Adventist News Network

Adventist Church working for upswing in local Health Ministries programs

2010-02-04T16:42:52Z

Community and personal health enthusiasts are meeting for the Seventh-day Adventist Church's health training conference, the denomination's largest lay health training event, drawing nearly 500 participants this week to Orlando, Florida.

The annual summit, which continues through February 7, offers tools for local and regional church leadership to deliver community health programs, which are key since the denomination's commitment last year to help implement international health goals in local communities, church leaders said.

Peter Landless, associate Health Ministries director for the Adventist world church, is a leader of the Foundations of Health workshop, one of dozens at the church's health summit this week in Orlando, Florida. Nearly 500 participants are receiving training at the week-long conference. [photo: Wes Renk]

Workshops are designed to train local church leaders to hold seminars on topics from grief recovery and smoking cessation to nutrition and family health classes.

"We want every church to become a community health training center," said DeWitt Williams, Health Ministries director for the Adventist Church in North America.

His goal echoes that of world church health leaders who last July met with officials of the World Health Organization -- a United Nations Agency -- to seek a partnership in implementing its Millennium Health Goals in communities. The denomination of 16 million members has about 130,000 congregations worldwide.

Since its beginnings some 150 years ago, the Adventist Church has advocated education on healthful living and now operates the largest Protestant network of hospitals worldwide. Over the years, Adventists have been shown to live longer and healthier lives compared to others within surrounding populations. The ongoing Adventist Health Study 2 is being conducted at the church's Loma Linda University in partnership with the United States' National Institutes of Health.

For church members who aren't health professionals, the Orlando summit is "ideal" training for learning the latest evidence-based practices, said Dr. Peter Landless, associate Health Ministries director for the world church.

"Obviously we're not training them to do surgery or run an [emergency department], but to understand how to be extensions of Christ's grace and love in a world that is hurting, physically and emotionally," Landless said.

Landless is co-teaching a week-long health foundations seminar, which he describes as a crash course for instructors to learn the physiology of disease. Health is addressed in terms of lifestyle -- including rest, exercise, social connectedness and integrity, he said.

"We feel it's important to train our church members -- not only our health professionals who are already trained, but also our members -- to understand these processes," Landless said. "That helps them then to discern and choose wisely from the myriad of treatments that are peddled out there."

Church leaders around the world acknowledged the gap between the denomination's goal of every church functioning as a health education center and current reality. While there are no world church statistics for local congregation community health programs, a seminar attendee offered one example. Dr. Ephraim Palmero, Health Ministries director for the Adventist Church in the U.S. state of Alaska, said only 11 of the 31 churches in the state offer a health program or have designated a Health Ministries director for their congregation.

"We need to convince local church leadership that it's worth investing and trying to improve the Health Ministry of the church for community outreach," Palmero said. "It will take a lot of leadership mentoring one-by-one to get everyone on board."

Some attendees are sponsored by their local church administration or congregation, while others came on their own expense. James Convensky, Health Ministries leader at the Rockville-Tolland Adventist Church in Connecticut, said he paid his own way to attend the summit.

"I just save and we invest in our own health ministry [at our church]," Convensky said.

He and his wife have lead health seminars at their church, such as mental health programs and cooking schools. The denomination's commitment to healthful living is meaningful, he said, because 30 years ago he joined the church because of its health message.

"I look forward to this every year," Convensky said.

While most of the summit's participants are from the United States, the event is co-sponsored by the Adventist Church's North American and Inter-American regions, and includes attendees from five continents. For more information, visit www.nadhealthsummit.com.

Adventist health publication in India turns 100

2010-02-01T11:54:36Z

The staff of the oldest health magazine still in print in India celebrated 100 years of publication earlier this month, releasing a centennial issue with the endorsement of the city mayor, Shri Mohansingh.

Mayor Shri Mohansingh of Pune, India, holds a copy of the oldest health magazine in the country. The mayor helped launch the 100th anniversary edition of the Adventist-owned "Herald of Health" earlier this month. [photo: SUD]

The "Herald of Health" magazine, published by the Seventh-day Adventist-run Oriental Watchman Publishing House (OWPH), was created by missionaries working in Lucknow, India in 1910.

Since then, the magazine has been in continuous print except during World War I. Publication resumed after the printing house moved to its current location in Pune in 1924.

Historically, editors of the magazine were Adventist missionaries from abroad, said current magazine editor Joy Kuttappan. In 1970, John M. Fowler, current associate education director for the Adventist world church, became the first Indian to fill the position.

Additional reporting by Joy Kuttappan

Relief workers face challenges distributing deluge of supplies

2010-01-28T19:26:47Z

More than two weeks after the earthquake, relief agencies are fighting blocked roads and lack of centralized organization while attempting to distribute food and fresh water to Haitians around the capital of Port-au-Prince, workers said.

