Adventist News Network

Adventist global campaign against domestic violence launched in three world territories

2009-11-20T04:19:59Z

The global EndItNow™ campaign recently launched to oppose violence against women and girls is receiving widespread support now in three of the Seventh-day Adventist Church's 13 world regions. Campaign organizers report the initiative is motivating leaders and church groups to become active advocates for non-violence in their own communities.

On Tuesday, November 16, the church's Trans-European region, based in the United Kingdom and including more than 40 countries and territories in Europe, unveiled EndItNow™ to representatives during regional end-year meetings held in Becici, Montenegro.

"From January 15 to March 15, we are encouraging our leaders to concentrate on promoting this campaign, to get people active," said Anne-May Wollan, Women's Ministries leader for the region. "We want every country to use this opportunity to tell people what we're doing in support of this campaign."

In Kenya, Adventist church leaders representing countries throughout Eastern and Central Africa also gave their support, committing to champion the cause within their own constituencies.

"We are speaking up, signing up," wrote a supporter in Kenya following the campaign launch in the region.

In the Philippines, representatives from the Adventist Church in the Southern Asia-Pacific region, which comprises more than 19 countries and territories, pledged during a November 9 ceremony to push for the success of the campaign, according to Helen Gulfan, Women's Ministries leader for the region.

During the campaign presentation, attendees made their commitment public by saying the campaign slogan -- "Adventists Say No to Violence Against Women" -- in Chinese, Malay, Tagalog, Bangla, Sinhala, Indonesian, Burmese and Portuguese.

"This new campaign asks each of us to both speak and act, calling us to stand together to save lives," said Charles Sandefur, president of ADRA International.

During the campaign's primary phase, 1 million signatures are currently being gathered from supporters in more than 200 countries and territories. Once collected, these signatures will be presented to the United Nations to raise attention about the issue, advocate for new policies that better protect women and girls, and make a public declaration of the work of the Adventist Church to bring an end to gender-based violence.

"We are protecting the futures of our daughters, our granddaughters, nieces, mothers, sisters, friends and neighbors," said Jacqueline, a 38-year-old supporter from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. "Every woman has the right to security and love."

EndItNow™ was launched October 13 with the support of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and the Women's Ministries Department of the Adventist Church to raise awareness and advocate for the end of violence against women and girls.

To join the 1 million supporters of the EndItNow™ cause, visit enditnow.org.

Adventist student missionary murdered in Yap, Micronesia

2009-11-19T06:11:47Z

Kirsten Elisabeth Wolcott was serving as a volunteer teacher at the Seventh-day Adventist school in Yap, Micronesia. She was found dead off campus Wednesday November 18. [photo courtesy Southern Adventist University]

A Seventh-day Adventist student missionary who was teaching at the Adventist school on the Pacific island of Yap was found dead on Wednesday, the victim of an apparent homicide off the school's campus, church leaders said.

Kirsten Elisabeth Wolcott, originally from Laneview, Virginia in the United States, had reportedly gone jogging alone before morning classes and did not return, church leaders said. Her body was later found in the woods with stab wounds.

Police have made an arrest in connection with Wolcott's death, said Louis Torres, president of the church's Guam-Micronesia Mission. He and other church leaders from the church's regional administrative headquarters took the one-hour commercial flight from Guam to Yap Wednesday evening to assess the tragedy affecting the school and provide grief support for other teachers.

"This is a difficult situation for the school, the mission and the Island of Yap," Torres said. "The police officer said nothing like this has ever taken place in the past to a visitor."

Classes are suspended for now and a memorial service is scheduled for Friday morning.

"This is devastating news, not only for the family but for the school and the Adventist Church," said Homer Trecartin, associate secretary for the Adventist world church and director of Adventist Volunteer Service.

"Throughout the history of the church many have made the sacrifice to go serve and some have paid with their lives," Trecartin said. "Our prayer is that God will raise other people to finish the work that Kirsten and others started."

Wolcott, 20, had taken a year off of school at Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee, where she was a junior education major. She graduated from Richmond Academy in 2007 with high academic honors and was on Southern University's distinguished dean's list.

She was also known for her love of music and running, a university media release said. Wolcott played the harp and piano and sung in Bel Canto, the university's women's chorus. She won several 5k runs, placed third among women in the Toys for Tots 10k Race in Newport News, Virginia, and competed in the Kinetic Sprint Triathlon in Spotsylvania.

Wolcott had previously volunteered on week-long mission trips to Alaska and the Galapagos Islands, said Jose Rojas, the church's North American Volunteer Ministries director, citing her student missionary application.

Wolcott wrote in her application that she wanted to be a student missionary to challenge her walk with God by pushing herself to do something more than she had ever done before.

"My goal is to be the teacher that inspires them academically, pushes them spiritually, and comforts them emotionally," she wrote.

According to Ingrid Skantz, director of marketing and university relations at Southern, an on-campus memorial service for Kirsten will be held the week after Thanksgiving break. Details about the service will be announced, she said. The school is also offering counseling to its students.

"At a painful time such as this, we remember in prayer Kirsten's parents, friends, fellow student missionaries, and all on our campus who knew and loved her well," Skantz said in a statement.

Yap SDA School opened in 1987 as an elementary school and subsequently expanded to a kindergarten through 12th-grade school. The school is highly rated on the island and is operated mostly by Adventist college students volunteering as teachers. About 10 student missionaries are serving this year in Yap, Trecartin said. Teachers live in apartments on campus.

Yap, about 16 miles long and four miles wide, is one of four island states of the nation of Micronesia, a U.S. protectorate.

The Adventist Church currently has more than 780 student missionaries serving around the world, Trecartin said.

