The Adventist Church and ASI seek to build 1,000 Churches

Transcription

1 Adventist Heritage Center From: Sent: To: Subject: Center for Adventist Research Monday, June 13, :29 AM Adventist Heritage Center FW: We're Building 1,000 Churches and We Need Your Help From: Adventist Review On Behalf Of Adventist Review Sent: Friday, June 10, :00 PM To: Center for Adventist Research Subject: We're Building 1,000 Churches and We Need Your Help The Adventist Church and ASI seek to build 1,000 Churches The Seventh-day Adventist world church is teaming up with ASI to build 1,000 churches to accommodate the nearly 100,000 people baptized during recent evangelistic meetings in Rwanda and it wants your help. 1

2 Total Member Involvement the active participation of church members in sharing Jesus with their neighbors has been credited for the historic number of baptisms in Rwanda. Now Adventists worldwide can help retain the new members by getting involved in providing them with places to worship, said Duane McKey, a key organizer of the May evangelistic meetings. Read more A weekly GraceNote from Adventist Review editor Bill Knott As we learn grace, we also learn its gentleness. When we mistakenly believed that we could win eternity by toil, we had no patience with mistakes our own, or those of others. We feared and judged all brokenness, as though severity might illustrate our fitness for the kingdom. But then the Lover of our souls announced His grace while we were mired in our sins while we were, in His word, undone. Our foolish self-redemption project becomes, at last, the task that makes both men and angels laugh. The kindness Jesus offers us becomes the gentleness we offer others as we with joy repent of all that isn t grace. Stay in grace. -Bill Knott 2

3 Video: Seeing Prophecy Through an Economic Lens He aligns economic and prophetic timelines to reveal...something big could happen soon. Read more Sunshine and Exercise We have been designed to move, and our efficiency and well-being in all dimensions physically... Read more Sabbath School Class Paves Way for Next U.S. Free Clinic Call it the power of a Sabbath School class. The first small-town free clinic... Read 3

4 I Heard a Voice Saying, Read the Bible I was a hippie lost in the city of New York but God was looking for me. And He found me. Here is my story. Read more Chickpea Avocado Salad Ingredients 4 cups cooked chickpeas or 2 15-oz cans, drained and rinsed 1 small red onion, diced finely 2 cloves of garlic, minced 4 limes (1 lime zest, 4 lime juice) 1 jalapeño pepper, minced 1 cup cilantro, chopped Sea salt to taste 4

5 1 avocado, diced Instructions Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well. Add the avocado right before serving. Adventist Review Adventist World AR On the Air Photo Galleries Contribute Photo Submissions Screening Room Twitter Facebook In This Issue News Blogs Reader Response Contact Us Log In 5

6 Copyright 2016 Adventist Review, All rights reserved. You are receiving this because you opted in at our website. Our mailing address is: Adventist Review Old Columbia Pike Silver Spring, MD Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these s? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list 6

7 Login Search Subscribe Menu Next Generation in Witnessing: the Paper USB Drive Want protein and lower mortality? Look at plants, new study says Samuele Bacchiocchi s Widow Dies of Apparent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Adventists, Suffering in Portuguese Fires, Reach Out to Others Human Trafficking Today Adventists Asked to Pray After Nepal Bans Evangelistic Outreach The Adventist leader in Nepal says a new approach i needed to share the gospel. SUBSCRIBE+NEWSLETTER+ IN THIS ISSUE+NEWS+ARCHIVES+ READER RESPONSE+MEDIA PARTNERS+ SCREENING ROOM+GRACENOTES+ PHOTO SUBMISSIONS

