Dec. 28, 2004 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

Rédaction ANN

In a world rocked by natural disasters and war, members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church around the globe have varying perspectives on the year now ending.

Some see the past year as signifying the completion of major eras, while for others it marked the burgeoning growth of churches in their regions. The global presence of the United States weighs on some as a major story, as did the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The answers were gained in response to questions posed by Adventist News Network staff members to several church personalities around the world.

Dr. Richard H. Hart, executive vice president for university affairs at Loma Linda University in California, reflected on the school’s centennial and what that anniversary will demand of the premiere Adventist health and educational institution.

“There is a growing recognition of the contribution Loma Linda University has made, and how to position ourselves for the next 100 years—it’s not just a centennial celebration, [but leads us to ask:] What [are] our services? Our relationship with the world church?  How do we support that?” Hart told ANN. “A major part of that is [a] huge growth in [the] desire of Adventist universities abroad to start health science programs ... in medicine, nursing [and] dentistry ... LLU is realizing it has to figure out a way to relate to multiple institutions.”

Along with that, Hart reports, “we’ve been awarded U.S. $3 million ... to take over a major hospital in Afghanistan. But to do that means developing a model for [that] whole country.”

On another local level, Dr. Bertil Wiklander, Adventist church president for the Trans-European region, indicates that there is growth in that region.

“Our [region] has grown by over 10 percent since 2000,” Wiklander noted in an end-of-year-statement. “[Church regions] are reaching all-time highs in membership: the British [region] is about to reach 24,000 members and the growth in the Middle East [region] and Pakistan continues. Many fields in Europe, for example, Hungary, report [record] high numbers of baptisms. And across Europe we have established over 200 new church plants in secular areas.”

Looking at world events, Valery Ivanov, communication director for the church’s Euro-Asia region, noted what he considered “signs of the soon coming of Christ,” including wars in Iraq and Chechnya; hurricanes, such as “Ivan,” in Florida; and the Ukranian “Orange Revolution,” as portentous world events. At the same time, Ivanov noted the “Year of Evangelism” and the Adventist youth congress in Zaoksky, which “shows great potential for the future” of the church in Russia.

Reinder Bruinsma, president of the Adventist Church in the Netherlands, focused on the death of Yasser Arafat and the presidential election in the United States as stories of world concern. This latter thought was echoed by French Adventist broadcaster Dany Guenin, who commented, “We think that George Bush being reelected is a strong message for the world.”

Moving from a global to a local perspective, however, Pastor Bruinsma was optimistic about the progress of the Adventist Church in his country.

“I believe there is the awakening of a new sense of hope in the church. The Adventist Church has a future even in as secular a place as the Netherlands,” he said. “The fact that we saw 60 persons baptized in the month of October was a tremendous signal of hope.”

Mark Finley, speaker/director of television broadcast “It Is Written” and director for the Center of Global Evangelism at the church’s headquarters, saw that same hope manifested in Rwanda. Ten years after the genocide that tore the country apart, Finley said he sees Rwanda as “a place of despair [that] became a place of hope.”

Finley led a satellite evangelistic series in Rwanda.  “It is a message of hope to know ... that 10,000 people were baptized on the last day of meetings,” said Finley.

Perhaps that hope of growth for the church worldwide—as evidenced in Europe, Asia and elsewhere—is a good sign for 2005.

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