A week-long Presidential Executive Administrative Council (PREXAD) together with field visits were held in China this year from June 27 to July 3, 2016. The PREXAD group visited two large cities, namely Guilin and Kunming in southwestern China.
This was an annual event to bring together the division officers, union presidents and attached conference/mission presidents to review and discuss some of the projects of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD) and to listen to the reports, the challenges and the opportunities from the fields. At the same time, they were able to brainstorm potential plans and future development for the enhancement of the work in the NSD territory.
This year, the total number of PREXAD participants was 29, including the spouses of the members and invitees, which was considered the largest group in history for the NSD PREXAD meeting. The main discussion agenda included Vision One Million 2020, Total Member Involvement, Mission to the Cities, 2018 Mission Congress, 2018 Japan Evangelism, and Mongolia Mission Project.
In addition to talking about business and visiting several places of interest, the church leaders also spent substantial time visiting the minority tribal church on Sabbath. To most of the participants, this was a first time, eye-opening and inspirational experience to witness how Seventh-day Adventist churches among the minority people have gone through difficult times in the past, yet, because of a spirit of sacrifice and dedication and the faithfulness of church members, it is evident that the Holy Spirit has been working among His people.
The delegation group was met with a warm and cordial welcome by the local church members. “I really want to thank God for your spirit of sacrifice and faithfulness. God has chosen us as His special people because we are the people of His mission,” said NSD president Jairyong Lee, who led the delegation and shared a word of encouragement with our Adventist believers in the Miao tribal church. Many other church leaders also shared their greetings and messages.
According to statistics, there are more than 420,000 Seventh-day Adventist believers now worshiping in China in more than 4,000 churches and meeting places.
Reported by Stanley Ng
Assistant to the President for China/Taiwan Affairs