This Week's News: Aug 3 1999
- Refugee Adventist Pastor Returns to Her Home in Kosovo
- Kosovo Refugees and Minority Groups Assisted by Adventist Aid Agency
- Religious Liberty Protection Act Passed by United States House of Representatives
- Adventist World Church Launches News by E-mail
- Brazilian Youth to Build Bridge Into the Community; Mega-Event Planned in Florianópolis
- Indian Leader Calls on Adventists to Support Refugees
- Church Hosts Major Lay Convention in Venezuela
Refugee Adventist Pastor Returns to Her Home in Kosovo
Djakovica, Kosovo ... [ANN] Seventh-day Adventist pastor Dijana Daka has returned to her home in Kosovo from Albania to find all the members and friends of her church in Djakovica alive and well.
"We have all returned to our place," says Daka, "and although we found our houses destroyed we are happy that we found Jesus who keeps us together and gives us hope for the future."
Now she says that the church members are ready to continue worshipping and giving praise to their God and Saviour who was with them during a very difficult time.
Daka lost all communication with the Church leaders for almost four weeks during the military conflict in Kosovo until, on the evening of May 4, 1999, she was seen among a group of refugees in Kukes, Albania on a news broadcast in England. While staying in Albania, Daka worked in the Flore church as an assistant pastor.
Daka is now back in Djakovica where she was instrumental in establishing a new church last year. After several evangelistic campaigns and various seminars, Daka had the joy of ministering to 35 adults and about 20 children who attended worships and special meetings. Daka was very successful in ministering to the mainly Muslim community. A number of evangelists and visiting lecturers, including Dr Radisa Antic, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Yugoslavia, and Pastor Martin Anthony, personal ministries director at the Trans-European Division, helped her to establish this group.
Unfortunately, with the onset of the war in the Balkans, her ministry in Djakovica was put on hold, but not for long. Despite the hardships encountered fleeing Kosovo, she maintained her commitment to return and carry on with her ministry.
Sadly the violence has affected many. Daka reports that as a result of this war, an 18-year-old man, whose mother is a member of the Djakovica Seventh-day Adventist Church, became mentally ill.
"I was also shocked when I heard that my sister in Christ, Mileva Vujosevic from Pec, was brutally killed," added Daka, and continued, "During this time of hatred, our role is to talk to the people about the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation."
Daka is extremely thankful to Church leaders and members around the region who helped them through this time of trouble. Her plea is for materials to aid her ministry in this damaged community.
"We need Bibles, literature and a baptistry to continue our work in Kosovo," she concludes. [ANN/ANR Staff]
Kosovo Refugees and Minority Groups Assisted by Adventist Aid Agency
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA ... [ANN] The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is assisting threatened minority groups as well as returning refugees in Kosovo. Fred Kumah, operations co-ordinator, speaking from his office in Pristina, reports that ADRA is responding in Kosovo with community service programs, medical clinics, and water and sanitation rehabilitation.
In Pristina, ADRA is operating a telephone hotline as part of its community service
program. The hotline receives nearly 200 calls each day, and about 40 percent of these calls are considered high level emergencies or are calls from people in life-threatening situations, according to Kumah. ADRA also operates a "food on wheels" program that delivers food to minority groups, including Serbians and Romas, who feel threatened and are afraid to leave their homes. Community service teams are able respond to vulnerable cases in villages within a 6 - 9 mile (10 - 15 kilometre) range of the city.
ADRA operates community service programs at four centers in Kosovo. In addition to helping meet basic needs, the community service personnel also refer those in need to centers and organizations best equipped to assist them. The centers also provide information about public health issues and the dangers of land mines.
With the destruction and contamination of wells and other sources of water, ADRA has begun repairing 1,500 wells in 60 villages. ADRA plans to double the number of repair teams in an effort to complete the restoration project by September, well before winter sets in. ADRA is also preparing to assist with sanitation services, including latrine repair and refuse disposal.
A Japanese medical team is diagnosing and treating 50 - 100 patients a day at two ADRA medical clinics which provide primary health care to returned refugees. In Mitrovica, a city of about 100,000 people in northern Kosovo, ADRA has opened a center in the predominantly Albanian section and is opening a similar center on the Serbian side. Last week, ADRA delivered a truckload of blankets and hygiene kits to the centers in preparation for distribution. In Lipjan, ADRA is working with the British peacekeeping troops to identify vulnerable families and locate vacant buildings for temporary housing. Many of these vacant buildings are owned by the government.
ADRA is also preparing to rebuild and re-equip 105 schools in Kosovo and to help farmers obtain parts to repair damaged tractors, so they can plant crops before the growing season ends.
