ANN Bulletin
Adventist News Network
Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters
February 15, 2005

In This Issue:
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* Satellite Outreach Event Comes to World Church Headquarters; Schools
Work on Major Evangelistic Outreach
* South Africa: Seminar Encourages Leaders to Challenge Young People
* World Church: Satellite Broadcast Raises Tsunami Support
* Southern Asia: Training Pastors and Chaplains to Counsel Tsunami
Survivors
* North America: Native Peoples Target Audience for Correspondence
Course
* News Briefs
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Satellite Outreach Event Comes to World Church Headquarters; Schools
Work on Major Evangelistic Outreach
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [Wendi Rogers/ANN Staff]
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With 16 Bible workers, 24 students from the Amazing Facts College of
Evangelism (AFCOE), and 11 students from Columbia Union College (CUC)
going door-to-door in the Washington, D.C. area inviting people to
Bible studies and the NET 2005 meetings, and a satellite beaming the
meetings all over the world, the event is being called one of the
Seventh-day Adventist church's largest evangelistic outreaches.

"We're joining hands and covering the globe," says Jim Ayer, North
American event coordinator and director of development for Amazing
Facts, a media ministry that also hosts the College of Evangelism. NET
2005 speaker Doug Batchelor presents "The Prophecy Code: Bible Secrets
Unlocked," March 4 to 26 in the United States, and evangelist Mark
Finley, director of the world church's Office of Global Evangelism,
will also broadcast throughout the Eastern hemisphere from Kiev,
Ukraine.

"We distributed 50,000 newspapers as an invitation and another 50,000
will be distributed a few days before the program," says Valery Ivanov,
communication director for the church in Euro-Asia.

"There is tremendous potential to reach incredible numbers of people,"
Ayer says.

For the first time since the church's NET, or satellite evangelistic
meetings began in 1995, this one will be held at the church's world
headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, near the capital of the United
States, providing an opportunity for Bible workers and students to
blanket the Washington, D.C. area with advertising and personal
outreach.

"It's exciting to know that evangelism can radiate from the [world
headquarters] to the entire world field," Ayer comments.

"We're getting new people every day who want to learn more about the
Bible, and we're meeting some former church members who are taking note
of the signs of the times and are interested in getting back to
church," Alan Parker, director of evangelism for Amazing Facts, says in
an article on Columbia Union College's Web site.

AFCOE staff is leading a field school of evangelism at CUC in
preparation for the March meetings, and teaching two classes.

"They are top-notch, experienced practitioners," says Zack Plantak,
chairman of the Department of Religion at CUC, in the article. "They
know more about evangelism because they do it nationally and
internationally. This is a tremendous opportunity for CUC students."

About 22 students from Heritage Adventist Academy in Tennessee are also
coming to help with door-to-door work and visitation, says Ayer, and
during the Sabbath, or Saturday hours the 16 Bible workers train local
church members to give Bible studies.

AFCOE and CUC students' evangelism preparation will last four months,
which includes training, going door-to-door, visitation, and follow-up
after the NET meetings are over, Ayer says.

The meetings will broadcast via satellite to hundreds of sites across
North America and sent around the world by a number of Adventist media
outlets.

The number of downlink sites that have registered for NET 2005 is more
than 1,500, and, "We're adding about 26 every day," says Ayer. Some 3.5
million handbills are prepared for distribution as well, inviting both
church members and non-members to watch the meetings from various
downlink sites, and tens of thousands of Bible interest cards have been
mailed, he adds.


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South Africa: Seminar Encourages Leaders to Challenge Young People
Cape Town, South Africa .... [Taashi Rowe/ANN Staff]
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On a continent where 75 to 80 percent of Seventh-day Adventist church
membership is under 30 years of age, a youth conference was held for
youth leaders Jan. 31 to Feb. 5 in Cape Town, South Africa.

Baraka Muganda, youth ministries director for the world church, said
holding such a conference, which attracted some 200 youth pastors,
directors, leaders and those interested in youth work, was "very
important."

Some topics discussed included: the philosophy of Adventist youth
ministry, how to empower young people, health and the spread of AIDS,
and the structure of youth ministry. The conference also offered
certification in youth ministries.

Muganda said one thing he wanted youth leaders in South Africa to know
is that it is okay to challenge young people to become Bible-based
Christians.

"A strong youth ministry is not about babysitting and entertaining
young people," he said. "We've got to create opportunities for them to
participate in the mission of the church."

Muganda said he made it clear in his nightly messages that youth
leaders who try to keep young people in the church solely by
entertaining them will lose them. "[Young people] come to church
because they are tired of what is out there," he said.

