Hispanic membership has increased 31 percent over the last five years.
Hispanic members contributed $1 million more in tithe since 2001.
Ramon Canals personally holds approximately five evangelistic series each year.
Recognizing the tremendous growth potential within the swelling Hispanic population in the Northwest, the North Pacific Union Conference (NPUC) established the position of Hispanic coordinator, who works with local conferences to foster evangelistic activity and visioning for the future. The Hispanic coordinator is an assistant to the NPUC president.
To support local conferences and their Hispanic pastors in fulfilling the great Gospel Commission of Jesus Christ.
Growth—Through strong local efforts, concentrated planning and overall coordination, Hispanic membership has grown by 31 percent since 2001.
Quality Pastors—Worked with local conferences and churches to find, attract and hire high-quality, committed pastors as leaders for growing Hispanic churches.
Communication—Produced an annual Spanish-language feature in the GLEANER.
Local Evangelism—Conducted or helped to coordinate evangelistic meetings.
Church Funds—Coordinated and distributed combined subsidies from the North American Division and the NPUC for purchasing or remodeling buildings for Hispanic churches.
Student Funds—Coordinated and distributed funds to help place Hispanic Adventist students in Adventist schools.
Advisory—Aided conferences and members in the process of hiring pastors and workers, as well as in other personnel issues.
Seminars—Provided workshops as requested to train members in personal and public evangelism.
Hispanic Education—Many Hispanic families have several children, but currently only 10 to 15 percent of these families are financially able to send their students to Adventist schools. We must develop funding to increase this percentage to well over 50 percent.
Second Generation Hispanics—Large Hispanic families mean a large mission field, yet later generations are becoming more assimilated into the American lifestyle, thus making evangelism more difficult. We must find creative and innovative ways to reach this group.
Church Building—With membership gains comes the need for more churches, yet they are expensive to build and maintain. We must find more individuals like Glenn and Viola Walters, among others, who are willing to step in to help fund the building of new Hispanic churches.
Ramon Canals, assistant to the president for Hispanic ministries
Silvia Dovald, administrative assistant
