An innovative Adventist youth program in the church’s Southeast Asia territory (SSD) has recently earned praise from local government leaders in Vietnam. One Year in Mission (OYIM) Vietnam volunteers received a certificate of governmental appreciation for two community projects in ward 9 Phu Nhuan district during an August 27 ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon.
As Europe grapples with a migrant crisis, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency said it is working overtime to care for vulnerable families in Serbia, a main entry point for refugees fleeing to the continent. ADRA has teamed up with the United Nations and three other entities to open an asylum information center that provides reliable information about refugee rights and other resources in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade.
Seventh-day Adventists in eastern Puerto Rico are beaming with joy at the growth of its newest school on the island of Vieques--an island-municipality of the commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Vieques Adventist Academy began its second school year last month, with 47 students, an amount triple the number enrolled in the school last year when the school began as a pilot project with 15 students, church leaders said.
More than 520 low-income individuals from Nuevo Leon, Mexico, received eye surgeries thanks to a joint collaboration between La Carlota Adventist Hospital, the non-profit organization Medical Ministry International and a group of Christian ophthalmologists from the United States. Patients crowded the Vision Institute Center in La Carlota Hospital, located in Montemorelos, Mexico, last month to benefit from the five-day medical initiative.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Europe called for compassion and prayer Thursday amid a migrant crisis that saw hundreds of migrants stage protests in France and Hungary and the bodies of other migrants wash up in Turkey this week. Desperate migrants and asylum seekers have flooded into Europe by the thousands from the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia this summer, leaving the continent divided over how to deal with them.
Rome will name a central square after Protestant reformer Martin Luther in response to a request by the Seventh-day Adventist Church and with the support of the Roman Catholic Church. The square on Oppian Hill, a park area that overlooks the Colosseum in the central Monti district, will be named Piazza Martin Lutero in honor of Luther’s achievements on Sept. 16.
Seventh-day Adventist businesswoman Eileen McKenzie is not just cutting hair in her hairstyling salon. In April, McKenzie organized a fashion event to bring new life to the shopping center where she works in Newtown, a sleepy Welsh town about 170 miles (280 kilometers) northwest of London.
Seventh-day Adventist relief workers are focusing on unreached areas of Myanmar as they seek to meet urgent needs and help rebuild lives shattered by flooding that killed more than 100 people and affected 1.6 million others. The church’s Myanmar Union Mission has dispatched small teams to the devastated Rakhine state, part of its relief effort after two months of monsoon rains caused widespread damage in 12 of the country’s 14 regions.
Call it the power of a Seventh-day Adventist school. Eighteen years ago, Adventist volunteers built a school in Changuinola, a humid coastal town of about 30,000 people in a northeastern corner of Panama. This summer, a group of 150 young volunteers traveled to the bustling Changuinola Seventh-day Adventist School to construct two new classrooms — and to work on two churches that have sprung up as a result of the school.
Oakwood University kicked off the academic year with an ambitious plan to become the healthiest campus in the United States — and to become an Adventist beacon of light in sharing good health practices in the world’s big cities. The Seventh-day Adventist-owned university in Huntsville, Alabama, has revised its curriculum to incorporate the eight laws of health backed by the Adventist world church’s health ministries department: sunlight, temperance, adequate rest, nutrition, drink water, outdoors, use of physical activity, and trust in God.
Seventh-day Adventist leaders in Malaysia started out planning an evangelistic series for adults. They ended up also hosting a highly unsual nightly Vacation Bible School whose wild popularity is credited with contributing to the evangelistic series’ 69 baptisms. Someone suggested that they offer a nightly Vacation Bible School for the children, and the other leaders enthusiastically agreed.
Adventist Risk Management, Inc. (ARM) is transitioning its campaign that focused on preventing child abuse to the enditnow campaign, led by the Women’s Ministries department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the World Divisions. The move will enhance the resources provided by the enditnow campaign and expand its focus to children in distress. The transition will be completed this fall.