Mr. Chairman, honored guests, esteemed delegates, and visitors: It is my privilege and responsibility to report on the Family Ministries’ endeavors around the Caribbean Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (CARU), from 2021 to 2025.  Serving families continues to occupy a very important role in the life, function, and ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. According to the Edenic blueprint, the family permeates every aspect of the Church’s life – hence the health of the family is the health of the Church. The much-needed, strong link between the institutions of church and home is echoed by E. G. White’s lament in Adventist Home: “Then why is it that there is such a lack of the missionary spirit in our churches? It is because there is lack of home piety” (9). During the quinquennium, the CARU Family Ministries Department sought effective ways to address these vital areas of need and concern. 

In response to the many dilemmas facing the family, our Family Ministries Directors from the CARU fields met in Miami, Florida, to chart the course for the term, with the transformative theme, “Perspectives in Ministry During Uncertain Times”.  The professional competencies of attendees were enhanced and the status quo of how we practise family ministry was challenged.  

In addition, two significant takeaways emerged from the advisory, and they served to inform the focus of family ministries as we navigated the enormous challenges facing families in our churches and communities:

• The need to invest in a systematic and broad-based approach to the training of our leaders, both lay and pastoral, in many areas of family life education.  
• The realities of the COVID-19 pandemic represent a double-edged sword of both peril and opportunity for Family Ministries across the Caribbean Union Conference. 

Developing Capacity

The CARU territory is blessed with a significant pool of trained and committed Family Ministries professionals who volunteer their skills in service to the Church.  They serve with distinction and dedication, and we are grateful to God for them. However, the needs across the fields – from Suriname in the south to the Virgin Islands in the north – were so great that intentional steps had to be taken to increase this capacity.

Family Life Institute:   This strategic partnership that was developed with the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC) during the preceding term, continues to be a valuable and necessary resource.  The primary purpose is to train a cadre of family life educators who would respond to the expanding challenges that our families are facing throughout our region. We provided a customized curriculum to certify the local family life leaders.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we adapted our delivery system by transitioning to the Zoom platform which the University now utilizes and which appears to be a more comfortable space for individuals.  We thank the university for providing extensive accommodations.

Prepare-Enrich Certification: The Prepare-Enrich Couples’ Inventory is a widely used instrument that assesses the relational health of couples before and during marriage.  It provides the counselor or pastor with the tools to gauge the major issues in the relationship, and offers guided intervention exercises in which the couple can engage. It is apparent that this aspect of family life is one of the most notable categories for relational discord and dysfunction. Hence, to stem the tide, the department embarked on a plan to certify our pastors and other professionals in the local churches as facilitators.  To date, the following fields have made it possible for their pastors and other lay professionals to be certified: The East Caribbean Conference, the South Caribbean Conference, the North Caribbean Conference and the Tobago Conference. Our stated intention is to have certified Prepare/Enrich Facilitators in all of the CARU fields. 

Total Engagement

All The Family in Mission: The Inter-American Division (IAD) initiated an integrated approach to Family Ministries with a launch in January 2024 under the caption, “All the Family in Mission”.  All other departments of the Church were issued the mandate to conduct all their programs for 2024 and 2025 with a focus on the family. The plan was to challenge each family unit of the church to identify a minimum of three families from the community within their circle of influence, engage them in family-to-family encounters, pray for them during family worship, and maintain the friendship connection. This initiative provided our department with the unique opportunity to address two pillars of family life discipleship; re-establishing the family altar and relational evangelism.

This initiative to strengthen the Church’s commitment to families continued throughout 2025 and remains vitally important.  As Dr Elie Henry (2024) states, “In today’s world, families face numerous challenges. The Church in Inter-America is committed to ministering to everyone, in spite of the family configuration to which they are identified.  Our mission is to bring hope, healing, and restoration to all.  The family is one of the vehicles through which we must seek to fulfill our mission.”

Fields’ Initiatives: In tandem with efforts to build capacity through extensive attention to training, it was a privilege to associate with Family Ministries Directors of all the fields and participate with them in many resourceful initiatives.  Table 1 is a sampling of initiatives that were implemented by directors in the fields. I thank God for these talented and committed colleagues. 

Table 1: Family Ministries’ Initiatives

CARU Department Input: The CARU Family Ministries Department identified basic pillars of family relations and emphasized their significance through three categories of seminars which were made available to all the conferences and missions. 

• “Principles of Relationship Building” workshops defined the fundamental elements of relationships and explored the dynamics of how they interact to form relations. 
• “Marriage Enrichment” seminars highlighted tactical manoeuvres for divorce prevention.
• “Parenting in the 21st Century” conferences equipped parents to guide children safely through the post-modern era.

Incorporating principles of Family Ministries into the general life of congregations was achieved through training for officers.  These seminars were well received because they were perceived as effective responses to felt needs. They were added to the resources of the CARU Family Ministries Department and are available to the fields. 

Men’s Ministry

Men’s Ministry is still a work in progress. Although the visibility and focus were not at the desired level, many fields made intentional efforts to fulfill the divine mandate entrusted to this ministry. The annual Men’s Ministry week of activities, held each July, continued to serve as a crucial initiative for engaging and discipling men. Through these initiatives, the fields made commendable progress in advancing the ministry’s mission.

Notably, men’s conferences were well attended in fields such as the South Caribbean Conference, the Tobago Conference, and the St. Lucia Mission. 

There was also a union-wide online Men’s Ministry Encounter in April 2024, featuring world-renowned speaker Dr Ron Edmond. It was a paradigm-shifting experience during which Dr Edmond spoke candidly about his own brokenness. His vulnerability created a safe environment that encouraged others to open emotional doors that had previously remained closed.

Next Steps

• To expand and strengthen the organizational structure of the Institute of Family Ministries.
• To make the appointment of Men’s Ministries a priority and, where possible, a stand-alone department.
• To take deliberate steps to make Christian counseling services available and accessible to the membership of the church.
• To be more intentional about addressing felt and unmet needs in the Church and the community.

Gratitude

I thank God for His abiding presence with me and His blessings upon the efforts of this Department. I am grateful for the support of the CARU Administrators. The leaders of the Department at the Inter-American Division, Pastor and Sister Iglesias, supplied resources and attended the CARU initiatives, and I salute their efforts. In addition, Pastor Alvaro Nino, their successor, is already making a difference. 

I thank my Men’s Ministries colleagues around the Caribbean Union Conference for their resilience, hard work, and authentic feedback.  I am especially grateful to Mrs. Sheryle Liverpool whose outstanding efficiency, institutional knowledge, and creativity paved the way for the successes we experienced. 

Finally, I thank my family, whose love, understanding, and genuine desire to see God’s work excel kept my passion for ministry burning in my heart at every step of the journey.