Aw june 2014 nad

The International Paper for Seventh-day Adventists

Ju n e 201 4

Tides and

Skies

Lift up your heads—to see what God is doing 8

How Your

Church Works, Part 3

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Backpack Essentials

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How Faith

Grows

North American Division | n a d

June 2 01 4

C O V E R

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S T O R Y

Tides and Skies

By Bill Knott

The highways used by these missionaries are not made of concrete.

22 Backpack Essentials F U N D A M E N T A L

B E L I E F S

By Chantal J. Klingbeil

It’s a long journey; we should travel light.

30 A Faithful Servant A D V E N T I S T

L I F E

By Erna and John Siregar

Serving God in spite of the hardships

8 How Your Church Works, Part 3 32

A Conversation About Community W O R L D

V I S T A

N A D

By Ted N. C. Wilson

F E A T U R E

Christ’s body has many members, and all of them are important.

A congregation in the Southeastern California Conference knows a thing or two about reaching those in its neighborhood.

20 Snake Worship—in Church?

40 In the Ghetto

D E V O T I O N A L

By Atuanya Cheatham DuBreuil

The dangers of worshipping tradition rather than the God of history

A D V E N T I S T

S T O R Y

By Benjamin Baker

This is how the gospel grows.

D E PA RT M E N T S 3 W O R L D

3 6 10 11 14 17 18

R E P O R T

News Briefs News Feature A One-Day Church NAD News NAD Update NAD Perspective NAD Letters

B I B L E Q U E S T I O N S 42 19 W O R L D H E A L T H A N S W E R E D Breast Cancer, Diagnosis Only Two? 29 S P I R I T O F P R O P H E C Y 43 B I B L E S T U D Y Reaching Unbelievers How Faith Grows

www.adventistworld.org Available in 11 languages online

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E X C H A N G E

ON THE COVER: Arial view of Saibai Island village.

P h o t o

c o u r t e s y

o f

D a r r e n

P e a k a l l

The Adventist World® (ISSN 1557-5519), one of the Adventist Review® family of publications, is printed monthly by the Review and Herald® Publishing Association. Copyright © 2014. Send address changes to Adventist World, 55 West Oak Ridge Drive, Hagerstown, MD 21740. For information about advertising, contact Glen Gohlke, 301-393-3054 (ggohlke@rhpa.org). PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. Vol. 10, No. 6, June 2014.

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Adventist World - nad | June 2014

Mission Takes Flight

WORLD REPORT

At Sexuality Summit,

Adventist Church President Reflects on

“Human Brokenness” ■■ Speaking to nearly 350 church leaders at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on March 17, 2014, Seventh-day Adventist world church president Ted N. C. Wilson urged them to recognize that “human brokenness” is ubiquitous, dependent on the healing that comes only through the restorative power of Christ.

“Let us make it our personal goal, and the goal of this summit, to speak the truth as Jesus spoke the truth—to remember that every word

by His disciples should be a word that helps someone else become a disciple of Christ,” Wilson said. “There is a way to speak the truth CLARITY AND TACT: that leads to life, so let us talk and share and learn Seventh-day Adventist from each other in that way,” he said.

Church President Ted N. Wilson’s keynote—“The Truth as It Is in C. Wilson delivers the Jesus”—came during the opening day of the keynote address at the Adventist Church’s summit on sexuality, where opening of the “In God’s Adventist pastors, chaplains, academics, health Image: Scripture. Sexualprofessionals, legal experts, and human resource ity. Society.” summit at directors met in Cape Town, South Africa.

The world church leader went on to define the Cape Town Internathe parameters of the summit. Its goals, he tional Convention Centre said, did not include revising the Adventist on March 17, 2014.

Church’s perspective or statements on human brokenness to match “the changeable spirit” of current social trends and values. “Nor have we come to describe that brokenness in any greater way than the Word of God defines every human sin,” Wilson said.

Sin is not a hierarchy of human failings, he said—with some shortcomings “less dangerous or damaging” than others—but an expression of living life out of harmony with God. He called it both “inconsistent and morally wrong” for the Adventist Church to isolate practicing members of the LGBT community for discipline “while it ignores those engaged in heterosexual premarital sex or adultery. God’s standard for sexual behavior requires that only in the union of one man and one woman in heterosexual O l i v e r / ANN

orty-eight hours from now I will set off on a trip of 425 miles (684 kilometers)— to the 150th anniversary of the Adventist church in which I was baptized at age 12.

If I add up all the pieces of my actual travel—20 minutes driving to the airport; 1 hour and 15 minutes in flight; 58 more minutes driving to my final destination—the total is just 2 hours and 33 minutes.

If Ellen or James White, Stephen Haskell, or J. N. Andrews had been making that identical trip when the South Lancaster Village Seventh-day Adventist Church was organized in 1864, they would have traveled nearly 16 hours by train and slept a night in New York City—if their train was very fast and no cows were on the rails blocking the steam locomotives.

I will work a full day Thursday, attend committees, edit articles, answer e-mail, and then fly to my destination after dark. My ideas of what I can accomplish for the day— my mission—are built on my knowledge of the technology that will get me there.

Method frames our imagination of what we can accomplish in mission.

When all the world walked or rode a horse—which was the case for most of the past 6,000 years—the gospel traveled at the speed that disciples traveled, which is to say, about four miles (6.4 kilometers) per hour on foot or 15 miles (24 kilometers) per hour on horseback.

But when the methods changed, so did our estimates of what we could do in spreading the gospel. Today, not only can I make long trips in a fraction of the time it took Adventist pioneers to travel that distance, but I no longer always need to go there in person. By videoconference, Skype, FaceTime, or similar digital platforms, I can see and be seen half a world away from where I sit in my office chair.

Mission is changing because methods of doing mission are changing. And that’s a good thing. No, actually, that’s a great thing!

As you read this month’s cover story, “Tides and Skies,” pray for the vision to use the best methods to accomplish the greatest mission to which the Spirit is inspiring you.

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marriage can the gift of sexuality appropriately and biblically be enjoyed. Any departure from that standard must be addressed with similar seriousness and a similar attempt to bring about correction, repentance, and restoration.”

A major goal of the summit, Wilson said, is to develop an awareness of how to compassionately steer those living lives out of harmony with God toward “salvation and recovery.”

“We have come here because we are committed as a people to speaking the truth to each other and to the world around us, and because we are committed to learning how to speak that truth as Jesus did,” he said.

Wilson’s keynote relied significantly on Scripture and the writings of church cofounder Ellen G. White to describe Jesus’ approach to sharing truth. “Christ ‘was never rude, never needlessly spoke a severe word, never gave needless pain to a sensitive soul.

He did not censure human weakness.

He spoke the truth, but always in love,’ ” Wilson said, reading a passage from Steps to Christ, White’s classic volume about conversion and spiritual rebirth.

The summit included testimonies from former members of the LGBT community who wrestled with brokenness and now describe themselves as “redeemed” from that lifestyle.

“We must listen as they tell us about their struggle and their pain; and we must not let our pride pretend that their mistakes are any worse in the sight of heaven than the ones we ourselves have made,” Wilson said.

—Daily news bulletins from the summit provided by Adventist Review and Adventist News Network (ANN) are available at adventistreview. org and news.adventist.org.

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D o m i n i c

WORLD REPORT

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Adventist young adults engage people in the community with some of the more colorful aspects of Bible prophecy at the Youth in Mission Congress in Germany.

“We Come to God and Then We Go for God” ■■ It’s one of the most important holidays in Europe. Shops are closed, sacred concerts abound, and churches report record visitors during the traditional Easter weekend. Over the past eight years Adventist young adults from all over Germany and Europe have met for fellowship, inspiration, training, and outreach at the city of Mannheim.

The motto of this year’s meeting, held April 17-21, 2014, was “Lift Up Your Heads.” Speakers focused on personal readiness within the context of the final events prior to the return of Jesus Christ. “We come to God and then we go for God,” stressed Doug Batchelor, president of Amazing Facts and one of the main speakers, during the Thursday night opening sermon as he took his audience to the moment of Isaiah’s call to ministry.

The organization of this year’s YiM congress was beset with an unusual amount of difficulties and challenges, reported Baden-Württemberg Conference youth ministries director Marc Engelmann during the opening ceremony. Fire marshals of the town had reduced the holding capacity of the school’s main auditorium from 1,200 to 200. City officials had sent a note indicating a changed cost structure, potentially adding €50,000 to the final bill, just weeks before the event was to begin.

Yet in spite of these challenges, participants were able to enjoy fel-

lowship, workshops, and inspirational music and preaching in a quickly erected tent holding more than 1,500.

Carrying to the front of the platform a sack full of “burdens” Engelmann shared, “I am so happy that I can lift up my head and look to Jesus—we wish you this experience in the coming days.”

Challenged by speakers throughout the five-day event, the young adults attending YiM responded strongly: 67 decided for baptism; 58 committed to give a year of service to Jesus; and 12 accepted God’s call to prepare for full-time ministry.

Service to others was another important component of YiM. Young adults shared food and hope with people who were homeless on the streets of Mannheim and visited shutins and residents of several retirement homes. Friday saw hundreds of youth involved in missionary outreach.

