ANN Video Full Episode transcript - June 8, 2012

This week on Adventist News Network, how a mobile medical clinic is raising the church’s profile in Malaysia

… why one pastor is turning his churchyard into a shelter

… and Adventist health leaders fight childhood obesity and diabetes in Jamaica.   

These stories and more, coming up.

This is Adventist News Network, a service of the Seventh-day Adventist world church. Thanks so much for joining us this week.

First in the news, a recent visit from President Ted Wilson encouraged church members in South Africa. More than 15,000 Adventists gathered in Johannesburg Stadium to hear the Adventist world church leader head up a revival and reformation rally. Wilson took the opportunity to support several church initiatives, including Revived By His Word. The Bible-reading program invites Adventists worldwide to join together in reading a chapter of the Bible every day.

I have committed myself to digging deeper into the word of God and I urge each one of you to do the same.

Revived By His Word participants have just completed the Old Testament book of Genesis. Wilson also promoted the church’s current focus on urban ministry. Outreach will begin next year in New York City and spread worldwide to dozens of other cities, including Johannesburg. Wilson left church members with a reminder to model here on Earth the unity they look forward to in heaven.

It is important, brothers and sisters, to be united in Jesus Christ.  I don’t care what language you speak, what color you are, what socio-economic background you are from, what education you have had – we are all one in Jesus Christ.  

At local markets in Malaysia, an Adventist booth is getting a lot of attention. But booth staffers aren’t selling anything. Instead, the “Hope On Wheels” mobile medical team offers health screenings, such as tests for blood pressure, glucose and body mass index to shoppers. The full-time ministry operates five days a week from local markets in Kuala Lumpur. Team members also handle house calls to the homes of regular visitors to their booth. They make sure patients follow up with their doctors or check progress on a diet change. Team members say the project is creating awareness of the Adventist Church in the country. Malaysia is part of a world region stretching from the Middle East to parts of Southeast Asia where less than two percent of the population is Christian. 

Adventist humanitarians are responding to a recent wave of earthquakes and aftershocks in Italy. The natural disasters claimed dozens of lives and destroyed businesses and cultural landmarks in the country’s north in recent weeks. Adventist Development and Relief Agency volunteers in Italy are coordinating with the country’s department of Civil Protection to clear rubble and assist thousands of displaced residents. A local Adventist pastor is planning to join relief efforts by setting up an emergency camp in the churchyard to provide shelter and hot meals.

Thousands of students from across the Southwestern U.S. gathered at an Adventist church in Texas recently for the first Committed to Christ Young Adult Festival of Worship. The worship experience included music, seminars and opportunities for service. Students prepared thousands of pounds of food staples to benefit needy families during an afternoon at the North Texas Food Bank. The Adventist acappella group Committed even helped out. The Season Two winners of NBC’s Sing-Off performed from the warehouse terrace and later joined in sorting food. Students said they left the conference motivated and inspired.

Jamaica just wrapped up a month-long celebration focusing on children. Adventists joined in the country’s Child’s Month by holding a Children’s Convention last week. The convention focused on children’s health. With childhood obesity and lifestyle-related diseases on the rise, Adventists took the opportunity to step up education and awareness of children’s health issues. Children used music, drama, poetry and prayer to help illustrate the Adventist message of health. Medical professionals were on hand to conduct eye exams, blood pressure and cholesterol checks and offer exercise tips. The convention was organized by Adventist Children’s Ministries in Jamaica and held at the church’s Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville.

Coming up, we have a preview of the latest edition of the Adventist World. This month, the magazine explores whether unchanging truth can connect with a modern audience.

[BREAK] 

Welcome back. An unconventional series of evangelism meetings in Germany inspired Adventist World editors to report on urban outreach. Gerald Klingbeil has a preview of this month’s edition.

We have all seen them in our cities: twenty-something professionals with eyes glued to their iPads or smartphones—people with no time or apparent interest in God. And yet we wonder how can we reach these mostly secular people and share the love of Jesus with them? This week in Adventist World our cover story, Faith.Simple, reports on an exciting, vibrant new approach to reaching secular people in Europe with encouraging results. Faith.Simple is not a successful one-time event that worked in Germany, the heart of secular Europe. It is much bigger than that. It represents a new model of how to present in a culturally sensitive way unchanging truth that reaches the secular mind.