An ADRA motorbike driver uses his bike to power a mobile water filtration system from partner organization Global Medic. The system filters one gallon of water per minute, providing safe drinking water for more than 300 people a day. [photo: Matt Herzel/ADRA International]

Tasks that would take a matter of hours under normal circumstances can take days, said Dan Weber, an Adventist freelance videographer.

"Once you find out where [supplies are] sitting at the airport, you have to figure out how to transport them and then you have to arrange for security," Weber said. "That means you have to have [United Nations] troops there to guard the convoy as you're getting it through."

Medical supplies from Adventist-run Florida Hospital and partner organization Harvest International arrived in Haiti last Thursday morning, Weber said, but ADRA workers were unable to deliver them to the hospital until Sunday night.

"Half the streets are blocked," Weber said. "You have to know the routes -- we had maps of the blocked streets. You drive along and next thing you know you find a couple hundred people living in the street in tents."

Weber added that while the amount of aid pouring into Haiti can be beneficial, there are unavoidable side effects.

"Logistically, it's a nightmare. You have so many different aid groups trying to come in and help, which is wonderful, but trying to coordinate all that with the U.N. ... it's a tough process right now," he said.

Despite the obstacles, ADRA workers distributed 100,000 pounds, or 45 tons, of rice, beans and other food items to more than 15,000 displaced survivors still living on the campus of the Haitian Adventist University, the agency reported. The distribution, which took place Monday, was the latest of several ADRA-assisted projects.

ADRA and partner organization Global Medic also trained 20 Haitians with motorbikes to set up portable filtration systems in areas without access to safe water.

The drivers travel around the city, pumping clean water and handing out purification tablets. For their time, the drivers receive food, a small salary and reimbursement for their fuel.

ADRA workers in Haiti say they hope to have a total of 30 bike drivers soon.

The death toll for Adventist Church members is currently 600, church leaders reported. Half of the 115 collapsed churches in the region are considered a total loss, and roughly 25,000 Adventists are homeless. Local church offices and university dormitories also sustained heavy damage.

For more information, visit adra.org.

New smoking ban in Finland expected to pass by summer

2010-01-28T10:57:16Z

The Finnish government took further measures for public health earlier this month by proposing a ban on smoking in private cars with underage occupants and prohibiting stores from displaying tobacco products.

The Finnish government recently proposed stricter smoking laws that will likely take effect this summer. The restrictions include no smoking in cars with underage occupants and a ban on displaying tobacco products in stores. [photo: Rajmund Dabrowski]

While government statistics report that only 20 percent of the Finnish population smokes, the goal is to eliminate smoking entirely, said state Health Ministry secretary Ilkka Oksala in an interview with the BBC.

Health experts for the Seventh-day Adventist Church supported the move, citing the church's long-time emphasis on health and wellness.

"Any measure that makes a substance a little more difficult to acquire ... has been shown to result in a decreased consumption of the product," said Allan Handysides, director of heath ministries for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. "There's a linear association between the amount of the product used and the amount of the disease that we see in the whole community."

What people don't realize when they start smoking is that giving up the habit is just as difficult as giving up cocaine or heroin, Handysides said.

Handysides added that making tobacco products less visible was key.

"It's a psychological impediment to it being so readily accessible, and that's a very, very good thing," he said.

Finland's ruling party in parliament is championing the anti-smoking legislation and faces little opposition from other parties, the BBC reported. The proposed laws will likely be implemented by summer.

"To make Finland a smoke-free country is probably the boldest goal ever against smoking from the [Finnish] health authorities," said Atte Helminen, president for the Adventist Church in Finland. "It is great to see how the health principles [the church] has promoted for so long are now recognized by the government as well."

The Finnish parliament first outlawed tobacco advertising in 1976.

Paulsen Honored at Loma Linda with Festschrift, President's Medal

2010-01-25T11:39:50Z

Scholars and health professionals joined to celebrate Seventh-day Adventist world church President Jan Paulsen's life of service and 35 years of denominational leadership January 23.

The recognition, which came during Saturday morning worship services at Loma Linda University (LLU) Church, included special presentations and a message from Paulsen.

Paulsen, world church president since 1999, was honored with a Festschrift, or a collection of articles and essays contributed by many authors to honor a colleague.

Entitled, "Exploring the Frontiers of Faith," the 463-page book was published by the German Adventist publisher Advent-Verlag and includes 28 essays by a range of contributors. Longtime colleagues and friends of Paulsen, Reinder Bruinsma and Borge Schantz, edited the volume. Contributors include Bert B. Beach, John Graz, Bryan W. Ball, Wim Altink and Niels-Erik Andreasen, as well as Bruinsma and Schantz.

A notable contributor to the volume is retired University of Tübingen missiology professor Peter P.J. Beyerhaus, a Lutheran, under whom Paulsen studied while earning his doctorate.

Richard Hart, Loma Linda University president, presents the institution's Presidential Medal to Adventist world church President Jan Paulsen on Saturday. [photos: Rajmund Dabrowski]

Presenting the Presidential Medal to Paulsen, LLU President Richard Hart said the world church leader "is a true academic. He led two of our academic institutions, the Adventist Seminary of West Africa, which is now Babcock University, and Newbold College. We truly consider him one of our academic colleagues."

