ANN Bulletin
Adventist News Network
Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters
November 13, 2007

In This Issue:
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* Cuba: Standing room only for 'House of Light' dedication; world
church president visits island
* Oliver elected new president for church's South Pacific Division
* Polish Adventists join other Protestants in denouncing posters
attacking Luther
* Adopt a Clinic program to team churches with South Pacific clinics
* Adventists around the world
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Cuba: Standing room only for 'House of Light' dedication; world church
president visits island
Buey Arriba, Cuba .... [Rajmund Dabrowski/ANN]
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When church officials and guests joined a 500-strong crowd for the
opening of a new house of worship in Buey Arriba, it was Raul Alvarez
who received the loudest applause.

A recently retired pastor, Alvarez was given a hero's welcome for his
contribution to a Seventh-day Adventist congregation, which on Sunday,
November 4, officially dedicated a new sanctuary.

Once a political advisor to the leaders of the Cuban revolution,
Alvarez in the early 1960s embraced Adventism, whose mission gave him a
different calling. Until recently, he served as president of the church
in the region. Alvarez returned this month to celebrate a victory of
God in a town at the foothills of the Sierra Maestra Mountains in
Southeastern Cuba.

Joining hundreds of others for a standing-room-only ribbon-cutting
ceremony, Alvarez could not hide his emotions. Years of trying to build
a sanctuary with limited resources culminated on that Sunday evening
with joyful tears and embraces fit for the occasion.

Referred to as the Buey Arriba House of Light, the church -- a pastor's
home whose living room can sit a 200-member congregation -- celebrated
in style. Rain did not stop anyone from attending the dedication.

Heavy rains on the day of the celebration delayed the arrival of
U.S.-based Maranatha Volunteers International (MVI) -- an organization
responsible for building the sanctuary -- and officials of the
Adventist Church. When they arrived at 6 p.m., they were already two
hours late for the ceremony. But the crowd was waiting. More than 500
people packed into the sanctuary built to seat just 250. Every corner,
seat and windowsill was filled with people.

Laura Noble of MVI remembers visiting the Buey Arriba house of worship
a few years ago. In her many travels, this was one of the few places
that really scared her, she recalled. The roof was made of very heavy
red tile held up with a framework of sticks nailed at the apex with a
single nail at each joint. Worse yet, she remembers, every stick was
absolutely riddled with termite holes. "The whole roof was held up by
termites holding hands!" Noble said.

The need for a new house of worship became acute as the congregation
grew to 200, according to Adalberto Gonzalez, church pastor. Instead of
approving the plans for a church building, the Cuban government
extended permission to build a House of Light.

A Maranatha House of Light acts as both a home to the pastor and his
family and a house of worship. "But it looks suspiciously like a
church!" Noble said. One could not help but wonder how many other
living rooms in the region have a baptismal pool. Following the
ceremony, a baptism of 10 new church members added to the enthusiasm of
the audience.

Daniel Fontaine, president of the church in Cuba, expressed gratitude
for the House of Light in Buey Arriba. "It is very meaningful for us.
We at least can have one place, one light, where people can go in
search of the peace and hope that only Jesus Christ can give."

"And for our country to let us have a place like that," he said, "we
are very thankful."

Across the island, in Havana, the Adventist Church in Cuba welcomed
Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the Adventist world church. On Friday,
November 2, Paulsen joined 80 delegates of the church's Inter-American
(IAD) region attending an annual meeting of its executive committee.
Arriving at the Havana airport, Paulsen was met by Caridad Diego, the
head of the country's Religious Affairs Office.

Speaking at a Sabbath worship service in Havana's Vibora Adventist
Church, Paulsen said, "I feel the strength of your commitment and
spirituality. There is so much fire in your soul."

"There is much interest about our church in Cuba," Paulsen said. "It is
somewhat isolated, but when brothers and sisters ask, 'Tell us about
our church in Cuba,' now I can tell them it is alive in the Lord. It is
strong. They live in obedience to the Lord."

"This visit to Cuba is very significant, especially for the church and
the government in Cuba," said Israel Leito, president of the church in
Inter-America.

Although Cuba is one of the 15 major territories in the region, it has
not hosted the IAD executive committee meetings in 62 years, according
to church sources. For two years, in the mid-1940s, the Inter-American
region was headquartered in Cuba. With more than three million members
in three dozen countries, Inter-America represents the largest region
in the Adventist world church.