The key is to challenge them, Muganda explained: "You have to challenge
young people to read the Bible. Challenge them to witness. Challenge
them to pray. Challenge them to stand up in the last days for Jesus
Christ. And challenge them to develop Christian principles."

The Adventist church in South Africa has more than 95,000 members.


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World Church: Satellite Broadcast Raises Tsunami Support
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [ANN Staff]
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An unprecedented range of Seventh-day Adventist media and ministries
joined forces Feb. 11 to produce a live satellite broadcast to support
the church in the tsunami-affected regions of Southern Asia.

The Hope Channel and Three Angels Broadcasting Network each carried the
two-hour special broadcast, "Hope in Tragedy," live from the Adventist
world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. Produced by the Office
of Mission Awareness and hosted by evangelist Mark Finley, the program
combined a spiritual talk, music, interviews, and video messages from
around the world.

"The main purpose of tonight's program was to share a spiritual message
of hope even in the midst of tragedy," Finley, director of the church's
Office of Global Evangelism, said during the program. "Secondly, we
wanted to help strengthen the church in countries affected by the
tsunami, so they can be more effective in their Christian witness in
the days ahead."

During the program, Finley invited viewers to support the mission work
of the Adventist Church tsunami-affected countries. By the end of the
program, some 500 phone calls had resulted in donations of U.S.
$88,000, and Internet donations had totaled U.S. $12,000. More
donations are expected in the mail over the next few weeks.

The program also included two interviews with Pastor Jan Paulsen,
president of the Adventist world church. Speaking directly to
Adventists living in the tsunami affected areas, he challenged them to
share their hope for the future with others: "You are a people living
in this part of the world where there is so much widespread damage,
destruction and trauma," said Paulsen. "Let God speak through you, use
you, use your care, use your time and energy to communicate to those
people who suffer. Help them understand there is a God. Yes, there is a
need to relieve physical suffering, but in particular there is a depth
of spiritual value and strength that hope can bring to people. Make
yourselves instruments of hope."

The program shared short messages of hope from a diverse range of
well-known Adventists, including Dr. Ben Carson, director of pediatric
neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States; Del
Delker, vocalist from the Voice of Prophecy media ministry; and
Heather-Dawn Small, interim director of Women's Ministries for the
world church.

"Donations received will be channeled through a special committee at
the Adventist world headquarters," said Gary Krause, director of the
Office of Mission Awareness. "Careful guidelines are in place to ensure
that all money goes as designated to help [the] Adventist mission in
its holistic outreach in the countries affected by the tsunami."

During the broadcast, phone calls from donors were handled by a call-in
center at Adventist Information Ministries (AIM), located in Berrien
Springs, Michigan. Krause paid tribute to the 20 AIM employees -- all
students from nearby Andrews University -- who volunteered their time
in support of the broadcast.

The program will be re-broadcast by Safe TV a supporting ministry of
the Adventist Church.


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Southern Asia: Training Pastors and Chaplains to Counsel Tsunami
Survivors
Penang, Malaysia .... [Taashi Rowe/ANN Staff]
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Recognizing that tsunami survivors are suffering not just physically
but emotionally, members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church offered a
two-day trauma training seminar to pastors and chaplains in four
countries in Southern Asia beginning Jan. 19.

Martin Feldbush, director of the world church's Adventist Chaplaincy
Ministries (ACM), was accompanied by his wife Martha, an academic
language therapist who works with children, and Jonathan Catolico,
director of ACM for the church in Southern Asia.

"In these countries pastors face the daunting task of ministering to a
large number of traumatized people in hospitals and schools," said
Feldbush. He contacted Catolico right after the tsunami hit and
discussed the evident need for getting "Pastoral Trauma Response and
Grief Ministries" training in motion.

He said one pastor told him the training was not only for people that
they would help, but also for themselves because they had lived through
the same tragedy.

"Sixty percent of the people that died were adults," He noted, "which
means thousands were left as orphans, grieving the loss of siblings and
parents."

Workshop participants discussed the nature of trauma, the nature of
loss and grief, how "trauma memories" can last for years, and learned
pastoral methodologies for counseling trauma victims.

Methods taught in the workshops were developed by the National
Organization for Victim Assistance and are equally applicable to clergy
persons from any faith group, said Feldbush. "The form it takes will
always be infused with the faith of the person doing spiritual care
because it recognizes the value of each person's faith as part of
adaptive and coping skills," he said.

The four workshops trained a total of nearly 200 people in Indonesia,
Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia. In Penang, Malaysia, trainings
included Baptist, Roman Catholic and Methodist pastors. While Singapore
was not affected by the tsunami, Adventist Community Services in that
country have been providing aid to victims in other countries.