More than 500 volunteers, roughly a third of all participants, demonstrated commitment. They served everywhere—preparing food, cleaning restrooms and showers, helping as ushers and security personnel, working with the audio and video of the congress, and helping in many other ways. Following the final sermon on Monday morning, they, together with other participants, moved 1,500 chairs back into classrooms and containers, swept 129,000 square feet (12,000 square meters) of classrooms, hallways, auditoriums, and other spaces, and returned the school complex back

to its original state—all in two hours.

Joachim Broegaard, a medical student from Denmark, traveled more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) to meet old friends and be inspired by the programming. He also was happy to connect with other people interested in medical ministry in Europe.

Translation into English, Czech, and Polish of the sermons in the main tent underlined the international nature of the event.

Before the sermon on Thursday evening Michael Dörnbrack, a pastor and one of the founders of YiM, introduced Benny and his two friends John and Elli. A number of years ago Benny, an avid rock climber and passionate Adventist, had brought his rock-climbing buddy John to his Pathfinder group and had later begun to study the Bible with him. John, in turn, had invited his girlfriend, Elli— so a friend brought a friend. Dörnbrack challenged the audience to “not have a submarine faith,” which only shows itself on Sabbath morning for two hours.

Before the 2014 YiM participants packed their backpacks and suitcases on Monday, they once again sang the theme song of the congress: “Lift up your heads, see Jesus our King.” It was a little foretaste of heaven.

—By Gerald A. Klingbeil, associate editor, with contributions from Marcus Witzig, Baden-Württemberg Conference

Details Released in Cyber Attack That Defrauded Adventist Church of a Half Million U.S. Dollars ■■ New details have been released in the ongoing investigation of a sophisticated cyber theft that

defrauded the Seventh-day Adventist Church of approximately US$500,000 during a four-week period late last year.

Church leaders say a compromised password appears to have allowed online scammers to hack into the Gmail account of a church employee authorized to initiate instructions for money transfers. Impersonating the employee—and unbeknownst to him—the scammers sent e-mails to financial personnel at Adventist world church headquarters, approving the transfer of funds on behalf of a denominational entity. An elaborate filtration system set up by the scammers marked all responses from headquarters as “read” and “deleted,” thus bypassing the employee’s inbox.

Meanwhile, the scammers laundered funds from 16 fraudulent transactions through the personal bank accounts of five apparently unwitting victims, church financial officers said.

“We have modified procedures to do our best to prevent anything like this from happening again,” said Robert E. Lemon, treasurer of the Adventist world church.

Lemon said incidences of fraud in which scammers troll the Internet for e-mails giving instructions to “pay, transfer, or send” funds are growing in occurrence. In such cases scammers carefully study account holder’s e-mails so they can send transaction requests that closely mirror the tone and content of legitimate e-mails.

Some hackers may even include personal comments—often work or family details gleaned from actual e-mails—to make the transaction requests appear more genuine.

“We urge church employees and members to exercise extreme caution when acting on instructions for handling funds that come through an

e-mail without a second independent verification through another means, such as phone call, text message, or fax,” Lemon said.

At headquarters, internal controls were in place that church leaders said should have alerted financial personnel of a problem with the first transaction.

But several key employees who would have questioned the transactions were traveling or were otherwise out of the office at the time, Lemon said. Additionally, the transfer amounts and explanations were “within the normal scope” for the denominational entity in question, he said.

Church financial personnel discovered the fraud after growing suspicious of the high rate of transaction requests and an alert from one of the banks involved. The scammers quickly discontinued fraudulent activity associated with both the e-mail account and the linked bank accounts.

While the church was able to recover some of the funds that were still in the bank accounts before they were frozen, Adventist financial officers said they’re unsure whether the remaining losses are recoverable.

Cooperation with U.S. federal authorities in the ongoing investigation is expected to continue, they said.

“There is no indication that any employees were involved in unethical behavior, and no church e-mail servers or bank accounts were accessed or compromised in the scheme,” Lemon said.

“Having something like this happen on our watch is very difficult for those of us in treasury,” Lemon added.

“We would like to thank each church member for their faithfulness and solicit their prayers that God will help us guard His funds in an ever-changing landscape of online fraud.”

—By Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN

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WORLD REPORT

MOTIVATED: Young people in Athens, Greece, get ready to engage their community by poviding acts of service on Global Youth Day.

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n annual day devoted to acts of compassion by Adventist young people around the world has grown exponentially in its second year. March 15, 2014, was designated Global Youth Day (GYD) by the Department of Youth Ministries at the Adventist Church’s world headquarters, a day of active community service to kick-start its annual Youth Week of Prayer.

Challenged to “be the sermon” for at least one Sabbath, rather than simply hearing one, as many as 8 million Adventist young people stepped out of their churches and into their communities, visiting hospital patients and elderly people, bringing smiles to orphans, feeding the hungry, donating blood, conducting health awareness programs, praying with people on the street, and simply offering free hugs.

“As well as emphasizing the importance of service to our communities, the objective is to raise global awareness for the Week of Prayer, a time when Adventist young people around the around the world unite as a formidable powerhouse,” explains Gilbert Cangy, director of youth ministries for the world church.

According to Cangy, this broadcast and its supporting Web and social media presence was integral to the GYD event. “The live broadcast,

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By Nathan Brown, Signs Publishing Company, Warburton, Victoria, Australia

Youth Day Gains Momentum Second year of initiative sees innovation, higher profile

our Facebook page, the tweets, the GYD Web page and app became the space where our youth met to share their stories and celebrate the goodness of God.” Pioneering Technology for Connectivity

The inaugural Global Youth Day in 2013 included three hours of live broadcast. This was upped to 23 hours of live broadcast in 2014 from 20 pro-

duction sites on six continents, coordinated from Adventist Media Center Stimme der Hoffnung in Germany and broadcast on the church’s Hope Channel internationally.

“The transmission of the signal from the local production sites to master control was done with IPstreaming equipment over the Internet,” explains production director Wolfgang Schick. “This was a new thing about the production and one

thing that, to our knowledge, no one ever tried before.”

Schick admitted that there had been questions about meshing different production sites and possible different levels of picture quality. “But all in all it was a huge success, and the connection from all production sites worked,” he said.

The marathon GYD broadcast was

A Growing Movement

According to Stephan Sigg, director of youth ministries for the InterEuropean Division, based in Bern, Switzerland, GYD 2014 also grew because of the positive experiences many young people enjoyed the previous year. “Global Youth Day 2014 grew simply by word of mouth,” he says.

“Young people who were involved in

creative community outreach in Egypt and Dubai but then said there were too many to choose from. “To see young people sharing the good news in creative ways and being involved in so many different ways to show kindness to people on the streets, in hospitals, or old people’s homes, whether it was in Germany, France, Romania, Bulgaria, Spain, and Portugal, was just amazing!” he says. “That’s my favorite story—that we have a God who moves young people to expand His kingdom.”

A Vision Fulfilled

GLOBAL PRESENCE: Youth from Cameroon join 8 million young people around the world who in a single day reached out to help, serve, and pray for the people in their communities.

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augmented by an expanded online and social media presence, as well as a GYD app for both Android phones and iPhones. Coordinated by Daryl Gungadoo, distribution and network engineer for Adventist World Radio based in the United Kingdom, this multiple-platform interactivity almost tripled its engagement with young people around the world, compared with the figures from GYD 2013.

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2013 spread the excitement, and now more youth and youth groups wanted to be involved and planned their service activities accordingly. Because the experiences and the impact of the GYD makes a lasting impression among the young people involved, we are still far from having reached the peak of involvement.”

Asked about his favorite story from GYD in his region, Sigg mentioned

The concept of Global Youth Day grew in response to what has been seen as the growing fragmentation of societies around the world and perhaps even in the church. “I was thinking about the whole idea of the Seventh-day Adventist young people being a global movement, this ‘army of youth’ we often refer to,” Cangy recalls. “I wondered how we could recapture for our youth this sense of global belonging.”

Cangy believes that more traditional corporate worship will always occupy an important role in the Adventist faith community. But he insists that GYD is also in itself “essentially an act of global corporate worship, albeit in a different form. If Jesus should come back on a Global Youth Day, He will find His people in the right place [see Matt. 25:34-38].” n See more photos and reports from Global Youth Day 2014 at globalyouthday.org.

Youth Week of Prayer readings can be accessed at gcyouthministries.org/ MediaPublications/YouthWeekOf Prayer/tabid/100/Default.aspx.

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How Your

By Ted N. C. Wilson

ChurchWorks

Part 3

Understanding its unity, structure, and authority This three-part series addresses how unity, structure, and authority work together for mission in the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church. For the convenience of readers who may not have had opportunity to read Parts 1 and 2, we briefly summarize them below.—Editors.

G

od led in the establishment and organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Although the movement began with a small group of believers who “searched for the truth as for hidden treasure,”1 it quickly grew to several thousand by the time the General Conference was officially organized in 1863. As the church continued growing, so did the church structure, with the goal that “order and harmonious action might be maintained.”2 The church’s organization was not quickly cobbled together, but was thoughtfully and prayerfully constructed, as God provided wisdom and guidance through Scripture and the prophetic gift.