Speaking at the opening session of the IAD meeting, Paulsen recognized
the church's "strong focus on mission." He also emphasized the church's
need to "build strong communities and meet the world from a position of
strength."

He continued the theme of Adventist involvement in society when
addressing a representation of the state and local government on
Sunday. "We don't carry a political agenda. As a church, we are aware
that while we are a spiritual community, we are also committed to
building society," he said.

Referring to "positive engagement in society," Paulsen added that
Adventists "want to make a contribution to communities, and to make
communities more secure."


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Oliver elected new president for church's South Pacific Division
Wahroonga, New South Wales, Australia .... [Ansel Oliver/ANN]
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Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders in the South Pacific nominated
Barry Oliver to serve as president of the church's South Pacific
Division, filling a vacancy left by current president Laurie Evans, who
announced his retirement on November 13.

The nomination will be recommended to the world church's Executive
Committee, which elects division presidents.

Oliver, who currently serves as the region's general secretary, would
assume his new role in January if elected.

The South Pacific Division is one of the church's 13 world
administrative regions and includes Australia, New Zealand and
surrounding island nations. The leadership change was announced at the
division's annual business meeting at division headquarters in
Wahroonga, New South Wales, Australia.

During his term as president, Evans oversaw a reorganization of
resources, including reducing the number of administrative positions,
and a legal restructuring that incorporated the Sanitarium Health Food
Company and Sydney Adventist Hospital. Evans also advocated the use of
modern technology by the church.

Oliver, who holds a doctorate in Christian ministry and mission with a
focus on Adventist organizational structure, has served the Adventist
Church in the South Pacific as a minister, evangelist, lecturer and
administrator. He is married to Julie, a teacher, and has three sons.

Since serving as the division's general secretary, Oliver has helped
restructure church entities including the Adventist Development and
Relief Agency, Avondale and Sydney Adventist Hospital.

At the time of release, information was not available regarding
Oliver's replacement as general secretary.

Nearly 400,000 Adventists worship in more than 1,800 churches in the
South Pacific.


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Polish Adventists join other Protestants in denouncing posters
attacking Luther
Warsaw, Poland .... [Jonathan Luxmoore/Ecumenical News
International/ANN Staff ]
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Protestant leaders in one of Poland's largest cities have condemned a
poster campaign denouncing Martin Luther, the 16th century German
Protestant leader, as a blasphemer and heretic, a November 7 news
release by Ecumenical News International reported.

"What would happen if someone hung placards outside a Catholic church
attacking the 'blasphemy and heresy of John Paul II,' or the 'blasphemy
of Muhammad' at a mosque?" said Mariusz Maikowski, a pastor of the
Seventh-day Adventist church in Lublin in eastern Poland. "These
actions are clearly illegal [in Poland], yet the local council has said
and done nothing," Maikowski told ENI.

According to the release, the posters were captioned, "The blasphemy
and heresy of Martin Luther," and pictured a devil whispering in the
Protestant reformer's ear.

They were displayed throughout Lublin to advertise lectures by Ryszard
Mozgol, an official with Poland's National Remembrance Institute, the
body charged with handling the records of the country's communist-era
secret police.

The lectures were held on October 15 and 31, the 490th anniversary of
Luther's Protestant Reformation, and were planned by the Organization
of Polish Monarchists. Founded in 1989, the group claims to have
several thousand members and seeks to establish a "Catholic state"
within Poland.

Of Poland's 38 million people, 95 percent are Catholic.

"It's shocking and unbelievable that depictions of Luther as
anti-Christ could still be appearing in the 21st Century," Maikowski
told ENI.

Maikowski said the campaign had "caused deep offense" to Lublin's
Protestant and Orthodox communities. He also said local prosecutors
should mount an investigation.

The Rev. Dariusz Chwastek, a Lutheran pastor from Lublin, described the
posters as "highly damaging." Chwastek, who overseas Lublin's Holy
Trinity parish, said, "I think too much blood has flowed, and too many
stakes been burned, to re-ignite these disputes again centuries later."


The monarchist organization's president, Lukasz Kluska, refused to
apologize and was quoted by Poland's Dziennik Wschodni newspaper as
saying that minority church representatives could have presented their
opinions during the lecture.

The Adventist Central Church in Warsaw was the only Protestant church
in the country that organized a celebration of the 490th anniversary of
Reformation, said church sources in Poland.