With the return of most of the refugees to Kosovo, ADRA closed its way station in Kukes, Albania, on July 20. Only 9 miles (15 kilometres) from the border, the way station distributed food, plastic sheeting, and hygiene kits to returning refugees. ADRA established the way station on June 17 - within 12 hours of receiving the request from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP). Refugees were given a one-month ration of food consisting of flour, beans, meat or fish, bread, oil, and fruit (bananas or oranges).
Open for nearly five weeks, the way station distributed 2,882 tons (2,620 metric tons) of food to nearly 250,000 returning refugees. Up to 15,000 refugees a day passed through the way station. ADRA is continuing to provide primary health care and trauma counseling services to remaining refugees in south-west Albania. There are fewer than 15,000 refugees still in Albania, and they are reportedly making plans with the UNHCR and international organizations to return home during August. [Rick Kajiura]
Religious Liberty Protection Act Passed by United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C., USA ... [ANN] On July 15, the Religious Liberty Protection Act (RLPA) was passed by the United States House of Representatives in a vote of 306 to 118. The bill now goes to the United States Senate, where opposition is expected to center on an amendment, defeated in the House, that would limit RLPA's application to civil rights laws.
RLPA is intended to restore the level of protection to free exercise of religion claims in the United States to standards established before 1990. Prior to that year, the government was required to show that any action burdening the practice of religion was necessitated by a compelling interest. In a 1990 case, however, the Supreme Court largely abandoned that standard, holding that no religion-based exemption need be given to a law that is facially neutral and generally applicable.
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), which was supported by
Seventh-day Adventists, sought to reinstate the pre-1990 standard, but the Supreme Court ruled that RFRA was unconstitutional as applied to the states. The current Religious Liberty Protection Act is the latest attempt to strengthen the protection of free exercise of religion. Support for both RFRA and now RLPA has come from a wide coalition of religious groups, including the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and Council on Religious Freedom.
At issue in the Senate will be the question of whether religious belief should constitute a valid defense to violation of a civil rights law. The question arose after landlords in three states were charged with marital status discrimination for refusing, based on religious belief, to rent their premises to unmarried couples. [Mitchell Tyner]
Adventist World Church Launches News by E-mail
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA ... [ANN] Today (August 3) the Seventh-day Adventist Church launched a new system for distributing the denomination's world news by e-mail. The system operates through the Church's official website at www.adventist.org, and it allows anyone to subscribe free to the weekly news service.
"This new system is a great development in providing our news bulletins and releases to anyone who wishes," says Jonathan Gallagher, news director for the Adventist World Church. "Instead of having to check the website the news is automatically forwarded through e-mail to subscribers as soon as it is released. Now you can have up-to-date news and information from the Adventist News Network delivered immediately to your electronic mail box."
Subscription takes just moments by utilizing the "Subscribe Adventist News" page from the front page of www.adventist.org.
"This is another advance for our website," says John Beckett, technical web master at the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters and designer of the system. "We continue to work to make the site as useful as possible. The list server that operates this service is separate from the main web server and this helps ensure all e-mail addresses remain confidential."
Other recent additions to the site include a search function for the Church Yearbook, a listing of all Adventist entities with directory information, and an improved menu to aid site navigation. [Heather Brannan]
Brazilian Youth to Build Bridge Into the Community; Mega-Event Planned in Florianópolis
Florianópolis, Brazil ... [ANN] Five thousand Seventh-day Adventist young people are finalizing plans to spend four days, October 8-11, 1999, in the coastal city of Florianopolis and build a human "bridge of hope" in the community.
"We would like to do something more than just to meet, play and study together. The plan is to show our Christianity in practice, as members of the community in which we all live," explains Udolcy Zukowski, communication director of the South Brazilian Union of Seventh-day Adventists who is in charge of the event. "Florianópolis is symbolic of that life and that religion in practice, wherever we come from."
"The meeting will be called a Bridge of Hope. It fits well with the presence of a historic bridge linking the island of Santa Catarina and the mainland. It's symbolic about what we are interested in doing-reaching out to those among whom we live," he adds.
Zukowski and his team of youth and communication leaders met recently with the state governor of San Catarina, Esperidiao Amim, as well as the mayor and city administrators of Florianópolis to discuss the project.
"They were overwhelmed with enthusiasm to see our young people join the city managers in making a difference for the citizens," says Siloe de Almeida, a public relations specialist who heads the South American Adventist Church's communication department in Brasilia. "They are availing the city services to join the Adventist young people in a variety of activities."
The organizers explain that the event, which at first was planned as a youth camporee, has been now re-focused to give "inspiration, motivation, and orientation and will give assistance to the community, improved quality of life, health orientation and especially hope," says Zukowski.