8 Peter N. Landless a board-certified nuclear cardiologist, is director of the Health Ministries department of the General Conference. Sunshine and Exercise A winning combination! We do indeed encourage daily exercise. The question often asked in church circles is: Even on Sabbath? Yes, indeed! We have been designed to move, and our efficiency and well-being in all dimensions physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally is enhanced by regular, moderate exercise. Before answering your question on the possible danger of sun exposure, let s briefly review the benefits of sunshine, and how it may influence our health. What else could better complement the refreshing feeling of the breeze on one s face following a rain shower than warm, welcoming, and comforting rays of sunshine? Sunshine adds sparkle to the water and changes the hues of the air, depending on the time of day. It gives light, not only so we may see, but also to aid our metabolism of calcium by producing vitamin D precursors in the skin. With all these natural healthpromoting agents air, water, and sunshine placed together, one may conclude that the environment was planned with humankind in mind. We and the world we inhabit are wonderfully designed and created! The sun is central to the provision of energy to our planet. Much of its radiation promotes health and well-being. It is essential for the growth of plants, vegetation, and photosynthesis, the food-production mechanism. This, in turn, impacts the lives of all who eat. Sunlight powers the recycling of water through its evaporation into the clouds and its distillation as rain. Sunshine converts cholecalciferol, the precursor of vitamin D, into active vitamin D. This important vitamin helps ensure the maintenance and repair of our bones, but also has been found to have many other important effects. Many people lose out on these benefits because of working long hours indoors and having insufficient exposure to the sun. Darkly pigmented skin does not permit the sun s ultraviolet rays to work efficiently in the production of vitamin D, resulting in lower levels. This is aggravated in people who live in the extreme northern or southern parts of the world. Dermatologists have noted a causal relationship between sunburn and skin cancer, especially if there s been excessive exposure in childhood. You wisely ask about the safety of exposure to sunshine and possible risks related to damaging ultraviolet (UV) rays. Dermatologists have noted and shown a causal relationship between sunburn and skin cancer, especially when there is excessive exposure in childhood. It s important to use appropriate sunscreen protection; this does, however, decrease vitamin D production. Paradoxically, vitamin D is thought to be an important factor in controlling the growth of other cancers, such as prostate cancer. Sunlight exposure, therefore, is important to health. The safest times to benefit from sunshine are before 10:00 a.m. and after 4:00 p.m. Exposure without sunscreen should be limited to 20 minutes.

9 In summary, choose the times you exercise outdoors and avoid being in direct sunlight for prolonged periods. And most important, live in the warmth of the presence of the Son of righteousness, Jesus Christ! Peter N. Landless, a board-certified nuclear cardiologist, is director of the General Conference Health Ministries Department. News & Features Subscriber Access About Departments Resources Current Adventist News Online Exclusives Gracenotes Events Subscriptions Renew Account Forgotten Password Report Trouble Update Mailing Address Issue Archives Our Roots and Mission Staff Writer's Guidelines Advertising Adventist World Reader Response Photo Galleries Prayer Requests Partners Contact Free Newsletter Photo Submissions Downloads Sunset Calendar Church Locator RSS Feed Copyright 2016, Adventist Review. All rights reserved worldwide.

10 Login Search Subscribe Menu The local Seventh-day Adventist church in Beckley, West Virginia. (Benny Moore) Next Generation in Witnessing: the Paper USB Drive Want protein and lower mortality? Look at plants, new study says Samuele Bacchiocchi s Widow Dies of Apparent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Adventists, Suffering in Portuguese Fires, Reach Out to Others Human Trafficking Today Adventists Asked to Pray After Nepal Bans Evangelistic Outreach The Adventist leader in Nepal says a new approach i needed to share the gospel. SUBSCRIBE+NEWSLETTER+ IN THIS ISSUE+NEWS+ARCHIVES+ READER RESPONSE+MEDIA PARTNERS+ SCREENING ROOM+GRACENOTES+ PHOTO SUBMISSIONS

