Inside Story: Uruguay ~ SAD
He’s Simply Carlos’
Image © Pacific Press
If J. Carlos Sanchez Ruiz were president of a Seventh-day Adventist union office in his native Peru, church members would courteously address him as “Pastor-President”. But in Uruguay, where Sanchez Ruiz is president of the Uruguay Union of Churches Mission, he is known simply as “Carlos”.
Men call him “Carlos”. Women call him “Carlos”. Even small children call him “Carlos”.
No one addresses him as president. No one uses the word “pastor”. He is just “Carlos”.
Coming from Peru, a country where people are very conscientious about hierarchy, it took Sanchez Ruiz about a year to adjust to Uruguay when he first was elected president in 2011.
“Uruguay is a country unlike any other in South America”, Sanchez Ruiz said. “Even though Uruguayans recognize and respect leadership, they do not accept the hierarchical model. A leader is equal to everyone else”.
The Uruguayan mindset, which Sanchez Ruiz linked to a strong European influence, makes the country a promising mission field, church leaders said. The Adventist Church has only 7,358 members in the country of 3.5 million people, or one Adventist for every 470 people, one of the smallest ratios in South America. About half of Uruguay’s population lives in the capital, Montevideo.
“How will we reach Montevideo and other cities around the world?” Adventist Church president Ted N.C. Wilson asked pastors during a 2019 visit.
Opening his Bible, he read Jeremiah 32:26, which says, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” (NKJV).
“God responds to His own question in a powerful way”, Wilson said, turning to Jeremiah 33:3 and reading, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know”.
“Claim this promise for Uruguay and for your work in the cities”, Wilson said. “You face challenges of secularism and materialism very much like Europe. But nothing is too hard for the Lord”.
In an indication that nothing is too hard for the Lord, people are being baptized in Uruguay after attending programs at community centers, or “urban centers of influence”, operated by the church. Among the new members is a young man, Fernando Aguirre, who gave his heart to Jesus in 2019 after taking stress management courses at an urban center of influence in Montevideo. Please pray for Uruguay and the other promising mission fields in secular societies around the world.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.
Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org
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The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Isreal saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him. Jer 56:8
My prayer for the people of Uruguay is that the Holy Ghost will be poured down in endless measures upon them. Also the other secular and material societies of this world. Those societies who do not know Jesus, or refusing to acknowledge him as their Lord and Savior.
Jesus is doing a great job, I pray that the Lord sent workers into the field.
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Matt 9:36-38
Here we see tradition again popped up its head, it is everywhere.
'Coming from Peru, a country where people are very conscientious about hierarchy the people address him as Sanchez Ruiz'. In Uruguay, the people called him Carlos-from the youngest to the oldest. No one called him 'Pastor-President'. Did his name diminish his work for Christ?
'Wherever our ministers shall labor, in Europe or in America, they should seek to arouse the youth to prepare for active service in God’s great field of battle. All who claim to be the servants of Christ have work to do for him. The very name of servant conveys the idea of hire, work, responsibility. God has entrusted to everyone, powers to be employed in his service. He has given to each his work, and he requires that every faculty shall be improved to his glory. {HS 280.4}
Amen Lyn Lew.
can you please outline for me the importance of a mission story I want my church every Sabbath to go through it starting now because it has been sidelined for long..
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Isa 55:1-2
Tendai, thanks for asking about the importance of mission stories. A mission story is a real-life story that comes from anywhere and any person. The bible is about real people and their real struggles and how they overcame by faith in Jesus. Mission stories help to build struggling people's faith in Jesus as well as help us to know Jesus is still at work.
When Jesus came along and he met the woman at the well in John 4:13-14; 7:38. He introduces the same concept, 'righteous by faith'. In your congregation, there are people who have struggled in the past with something or the other but overcame by faith in Jesus. You can ask them to give their testimony and that will become a mission story.
Or you can use someone else mission story that is at the end of every weekly lesson study, as we can see Carlos's story. (hope everyone can obtain a paper copy of the quarterly if needed).