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Adopt a Clinic program to team churches with South Pacific clinics
Wahroonga, New South Wales, Australia .... [Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN]
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Kukuku Clinic, an isolated Seventh-day Adventist healthcare center in
the Solomon Islands, is the poster child for a new initiative by the
Health Ministries department in the Adventist Church's South Pacific
region. Five years ago, the then meagerly staffed and supplied clinic
first received funding from church members at the Hillview Adventist
Church in Morisset, New South Wales, Australia.

Today, the clinic is clean, efficient and fully contributes to the
church's medical outreach work in the region.

But unlike Kukuku Clinic, most of the 54 health clinics operated by the
Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific are reportedly in
need of more emergency care than the patients they serve. Some 70
percent don't have medical equipment to check blood pressure, local
church health officials discovered during a three-month evaluation
earlier this year.

To revive the ailing healthcare centers, Adventist health officials in
the region are launching Adopt a Clinic, a program to team each
Adventist church in Australia and New Zealand with one of the region's
clinics, which range from bush huts to modern-style buildings.

"What amazed me most was the steadfast commitment shown by the staff in
these dilapidated clinics without so much as a stethoscope," says Dr.
Peter Landless, an associate Health Ministries director for the
Adventist world church who visited the South Pacific region recently.
"Many in similar situations might have said, 'You know, we've had
enough, let's pack our things.' But they stayed on, and this program
gives them hope."

The 80 to 90 percent of the South Pacific's population that lives in
remote areas of the region depends on small local clinics for
healthcare, immunizations and emergency treatment. But often staff at
the nearest clinic don't have so much as running water or electricity,
let alone the more advanced medical supplies needed to prevent and
treat malaria and waterborne diseases that otherwise spread unbridled
in the region.

Villages without a clinic face an additional challenge -- the cost of
traveling to a clinic via inter-island canoe often far exceeds a
family's annual income, says Trevor Oliver, a member of the Hillview
Adventist Church. Oliver says most of the islands are too small to
support airstrips, making travel by makeshift watercraft the only way
to get even rudimentary medical treatment.

"As a church, we've long been proud of our health work, but we haven't
always been able to keep up with the growth of the church when it comes
to maintaining our health facilities," Landless says.

Most of the clinics receive basic drug supplies and staff wages from
the government, says Jonathan Duffy, director of Health Ministries for
the church's South Pacific region. But the support does not extend to
building maintenance or adequate equipment -- staff battle termites and
rust and often live in houses more "appalling" than the clinics where
they work, Duffy has observed.

Some say repair and maintenance of local clinics lies with the
villagers they serve, but most of the indigenous people are subsistence
workers who do what they can, but are not able to support the clinics,
Landless says. Given the region's rampant poverty and unemployment, he
says self-sufficiency for the clinics is not feasible and that Adopt a
Clinic will likely be "a long term relationship."

In Tumbolbil, situated in the New Guinean highlands, one clinic, built
by villagers equipped only with axes, awaits funds for furnishing and
medical supplies.

Each church will provide US$1,000 to $40,000 over time to fully
refurbish one clinic, Duffy estimates. "That doesn't mean that a church
will have to be very rich, but that they have a mission focus,"
Landless says. "Whenever a church stops focusing purely on itself, its
mission flourishes."

Duffy, too, expects the benefits of Adopt a Clinic will boomerang.
"It's easy for our churches to become more congregational and focused
on just what happens within their church and the Adopt a Clinic program
would give them a broader mission focus."

So far, congregational response to the program is "overwhelming," Duffy
says. He expects the moral support resulting from the clinic-church
partnerships will prove as valuable as the money. Villagers on remote
islands often feel isolated from the world church, he says, and Adopt a
Clinic will let them know that "they are not forgotten, but [are] a
part of a big church family."

At Hillview, members hope a 50-foot catamaran they're turning into a
mobile clinic will boost that sense of connectedness. By December, the
boat will provide medical care to the islands in the Western Province
of the Solomon Islands -- just east of New Guinea and northeast of
Australia -- where few clinics exist. Oliver expects similar mobile
clinics will follow.

Duffy says the church's South Pacific region headquarters is
distributing DVDs about the Adopt a Clinic program to each church in
the area.


