27 June, 2017

A Church Leader in Jamaica Says Nothing is More Powerful Than a Good Example

When Adrian Cotterell enrolled in 11th grade at a Seventh-day Adventist boarding school in Jamaica, he had no interest in Christianity. He didn’t believe in the soon coming of Jesus, and thought Adventists especially were foolish for worshiping on Saturday and refusing to eat pork. Adrian chose West Indies High School on a hilltop in the central city Mandeville because he thought it was like other boarding schools where students could have parties.

26 June, 2017

Adventist Institute to Launch Initiative to Reach the Community

You would never guess it by looking at him, but Johnny An, a gentle-spirited nursing student at Weimar Institute, was kicked out of his last school. It wasn’t low grades or bad behavior that forced the only child from Incheon, Korea, out of school. It was just the opposite: his exceptional leadership skills and his commitment to biblical truth got him in trouble. While attending Christian International School in Korea, An was president of the student body and the choir leader. He also began studying the Bible with a pastor at the local Seventh-day Adventist Church, where he learned exciting ideas that he couldn’t keep to himself.

23 June, 2017

Honored by Britain’s Queen and Heaven’s King in Belize

The most exciting day in the young life of Leticia August was when her mother sent her from Guatemala to live with her grandmother in neighboring Belize. Her parents were staunch Sunday-keepers, and Leticia was tired of being told that she couldn’t behave like the other girls. “When I moved, I said, ‘Yes this is it!’” Leticia said. Leticia started going to dances and parties. She felt like free at last. But she worried nearly every day, “What will happen to me if I die tonight?”

22 June, 2017

First Café Church Opens In New York City

In upper Manhattan, the MyGen Seventh-day Adventist Church recently opened its doors for its first official service. Upon entering the church, it becomes immediately apparent that this is not a conventional church. MyGen church is Greater New York Conference’s first Seventh-day Adventist “café church.” Instead of pews, round tables fill the space and worship is led from a stage platform. The members come dressed formally or informally, the music is lively, the service is interactive, and Sabbath School happens over lunch following the worship service. According to the organizers, that is the goal.

22 June, 2017

Collaborative Efforts Result in 1,500 Baptisms in El Salvador

More than 1,500 people were baptized at the end of “Impacto Salvador,” a series of evangelistic meetings in El Salvador, last March. The meetings were a joint endeavor with the Atlantic Union Conference church region in the US, under the direction of Dionisio Olivo, Atlantic Union Conference Hispanic and Portuguese ministries vice president, and the El Salvador Union Mission. Atlantic Union officers, departmental directors, conference administrators, and pastors all participated in the meetings as they presented evangelistic messages simultaneously at 38 different churches in and around the capital city of San Salvador.

21 June, 2017

Former L.A. Gangster Helps Run Adventist Hospital in Mexico

Robert Gonzalez Medina liked to tease his mother. Whenever gunshots were fired at their home, he would cry out, “Mom! Mom! They hit me!” Mother was a good sport, and she played along with Robert’s game. “Oh no!” she said every time. “What will we do?” But the gang violence was no joking matter. Robert grew up in a violent Los Angeles neighborhood. When he was 5 years old, his older brothers joined a street gang. People from other gangs drove by their house and shot at it, trying to scare his brothers.

20 June, 2017

Adventists Respond to London Building Fire

The scenes at Grenfell Estate were both horrific and numbing. Grenfell Tower after the fire. Image from Wikimedia Commons It was about 4:30 pm on Wednesday, June 14, almost 14 hours since the start of the fire at the apartment complex in London, and one could still see the smoke and smell the burning as the 24-story block of apartments continued to consume any outward visible structure of the building. The atmosphere was still of amazement, shock and despair as people that were either apartment residents, or those who had to be evacuated nearby, sat along the concrete pavement in dismay. Some were being comforted by other people present in the area, while others were just staring in stark bewilderment.

15 June, 2017

‘You Have All the Symptoms of AIDS’

I started to drink after getting married at the age of 20, and then I started to smoke. Soon I was an alcoholic and a chain smoker. I loved going to parties. My wife was baptized after attending an evangelistic series by a pastor named Richard Perez at a Seventh-day Adventist church near my home in the Mexican state of Tabasco. But I refused to get baptized. Twice. My lifestyle took a toll on my body after 13 years, and my back began to ache badly. I went to the local medical services, and they gave me medicine that didn’t help. The next day, I went to the Southeast Adventist Hospital. Doctors ran a battery of X-rays, blood tests, and other exams, but they couldn’t find anything wrong.

14 June, 2017

Adventist Church in Puerto Rico Provides Day of Respite to Female Inmates

elcoming three-dozen women from a correctional institution in San Juan, is one of the biggest highlights of the year for Pastor José Alberto Rodríguez, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Puerto Rico, and his wife, Christina. The couple, who live in Mayaguez, have opened their home to these women every year for the past six years. The institution in San Juan is a type of halfway house facility for those with criminal backgrounds serving the final period of their sentences. The bus ride to Pastor Rodríguez’s home in Mayaguez takes about three hours, and when the women arrive they wear nothing but smiles on their faces. It is an opportunity for them to spend time away from their problems, their troubled past, and an uncertain future.

13 June, 2017

Papua New Guinea Backs Down on Sabbath Voting

Electoral officials in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have made changes to the upcoming general election to ensure no Christian will have to vote on their day of worship. After the announcement was made that polling would run from June 24 to July 8, a concerned Kepsie Elodo, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in PNG, wrote to the Chief Electoral Commissioner noting that these dates included three Saturdays. For Seventh-day Adventists, Saturday is the seventh-day Sabbath that, following Bible commands, church members keep as holy (Exodus 20:8-11.)