"I appreciate this honor," Paulsen said after receiving the book and the LLU medal. During the presentation, Paulsen's wife, Kari, and son, Rein Andre, joined him on the platform.

Although a Festschrift, which is German for "celebration writing," is published either for a notable achievement, a birthday or retirement, Schantz noted that the book was prepared for the first two reasons and not the latter. The presentation came almost three weeks after Paulsen's 75th birthday.

"I have personally always greatly respected Jan Paulsen and have always regarded him as one of my role models," Bruinsma said. "He is the kind of leader who is honest and straight with you, while at the same time you feel safe. The book is a symbol of the deep appreciation of us, editors, authors, fellow-ministers and friends, for who Jan Paulsen is and what he has done."

For the morning message, "Lessons Learned Along the Way," Paulsen touched on six lessons learned as part of what he said was "a testimony of my experiences."

He said the "most valuable" lessons he learned "were when I failed. There is a certain honor in failure if you learn your lesson and move on." Leadership, he added, can be "very fulfilling and very frustrating; it can give you inner peace or inner conflict."

Noting that "no one has modeled leadership better than the Master Himself," Paulsen said it was "most fulfilling to serve, then you can look back and find purpose" in that servant-leadership.

Among the six lessons he said came from his decades of denominational leadership is that the leader "is not the owner of this business; God is," Paulsen said.

Loma Linda University scholar Borge Schantz and Reinder Bruinsma congratulate Paulsen on his 35 years of denominational leadership. Schantz and Bruinsma were among colleagues who contributed to a collection of articles and essays honoring Paulsen's service.

The sixth lesson, which Paulsen said he was still learning, was "to respect and value vision, humility and integrity." He added that vision is the "clear view where you are going, humility defines the climate in which you make the journey and integrity is the character which will describe your engagement." Paulsen concluded his message by noting John the Baptist's words about Jesus, as recorded in John 3:30: "He [Jesus] must become greater; I must become less." (NIV)

"I pray," Paulsen said, "that in my service, I [have] lifted Him up."

Paulsen's message was presented at two morning worship services of the Loma Linda University Church, which archived the sermon online at www.lluc.org.

Following the first service, church member Gary Thompson, who lives in Loma Linda, said the sermon was "great; the whole [service] was great. I really enjoyed it." Thompson said he was impressed with Paulsen's candor about the ups and downs of leadership.

Also participating in the day's activities was Dannielle Wuchenich, an attorney and a member of the University Church. She recalled first meeting Paulsen at Newbold College. Wuchenich compared the encounter now to "40 years ago and in a different setting," noting Paulsen was a generous teacher. "I remember how well he handled the questions from his students," Wuchenich said.

-- with additional reporting by Rajmund Dabrowski, Adventist News Network

First Adventist church planned for Gulf region

2010-01-21T16:28:48Z

Seventh-day Adventists in the Middle Eastern Gulf region anticipate worshipping in their first permanent church building by year's end, local church officials said at a January 8 groundbreaking ceremony.

Builders break ground for the Gulf region's first Seventh-day Adventist Church January 8. The building will also serve as church headquarters for the United Arab Emirates and surrounding countries. [photos courtesy Roger Taer/MEU]

Victor Harewood, church leader for the United Arab Emirates and Oman, along with some 250 local members met on the plot in Ras Al Khaimah to unveil the building's cornerstone, officially opening the construction site.

Ras Al Khaimah is one of seven emirates in the UAE. Its crown prince and deputy ruler, Shaikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, approved the building project in 2008.

"[The move] will give Adventists official registration, recognition ... and ability to have our own church building," said Rajee Mathew, building project manager.

Previously, Adventists met in church members' homes or rented worship spaces owned by other Christian denominations.

Church officials expect construction on the three-story building to wrap up in 8 months. The first level is slated to house a worship hall seating up to 500.

Local Adventists help unveil the cornerstone for their forthcoming church.

The building will also serve as headquarters for the Gulf Section of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Harewood said, with space reserved for residences and office space for administrative staff. The region comprises Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Yemen.

"We are all very excited about this development and pray that this project will be the start of a new era for our church in this part of the world," said Jóhann E. Jóhannsson, treasurer for the church's Trans-European region, which oversees the Gulf Section.

Support from the Trans-European region, as well as from the local Middle Eastern Union and Seventh-day Adventist world church headquarters will help cover the projected cost of the building -- approximately $3.2 million with an additional $170,000 to furnish and equip it.

With the recognition the building will give the Adventist Church in the Gulf Section, Adventists will "finally be able to organize the [church's] work in the region," said Kjell Aune, church president for the Middle Eastern Union.

Adventist headquarters for UK, Ireland nears completion after fire

2010-01-21T15:28:46Z

Administrative offices for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the United Kingdom and Ireland are nearing completion 14 months after a fire gutted previous headquarters.

