Adventist-Laymen’s Services and Industries Pledges $1.2 Million to 38 Ministries
by Adventist Today News Team
At the end of its annual convention last week in Orlando, Adventist-Laymen's Services and Industries (ASI), the denomination's recognized association of small businesses and independent ministries, released a list of the 38 projects promised funds from the special offering collected at the convention. The funds are actually managed by a separate nonprofit organization, ASI Missions, Inc. The board of this organization selected the projects to receive these grants.
The offering goal is $1,184,000 and donations and pledges are still being rounded up to achieve that total. Each project is slated to receive a designated amount and two projects will receive more if the giving totals more than the goal. At least three of the ministries are denominationally-affiliated while most are independent organizations.
Advent Home Learning Center ($30,000) operates a boarding school for students with ADHD, ADD, academic and behavior challenges. Many have been dismissed from church-related and public schools. Advent Home provides counseling support, tutoring, advanced and accelerated classes, social skills training, outdoor education, parent education, character development, community service, youth leadership, placement and follow-up. Because the founders and directors of the ministry are planning to retire, Advent Home is developing a succession plan that will lead to considerable change, including a less centralized management.
Adventist Southeast Asia Projects (ASAP) Ministries ($30,000) works to spread the gospel through evangelism, education and humanitarian activities in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand, as well as assisting refugees from those countries. ASI funds will help launch a microloan project to help marginalized women and their children in Cambodia. The grant will provide an initial loan fund and help with the cost of managing the project.
Adventist Youth for Christ ($20,000) began in 2006 at Gateway Adventist Centre in Melbourne, Australia. It trains Australian young people for evangelism and is working toward a multi-site evangelism campaign in August and September of 2014. The grant will support pre-campaign training and costs for preachers and site coordinators across the country.
Amazing Facts College of Evangelism ($20,000) will extend its evangelism training to pastors and church members in India. Trainees learn to conduct an evangelism campaign in their own communities. Amazing Facts is a media ministry of the Northern California Conference.
Amazon Lifesavers Ministry ($10,000) is a volunteer group that seeks to meet the physical and spiritual needs of remote communities along the great river in Brazil. It is modeled after the legendary Luzeiro medical missionary launches which were begun in the 1930s by Adventist missionary couple Leo and Jessie Halliwell. The grant will help to support Bible workers and build a new school.
AudioVerse ($11,000) is a volunteer group that has produced thousands of hours of religious content. The grant will help the ministry replace and upgrade equipment.
Better Living or Mieux Vivre ($50,000) is a French-language media ministry based in Quebec. The grant will help it move into larger facilities and develop a new program with Dr. Neil Nedley on depression.
Centro Misionero de Salud ($10,000) in Galeana, Mexico, includes a vegetarian restaurant, health food store, bakery, natural treatments, and bookstore. The grant will help pay for a new water system.
Congo Frontline Missions ($20,000) seeks to bring hope and salvation to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through an FM radio station which it reports is now the most listened to radio station among the 3.5 million people in the signal area. The grant help CFM to produce programming in three languages, not only for its own station but also for other Adventist stations across Africa.
DayStar Adventist Academy ($20,000) is a small boarding academy in Castle Valley, Utah, connected to Outpost Centers International (OCI). The grant will fund landscaping and irrigation to make the campus more attractive and curtail mud and erosion issues on campus.
E. A. Sutherland Education Association ($25,000) provides accreditation, professional development, service learning and teacher certification to independent Adventist schools.
Ellen G. White Estate ($30,000) is an official denominational entity. The grant will help fund its ongoing effort to put the White materials in languages other than English into digital format.
Fountainview Academy ($40,000) in rural British Columbia is a boarding school for grades 10 through 12 partly supported by an organic carrot farm. The grant will help it complete a documentary based on Ellen White's book The Great Controversy with John Bradshaw, the director of the It Is Written television ministry.
Generation Youth for Christ ($50,000) is an independent youth organization which organizes a large, annual event to create networking opportunities and encourage young people to take leadership. The grant helped support a GYC afternoon outreach during the convention in Orlando.
Heritage Academy ($12,000) in Monterey, Tennessee, strives to prepare young people to be leaders and teach them the value of self-sacrificing service to others. This includes training students in the academy's disaster response ministry and the grant will help purchase a mobile kitchen for the ministry.
International Caring Hands ($10,000) provides dental treatment and works to prevent dental disease in collaboration with ADRA, Maranatha Volunteers International, Riverside Farm Institute and the Adventist Church in Africa.
Kibidula Family Development International ($30,000) works in Tanzania engaged in training Bible workers, health evangelism, rural evangelism, book distribution, agricultural development and One-Day Church construction. It supports 34 missionaries in unentered areas where many new churches have been established and has 46 agriculture students. The grant will help it achieve optimum use of its 4,776 acres and prevent loss of some of its acreage to the local government.
Lay Institute for Global Health Training ($50,000) has trained more than 6,500 volunteers in 70 nations over the past five years. A total of 18 LIGHT training centers have been established and its curriculum is being translated into more than a dozen languages. The grant will support trainers while they pioneer new projects with the goal of becoming self-supporting within three years.
Light Bearers Ministry ($60,000) is an independent evangelism and revival program that reaches internationally. It is currently providing three containers of literature for an evangelism campaign in Luanda, Angola, with more than 250,000 Bible studies being distributed and 5,000 people already baptized. The grant will replenish funds and resources.
Little Light Ministries ($20,000) conducts multi-media seminars on the dangers of the entertainment industry and involves Adventist high school students as part-time workers in the production of media materials communicating the gospel. It provides media services to other Adventist ministries. The grant will be used to replace an outgrown production stage, provide green screen capability and construct sound and edit stages and office space.