And that’s just the beginning. There is plenty more to keep you glued to your copy of the magazine. Adventist World reflects the diversity in authorship as well as readership of our worldwide Adventist family. GC president Pastor Ted Wilson explores a biblical approach to handling conflict in the church. Daniel Bediako, a lecturer from Valley View Adventist University in Ghana, tackles one of the most difficult, yet essential, of all Christian teachings—the Trinity. Ephraim Nkonya from Tanzania recounts the story of the church that met under a tree. Sally Lam-Phoon from Malaysia traces the unlikely route evangelism is taking in a context where public gatherings are banned and regulations restrict freedom of religion. Join your worldwide Adventist family as you find all this and more in your copy of Adventist World or online at www.adventistworld.org.

This week our Facebook and Twitter followers talked about the value of Adventist education. Here are some of their thoughts on this week’s Adventist social media highlights.

This week, we asked you to tell us whether you felt an Adventist education was an important part of young adult life, and if so, why.

On Twitter, Sheila Yaeggey says she absolutely believes in Adventist education. She says, We are preparing our children for the last events. It is our responsibility!

SoCoolPhillip says, Yes, it is important. It provides our kids excellent academics while empowering them to share their faith and make disciples.

OsachMose says, Yes, because The fundamentals of life are embedded in Adventist curriculum.

On Facebook, Revived Voices says, On a long term comparison factor...students from Adventist Institutions have proved to be more mature and responsible in decision making. Not all but the majority.

Judy says, Jesus uplifted in education as well as in the home and church wins the hearts of our precious children to Him.

James adds, Adventist education proves to be complete and more holistic

On the flip side, Penny says she found the school nearest her to be too worldly for her taste. She says, I am a Seventh Day Adventist but I choose to homeschool my children.

And Dora says she’s concerned that an Adventist education might be out of reach financially for some. She says we need to provide more resources to make it available.

Do you enjoy the social media segments?  Visit us on Twitter and Facebook to join the discussion for your chance to be a featured tweet or post.

The church’s official television network continues to expand worldwide. This week Carmen McMurdy has Hope Channel updates from a media center in Brazil and a research base in Antarctica.


Hope Channel is celebrating the opening of a new production facility in Brazil.  Located near the city of Sao Paulo the new four story office and studio complex will serve Hope Channel's South American based channels Novo Tempo and Nuevo Tiempo which broadcast in the Portuguese and Spanish languages.  The new building is located next to the existing headquarters complex which will be converted to additional studio space.   Various dignitaries from around the world attended the event including several pioneers in Adventist television. 

Hope Channel is now truly global with viewership in all seven continents.  Since its beginning in 2003, Hope Channel has been committed to sending its signal to every corner of the globe by going into as many countries and people groups as possible. Today Hope Channel is more than a dozen international channels in many different languages.   For several years it has been possible to view Hope Channel on all six inhabited continents, but the network has broken new ground with a loyal band of viewers at a research base in the Antarctic. Twice a week, on Sabbath and Sunday, a group of South African scientists watch "Hope Sabbath School" on this perpetually frozen continent. While working at the bottom of the world is a lonely job, one on the viewers writes that "Hope Sabbath School" makes all the difference.  "Here in the cold and isolation of Antarctica," he writes, "you do get depressed and need a message of Hope -- especially now in winter when we do not see the sun at all."  For Hope Channel, I'm Carmen McMurdy.

Still ahead on Adventist News Network, you won’t want to miss our guest on a new feature called Dialogue. 

But up next, this week’s Tech Corner.

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Welcome back. Keeping up with new content from your favorite websites can be time-consuming. On this week’s Tech Corner, Andrew King shares an easy way to keep track of stories and videos you care about online.  

Have you ever found it difficult to keep up to date with the information you care about online?

One way to save you from missing stories that are added to the internet is using a technology called RSS.

Websites that frequently update themselves with new content for you to read, watch, or listen to use RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, to keep you in the loop.

To find it, look for words like: RSS, or Feed, or web feed, or even the small logo you see here.

Before you can subscribe to the RSS feed you will need install an app on your computer or smart phone. Just do a search online for a RSS Reeder. There are lots of options, many of them free. Some are even an online service.

Once you have a RSS Reeder set up, you add the RSS links from all the websites you are interested in. Then all you need to do is read, watch, or listen to the content - it will all be updated automatically in your RSS Reeder anytime the websites you subscribe to publish new content.

Here at Adventist News Network, we have an RSS Feed, just click the icon in the upper right corner, and you can subscribe to our content, keeping you up to date with the Seventh-day Adventist church around the world.

This week we’re meeting a missionary who served in the Solomon islands. Tanya Holland sat down with Adventist volunteer Charles Mendoza to find out what it’s like to serve in the country.

Connecting people to the internet is part of your job description and yet you had absolutely no internet connection while you served in the Solomon Islands.  What was that like for you? 

It was fantastic, one of the reasons why I chose this project was to get away from technology so that we could actually connect and really get to know the people we were actually helping.  The project was building a small church for a school that was already located in the island of Kopui, which was forty-five minutes flying but actually took us about twelve hours to sail.  That allowed us to actually get to know the other people who are part of our team that were from Australia and other people from the United States and Korea.  We all got together once we actually got to the project, we all got along really well, met fantastic people, we got to go to the waterfalls, did some missionary work for the children for Sabbath School.  It was better than I actually thought.  I thought we were going to be there just to build a church but we actually got to know the people and everyone else in the Solomon’s.  I really enjoyed it. 

Thank you Charles, missionaries serve all over the world. They come from everywhere and they go everywhere. And they tell everyone about God's love and soon return. Join them by becoming a missionary, visit our website at adventistvolunteers.org.

This week on ANN Video, we’re introducing a new feature called Dialogue. Every month, we’ll sit down with a prominent church leader to learn about the responsibilities and rewards of their job. This month, we spoke with Adventist world church President Ted Wilson.  

Pastor Wilson, thank you so much for being with us today.

It is a real privilege, thank you.

Pastor Wilson, how long have you worked for the church and also share some of the places that you have been as you have worked for the church.

Well I have worked for probably about thirty five years or so and have had the great privilege of working in a lot of interesting places including New York City and the metropolitan area of New York, which gave me a great burden for the big cities of the world, then I worked in Africa and West Africa, Abidjan – covering much of west and central Africa in the Indian ocean.  Had the privilege of working and living in Moscow, Russia and covering the Euro- Asia Division, which is quite a regional area of the Church’s responsibility for many areas in central Asia and Europe, and then of course working in the United States in Publishing work, as well as administrative work and pastoring as well, it has been a great privilege.

Do you have a favorite part of your work?

I suppose one of the most enjoyable parts is to see the responses of people wherever I go and believe me I have been traveling a lot.  I see a lot of people and to see that they are just growing in Christ and especially in reading the Word of God.  We are really trying to emphasize the reading of the Bible.  Revived by His Word, being spiritually revived and reformed, changed by the Holy Spirit.  To be honest, that is one of the things that is so enjoyable as I travel around because that message is getting through.  When you are reading your bible and are having an active prayer life with Christ, it is something that changes you, it changes me and then we are more likely to share this wonderful experience with Christ and that actually is one of the most exciting things that I see around the world as people gather into their own understanding.  A real sense of mission and why they are there.

Thank you so much Pastor Wilson for being with us today and also for sharing your vision for our world church.

Thank you so much.

You can watch our entire interview with Pastor Wilson at news.adventist.org.

When we come back after the break, this week’s iShare report. 

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Welcome back. Let’s turn to Sergio Gonzales to find out what news you reported this week.  