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Adventists around the world
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [ANN Staff]
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Tanzania: Two Adventist leaders die in traffic collision ... Two
Seventh-day Adventist church leaders in East Africa were killed in a
traffic accident Saturday, November 10, church officials said. William
Mutani, president of the church in southwest Tanzania, died in the
accident along with Godleen Mangilima, the region's executive
secretary. The two had boarded the same bus after preaching at
different churches earlier that day. The bus was struck by an oncoming
truck, killing several passengers. Mutani was regarded as a popular
leader and was effective in mobilizing churches for evangelism in the
region, church leaders said. He presented the family life series during
the recent "Safari Africa" evangelism campaign. His wife serves as
Women's Ministries director for the church in the region. The death of
the two key leaders in Tanzania is a tragic loss for the church of
Eastern Africa, said Steven M. Bina, Communication director for the
church in East-Central Africa. Five church workers from Tanzania were
killed in a traffic accident two years ago.

Peru: Nation's first lady visits ADRA office ... The first lady of
Peru, Pilar Nores de Garcia, met with Adventist Development and Relief
Agency officials during a three-hour visit to ADRA country headquarters
in Lima last month. Nores de Garcia, an economist active in several
nongovernmental organizations that support children and families,
learned of ADRA's health programs that have successfully reduced the
rate of chronic infant malnutrition. ADRA country director Walter
Britton and other staff also shared details of ongoing recovery
programs for survivors of an August Earthquake that killed more than
500 people and displaced thousands. ADRA Peru implemented its first
project in 1965 and is now recognized as one of the largest and oldest
NGOs in the nation.

France: Adventist healthcare professionals address care among Muslims
... Sensitivities encountered by Christian physicians when working in
Muslim societies topped the agenda of a conference of Seventh-day
Adventist doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals
representing French-speaking countries. Some 800 Adventist medical
professionals from France, Belgium and Switzerland -- all members of
Association Medicale Adventiste de Langue Française (AMALF) -- met in
Tours, France, earlier this month to better understand Islam and better
prepare for potential challenges arising from the increasing number of
Muslim patients. Because AMALF personnel often serve in international
assignments, they regularly meet adherents of different faiths.
According to Dr. Patrick Guenin, one of the organizers of the
conference, Muslim patients often react negatively to certain aspects
of Western medicine. When treating a Muslim patient, healthcare
professionals were cautioned not to take the role of medical
evangelist, but to follow examples from the Bible where Jesus healed
without preaching.

Netherlands: Church growing, adapting to country's multicultrual makeup
... The Adventist Church membership in the Netherlands grew by about
five percent during the last five years, mostly from growth in baptisms
rather than immigration. During an annual business session, church
leaders also adopted a document on unity and diversity in the Dutch
Adventist Church. It offers guidelines on fostering constructive
dialogue in the midst of diverse theological and ethical viewpoints.
The 5,000-member Dutch church has become increasingly multiculural and
multi-ethnic, said Reinder Bruinsma, outgoing president for the region.
Leadership has advocated a proactive approach to challenges and has
recognized the possibilities of growth among indigenous and integrated
immigrants, leaders said. Wim Altink, a pastor of in Hague, was elected
president.

South Korea: Region's church celebrates decade of service ... The
Seventh-day Adventist Church's Northern Asia-Pacific Division
celebrated its 10th anniversary in a celebration at its regional
headquarters in Gyeonggi-do, Goyang Ilsan, Korea, on November 1. "The
purpose of creating the Northern Asia-Pacific Division was for more
effective ways to approach the 1.55 billion people in Northeast Asia,"
said Jairyong Lee, division president. The current territory is
comprised of Japan, Mongolia, China -- including Hong Kong and Macao
Special Administrative Regions -- North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan and
Mongolia. The Adventist message was first introduced to the region in
1888 when 66-year-old Abram La Rue traveled from California to
distribute church literature in China and Japan. The former
administrative structure, the Asia-Pacific Division, was based in
Singapore. More than 562,000 Adventists worship in some 1,780 churches
in the Northern Asia-Pacific Division.
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ANN Staff: Ray Dabrowski, director; Ansel Oliver, assistant director;
Taashi Rowe, editorial coordinator; Elizabeth Lechleitner, editorial
assistant.

Portuguese translation by Azenilto Brito, Spanish translation by Marcos
Paseggi, Italian translation by Vincenzo Annunziata and Lina Ferrara
and French translations by Stephanie Elofer.

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