News Briefs June 26, 2015
Adventist Today regularly provides a summary of stories that we have decided do not require in-depth reporting, but our readers may want to be aware of.
A 35-year-old Adventist pastor in Accra (Ghana) was among 150 people killed by an accidental explosion, according to an announcement by the denomination yesterday. Pastor Elisha Obeng-Bobie was among a crowd at a gas station trying to get away from a rising flood when lightning struck and caused the explosion. He was traveling home from classes at Babcock University, the Adventist institution in Nigeria.
Will Green, a staff member at an Adventist summer camp in the Georgia was killed in an accident while being towed behind a boat on a nearby lake. The young adult was teaching “wakeboarding,” a sport in which people do something like surfing as they ride a board while being pulled behind a speedboat. He was a wakeboard professional who recently won the 2015 USA Wakeboard Collegiate Nationals, according to a statement from the denomination’s Georgia-Cumberland Conference. He is a graduate of Forest Lake Academy in Orlando, Florida, where his mother, Jennifer Green, is an English teacher. A memorial service will be held at 4 pm on Sabbath (June 27) at Calvary Assembly, 1199 Clay Street, Winter Park, Florida.
The first 1,312 graduates at the Techiman campus of Valley View University in Ghana were handed degrees in education, business administration, information technology and agribusiness last Sunday (June 21). Valley View is affiliated with the Adventist denomination and opened the new campus in 2009 in order to make Christian education accessible to central and northern Ghana. It is accredited by the ministry of education in Ghana and the campus should achieve independent status by October. The speaker for the event was Dr. Brempong O. Antwi, vice chancellor of the Adventist University of Africa in Kenya. (Source: GNA)
Reconstruction has begun on 53 local church buildings in Vanuatu that were destroyed by a cyclone in March. About two thirds of the funds needed have been raised so far, reports the South Pacific Record. Donors and ADRA volunteers from New Zealand, Australia and around the world made this possible. The first of these churches will reopen in October, reported Pastor Nos Terry, president of the denomination’s Vanuatu Mission. For information on how you can help rebuild churches in Vanuatu, e-mail Peter Koolik at pete@koolik.com.au.
A conference on “This Gospel and the Final Generation,” has been announced for July 15 to 18 by the 1888 Message Study Committee, an Adventist independent ministry. Speakers will include Dr. John Markovic, history professor at Andrews University; Ron Duffield, a respiratory therapist from Walla Walla, Washington, who has served on the staff of Weimar Institute and wrote The Return of the Latter Rain; Dr. Fred Bischoff, a physician at Loma Linda University Medical Center; Dr. Lyndi Schwartz, an internal medicine specialist at Kettering Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio; Kelly Veilleux, prayer ministries coordinator for the Northern New England Conference; and Dr. Kelly Kinsley, a physician from Arcata, California. It will be held on the campus of Southern Adventist University in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
A Leadership Conference on “Leadership and Innovation” starts Sunday evening (June 28) at Andrews University (AU) and continues all day Monday. The keynote speaker will be Ram Charan, a world-renowned management consultant named by Fortune magazine as “the most influential consultant alive.” Dr. Niels-Erik Andreasen, president of AU, and faculty members Karen Tilstra, Stefan Herzberg and Erich Baumgartner will also make presentations. Registration is required.
Old Fashioned, the romantic movie produced by an Adventist to challenge Hollywood’s focus on sex, was released last week on DVD. It is a drama and runs 115 minutes, directed by Rik Swartzwelder. Copies can be purchased at ChristianCinema.com on the Web (search for product 5138).
The church school will open again after 19 years in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, due to “an increased number of young families in the congregation,” according to a report in the Herald-Review local newspaper. It is sponsored by the Blackberry Seventh-day Adventist Church. Rachelle Nelson, a recent graduate of Union College in Lincoln (Nebraska) with a degree in elementary education and minors in music and Biblical languages, has been hired as the teacher. About 10 students in grades K-8 are expected for the 2015-2016 school year. (Why is this news? Because it is a relatively rare event among Adventists in North America where the “graying of Adventism” has contributed to the closing of many church schools.)
An Adventist woman in Philadelphia has sued to get Sabbaths off. Stacia Smith worked as a unit manager at Willow Terrace, a skilled care facility, according to the Pennsylvania Record, a legal journal. She filed a lawsuit in Federal court on June 1 alleging that she was fired because she asked to be off from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday each week. Smith is an immigrant to the U.S. from Jamaica and also told the court that she was discriminated against because of her race.
Castle Rock Adventist Hospital offers Daddy Boot Camp for soon-to-be fathers. The three-hour workshop features advice from experienced fathers, demonstrations of how to hold and feed an infant, as well as how to change diapers. It also includes open discussion time when prospective fathers can ask questions. The goal is to help first-time fathers find confidence and avoid mistakes; an idea that could be replicated elsewhere.
