News reports from Houston, Texas; Germany; Kinship; Avondale College and Montemorelos University.

The Hon. Sheila Jackson Lee, the Adventist who serves as an elected member of the United States Congress from Houston, Texas, is profiled in this week’s edition of Newsweek magazine.She has been re-elected repeatedly and has served nearly 25 years as a lawmaker. She is one of only two elected members of Congress who is a member of the Adventist faith. (July 5 edition, pages 11 and 12.)

Hospice Friedensberg, operated by the Adventist Welfare Work agency in Germany, celebrated its 10th anniversary on June 29 in Lauchhammer. So far, more than 850 people have spent their final days at the facility, which was built with 1.5 million Euros donated by many companies and individuals.

The 40th annual Kampmeeting organized by Seventh-day Adventist Kinship, the organization of LGBT Adventists and their family and friends, is scheduled for July 10-13 at the Red Lion Hotel in the Jantzen Beach area of Portland, Oregon. Speakers will include Dr. Sylvia Rhue, the first African American to receive a PhD in Human Sexuality; one of the producers of the documentary “All God’s Children” which dealt with African American family and religious values, civil rights, and homophobia; Angel Rivero, a seminary student at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, and former Adventist pastor; Bartja Wachtel, a licensed clinical social worker with nearly two decades of experience in counseling; and Terry Rice, Chaplain for SDA Kinship, who has previously served as the Director of Church Relations for the organization. John and Carolyn Wilt serve as coordinators for the family of LGBT people from an Adventist background and will meet with a Family & Friends group at the event. They can be reached by email at family-friends@sdakinship.org.

Peter Duncan, an Adventist well-known at Avondale College as a supporter of young musicians, was given the Order of Australia Award in the Birthday Honours List of Queen Elizabeth II for 2019. The award was for “significant service to business and manufacturing, to medical research and to sport. He is executive chairman of Pirtek, the well-known fluid transfer solutions company. He was married to Valerie Kranz for 57 years when she passed away in May. Her father, Alfred Kranz, was a Bible teacher at Avondale and principal of Longburn Adventist College in New Zealand.

Faculty from Montemorelos University, the Adventist institution in Mexico, were given recognition for research contributing to the goals of a network of international health promotion scholars. The Ibero-American Congress of Health Promoting Universities met in Monterrey, Mexico, May 21-24 and Montemorelos faculty were among the 340 scholars from 18 countries in Europe, Latin American and a number of public and private institutions. The congress offered a platform to showcase advances by the network of universities that promote health. The event also highlighted solutions regarding the challenges posed by sustainable development objectives, the challenges of health promotion, sustainable development on university campuses, and university policies favorable to health, among others.

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