The workshops were a collaboration between the local and world church's
chaplaincy departments, local churches and Penang Adventist Hospital.


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North America: Native Peoples Target Audience for Correspondence Course

Vancouver, Washington, United States .... [Richard Dower/Mark A.
Kellner/ANN]
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For the first time, a Bible correspondence course has been created for
Native people in North America, a group that numbers at least 5.5
million.

Creating the "Native New Day Bible Correspondence Course" spanned an
11-year period. The editorial committee of five Native Americans
researched each lesson, to ensure the content would be acceptable to
all North American native tribes. The reading level, artwork and
stories were carefully developed to have a strong appeal to Native
people, according to committee members.

Correspondence courses are quite popular among Native Americans, "and
as such, the lessons have no boundaries because they can be sent
through the postal system no matter how remote the area is," said
Seventh-day Adventist pastor Monte Church, project coordinator and
director of Native Ministries for the North Pacific in the United
States and Canada.

The lessons are "the first of its kind for any church; there's nothing
else that comes close" Pastor Church said, noting that a television
program geared for Native people will feature promotional advertising
for the course.

Each lesson is illustrated with paintings and photographs, translating
traditional evangelistic scenes into illustrations featuring nature and
native figures. The photos, Church said, are of Native Americans who
are members of the Adventist Church. A.J. McCoy, an Adventist artist
living in Alberta, Canada, who specializes in wildlife scenes, created
the artwork.

The lessons, printed by the Pacific Press Publishing Association, are
available from the Voice of Prophecy (VOP), an Adventist media ministry
in Simi Valley, California, either in bulk to churches who want to
start their own Bible school or to individuals who request them. There
will be a close connection between the local pastor and the VOP. When a
student completes about half of the lessons, the VOP will send a card
to the pastor with information about that student's interest.

The bulk of the cost of the U.S. $182,000 project was raised from among
the 4,000 Native American Adventist church members in North America,
while regional church leadership committed U.S. $35,000 of the total.


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News Briefs
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [Compiled by ANN Staff]
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United States: Nursing Student Dies At Pacific Union College

Angwin, California, United States [Michelle Konn Rai/ANN] ... David
Egwakhe, age 21, a senior nursing major from Nigeria, died Feb. 14
after sustaining a head injury during an intramural basketball game in
Pacific Union College's gymnasium.

Egwakhe collided with another player during the game, but continued to
play for several minutes. During halftime, Egwakhe collapsed, exhibited
signs of a seizure, and lost consciousness. Bob Paulson, physical
education instructor, immediately performed CPR on Egwakhe while
emergency medical services were called. Despite the efforts of
emergency responders, Egwakhe never regained consciousness. He was
transported via ambulance to St. Helena Hospital where he was later
pronounced dead.

A native of Nigeria, Egwakhe was one quarter shy of completing his A.S.
degree in nursing. His sister, Ruth Adekemi, is also a nursing student
at PUC. Egwakhe has two other sisters, Titi and Kumbi, living in
Nigeria. His parents are living in the Philippines where his father,
George, is treasurer of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division, and mother,
Victoria, is the international student counselor at the Adventist
University of the Philippines.


Lebanon: Adventist Couple Among Inujred From Car Bombing

Beirut, Lebanon [Homer Trecartin/ANN Staff] ... A Valentine's Day
outing took a tragic turn when two Seventh-day Adventist church members
were among the dozens injured in a Feb. 14 car bombing that killed
former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Dr. Armond Manassian and his wife,
Pamela, were dining in a ground floor restaurant of the Phonecian Hotel
in Beirut when the blast hit. The two, former staff members at Middle
East University, where Dr. Manassian still taught part time, suffered
numerous facial cuts and other injuries, but no damage to their eyes.
They were treated and released from a local hospital that evening.


Pioneer Australian Indigeneous Pastor Passes Mantle To A New Generation


Australia's first ordained Aboriginal Seventh-day Adventist pastor,
George Quinlin, has retired after 30 years of ministry. For many years
Quinlin has been alone among his people in his role as an Adventist
spiritual leader. Taking over in this role will be two Aboriginal
pastors, Darren Garlett and Eddie Hastie.

Garlett and Hastie were in the first graduating class of Mamarapha
College, a Bible college with the primary goal of preparing Australian
indigenous men and women for the full-time gospel ministry of the
Adventist Church.
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ANN World News Bulletin is a review of news and information issued by
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ANN Staff: Ray Dabrowski, director; Mark A. Kellner, assistant director
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