Putting a Face on Mission: 10 Year Anniversary of Adventist Mission’s DVD

Ten years ago, the average price of gas was $2.60, Adventist Church membership was just over nearing 15 million, and the first Adventist Mission DVD was sent to Churches in the Rocky Mountain Conference.

Sent free to all churches in the North American Division, the AM-DVD featured video mission stories to help connect Rocky Mountain Conference members with the people and places of mission. The first DVD featured the South American Division and a story from Argentina called “A Cowboy’s Tale,” which was shot and produced by Dan Weber, now NAD Communication director. The video introduced 87-year-old Manuel Ledesma and his grandson, and showed them getting the small 20-member church on his property ready for Sabbath.

Today, the AM DVD is known as “Mission Spotlight,” named after the programs produced by Oscar Heinrich and his family for many years. Until now free copies of the DVD have been sent to every church in the North American Division each quarter, but starting next year churches will need to sign up if they want to continue receiving a free DVD in the mail.

“The Mission Spotlight videos are available for download online,” according to Ricky Oliveras, Mission Spotlight producer. “The online videos are HD and are higher quality than we can put on the DVD. Currently many churches are downloading or streaming the videos, but we recognize that some will still want a DVD. So we will still send DVDs to those who request it.”

The new Mission Spotlight features two sets of videos:

• Weekly videos, usually 3-5 minutes--to show one video each week.
• Monthly videos, usually 8-10 minutes--to show one each month.

“Some churches don’t have a regular Sabbath school program, but the shorter monthly videos are great to use in smaller Sabbath school classes, just before the church service or even in schools,” says Oliveras. “People can sign up at MissionSpotlight.com/subscription if they want to continue getting the DVD, or they can opt for an email with links to the online videos.”

Adventist Mission also produces the Mission 360 TV program, shown on the Hope Channel, and Global Mission Spotlight, on 3ABN. Mission 360 magazine is available as a tablet app or on the website.

Readers can visit AdventistMission.org for mission stories and videos from the Mission 360 magazine, TV show and the Sabbath School mission quarterlies.