News reports from Germany, Southern Adventist University, Southwestern Adventist University, Trans Pacific Union Mission, United States.

One for the History Books

Eric Anderson, Ph.D., will be the presenter for the first Benjamin McArthur Endowed Lecture at Southern Adventist University. All are invited to the free talk on Feb. 17, 2022, at 7 p.m. ET in the Ackerman Auditorium of the university, which is located in Collegedale, Tennessee. A livestream link will be available at  southern.edu/mcarthurlecture. If attending in person, a face mask is required.

A specialist in United States history, Anderson’s research focus includes African American history and the South. His talk is titled, “First They Came for the Confederates: History, Noble Lies, and Vandalism.”

This new lecture series honors the late Benjamin McArthur, Ph.D., who taught in the History and Political Studies department at Southern University. For more information, visit southern.edu/mcarthurlecture.

UPDATE—FEB. 16, 2022:

Digital Storytelling

Southwestern Adventist University South by Southwestern Film Festival for high school students is happening this spring. The online film festival is available to all high school students. Students can enter as an organization or individual. The festival celebrates guerilla-style of filmmaking because it emphasizes creativity and ingenuity. Helpful hints on how to make Hollywood quality films using low-cost, guerrilla style filmmaking and more details are available at https://swau.edu/film-festival. The deadline to enter is March 1, 2022.

Take a Look, It’s in a Book

The Trans Pacific Union Mission (TPUM) launched its first devotional book on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. Church members from around the Pacific contributed devotional stories for the different days of the year.

“This is a project that will enrich our family worship as families start their day with spiritual thoughts from someone’s experience in the Pacific,” said Maveni Kaufononga, TPUM president.

Copies are available at local missions throughout the TPUM and Adventist Book Center shops around the region. They can also be ordered online on the Adventist Book Center website.

Cover Girl

EBONY magazine, the leading news magazine among African Americans, kicked off Black History Month with Oakwood University’s wonder-freshman 13-year-old Alena Wicker front and center on the cover of a commemorative issue. Wicker was selected as one of the top 10 HBCU STEM Queens in EBONY’s HBCU STEM Queens competition this past fall. EBONY’s commemorative issue is slated for release on Feb. 11, 2022, and will be available at Barnes & Noble stores nationwide in the U.S., as well as select HBCU bookstores and newsstands.

Wicker is a Biomedical Sciences major at Oakwood University and is the youngest student ever enrolled at Oakwood University.  Oakwood’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Math program has been ranked 4th of small HBCUs to graduate African American STEM students, and has consistently ranked in the top 15 for matriculating African American students to medical school.

Time to Book It

Faith Community Nurses (FCNs) provide intentional care to the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of individuals and communities.

A five-week virtual/online course utilizes the 2019 Foundations of Faith Community Nursing curriculum to help nurses of any faith or spiritual community to provide information to promote wellness, healing, health promotion, and disease prevention and lifestyle management.

The course begins Feb. 23, 2022, and costs $335 (USD). Nurses receive 40.5 contact hours. Visit https://nadhealth.org/aafcn/foundations/ to learn more and register by Feb. 16, 2022.

On Record

Bestselling author Corina Bomann is working on a series of novels about the Waldfriede Adventist Hospital in Berlin, reported the APD. The series is titled The Sisters of Forest Peace and tells episodes from the history of this medical institution, which was founded in 1920. The first volume, titled Sternstunden, was recently published by Penguin-Verlag and immediately made it onto the bestseller list in Der Spiegel, the leading news magazine in the country.

The writer spent 10 days in the Waldfriede hospital in 2019 due to an operation and became interested in its history. Hospital management gave  her the diary of nurse Hanna Rinder, who worked in Waldfriede from 1920 until 1956. Rinder described some of the adventures of the doctors, nurses, and caregivers. “Thirty years full of fate, emotion, longing and love. The idea for my new saga was born,” said Bomann.

This is the first Adventist institution to be honored in a popular series of novels. “Of all Adventist institutions worldwide, our hospital is the only facility whose history is being published in a four-part novel to mark its 100th anniversary,” said Bernd Quoss, director of the Waldfriede Hospital.

The other volumes of the novel series The Sisters of Forest Peace are Beacon, Storm Days, and Wonder Time. They will be published by Penguin Verlag through mid-2023, each as a paperback, e-book, and audio book.

For more information on Waldfriede Hospital, visit www.krankenhaus-waldfriede.de.

(Photo: Alena Wicker, (center in yellow jacket) graces the cover of a special commemorative issue of EBONY magazine available on Feb. 11, 2022 in the U.S. Image by EBONY Magazine / HBCU Campus Queens.)

To comment, click/tap here.