ANN Video Full Episode transcript - June 29, 2012

This week on Adventist News Network, tech professionals in South America share best practices

… Sweden recognizes a veteran Adventist musician

 … and celebrating one hundred years of Adventism in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu

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, the Global Adventist Internet Network held its first regional conference in South America this week. Andre Brink reports from Jacarei, Brazil.

This GAiN forum was different from any other, the reason, it was presented to a group of 150 participants on location but it was simultaneously streamed live on the internet and broadcast via satellite to a network of twenty-two thousand available churches where local participants could interactively take part.

The people that are in internet and that they are in their church they describe for us, they post in the internet, in the twitter, in the Facebook – Thank you, thank you because you help us to participate in this.

The forum this week drew key Adventist influences of the Internet in South America to the Novo Tempo TV studios.  The Adventist church in South America aims to reach one-hundred million people with the gospel via the Internet in 2013.

An Adventist musician has received one of Sweden’s top civilian honors. The king of Sweden recently awarded veteran composer Herbert Blomstedt a Seraphim Medal. An announcement from Sweden’s Royal Palace says the medal recognizes Blomstedt’s outstanding contributions within Swedish music. His conducting career spans decades and includes posts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Blomstedt was unable to attend the award ceremony due to a prior conducting appointment. At eighty-five years old, Blomstedt still maintains an active career.

Adventist Development and Relief Agency board members are looking for a new president to head up the global non-profit humanitarian aid organization. The search comes after the board voted this week to remove the current president from the position. The decision ended months of uncertainty about the agency’s direction. ADRA is actively involved in development and relief projects worldwide, and board members say they’ll work to support that role as the agency undergoes a management shift.

One hundred years ago this month, the first Adventist missionaries arrived in what is now the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. Today, Adventists are the third largest denomination in the country. Church members gathered to celebrate the centenary with reenactments, speeches and church services. Church members took the opportunity to remember the sacrifices made by early Adventist missionaries and encourage a new generation of church members to embrace the same spirit.

Prime minister of Vanuatu Sato Kilman attended the festivities and thanked church leadership for their work in the country. The national leader also presented church leaders with a television broadcast license.

Adventists in Albania are also celebrating a milestone this month. Although the Adventist presence in the Eastern European country dates back to the nineteen thirties, the first Adventist church was established there in nineteen ninety-two. Twenty years later, the Adventist community is active and growing in Albania. During a special Sabbath worship program, church leaders remembered the legacy left by early Adventist Albanians. Adventists in Tirana wrapped up the celebration by welcoming six new church members during an afternoon baptism ceremony.

Like any other organization, the Adventist Church isn’t immune to risk. Church leaders worldwide deal with natural disasters, property damage and other risks that could compromise the church’s ministry. This week, the church’s risk management organization hosted a meeting in Cape Town, South Africa. Adventist Risk Management executives addressed some of the challenges and opportunities that come with protecting the church’s assets worldwide.

We are here to emphasize risk prevention, how to do better loss control and basically – how to be stewards of the resources of the church.  We emphasize that our ministry at Adventist Risk Management is to protect the ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Dozens of underprivileged students in Guatemala are planning to start their own tailoring businesses, thanks to a partnership between the Adventist Church and a Swiss charity. The students are completing a certification program through Guatemala’s Technical and Training Institute. When they graduate in August, they’ll leave with their own sewing machines and the skills to find steady work and support their families. One young student says the program is ideal, allowing her to work from home, where she cares for her aging mother and younger brother. Project coordinator Gustavo Menendez says the partnership will expand in the coming months to offer additional training programs in welding, cooking, hair styling and more.

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Welcome back. Here’s Bill Knott with a preview of this week’s issue of Adventist Review.

There’s an old story in the Knott family about my grandmother, a sturdy Yankee woman sitting my dad down as a very little boy and warning him about the dangers of alcohol.  It wasn’t just a temperance lecture from a woman who had given her life to the Lord Jesus and made a commitment to Adventism, she knew something about what alcohol could do through the generations.  She had seen her own father, with the ravages of alcohol and she was warning her son because she knew that there could be a genetic pre-deposition to the same things that had plagued her father.  This weeks cover story in the Adventist Review by Edsel Cadet looks at both genetic and spiritually genetic pre-conditions that set us up for issues in our lives.  You’re going to be fascinated as you see this piece that helps you understand why the same kinds of issues that maybe others in your family have dealt with may also be there as part of your spiritual life.  Take an opportunity to read this week’s cover story – The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree. 

In this same edition you will find a fascinating piece by Larry Evans called Can Greed be Beat?  In today’s world with so much greed around us.  It takes a look at biblical principles and again you will find a piece by Ellen White talking about why we need to avoid selfishness in our lives and become people of charity and compassion.  Fascinating reading, this week in the Adventist Review.

