News reports from Australia, Loma Linda University Hospital, the Netherlands, the United States.

Hoop Dreams

The girls’ basketball team of North Dallas Adventist Academy in Texas, U.S., was in its first-ever state tournament after joining the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools just a year ago, reported the Dallas Morning News.

Adventist head coach Ivan Mitchell said his team had enjoyed the playoff experience. “So proud of the team,” Mitchell beamed after the Lady Sentinels’ semifinal win on March 3, 2022.

However, the team was defeated by defending state champion and top-ranked Houston Lutheran North on March 4, 2022.

Chyna Brown, Alexandra Martin, Madison Gwin and Paschall Theriot from North Dallas Adventist Academy were all named to the 12-member all-tourney team.

Building the Dream

SDA Kinship International, an LGBTQIA+-affirming and inclusive community for current and former Seventh-day Adventists is holding an online Zoom event called “Building Safe Places” on Mar. 12, 2022, at 3 p.m. EST. “Building Safe Places” is designed as a conversation about the specific components of safe or benevolent relationships or environments, how to recognize them, and how to create them. For more details, visit the Zoom registration link: https://bit.ly/DevelopingBenevolentSystemsPartI, 

Dream Team

Guisèle Berkel-Larmonie and Tabitha Cedenio-Cummins, two Adventist female pastors in the Netherlands, recently hosted a podcast in honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2022. Twelve women, all pastors from around the world, shared life lessons, leadership tips and more. Guests included Darnisha Thomas, Kimberly A Bulgin, Maureen Rock, Veronica Williams, Anne-May Müller, Kirsten Øster-Lundqvist, Lolly Fontaine, Sophia Peart, Nandi Fleming, Madelon Comvalius-Duijster and Michelle Mc Intyre. The program can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD32HHt5GbI.

Don’t Stop Believing

Steve Krieg, a 1994 graduate of Avondale College, was elected mayor of Lismore, Australia, in December, according to Transformed, the Avondale College alumni journal. He is now leading the city’s response to the worst flood in its history. The one-in-500-year weather event “has led to many hundreds, if not thousands, of people being evacuated with little more than the clothes on their back,” said Krieg when announcing a Lismore flood appeal March 1, 2022. The statistics are personal: Krieg had to evacuate both his business and his home. “I feel your pain,” he told residents in a video posted to the city council’s Facebook page, but “now is not a time to be angry. Now is a time to . . . come together and work together.”

Born and raised in Western Australia, Krieg moved to Avondale at 19. After graduating, he headed back to teach at an agricultural boarding school. Major mid-life changes prompted Krieg to explore new opportunities. He and his brother-in-law bought a cafe in the Lismore central business district.

The devastation wrought by rain over the past week is yet another begin-again moment. “The road to recovery is going to be very slow,” warned Krieg in his flood appeal announcement.

But: “I’m not one to get intimidated,” he said, “and I think there’s always a solution to any problem.”

Keeping It Real

The sixth season of the documentary TV series Life on the Line is now available to stream online through PBS, bringing some of the unseen stories of the pandemic into focus. Life on the Line, Loma Linda University Health’s first national TV show, aired on U.S. public television station KVCR starting in May 2014.

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