Our church organization exists as a system of service, maintaining order and harmonious action as the church moves ahead in its God-given mission of proclaiming His truth as revealed in His Word for these last days. It is a

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representative system where no one leader, or group of leaders, dictates the policies, actions, and activities of the church.

Because each level of the church works in harmony with all other levels, initiatives may come from any level and are processed through committees. Sometimes initiatives begin at the grassroots level and become part of policy. Ours is a dynamic system.

Every church member has a voice in this organization.

Importance of the Local Church

The role of the local church is absolutely crucial. It nurtures us, and helps in guarding our teaching and practice. A solid local church is key to the solid platform of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. If you have concerns, don’t just look to the General Conference, thinking, They’ll make sure everything’s OK. Fidelity to our message and mission begins at the local church. By God’s grace, partici-

pate in the life and mission of your home church.

One of your first responsibilities is to pray for your local church: your pastor, the locally elected leaders, and for your church’s mission outreach. Be part of the process and be active. Be involved. Keep in mind that it’s not just in public meetings where things can be influenced; it’s in personal meetings with key leaders. If you have a burden, talk with your pastor or head elder; talk to the Sabbath school superintendent; talk with those who are involved in making things happen.

Follow a careful, methodical line of approach. If you aren’t satisfied at one level, go to the next level. Everyone must be part of the process. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, at any level, is not a top-down authoritarian arrangement, where just a few people decide what’s going to happen.

As you talk, unburdening your heart in a simple, one-to-one setting, the Holy Spirit can help to influence a leader. Never think that an e-mail you send, or a simple conversation doesn’t have some effect on the person to whom you are speaking. I know they do. Many times the e-mails I receive

General Conference

Division

Union conference or union mission Conference or mission

Local church

The purpose for organization is given to us as a safeguard, so that no one person, or small group may have undue influence upon God’s church and its mission. and the personal conversations with others have an effect on me.

A Harmonious Whole

Work in a spirit of prayer, Bible study, and counsel from the Spirit of Prophecy. Remember that as much as possible, our church works on a consensus basis. There’s no reason we ought to set up sides and always fight each other; that’s not the way God wants the church to work. Sometimes

we have to vote to find out how the entire group is lining up, but generally speaking, the best way to approach challenges is on our knees, in intense Bible study, asking the Holy Spirit to help us. Voting comes under God’s guidance when a decision has to be made. We use that system effectively within the church.

Some people may criticize the structure of the church as being duplicated at different levels and unneces-

sary in this age of flat administrative approaches.

When I served as president in the Euro-Asia Division, I saw the great value, as any division president will tell you, of our church organizational structure, where local problems are solved at the local conference level.

Items of larger consequence are taken to a regional level—the union conference or union mission. Larger items are brought to the division, and sometimes passed on to the General Conference. Ultimately, questions of a global nature are taken to the General Conference session, where more than 2,000 church representatives from around the world discuss and vote on these questions.

We take this representative form of church governance very seriously, and are told that “when, in a General Conference [session], the judgment of the brethren assembled from all parts of the field is exercised, private independence and private judgment must not be stubbornly maintained, but surrendered. . . . God has ordained that the representatives of His church from all parts of the earth, when assembled in a General Conference [session],

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Porto Seco, Angola

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shall have authority. The error that some are in danger of committing is in giving to the mind and judgment of one man, or of a small group of men, the full measure of authority and influence that God has vested in His church in the judgment and voice of the General Conference assembled to plan for the prosperity and advancement of His work.”3 The purpose for organization is given to us as a safeguard, so that no one person or small group may have undue influence upon God’s church and its mission. It provides a way that all members may have a voice and influence in the mission of the church, so that “all things [may] be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40).

The Bible is replete with principles of interpersonal relationships, of organization, management, and instruction in carrying out God’s mission. Echoing this theme, most of the Spirit of Prophecy is counsel of how to carry out the mission of the church.

As we come together, following God’s beautiful plan of organization and unity within His church, we will go forward united in finishing the mission He has given us to do. n 1 Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1923), p. 24.

2 Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1911), p. 92.

3 Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1948), vol. 9, pp. 260, 261. (Italics supplied.)

Ted N. C. Wilson is president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

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The One-Day Church has arrived in Angola. Eder Lucca, a Brazilian contractor who is working as Angolan country director for Maranatha, unloaded the first container of “One-Day Steel” and went to work building the first 40 of the 1,000 new churches Seventhday Adventist church leaders have requested.

HOPE REALIZED: Members of this church Years ago the young pastor of a Pentecostal church in the in Porto Seco, Angola raised money for midst of Porto Seco’s recycled the land and the foundation of this buildtin and cardboard shanties read ing by baking and doing laundry. about the seventh-day Sabbath in Exodus. Amazed at his discovery, he spent weeks researching the Sabbath, then told his congregation about his discovery.

That started a time of intense prayer and study. One of the members introduced the pastor to a Seventh-day Adventist literature evangelist, and soon the entire congregation voted to become part of the Adventist community.

The group rented one building after another, quickly outgrowing each one.

Then one of the women heard about Maranatha Volunteers International and the One-Day Church. She told her friends, and they began praying specifically for a One-Day Church to be built in Porto Seco.

“We knew God would say yes,” she says. “So we began baking and doing laundry to raise money for land.”

The women bargained the landowner down from $40,000 to the $30,000 they had raised, then they purchased cement and poured a floor for the church they believed God was sending.

On September 3, 2013, Eder and his crew put up the Porto seco steel.

Before they were finished, the women had begun laying block for the walls.

Four hundred neighbors invited by the women attended the opening service in the brand new Porto Seco church.

Only 999 to go!

ASI and Maranatha Volunteers International fund and facilitate One-Day Church and One-Day School projects. Since the project’s launch in August 2009, more than 1,600 One-Day buildings have been built around the world. These stories come from Maranatha storyteller Dick Duerksen.

NAD NEWS

By Kathy Marson, Upper Columbia Conference

Community Outreach

Uplifts Christ

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ourney to the Cross (J2C) was conceived in the minds of four individuals who decided they should hold an outdoor event depicting key events in the life of Jesus. One individual had written the script and did not know why. Another had designed a hydraulic cross and had no place to use it. Another was

praying that an event like this should happen. God brought those people together at Spokane Valley church.

For seven years I’ve shared with my chiropractor the big event our church does called Journey to the Cross. He was always interested, but this year he came. As a cast member in the first scene, the wedding at Cana, I

THE UPPER ROOM: A scene with Jesus and His disciples at the Last Supper is portrayed at this year’s presentation of Journey to the Cross.

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spotted him in the crowd. So after the servants poured water into the big jugs, and the water turned to “wine,” he thanked me for the invitation. His daughter loved the grapes and almonds offered by the servants at the house. He said, “She liked watching the story.”

Since 2008 J2C has grown to be a dynamic outreach to the Spokane community. Visitors, led by guides, walk through nine pivotal scenes in the life of Jesus, from His first miracle to the Great Commission to “go into all the world and preach the gospel” (Mark 16:15).

Last year, for the first time, a local Mormon bishop offered to provide help from his ward. This was providential, as he had been impressed that he should come to church, and when he heard the call for cast members, he knew why he had come. This year many of his members again participated. The cast of more than 250 included Adventists from several local churches, as well as five other Christian churches in the area.

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whole new way so that people will see Him in a brand-new light. The J2C at Spokane Valley is one that makes a difference.

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True Stories Offer in:sight for Second Annual Contest

JESUS OR BARABBAS: Two Roman soldiers prepare to take Jesus away for crucifixion. More than 5,000 visitors saw this year’s production of Journey to the Cross.

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walked by, stopped, and was able to pray with her.

One woman brought five guests who were not Christians. Another guest said the event touched her deeply. A woman said she had questioned her standing with Jesus, and J2C made a difference.

That’s why Spokane Valley Adventist Church produces J2C. It’s a way to share the love and life of Jesus in a

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nings. In terms of lives touched, that’s more than 20,000 people, plus cast and crew. It began with 75 cast and crew and has grown to 250, plus musicians and greeters in the church who provide entertainment and structure while guests wait.

We receive feedback from this event, and a major theme was children. One girl chose J2C for her birthday party. A young actress in J2C was struck by how Jesus forgave Peter after Peter had denied Him. During the triumphal entry in Jerusalem, the children shouting “Hosanna to the son of David,” were truly being children, making the scene so real! In the Temple three young guests rushed forward to be touched by Jesus. In the Garden of Gethsemane two little guests toddled to the rock and peeked over it to watch Jesus pray.

At Golgotha two little boys watched Jesus on the cross and asked the guide if the nails really went through the hands and feet. At the end of the journey a little girl asked her mom if she could talk to Jesus. Larry McCauley, an actor portraying Jesus,

■■ Once again Union College (Lincoln, Nebraska) students received a challenge from Christian Record Services for the Blind (CRSB) to create short videos illustrating how people who are blind live like everybody else. Three student finalists screened their videos before a live audience at Union’s Woods Auditorium on Sunday, April 6, 2014.

Initiated in 2013, the in:sight Video Contest, sponsored by Union College and CRSB, offered student videographers an opportunity to develop and deliver true stories. It also provided a real-world learning experience regarding the world of blindness and visual impairment.