The church’s Publishing Ministries is following up on the popular devotional book Miracles of Grace by editing a second volume. Viviene Martinelli has more.

The Publishing Ministries Department is preparing the second volume of the devotional book Miracles of Grace. The first one was published in 2006 and the department decided to publish a second volume because the first was such a success.

The devotional book will feature 365 experiences and testimonies from nearly every local conference and mission of the world field. The stories are written by literature evangelists, publishing directors, and other leaders. The book is entitled Miracles of Grace because the stories featured are examples of the gracious providence God delivers daily. Some of the stories depict experiences of God’s protection and guidance, while others portray the intervention of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the literature evangelist and the people they canvass.

The purpose of Miracles of Grace is to bring inspiration to church leaders, literature evangelists, and members at large as an adult devotional book.

The Publishing Department is now gathering and editing the testimonies. We expect to finish the project by 2013, so that Miracles of Grace can be used as a devotional book in 2014 or 2015. 

This week our Facebook and Twitter followers shared their secrets to happy marriages. Megan Brauner has some of their thoughts in this week’s Adventist social media highlights.  

June is a very popular month for weddings, so in honor of that, we thought we’d ask married couples for their best advice on how to stay blissfully married for the rest of your life, and we got some great advice.

On Twitter, DWeberPhoto says, treat your spouse how you would like to be treated. Respect them for loving you. He says his is currently celebrating 21 years of marriage.

KReyne advises, tenderness, generously lavished and always for free :)

Our Facebook friends also weighed in.

Sheron says, Communication is the key to a happy marriage.

Caswell recommends what he calls the three P’s: Playing together, planning together and praying together.

Jocey says, Pray for each other, with each other...She says, it is totally awesome to hear my name on my husband’s lips as he talks to Jesus!!!

For Justin, honesty is the main ingredient. He says couples should maintain, realistic expectations and a constant real & honest dialogue. They should also, minimize assumptions about each other, and be open and honest about the ups and downs.

Carina says, Accept your partner the way they are. When things are not all right, just weigh the positive and the negatives and ask God to change you if someone needs to change.

Hillary keeps it simple: she says, don’t sweat the small stuff.

And Dynz advises her own golden rule: no badmouthing, no name calling or belittling.

To read the rest of the advice that we didn’t have time to fit in the show this week, head over to facebook.com/adventistnews, and don’t forget to check back for next week’s question.

Freedom of religion advocates, faith representatives, diplomats and thought leaders gathered in Washington, D.C. recently for the annual Religious Liberty Dinner. The event is sponsored by the church’s department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty. For more, we turn to Dwayne Leslie. 

This year’s dinner brought together leaders and officials from Washington D.C’s diplomatic community, government agencies, faith groups, and advocacy organizations. This is our 10th annual Religious Liberty dinner, and our goal over the years has been to forge new contacts and relationships with government leaders and different organizations, and to raise awareness of our church’s commitment to religious freedom as a “first freedom”—one which supports all other human rights.
We were especially delighted that Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs—John Baird—agreed to be our keynote speaker. He’s currently in the process of establishing a Canadian Office of International Religious Freedom, which will help promote religious freedom as part of his country’s foreign policy.

We had an excellent turnout--more than 150 people attended, including ambassadors representing 17 nations and representatives from the White House’s Office of Public Engagement and the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom.

We also honored some religious freedom advocates at the dinner, including Canadian lawyer Gerald Chipeur. He promotes religious liberty through his work with the Canadian Bar Association and the International Academy for Freedom of Religious and Belief, and often argues human rights cases before the Supreme Court of Canada.

I believe this year’s dinner was probably one of our most successful ones yet, in terms of generating media interest, and reaching out to the diplomatic community and Washington's thought leaders. This event is unique in the ability it gives us to raise awareness of our church’s religious liberty work, and to develop valuable new relationships which help us in our advocacy work around the world 

Still ahead on Adventist News Network, how you can get involved in this year’s International Women’s Day of Prayer.

But up next, this week’s Tech Corner.

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Welcome back. Let’s turn to [Darryl Thompson / Andrew King] for this week’s Tech Corner.

Do you know that the White Estate has developed a new website http://egwwritings.org for users to be able to search, read, listen, and share the writings Ellen White. The site currently has available 11 languages: English, Chinese, Czech, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, and Spanish.
If you’re located in an area with a slow internet connection, use the text only version of our Website: http://text.egwwritings.org, and for mobile users we have available: http://m.egwwritings.org.  Plus we also have android apps and iPhone apps that you can download from those respective app stores.

Egwwritings.org offers many features for both casual and heavy users alike. Use the search forms or browse the Library, you can also share a book or paragraph with friends.  Synchronize between two languages, read books in PDF view, listen to 50 audiobooks or download ebooks in many formats like ePub, PDF, Kindle or MP3.
EGWwritings.org is your place to go for anything Ellen White.  So why not go there today and visit it?