Living Springs Overseas Missions ($10,000) operates two Bible schools, two orphanages and a midwifery training school in India. The grant will help support the midwifery program and complete construction of a new clinic.
Loma Linda University Earth and Biological Sciences Department ($20,000) offers the only doctoral programs in the world based on a biblical view of creation and geological history. It sponsors research to prepare students to teach biblically-based views within the Adventist school system. The results of this research demonstrate that work done by creationists is of the highest quality and that a biblical view leads to insights often missed by other scientists. The grant will fund equipment is essential to the success and accuracy of the research.
Maranatha O.S. ($25,000) is a nonprofit civic association in the Czech Republic which exists to involve youth in evangelism. It has been involved in children's ministries, health and science evangelism, publishing and humanitarian activities. The grant will help fund a Youth for Jesus program to reach the primarily secular populace of the Czech Republic.
Miracle Meadows School ($30,000) has served elementary and secondary students who exhibit at-risk behaviors for 25 years and enrollment of children age 12 and younger has significantly increased in recent years. Most have suffered abuse, neglect, and trauma before the age of 3. MMS is one of only a few facilities in the nation meeting the needs of this age group. The grant will help fund a separate residence which is being constructed especially for children ages 6 to 12.
Myanmar Frontier Missions ($5,000) is a church-planting ministry and operates ten nursery schools that generate income as well as provide opportunities for contact in local communities. This year, MFM has been planting churches in Meiktila and Pwintphyu, with plans to plant seven more churches in middle Myanmar over the next three years in locations where the ministry is already operating nursery schools.
New Beginnings DVD Evangelism Project ($25,000 plus a quarter of any amount given beyond the goal) has widely distributed this series of evangelism presentations designed to be used with groups and individuals. ASI distributed more than 10,000 copies at the 2010 General Conference Session in Atlanta alone. The DVD has recently been updated with new technology and a number of training events are planned for the coming year.
One Day Church Project ($100,000 plus three quarters of any amount given beyond the goal) is a joint effort between ASI and Maranatha Volunteers International which has constructed thousands of church and school buildings primarily in Africa. An estimated 100,000 more buildings are needed with requests coming in from new regions and countries every day.
Outpost Centers International Education Assistance Plan ($35,000) helps to pay for the education of OCI ministry staff and their children. It provides loans that are forgiven when the recipients serve an OCI ministry for a specified period of time. Some applicants continue to work while obtaining their education.
Outpost Centers International Missionary Assistance Plan ($61,000) provides financial support to 30 missionaries serving at OCI ministries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America. OCI is a fellowship of 80 ministries in 36 countries. OCI missionaries are not on denominational payroll, but support themselves through practical skills while operating schools, orphanages, lifestyle centers, clinics, training programs, publishing and media centers, vegetarian restaurants, health food stores and bakeries.
Questline Productions ($25,000) publishes evangelism tools such as In Search of the Truth and the new Thunder in the Holy Land, a video Bible study series in HD which features on-location reports in the Middle East.
Riverside Farm Institute ($40,000) operates medical clinics in Zambia serving those who have little access to health care as well as a lifestyle center which has provided prevention education to some of the nation’s most influential leaders. During 2012, average occupancy in the lifestyle program was near capacity and the grant will expand its capacity.
Shelter from the Storm ($10,000) provides a structured living environment for men and women recently released from prison in Gainesville, Florida. It provides housing for up to six months, as well as assistance with finding employment and life-skills training. It helps parolees strengthen their relationship with God through Bible studies, church attendance and fellowship with other Christians. SFS operates three homes and a thrift store that provides employment for some residents, as well as a lawn service that provides employment and operating funds. The grant will fund heating, air conditioning, floor repair, and painting of one of the homes.
Springs of Health ($15,000) publishes a lifestyle magazine distributed throughout the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Several times a year the ministry rents a hotel to host a NEWSTART program with 250 guests per year and the staff has worked with one of Prague's largest hospitals in research on diabetes. A community center in downtown Prague has been opened to serve the needs of the urban community and the grant will help support a full-time manager for the center.
The Healing Place ($15,000) is an outreach center in downtown Denver which provides meals, personal care items and Bible studies every Friday evening with about 20 people attending regularly. The ministry also reaches out with health programs to those who live and work in downtown. The Healing Place is in a prime location in a building that also houses a health club attended by thousands of young adults each week. The grant will be used to connect with these individuals' interest in health and build relationships that will lead to opportunities for sharing Christ.
Three Angels Broadcasting Network ($100,000) is an independent television ministry that operates worldwide in competition with the denomination's official Hope Channel. It broadcasts the yearly ASI convention as well as hundreds of programs featuring ASI members and ministries. The grant will be used to convert production facilities from video tape to digital HD servers.
We Have This Hope Christian Radio ($20,000) is a network of stations in Minnesota, ranging from 6,000 watts to 100,000 watts and including both AM and FM. Operating expenses are generally covered by listener donations. The grant will help relocate and expand station KOLJ in Warroad, a small town near the international border with Canada.
Weimar Center of Health and Education ($50,000) is an independent Adventist college near Sacramento which after many years of operation without accreditation is now seeking accreditation through the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). It offers bachelor degrees in natural sciences (pre-med), theology, pastoral studies and Christian education, with a focus on health, evangelism, manual labor and a commitment to excellent academics. It also operates a boarding secondary school and is home to the well-known NEWSTART lifestyle education program. The grant will help update Weimar's cooking school facilities.
Youth for Jesus ($50,000) is a summer program operated by ASI that involves teens and young adults in door-to-door outreach, Bible studies, evangelism campaigns, recreation and more. The grant will help pay for trainers and Bible workers to serve as mentors and complete evangelism field work after the summer.