11 Andrew McChesney News editor, Adventist Review Sabbath School Class Paves Way for Next U.S. Free Clinic The class in Collegedale, Tennessee, just wanted to get its members more involved in mission. POSTED JUNE 7, 2016 Updated on June 8 with sidebar about why Pathway Beckley needs financial assistance. all it the power of a Sabbath School class. C The first small-town free clinic organized by Your Best Pathway to Health which will be held in Beckley, West Virginia, on July is actually the brainchild of the Acceptance Sabbath School class at the Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church in Collegedale, Tennessee. Several years ago, our mission committee felt that passively writing checks for missions, while good, wasn't enough, said Bob Gadd, leader of the class of about 100 members. We wanted the class members to experience missions as well. The class worked with the Seventh-day Adventist Church s Mountain View Conference for more than a year to identify Beckley as a place where its members could have a mission experience close to home. The class then reached out to Your Best Pathway to Health to organize a free clinic there. This spirit of mission is being held up by church leaders as an example for Sabbath School classes everywhere as Your Best Pathway to Health scales down its previously larger operations to show that the concept of free clinics can and should be replicated in every U.S. community. The event in Beckley, population 17,600, will be considerably smaller than previous mega-clinics in Los Angeles (8,538 patients in three days last April) and San Antonio (about 6,200 patients in three days in April 2015). I hope to learn how this can be replicated on a smaller scale simultaneously around the country, said Lela Lewis, president of Your Best Pathway to Health, which organizes the free clinics in partnership with ASI and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Pathway Beckley will be a training ground for other conferences, cities, and individual churches to know how they too can make their church a center of influence. The local New Beginnings Seventh-day Adventist Church will serve as an extension of the clinic where patients can pick up prescription eyeglasses, lab results, and other post-clinic diagnoses after the clinic ends. Patients also will receive invitations to attend health seminars and other events that focus on physical and spiritual wellness at the church. The Acceptance Sabbath School class canceled its annual mission trip to Kodiak, Alaska, in favor of the clinic. A group of 10 class members had traveled to Kodiak for three weeks every year to lead health seminars, cooking schools, Vacation Bible Schools, and evangelistic meetings. But Gadd and class member Benny Moore, chief financial officer for Your Best Pathway to Health, wanted to get even more class members involved and to find a way for them to foster longer term relationships with the people whom they met. While that was a good project, it was too far away for our class to continue the relationship, Gadd said. So we were looking for a project closer to home where more members could be involved and our class could continue the relationship once the initial project had been completed. He said about 15 class members have registered so far to participate in Pathway Beckley.

12 Moore, who said the class also was donating $10,000 toward the event, encouraged other Sabbath school classes to get involved by signing up members to volunteer and contributing funds. The free clinic could use the assistance. With only a month left, Your Best Pathway to Health is urgently seeking medical volunteers. Lewis, a medical doctor, said a total of 300 volunteers were needed, including 30 dentists, 10 dental hygienists, eight optometrists, and 40 physicians, specifically cardiologists, surgeons, gynecologic surgeons, physical therapists, and a radiologist and an infectious disease specialist. With a looming budgetary shortfall, Lewis also is asking church members to consider sponsoring individual patients at the clinic. Our goal is 1,500 patients, she said Tuesday. It only costs $100 to service a patient, and as such we would like to get 1,500 Adventists to sponsor 1,500 patients. Why Pathway Beckley Needs You Lela Lewis, president of Your Best Pathway to Health, explains why the organization has a hole in its budget for the free clinic in Beckley, West Virginia: sually the holes are filled by more financial support from various Adventist Church entities along with private donors. Mountain View Conference has U pledged $30,000. However, coming on the heels of Pathway-LA there is not a lot of money still available. Pathway-LA was the largest Seventh-day Adventist free health clinic to hit the North American Division. The $100 per person only covers things like medical and dental supplies, and meals for patients and volunteers. It does not include any of the equipment or capital that is required to be purchased that could be used at a later date or event. All of that Pathway covers. In Los Angeles, Pathway diminished its resources and finances. Pathway, despite these odds, has embarked on Beckley because it is committed to demonstrating how Small Town, U.S.A. or an individual church can host a miniclinic both safely from a malpractice perspective as well as logistically. For information about participating in Pathway Beckley, visit the Your Best Pathway to Health sign-up website. News & Features Current Adventist News Online Exclusives Gracenotes Events Subscriber Access Subscriptions Renew Account Forgotten Password Report Trouble Update Mailing Address About Issue Archives Our Roots and Mission Staff Writer's Guidelines Advertising Adventist World Departments Reader Response Photo Galleries Prayer Requests Partners Resources Contact Free Newsletter Photo Submissions Downloads Sunset Calendar Church Locator RSS Feed Copyright 2016, Adventist Review. All rights reserved worldwide.