“Some may think it odd to host a video contest where the topic centers on people who are blind or visually impaired,” said Rajmund Dabrowski,

TOP THREE: In:sight video contest winners included Vernee Norman (right), first place; Hailey Krueger, second place; and Steven Foster, third place.

Biblical Resources in the Palm of Your Hand ■■ The daily podcast “Plug Into Life,”

by Elizabeth Talbot, speaker/director of Jesus 101 Biblical Institute, has reached 60,000 subscribers. Launched in 2013, the podcast is free and available for streaming on iTunes. The podcasts are a series of one-minute devotionals that are updated daily.

“Plug Into Life” has quickly gained momentum and has become quite popular, encouraging tens of thousands of listeners to subscribe to it. One subscriber described them as “short yet such encouraging devotionals. It’s great to have this type of resource to offer to someone who is currently struggling in their spiritual walk.”

In addition to “Plug Into Life,” Jesus 101 offers three other channels on iTunes free of charge: “Biblical Studies,” “Audio Books English,” and “Audio Books Spanish.” These can be accessed on smartphones, tablets, and computers.

Jesus 101 Biblical Institute is a media ministry of the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists. Jesus 101 offers Christ-centered, in-depth biblical training and provides multiple and accessible resources

101

Union College public relations director. “Many of us think we know what it would be like to be blind. But in the process of creating their films, these students learned to move beyond the obvious and look for the real, in some cases life-changing, story. We are grateful to Christian Record Services for having the courage to take a risk and give young adults the opportunity to use their creativity to tell the story of the blind,” he said.

—Christian Record News Staff

J e s u s

marketing director at CRSB since 2012 and contest originator. “However, the general population tends not to understand how well blind people function in society. It is through events like this that we can engage young communicators and also impact a greater audience. Students were challenged to be creative in a medium they understand and appreciate,” he commented.

Vernée Norman, senior advocacy communication and second language studies major, took the top prize for her video “Equalities, Opportunities.”

Her video focused on the high unemployment rate experienced by people who are blind or visually impaired (vimeo.com/91445382).

Second prize went to Hailey Krueger, a freshman majoring in communication. Her project, “Playing the Blind Card,” described the ways a blind woman enjoys life with her daughters (vimeo.com/91445383).

Third prize was awarded to Steven Foster, a junior communication major.

“Vision,” Foster’s video, shares the story of a blind woman who contrasts memories of being able to see to having vision of a larger perspective (vimeo.com/91445381).

Finalists’ videos were judged by a panel of communication and videography professionals, including Jason Satterlund of Big Puddle Films, who offered a virtual keynote address about how to tell great stories. In 2013 Satterlund produced the CRSB fund-raising video “Unwanted,” and more recently directed The Record Keeper series.

“The in:sight Video Contest is a great experience for our students because it pushes them out of their comfort zones and encourages them to tell a story that is completely unfamiliar to them,” said Ryan Teller,

JESUS 101: Elizabeth Talbot, speaker/director for Jesus 101, has a podcast that is downloaded by more than 60,000 listeners.

through diverse media and written venues (TV, radio, Internet, social media, DVDs, books, Bible studies, etc.) to facilitate and encourage the study of Scripture. Most of the resources are free.

Before founding the Jesus 101 Biblical Institute, Elizabeth Talbot worked for many years in business management. She then found her calling was to preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and she shifted her career to become a full-time pastor for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She now focuses her energy on preaching, teaching, taping, broadcasting, and developing new materials for Jesus 101 so that others may become excited and joyful finding Jesus from Genesis to Revelation. “It’s like fire in my bones,” she says.

To listen to the podcast or access any of the other Jesus 101 channels, visit iTunes/Podcasts, and search “Plug Into Life” or “Jesus 101,” or visit www. jesus101institute.org.

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N A D U P D AT E

By Gary Fraser, director, Adventist Health Study–2

The Adventist Advantage:

Our Responsibility Physical, emotional, and spiritual health doesn’t just happen.

T

60

Percentile

55 50 45 40 35 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 - 74 Age

> 74 AHS - 2

MENTAL HEALTH-MALES: Seventhday Adventist males—both Black and White—show a perceived mental health advantage over the general population.

60

Percentile

55 50 45 40 35 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 - 74 Age

> 74 AHS - 2

MENTAL HEALTH-FEMALES: Adventist Females—both Black and White—consider themselves to have better mental health than the general population.

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he human body, particularly our brain, is arguably the most complex entity in the universe.

Our understanding that this indicates creation by a magnanimous God leads naturally to a close relationship between religion and the stewardship of our bodies, both physically and mentally.

Before the latter half of the twentieth century, “God’s will,” or simply fate, was often considered an adequate explanation of a person’s health experience.

Now it is widely understood that our health is largely (but by no means completely) determined by our own choices.

The presumed benefits of particular diets or lifestyles may even be portrayed by some as indicating greater moral or spiritual purity. In my view these ideas are ill-founded and over years have generally weakened the impact of our health message among both members and church leaders. As the apostle Paul wrote: “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).

Intriguingly, the other major focus of this chapter is that we have no business judging our fellow believers.

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Rather, healthy choices may be considered a spiritual discipline (such as Bible study and prayer) that act as an aid to spiritual progress, but by no means its measure.

Categories

Adventists can be categorized in several ways: vegetarians (of different types) and nonvegetarians, those who use particular foods, by exercise habits, by body weight, by church attendance, by religious coping styles, etc.

People in these categories have different rates of several common diseases and life expectancy. The Adventist Health Study examines these things.

What do we know about the physical health of Adventist vegetarians as compared to Adventist nonvegetarians? There are major differences, despite the fact that Adventist nonvegetarians are quite low meat consumers on average. Vegetarians are much thinner, are less likely to suffer from diabetes or hypertension, and have a lower frequency of high cholesterol.

Not surprisingly, the risk of heart attack (fatal and nonfatal) was 40 to 50 percent lower in vegetarian Adventists who live in California. Risk of cancer is also lower in Adventist vegetarians as compared to nonvegetarian Adventists, but for some cancers there seems be no clear advantage. And for other cancers there will be a 20 to 40 percent decreased risk for the vegetarians. Look for further details to be published soon from Adventist Health Study–2.

Even good vegetarians finally “pass to their rest.” Healthy living only delays serious deterioration in health (though often by up to 10 years). Our research shows that unfortunately, even U.S. Adventists are losing, on average, about five years of potential

life resulting from less-than-ideal lifestyle choices.

Loma Linda, California, has become famous as the only “blue zone” (an area of unusual longevity) in the United States. Actually, Adventists from all over California contribute to this striking observation. Moreover, as shown in Figure 1 using a standardized set of questions, quality of life (both physical and mental) is better than national norms among Adventists at virtually every age, for both men and women, notwithstanding their ethnicity. So Adventists experience not only greater longevity, but extra years of good-quality living.

Although I have focused here on diet as an important influence on health, other factors—including regu-

lar physical activity, preserving strong social relationships, and also certain aspects of religious belief and observance—have significant effects. Our present analyses lead us to believe that the influence of religious commitment is most marked on mental health.

For His Glory

What of our responsibility to our neighbors and members of our community who are not Adventist? In personal interactions with our friends and coworkers we can have confidence in advocating for a plant-based diet.

Corporately, our churches, universities, and colleges may now quote much published scientific evidence giving a solid foundation to these ideas. Thanks are due many of you,

our readers, who have participated in studies and helped to provide the evidence.

We have enjoyed great health advantages as a people for more than 150 years, a marvelous gift from God. This has led to our understanding that health has a religious connection, and that we should safeguard the integrity of our minds and bodies to glorify God by maximizing function, preserving our ability to both help humanity and experience personal satisfaction and pleasure. We have a culture that supports this by providing social support, teaching skills, and teaching early in life that our young people need to value good living. Overall, a package beyond value!

Are you part of it? n

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NAD PERSPECTIVE

Alone

and

H

By Daniel Weber

Scared

ave you ever been in a place where you didn’t speak the language or understand what is going on? Feeling desperate and alone may be one of the worst emotions one can experience.

My father-in-law immigrated to the United States in the late 1950s, his family casualties of the war in Europe.

Forced into a concentration camp when he was only 18 months old, his family learned to live in fear, always looking to see who was around them and who might be listening. His mother, after living in the United States for more than 30 years, always whispered important information because “you never know who might be listening.”

My father-in-law’s family settled in Richmond, Virginia, a family of three who didn’t speak the language, let alone understand the culture of the South. His parents struggled to find work while my father-in-law went to the local public school, trying to assimilate into the educational system.

Soon a local Seventh-day Adventist church took them in and helped care for their needs. One day upon returning from school, my father-in-law found that his small apartment had been filled with donated furniture from church members. Suddenly life wasn’t so scary.

Later his mother took ill and had to spend weeks in bed. Unable to care for her family’s needs, the women of the church took turns sitting by her

bed, caring for her and her family.

They weren’t able to communicate in spoken words, but God’s love was shared. Their care and concern was translated through cooking, cleaning, and caring for her family.

After his mother’s recovery my father-in-law’s family joined the Adventist Church. My father-in-law ended up becoming a pastor, administrator, teacher, and editor, serving the church for more than 40 years.