El Salvador mudslides claim lives of dozens of Adventists

2009-11-16T11:41:56Z

Dozens of Seventh-day Adventists are dead after flooding and mudslides destroyed roads and bridges and buried homes last week in El Salvador.

A mudslide, caused by Hurricane Ida hitting El Salvador last week, killed nearly 200 people, 30 of whom were Adventists. More than 40,000 people were affected by the storm. [photo: ADRA El Salvador]

Hurricane Ida caused more than 170 deaths in the country, including 30 Adventists. Sixteen church members are still missing after the category 2 hurricane passed through El Salvador November 9.

"In all the years that I've been associated with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in disaster response, I have never seen such a heavy loss among our church members in Inter-America," said Wally Amundson, ADRA director for the church in Inter-America. "We are saddened by how this is impacting the members of our church in El Salvador and pray our leaders will have the endurance to face the immediate challenges."

ADRA is responding to the affected municipalities of San Salvador, La Libertad, De La Paz, San Vicente and Cuzcatlan. More than 40,000 people have been affected by Ida, and thousands of displaced families are scattered among 85 emergency shelters, said Jorge Salazar, ADRA director for El Salvador.

Most of the deaths occurred in the central rural part of the country. More than 100 ADRA volunteers are assisting the community, as well as rescue teams, Salazar said. The government has also offered three helicopters to deliver ADRA supplies.

In addition to the funds released by ADRA and the church in Inter-America to assist the disaster relief effort, Hope for Humanity has sent special funds to assist affected communities and the general public surrounding the literacy circle program.

Some 345 Adventist families were displaced by the storm, 206 of their homes were damaged and four church buildings were also destroyed.

Treasurer for the church in the Mid-Central America region Saul Ortiz said one church member lost 15 family members.

"It will be some time before we can rebuild these churches and families can return to their communities," Ortiz said.

Church leaders for the region are providing special funds to affected Adventist families who will need to relocate soon. In the meantime, members whose home church was destroyed will meet in small group settings for worship, Ortiz said.

Another landslide last week in northern Tanzania claimed the lives of more than two dozen Adventists. Four days of heavy rain triggered the slide, which killed 24 members of one family. Several people are still missing.

Church Chat: Ng on why 'hundreds' of more missionaries still needed

2009-11-12T12:55:05Z

While statistics from the Seventh-day Adventist Church's Office of Volunteer Ministries indicate the number of student missionaries remains steady, world church leader G. T. Ng says fewer trained and experienced professionals -- particularly physicians and university-level professors from North America -- are trading successful practices and tenure for missionary stipends and uncertain futures.

G.T. Ng, a world church associate secretary for the Northern Asia-Pacific, Southern Asia and Trans-European regions, says a steady decrease in missionaries from North America means regions with little church presence often go without long-term missionaries, especially medical doctors and professors. [photo: Megan Brauner/ANN]

Early Adventists lived and breathed mission, Ng says. A small, enthusiastic group, they were intent on spreading the message of hope they'd recently accepted and were seemingly immune to the sacrifices a life dedicated to mission demanded, he says.

"Why did J.N. Andrews [the Adventist Church's first missionary] go to Switzerland? What compelled him?" Ng asked, trying to grasp the drive early church members felt for mission.

While adventure, travel and gaining cultural experience might make a list of plausible answers, Ng says missionaries are fundamentally motivated by an "extreme love of serving God." And he knows such a "tremendous" call is between a church member and God -- "We play no role. We can only pick up the phone and ask."

With more than 16 million fellow members worldwide and the church's global network of schools and hospitals, some of today's Adventists may feel the Biblical call to "go and preach" less acutely, Ng suggests.

Yet now is no time to rest on one's laurels, he says. While some 900 missionaries currently serve the church long-term, Ng estimates the church needs hundreds more.

The situation, as Ng describes it, is a conundrum. If considerably more missionaries volunteered, the world church could likely muster a larger budget, but the current allotment -- $25 million annually -- isn't magnetic enough to draw as many as Ng says are necessary.

Recently Ng, currently a world church associate secretary for the Northern Asia-Pacific, Southern Asia and Trans-European regions, sat down with Adventist News Network to share his concerns about mission and what it takes spread the church's message of hope. Excerpts follow:

Adventist News Network: Why aren't more members volunteering to be missionaries?

G. T. Ng: I'll tell you one thing. When [North American missionaries who served as educators] return, they are perceived to be out of touch with the current situation in the school system of their home country. And as a result, they are not hired, even though they are well qualified and have considerable experience. And so this is a deterrent to potential missionaries. They say, "Why shouldn't I be in the same boat?" So that might be a big part of why there are now fewer missionaries from North America.

ANN: You've described dwindling number of missionaries as a "systemic problem." There must be other reasons.

Ng: Let me give you an example. We will call Dr. So-and-so to talk about a mission opportunity. "Oh, it sounds exciting," he says. "Tell me more." Eventually, he will pop the question: "What is my salary like?" So we tell him, and he says, "Is that a joke? You expect me to give up my practice here, which took 25 years to establish, and go overseas for that?" I mean, it doesn't even enter into the imagination. The gap is too big. So for people who do go to the mission field, pay cannot be an issue.

I recently talked to an anesthesiologist who is leaving to do missionary work in Nepal. Now, an anesthesiologist has a gift -- he puts people to sleep. Some of our speakers are also unfortunately gifted in this way, without medical training! [Laughs] To give up his practice takes sacrifice. And yet he will tell you, "It's an honor for me to serve God. A privilege.' So he knows he financially suffers. Yet he and his wife are willing to live with much lower salaries. So how to inculcate this spirit for mission is the question.

