News reports from Sint Maarten, Tehachapi, California; Loma Linda University Health, Walla Walla University, Switzerland and Germany

A medical student at Sint Maarten-based American University of the Caribbean was given a $5,000 grant by the institution to be used on her community initiative of choice. British Columbia-based Tri-City News reported that Mariel Chan, who graduated from Montreal’s McGill University, chose to donate the funds to a soup kitchen run by the Adventist Church in Cole Bay, Sint Maarten. Chan had served at the soup kitchen following Hurricane Irma this year.

According to Tehachapi News, a million dollars have been donated to recently opened Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley this year. The funds have paid for surgical equipment, art and other items at the Tehachapi, California-based hospital. “We’re so grateful to all the donors who believe in our very worthy mission,” said Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley Foundation Manager Christina Scrivner. “What this shows is just how much our community truly cares about elevating health care in Tehachapi and investing in their hospital.”

Loma Linda University Health students, physicians and other community members sponsored over 50 Christmas care packages for the institution’s missionaries serving overseas. According to the LLUH website, the 63 missionaries are Loma Linda University alumni, global service awardees, deferred mission appointees or Adventist Health International long-term volunteers serving in 18 different countries at Loma Linda University Health international partner sites. The missionaries serve as physicians, dentists, hospital administrators, nurses and public health educators.

“The Give to a Giver project really helps our volunteers to feel valued and remembered during the holiday season when they are not able to be with family or go home for the holidays,” said program manager of international service at the Global Health Institute, Angeli Yutuc, MPH. “These small gifts are so appreciated by the missionaries.”

Lindsey Crumley, an engineering major at Walla Walla University, is on the cover of the January issue of Adventist Journey, the newsletter of the denomination’s North American Division. Her story is her tenure as a student missionary at Pohnpei Adventist Mission School in the Guam-Micronesia Mission.

The Adventist denomination in Switzerland has hired Pamina Gysin as an assistant pastor for the congregations in Biel, Murten and Solothurn. She is 23 and a recent graduate of Bogenhofen Theological Seminary, the Adventist school in Austria. Pastor Gysin will work under the supervision of Pastor Ralph Waspi, the district leader. The Biel church has 110 adult members, the Murten church 30 members and the Solothurn congregation is a small group not yet organized as a church. Gysin will also help with youth activities in German-speaking Switzerland, including camping and other events.

Dr. Horst Sebastian, an Adventist pastor and faculty member at Friedensau University, the Adventist institution near Magdeburg, Germany, is the denomination’s representative in the new Evangelical Alliance Working Group on Peace and Reconciliation. He is the Religious Liberty director for the Hansa Conference. The Evangelical Alliance helped to place a non-violence bronze sculpture (pictured below) at the United Nations in New York. It was created by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, a Swedish painter and sculptor.

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