13 Login Search Subscribe Menu My father decided to move to New York from the Dominican Republic, and he took me with him. (Pixabay) Next Generation in Witnessing: the Paper USB Drive Want protein and lower mortality? Look at plants, new study says Samuele Bacchiocchi s Widow Dies of Apparent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Adventists, Suffering in Portuguese Fires, Reach Out to Others Human Trafficking Today Adventists Asked to Pray After Nepal Bans Evangelistic Outreach The Adventist leader in Nepal says a new approach i needed to share the gospel. SUBSCRIBE+NEWSLETTER+ IN THIS ISSUE+NEWS+ARCHIVES+ READER RESPONSE+MEDIA PARTNERS+ SCREENING ROOM+GRACENOTES+ PHOTO SUBMISSIONS

14 When a Drug User Heard a Voice Saying, Read the Bible How a former drug dealer and an Adventist believer passing out magazines brought me into the Adventist Church. POSTED JUNE 7, 2016, associate director of Sabbath School and Personal Ministries, General Conference was a hippie lost in the city of New York but God was looking for me. And He found me. I Here is my story. I was born out of wedlock. My mother was only 14 years old when she gave birth to my oldest sister. My father was just 15. They were two teenagers without marriage or life skills. They tried to make a go of it, but it didn t work. My young father had a roving eye and was soon looking at other women. He and my mother tried to build a home together, but it was over in a couple of years. I have 17 siblings from different mothers, the result of a totally dysfunctional home. By the time my first birthday rolled around, my parents had split up. We were then living in the Dominican Republic. My father decided to move to New York, and he took me with him. Because I was his firstborn son, he was proud of me and wanted me to be just like him an excellent dancer, lover, free spirit, and pleasure seeker. I was on my way to fulfilling his wishes because I, too, wanted to be just like my father. My father took me to places that were forbidden to minors and trained me to be just like him. Because of my immoral upbringing, statistically I had no chance of making it in life. In fact, I should have been dead a long time ago like many of my friends. The odds of survival were against me. I was lost in New York, participating in all the pleasures of life but without God, without a future, and without hope. Just another lost soul in the Big Apple. Ramón Canals (GC Sabbath School and Personal Ministries) I had no interest in religion, the Bible, or God. In fact, there wasn t enough room in my life for God. Although I had everything that a young man could desire in a big city, I felt empty without the guidance and example of a good father or mother. The music, the parties, the friends and women, the drinks, drugs, and dance halls all were not enough to quench the thirst for something different in my soul. I Needed Something Bigger I started sensing a need for something bigger than me, bigger than the stimulation of the carnal senses. I started to feel a longing for something, but I didn t know what. I couldn t describe it. Trapped in a vicious cycle, I just kept repeating the same mistakes of my father, who d learned them from his father, who d probably learned them from his father. According to my genealogy, the odds were stacked against me, and my future looked bleak, my destiny hopeless.

