Light by Wildwood presented 67 newly trained Gospel Medical Missionaries on March 30th, 2024, during the closing ceremony held at the New Engerlston Seventh-day Adventist Church. The certification program began on March 3rd and was sponsored by Adventist Laymen’s Services and Industries (ASi),  the Adventist Health Professionals Association, and the Health Ministries Department of the South Bahamas Conference. 

The guest facilitators were Teresa Thornhill, Registered Dietitian and assistant to the director of the LIGHT Caribbean Schools, and Cynthia Bonas, Registered Nurse and Director of LIGHT Caribbean Schools. Their comprehensive curriculum covered lifestyle principles, common diseases, meal planning, cooking classes, hydrotherapy, and health evangelism. 

In her address to the graduates, Dr. Idamae Hanna, a registered nutritionist and one of the local facilitators of the training, expressed her appreciation to those who participated in the program. 

Hanna exclaimed, "You all were committed, and you all did your part. You all were here every night, eating up everything and it was good, wasn’t it? It was awesome! The testimonies coming out of it was just something you’ve never heard before. The Lord has been good to us. I have learned so much."

Pastor Peter Kerr, President of the Atlantic Caribbean Union, also congratulated the participants for completing the Health Evangelism course and he commended the New Englerston Church, for its pivotal role in Health Ministries in the Conference and the community. 

During the ceremony, representatives of the graduating class also shared their experience of the program. 

Delancy shared, "In November, I was diagnosed as a diabetic and that I had hypertension, and they’ve always been encouraging me with my diet, this course has sent it home. What they’ve been teaching me, or what they’ve been encouraging me with is the right thing they have been doing." 

He continued on, "It proves the point that everyone has been saying all along, that we now have this knowledge, what are we going to do with? In Hebrews 12 it says that the time of our ignorance, God winks at us, but we are held accountable for this knowledge that we have. We shouldn’t be covetous and say that we are going to keep this between me and my family, or I'm only going to share it with my small circle."

Mckinney said, "The information they shared, they shared from their experiences and their knowledge, and they shared with passion. I must say that over the course of the month we always had a spiritual component. Elders Ian Greene and Lukanda Gardiner, they brought in the spiritual component and showed us that it was not only about the physical, but also the spiritual."

In his charge, ASI Bahamas President Ian Greene encouraged those present to continue to always first seek the will of God as they share the health message to those around them. 

Greene expressed, "Seeking the will of God is simply this, allowing the spirit to come in. You know you have been reading The Word, you know you have been studying, but one thing we have not been doing. We don’t listen to that still, small voice that says, 'Follow me.'"

We salute all the graduates as they begin this new journey as medical missionaries.