This week, members of the Frederick Seventh-day Adventist Church in Maryland, United States, told us about volunteering their time to help their community. The church members recently volunteered to pack groceries, pass out Vibrant Life magazines and help out in the free dental care tent. The event, called Convoy of Hope, also offered free haircuts, breast cancer screenings and a job fair.

Hi I am Carl Appleton and I am helping out here at Convoy of Hope.  I am the health tent leader so I am helping oversee the dental tent and the overall health services tent.  Really we are doing this to help everybody in the community, to take time, to give back and to try to use this event to reach people, to have the opportunity share Christ with them, that is what we are doing.

Hi, my name is Pastor Mark and we are here as Fredrick Seventh-day Adventist Church, a lot of people have excuses of why not to go to church on the Sabbath, today our excuse was – we were serving, we joined a journey that Jesus started – to serve, to help out people, just make a difference in their life.

To learn more, visit hope4frederick.com and convoyofhope.org. And don’t forget to send us your stories at news.adventist.org/ishare.

Adventist Single Adults Ministry provides Christian fellowship and support for church members who have never married or are divorced or widowed. Andrea Hicks has more.

Single Adults are populating churches all over North America. In most Seventh-day Adventist churches, approximately 50% of adults are single or single-again. Some are single adults by choice and others by circumstance.  The various categories include:  never married, divorced and widower.

ASAM (Adventist Single Adult Ministries) is one of the most powerful ministries in the church and it’s often relegated to both, the basement in terms of location and value.  ASAM is a group that provides a safe environment for Christian fellowship and encouragement to single adults.  It is a spiritual entity in which single adults come together to seek God’s purpose for their lives.  Contrary to what most believe, it is not a dating service.  Simply put, “This ministry is not about getting hooked up, it’s about getting fixed up - spiritually and emotionally”.  ASAM addresses the unique needs of single adults by providing tools for: Grief Recovery, Divorce Recovery, Single Parenting, Managing Sexual Desires, Dating, Dating Again, Forgiveness, Loneliness, Pre-Engagement and Re-Marital Education.  If done successfully, it has the potential to assist single adult’s emotional health and provide help to repair the church family.  Now that we have a better understanding of ASAM, let’s start one in your church.

Now let’s turn to Benjamin Baker for a look at Adventist history. This week, the church cements its commitment to religious liberty.

Welcome to “This Week in Adventist History.”

James Edson White died on June 3, 1928.  Edson, as he was called throughout his life, was born in 1849, the second son of church co-founders James and Ellen White.  At 15 he began an apprenticeship at the Review and Herald office, and apart from a stretch as an entrepreneur in Chicago, worked with or alongside the church his entire life.  Eminently versatile, Edson excelled in Sabbath School work, hymn writing, publishing and inventions.  He is best known, though, for his efforts among African Americans in the U.S. South. In 1894 Edson and others formed the Southern Missionary Society, and steamed down the Mississippi in the riverboat, Morning Star.  In subsequent years the Society did much to lay the foundation for black Adventism through a program of education and evangelism.  Despite an eccentric and turbulent personality, Edson White was a giant of a trailblazer.

On June 4, 1905, the Religious Liberty Bureau, today Department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty—PARL for short, debuted in the General Conference Minutes.  PARL focuses on making religious freedom a global reality and representing the Seventh-day Adventist Church to governments and international organizations.  Its first director was A.T. Jones, and its 12th and present director is John Graz.

And that’s “This Week in Adventist History.”

Thanks for watching Adventist News Network. Join us next week for more news from the headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

In the meantime, look for us on Facebook. You can connect with other Adventists worldwide and find links to all of our stories, photos and videos. Just visit Facebook slash Adventist News. 

Our good news for this week comes from the first chapter of second Timothy in the New Testament. Verse seven says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” This is the last time John Torres will be hosting and anchoring the Adventist News Network news program and John, I just want to say it has been wonderful working with your for the past couple of months and we have worked together in the past so, all the best to you and God’s blessing.

Thank you very much, it has been wonderful to be a part of this, I appreciate it. Don’t forget, you can always visit news dot Adventist dot org for daily news and videos. Until next time, God bless.

-- transcribed by Carol Little

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