November 2024 Carolina's 10,000 P5

Embracing Carolina with the Compassionate Call of Christ

The 10,000 President’s Prayer Partners is a fast-growing group of Carolina Conference constituents who take matters such as these to their knees. We invite you to join us and make this monthly list a matter of prayer. Together we seek the Lord for His answers and provisions to every need we bring before Him.

Pentecost 2025 is the launching of a bold plan of the North American Division to experience 3000 proclamation events across the expanse of this great division of God’s remnant church. It is a plan that will only be successful through prayer and the intervention of the Holy Spirit. In Carolina, we have added a prayer-plea tag line to the Lord – “Let it Rain!”

Beginning with our July (2024) issue of P5 and continuing through 2025 We invite our President’s Prayer Partners to continue coming together in an earnest and heartfelt appeal for the power and presence of the Holy Spirit as we near the soon return of our Savior.

Most of us are familiar with the expression “Bucket List.” It’s an expression that transitioned from a negative expression of “Kicking the bucket” or dying to a more positive expression of that referred to things we’d like to do or experience during our limited lifetime on earth. A survey conducted some years ago by Stanford University indicated that an incredible 91 percent of the people who responded to their survey had some form of a “Bucket” or wish list. I realize that over the years, it has changed for me. I just celebrated my 72nd birthday on the last day of last month. With the passing of time, I have come to hold one desire as the pinnacle of my heart’s desire – so that the legacy and memory I leave behind will resonate with the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians…

“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19 (NKJV)

Wow! What would that look like and feel like to be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God?” I encourage each of you to prayerfully read or re-read the fourth chapter of the book Acts of the Apostles entitled “Pentecost,” especially pages 36-38 which unfold a seven-fold prayer focus. As we fervently pray for the gift of God’s powerful presence and blessing through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, make these your prayer focus this month and every month by never stopping to: ask, seek and knock till we receive a double portion of God’s spirit and power as Elisha asked Elijah.

During this season of Thanksgiving, Let’s make these seven prayers our focus for this month:

Pray for God to help you search your heart in preparation to receive the Holy Spirit. Meditate on His words from Psalm 139:23-24(NKJV) “Search me, O God, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in obedience to God’s word, and Christ will also add His intercession.
Pray and choose to get rid of our differences and desire for supremacy so we can be united in Christian fellowship.
Let your requests be made known by sharing them in small prayer partner teams.
Cry to the Lord with holy passion to prepare and bless us with spiritual gifts for reaching hearts for Heaven.
Pray with intense earnestness to meet people in our daily walk to speak words that will lead sinners to Christ.
Pray for humanity in true repentance and confess our

Special Inviation to all Local Church Elders, Members, & Prayer Partners to consider attending Evangelism Impact 2025.

Deadline to Register: December 10, 2024

BOOK YOUR RESERVATION FOR THE EVENT at: https://www.carolinasda.org/

BOOK YOUR RESERVATION AT THE HOTEL USING THE GROUP RATE FOR: Carolinas Conference of Seventh Day Adventists - Evangelism Impact 2025 at https://www.carolinasda.org or 888-627-8203.

Event Summary:

Carolinas Conference of Seventh Day Adventists Evangelism Impact 2025

Start Date: Thursday, January 2, 2025

End Date: Sunday, January 5, 2025

Last Day to Book: Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Hotel(s) offering your special group rate: Sheraton Myrtle Beach for $109 USD per night

The idea of “True Education” was a significant focus in the writings of Ellen White, who was an instrumental co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She emphasized the need for a Christian context in everything a child learns, and also described what effective, relevant schooling should look like. Many of her writings were influential in starting the Seventh-day Adventist educational system, which now reaches

around the world and is one of the largest Christian school systems on the planet. This grew out of her counsel for education to be carefully based on biblical principles.

Currently, there are Adventist schools in nearly 150 countries around the world. About 85,000 teachers work in these schools teaching 1.5 million students across 7,500 schools. The Carolina Conference representing 20 schools is a small but vital part of this global ministry of teaching and reaching every child, youth, and young adult for Christ and our Heavenly home. This month, let’s pray for these seven mentors who are a vital part of our educational ministry in our Carolina family:

With each issue of our President’s Prayer Partners (P5), we continue to focus specifically on one of our goals and share some of the developments that are helping us in our journey toward accomplishing that goal.