ANN: His story suggests that being a missionary demands an extreme level of sacrifice. Would you say fewer members are willing to accept that inevitability?

Ng: Look, we cannot judge someone who chooses not to be a missionary because of financial reasons. It's not their fault. The low salaries we offer them are because of the church's limited budget, because of the current market. So we should not blame them. We cannot say they are less dedicated when the pay is less. And we do not know their situation -- what financial burdens they may have. Many have graduated with many loans they must pay off. They cannot just leave.

ANN: What about training more local members to serve in their own regions, which might allow the church to do more work with fewer resources?

Long-term missionaries from North America currently make up just over 30 percent of the church's total missionaries, Ng learned during recent research. Click here for a larger version of the chart. [graph: courtesy G.T. Ng]

Ng: Missionaries used to only come from the United States. That was in the '60s. By the '80s, the situation began to change. More and more missionaries from developing countries, from places like South America, Inter-America and the Philippines, began to take over missions, resulting in fewer missionaries from the U.S. Right now, just over 30 percent are from the U.S., with the rest from around the world. So you can see that the church is already making use of local missionaries.

ANN: What's one of your most unique needs currently?

Ng: For many years we had an individual serving in Vellore [India] as a physician/professor and a mentor at Christian Medical College [a Protestant-run institution]. The [Adventist Church] donates $10,000 to the school every year. And because of that, we are guaranteed a certain number of slots for students to study medicine there every year. We have a strong group of Adventist medical students there. See, in India, it's almost impossible to attend medical school because of the Sabbath. But this is a Christian school and they respect our Sabbath-keeping. So this position is very important to fill. And this man retired, and we cannot find anyone. A physician with teaching experience is a tall order. See how tough? I'm just telling you the great need for professionals in the mission field, in the area of education.

ANN: And that's just one example. Would you say it's crunch time for finding missionaries?

Ng: It's not crunch time. It's all of the time.

ANN: How do you encourage a church member to become a missionary?

Ng: Sometimes the picture we see is one of imbalance. Sixteen million members. Five hundred hospitals. Countless schools and so on and so forth. But the work is hardly finished. And yet when we send short-term missionaries, where do these people often go? Mostly to countries where the work is already established and strong. Why? Lopsided mission, I call it. I've researched records from the past five years -- who is sent where, and when. We need to better educate our members to go to areas of acute need, especially in the 10-40 Window [a region of largely unentered territory spanning from West Africa across Asia]. Why not [go to] Sri Lanka? Why not Nepal? Why not Muslim countries? These are blind spots where there is little mission.

ANN: What does it take to be a missionary?

Ng: It takes a gift to be a missionary. Not everybody has the chemistry, the endurance or the tolerance to be a missionary. Not everyone can tolerate sitting outside all day in Nepal, no air conditioning. To be a missionary is a direct response to God's call. That call comes to them, and they say, "I would rather do this than anything else in the world." You cannot begin to describe their enthusiasm for mission.

Korean Adventist language school celebrates 40 years

2009-11-11T12:57:23Z

Keira Chung, an instructor at Adventist-run Samyook Language Institute, says the online English language program she manages is growing, even though general enrollment is down due to flu outbreaks. [photos: Rajmund Dabrowski/ANN]

Keira Chung, an online program manager at the Seventh-day Adventist-run Samyook Language Institute in Seoul, Republic of South Korea, says while recent outbreaks of the H1N1 flu have slowed down the school, her online video language course remains unaffected.

In fact, "we're experiencing a greater [level] of interest," she says, smiling. The distance education program currently has 10,000 students enrolled. Ms. Chung, a twenty-something Korean, is one of the school's more than 800 teachers.

The school, formerly known as the SDA Language Institute, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Established in 1969 with just 700 students, today the school is considered Korea's top language school with over four million alumni.

Samyook Language Institute's President Si Young Kim calls the school's "quality" instructors its "biggest asset."

Sixty percent of it's teachers hail from the United States and Canada, followed by South Africans and representatives of other English-speaking countries, with twice as many Koreans teaching and serving as support staff.

"Our students prefer some English accents more than others," Kim says.

Whether from South Africa or Australia, Samyook employees say their experience is second to none as they file out of the Japanese language class offered to teachers.

Many smile when asked to comment about their experience. Out of the current 246 foreign teachers, several plan to continue beyond their initial one-year contracts. "We are enjoying the experience. We also have plenty to learn about Korea and the Koreans," a teacher from Australia says.

Paul Eun, a 28-year-old Canadian, spent 14 months as a missionary-teacher at the Institute. Now, he works for a non-affiliated language school and compares his experience now with his months spent at Samyook.

"Being in a more secular world, without having Christians around you, it's a little bit of a different environment," he says. "Being at [Samyook] you feel very safe and comfortable because you know the people around you have the same beliefs and that they respect what you believe as well."

Samyook President Si Young Kim says the school's committed teachers are its "biggest asset." Nearly 1,000 native English-speaking instructors from around the world currently teach at the school.

Being a teacher at the institute is not without its challenges, teachers say. "This is no romanticized foreign service," one says. A brief conversation reveals a need for a more intercultural training and an easier teaching load.

Eun says he found the long hours and split shifts difficult. It was "a bit tough because sometimes we would teach [from 6 a.m.] up until 9 p.m., and we would be committed to the institute all day," he says, adding that while "Korea is a nice place to work," you "have to make some sacrifices."

Prior to their arrival in Korea, not all students realize that entering the teaching program might require them to teach classes as early as 6 a.m. The Institute is "addressing those issues," Kim says of the concerns teachers have shared.

Often the teacher's availability outside of the class hours makes the biggest difference in students' lives, however. Many say they appreciate being invited to a teacher's home for conversation and friendship.

