ANN Video Full Episode transcript - July 13, 2012

This week on Adventist News Network, young people prepare for a lifetime of religious liberty advocacy 

… Brazilian Adventists promote Revived by His Word, in one hundred and forty characters or less 

… and we hear from former athlete and pastor Richard Daly on the upcoming Olympic Games

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 Adventist Development and Relief Agency has a new interim president. Retired senior administrator Robert Rawson will serve as acting president of the church’s humanitarian agency until a permanent successor is found. The move comes a little over a week after ADRA’s board voted to remove Rudi Meier from the position. The decision ended months of instability at the agency. Church officials say Rawson brings decades of experience in finance and international leadership to the job.

Freedom Classroom students recently met with top Adventist religious liberty leaders at church headquarters. The high school students were in Washington, D.C. on a tour of the nation’s capitol and other key landmarks. Church religious liberty leaders say the Freedom Classroom program is grooming a new generation of advocates. The program was launched last year by Norman Farley, who heads up the North American Religious Liberty Association West in California. Freedom Classroom introduces high-achieving students in the U.S. to public policy and advocacy. Students receive extracurricular classwork, scholarships and a trip to the nation’s capital. The program supports the church’s current emphasis on strengthening religious freedom at the grassroots level. Farley says he hopes participating students become a network of advocates working from local Adventist congregations.

Adventists in Jamaica recently partnered with United Hands to provide free dental, optical and other medical care in the country. More than fifty doctors and volunteers spent a workweek serving underprivileged patients in Kingston, Spanish Town and Clarendon. They offered medical exams, wellness counseling, eyeglasses, dental supplies and free gifts to community members. United Hands is a Florida-based non-profit largely comprised of Adventist volunteers. The group promotes healthy lifestyles through medical care, education and preventive measures.

The church’s Bible-reading program is trending on Twitter this week in Brazil. Hashtag #RPSP, an acronym for “Revived by His Word” in Portuguese and Spanish, topped the site Trend Topic Brazil. The index ranks the most widely discussed topics among Twitter users in the country. Church officials launched Revived by His Word in April to encourage Adventists worldwide to read a chapter of the Bible every day. Twitter users in Brazil are tweeting the daily passages and offering feedback and insight on the verses. Adventists in Brazil say the interactive nature of Twitter makes the micro-blogging site an ideal place to read and study together. You can join in the discussion by following Twitter hashtag #RPSP.

The Adventist academic and healthcare community is remembering a prominent physician and administrator. Former dean of the church’s Loma Linda University School of Medicine Dr. Gordon Hadley died June twenty-nine at age ninety-one. Hadley taught pathology and human anatomy and mentored students throughout his career. Friends and colleagues say he sharpened the school’s focus on overseas mission in the nineteen seventies and eighties. Hadley helped develop the church’s Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital in China and later worked at Kabul Medical Institute in Afghanistan.

The Summer Olympic Games begin in London this month, and Adventists in the city continue to prepare for what they say is a large-scale outreach opportunity. South England Conference Communication Director Kirsten Oster-Lundqvist recently spoke with former athlete and pastor Richard Daly. Daly supported athletes at the two-thousand four Summer Olympics in Athens as a chaplain, and he plans to serve in the same role this time around.

Why are you so passionate about the Olympics?

Umm, it is really, I suppose because I used to be an athlete before I became a Christian I was heavily involved in it and competed at national level and then given all of that up to become a become a pastor.  It’s a wonderful opportunity to combine the two, the ministry and the sport as well so that’s me.

You’re going to be involved with the London Olympics, not as a competing athlete but how are you going to be involved?

Well I just recently been asked to be a chaplain again for the London Olympics and to me that is a great joy to be a chaplain in your own – London – your own country, I was born there, Stratford, that is where I was born so it is just a joy again to be involved and to again offer a spiritual service to people who will obviously be focusing on winning their gold medal.  There are many Christian athletes there, there are many who are inclined to just hear a little bit about – offering encouragement and prayer and it will just be a joy for me to be able to be in that environment, in that arena and to just offer that service to them.

