Delbert W. Baker, a veteran Seventh-day Adventist administrator and former general vice president of the world church, has assumed leadership of the Adventist University of Africa near Nairobi, Kenya. Baker said he had accepted an invitation to work as the university’s vice chancellor, a position akin to president, and was moving there with his wife, Susan M. Baker, a physical therapist, educator, and administrator.
A recent survey conducted by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Inter-American Division (IAD) revealed that there are less church members attending Sabbath School classes and less of those members studying Sabbath School bible guides every week. The main purpose of the survey research was to examine issues affecting nurturing, evangelism, mission, programming and equipping the Sabbath School in the IAD.
Regional conference presidents and other leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are studying how they might use health centers, vegetarian restaurants, community services and other outreach methods to expand efforts to share Jesus with urban centers and inner-city residents after holding key talks with General Conference and North American Division leadership.
Nearly three dozen Pathfinders escaped a bus crash with mostly scratches and bruises thanks to God’s miraculous intervention after their vehicle lost its brakes on a mountainous road en route to a camporee in Mexico, their director said. Director Sergio Cruz Robles described a horrific race down the mountain at 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 13 as the Pathfinders from the state of Michoacan in central Mexico traveled 330 miles (530 kilometers) to the camporee of about 3,300 Pathfinders.
Inter-American Division’s Health Food Company Board members thanked long-time director Joel Zukovski for his outstanding leadership during the last 27 years. “Thank you for how you have led the Health Food Company across the church in Inter-America,” said Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America.
Montemorelos University, an institution operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America, opened its new law degree this school year, becoming the third Adventist university in the world to offer such a degree. University leaders congratulated faculty for their efforts in ensuring the career is up and running with nine students during a recent ceremony on campus.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church and its members worldwide offered prayers and support for Paris after a series of shootings and explosions killed scores of people. France declared a state of emergency and closed its borders after at least 80 people were reported killed in a concert hall and 50 others died in attacks on restaurants and near a stadium on Friday night.
European leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church stood in a minute of silence and solidarity with the people of France following the Nov. 13 nighttime attacks that killed at least 129 people in Paris. Leaders of the church’s Trans-European Division invited Mario Brito, president of the Inter-European Division, whose territory includes France, to the podium at the start of a Sabbath morning worship service in an emotional recognition of the tragedy being suffered by the people of France and, by extension, the rest of Europe.
As students from the Metropolitan Adventist School played their percussion instruments and marched to the beat of the band in front of the presidential palace during Panama’s annual independence celebration on Nov. 4, Adventist teacher Mildred de Cubilla handed a Bible to the president and first lady. Hundreds of schools and organizations joined in the day-long celebration across the palace in Panama City, to celebrate Panama’s 112th year of independence from Colombia.
Seventh-day Adventists in Puerto Rico took the message of the 7th-day Sabbath through the streets of its capital city of San Juan, during a special march to emphasize the Bible’s fourth commandment. More than 650 marchers carried banners and signs, sang songs and distributed literature during the Sabbath afternoon hours of Oct. 31, from Capitol’s La Plaza de la Democracia through the Plaza de Armas by the Mayoral building.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in eastern Colombia held a three-day camp for dozens of visually impaired individuals near the city of Bucaramanga earlier last month. The activity was the first-of-its-kind organized by the church in North Colombia and sponsored by Christian Record Services for the Blind (CRSB)—a Christian organization based in the United States serving the blind and visually impaired individuals worldwide.
Herbert Fletcher University, Inter-America’s Seventh-day Adventist online distance learning educational institution, revealed its comprehensive plans to provide certification training to church leaders while final academic recognition is pending. The plans were outlined during the institution’s first board meeting of the new quinquennium, which was held Nov. 2, 2015, in Miami, Florida.