Association of Adventist Women to Meet October 20-23
October 6, 2016: “Here We Stand: Women and God’s Call” is the theme for the 34th annual conference of the Association of Adventist Women. It will convene on the campus of La Sierra University, the Adventist institution in Riverside, California. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Rebekah Liu, an ordained Adventist minister from China.
The conference begins on Thursday evening. Starting at 8:30 that morning is “Women and the Word,” a seminar organized by Sasha Ross, director of the Women’s Resource Center at the university. More information about other speakers and topics throughout the weekend, as well as registration and lodging, is available at www.associationofadventistwomen.com or by telephone at (909) 264-0254.
Liu is senior pastor of Chao-Yang Seventh-day Adventist Church in Beijing, the nation’s capital. She earned a PhD in New Testament, specializing in the Book of Revelation, at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University (AU) in Berrien Springs, Michigan. If you meet Liu, she will quickly tell you that her opportunity to get a doctoral degree at AU is nothing less than a miracle of God, and that she has a vision of establishing an Adventist seminary in China.
When Liu was ordained on May 22, 2010, four ordained Adventist ministers came from the four corners of China. One was a patriarch among Adventists, one of most respected pastors in the country. Another was a woman serving as an ordained Adventist minister.
In fact, the entire story of the Adventist faith in China is a miracle, Liu told an Adventist Forum chapter in Michigan last year when she spoke on “The History of the Church in China.” In 1949, when the Communists took over the country, there were 70,000 Adventists in about 200 congregations. Today there are about 350,000 Adventists in 4,000 congregations, many of them led by women, including both ordained pastors and local elders. For example, of the five ordained ministers serving the 10,000 Adventists in Sichuan Province, four are women. Hao Ya Jie, a woman serving as an ordained minister, and it has about 5,000 members. It has planted some 80 congregations with a total of 10,000 members.
Liu can be seen and heard speaking on at least two YouTube videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBqk02EMk78
The feature photo with this story is of Dr. Rebekah Liu, who will be the keynote speaker for the annual conference of the Association of Adventist Women, October 20-23 on the campus of La Sierra University in Riverside, California.