Today the church in North America faces many challenges as society becomes more secular and cynical of religious values. But one thing can cross these boundaries and barriers: examples of Christ’s compassion that He showed us while on this earth. Jesus met people where they were; He treated everyone the same. Economic and cultural walls were demolished as He showed that love, compassion, and healing are the true ways of reaching those in need, those who are alone and scared.

One of the building blocks that the North American Division has chosen to focus on is reaching out to growing immigrant and refugee populations.

More than 3 million refugees live in the United States alone. Just think of the people each of us can reach through acts of love, compassion, and friendship.

The Paradise Valley church near San Diego, California, is home to more than 60 different ethnic groups, representing almost every continent on the

planet. Many of them come to church through various community-based programs: English language classes, a weekly feeding program, computer classes, a community garden, and a low-cost clothing store. Each one of these programs represents concrete ways that a community in need is being reached. But, most important, there aren’t any strings attached. People aren’t required to attend church to have their clothing, nourishment, or educational needs met. The church does this because it loves its neighbors and wants to see them succeed.

Just as Christ served, loved, healed, then taught, so must we follow His example and learn to become part of our local communities, find out who they are, and what we can do to help them. Only then do we have the right to share the gospel with them.

Recently a group of Adventist-laymen’s Services and Industries (ASI) medical volunteers from the Pacific Union Conference provided more than $4 million of free health care to the communities of San Francisco and Oakland, California. Thousands of people lined up to have their immediate medical needs met. Many of them had never heard of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. But each one felt the love and compassion of a church member who cared about them. Each one became a friend of an Adventist volunteer who cared enough to serve as Christ’s hands to a community in need.

Serve, love, share: that’s our calling to those who are alone and scared. n

Daniel Weber is communi-

cation director for the North American Division.

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Now is the time to catch the ‘good ol’ days’ spirit of revival and reformation to finish the work.

—Natalie Dodd, Centerville, Ohio

NAD Letters Route to Roots

I enjoyed reading Gerald Klingbeil’s cover story “Route to Roots” (March 2014).

I myself was on an Adventist Heritage tour sponsored by Southern Adventist University at the same time as Klingbeil and the group he was with, and our group visited many of the locations Klingbeil visited. It is truly a life-changing experience to actually see where such major Adventist history took place.

A highlight of the trip for me was our tour groups joining forces for a day and visiting the Washington, New Hampshire, church together. It’s one thing to hear Adventist pioneer stories—it’s a totally different experience to have the privilege of hearing Adventist pioneer stories on the location of where they happened, and all told by Jim Nix. I brought my video camera along and not only filmed all the stories that Nix told, but also the other sites we visited such as the William Miller Farm, the Joseph Bates bridge, and many, many more. If any of your readers are interested in seeing these videos (usually 20 to 30 minutes long), I’ve uploaded all of them to my YouTube channel at: www.youtube. com/tnphotobug; or the playlist can be accessed directly at: www.youtube. com/playlist?list=PLlDVWuYZthlAfQ 8lAc_YyMSDVBhZRGxs5.

Austin Menzmer Collegedale, Tennessee

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Thank you for printing Gerald Klingbeil’s “Route to Roots” trip “reliving” the pioneer experiences of the Advent movement. When we read or hear accounts of the fervor, dedication, and willingness of the early believers to spend or be spent for the gospel message, it’s good to remember that it’s about “real people” in a “real world.”

Today, transportation and technologies unimaginable in the nineteenth century are available for taking the gospel to the world. Now is the time to catch the “good ol’ days” spirit of revival and reformation to finish the work started by the Advent pioneers.

Natalie Dodd Centerville, Ohio The Fence

It saddened me to see the God I know and love painted as fearsome as an electric fence. Although Tim Matsis, in “The Fence” (January 2014), makes his way to an admirable and sound conclusion, there were statements on the way that disturbed me.

There are many good lessons and warnings from the Israelites’ experience with the golden calf (such as not worshipping idols or other objects, beliefs, and values above God). But I do not think one of them is that God wants us to avoid worshipping Him in unique ways.

This was no “alluring” “false revival”; it was plain and simple apostasy, and the Israelites were well aware of that. The Levites refused to participate in this worship not only because it was noisy, but because it was not God who was being worshipped.

Those who did participate in the revelry did not perish only because God was unhappy with the music they

Adventist World - nad | June 2014

were playing, but because He was not the one being worshipped.

The solemnness of our worship and the standard of our dress is not a direct correlation to our level of respect for God, nor is it a sign of familiarity and disrespect. The state of our hearts should be our focus as it is a better indicator, though less visible, and therefore more difficult to gauge.

The passage Matsis includes from Ellen White fortunately more accurately portrays the worship of the God I know and love. . . .

God calls us to “come boldly” as we worship Him and instructs us to call Him “Abba” Father. That is the God my children are learning to respect and cherish. It is not fear, but their love for Him that I hope will motivate them to love and serve Him all their days.

Amy Mullen via e-mail

J o n at h a n

P e i n a d o

Look What I Saw

I thought this was cool! Look what I saw when I walked into my local Korean food market. Yes, it is the Korean version of Adventist World.

Jonathan Peinado Jacksonville, Florida

W O R L D

H E A L T H

Breast Cancer Diagnosis

By Peter N. Landless and Allan R. Handysides

I was recently diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. I am a 70-year-old woman, and it’s been 19 years since my menopause. Ten years ago my mom— who is in her 90s—developed breast cancer, but is doing well. Could you give me some information about possible risk factors and causes? Also, what about treatments?

B

reast cancer has become more easily diagnosed in recent years because of the widespread use of mammography. Probably such sensing has contributed to the increased incidence of this form of cancer, and it’s being found at an earlier stage. Such early diagnosis has resulted in better outcomes. Indeed, some have questioned whether certain of the cancers being discovered require the same intensive treatment as more advanced cases.

In at least 75 percent of the cases of women who develop breast cancer, no risk factors are identifiable. Of the factors at work in the beginnings of breast cancer, some are more clear-cut than others.

Genetic predisposition is a factor in about 10 percent of cases, and involves the breast cancer genes 1 and 2 (BRCA1 and BRCA2), as well as a minor protein gene (TP53).

There also are some conditions that have a genetic basis, such as Cowden syndrome (PTEN gene), which are related to higher incidences of breast cancer.

Early onset of menarche, before

the age of 12 years, is associated with a slight increase in breast cancer, while women who have a premature menopause, before age 30, have only half the risk compared to women entering menopause at age 55. Women taking estrogen and progesterone hormonereplacement therapy have about a 20 percent increased risk of breast cancer.

Women taking estrogen alone, however, were not shown to have an increased breast cancer risk after seven years of follow-up in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study.

Alcohol intake of a moderate amount appears to increase the risk of breast cancer, with increasing quantities of alcohol being associated with increased risk.

Diets high in animal fats also have been associated with increased risk of breast cancer. The problem is determining whether the risk is because of the fat or other possible carcinogens in such diets.

Obesity is associated with increased risk of breast cancer. A British study followed more than 1 million women, 50 to 64 years of age, from 1996 to 2001. In this study more

than 45,000 new cancers were identified, with some 17,000 deaths occurring. This study noted an increased risk of breast cancer with increased body mass. Adjustments were made to account for the effects of body mass index, age, geographic location, smoking status, poverty, age of first birth, and the use of hormone-replacement therapy.

From this information we gather that being overweight, drinking alcohol, commencing menstruation early and finishing late, or taking estrogen and progesterone hormone-replacement therapy might well be operative factors in causing cancer. Genetic predisposition is a strong but less prevalent factor.

We will discuss treatment for breast cancer in the next issue of Adventist World. n

Peter N. Landless, a board-certified nuclear cardiologist, is director of the General Conference Health Ministries Department.

Allan R. Handysides, a board-certified gynecologist, is a former director of the General Conference Health Ministries Department.

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D E V O T I O N A L

By Atuanya Cheatham DuBreuil

I

once saw a TV program about some small churches in the Appalachian Mountains in the United States that practiced snake handling as a regular part of their worship services. Congregants cited Mark 16:18 and Paul’s encounter with a poisonous snake in Acts 28:1-6 as reasons they participated in such a dangerous activity; it demonstrated their faith in God and His protection.

The TV narrator, however, went on to state that each year several church members were bitten, some fatally so.

Faulty interpretations of Scripture? Presumptuous faith? Possibly, but these daring Appalachians are not the first to include snakes in their worship experience.

In 2 Kings 18 we meet King Hezekiah of Judah. His father, Ahaz, had been an evil, idolatrous monarch who led the nation into spiritual apostasy and moral decay. As a result, God allowed the Assyrians to capture and occupy several major Judean cities.

Hezekiah, unlike his father, “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Kings 18:3).* He knew that in order to save his people, he must rid the country of its infatuation with idolatry and turn the hearts of his people back to God. Therefore, he began a major reformation in the land, destroying the high places, smashing sacred stones, and cutting down Asherah poles.

He also ordered the Levites to purify the Temple of God, removing “everything unclean” that had been set up in God’s house to worship idols! Among the items on this demolition list was an interesting historical relic: “The bronze snake [that] Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it” (verse 4).

Snake worship—at church?

Snake

Worship

—in Church?