Florianópolis represents a pastoral district, but the Church's presence is not as significant as the Church leaders desire.
"The Church is not as well-known as it should be and could be," explains de Almeida. "That's why we feel it is important to make a particular statement as to who Seventh-day Adventists are,"
The Bridge of Hope event will include projects in the needy, poor neighborhoods and fishing villages, and locations near Seventh-day Adventist churches.
To share hope, Adventist young people will develop some 20 different community projects aiming to supply necessities, create good will, break prejudice between people, and open the hearts of individuals to the message of the gospel.
"We will practically show our Christianity, but will also share our Christian faith through a variety of spiritual events which will be offered by the congregations in the city," explains one of the local ministers.
The government of the State of Santa Catarina and the Florianópolis Mayor's office will partner in the program by providing materials and transportation. The individual projects will provide awareness and ways to save electric energy, water and water quality. The projects will include painting of monuments and walls which have been marked with graffiti, as well as improving selected schools, daycare centers, nursing homes with painting, gardening, and external cleaning. The organizers are aiming at setting up a computer school in the city.
Much of the activity will concentrate on health issues, including public lectures on quality of life through better, healthful living. A "Five-Day Stop Smoking Clinic," stations for checking blood pressure, child vaccinations, and dental hygiene will be organized as well. The Department of Health of the State of Santa Catarina will be involved in supporting these activities.
"We also plan to organize a blood donation drive, a 5-km street race, a 25-km bicycle race and a swimming competition," Zukowski describes. "More than that, we will also be planting trees, cleaning beaches and developing fresh water sources."
"Apart from practically witnessing about our faith as Christians, we are interested in dealing with real life issues, such as bringing a greater awareness about our new traffic laws, how to improve our neighborhoods, and how to better manage individual finances. This, plus feeding the hungry and clothing the poor, aims simply at helping someone to live better. This will be a real building of a bridge of hope."
The organizers are enthusiastic as they explain the objectives. The needy will have some of their necessities met. Some individuals will receive hope and will come to know us as a people of hope. The young people will feel useful and revived to change their own lives for the better, and will learn how to develop similar projects in their cities when they return home. Each local congregation in the city of Florianópolis will be able to build a missionary bridge of hope for future church activities.
"We also believe that our churches feel the necessity of becoming involved with the community by using an inclusive, not exclusive, language of love and grace," explains de Almeida.
"As the project is concluded, we aim to see that many citizens of Florianópolis will be able to identify Seventh-day Adventists as the Church of hope," he adds. [Ray Dabrowski]
Indian Leader Calls on Adventists to Support Refugees
Washington, D.C., USA ... [ANN] Indian Member of Parliament Narendra Mohan, in an interview on July 29, pleaded for Adventist churches to support the displaced people in northern India. More than 400,000 people from Kashmir and Jammu need help due to religious terrorism that has forced them out of their homes with no hope of returning. Currently, they are living in tents but they have needs that exceed beyond shelter.
"India, the world's largest democracy, is totally committed to religious freedom, yet there are areas in which religious liberty is looked upon with skepticism, " said Mohan to Richard Lee Fenn of the Seventh-day Adventist Church's Religious Liberty department.
For the most part however, India enjoys "unity in diversity." They believe that no one can deny anyone else's religious freedom. "It is a fundamental right from birth," said Mohan.
Mohan pledged to help facilitate the forthcoming World Conference on Religious Freedom in New Delhi and urged Adventist leaders to invite Ambassador Naresh Chandra and Mr. Sreenivasan, deputy chief of mission in India, to visit the Church's world headquarters. [Cheer Reyes]
Church Hosts Major Lay Convention in Venezuela
Merida, Venezuela ... [ANN] The Seventh-day Adventist Church's fifth Festival of the Laity launched July 28, at the Mucucharastí convention center in Merida, Venezuela, with the registration of 1800 delegates from Venezuela, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
Keynote speaker for the occasion was Israel Leito, president of the Church's Inter-American Division, who challenged the delegates to carry out the theme of the Festival--"To Exalt Christ." Sergio Moctezuma, Sabbath School and Lay Activities director for the Division, coordinated the program and welcomed all the delegates, telling them that now is the time to lift up Christ.
Merida is a tourist town known for its scenic views of mountains, pleasant climate, breath-taking natural setting, and the highest cable car operation in the world.
The Festival, which continued through July 31, featured inspirational sermons, colorful mission reports, seminars, and the opportunity for lay participation. Other festivals are planned for Barbados, Haiti and Guatemala during August. [Leslie V. McMillan]
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