Faced with the prospect of harsher economic difficulties and the ever-increasing level of crime and violence, a church pastor is challenging the nation to look to Jesus as the "only hope".

Pastor Adrian Cotterell, president of the East Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, was delivering the New Year's message of thanksgiving at the Meadowvale Adventist Church in Kingston on New Year's Eve.

"Many are looking to (United States) President-elect Barack Obama to fix this broken world," said Cotterell. "Countless thousands go to bed and wake up each morning without any hope for a brighter future. Others are looking for a utopian state organised on political and philosophical principles. As Christians and as a people, we must look to Jesus, who is our only hope."

Under the theme 'The Unseen Hands', hundreds of members and visitors turned out to give thanks to God for taking them through a very difficult year in which more than 1,600 people were murdered.

"In such a time like this when the world is facing global financial meltdown, in a new year predicted by our finance minister to be the most challenging in Jamaica's modern history, a time when the hopes and dreams of many will be crushed, we the advent believers are summoned to praise God by sharing the unique message of hope in Revelation 14:6-12 and present God's last appeal to a dying world fraught with failure, before the end of the judgement" Cotterell said.

Ministry of generosity

"We are called upon to express our gratefulness to God by practising the ministry of generosity and helping those who are less fortunate. It also beckons us to trust someone wiser and stronger than ourselves, Jesus."

Cotterell added: "As the world looks without hope, we, as Christians, are looking for a better country and a city whose maker and builder is God. We are looking for a brighter tomorrow of peace and prosperity. A time described by the prophet Isaiah when God will judge between the nations. He will settle disputes and eradicate disasters. Terrorism and terrorists will be no more. Abuse of babies, children, teenage girls, grandmas and women will be a thing of the past."