The final phase of rebuilding -- including a foyer, training rooms, boardroom and additional offices -- is expected to take place within the year, regional church officials said.

Adventist Church employees in the United Kingdom and Ireland back at work in their newly refurbished office space. In 2008, a fire destroyed much of the building. [photos: Victor Hulbert/British Union Conference]

The fire started November 16, 2008 in the roof space above the boardroom and quickly spread to 75 percent of the building. Employees moved back into headquarters December 18, 2009, despite ongoing construction.

"People like the new look of the office," said Victor Hulbert, communication director for the Adventist Church in Britain. "They may be sitting in the same room they were in before the fire, but it has been upgraded ... and the windows looking over Stanborough Park give a stunning view."

Hulbert added the new workspace allows employees to "more efficiently fulfill the mission of the church."

While workspace at headquarters is still limited until construction is completed in late summer or early fall, Hulbert said the accommodations are still far superior to the cramped, temporary rental space the staff occupied after the fire.

The construction team is waiting for a cold spell to break before they finish pouring the foundation for the final phase of rebuilding.

The construction team will next focus on areas completely demolished by the fire, employees said.

A January cold spell has temporarily halted progress -- the team is currently waiting for the temperature to rise above 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) before they can continue pouring concrete for the foundations of the remaining work areas.

Hulbert said he was "impressed" with the swiftness of the rebuilding so far and that the weather-related setback would likely not affect its projected completion.

-- Elizabeth Lechleitner contributed to this report

Adventist Church President Jan Paulsen speaks to Haitian Adventists: 'Don't lose courage'

2010-01-20T18:03:26Z

In a statement aired on the Seventh-day Adventist Church's television station, the Hope Channel, church President Jan Paulsen urged Haitians to not lose courage in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Seventh-day Adventist world church President Jan Paulsen addressed the struggles church members in Haiti face, saying the church has not forgotten them. So far, donations for organizational rebuilding in Haiti exceed $1 million. [photo: Megan Brauner/ANN]

"Your brothers and sisters around the world, they think about you, they pray for you, they want to be involved and want you to know that they are your family," Paulsen said during the televised statement.

Paulsen's words came hours after a magnitude 6.1 aftershock struck Haiti, renewing anxiety among survivors.

"The scale of the suffering that has been inflicted on the nation and the people [of Haiti] is unimaginable," Paulsen said. "We want to be involved, we want to participate and show our sense of brotherhood with the people of Haiti." Paulsen added that every church member has something to contribute, whether it's money or service.

Paulsen urged Adventists to encourage their children to participate in aiding the Haitian community.

"Tell your children about this -- help your children to discover that even in these tragedies that we share humanity," he said. "When something happens anywhere in the world on this scale ... we have a responsibility."

Paulsen concluded by saying his hope and prayer was that "the future of Haiti be better than its past."

Relief agencies estimate that 200,000 people may have died as a result of the January 12 earthquake.

Reports about deaths among Adventist Church members in Haiti are still trickling in, said Orville Parchment, assistant to Paulsen.

Parchment said two choirs were practicing in a church when the earthquake struck. Fourteen bodies were found, but the number of survivors is still uncertain, he said.

Children at an Adventist school in Haiti escaped their collapsing building when they ran outside to investigate a loud noise, Parchment said. He added that while no children were reported dead, one janitor was trapped and killed in the school when the quake hit.

Structural damage to Adventist property includes numerous churches and the church-run hospital and university.

The Adventist world church is raising money to help with organizational recovery, leadership said. Earlier this week, the world church administrative committee voted a donation of $200,000 to help rebuild churches and other facilities. The North American region voted to send $600,000 to Haiti, with other local offices in North America adding at least $175,000.

After his televised comments, Paulsen added that he had spoken with the president for the church in Inter-America, Israel Leito, about the total church donations so far.

'The donations have exceeded $1 million," Paulsen said during an interview with Adventist News Network. "This is specifically for church recovery, and there is more to come from other divisions. [The Adventist Development and Relief Agency] works with even hands to help everyone, but this donation is given specifically to our churches in Haiti. It signifies how intensely our church family feels about the situation."

A special offering will be collected February 6 in North American congregations for Haitian church relief, said Fred Kinsey, communication director for the church in North America.

Other world regions plan to hold their own offerings for Haiti, church leaders said.

Update:

Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders in Haiti reported 522 church members were killed by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the capital last week. More than 55 churches were destroyed, 60 churches partially damaged and some 27,000 church members left homeless in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

Dr. Elie Honore, health ministries director for the church in Inter-America, said the Adventist Hospital in Port-au-Prince is in need of orthopedic surgeons and anesthesiologists. To volunteer, contact Honore at honore@interamerica.org.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America has set up a special fund account specifically to assist church members. Donations may be sent by check to the Inter-American Division, Re: Haiti Catastrophe Fund, 8100 S.W. 117th Avenue, Miami, Florida, 33183.

Donors can also e-mail catastrophefund@interamerica.org.

For updated news on Haiti, visit interamerica.org.

