As part of his testimony, Pastor Luciano Barreto Nogueira de Moura says, “I was captivated by Christ in 1992 and was baptized in Salvador, Bahia, in my homeland of Brazil. I attended a Presbyterian church for some years and after moving to Brasília, the capital of Brazil, I attended the Bethel Brazilian church. In 1999, I discovered the Seventh Day Baptist Church on the Fortaleza SDB church website and began to lead a small group in the home of a Seventh Day Baptist brother in Sobradinho, Federal District. I was ordained as a pastor in 2006. Since then, I have been pastor of the First Seventh Day Baptist Church of Brasília, a small group that met in my home until August of 2014 when we began renting a room in Brasília.”
Pastor Andrew Samuels has been serving as the Pastor of the Miami Seventh Day Baptist Church in Florida in the United States since June, 1988. Born on the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean, he grew up as a third-generation Seventh Day Baptist and migrated to the United States when he was 20 years old. He made his first public profession of faith at age 11 and was baptized a few months later at his home church, Mountain View SDB.
I was born in El Salvador on April 21, 1979. My grandparents along with our 11 aunts and uncles raised me and my brother, then my parents after being able to save up enough, brought us to the United States in 1985. I was born into Christianity, so when we moved to California and immediately started attending church it was an easy transfer. I accepted God as my Lord and Savior at the age of 13 and got baptized. At that time I felt the music ministry was my calling, and so I worshiped God with my voice for years to come. In 1993 we moved to Maryland and I continued in the worship ministry in the new church we attended. After graduation I started working with my dad at our family business and I’ve worked as an office manager for the past 15 years building my management skills as I go along. Working for the family business I was able to put my bilingual skills to work, those same skills have helped me not only at work but in the church.
Garfield is the Treasurer of the World Federation of Seventh Day Baptist (SDB) Churches. He works as Director Mobilization and Projects with the SDB Missionary Society, and pastor of the West Palm Beach SDB church. He and Diane, his wife, reside in West Palm Beach, FL. USA, with their two children, Asabe and Amelia.
Canaan Phiri was born to an SDB Preacher. He went to church almost every Sabbath. However he made a personal decision to follow Jesus at his first Youth Camp in 1974 in response to a sermon by Pastor David Clement Pearson, then a missionary to Malawi. He was then baptized on 31st August 1974 by Pastor Absalom K Harawa. In 1979, he accepted the Lord’s calling to serve as a pastor and he started serving as an Associate Pastor for the Blantyre Churches.
Minister Claudia Ferguson was baptised at the age of 9 years and has been involved in Christian ministry since then. She is World Federation Vice President for the Caribbean and, with the support of the Jamaica SDB Conference Missions Committee, led out in founding the Cayman Islands SDB Group for which she provides pastoral oversight. In the Jamaica Conference she is a past-President and serves as Chairman of the Evangelism Committee, President of the National Intercessory Prayer Force, and Secretary/Treasurer of the Jamaica SDB Bible Institute. She is a Conference Bible teacher, trainer, and church planter.
Douglas de Senne Machado was born to a SDB family in Joinville - SC, Brazil on June 25, 1983. Even before he was baptized at the age of 15, as a testimony he had accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, he was already helping the local church's Youth Ministry as secretary. He has also served for two terms in the National Youth Leadership board, as treasurer and as vice-president (2014-2018).
Read more: Vice President for South America, Douglas de Senne Machado
Nick is the Director of Education & History and Dean of the School of Ministry for the SDB General Conference of USA & Canada and serves as an elected elder in his home SDB church in Milton, WI. He and his wife Brittany and four children live in Milton, near the church where he was raised and came to faith and where he now has the opportunity to worship, fellowship, and serve.
Read more: Vice President for North America, Rev. Nicholas Kersten