Paul Song recalls the early days of his study in 1995. He learned English from a couple from California who were "kind and invited [me] to spend time outside the classroom. They opened their home," he remembers.

Song later joined the Adventist church and today works as a media producer in the church's Northern Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Illsan, a suburb of Seoul.

Enrollment at Samyook this year stands at 50,000, down 10,000 from last year. School officials say they expect enrollment to pick up again after the H1N1 flu epidemic passes.

With growing enrollment comes the need for progress -- new technology, testing techniques and teaching methods, including distance learning, Kim says.

Standing at a door to a new language lab, Kim explains that students take the Oral Proficiency Interview inside, a new computerized test that is evaluated in the United States.

A new lab offers the latest in language instruction to Samyook students -- an experimental computerized test available through a recent partnership with Samsung, Kim says.

"Samsung offered to run this technological experiment with us. They see our language program as one worth working with," he says.

Kim is quick to emphasize, however, the school is above all a mission venture of the Adventist Church. "Our focus is to provide not only the best teaching but also to bring people to Jesus," he says.

Matthew Bediako, a world church vice president, tested the school's reputation when he visited last month. When he told locals where he was headed, they recognized not only the school's name, but also it's Adventist Church affiliation. "They probably studied there," Bediako says.

Treasurer, a native son, dismisses a poverty mindset in West-Central Africa

2009-11-10T07:33:43Z

George Egwakhe is fighting the poverty mindset.

The son of farmers in rural Nigeria, Egwakhe now finds himself in a position of encouraging Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders in West-Central Africa to abandon the phrase "I'm poor."

George Egwakhe, an associate treasurer for the Adventist world church, addresses church leaders in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, Monday, November 9. He and other church leaders are urging a more deliberate focus on local church regions becoming self reliant. [photo: Ansel Oliver/ANN]

"I disagree with that mentality, I don't accept it," says Egwakhe, an associate treasurer at the Adventist Church world headquarters in the United States.

His comments come during an interview over lunch at the church's West-Central Africa regional headquarters, where church leaders are holding year-end business meetings.

Following the morning's treasurer's report, several delegates asked for an increase in appropriations for their regions. Both Egwakhe and the division president put the kibosh on that idea.

"Don't tell me about poverty," Egwakhe told some 30 delegates during an animated response to the floor discussion. "If you do not believe in self support you are in the wrong place."

Later, over lunch, Egwake says that most foreign church leaders wouldn't be able to respond the way he did that morning. He grew up in the region and had to work as a farmer for five years following elementary school to earn his way to high school. "I believe it is possible for [this region] to change its financial picture," he says.

Egwakhe is one of three world church officers attending the meeting. Each of the church's 13 world regions typically hold their own business meetings following the world church's Annual Council at the world church headquarters in October.

The church's West Central African region is home to more than 830,000 Adventists. [graphic: courtesy adventist.org]

The West-Central Africa region, home to more than 830,000 Adventists, faces some of the most daunting challenges in the denomination, local church leaders say. In addition to being a malaria zone, it's a volatile region, politically and economically. Currencies can fluctuate wildly -- the region this year lost nearly 30 percent of its appropriation from the world headquarters because of varying currency rates. Also, transportation in the region is expensive -- it can be cheaper to fly to Europe or the United States than to travel across the region's territory.

Still, the biggest challenge, Egwakhe says, is fighting against a mindset that thinks money will always come from other world church regions.

Many in West Central Africa are subsistence farmers who live on a few dollars a day. But, as Egwakhe pointed out to delegates, it was the rural eastern region of Nigeria that was the first area of that country to become self-reliant more than 30 years ago, not the wealthier suburban areas.

"They were farmers, and I see some of them here today," Egwakhe told delegates. It's not the amount of wealth that matters, but how that wealth is managed, he said.

"My great-grandmother could manage her wealth," Egwakhe said.

Earlier this year, the division held its first Stewardship summit, which drew nearly 300 delegates to Ghana, the only country in the region to deliver a clean audit this year.

Similar conferences are scheduled around the region next year to emphasize responsible living and wealth management.

"We're hitting that point hard," said Mike Ryan, a vice president of the Adventist world church, who is also attending the meeting. Ryan spent the previous week delivering the region's strategic plan, which calls for a strong stewardship emphasis to meet the church's policy requiring that local regions aim toward self reliance.

"Research shows that [regions] that have a stronger stewardship program tend to be closer to becoming self reliant than those that don't," Ryan said.

In his response to delegates, regional President Gilbert Wari put his index finger to his temple, saying, "Development starts here, prepare your mind for development."

"Let's tell our members, even to tithe their poverty," Wari said. "They eat, don't they? So if they can eat, they can tithe that too and God will bless."

Adventist Church growth rate trends higher in United States, Canada, Bermuda

2009-11-10T07:12:36Z

As of September 30, there are nearly 1.1 million Adventist Church members in North America, G. Alexander Bryant, secretary for the region, told delegates gathered in Silver Spring, Maryland on November 5 for the region's year-end meetings. [photos: Mark A. Kellner/Adventist Review]

As of Sept. 30, there are 1,097,217 members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America, said G. Alexander Bryant, secretary of the church in North America, in a report opening the region's year-end meetings in Silver Spring, Maryland last week. The figure represents a ratio of one Seventh-day Adventist for every 312 people in North America, he said.

That's a net increase of 12,379 members over the 1,084,838 on the record at the end of 2008, according to statistics on file at Bryant's offices. During 2008, Bryant said, 7,353 members passed away, and another 14,687 were either dropped from church rolls or could not be located. Today, North American members of the Church worship weekly in 6,005 churches and congregations in the United States, Canada and Bermuda.

Overall, however, church growth is more positive than the initial numbers might suggest, Bryant explained. The current membership growth rate is 2.13 percent, Bryant said, up from 1.44 percent in 2004, and 1.97 percent in 2007. (Rates of growth are the changes in membership between the beginning of the year and the end of the year, shown as percentages.)

From June 30, 2008 to July 1, 2009, an average of 116.8 people joined the church in North America per day either by baptism or on profession of faith. That's 4.1 percent of the 2,818.1 people who joined the worldwide Adventist Church every day during that period, for a global total of 1,029,206 members. Global Adventist Church membership, as of late September, stood at just over 16 million, world church leaders reported.

Evangelism "is happening all over our [region]," regional president Don C. Schneider said last week.

Bryant's report followed a presentation by Don C. Schneider, president for the church in North American, in which he highlighted a number of evangelism initiatives throughout the three-nation region. Among the most notable was the Claim L.A. campaign headlined by It Is Written speaker/director Shawn Boonstra, targeted at the nearly 14 million people who live in Los Angeles.

But evangelism "is happening all over our division ... everywhere," Schneider said. "New churches are starting, and ... there were more baptisms this year than we have had in many years."

The NAD year-end business meetings ran through Monday, November 9.

Maranatha marks 40 years of church, school construction worldwide

2009-11-10T06:52:19Z

Not-for-profit construction company Maranatha Volunteers International marked its 40th anniversary of volunteer-driven school, church, clinic, orphanage and hospital projects this year.

Don Noble, president of Maranatha Volunteers International, and wife Laura Noble attend the annual year-end business meetings of the Seventh-day Adventist world church. Maranatha celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, marking decades of completed construction projects around the world. [photo: Rajmund Dabrowski/ANN]

Maranatha, a supporting ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has worked with more than 60,000 volunteers and completed projects in 63 countries since the organization began in 1969.

The biggest change in 40 years has been the ability of the organization to respond to the world church needs, said Kyle Fiess, Maranatha vice president for marketing and projects.

"For twenty years, the organization would respond to several projects per year," Fiess said. "Now, Maranatha operates in multiple countries around the world."

And the projects keep pouring in, Fiess said.

Currently, Maranatha has received over 100,000 church building requests, a number the organization can better handle with recent equipment purchases, leadership said.

Ongoing Maranatha projects include the One-Day Church, a project providing quick construction solutions for thousands of Adventists around the world, and Ultimate Workouts, construction projects targeted at high school-aged volunteers.

"[Ultimate Workouts] started with a handful of teenagers, but now the project accommodates nearly 200 participants each summer," Fiess said.

This summer will be the 20th Ultimate Workout.

While the number of volunteers has steadily increased, the organization has still been effected by the economic downturn, Fiess said.

"The recession has affected Maranatha financially as giving levels have shifted," he said, adding that the organization had to make "spending cuts in a number of areas, including a reduction of our office staff."

Cut-backs aside, most Maranatha volunteer projects are "filled to capacity," Fiess said.

New construction methods, careful planning and "God's leading" will move the organization's work ahead in the next decade, said Don Noble, president of Maranatha.

"We plan to increase our capacity to construct more churches and schools that will meet the needs of church growth and to involve more volunteers in both construction and wider outreach opportunities connected with these projects."

Adventist-led anti-gender violence campaign in line with new UN initiative

2009-11-10T06:51:10Z

About a month after the Seventh-day Adventist Church launched EndItNow, a national campaign to end violence against women and girls, the United Nations announced a similar global initiative.

On November 6, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) launched a Web site to encourage individual efforts aimed at eradicating violence against women.

The Say No - Unite to End Violence Against Women initiative's Web site addresses the widespread problem -- estimates say around 70 percent of all women have been victim to some kind of violence -- and demonstrates support by tracking efforts to combat the issue.

"We know that violence against women is a problem with solutions," said UNIFEM Executive Director Inés Alberdi during a visit with patients at a health clinic for women victims of sexual violence in Nairobi, Kenya.

"What I have seen first-hand today in Kenya is the impact of effective work at the grassroots level, yet there is an urgent need for governments to make this issue a top priority and take decisive action," Alberdi said.

Counting efforts by individuals, governments and civil society groups, the campaign has set a goal of 100,000 efforts against violence by March 2010 and 1 million by this time next year.

For more information about what the Adventist Church is doing to end violence against women and to sign the petition, visit enditnow.org.

For more information about Say No, visit unifem.org.

Adventist writer honored with lifetime communication award

2009-10-29T04:25:31Z

Celeste Ryan Blyden, former board president for the Society of Adventist Communicators, presents the Lifetime Achievement Award to Don Roth at the society's awards banquet October 17 in Newport Beach, California. [photo: Gerry Chudleigh]

A former correspondent for the Seventh-day Adventist Church during the Vietnam War and retired communications leader received a Lifetime Achievement Award last week.

Don Roth, reporter, author and former associate secretary for the Adventist world church, accepted the award during the annual Society of Adventist Communicators convention held October 15 to 17 in Newport Beach, California.

During his nearly 60 years of professional experience, Roth significantly contributed to reporting church news, both for the denomination and in the public press, conference organizers said.

"I was totally surprised at the award, and appreciated the recognition," Roth said.

During the Vietnam War, Roth was the primary source of Adventist news in the region, church leaders said. Roth covered events ranging from a visit of the Loma Linda University heart surgery team to the end of church work in Vietnam and eventual evacuation of personnel.

Roth's personal relationship with United States news agencies stationed in Saigon provided him access to evacuation procedures when South Vietnam fell to Hanoi in April 1975. Roth personally helped 36 individuals safely retreat to Guam.