Richard, you’ve also written a little booklet, a little book …

Yeah, I just wrote a book called “Gold, one hundred winning thoughts” and it is really designed to be small enough for people to carry around with them and it contains one hundred winning thoughts that really compares in a parallel way the old ethos of the Olympics spirit and how we can apply that also the Christian race and how it can strive to reach our best, our potential, our God given abilities and how to use that for God’s glory.  How to persevere, not giving up, surmounting the hurdles that comes to us in life, so it is really about self managing our own destiny and a spiritual calling as well and to reach the ultimate gold in our life which is crown of life.

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Welcome back. Here’s Steve Chavez with a preview of this week’s issue of Adventist Review. 

If you’re a music lover, like I am, you’ll definitely have something to sink your teeth into with this week’s cover story, “Present Truth in Music.” It’s written by Herbert Blomstedt, a Seventh-day Adventist conductor of classical music who has a worldwide reputation. Blomstedt has performed in most of the world’s great concert halls, and this week he offers his take on what makes music “honest.” It’s adapted from his acceptance speech when he was awarded the Charles Weniger Award of Excellence from Loma Linda University earlier this year.

A word of warning: You’re not going to agree with everything he says. And you don’t have to; that’s why we have letters to the editor.  Let us hear what you think.

This week’s issue also has the details of a coroner’s report in Darwin, Australia, that vindicates Michael Chamberlain and his former wife, Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, about the death of their child, Azaria, more than 30 years ago. They maintained that the child had been taken by dingos. Lindy served time in prison before evidence was discovered that corroborated her story.

Mark Finley has a feature article in this week’s Adventist Review about “The Gospel of Good Health.” Along with Finley’s article is a sidebar by Katia Reinert, director of health ministries for the North American Division, she writes about the “Pitfalls in Sharing the Health Message.” She lists three of them. See if you’re guilty of any of them.

These and many other features are available in this week’s Adventist Review. Happy reading!

Ellen White’s books and articles guided the early Adventist Church. Cindy Tutshe has advice this week on how modern readers should approach the church co-founder’s work.

How should we read Ellen White in the twenty first century? Let me suggest three basic rules of interpretation.  Number one, take all that the prophet has said about the topic into consideration before drawing a final conclusion, that is easy to research on drums for instance – there is only one reference to them.  On the other hand, there hundreds of references to the Holy Spirit in the works of Ellen White and thousands of references to the person and work of Jesus Christ.  Number two, if the statement seems inconsistent with other related statements, study the context, internal and external in your effort to resolve the apparent conflict.  Of course you remember that the internal context deals with what the inspired writer wrote immediately before or immediately after the difficult statement.  The external context deals with such questions as to whom was the statement written? When was it written? Why was it written?  What circumstances called it forth?  Ellen White once said, “God wants us all to have common sense and He wants us to reason from common sense.” Circumstances alter conditions, circumstances change the relation of things, she said that in Selected Messages volume 3.  The last hermeneutical rule I am going to mentation, you have heard before, find the principle, the principle is the general, moral rule of conduct that never changes, modesty for instance is a principle, how do we apply the principle of modesty?  That may differ from culture to culture – from era to era.  Here is a bonus, the Holy Spirit is a wonderful guide to understanding, pray for discernment and if you want to be really honest in heart, ask God to make you a willing hearer and doer even if you find the council challenging.  We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

This week our Facebook and Twitter followers discussed how the church’s health message can help curb a rise in obesity. Megan Brauner has some of their thoughts in this week’s Adventist social media highlights.  

Whether you blame sedentary lifestyles, fast food or large portion sizes, no one can deny that the world population is rapidly growing heavier. In fact, obesity is sometimes referred to as a long-term disease. Seventh-day Adventists Churches are ideally placed to provide community assistance, so we asked church members what we could do to help.
On Twitter, Australianne? recommended placing  carparks 500  meters from church buildings and remove the seating!
On Facebook, Bernard says, Get back to the diet that was given to us as a church. I hear more about a good vegetarian/vegan lifestyle from the world then I do from the church.
Emmanuel says, There's need to incorporate professional Nutritionists in educating members of the church.
Tory says, I’m sure most of us know someone that didn't start obeying the health message until they had a stroke or heart attack. This represents the condition of a lot of people.
Rowena said, I heard of a church in the states that has started having a church gym where church members and community members can join.
Steven says, I'm a trucker on the road alot, and have discovered that most of the fast food places do serve salads. Over the past two years, I've lost around 90 lbs by changing my eating habits and getting some exercise, all while driving a truck.

