News reports from Germany, Loma Linda Children’s Hospital, Russia, South America, Trans-European Division.

Sexual Violence Topic of Adventist Short Film

Talking to young people about issues such as sexual violence, guilt and the possibility of returning to church after such events is not easy, especially in the context of Christian communities. A short film titled Dinah was launched to help start these conversations. Developed by the Feliz7Play platform, the film is in Portuguese.

In the film, Dinah goes to a party and is sexually assaulted. Emotionally affected by the crime, she feels confused, guilty and constantly haunted by memories. In room 23, Dinah is attended by a therapist who helps rescue her self-confidence and hope.

Dinah is a short 3-minute film and was inspired by the biblical account of Dinah, the daughter of the patriarch Jacob (see Genesis 34). Due to the theme, the film is recommended for audiences 14-years-old and older. To read more about it, click here.

Healing Mental Trauma

The second cycle of the “Healing of Mental Trauma” program was completed in Magadan, Russia, recently. Over the course of six evenings, participants became acquainted with how mental trauma affects many areas of a person’s life and those of their family members. Participants recalled difficult experiences and talked about the feelings that remained inside, and to this day still cause confusion and pain.

Participants learned to analyze their behavior, what actions indicated the presence of mental trauma, and also learned how to listen to a traumatized person.

Participants played a game called “The Path of Sorrow.” Each stop featured a different activity, including remembering mistakes made in life to survive sorrow, writing letters to God about their pain, bringing their pain to the cross, parting with resentment and pain, and making a decision to forgive.

The meetings are part of an ongoing program that launched in the spring of 2021.

Finding Balance

The Trans-European Division (TED) is offering a free devotional webinar, “Balancing Your Emotions in an Unbalanced World.” The approximately 25-minute presentation is hosted by respected Family Therapist Karen Holford, who is also the Family Ministries director for the TED.

Harmony in Hearts at Loma Linda

Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital recently inserted its first Harmony transcatheter pulmonary valve, which fixes a poorly functioning heart valve through a minimally invasive procedure, allowing children and adult patients living with congenital heart disease to go longer without the need for open-heart surgery.

Whereas recovery after open-heart surgery can take an estimated six weeks, after the Harmony procedure, a patient is back to regular activity within a week or less.

The first patient who received a Harmony valve was an adolescent child who had little to no downtime. With the surgery performed just before the weekend, the patient returned to school on Monday. Because the Harmony valve is placed through a minimally invasive catheter procedure in a vein of a leg, recovery time starkly contrasts open-heart surgery.

Children’s Hospital is one of only approximately 40 centers in the U.S. approved to use this valve.

Conscious Effort to Honor Conscientious Objector

The Association of Victims of Nazi Military Justice released a document, “Ludwig Baumann: A Fighter to the Last” in honor of the Adventist conscientious objector’s 100th birthday on December 13.

In February 1941, Ludwig Baumann was drafted into the Nazi navy.  On June 3, 1942, he left his post because he realized Germany was waging a “criminal, genocidal war,” according to an article by Adventistischer Pressedienst (APD),  the German Adventist news service.

After the war, Baumann said he faced abuse from many Germans who accused him of cowardice, according to a BBC article. He founded the Association of Victims of Nazi Military Justice in 1990 and campaigned for an official pardon for the last soldiers who were executed during the war for betraying the Nazi regime.

In 2009, the German parliament finally revoked the convictions of the last group of victims, those condemned as “war traitors.”

“These men were not traitors; they were part of the German resistance movement against Hitler,” said Johannes Tuchel, the Director of the German Resistance Memorial Centre in Berlin.

(Photo: Dinah, a short film, tackles the topic of sexual violence. Photo via screenshot.)

To comment, click/tap here.