When the symbol overshadows the real thing

Faith and Object Lessons

You may recall the story behind the bronze serpent. A few centuries before, the Israelites had been a wandering nation of former slaves following God and His chosen leader Moses through the wilderness en route to the land of Canaan. Although God always provided for the Israelite’s every need, He also tested their faith at times by allowing their supplies to get drastically low, or having them face intimidating obstacles. Unfortunately, the Israelites often failed these tests and took to bitter complaining against both God and their leaders. In response, the Lord sent “venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died” (Num. 21:6).

The Israelites got the message. They cried out to Moses and pleaded with him to speak to God on their behalf. In His love and mercy for His wayward children, God instructed Moses to make a bronze snake and set it on a pole. Anyone bitten by a snake could look up in faith at this

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ON THE BORDER: This sculpture on Mt. Nebo, the site where tradition says Moses viewed the promised land, represents both the serpent in the wilderness that brought healing, and the Son of Man who brings salvation.

symbol of sin and be healed; those who refused God’s means of salvation, however, were doomed to die.

In and of itself, this bronze snake had no healing properties. Like the sanctuary services, the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and the holy days, the serpent was yet another object lesson by which God revealed the simplicity and beauty of His plan of salvation.

Just as literal serpents had bitten people and brought death, so Satan, the original serpent, had deceived humanity’s first parents and poisoned them with the deadly venom of sin.

Instead of leaving us to our chosen fate, however, Christ became a serpent on a pole. He became sin for us. He traded our poisoned natures for His pure and holy character. He accepted the slow, painful, and inevitable death that was ours so that we might have the abundant life that was His. And all the Israelites had to do was look up in faith to the Savior and accept the healing and salvation He offers.

And it’s all we too have to do.

As years passed, however, the Israelites lost sight of this beautiful illustration of God’s love and salvation. Some began to look at the serpent as a good-luck charm, an omen of good fortune. They began to attribute their healing, their blessings, and their prosperity not to God but to the serpent. They began to honor and rely upon the symbol rather than the Savior it symbolized.

As they had once burned sweet incense in the Temple to God representing their prayers and thanksgiving to Him, they now burned incense to the brazen serpent. Hezekiah knew he had to destroy this rival for his people’s hearts if they were ever to turn to the true God. Snake Worship Remix

By the time Jesus arrived as a humble teacher in Israel, the Jews had put away idol worship with a vengeance, but they had created a new, subtler form of “snake worship” instead. They were vigilant guardians of tradition, customs, and “human rules they have been taught” (Isa. 29:13). At some point the Jews, especially the Pharisees, had concluded that their salvation was not based upon God and His mercy, but was the direct result of their heritage and nationality, their meticulous adherence to the law (by both letter and tradition), and the majesty of the Temple in which they worshipped.

Christ did not criticize the majority of these practices.

There was nothing intrinsically wrong with most of them, except that those who relied upon them as a means of salvation had “neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness” (Matt. 23:23). The Jews had taken the law in its most literal and technical P h o t o

b y

D av i d

Bj o r g e n

form, and endowed it with sanctifying and saving powers that it did not possess.

Jesus pointed out that these Jews only honored God with their mouths, but their hearts were far from Him. They talked about God, but few of them really talked to Him or knew Him personally. They worshipped the law of God, while ignoring the God whom the law described.

Look Up and Live!

One warm evening Nicodemus, a leading member of the Jewish ruling council, secretly sought an interview with Jesus. Like many of his Pharisaic associates, Nicodemus was guilty of burning incense to the “brazen serpents” of his own making.

After explaining the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart, Jesus stated: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (John 3:14, 15). Jesus reminded Nicodemus that it is not sacred symbols or longstanding traditions; it is not prophetic messages or even godly prophets; it is not anything we do (or don’t do) that saves us. It is Christ (cf. Eph. 2:8, 9)!

Do we have any brazen serpents to which we are burning incense? They can be objects, people, ideas and teachings, traditions and customs, attitudes or practices, even ministries and activities, On the surface they appear godly, and may even have a history of serving God’s purposes; but they now stand as idols, blocking our access to and worship of the one true God to which they once pointed.

It is so easy for any of us to value much higher what we do (or don’t do), what church we attend, or what we know than loving “the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” and writing the commandments He has given on our hearts (Deut. 6:5, 6).

When King Hezekiah destroyed the brazen serpent, he helped the Israelites see the true, living God. As we lift up Christ—not the things that symbolize or represent Him— we too are freed to experience God’s healing, and taste the joy of salvation found in Christ, our true Savior and Redeemer. n 1 All Scripture quotations in this article have been taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Atuanya Cheatham DuBreuil lives in Wesley Chapel, Florida, United States. She is married to John-Antony, and is a mother of three.

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F U N D A M E N T A L

B E L I E F S

By Chantal J. Klingbeil

NUMBER 13

Essentials

Surviving the coming world crisis

I

was thinking about essentials as I struggled up the steep hiking trail with a heavy backpack. We had been warned to take only the absolute essentials for our fiveday hike. We would be far from any store, so each of us had to decide on what was essential, and then be willing to lug our own food, clothing, and sleeping bags on the trail.

Aching shoulders and blistered feet forced many of us to rethink what was essential at our first midday rest stop.

That evening everyone was reevaluating the essentials in their backpacks. Suddenly expensive brand names lost their attraction. No one was interested in having anything just for show. Everything was reexamined with a whole new set of standards. Was it light; was it useful? Even an expensive jar of organic honey had no takers. The next morning, as we all set off, it was amazing to see what we were all willing to leave behind in the trash bins. Only the essentials remained in our backpacks. Only the really important things stayed in our packs.

More Than a Hike in the Park

The Bible speaks of a time in the future that will be more challenging than a strenuous hike. In fact, Scripture describes it as a crisis of cataclysmic dimensions. Economically, environmentally, and spiritually we will face “a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation” (Dan. 12:1). It won’t be a localized event. This will be a worldwide crisis in which all will have to decide what is really important. It will be a time in which we will not be carrying anyone else’s beliefs or sliding by on what someone else says. There will be a small group of “leftovers” who

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will be hanging on to what really counts. As we get ready for the biggest crisis on earth, what will we have to hang on to? What will remain—and who will remain?

What Remains

Perhaps you remember when teams were chosen at school. Not being very athletic, I dreaded being left after everyone else was chosen. It’s not very complimentary to be left as the last. Sometimes it seems that “those remaining” (or the remnant) don’t fit in. Then again, after a hurricane it is very nice to be the remnant. It means that you are a survivor.

Throughout history God has always had a remnant.

There have always been those who went against the flow.

They took God at His word and were more intent on being friends with God than hobnobbing with the high and mighty. Remember Noah. He was a strange one. He took God at His word and spent his time and money building a boat and inviting others to join in the promised escape. He was also part of a remnant—the only family who was left when all the earth was destroyed by a flood (cf. Gen. 6-9).

So what will it take to survive when our world will once again be destroyed—this time by fire (2 Peter 3:10-12) and

not by flood? What will it take to be a survivor, to belong to the remnant?

Having the Right Contacts

Those who survive know that it is not what they are carrying in their backpacks that will guarantee their survival. They know that it is not what you know but who you know that counts. They know the Winner. “These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Rev. 14:4).

The book of Revelation goes on to give other identifiable characteristics of these survivors. They follow Jesus everywhere because they have “the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12). They reflect Jesus’ unshakable confidence in God and the authority of Scripture. Their faith encompasses all the truths of the Bible, which Jesus believed and taught.

Revelation 14:12 also says that these individuals “keep the commandments of God.” They know that “not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). These survivors know that their survival is completely dependent on Jesus, and they are willing to do

REMNANT and

Its Mission

The universal church is composed of all who truly believe in Christ, but in the last days, a time of widespread apostasy, a remnant has been called out to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This remnant announces the arrival of the judgment hour, proclaims salvation through Christ, and heralds the approach of His second advent. This proclamation is symbolized by the three angels of Revelation 14; it coincides with the work of judgment in heaven and results in a work of repentance and reform on earth. Every believer is called to have a personal part in this worldwide witness. (Rev. 12:17; 14:612; 18:1-4; 2 Cor. 5:10; Jude 3, 14; 1 Peter 1:16-19; 2 Peter 3:10-14; Rev. 21:1-14.)

things His way (John 15:10). They are not ready to exchange any part of God’s law for human-made counterfeits.

Revelation 12:17 tells us that this “rest”—besides keeping the “commandments of God”—also have the “testimony of Jesus Christ.” John doesn’t leave us in the dark as to what “the testimony of Jesus” is; later in his book he tells us that it is “the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10). Prophetic guidance helps the remnant be survivors.

We Seventh-day Adventists believe that Ellen G. White, who meets all the biblical tests of a true prophet, was appointed by God as a special messenger to draw attention to the Bible and help prepare people for Jesus’ second coming. Ellen White herself noted that “the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His Word, has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, the Spirit was promised by our Savior to open the Word to His servants, to illuminate and apply its teachings.”* Passionate Mission

The remnant is purpose driven. These survivors are not members of an exclusive remnant club who think themselves better than everyone else and lock themselves up in their own little members-only world. They have their mission statement clearly marked out for them in the book of Revelation. The three angels’ messages of Revelation 14:612 are God’s answers to the satanic deception that clouds the world just before Christ’s return (Rev. 13:14-16).

