In Colombia, Adventist Church Releases Animated Series

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in northern Colombia recently released the first weekly episodes of an animated series for children to be used throughout its local churches. The series is the first initiative of its kind launched by the Children’s and Adolescent Ministry of the North Colombian Union Conference, produced by the church’s Hope Media Colombia center.

The series features Aby and Lucas, two friends who live in a small village, where they experience great adventures every day and learn to become stewards of Jesus with the help of their teachers, Zory and Mr. Charles. Titled True Stewards of Jesus, each episode of the 12 in the series is five to six minutes long and focuses on Christian stewardship. It also includes an accompanying activity book.

“We want children and adolescents to learn the two important principles of stewardship such as obedience, based on love and the demonstration of love,” Zoraida Pérez, Children’s and Adolescent Ministry director of the Adventist Church in north Colombia. “Children are the life of the church, and they deserve the same spiritual nourishment as adults, but presented differently,” she explained. “Jesus recognized that children are more prone to listen, remember, and accept and follow His words.”

Weekly release of episodes of the interactive series began on May 20 and has continued each Friday since then, to be featured during Sabbath School, helping leaders in highlighting stewardship principles every Saturday (Sabbath), Pérez said.

“We know that these are very complex and challenging times for children’s and adolescent leaders,” Pérez said. “We have learned through experience in teaching children that they are won through the many prayers on their behalf.”

It’s been more than two years since the project was started, Diego García, general producer of Hope Media Colombia and director of the series, said. “From building each chapter, recording the voices, designing each scene, creating each item of clothing to the final rendering of each frame, it took a lot of time,” he said. The project, he added, included the support of three individuals from SENA, the national learning service, who contributed their knowledge and have been an important part of the series launch.

“From the very beginning, it was a challenge to work in this area that we didn’t know much about, but in processing each chapter we learned many things that we ended up applying to the rest of the chapters,” García said.

The plan is for the animated series about stewardship principles to not only reach church members’ homes but also those in the community, Pérez said. The rest of the episodes of the series will be released, one per week, through August 5, 2022.

The original version of this story was posted on the Inter-American Division news site.