“We Have Not Received Any Financial Support”: Adventists Say Where Their Hurricane Relief Money Came From

• The Adventist church in Jamaica denied online claims that it received government money for hurricane relief
• It said it set aside more than J$500,000 before Melissa struck
• One conference bought more than $35 million in food and supplies
• About 150 Adventist churches were damaged, partially or severely

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica used a press conference in December 2025 to answer social media claims that it had taken government money, or gathered personal data for the state, during its relief work after Hurricane Melissa. The Jamaica Union Conference (JAMU) called the claims false and misleading, the Gleaner reported, and said its aid was paid for by overseas partners, local congregations and members giving from their own pockets.

“We have not received any financial support or any support from any government at this point in time, we have not. The resources that we have deployed, the cash that we have given, we receive those funds from international partners, from the SDA Church abroad and SDA churches locally,” JAMU president Pastor Everett Brown said at The Good Samaritan Inn in Kingston. The Gleaner also reported that, according to JAMU, about US$145,000 had come from international donors, including the International SDA Church and the US government.

Brown said that before the storm JAMU set aside more than J$500,000 to prepare care packages and position supplies, and that its five conferences voted additional cash. The West Jamaica Conference alone bought more than $35 million worth of food and supplies. ADRA Jamaica, the church’s relief arm, said it had given food, tarpaulins, hygiene kits, water tanks and chainsaws. “Some people believe ADRA gets disaster items from the Government to distribute. That is not so,” director Pastor Winford Henry said.

Treasurer Pastor Adlai Blight said the information ADRA collects to distribute relief is not shared with any entity and that a data protection officer oversees it. The church said about 150 of its churches islandwide were damaged, partially or severely, and members were displaced.

The briefing is a rare public look at church relief money, and it shows how quickly spending climbs. A pre-storm reserve of half a million dollars was dwarfed by a single conference’s $35 million outlay, and that is before the cost of repairing some 150 damaged churches. For donors at home and in the diaspora, the lesson is to look for this kind of detail: who is giving, what has been spent, and what is still needed for buildings as well as people. For the church, rebuilding its own properties will be a separate bill on top of relief.

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