15 But God had not forgotten me. He had a plan for my life. One day, a former drug dealer named Andy invited me to his home in Manhattan. I had visited him before, and we were good friends. But this time I noticed something different. He seemed happier, peaceful, nice. His face had a glow that I d never seen before. He invited me to dinner with his family his third wife by now. He served me something that looked like meat, but it was not meat. He gave me cheese that was not cheese, and milk that was not the actual milk I was used to. It was strange. I thought he had gone crazy with all the drugs he d ingested over the years. I asked him, What s going on? He replied: I ve been converted. I now belong to Jesus. I don t do drugs anymore. I read the Bible and go to church. When I heard that, I started laughing. You mean to tell me that after all these years selling drugs and being a bad boy on the streets of New York, all of a sudden you re religious? I said. You gotta be kidding me! Andy smiled and said, I love Jesus, and I love you. Then he showed me a book titled The Desire of Ages. I was curious, so I started reading it. I fell in love with Jesus. I went to church with Andy a couple times, but I was still struggling with drugs. I finally told my friend, Thank you very much, but church is not for me. Two years passed after that first visit to a Seventh-day Adventist church. One night, as I was driving home after leaving the dance floor of a ballroom at 4 a.m., I suddenly heard a voice say, Read the Bible. And then the voice said, Find a church. I was startled to say the least! When I was a child growing up in the Dominican Republic, the parish priest, Rafael Fernandez, had given me a Bible with the words inscribed, So that you will never forget your friend, or God. Unfortunately, over the years I d forgotten my friend, and worse yet, I d forgotten God. I d forgotten the gifted Bible, too. For years it had sat hidden away from view gathering dust in a junk drawer. But God had not forgotten me. Read the Bible? Really? I had never done that in my life! That voice could not have come at a more appropriate time. I had been feeling sad, tired, and dejected. For some time now I had felt like escaping life, and especially my past. Some events in my life had shaken me up. Two of my friends had died. One had jumped from the 35th floor of a New York skyscraper. The other was stabbed while negotiating a drug deal. "Read the Bible" Now the voice persisted, Read the Bible. It was not an audible voice. But the impression on my mind and heart was so clear that I hadn t the slightest doubt it was the voice of God. I obeyed that voice and in the morning I went out looking for a church. I found several, but wasn t impressed with any of them. So I drove back home, parked my car, and started walking to my apartment. That s when a man approached me and said, Young man, can I give you these magazines? I had never seen the man before. He was a total stranger. He gave me two magazines that I immediately recognized as religious. I realized this was no coincidence. I thought: Now I get it. This is God calling me to be His child! It was as if a ray of light had come into my life and suddenly everything became clear. I immediately asked the man four questions: 1. Are you a Christian? He replied, Yes. 2. Are you a Seventh-day Adventist? Again his reply was, Yes. 3. When is the next time you re going to church? Next Wednesday, came the reply. 4. Can you take me with you? Of course, he said. And that s how I walked into the Patterson Seventh-day Adventist Church. The year was I asked the pastor, What do I need to do to be baptized? I needed no convincing. God had called me, and I was ready.

16 The pastor gave me a set of Bible lessons. I took them all and told him I would study them on my own. I did so in record time, and when he tested me on the lessons, I knew all the answers. I was baptized without any formal Bible studies but with a firm understanding and conviction of the truth. The Bible has a transforming power that few recognize. Throughout the history of Christianity, men and women have recognized that transforming power, not in the Bible itself it s only ink and paper but in its content. It s God s Word. Perhaps that s why Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). Ramón Canals was elected associate director of the General Conference s Sabbath School and Personal Ministries at the 2015 General Conference Session in San Antonio, Texas. Before that, he served as vice president for Hispanic Ministries and director of the Ministerial Department for North Pacific Union Conference in the United States. He also has worked as an evangelist and coordinator for Hispanic outreach in the Oregon Conference. He holds a master s in divinity and a doctorate in ministry from Andrews University. This testimony appeared on the website of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division. News & Features Subscriber Access About Departments Resources Current Adventist News Online Exclusives Gracenotes Events Subscriptions Renew Account Forgotten Password Report Trouble Update Mailing Address Issue Archives Our Roots and Mission Staff Writer's Guidelines Advertising Adventist World Reader Response Photo Galleries Prayer Requests Partners Contact Free Newsletter Photo Submissions Downloads Sunset Calendar Church Locator RSS Feed Copyright 2016, Adventist Review. All rights reserved worldwide.