News Briefs for June 29, 2018
News reports from Southern Adventist University, Bangladesh, Silver Spring, Maryland; Italy, Vanuatu and Adventist University of Health Sciences
Southern Adventist University business professor, Michelle Doucoumes, is cohosting “Raw Questions Relevant Answers,” a new TV that addresses what a Southern Facebook post calls “real heart questions sent in from young people around the world.” The series starts this Sunday, July 1 and will air live on Sundays at 8:30 p.m. EDT, Tuesdays at 1:00 am EDT or Saturdays at 11 p.m. EDT on 3ABN or online at RQRA.tv.
Rohingya refugees at Shalbagan-Nayapara refugee settlement in Cox Bazar, Bangladesh have elected an all-female group of camp leaders. The settlement is the largest refugee camp in the world and ADRA Bangladesh was instrumental in helping coordinate the process for selecting the refugee leaders who will help represent the needs and interests of the displaced people taking refuge at the settlement.
From the Columbia Union Conference communication department: Members of an Adventist congregation in Silver Spring, Maryland, are inviting Adventists across the United States to join them in praying for refugee families who have been separated from their children. The Family Together Prayer Line will meet for the first time at 9 pm Eastern time today (June 29) by telephone connection. Dial (563) 999-1921 to be connected. Press *6 to mute your side of the call. It will continue each Monday and Friday at the same time. Sylvia Urrutia and Anissa Pérez, members of Arise Hispanic-American Seventh-day Adventist Congregation, felt emotionally drained in recent days, watching families being torn apart on the U.S. border with Mexico. “As we struggle with feelings of helplessness, we try to find ways to help or make a difference in the lives of these precious little ones and their families. Our hearts turned to prayer,” says Urrutia, whose parents immigrated from Argentina before she was born.
Adventists in Italy celebrated the 90th anniversary of the denomination in the country on June 8 and 9 as over 750 people filled the Adventist church in Piazza Vulture, Rome. Church members in the country sent Adventists around the world a Bible text: “Those of Italy salute you” (Hebrews 13:24). Pastor Stefano Paris, president of the union conference in Italy said, “Remembering is important to understand who we are and where we must go.” An online effort that involved 300 video links on Hope Channel Italia, Facebook, and YouTube, broadcast the event and at least 30 congregations watched proceedings via live streaming. General Conference President Ted Wilson was at the event and in an historic moment, he was given a copy of the Torre Pellice church register consigned to the World Church. It shows the name of the first Adventist in Italy and in Europe: Catherine Revel. Revel became an Adventist in 1864; she was the only Seventh-day Adventist in her community for about 20 years. Revel was the grandmother of Alfred Vaucher, one of the most prominent European theologians in Adventist history.
The Honorable Andrew S. Napuat, cabinet minister of Internal Affairs for the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, opened the 7th Adventist Music Festival in Efate, which ran from June 7 to 11. Napuat said the event was important because it promoted original songs from singing groups. The annual gospel singing event was initiated by the Adventist denomination in 2012 to celebrate the anniversary of the Adventist movement in Vanuatu. The event has gone on to become a major item on the annual cultural calendar for the country.
Orlando-based Adventist University of Health Sciences (ADU) reported that every one of their nuclear medicine program graduates passed the Nuclear Medicine Technology Certification Board (NMTCB) exam on their first attempt. This marks the third consecutive year that the program’s graduates have achieved a perfect pass rate.