Thanks again for your participation and great responses. Next week on social media we’ll have special guest and ANN News Editor Ansel Oliver answering your questions about ANN and the news reporting process. If you have a question for him, go to twitter.com/adventistnews and use the hashtag #AskAnsel.

Is your church involved in mission projects, summer camps or vacation Bible schools? Events like these often depend on volunteer support, but as Carina Franca says, volunteers come with risks.

Managing volunteers can create many challenges for your organization. Volunteers perform so many diverse roles that it is impossible to identify ONE management model that will meet all the needs of your organization. Each activity in which a volunteer is involved brings a differing set of risk factors. Managing volunteer activities must begin with identifying the potential risk factors present and the implications that could result.

Plan ahead and plan the details.

Evaluate the activities for risks.  Is this an activity that can be conducted by young people?  Is this an activity that requires safety equipment? 

Do you know the volunteers? Have you accounted for adequate supervision?

Do the activities require any qualification or training for the volunteers?

While it should be your goal to conduct all volunteer activities with safety in mind, remember accidents can happen. What is your plan if something goes wrong?

A final consideration should be the issue of insurance to protect those who have volunteered their time and talents on your behalf. Volunteer mission projects should be covered using a Short Term Travel insurance policy.

Every denominational organization should be extremely thankful for the work of the thousands of dedicated volunteers who give of their time, talents, and resources. The church could not do it without our volunteers!

I am Carina Franca and this has been a simple solution from Adventist Risk Management, providing risk management solutions for the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Still ahead on Adventist News Network, we find out what a church vice president is responsible for in this month’s Dialogue interview. 

But up next, this week’s Tech Corner.

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Welcome back. Here on ANN Video, we preview the print version of Adventist World magazine every month. On this week’s Tech Corner, John Beckett previews the magazine’s new app. 

The Adventist World Magazine is the International Paper for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It features interesting articles from church leaders and writers from everywhere. Every month it's released for free in lots of languages. The Adventist World Web Site is an excellent place to read the current and back issues in any of the available languages. You can visit the site at adventistworld.org.

Adventist World has also just come out with a mobile magazine. You can find it in the App Store for iPads and iPhones. Just search for "Adventist World." It was created as an Apple News Stand magazine, so once you've subscribed for free, new issues will download automatically every month. Even though I regularly receive the printed Adventist World, I know I will enjoy having the digital version on my iPad, since the iPad is mostly where I've been reading my magazines and books lately.

If you don't have an iPad or iPhone, but do like the more magazine style flip-through navigation, look on the lower left hand side of the Adventist World Web site for the Issua Powered fullscreen web app.

Finally, if you haven't read Adventist World yet, take a look. I'm sure you'll be blessed by the contents no matter which way you choose to read it!

Adventist youth leaders hope the upcoming One Year in Mission project sparks a new wave of service and volunteerism around the world. Gilbert Cangy explains.
  
I’m on the streets of Pretoria in preparation for the World Youth Congress.  I bump into Shawntel, a young lady who came with me and whole bunch of other Australians to Zimbabwe in 2001.  She came on a service project, so I ask her ten years later, I say, “Shawntel, what are you doing here?” She said, “Do you know what?  My two weeks that I spent with the whole bunch of other people serving on the streets of Zimbabwe has lead me to where I am today.  I have given my life in service to God.”  Volunteer service has a way of leading young people into a lifetime of service, at the General Conference Youth Department, in conjunction with AVS is launching a project, which is known as One Year in Mission.  The first phase, 2013 there will be thirteen young people from the thirteen Divisions and one from Greater Middle East and one from Israel who will form the first taskforce of this first phase of a new wave of volunteerism around the world.  They will spend six months in New York in conjunction with the project Mission to the Cities.  In 2014, each Division will choose a city and this project will be replicated in the Divisions, in the Unions in 2015 and by the time we get to the Conference’s there will be a new army of young people serving as volunteers around the world.  There is a new wave of interest in one year in mission, I trust that you will pray and join.