Both in October and November, we have chosen to focus on our goal of developing and implementing measurable goals for discipleship as we choose to become more like Jesus by spending time with Him.

I recently asked our pastors to share what’s happening in each of their churches with our dedicated emphasis on discipleship. Here are some of the wonderful developments taking place across the Carolinas as we seek to draw closer to Christ. Because we had so many pastors who took the time to share their excitement with developments of outreach and discipleship, I chose to divide these pastoral testimonies into two parts for both last month and this month’s P5 issues. In our December issue, we will focus on our second quinquennial goal of engaging and empowering our young adults in the ministry and mission of the church.

Tony LaPorte

Charleston SDA Church

Moncks Corner SDA Church

“Charleston: Upon completion of the evangelistic meetings, follow-up meetings are ongoing. A study on Revelation, using the Revelation Speaks book is being used. The study is being well attended, there are 6 persons committed to the study. Two of the six were baptized. On Sabbath mornings, during the Sabbath School time, we are studying, ‘In Step With Jesus’ which is a discipling study for new members.

With the new members, there are about 2-3 non-members who have expressed a deeper desire to learn more about the church; I believe they will be baptized in the near future. We are in the process of assigning church members to serve as ‘Angel Guardians.’ Our ACS director is also planning several community events.

Monck Corner: Their ACS continues to be active, they are passing out different literature. There are several, one to one Bible studies ongoing. Presently, we are seeking to hire a Bible Worker, long term preferably. The leaders are nurturing other church members, especially the new members. The ‘Discipleship’ book is being studied.”

Julio Flores

Spartanburg Spanish

Anderson Hispanic Mission Group

Boiling Springs Spanish SDA Company

Greenville SC Spanish SDA Church

Greer Hispanic Mission Group

Spartanburg Spanish SDA Church

“In Spartanburg Spanish District we made a list of active members and some inactive for each congregation (Spartanburg, Greenville South, Boiling Springs, Anderson and Greer). We requested a book from the Conference for each one of them. Then we divided into groups of two, three or maximum four people each list for congregation. Each group had a leader with specific responsibilities selected among those that were assigned to that group. Because the book has 26 chapters, we challenged our church members and group leaders to have a meeting each week using the questionnaires at the end of the book for each chapter. They might meet by video call, in person, a phone call or any other method they would like to use. They should read the chapter during the previous days before the meeting and discuss the question in the meeting. It would take six months to read and discuss all the chapters. For supervision we had a whatsapp chat with leaders of each group. That is what we did from October 2023 to March 2024.”

Daniel Bran

Salem SDA Church

Westminster SDA Church

“In the Westminster/Salem district, as part of training, we have finished this year taking the two churches through the ‘Discipleship Handbook’. We are just starting, for midweek prayer meeting time for both churches, a study through the book “Adventism’s Greatest Need” by Ron Clouzet that focuses on the role of the Holy Spirit for genuine personal and church wide revival.

In the Westminster SDA church, we have moved into integrating more young adults into leadership responsibilities with church board, decision making positions. As part of the process we are also developing a mentorship culture, where these young leaders are being paired with experienced leaders in order to facilitate intentional growth.

We are also focusing on acts of service as an integral part of the discipleship program. The students of the Poplar Springs SDA School are getting more and more involved in the weekly worship service, gardening, puppet ministry and acts of helping those in need. Both churches have ministries that help provide food and assist the lower income members of the community.

As part of the emphasis on outreach and evangelism, we are currently working on a, “Health Expo in the Park,” event in October, while a growing group of church members are now involved with taking the book ‘The Great Controversy’ door by door, coming back excited with encounter stories, as we prepare for the public evangelistic meetings coming up next year.”

Cornelius Kamei

Denton SDA Company

Lexington SDA Church

Liberty Mission Group

“We teach church members to recognize their need to grow in spirituality. We encourage them to maintain a daily communion with God—reading the Bible and praying. Ellen White notes: “When souls are converted, set them to work at once. And as they labor according to their ability, they will grow stronger” (Evangelism, p. 355). We set new members to work at once by telling them to invite their friends and family members to attend our church services and other church community outreach programs such as soap making classes, health seminars, weekly Bible studies, etc. And we give the new members opportunities to share their conversion stories, testimonies, and their spiritual walk during the worship services. We train members in soul winning service--how to give Bible studies, how to help the poor and work for the unconverted. On top of that, we train the young converts to assist in church activities as deacons/deaconesses in training. With prayer and watchful care, we do our best to help, encourage, and train the new members to carry the burden of leading souls to Jesus. The Lord has been blessing our works and we are rejoicing in Him.”