Much of Roth's legacy as an Adventist communicator is the record of actions, events, news, and human-interest stories published in the journals and newsletters he edited, church communicators said.

The Adventist Periodical Index lists more than 420 articles published under his byline, primarily in the Adventist Review.

Roth has written or coauthored four books including a story of a Borneo witch doctor who converted to Christianity called "Mundahoi," and an autobiography "Called to Serve."

Perceptions vary on Adventist Church's communication commitment, effectiveness

2009-10-28T09:38:26Z

The Adventist Church is encouraging continuing education for its communication professionals with a certification program. Above, the Society of Adventist Communicators convention earlier this month. [photo: Ansel Oliver]

Steve Vistaunet oversees six Seventh-day Adventist Church Communication departments in the United States' Pacific Northwest. Yet only three of them, he says, have made the financial commitment to hire a professional communicator to serve in the position.

Many church leaders point out that department directors are often given the role in addition to other responsibilities.

"I don't think it's a lack of desire, it's a lack of finances," said Vistaunet, assistant for Communication to the president of the church's North Pacific Union.

For many local church administrative offices it's often a luxury to have a full-time communication professional working to report on church business meetings, write feature stories on church life and liaison with the media.

Vistaunet and other leaders are now encouraging local church administrations to hire communication professionals.

"And for those who can't, we're developing resources to help them increase their communication awareness and expertise," he said in an interview following this month's annual convention of the Society of Adventist Communicators (SAC), of which he also serves as president.

The convention, held in Newport Beach, California from October 15 to 17 brought together 140 participants, including church communication employees and college students, for workshops and networking opportunities. The society originally began 20 years ago in the church's Southern Union in the United States. In 2000, the group's annual convention expanded to include communicators from all of North America and now includes international participants.

Leaders are urging church communication employees to become certified through their church region's Communication Certification Program. Launched in 2007, the program will soon have its first person fulfill requirements, a church spokesperson said.

Vistaunet also said he hopes to bring together other groups of communicators, including Adventist radio professionals and participants of the Global Internet Evangelism Network.

The church's communication roots were set in 1912 when the Adventist world church headquarters hired Walter Burgan, a reporter with the Baltimore Sun newspaper, to establish the denomination's Bureau of Press Relations, the precursor of today's Communication department.

Today, many are urging the church to re-examine its commitment to hiring qualified spokespeople to work for the Adventist world church, an organization with some $20 billion of assets in more than 200 countries.

"I think a big challenge is that the church may not understand that management of corporate communication in the 21st century is not a luxury but a necessity," said Abel Marquez, dean of the School of Arts and Communication at the church's Montemorelos University in Mexico.

Marquez, who also serves as associate Communication director for the church's Inter-America region, said the church in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean will soon launch the certification program. Already, he said, the church in his region has held multiple communication seminars and other continuing education programs to educate local pastors about what effective corporate communication can accomplish.

College students at this month's SAC convention supported the church's communication goals, some pointing to areas where it could improve.

"I think the church now realizes it's time to update technology and communication and methods to better reach the world around us," said Rebecca Barcelo, a junior at La Sierra University in Riverside, California. She said she appreciated the fact that each of the nine unions in North America have their own magazine to connect members. She one day hopes to write for one.

Kortnye Hurst, a senior at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska, said she thinks the church's world headquarters tries to let members know what's happening, but communication can stall at the local administration level. She said, however, that it's getting easier for members to learn about church initiatives and activities.

"I think communication in the church is moving toward more horizontal communication than hierarchical, which is good," she said.

Hurst said the SAC convention offered potential for professional growth and networking. "The amount of growth I experience depends on me tapping into that," she said.

The next convention of the Society of Adventist Communicators is scheduled for October 14 to 16, 2010 in Rochester, New York.

Adventist churches worldwide hold creation emphasis day

2009-10-26T09:23:03Z

Randall Younker, left, director of the Institute of Archeology at Andrews University, and Leonard Brand, chair of Loma Linda University's Department of Earth and Biological Sciences, speak during Sabbath School on Saturday October 24 at Loma Linda University Church. The denomination gathered several of its top scientists and theologians for the first Creation Sabbath. [photo: Ansel Oliver]

Top Seventh-day Adventist theologians and scientists convened last weekend as part of a worldwide denominational celebration of the biblical account of creation.

In an event held at Southern California's Loma Linda University, geologists presented evidence of a biblical global flood and theologians shared the importance of special creation to a Christian's worldview as part of the church's first Creation Sabbath, affirming the church's fundamental belief of a literal and recent six-day creation.

"That's not a very popular idea these days, but the Adventist Church is committed to that belief," said Randall Younker, professor and director of the Institute of Archeology at the church's Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.

The October 24 celebration was created in April by church leaders wanting to emphasize the sixth of the denomination's 28 Fundamental Beliefs. Though leaders originally said the celebration was not established to counter other worldviews, participants in the official ceremony on Saturday said the discussion was relevant.

"The evangelical world at large is moving toward theistic evolution," Younker said. "In the broader world of evangelical Christianity, including Seventh-day Adventism, there is a tension, there is a discussion. Some feel they have to accommodate scripture in order to meet the scientific evidence."

The weekend's proceedings were held at University Church at Loma Linda University, an institution directly affiliated with the world church's headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. The Friday night panel discussion and Saturday presentations were sponsored by the Adventist Church's Faith and Science Council and broadcast on its television network, Hope Channel. The event was initiated by the church's Ministerial Association. Programs were held throughout the church worldwide.

