About

The first group of Sabbath Keepers was discovered worshiping on the Island of Grand Turk in 1906 by a colporteur from Jamaica named Phillip Porter.

Forty years later another colporteur, Clyde Nebblett, and his wife came to Grand Turk and furthered the work on the Island. They organized the first Sabbath School in their home in 1945.  Pastor Gordon Prenier later came to the island of Grand Turk and purchased a warehouse on Front Street, which he converted into the first Church. During his time, Pastor Robert H. Pierson visited the island and conducted the first tent crusade.  Pastor Pierson later became president of the General Conference Seventh-day Adventist.

In 1945 the Nebbletts moved to the island of Providenciales and conducted a crusade in the community of Blue Hills, and baptized (26) twenty-six precious souls and organized the Blue Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church.  In December 1945 the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) and Inagua (A Bahamian Island) was organized into the Salt Cays Mission.

The work in the Turks and Caicos Islands was supervised by the East Jamaica Conference until in 1965 when the Turks and Caicos Islands Mission was organized with Pastor V.O. Brown as its first president.  The mission then consisted of one church in Grand Turk, one in Kew, North Caicos and one in Blue Hills, Providenciales; a total membership of 47.

Several Year later the Turks and Caicos Islands fell from mission status back to a district, and for number of years changed hands from being under the oversight of Jamaica and the Bahamas conferences.  The Mission was again reorganized in 1985 with Pastor Michael Toote as president.

When Pastor Toote left in July 1990, the Blue Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church was near completion, and it was up to Pastor Peter Kerr, his successor, to continue the momentum of finishing the project with the faithful support of church members.  In March 1991 the New Blue Hills Church was dedicated.  Pastor Kerr met the Blue Hills Church with approximately 50 baptized members and a few more Sabbath School members.  His new task was to fill the newly completed church.  The years that followed saw steady growth in the membership of the churches throughout the mission; hence the need for more church buildings became very evident.

In 2001, a Non-profit Seventh-day Adventist Christian organization called the Maranatha Volunteers International came to the Mission’s rescue. Maranatha Volunteers built a church in South Caicos and a multipurpose facility in Grand Turks that Houses the Newman’s Preparatory School and the Antioch Congregation. The Major project embarked on by the group was the construction of the Maranatha High School.  The School was organized in 2001 and its auditorium served as the place of worship for the Bethel Congregation.

In 2003 The Ephesus Congregation was organized from a tent crusade that was conducted by Pastor Guy Nembhard. Also in 2009 the Five Cays Congregation was organized to facilitate the growth of the Church in the Haitian Community. The Bethany Congregation was organized in 2015 from an evangelistic campaign conducted by Pastor Shian O’Connor. Bethany is located in the Kew Town community in Providenciales.