Cesar Perozo

Asheville Korean SDA Group

Fairview SDA Church

Upward SDA Church

“We have recently launched a number of ministries aimed at discipleship for adults and children:

1. Health Ministries: Each month, we are hosting a cooking class to encourage healthier eating habits, and every quarter we offer a health presentation to educate our community on various health topics. We are finding that a group of like-minded healthy focused members and visitors are meeting regularly.

2. Adventurer’s Club: We have officially started an Adventurer’s Club with 12 children involved, and it’s been wonderful to see their enthusiasm and growth. In addition, we will soon be launching a Pathfinder Club with 5 children in Oct.

3. Men’s Ministry - The Kingsmen: This new ministry focuses on fostering spiritual and personal growth for men. We meet:

Once a month for Bible study,
Once a month for a meal together, and
Once a month for a social activity, like bowling or other fun gatherings.”

Silvertone Stare

Albemarle SDA Church

Monroe SDA Church

“The Discipleship Handbook is used during our mid-week services at Monroe and Albemarle churches. Both leaders and members attend these services in person and via Zoom to learn about walking with Jesus. I recently delivered a five-part sermon series titled “God’s Mission,” which presented the five steps of the evangelism cycle in an informative and practical manner. Additionally, we have introduced a training segment through the church board, using the GROW model resource during devotional time. Our sessions involve engaging with a fill-in-the-blank sheet and reflecting on inspired thoughts to facilitate more learning and growth within the discipleship process and, eventually, movement.”

increasing.”

01 Protection from Satan Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8	02 Protection from Our Sinful Heart But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. James 1:14-15	03 Deep Spiritual Encouragement For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. Romans 1:11-12
04 Wisdom If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. James 1:5	05 Doctrinal Faithfulness By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. 2 Timothy 1:14	06 A Healthy Body But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:27	07 A Strong Marriage & Family He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church. 1 Timothy 3:2-6

We are on our third cycle of remembering these departmental leaders and their ministries. Our purpose is not intended to report all that these departments have been or are accomplishing, but rather to simply uplift all our leadership team and their faithful service in the respective ministries that they oversee in our prayers.

This month, we invite you to lift in earnest prayer the ministry of the Administration of the Carolina Conference. Currently, the three executive officers are the president, vice president for administration/executive secretary, vice president for finance/treasurer.

We as your elected officers and servant leaders for the Lord have made it our mission to serve the conference in any way that we can, while taking into consideration the needs and desires of churches and individuals across the Carolinas. Alongside our executive counterparts, departmental directors and associates we lead out in a variety of church ministries, and serve as a link between local congregations and the conference office.

The Vice-President for Administration/Secretariat Office also serves as the guardian of the corporate and ecclesiastical records of the Conference. In addition, he provides direction and leadership to those maintaining the official records of membership for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North and South Carolina. He also lends support and aid to the Conference President in service of the constituency of the Carolina Conference.

The administration of the Carolina Conference includes the current 3 officers and

Their respective administrative secretaries.

As a President’s Prayer Partner, we invite

you once again to be truly a people of the

Word. As Seventh-day Adventists, we adhere to

28 Fundamental Beliefs that are based solely on

the Bible. We began our third cycle of focusing on

these vital beliefs, which are centered in Christ as

both our Savior and Lord, in December of 2021.

Let’s continue to thoughtfully place His Word

in our hearts every day this month. I personally

carry a set of these passages in my car and recite

them aloud as I drive from one place to another.

My aim is to say one verse prayerfully at least

five times a day for a week, thus internalizing the

promise of God’s Word: “Thy word have I hid in

mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

(Psalm 119:11)

I encourage you to repeat these passages until they become a part of your very being. Of course, you’re always free to do more. Please consider, in a prayerful manner, how you can saturate your soul with His Word and make it a part of your heart every day.

Be part of God’s praying church across North America by uplifting these leaders of our church who guide God’s work in these territories of God’s vineyard: