Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

by Martin Butler
“Lord, please show me how I can give my talents to serve you,” prayed Rudy Prado, an Orlando lieutenant fireman, paramedic, and member of Markham Woods Church in Longwood. The next week, David Canther, who contracts with Florida Conference and World Vision to train and deploy in emergency response, invited Prado to join him.
A month later, Prado was in the Dominican Republic training firemen, youth, church leaders, and personnel for World Vision and ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) in incident command, life-saving skills, and emotional and spiritual care. Soon afterward, a pastor wrote, “My recent training already helped me save two victims involved in an automobile accident.”
Prado is planning his work schedule so he will have even more time to join Canther in training individuals in Florida and throughout Central and South America. “This is the most fulfilling opportunity God has ever given me,” he admits.
In early August, Prado accompanied Canther to train 500 youth and church groups as emergency responders in Chile. The World Vision Emergency Response director for that South American country described the week as “utterly fantastic!”
Among the 45,400 people working for World Vision (the world’s largest humanitarian organization), 1,400 are Seventh-day Adventists with the same deep passion to share the love of Christ through their actions. “God is moving in miraculous ways to unite His people in new ways of evangelism which must exemplify itself in a willingness to lay down your life for others according to John 14,” says Canther.
Emergency response action photos are posted to www.actswr.org. Canther’s new book, First Response: Change Your World Through ACTS of Love, is also available from the ACTS site as well as the Adventist Book Center.