Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [ANN Staff]
An unprecedented range of Seventh-day Adventist media and ministries joined forces Feb. 11 to produce a live satellite broadcast to support the church in the tsunami-affected regions of Southern Asia.
The Hope Channel and Three Angels Broadcasting Network each carried the two-hour special broadcast, “Hope in Tragedy,” live from the Adventist world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. Produced by the Office of Mission Awareness and hosted by evangelist Mark Finley, the program combined a spiritual talk, music, interviews, and video messages from around the world.
“The main purpose of tonight’s program was to share a spiritual message of hope even in the midst of tragedy,” Finley, director of the church’s Office of Global Evangelism, said during the program. “Secondly, we wanted to help strengthen the church in countries affected by the tsunami, so they can be more effective in their Christian witness in the days ahead.”
During the program, Finley invited viewers to support the mission work of the Adventist Church tsunami-affected countries. By the end of the program, some 500 phone calls had resulted in donations of U.S.
$88,000, and Internet donations had totaled U.S. $12,000. More donations are expected in the mail over the next few weeks.
The program also included two interviews with Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the Adventist world church. Speaking directly to Adventists living in the tsunami affected areas, he challenged them to share their hope for the future with others: “You are a people living in this part of the world where there is so much widespread damage, destruction and trauma,” said Paulsen. “Let God speak through you, use you, use your care, use your time and energy to communicate to those people who suffer. Help them understand there is a God. Yes, there is a need to relieve physical suffering, but in particular there is a depth of spiritual value and strength that hope can bring to people. Make yourselves instruments of hope.”
The program shared short messages of hope from a diverse range of well-known Adventists, including Dr. Ben Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States; Del Delker, vocalist from the Voice of Prophecy media ministry; and Heather-Dawn Small, interim director of Women’s Ministries for the world church.
“Donations received will be channeled through a special committee at the Adventist world headquarters,” said Gary Krause, director of the Office of Mission Awareness. “Careful guidelines are in place to ensure that all money goes as designated to help [the] Adventist mission in its holistic outreach in the countries affected by the tsunami.”
During the broadcast, phone calls from donors were handled by a call-in center at Adventist Information Ministries (AIM), located in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Krause paid tribute to the 20 AIM employees — all students from nearby Andrews University — who volunteered their time in support of the broadcast.
The program will be re-broadcast by Safe TV a supporting ministry of the Adventist Church.
Copyright © 2005 by Adventist News Network.
