News reports from Tanzania; Southern Adventist University; Bakersfield, California; Poland and La Sierra University:

Tyson Jacob, the correspondent for Adventist Today in Eastern Africa, has reported that late last year, the entire PA system of Mkuu Adventist Church in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania, was stolen.

The congregation decided to pray for a month, asking God to intervene, and later went to report the theft at the local police station.

Before the month of prayer ended, the congregation received a report from a Tanzania Assemblies of God Church pastor in Njia Panda, located in Tanzania’s Moshi region.

The pastor said he had been offered a PA system and he wasn’t at peace. He had told the sellers that he was not going to buy the PA system because it seemed not to have been procured properly. In communication with fellow pastors, he learned of the PA system stolen from Mkuu Adventist Church.

Adventist Rombo district pastor Julius Temba told Adventist Today (AT) he worked with law enforcement who pretended to be buyers before arresting the PA system seller. The seller claimed to simply be selling the system on behalf of other parties who remain at large.

AT learned that the first suspect was selling the Adventist congregation’s amplifier, wireless microphones and receiver.

The next day a person came forward claiming to have bought a powered mixer from a public servant at Himo Moshi and surrendered it to police.

“Two days later my phone rang and the police told me that someone had surrendered a projector at the pastor`s office and we found it there when we went to check,” said Temba to AT.

Holly Gadd, dean and professor in the School of Nursing at Collegedale, Tennessee-based Southern Adventist University, was recently interviewed by the Chattanooga Times Free Press about the volunteer efforts she leads at the Chattanooga-based clinic branch of Volunteers in Medicine, a nationwide program for uninsured residents. Gadd has worked with the program since 2004. Here’s Gadd’s interview.

TV station KGET17 reported a plea from an Adventist Health physician in the Bakersfield, California, area regarding the February 7 Super Bowl:

“We know from previous holiday weekends during the pandemic that there has been an increased spread of COVID-19 following large groups of family and friend gatherings,” said Dr. Ronald Reynoso, chief Medical officer for Adventist Health Bakersfield and Tehachapi. “We know people want to come together, eat and celebrate the football game that has become like a holiday for some. But, right now, it’s also important that we do so safely.”

Reynoso advised people only to watch the game with members of their household or to host virtual watch parties.

From TED News (edited for length): On Tuesday 2 February, during the meeting of the Regional Medical Chamber in Łódź, Poland, the award ‘For contributions to health protection’ was officially presented to, among others, an Adventist doctor, Tomasz Karauda.

Dr Karauda, in cooperation with the Kulczyk Foundation, donated over PLN 20 million (approx. USD$ 5 million) to the ‘Doctors for Doctors Foundation’ in April 2020.

With those funds almost 60 tons of personal protective equipment was purchased and delivered to doctors in Poland. This was at the time when such equipment and resources were needed the most.

From La Sierra University (edited for length): On January 13, the Student Wellness Services department at La Sierra University deployed a rapid point-of-care PCR Cepheid GeneExpert Express molecular testing system. It will function in conjunction with a saliva-based screening process developed last summer by virologist Dr. Arturo Diaz, who studies positive-strand RNA viruses, of which the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a member. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes the illness named COVID-19.

While the initial testing capacity of the Cepheid GeneExpert Express is restricted due to manufacturer limits on test cartridges, the objective is for the $32,000 machine to replace the current campus testing clinics which have been held every other week since September by PMH Laboratory Inc., based in Huntington Beach, Calif. The dual investment in rapid testing and the saliva-based process in Diaz’s biology lab allows the university to cast a wider net in confirming the presence of SARS-CoV-2.

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