A Seventh-day Adventist university in Thailand recently hosted a group of volunteer ophthalmologists who offered free eye care for more than 250 nearby elderly residents in need. The Church’s Asia-Pacific International University in the Saraburi province hosted the Mobile Eye Surgery Eye Clinic, sponsored by the province’s Red Cross Society February 2 to 6.
Top Seventh-day Adventist leaders from the Inter-American Division (IAD) held a special program Friday night to launch the church’s territory-wide week of prayer focused on pastoral families. During the program, pastoral couples prayed and encouraged pastors and their families to take time to care and strengthen their families spiritually, mentally and physically. The event, held at the IAD headquarter office in Miami, Florida, was carried live on the internet.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America will feature a special online program on Feb. 6 aimed at strengthening the more than 3,400 pastoral families across the territory at the start of the church’s pastoral family week of prayer. The one-hour program will seek to encourage pastors and their families to pause and seek God together during the year, organizers said.
The Adventist Development and Relief Agency in Sierra Leone is helping to operate a home decontamination program to prevent the spread of Ebola, an initiative that agency officials say is the only one of its kind in the country. Decontamination teams are spraying homes and replacing infected mattresses and bedding in neighborhoods on the outskirts of Freetown, the West African nation’s capital.
India’s Spicer Adventist University stayed true to its mission during five days of 100th-anniversary celebrations, setting aside a day to train 500 pastors and gathering community leaders for a meeting where Adventist Church president Ted N.C. Wilson underscored the importance of showing compassion toward those in need. The university, founded by U.S. missionary Gentry G. Lowry in 1905 with a mission to equip Bible workers and literature evangelists, used the festivities to reflect on its humble origins and to praise God for its growth into a powerful force for sharing Jesus in the Adventist Church’s Southern Asia Division and beyond.
Delegates to the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s General Conference Session in July won’t hold up yellow cards to vote as they have in past Sessions. Instead, for the first time, Session delegates will vote by pressing a button on an electronic voting device. Votes will be tallied instantly, and final results will be displayed in a bar chart on a screen.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has opened a Jamaican chapter of its International Religious Liberty Association, which defends the rights of all faiths, at a festival attended by senior government officials and thousands of other people in Kingston. Leaders of the chapter, called the National Religious Liberty Association, said the group was needed because Jamaicans should not take their current religious freedom for granted.
A Seventh-day Adventist Church in New York hosted a service of hope and healing in an effort to quell tensions brought on by weeks of unrest between police and civil rights groups stemming from the deaths of a citizen and two police officers. Tying in with celebrations to commemorate the legacy of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., the Hope and Healing for Better Police and Community Relations program featured Church leaders, city leaders, police officials and congressional representatives.
Seventh-day Adventists participating in this year’s Global Adventist Internet Network will meet in a new location—online. The annual conference in which participants examine emerging trends of ministry and technology will be held February 11 to 15 at gain.adventist.org. Each presentation, followed by live discussions, will be broadcast three times a day in order to accommodate participants in time zones worldwide.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Inter-American Division launched its Year of the Pastor with the ordination of some 100 ministers during territory-wide coordinated ceremonies across the region on Sabbath, Jan. 17, 2015. Some 26 Adventist ministers from the Dominican Republic were ordained in El Palacio de los Deportes Arena in Santo Domingo--the hub of the live event--where thousands of church leaders and members witnessed the ceremony.
There was standing room only as thousands of Seventh-day Adventists from across the Dominican Republic crowded the Palacio de los Deportes in Santo Domingo, to rejoice in their evangelistic efforts as they witnessed hundreds of baptisms and heard top world church leaders speak on Jan. 17, 2015. More than 20,000 people crowded the 15,000-seat auditorium. Some grabbed a spot on the floor, sat on steps, or stood in the hallways while some 15,000 stayed outside to listen in on the live radio broadcast. Many left their hometowns in the middle of the night to get to the auditorium at 6:00a.m., local church leaders said.
The city of La Romana in southeast Dominican Republic yesterday declared it will rename one of its streets after Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The announcement came during a special ceremony held at La Romana’s municipal building. In attendance were the mayor, Maritza Suero, city officials, and Seventh-day Adventist world church President Ted N. C. Wilson.