News Briefs for July 2, 2020
News reports from Killeen, Texas; the Ashanti region of Ghana; the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, Reading, England and Loma Linda University Health:
Killeen Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Church was one of a sizable list of Killen, Texas-based churches that fell victim to burglary last weekend. According to 25 ABC, a suspect, Chad Michael Carrion, has been detained. The local Latter-day Saints were also targeted.
Ghana’s Graphic Online reported that an office assistant at the Ashanti region’s Bantama Seventh-day Adventist Church was shot dead by suspected robbers that allegedly made off with the equivalent of just over USD 720. Mark Amofa was shot several times on June 30 after calling for help in front of the church building in the Bantama suburb of the southern city of Kumasi. Amofa was returning with the money after having been sent to withdraw it from a local bank.
The Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists (or ESDA) launched July 1, 2020. It’s the first online reference source of its kind for the denomination. The resource has launched with 2,100 articles, half of which are biographies. The rest are histories of church institutions and the development of major beliefs. This is an ongoing project with thousands of more articles in the pipeline. As the whole thing is online, the project can scale easily. The editor for the project is David Trim, director of archives, statistics and research for the General Conference.
From the Trans-European Division’s TED NEWS NETWORK:
Seventh-day Adventist churches in the Reading (UK) area have posted a statement of condolence following a triple murder in the center of town on Saturday evening, 20 June.
Pastor Trevor Thomas, who pastors two of the five Adventist congregations in Reading, responded during a special video in a message that reflects on a pastoral response to tragedy.
One of those killed was James Furlong, a teacher of history and politics at the Holt school in Wokingham, just a short drive from Newbold College of Higher Education. A number of youth from the Newbold community attend the school. They all held Mr Furlong in high regard and were found among those laying flowers at the school gates.
In the same video, Newbold senior pastor Marcel Ghioalda visits the school and reflects on pastoral care to students and community. Daryl Gungadoo, a parent to one of the students, shares his own feelings and the way forward.
“Part of wearing a mask is washing a mask,” said Loma Linda University Health in a how-to post this week. Here’s what was recommended for properly laundering masks:
Remove detachable parts like interior filters or elastic ear bands from a folded scarf or bandana before washing.
Use a mesh laundry bag to reduce entanglement with other clothes during machine washing.
Set machine water temperature to high or use water that is 140° Fahrenheit or higher.
Use your washer’s “sanitize” cycle if it has one.
Add a detergent that contains disinfectant or bleach to ensure you’re killing as many germs as possible.
If washing by hand, prepare a bleach solution of five tablespoons bleach per gallon of water, soak for at least five minutes and rinse thoroughly.
Dry masks on the highest dryer setting or use direct sunlight to dry masks.
Because household dryer temperatures rarely reach the threshold temperature you need for disinfection, consider adding disinfectant dryer sheets or dryer sanitizers.
Ultra-violet light from the sun can kill up to 99.99% of pathogens on the sun facing surface of a mask if it is left in the bright sun during the middle of a day for at least one hour. It is best to allow masks to be exposed to the sun and heat for an entire day — flipping it over mid-day. Hang dry the masks or construct a dedicated portable box or surface for solar disinfection.