For more information about general relief work or to donate to the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), visit adra.org.

Adventist lawyer's blog ministers when many need it most -- Monday morning

2010-01-19T12:30:46Z

When Kent Hansen gets a case of the Monday blues, he doesn't mope around the office; he blogs about finding God in "ordinary" and oftentimes faith-testing situations.

Adventist lawyer Kent Hansen's blog, Monday Grace, provides encouraging weekly devotionals to some 4,000 readers, many of whom he says might not attend church regularly, but welcome an opportunity to find God at their desktops. [photo: courtesy Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen]

Hansen says he "stumbled into" online ministry. The Southern Californian attorney whose blog, Monday Grace, now reaches 4,000 readers, began writing the weekly devotionals on practical faith in 1998 when his sister was in the last stages of pancreatic cancer.

"I said, 'God, I'll write if you give me something to write about,'" Hansen remembers.
Aside from completing academic or legal assignments, he hadn't written anything for 20 years, after his fiancée died in an auto accident during his junior year of college.

Since beginning Monday Grace, Hansen, who recently did a series on worry, says he has tried to "write about life, but be positive." He previously covered prayer, forgiveness and other "things people wrestle with."

Many would say his devotionals come at the ideal time.

"The people I work with sit at the computer Monday morning and say, 'Ugh ... another week.' They're facing tough stuff and I want to say something positive about God to them," Hansen says.

Out of his blogs came two books: Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places (Review & Herald Publishing, 2002) and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God's Love Through Prayer (Pacific Press, 2007).

As a boy growing up in Santa Cruz, California, Hansen was interested in history and government and knew he wanted to study law. He also demonstrated an early interest in writing -- he composed short stories, edited his academy newspaper and minored in Journalism at Seventh-day Adventist-owned La Sierra University.

In 1979, Hansen graduated with a law degree from Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon. Since 2000, he has worked as general counsel for Loma Linda University, where he supervises four other university lawyers. He also serves as La Sierra's legal advisor.

While Hansen doesn't hear from everyone who reads his blog, many do contact him -- asking for prayer or sharing their experiences. "Over time it establishes a community," he says.

That community extends to some "fairly remote places," he has learned. "I've heard from [readers in] Mozambique and Zimbabwe. One woman who came across [the blog] is a Ukrainian exchange student in Beijing, China."

Hansen sees a blog as a place people who might not show up in church Saturday morning or attend an evangelistic meeting can find God. "It's very hard to get people in the doors of your church. This reaches them at their desks," he says. "That's where most of them spend their time."

Several people have even decided to become Christians because of his ministry, he says.

Broadening his reader base, several church conferences and the C.S. Lewis Foundation now run an RSS feed of his devotionals on their sites.

While Hansen's ministry might be a bit "unusual," it's also "practical and insightful," says Lowell Cooper, a reader and Loma Linda University board chair. "He's very gifted in expressing spiritual truths. He's got readers across the spectrum," Cooper says.

To read Hansen's weekly devotionals or subscribe to the e-mail version, visit mondaygrace.com.

Water, food situation in Haiti growing critical, ADRA workers say

2010-01-19T12:14:42Z

A week after an earthquake leveled Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince, both aid workers and survivors are struggling -- the first to quickly distribute food and clean water and the other to get their share of emergency supplies.

Photo taken from the ADRA convoy while traveling through the hardest hit areas of Port-au-Prince on route to the ADRA Haiti office. [photo: Matt Herzel/ADRA]

Only 50 percent of Haiti's population has access to clean water under normal circumstances, but that percentage has drastically decreased since the earthquake, Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) workers reported.

"Water is at a premium," said Raymond Chevalier, an ADRA employee currently helping to coordinate relief work in Haiti. "In the following days, we expect civil unrest to grow -- especially in some of the overcrowded areas where people have sought shelter -- unless an abundant supply of water and other forms of aid are quickly made available to them."

Global Medic, an emergency response team working with ADRA in Haiti, will distribute over 2 million water purification tablets in the next few days. The group's doctor and paramedics are providing assistance to the injured, performing amputations and other emergency procedures.

About 30,000 refugees are camping on the grounds of the Haitian Adventist University in Port-au-Prince. [photo: Matt Herzel/ADRA International]

The group plans to set up an inflatable field hospital that will stay in place indefinitely.

Global Medic is also setting up a water purification system at the Adventist hospital for refugees and patients camped on the grounds.

Lesly Archer, a doctor at the hospital, said the staff is in dire need of basic medical supplies, including IVs, gauze and antibiotics. The once 70-bed hospital is currently home to 400 patients, with more arriving every day, said Matt Herzel, an ADRA employee currently in Haiti.

The hospital building itself is now in use again and volunteers from Loma Linda University are using the building as a base of operations, hospital volunteers reported.