Every month at ANN Video, we sit down with a prominent church leader to learn about the responsibilities and rewards of their job. This month on Dialogue, we spoke with Adventist world church Vice President Armando Miranda.

Thank you Elder Miranda for joining us today.

It is a pleasure to be with you.

Elder Miranda, how long have you worked for the Church and where are some of the places where you have served?

Well, I have been serving the Church for thirty-nine years, almost forty.  I have been serving the Church in Mexico and the United States, basically in Texas and Michigan.

What do you find your most favorite part of your job?

Well, I must say traveling but not at all because of the changes of schedule, hours, the jetlag.  I really enjoy to meet people, to be with the church, with all the leaders and members of the church in different areas of the world, to see how they work, how the cultures affect the way – how they think and also to see the progress of the Church.  It is amazing how the Lord is leading His church.

Thank you very much Elder Miranda for sharing with us today.

Thank you for inviting me to be part of this group.

You can watch our entire interview with Vice President Miranda at news.adventist.org. 

When we come back after the break, a youth-led prayer, Bible study and service movement gears up for its annual conference.  

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A decade ago, a small group of Adventist college students launched the Generation of Youth for Christ. Today, the movement draws thousands of young people from around the world to its annual conference.

GYC Promo

Nothing obvious changed
There wasn’t a tee shirt
A bumper Sticker
Or a slogan
Or a slogan
But slowly their lives became different
But slowly their lives became different
Different
But slowly their lives became different
There was passion
Belief
Prayer
There are sermons, songs and miracles
Miracles
Miracles
The most ordinary people
Ordinary people
Average folks
Ordinary people
The most ordinary people
Set in motion
A movement that will change the world
Change the world
Change the world
Forever
Forever
Forever
Nothing would be the same
Nothing would be the same
Nothing would be the same
It was a revolution
And it didn’t stop
I am the revolution
I am the revolution
I am the revolution
I am the revolution
I am the revolution
I am the revolution
I am the revolution
I am the revolution
I am the revolution
I am the revolution
I am the revolution
I am the revolution
Today WE are the revolution
We are the revolution
We are the revolution
You and I
We are the revolution
That with God’s help
That with God’s help
We won’t stop
We won’t stop
Ever
Join the revolution

The Generation of Youth for Christ conference meets in Seattle, Washington from December twenty-eight to January one. You can check out GYCweb.org to learn more.

Now let’s turn to David Trim for a look at Adventist history. This week, a milestone in the life of a sea captain who would one day help establish the Adventist Church.

Welcome to this week in Adventist history.

On July 8, in 1792, Joseph Bates was born at Rochester, Massachusetts. A sea captain, Bates in later life became a temperance and health reform advocate, a Millerite, and then a leader of the seventh-day Sabbath-keeping Adventists in the 1840s and 1850s. Together with James and Ellen White, Bates can be considered one of the true founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

On July 10, 1907, the graduation of the first graduating class took place from the College of Medical Evangelists—today’s Loma Linda University.

Also on July 10, but 33 years later, in 1950, the 46th General Conference Session convened in San Francisco, California, with 943 delegates, and elected William H. Branson the 14th General Conference President.

And also on July 10, in 1971, George D. Keough, influential Adventist missionary, theologian and educator, died in Northern Ireland, aged 89.

On July 11, in 1907, the name “Young People’s Society of Missionary Volunteers” was chosen for the church’s organization for youth in the 10 to 16 age group. The title Missionary Volunteers, or MVs, was retained until near the end of the 20th century.

And on July 14, in 1991, missionary Sven Jensen organized the first SDA company in the Sultanate of Oman, made up of migrant workers from southern and southeast Asia.

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.

And if you haven’t already, check out our new ANN Video Podcast. It’s the same show you’re watching now, but in a format compatible with your iPod or other portable media player. You can subscribe by searching for “Adventist News Network Video Podcast” in iTunes.

Our good news for this week comes from Ephesians chapter four. Beginning with verse thirty-one, the passage says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ has also forgiven you.” 

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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