More children from Seventh Day Adventist families need to attend educational institutions operated by the church.
This is the view from President of the SDA Mission in St vincent and the Grenadines, Pastor Dermoth Baptiste.
On Saturday, 2 October, Baptiste said the church operates five learning institutions, and God has ordained all to be agents of salvation.
“I want to appeal to members, parents and leaders in our school system to see themselves as owners of the education process. We have an education arrangememt that is different from the secular one”.
Baptiste said the education system is grounded on spirituality, and if it were to be removed, it would become like any other institution in “John Public’s Yard”.
“We must be owners of the schools. There are too many SDA parents who are allowing their children to go to schools belonging to the Gentiles”.
“God has his special school, so that our children can be more safe, as they negotiate the many temptations that they are exposed to”.
Baptiste stated that he wants all of the SDA churches to own the institutions.
“Very often, we tend to look to the Mission, and we see it as a building with three administrators, so everything must come from the Mission. The schools belong to the churches, and the churches must own the school system”.
Baptiste speaking to pastors and elders, said the churches are located in the community and all departments can organize groups for cooking classes, exercise programs for the elderly and other things that can draw people to the love of Christ.
Gentile
Gentile is a word that usually means “someone who is not a Jew”. Other groups that claim Israelite heritage sometimes use the term gentile to describe outsiders, notably Mormons. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym for “heathen” or “pagan”.