A doctor from the Adventist Hospital in Haiti amputates the leg of a badly wounded Haitian man. The greatly reduced staff of the small hospital is caring for more than 400 patients. [photo: Matt Herzel/ADRA]

A Loma Linda University medical team, as well as physicians from the Caribbean island of Martinique, is scheduled to arrive early this week to aid the understaffed and overworked doctors, said Elie Honore, health ministries director for the church in Inter-America. Honore, a physician, is coordinating Adventist medical teams going into Haiti.

Leaders for the Adventist Church in Inter-America said the death toll among church members is still uncertain. The church leaders, currently in Port-au-Prince, are helping search for the missing people as well as coordinating relief funding.

So far, five of the Adventist Church's 13 world regions have promised $125,000 toward church rebuilding and assistance. Adventist world church administration has promised $200,000 to go directly to "organizational needs," said Juan Prestol, undertreasurer for the world church.

"This is in addition to the money our churches are donating to general relief efforts," Prestol said.

For more information, visit adra.org and interamerica.org.

- Additional reporting by Nadia McGill and Libna Stevens

Adventist relief team entering Haiti today with medical, emergency supplies

2010-01-15T10:14:03Z

Earthquake survivors in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince survey the damage after a 7.0 - magnitude earthquake leveled much of the city Tuesday evening. Red Cross initial estimates put the death toll at around 50,000, while the Haitian government said they estimated around 500,000. [photo: AP]

A team of Seventh-day Adventist Church relief workers is on its way to the Dominican Republic border and is expected to cross into Haiti later today.

The first wave of assistance brings medical supplies and emergency goods to the country after a 7.0 - magnitude earthquake left the nation's capital of Port-au-Prince in ruins Tuesday evening. Tens of thousands are thought to be dead.

The team, consisting of Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) workers, medical personnel from partner organization Global Medic and Inter-American church leaders, will deliver supplies, pass out water purification tablets and set up emergency care clinics.

The team will also assess the situation for the next round of relief work, which ADRA has pledged in the amount of $1 million.

ADRA President Charles Sandefur said the organization is fully committed to providing quick solutions to the urgent need in Haiti.

"We will continue to do everything possible to alleviate the suffering of those affected in this incredible tragedy," Sandefur said.

Four mobile clinics set up by ADRA and Global Medic will aid up to 1,000 patients each per day, and the water treatment supplies will provide safe drinking water for up to 90,000 people per day.

The staff will also distribute vitamins, pain medicine and antibiotics donated to ADRA by Heart to Heart International.

Wally Amundson, director for ADRA in Inter-America, acknowledged that providing sufficient aid right now is a challenge.

"With the lack of communication in Haiti, we don't know how much is available locally or how much we would need to draw on from the Dominican Republic, which is a potential source of supply line and hub for the relief effort," Amundson said via satellite phone.

Inter-American church leaders on the team will coordinate trauma counseling with the help of disaster response experts. The Inter-American workers also hope to gather more facts about church members in Port-au-Prince.

So far, church leadership reports that thousands of Haitian church members are still missing, while one local pastor has been reported dead. There were 100,000 Adventists living in Port-au-Prince before the earthquake.

Structural loss to church property currently includes damage to two of the city's largest churches, the university and hospital. The university is currently using campus grounds as a refuge for hundreds of displaced persons. Hospital staff has resumed medical operations inside the hospital, Loma Linda University volunteers reported.

For more information, visit adra.org and interamerica.org.

Reporting by Nadia McGill, Libna Stevens

Quake affects millions of Haitians, death toll uncertain

2010-01-13T10:43:24Z

A devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit southern Haiti last evening, destroying buildings and triggering tsunami alerts for Haiti and the surrounding islands in the Caribbean.

The earthquake, which struck 10 miles outside the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, has so far resulted in 28 aftershocks of magnitude 4.0 or higher, CNN reported. According to the Haitian government, this is the strongest earthquake to ever strike the country.

A 7.0 earthquake that struck the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince last evening has affected millions of people, the Red Cross reported. Local and international Adventist relief workers are preparing to deliver food and water to the most affected. [image: ADRA International]

Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders in Inter-America expressed concerned for the millions of Haitians who have been affected by the earthquake.

"We know that there will be great need in the coming days," said Israel Leito, president for the Adventist Church in Inter-America.

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), the humanitarian arm of the Adventist church, is currently monitoring the situation and preparing a response, the organization reported.

"ADRA Haiti is prepared to use cash donations to make a first response immediately ... in terms of food and water to the most needy, utilizing its volunteer base," said Wally Amundson, director for ADRA in Haiti.

Several government officials and non-government organization workers are unaccounted for. Early reports indicate extensive damage to infrastructure in some areas, with the Associated Press reporting that a hospital collapsed during the quake.

Assistant director for ADRA Haiti Ketteline Israel said the destruction is widespread.

"There are buildings collapsed all around, traffic is barely moving and a general sense of panic and loss of life is evident," Israel said.

Most of the church's large institutions, such as its hospital and university, are based in Carrefour, a city on the southern outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Although Carrefour is not close to Delmas, church leaders are waiting to hear more about potential damage to those institutions as well.

