we could have been in heaven two years after. Please consider this as you carry on with your work today.”

Anatolii Mariceanu expressed his thanks to God for His great goodness toward us. God, in His great love, keeps our hearts beating, so that we can experience God’s wonderful love and forgiveness and praise God as Jeremiah did when he said, “The Lord’s compassions fail not. They are new every morning.” Though our first parents failed, God has made it possible for us to be redeemed and restored. Though the angels were willing to give themselves for our salvation, only Jesus’ sacrifice could make it possible for us to be saved.

Throughout history, humanity has misunderstood the key to salvation. Cain didn’t realize that it was only a blood sacrifice that could bring him salvation. The Pharisees misunderstood it and tried to earn their salvation through works. The rich young ruler was looking for salvation through works and asked Jesus how he could be saved. In Luke 11:27 a woman approached Jesus; she understood that to be a relative of Jesus would provide some extra blessing, some extra advantage. Recently, while driving in Moldova the prime minister’s brother had been caught speeding; but because he was related to and had the same name as his brother, he was given some mercy, some advantage.

When Jesus’ mother and brothers sought Him, the people thought they would have some extra advantage because of their relation to Jesus. Jesus made it plain, however, that family relations give no extra advantage for our salvation. But when the Pharisees brought an adulteress to Jesus to be stoned, she experienced forgiveness of her sins when the Pharisees, who were trying to earn salvation, had their sins revealed and left without salvation. When we look unto Jesus, we have equal opportunity to take hold of salvation. The Bible teaches that through Jesus we can have salvation, and Ellen White encourages us meet Jesus every morning and give ourselves to Him.

Pedro Conceição spoke on the topic of “A Person’s True Worth.” He talked about the experience of the disciples and the stormy sea, and about how the disciples were frightened by the storm in which they found themselves. They marveled how it was possible that the ship was filling with water, and yet Jesus was asleep.

“And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” (Matthew 8:23–27).

“As Jesus rested by faith in the Father’s care, so we are to rest in the care of our Saviour. If the disciples had trusted in Him, they would have been kept in peace. Their fear in the time of danger revealed their unbelief. In their efforts to save themselves, they forgot Jesus; and it was only when, in despair of self-dependence, they turned to Him that He could give them help.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 336.

Only when the disciples realized that they all would perish did they cry out: “Lord, save us; we perish.” They did not realize that the same peace-giving Power that allowed Jesus to sleep was able to care for them and save them. As He rested in the Father’s care, so could they have rested by faith in the Father’s arms. Likewise, when we face difficulties and life gets complicated and our ship starts filling up with water, let us remember that Jesus is in the same ship. Let us surrender our life to His care by faith, and the same voice that calmed the stormy sea will calm the sea surrounding us. Let us cry out today “Lord, save us; we perish.” He will hear our fading voices, and He will be there to rescue us. We are worth much in His eyes. He died for us to save us and to give us eternal life. Are you willing to admit that your ship is in need of His help? Amen!

Dear Brethren, I am very thankful to the Lord because we see that the Holy Spirit is working in the session and I am conscious, that we have a big task before us, and that by ourselves we can do nothing.

I understand that those who voted made a commitment to support us in the work. We have no idea how to work by ourselves with our small team, but we depend first on God’s grace. We depend on the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

As we travel around the world, we see that we have much to do. We have many problems to solve. But if we get closer to the Lord, if we make a complete surrender of our life to Him, if we keep a connection with Him the whole time, for sure God’s people will be victorious very soon.

Brethren, when we think that the message of the Seventh Day Adventist Church started in 1844, how many years have passed already? When we consider 1888, more than 120 years (have passed) and we are still in this wilderness.

The Reform Movement started in 1914, more than 100 years (ago). I think, brethren, we have no reason to manifest a kind of triumphant idea – we have no reason.

I think that it is time to seek the Lord. We should recognize our weakness. We should recognize our dependency, and we should surrender ourselves completely to the Lord.

Otherwise, brethren, we don’t know how many years we will still walk in this wilderness. I don’t know, but we need to make a decision — not a resolution — but we need to decide by ourselves here, to seek the Lord with our hearts. Our connection in our life should include all the departments in our life.

A question: Are we walking in the light that we know?

I would like to read some Bible verses. Isaiah 55:6 & 7, “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

Brethren, besides surrendering our life to Christ we need to do something else. We need to remain in Him. Colossians 2:6 &7, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, [so] walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”

Brethren, in Revelation, chapter 14 we find the description of the character of the 144,000. “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty [and] four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.”

Brethren, what is the meaning of this, having the father’s name and Christ’s name in our foreheads? What is the meaning? We have his character in our life.

His character is impressed in our life. Verse four says, “These are they which were not defiled with women,” which means they kept themselves pure—these people have a pure doctrine.

They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. The Spirit of Prophecy says if you want to follow the Lamb to Mount Zion we need to follow Him today. It is not enough, brethren, to dream about salvation. Salvation depends on a vital connection with the Lord the whole time, and verse 5 says, no lie was found in their mouth, they are blameless.

Now, brethren, God’s people have a work to do. We find in Revelation 18, “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit . . .”

Now in verse four, “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people.”

Then, brethren, we have a mission that is far beyond our power; we depend on the Holy Spirit individually and as a church. We need to be baptized by the Holy Spirit individually and as a church to fulfill the Word.

Brethren, we see here two great powers. For instance the Bible talks about Babylon. Babylon controls the world. The angel of Revelation 18 needs to face Babylon.

Compared with the denominations of the world we are just a very small number. How can we do this ourselves?

Dear Brethren, we have a great responsibility before the Lord. Let us seek the Lord with all our hearts. I count on your prayers in my behalf and on the behalf of my team that will be chosen later.

I would like to appeal to you, please, brethren, let’s take seriously our calling. Let us struggle with the Lord as Jacob, so that our name can be changed to “Israel”, an “overcomer.”

Executive Officers:

President Davi Paes Silva

1st vice president Peter D. Lausevic

2nd vice president Rolly C. Dumaguit

Secretary Eli Tenorio da Silva

Treasurer Rudolfo Gessner

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Regional Secretaries:

Asia D. Samy Doss

Assistant Alwyn Vedhasingh

Central America S. Daniel Guzman H.

Eurasia Petru Mangul

Europe Ferenc Matyas

North America Duraisamy Sureshkumar

Northern Africa Manuel Henda

Pacific Rolly C. Dumaguit

Assistant Nehemiah Chang

South America Romulo Pereira Borges

Assistant Alwyn Vedhasingh

Southern Africa Jean Bosco Nsengiyumva