At Loma Linda, scientists presented evidence for the biblical account of a worldwide flood, including turtle fossils in the United States and whale fossils in Peru that are in the same state of decay, indicating they were likely buried at the same time.

Some also pointed out shortcomings of evolution, theistic or not.

Leonard Brand, chair of the university's Earth and Biological Sciences department, said the only difference between the two is that one has God in the process and over "millions of years we gradually become better and come to where we are now."

Brand, author of several geology journal articles, said micro-evolution, or changes in animals over time, doesn't lead to changes into other species.

"Changes are a biological canyon between micro-evolution and mega-evolution," he said.

Others said the debate between creation and evolution wasn't necessarily about God versus science, but two debating faiths.

"There is a kind of naturalism that is very troubling; it arbitrarily eliminates God from the picture," said Art Chadwick, research professor of geology at Southwestern Adventist University. "They are violently opposed to people outside who threaten their beliefs. That sounds a lot like a religion, and not even a good one."

Adventist Review columnist Clifford Goldstein took aim at theistic evolution, hinting that a future article would point out other ideas once brought into Christianity that have since been discarded.

"All through history, there isn't an idea - no matter how ludicrous, no matter how stupid, no matter how contrary to the basic views of Christianity - that we're not going to find some 'progressive' Christians wanting to incorporate," said Goldstein, who edits the church's Adult Bible Study Guide. "I don't buy into the idea that they're the Galileos of their time and that we're retarding progress."

Still, the issue is one of balance, Goldstein said. "The struggle, I think, for the church has always been, how much of the ideas of the world ... can we bring in without threatening our underlying [beliefs]? How far do we go? At what point do we say, 'No this is what we believe, and what we don't understand we just have to go by faith?'"

At several points, presentations reiterated the belief in a loving God, who accepts people regardless of their belief on origins. Several speakers also shared how they are able to share their beliefs with non-Christian colleagues by their work ethic and rational approach in seeking evidence.

"He'll ask [me] questions he would never ask a pastor," Brand said of an atheistic archeologist friend.

Several audience members said they appreciated the church's commitment to a literal creation, including Danilo Boskovic, who afterward offered a loud "Amen" when asked what he thought of the Creation Sabbath.

"For the first time in a long time I see people talking about creationism with enthusiasm, with confidence, without this business of apologizing for our beliefs," Boskovic said. "Some people have an inferiority complex about our heritage. This was titled correctly. It is a celebration."

Pat Hamoodi, who drove about 30 miles from her home in Pomona for the service at University Church, said she attended to see the issue of creation discussed by some of the church's experts. She was raised in an atheist home and said she wants to debate her family on the matter of origins "in a good way."

"I came here to get ammunition, you could say," Hamoodi said.

Commission established to review Adventist Church's Griggs University

2009-10-23T06:31:20Z

Griggs University, the distance learning institution of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, is facing challenges in keeping up with technology and online education delivery, church leadership said. [photo: Megan Brauner/ANN]

Griggs University could be in long-term danger of closing without renewed commitment from Seventh-day Adventist Church administration, even though it's currently a "strong" institution, school officials said.

Based at the church's world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, the distance-learning institution is falling behind on current uses of technology and online education delivery, according to church administrators.

The church's Executive Committee this week appointed a short-term distance-study commission to investigate current best practices for distance education.

"It's our request that church administration examine what services it expects from Griggs," said Don Sahly, Griggs' president.

Last year was the institution's worst year financially despite a 12-month enrollment increase of some 1,500 students, Sahly said.

Griggs University launched 100 years ago as Home Study International, a correspondence school for children of missionaries living oversees. Today it has less than 30 such students on its 5,000-student roster. The institution has evolved to serve college and graduate students, entering areas of the world where the Adventist Church hasn't, including Vietnam, United Arab Eremites and Saudi Arabia.

Though the institution's work doesn't generate much revenue in some parts of the world, Sahly said it contributes to the church's mission. Affiliate campuses are mostly reaching people who are not Adventist Church members.

"Who else has gone to Hanoi [Vietnam] and been able to make 2,000 contacts," Sahly said.

While the school has expanded into developing markets during the past five years, it hasn't been able to keep up with evolving distance education technology and practices.

"We need fundamental change," said Ella Simmons, a general vice president of the Adventist Church and chair of the newly appointed commission. During a report to the church's Executive Committee she said "essential unanswered questions" remained regarding the structure, financial feasibility, location and market demand for distance education supported by the world church, which require "immediate and close scrutiny."

The commission is scheduled to report to the world church's Executive Committee in April.

Surgeon Bailey reflects 25 years after 'Baby Fae'

2009-10-21T10:52:38Z

Dr. Leonard Bailey and his team performed the Baby Fae heart transplant 25 years ago. He now serves as chief of surgury at Loma Linda Children's Hospital. [photos: courtesy LLUMC]

Dr. Leonard Bailey walks into his office and defends his Loony Toons necktie.

"It sedates the kids a bit," says the legendary pediatric heart surgeon of his neckwear featuring Road Runner, Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny.

The chief of surgery for Loma Linda Children's Hospital operated that morning, as well as every day the previous week, and is planning the same packed schedule for the following week.

Many surgeons lay down the scalpel after age 60. But for Bailey, 66, who garnered international fame in 1984 after transplanting a baboon's heart into an infant girl, nearly every day is still another operating opportunity.

The days of cross-species organ transplants are gone due to controversies over possible infections. But 25 years ago, that baboon-to-human heart transplant paved the way for the world's first human-to-human heart transplant in a child a year later. Loma Linda University Medical Center is nearing its 500th successful case of pediatric heart transplants. One of those kids is even now in medical school.