Since nineteen-ninety, the Adventist Church has promoted International Women’s Day of Prayer. This week Raquel Arrais shares ideas on how members worldwide can get involved.
     
The International Women’s Day of Prayer is the first Sabbath of each March but you can adjust the day as you need. In past years, this special day has been celebrated in a variety of ways: prayer breakfasts, prayer walking, praying in the communities, fasting and prayer, women preaching sermons for church services about prayer and other special programs as Bible prayers, how to pray scriptural promises, how fasting can enhance our prayer life, God’s will and prayer, intercessory prayer, answered and unanswered prayer, closet prayers, and how to help our children develop a prayer life of their own.

The International Woman’s Day of Prayer provides an opportunity for women to learn about each other and pray for one another.

Thousands of women (and men) gather to pray on this day. Although the essential purpose of the day is prayer, the day can also provide women with an opportunity to outreach going into the communities and praying for neighbors and friends.

You can download the International Day of Prayer material going to our web site:
www.adventistwomensministries.org

Witnessing doesn’t need to be complicated. As Jonathan Kuntaraf says this week, you don’t need a powerful testimony to share the Adventist message of hope with your friends.

Everybody who has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus can share the love of Jesus with others.  This is something that everybody can do and some people can give testimonies how Jesus has done for him or for her, but some people say, “What do I have to talk about, what kind of instrument or tools that we can use in witnessing activity?” Well I have some examples of tools, we can use tracts or we can use bible study guide, we can use a book for our witnessing activities or a CD or even a DVD.  Know something that we need to remember, because some people ask, “what do I have to talk about when we would like to give a book to a friend?” Well just ask these three questions – three simple question.  1.  Do you read much?  In many cases they always say, “Oh yes, I read much.”  Then you can ask another question, I have a very good book, will you read it if I give it to you?  In many occasions people will say, “Oh yes, I am going to read it!” and you can give the book and you can say, “Please let me know in case you have a question.”  In this way, we can witness for the Lord and all of this instrument we can witness ourselves to the Lord to share the love of Jesus and we can have the joy of service.

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

And coming up later, this week’s look at Adventist history.

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

Welcome to iShare, where you bring us the news. This week, we heard from Christian Record Services marketing coordinator Ray Dabrowski, who visited with blind campers at Indian Creek Camp in Tennessee.

The camp is one of 14 summer and winter programs organized by Christian Record Services in the United States and Canada. More than fifty thousand campers have attended CRS sponsored camps. Ray said blind campers made crafts, kayaked, played kickball and even tried some BMX riding at the camp located near Nashville. He said the experience taught him much about teamwork and courage.

To read more about Ray’s visit, log on to christianrecord.org.

Now let’s find out what KidsView has in store. Here with a preview of the July issue is Wilona Karimabadi.  

What can you look forward to in our July edition of KidsView! Well for starters, you can download the entire issue is a high quality PDF on our website! This is a summer special that won’t continue in August, so make sure you check that out and print out a copy for your friends before it goes away! In this issue you can read about the blast of a time our friend Zach had at camp meeting in Australia. And how can you stay healthy and happy this summer? We’ve got a few tips. In addition, there’s a neat story from our friends at the White Estate about some interesting places to visit in California! As always, we’ve got another fun calendar chock full of things to remember and new activities to try. For all this and a few things you won’t find in our print edition this month, be sure to visit www.kidsviewmag.org 

Finally this week, David Trim has our look at Adventist history. We’ll hear about a milestone in the life of Arthur Maxwell, famous for his “Uncle Arthur” bedtime stories. 

Welcome to this week in Adventist history.  On June 26, in 1842, Ellen Harmon, as she then was – was baptized into the Methodist Church, in Casco Bay, Maine, aged 14; at her request, she was baptized by immersion.

On June 27, in 1875, Ellen White spoke at the Minnesota Campmeeting and promised to have her counsels translated into Swedish and Danish, for the benefit both of the new mission in Europe and of Scandinavian immigrants to the United States.

On June 29 in 1820, Joseph H. Waggoner was born. Waggoner was an important leader of the early Seventh-day Adventists, a powerful preacher, and an influential editor, author and campaigner for religious liberty.

On June 29, in 1904, three people were baptized as Seventh-day Adventists in Barcelona—this was the first Adventist baptism in Spain.

On June 30 in 1970, A. S. Maxwell (“Uncle Arthur”) retired as editor of Signs of the Times, ending 34 years as editor and 58 years working for the church. He wrote 112 books during his lifetime, including the much beloved Bedtime Stories, which sold over 43 million copies.  He entitled his final editorial in Signs “task accomplished.” 

Also on June 30, but in 1989, the General Conference completed its relocation from Takoma Park, in the District of Columbia, to Silver Spring, Maryland. We’re still here today.

That was 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 Isaiah forty-one. Verse ten says, “So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

That’s our show for this week. 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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