News Briefs for July 21, 2022
News reports from Côte d’Ivoire, Iceland, Israel, Puerto Rico, United States.
Leaving School Behind
After several years of building churches and schools and drilling water wells across the West African nation of Côte d’Ivoire, Maranatha Volunteers International is wrapping up its work in that country, reported the Adventist Review.
One of the highlight projects that recently came to completion was the brand-new campus for the Niangon Adventist Secondary School near Abidjan. Complete with seven classrooms, two science labs, bathrooms, and administrative offices, Niangon is now well-equipped to spread God’s love in a mostly non-Christian area, leaders said. Enrollment is expected to be high, as Adventist education has a good reputation in Côte d’Ivoire, and Niangon will be the only high school in the area.
Working It Out
Forty-nine graduates of the nursing program at Antillean Adventist University (AAU), in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, an institution operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, were recently offered jobs in the AdventHealth Systems in Florida, thanks to a recent collaboration agreement, reported ANN. Nursing graduates received offers for full-time career development positions and will be provided support in the licensing process in the United States, as well as housing, transportation, a sign-on bonus, and other benefits, university leaders said. Additionally, its nursing graduates are bilingual professionals prepared for service, which fosters successful performance in their system.
Freights That Vegetate
AdventHealth Celebration is prioritizing nutrition and sustainability through a new innovative program that features a hydroponic farm inside a freight-shipping container. The farm measures 40 feet long and 8 feet wide. Every aspect of the farm is controlled through an app that can monitor and regulate the climate, watering, lights, and more with the tap of a finger. The technology allows for a wide range of crops to grow in a small space, and with minimal physical input.
Randy Amil, agricultural specialist at AdventHealth Celebration, said the hospital is the first in the southeast to have the farm on their campus. Currently, the harvest is available for team members and visitors at the hospital, who may consume the fresh produce at the hospital’s café. The program will be expanded in the future, and will also include opportunities for therapeutic horticulture, which combines gardening and social services to improve the lives of people with physical and mental health issues.
Staking a Claim
The first known depictions of biblical heroines Jael and Deborah were discovered at an ancient synagogue in Israel, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced. A rendering of one figure driving a stake through the head of a military general was the initial clue that led the team to identify the figures, according to project director Jodi Magness.
“This is extremely rare,” Magness, an archaeologist and religion professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, told Religion News Service (RNS). “I don’t know of any other ancient depictions of these heroines.”
The nearly 1,600-year-old mosaics were uncovered by a team of students and specialists as part of The Huqoq Excavation Project, which resumed its 10th season of excavations this summer at a synagogue in the ancient Jewish village of Huqoq in Lower Galilee, reported the RNS.
Mastering News Skills
One hundred Master Guides—representing 20 countries of the Trans-European (TED) and North American (NAD) divisions—took part in an expedition and training sessions during the Master Guide Expedition & Camp in Hlíðardalsskóli, Iceland, in June 2022, reported the TED.
The investiture of four Master Guides from Cyprus, two from Poland, one from Norway, and a certified leader from Scotland felt like an appropriate way to close the camp and celebrate 100 years of the Master Guide movement.
(Photo: The interior of the AdventHealth Celebration freight farm is seen here. Photo by Southern Tidings/Advent Health via NAD).