"The majority of these children were programmed from conception to not be in this world ever more than just birthing and dying. Their lifespan was in days. When you think about it it's really quite amazing the quite large cadre of kids who have grown up," Bailey says.

Today, as more is known about complex congenital heart diseases, more infants can have their hearts surgically reconstructed instead of having to undergo a transplant, he says.

Many of the lives now saved through such procedures were made possible by a life that ultimately wasn't. In 1984, Teresa Beauclair visited Loma Linda University Medical Center with her infant daughter Stephanie, who suffered from hypoplastic left-heart syndrome, an underdevelopment of the heart's left side.

"In those days, the advice to parents was to leave the baby here to die or take it home to die," Bailey recalls.

Before Stephanie and her mother had visited Loma Linda, Bailey had performed more than 150 heart transplants during six years of research in sheep, goats and baboons, many of them between species. In absence of an available donor heart from another human, Teresa made the decision to allow the experimental surgery on her daughter.

The patient's middle name, Fae, was chosen to provide anonymity for her and her mother. On October 26, 1984, Bailey and his team transplanted a baboon's heart into "Baby Fae," as she became known to the media. The procedure sharply divided the medical community and brought protest from animal rights groups, who called the procedure "ghoulish tinkering" with human and animal life, media reports stated.

Baby Fae lived for 21 days, two weeks longer than any other previous baboon heart transplant recipient.

Dr. Leonard Bailey and his team performed the Baby Fae heart transplant 25 years ago. He now serves as chief of surgury at Loma Linda Children's Hospital.

On the day of her death, the surgeon made a rare public appearance to inform members of the press gathered outside the hospital. Reports said he was nearly breaking with emotion. "Infants with heart disease yet to be born will some day soon have the opportunity to live, thanks to the courage of this infant and her parents," Time magazine reported him as saying.

The media storm surrounding the 1984 case kept Bailey mostly in the hospital working on the case. Some accused him of solely seeking publicity. Bailey now says he thinks the press did a decent job.

"It was all of a sudden, it was happening and they had to be on it with very little preparation," he says. "The bottom line is they made such a big issue of it that a year later we were able to do an allograph, which is a human-to-human heart."

Now 25 years later, his goal is to continue treating congenital heart disease in children and strengthen the growing department. He also wants to remain an active family man and maintain his health. Two years ago he went under the knife himself after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. He says the experience was frightening at first, but he came to terms with it. Now he's beyond a reasonable risk of recurrence, he reports.

"You know what happens to you, psychologically? You think 'I wonder if it's coming back,' or 'I wonder what that pain was.' That isn't to say that I would be necessarily afraid to die ... I'm just not ready to hang it up here yet."

Bailey says he's able to stay spiritually grounded, even when he loses patients.

"It's always an emotional and dreadful experience. But it actually strengthens my faith. In my view that's part of life. There are two things certain in biology: birth and death."

Bailey has spent his life working to lengthen the lifespan of infants born with an untimely death sentence. Many stay in contact.

"I see old patients sometimes and they give me a hug and I think 'My goodness, you were just a baby when we first met and here you are.' It's thrilling. ... That by itself wouldn't get me up in the morning, although it's a really sweet piece of it. What gets me up is the challenge to make it better."

Baby Fae's mother, Teresa, is now working to put herself through nursing school in Kansas, a university spokesperson said. She and Bailey will reunite October 31 as the university debuts a documentary titled Stephanie's Heart: The Story of Baby Fae.

Teresa will attend the ceremony with her three children.

For more information, see http://www.llu.edu/news/360/2009/baby-fae.page

President of Adventist insurance, risk management services dies

2009-10-19T11:45:43Z

Robert L. Sweezey, president of Adventist Risk Management, died October 16. [photo: courtesy ARM]

Robert L. Sweezey, president of Adventist Risk Management (ARM), who is credited with responsible handling of the church's insurance and risk management services for more than a decade, died in Florida on October 16.

Sweezey, 52, regularly traveled to Ft. Lauderdale as part of his doctoral program in International Business at Nova Southeastern University. The cause of his death remains unknown, ARM board members said.

As the risk manager for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Sweezey served as president of Gencon Insurance Company of Vermont, the church's captive insurer, and Gencon Insurance Company International, Ltd.

Sweezey will be remembered as someone who used his "vision and direction" to lead the company through "challenging financial deficits" when he took over in 1992, an ARM press release said today. He worked to underwrite insurance policies that currently ensure 90 percent of the church's facilities and institutions worldwide, the release said.

A graduate of Walla Walla University (then Walla Walla College) in College Place, Washington, in 1980, Sweezey earned bachelor's degrees in business and theology. In 1987, he graduated from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California with an MBA. Later, he earned a Juris Doctorate from Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta, Georgia.

Sweezey, a strong believer in continued growth through education, was a few months away from writing his doctoral thesis at the time of his death, ARM officials said.

During his career, Sweezey was designated as a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter by the American Institute for Property Liability Underwriters. He was licensed as an insurance broker, a registered representative and a registered principal, as well as a Risk Management Fellow of the Risk & Insurance Management Society.

Sweezey was also an active member of the Baltimore First Seventh-day Adventist Church, serving as the church's first elder and a member of its school board.

"The Adventist Risk Management family is deeply saddened by the sudden death of Rob Sweezey," said Lowell Cooper, ARM board member and a world church vice president. "He displayed an unshakeable commitment to the Adventist Church and felt honored to have a role in protecting its assets."

Sweezey is survived by his wife, Dr. Karen "Muffy" Piper, and three children: Herb, Katie and Benny.

A memorial service for Sweezey is planned for 4 p.m. on Friday, October 23 at the Baltimore First Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ellicott City, Maryland.