Inter-American church leaders say they are hoping to have more information tomorrow. So far, the church's headquarters in Haiti have suffered no structural damages, according to local church officials.

With 80 percent of the population living below the poverty line, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The country is still recovering from a hurricane that left thousands of Haitians homeless October 2008.

The earthquake also delayed a volunteer project from a church in the United States that partners with a Haitian orphanage. A group of 31 church members from the New Hope Adventist Church in Fulton, Maryland last night canceled their week-long trip to the Eden Garden Orphanage, 60 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince.

"There were so many uncertainties," said Marty Chappell, a member of the volunteer team. "None of us are equipped to do search and rescue."

The group planned to hold a Vacation Bible School for community children, as well as help drill two water wells, one for the orphanage and one for the community.

"We knew we wouldn't have been able to drill [the wells] because of the aftershocks," Chappell said.

The orphanage sustained no damage, and the 50 children and the director and his wife are safe, he said.

Haiti has more than 335,000 Seventh-day Adventists worshiping in 470 churches. In addition to a hospital and university, the church operates dozens of schools there.

The quake affected roughly one out of three Haitians, or about 3 million people, according to Red Cross estimates.

For more information, visit adra.org and interamerica.org.

UPDATE: ADRA International, ADRA Canada and the Adventist Church in Inter-America have gathered $85,000 in relief funds so far, with a goal of raising $500,000 in seven days. The funds will go directly toward helping Haitians recover from the January 12 earthquake, an spokesperson ADRA said. ADRA International is also partnering with Adventist-run Florida Hospital to send a medical team to Haiti tomorrow.

Reporting by Megan Brauner, Libna Stevens, Nadia McGill and Ansel Oliver

Church Chat: The evolution of Adventist World Sessions

2010-01-12T12:30:44Z

Former church public affairs director Bert Beach, 81, discusses past Adventist World Sessions during an interview at the church's headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland on Friday, January 8. [photo: Megan Brauner]

Bert Beach is tied for holding the record for a living world church officer who has attended the most Adventist Church World Sessions.

Now held every five years, the gathering is a business session for the international denomination, known as the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Beach, former director for the church's Department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty, has attended 14 Sessions. Former church President Neal Wilson has also attended 14.

Beach was 17 years old when he served as a pageboy at his first Session in 1946, held at a church in Takoma Park, Maryland. At the time, there were about 600,000 Adventists worldwide. By comparison, there are now some 16 million members, and this summer's Session in Atlanta will be held in a football stadium.

Beach, who holds a doctorate in history from the University of Paris, has represented the church as a participant and observer in numerous interfaith councils. "I see myself as a bridge builder," he told the Adventist Review in 2001.

Beach, 81, sat down with ANN last week to discuss some of his memories of Sessions over the years. Some excerpts:

Adventist News Network: How has the atmosphere changed since Sessions have transitioned to being held in basketball arenas and now in football stadiums?

Bert Beach: The atmosphere is different now in the sense that there's much more professionalism you might say, the way things are more organized. Today it's much more professional with the television and production. It must be because it's much larger and we have, of course, much more experienced people when it comes to communication, for example -- people who really are professionals, not people who do it simply as a vocation after having served as a pastor or minister for many years.

ANN: What's it like to serve on the nominating committee [which nominates candidates for approval by the delegation]?

Beach: The atmosphere is very professional, very careful, people are friendly basically. The tendency is not to make very strong speeches against somebody. The tendency is more to make speeches for a person if you really want to promote a candidate.

ANN: What other roles have you had at General Conference Sessions?

Beach: Beginning 1954 I was a delegate at the General Conference Session and participated rather actively. ... I did a lot of translation. I would translate for people because I knew Italian, German, English, French, and so delegates would come and they didn't know English in those days. They know more English now. ... At later Sessions, I was the official at the General Conference who was in charge of protocol for the guests from other churches and from the government.

ANN: How old were you when you were placed on the Executive Committee?

Beach: Thirty-two. That's relatively young. There might have been some people that were even younger, [but] nowadays, it becomes a little bit more difficult because they've restricted the numbers of positions of the Executive Committee.

ANN: How does the Adventist Church's world Session compare to meetings of other denominations?

Beach: It's a very big meeting compared to other denominations. First of all, most churches around the world are not world churches. Obviously the Roman Catholic Church is a world church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, so is the Salvation Army, but most churches are national churches. Let's say the United Church of Canada, the Church of England, the Southern Baptist Convention, these are not world churches in the full sense of the word. They form alliances with other churches of the same belief.

ANN: What people or discussions over the years stand out in your mind?