Because they are passionate about Jesus, they are passionate about getting the world prepared to meet the Jesus they love and follow everywhere.

So what remains in your backpack? Do you have it loaded with “essentials”? Why not ditch the backpack altogether and follow the Lamb? We will find Him leading us out to a world in crisis that needs to know that they too can be survivors, ready to welcome Jesus with open arms as He returns at just the right time. n * Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1911), p. vii.

Chantal J. Klingbeil serves as an associate

director of the Ellen G. White Estate at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A. She is married to Gerald and has three teenage daughters.

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By Bill Knott

Lift up your heads—to see what G Wide was his parish, houses far asunder, But never did he fail, for rain or thunder, In sickness, or in sin, or any state, To visit to the farthest, small and great . . .*

M

ore than 9,000 air miles—and 600 years— separate the “country parson” of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and an Adventist pastor named Darren Peakall in the Torres Strait off the north coast of Queensland, Australia. Chaucer’s medieval preacher was justly famous for faithfully visiting his scattered flock in all kinds of weather to bring the Word of God to everyone in his territory, “small and great.”

And Darren Peakall—not at all medieval—is faithfully doing the same thing, in all kinds of weather, half a world away, and for the same reasons. But the muscular Australian doesn’t usually walk or ride a horse, as did his English counterpart. Reaching scattered church members among the 274 islands of the Torres Strait requires planes and boats. More precisely, planes instead of boats.

A Ministry of Presence

“Visiting church members is really the key to my ministry,” Darren says softly, his tanned face compressing with concentration lines. “How can I help them—as Jesus did— if I can’t actually sit down with them and find out what their issues are, one to one?

“People met Jesus beside wells, at wedding feasts, in boats, or walking in the streets. That’s where their lives got changed. We focus on His public sermons—his amazing stories and His timeless truths. But learning the gospel usually requires personal time—walking a road, sharing a meal, sitting in the bottom of a boat.”

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ISLAND MAZE: The Torres Strait links the Coral Sea to the east with the Arafura Sea in the west. The maze of reefs and islands often makes it tedious and difficult to navigate by boat.

A quick glance at the geography of Darren’s far-flung pastoral district illustrates why he’s focusing on a ministry of presence more than large-scale public evangelism. The hundreds of islands dotting the 150 kilometers (93 miles) of ocean that separate Australia’s Cape York Peninsula from Papua New Guinea (PNG) are mostly uninhabited, many of them volcanic upthrusts now surrounded by dense mangrove swamps. The 14 inhabited islands are home to just 8,000 people, most of them Melanesian islanders historically P h o t o s

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God is doing CONNECTED: On Moa Island Darren makes regular visits to those with whom he has formed relationships.

Lightbearer II is pictured in the background.

and culturally distinct from Australia’s aboriginal peoples.

According to the pastor, Seventh-day Adventists are spread across just five of the 14 inhabited islands—Saibai, Moa, Hammond, Prince of Wales, and Thursday Island, where Darren and his wife, Robbie (Robyn), live on the upper level that includes a parsonage and a chapel. Typical Sabbath attendances at the island churches can be counted on two hands: a large gathering, including visitors who sometimes come by boat from Adventist churches in Papua New Guinea, might grow as large as 30.

“It takes a long time to do almost anything in these islands,” Robbie says wistfully. “I’ve learned that building relationships doesn’t happen as quickly as we might wish.

And the sheer distances involved—five and a half hours each way by boat to travel the 150 kilometers from our home to Saibai—means that we don’t get to see church members on the regular weekly cycle that many of us are used to. You have to change your expectations of church to be successful here.”

Rethinking Relationships

You also have to change your expectations of the support you can expect from family and friends, say Darren and Robbie. “Home” for them is Perth, Western Australia, more than 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles) away—“at least two flights,” as Darren says, noting the practical impossibility of driving a car that distance in the annual vacation time allotted. Their four children, ranging in age from late teens to mid 20s, are clustered near Perth. Their parents’

missionary posting isn’t easy to accept.

“My younger son feels the distance keenly,” Darren says, grimacing slightly, “because he and I have a special friendship. ‘I’ll miss you: I hate not having you here,’ he told me when we came here. And even though all the kids and other family members have come out to visit us several times, you want the people that you love closer than the other side of the country.”

“I ring my mum up twice a day,” Robbie says. “She’s alone—my dad passed away several years ago—and we encourage each other. Darren initially wanted me to be as excited about this work as he was—and he’s excited, hasn’t really wavered since we got here. He just loves what he’s doing and has grasped it with everything he’s got.

“One day he could tell how much I was missing the family, and he asked me, ‘Don’t you want to be here?’ And I said, ‘I want to be with you, and I want to serve the Lord. Is that not enough? I know you miss the kids, but I miss the kids!’ ” Robbie’s story is punctuated by the memories of three hospitalizations in her first 18 months in the Torres Strait.

A round of antibiotics following an episode of bacteria in her bloodstream, weakened her immunity, and she somehow contracted a serious infection, clostridium difficile (C-diff), that disturbed her heart rhythm and sent her to the cardiac ward directly off a flight en route to the islands.

Recovering her energy hasn’t been easy in a schedule that frequently calls for her to travel for multiple days by boat with Darren to his scattered church members or, alternately, June 2014 | Adventist World - nad

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BY ALL MEANS: Northern Australian Conference president Brett Townend near Saibai Island at the controls of the dinghy from “Lightbearer II.”

FAMILY SUPPORT: Members of the Thursday Island family spans generations and ethnic groups.

keep up a round of activities without his support and encouragement.

Learning how to draw appropriate boundaries as a pastoral spouse has also been part of the on-the-job training for Robbie. Now, just over two years into the first pastoral district the couple has ever served, she remembers the challenging first weeks when everything—house, island, church, and climate—seemed new and strange.

“Some members told me just after we arrived that the previous pastor’s wife used to make them chocolate éclairs,” Robbie chuckles. “They asked me, ‘Oh, why don’t you do what she did?’ Well, I love cooking and offering hospitality, but making éclairs—that’s not my gift. I prefer whenever I can to work alongside Darren and just concentrate on the things he’s concentrating on.”

Ministry at Water Level

What Darren is frequently concentrating on is the logistical difficulty of moving around in a pastoral district that stretches across some 48,000 square kilometers (18,500 square miles), but where only slightly more than 1 percent of the territory is dry land.

“Time and tide wait for no man,” the old proverb declares.

Equally true, however, is the observation that time and tide are frequently the obstacles that prevent the very things most needing to be accomplished. Just getting to the places members live and worship requires a keen awareness of how dependent life in the islands is on the rise and fall of tides.

Several of the islands Darren visited during his first two years in the Torres Strait are surrounded by vast mud flats at low tide that prevent even shallow-keeled boats from approaching. Arrive at the wrong hour, and you will wait a kilometer or more from shore, watching daylight ebb and opportunities for ministry go with it. Load the small dinghy too fully or carry one too many passengers, and you

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will risk being swamped in mangrove shallows infested with saltwater crocodiles.

“Knowing that the crocs are out there certainly keeps you awake and alert,” Darren says, grinning. “Once when Brett Townend (Northern Australian Conference president) was visiting, the dinghy we were maneuvering along the coast started to take on water just after we passed a group of crocs. I have to admit I won’t soon forget the look on my boss’s face!”

More typical, however, is the sense of time and ministry possibilities lost because of the challenges of traveling on the water. The 11-hour round trip by boat from Thursday Island to Saibai, just four kilometers (two and a half miles) off the PNG coast, usually requires two days and an overnight stay on the island just to conduct a worship service, visit several member families, and host a story hour for the island children. The 440 liters (115 gallons) of diesel fuel required for the round-trip Saibai run costs A$800 (about US$745; 540 euros) each time. That number doesn’t include the costs for maintenance and repair on the boat.

The cost in time for traveling on the water is equally formidable.

“Every three weeks we used to pack up for the weekend and travel to Moa Island on the boat,” Darren says. “To make it worthwhile, we went there for three or four days, sometimes longer.”

“Somebody once asked us, ‘What’s it like?’ They probably thought that traveling by water for hours to a tropical island sounds romantic. Don’t get me wrong—the Torres Strait is beautiful. But these aren’t romantic islands: these are working islands, where people live real and difficult lives. I told the person who asked me, ‘It’s really not as lovely as it sounds! It’s like we’re camping every couple of weeks for an extended weekend. You’ve got to pack up and bring all your food, and know everything you’re going to need well in advance. That tends to take some of the romance out of it!’ ”

C OV E R S T O RY Raising the Plane

Even though he had invested five weeks of full-time training while still in Perth to obtain the commercial skipper’s license necessary to operate the mission boat in the Torres Strait, and another four weeks’ orientation in the boat with the pastor who preceded him in the district, it didn’t take Darren long to realize that being at the mercy of the tides was hampering the church’s mission in the territory. An experienced pilot, he had spent months flying in and out of isolated aboriginal communities in Western Australia, some of that time as a self-supporting literature evangelist offering books and DVDs to the inhabitants of remote towns. Noting that each of the major inhabited islands of the Torres Strait had well-developed airstrips, Darren began to realize that he could push the church’s mission forward much faster if he could reach his isolated church members and family-sized congregations by plane instead of by boat.

