During an impressive service at the East End Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church, Pastor Jerome Martin Luther Dwayne Bevans, Jr., was installed as the pastor of District #3 on the island of Tortola, British Virgin Islands (BVI).
Over three hundred members from the four-congregation district attended the service which was led by Pastor Desmond James, President of the North Caribbean Conference, who said, “We have created a new district to position ourselves to give God the best in the BVI. We thought that it was critical to have better pastoral care so that you can reach out to your membership and equip and empower them to do a greater work. This is a new chapter we are creating today by presenting to you a pastoral family called by God to lead the church.” He also challenged the members, “You are a sleeping giant. Don’t be afraid to give the young people the key to take this church forward.”
Pastor Jerome Martin Luther Dwayne Bevans, Jr. was born to Seventh-day Adventist parents in the former British colony known as Belize. He grew up actively attending the Pathfinder and Master Guide clubs and served his local church as Musician, Deacon, Song Service Leader, Youth Leader, and Elder. He completed an Associate Degree at the Belize Technical College, in Mechanical Engineering. After working for a year as a mechanic, he felt the call to Gospel ministry. As he was setting up an engine that he had dismantled, the Spirit said to him: “Why don’t you engage in a more profitable business—that of collaborating with heaven in mending broken lives?”
For the past nineteen years, Pastor Bevans has been married to the lovely Sarah Buckley from Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras, and their union produced three (3) children: Chrysta, Christen and Jovan.
Pastor Bevans is an ordained Minister with twenty years of experience in Gospel Ministry and has worked in four Unions in the Inter-American Division, namely: Central American, Honduras, Belize, and Dutch Caribbean. His experience ranges from District Pastor to numerous ministry responsibilities: Youth Director, Personal Ministries Director, Sabbath School Director, Publishing Director, Ministerial Secretary, Religious Liberty Director, Assistant to the President for Evangelism, Evangelist for the Dutch Caribbean Union Mission, and President of the Aruba Mission of Seventh-day Adventists, until recently.
Pastor Bevans is passionate about the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which is manifested through his love for the simple yet profound preaching of the Word of God.
Pastor Desmond James paid tribute to a list of individuals who labored in Pastor Bevans’ absence. Included in the list were three district pastors currently serving on Tortola, as well as the elders and officers who ensured that the congregations functioned in his absence.
Church leaders from the four congregations, of District #3, greeted the new pastoral family with joy. Elder Joseph, of the Purcell SDA Church, declared, “We love you even though we do not know you.” Members of the Spanish congregation celebrated that their new pastor can, effectively, communicate with them in their own language and the First Elder commented, “Your presence is an answer to prayers. Some things come late but everything happens at the right time.”