Beach: We had some colorful people speaking at General Conference Session sometimes. I remember the famous Uncle Arthur [Maxwell] of the Uncle Arthur bedtime stories, who was editor of Signs of the Times, and was a very good speaker. I still remember him getting up at the General Conference Session and he was complaining that there were too many officers sitting on committees all the time and not enough other people -- pastors and departmental people and so on. He said, "And here we have a secretary and then we have on the committee an undersecretary, and then we have an associate secretary and then a treasurer and an undertreasurer and assistant treasurers," and so on. And so people started laughing in the audience. Then of course we had the meeting about the ordination of women, I think it was in Utrecht [Netherlands in 1995]; two sessions actually dealt with it. I still remember long lines of people. They had to line up at two different microphones. One was for those who had announced that they were in favor and those at the other microphone who had announced they were against, so they could balance. The chairman would ask [a representative] from one microphone and then from the other. I'm not so sure those speeches were that helpful, really, because I think most people had made up their minds. Things are debated really at Annual Council and at the meeting of the officers even prior to Annual Council.

ANN: What is the real business that takes place at Session?

Beach: Many think in terms of elections as the important thing. And that is important. But at some Sessions sometimes there comes a Constitution Committee, which deals with some very important issues. Then the Church Manual can only be edited or revised, amended at a General Conference Session. At Session it takes hours of discussion to deal with the Church Manual.

ANN: Any mishaps over the years?

Beach: I remember one of our speakers, who was famous, one of the great preachers in our church, who lifted his voice and somehow, he must have been speaking too loud and suddenly his voice broke and he couldn't speak anymore. It was more like whispering. Or, one sermon that went on and on and on, and it was a problem because on Sabbath afternoon the meeting was starting supposedly at 2 o'clock and the sermon went well past 1 o'clock. Of course, people who were involved were upset. Little things like that happen. But overall, I think General Conference Sessions have been extremely well organized, the music has been superb, and the spirit, generally speaking, is very good.

ANN: Are you going to Atlanta?

Beach: If I get invited. You can't go on forever, you know. It's been a great experience to have been a member of this church, to participate in councils and discussions and committees over the years, and I have great confidence in the leadership of our church.

GC Session 2010: Looking back with Bert Beach from GC Communication on Vimeo.

Adventist leadership development office sets guidelines to steer newly elected officers

2010-01-12T12:23:13Z

What happens when a Seventh-day Adventist Church member with limited leadership experience is unexpectedly elected to church office?

The church's Office of Global Leadership Development is making sure that members in that position have access to the resources necessary to become -- in short order -- effective, mission-focused leaders who can anticipate changes and challenges and respond in a responsible and appropriate fashion.

Leadership Development officials will meet in Beijing, China on January 26 for their third annual Global Leadership Development Summit. There, they'll review existing curriculum -- available for regional church presidents, secretaries, treasurers and other leaders -- to ensure no topics are overlooked.

Members of the church's Office of Global Leadership Development hope standardized guidelines for newly elected church officers will be finalized in time for the world church's business session this summer. Pardon Mwansa, who heads up the office with fellow world church vice president Michael L. Ryan, here reviews documents at a church business meeting. [ANN file photo]

"There are many people who are elected as, say, president, who have never served in that capacity before. And when they start their new job, they sometimes don't have the necessary skills -- how to chair a meeting, how to consider issues in a legal context," said Pardon Mwansa, who, alongside Michael L. Ryan, oversees the Leadership Development team. Both are also Adventist world church general vice presidents.

While curriculum topics will be standardized across church regions, they can be tailored to fit the needs of a particular culture.

"One topic, for example, is decision-making. You're still making decisions wherever you live and work, but how you make decisions in China is very different from how you might make decisions in, say, the United States," Mwansa said.

The leadership team anticipates finalizing and approving the curriculum in time for this summer's Adventist Church World Session, where leaders are elected to fill a number of positions at church headquarters as well as in each of the church's 13 world regions, Mwansa said.

View leadership guidelines and look for new developments at leadershipdevelopment.adventist.org/curriculums.

In Uganda, Adventist Church takes stand against penalties toward homosexuals

2010-01-11T14:13:30Z

In a statement released last week, Seventh-day Adventist world church leadership said it had "noted with concern" comments attributed to the head of the Adventist Church in Uganda.

The statement affirmed the church's stand on human dignity in opposition to the penalties, including jail time and the death sentence, called for in pending Ugandan legislation. The statement, released January 8, emphasized that the legislation is not in line with the expressed values of the church.

Media reports indicate that president for the Adventist Church in Uganda John Kakembo had supported some provisions of the anti-homosexuality legislation being considered by Uganda's parliament, but not the bill's call for executing those found guilty of "aggravated homosexuality." The Web site of Uganda's "New Vision" newspaper said that while Kakembo supported the overall bill, he and other clerics took exception to the death penalty provision.

The Adventist Church official statement, issued by Communication Director Rajmund Dabrowski, reads: "Church leadership noted with concern some statements reportedly made by the Uganda Union Mission Executive Director in connection with the Anti-Homosexuality Bill under consideration in Uganda. These views do not reflect the values of the Church as expressed in published statements on same sex conduct. Seventh-day Adventists continue to affirm the equal dignity and rights of every person as articulated in the relevant international human rights declarations and covenants."

There are nearly 200,000 Adventists in over 800 congregations in Uganda.