“We could all wish that Adventist work in this area had developed a bit differently,” he says, “but the truth is that these small worshipping groups really need a pastor to help them

stay connected to their faith—and sometimes, even to each other. ‘Church’ sometimes happens only when the pastor is able to be present to lead out. In the weeks between a pastor’s visits, activity slows down, and sometimes even stops. When you are only seeing members every third or fourth Sabbath for a few hours, it’s almost impossible to do the training that will create stable local leaders in these remote places.”

After nearly 18 months in his district, Darren began dreaming of a way to move the church’s presence and mission in the Torres Strait to a higher level—quite literally, into the air. With the help of a pastoral colleague from the Northern Australian Conference who also was an experienced pilot, Darren drafted a proposal for the conference executive committee that called for leasing a propeller-driven plane for 100 hours of pastoral work in the last six months of 2013.

The Northern Australian Conference is the second smallest of the nine conferences in the Australian Union, even though its territory is the second largest geographically, including fully one-quarter of the continent in the northeast quadrant of the nation—Ayers Rock in the desert to islands in the Torres Strait. With only 2,500 members, 35 congregations, and 18 pastors, the Conference rarely has additional funding for innovative projects. And moving from the time-honored but very slow method of traveling on the water to a proposal for serving the Torres Strait district by air initially caused administrators to re-examine their faith in what God might be doing in the northernmost part of the Conference.

“When you don’t have an abundance of resources—or tithe—you think very carefully about new possibilities,” says Brett Townend, president of the Northern Australia Conference since May 2012. “A mistake in planning or an unexpected expense could mean that you won’t have the resources to keep pastors in the field or congregations moving forward with their mission.

You have to keep the whole picture in view, even as you try to make sure you’re responding to what the Holy Spirit seems to blessing in one area.”

Ministry Takes Wing

BEGINNING THE JOURNEY: Darren Peakall takes delivery of the newer plane that will change the way ministry is done in this part of the world.

After carefully working through the details of Darren’s plan, the executive committee gave permission for the experiment to move forward. By the time of the June 2013 Big Camp (annual camp meeting), funds had been allocated to pay for the 100 hours of flying time and fuel that Darren believed would dramatically push mission forward in the Torres Strait.

“It worked out that for that typical 11-hour trip to Saibai, our northernmost point in the district, instead of the $800 we usually spent on diesel fuel, we could bring the cost for traveling by air down to less than $500 for the same trip,” June 2014 | Adventist World - nad

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C OV E R S T O RY their church when they see that their congregation can have a regular and vital place in their community. Baptismal candidates stay on track toward good decisions; discipleship happens as faith gets nurtured. Our faith in what God wants to accomplish in the Torres Strait begins to climb as we see our mission beginning to get off the ground.”

Higher Still

ALL IN: Darren and Robbie Peakall have invested their finances, as well as their time and energy, in taking the gospel to this vast territory.

Darren says with a former literature salesman’s enthusiasm.

“And then on the time, it’s only about an hour’s flight time from Thursday Island to Saibai, even in an old, slow plane with nothing spectacular about it. The plane was built in 1958: it was 55 years old when we first found it. I looked at the instrument panel, and at first I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding!’ But the thing is, it worked, and was reliable.”

Now round trips to the most distant point in the far-flung district could be accomplished in just over an hour, reducing travel time by more than 90 percent. Mid-week prayer meetings with a small Adventist congregation at Kubin Village, on Moa Island, suddenly became possible. Bible studies with individuals interested in Adventist faith that had previously languished when conducted only every third or fourth week could now be kept active and growing through weekly contact. For the first time ever, a pastor could regularly reach Weipa, a remote coastal mining town on the western side of Cape York, where a small Adventist church company of 15 is now receiving frequent pastoral visits from Darren in the plane. This would have been impractical with the boat, and these members are now feeling part of the wider sisterhood of churches, despite their geographical isolation.

“It was something like an adrenaline shot for ministry in this district,” says Darren, now looking back on almost a full year of traveling by air. “You begin to think about ministry in different ways when you can actually begin to connect the dots more often than once a month. And members, too—they begin to expect more of themselves and of

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In January 2014, Darren and Robbie took an even bigger step after careful and prayerful consultation with the conference officers. Taking out a sizeable personal mortgage, they arranged to buy a newer, speedier plane (a 1976 Piper 235) that can carry additional weight and up to three persons beside the pilot. Through a contract approved by the executive committee they have leased the new plane to the Northern Australian Conference, and use it multiple times a week to make member visits, conduct prayer meetings, and lead worship services throughout their vast, watery district.

Arranging the financing at their own expense—and risk—caused the Peakalls some careful thought and prayer.

At minimum, the decision will delay their own investment in a house and their planning for eventual retirement.

“We’re all in,” says Darren with a trademark toothy smile. “We’re putting our own money where we think God wants us to put it. And we’re trusting that God is going to move on hearts in places we haven’t even heard of to keep this plane flying and this mission growing.”

No longer bound to the rhythm of the tides, ministry is taking flight in the Torres Strait. From the air—above it all—you can see much further, chart the objectives more carefully, and get there more quickly.

That’s the kind of mission that heaven always blesses. n * Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, (Barnes and Noble, 2007), p. 27.

If you are interested in more information about the aviation project in the Torres Strait, or would like to support it with your prayers and resources, contact the Northern Australian Conference at: https://na.adventist.org.au or write to: Northern Australian Conference—Torres Strait Project PO Box 51, Aitkenvale QLD 4814 AUSTRALIA Phone: 07 4779 3988

Bill Knott is the editor and executive publisher of Adventist World.

S P I R I T

O F

P R O P H E C Y

SABBATH GATHERING: Members and community residents gather for Sabbath services on Saibai Island.

By Ellen G. White

REACHING

UNBELIEVERS

New life, new plans, and new methods

I

n the providence of God, those who are bearing the burden of his work have been endeavoring to put new life into old methods of labor, and also to invent new plans and new methods of awakening the interest of church members in a united effort to reach the world. . . .

In years past, I have spoken in favor of the plan of presenting our mission work and its progress before our friends and neighbors, and have referred to the example of Nehemiah.

And now I desire to urge our brethren and sisters to study anew the experience of this man of prayer and faith and sound judgment, who made bold to ask his friend, King Artaxerxes, for help with which to advance the interests of God’s cause. Let all understand that in presenting the needs of our work, believers can reflect light to others only as they, like Nehemiah of old, draw nigh to God, and live in close connection with the Giver of all light.

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Our own souls must be firmly grounded in a knowledge of the truth, if we would win others from error to truth. We need now to search the Scriptures diligently, that, as we become acquainted with unbelievers, we may hold up before them Christ as the anointed, the crucified, the risen Savior, witnessed to by prophets, testified of by believers, and through whose name we receive the forgiveness of our sins.

As we exalt the cross of Calvary before others, we shall find that it exalts us. Let every believer now stand in his lot and place, catching the inspiration of the work that Christ did for souls while in this world. We need the ardor of the Christian hero who endures to the end, ever beholding Him who is invisible. Our faith must have a resurrection. Wherever we are, and whatever our opportunities, whether limited or extended, we are to exert a positive influence for good.

In order to fulfill the purpose of God as laborers together with Him, it is not necessary that all believers work in the same manner or along similar lines. No precise lines are to be laid down. Let the Holy Spirit direct each worker: and let each be willing to listen to the counsel of those who have been chosen to lead out in the various activities of the church. Thus the truth will ever stand on vantage ground.

Some can best recommend the truth, not by argument or talk, but by living the principles of truth, by leading a modest, humble life as consistent disciples of the meek and lowly Christ.

Especially is this true of those who are unable to give an intelligent reason for their faith, and of those who have a zeal not according to knowledge. Such believers should talk less in vindication of our faith, and study their Bible more, letting their deportment bear eloquent testimony to the power for good which the truth exercises in heart and life. . . .

God desires every believer to be a soul winner; and He will bless all who look to Him in confidence for wisdom and guidance. As they move guardedly, walking in wisdom’s way and remaining true to the Lord God of Israel, the purity and simplicity of Christ, revealed in the life practice, will witness to the possession of genuine piety. In all that they say and do, they will glorify the name of Him whom they serve. n Seventh-day Adventists believe that Ellen G. White (1827-1915) exercised the biblical gift of prophecy during more than 70 years of public ministry. This material was first published in The Church Officers’ Gazette, Sept. 1, 1914.

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A D V E N T I S T

L I F E

PIONEER WORKERS: Salem (front row, third from left) and Dina (second row, second from left), join other Adventist workers before going out to face the challenges of missionary service.

H

is name was Salem Hamonangan Panjaitan. Born in the village of Siabal-abal in the province of North Sumatra, Indonesia, Salem belonged to the Batak tribe. Christian missionaries visited the Batak tribe in the early 1900s, and many of the population converted to Christianity.

The Early Years

Salem finished his primary education but was unhappy living in his village; he longed to see more of the world. One day he packed a few belongings and began a trip that would take him to many places and on numerous adventures. His first destination was Medan, capital of North Sumatra, located a few hundred miles from his village. It was a long journey, and at night he slept wherever he could find lodging.

In Medan, a Dutch man who owned a mansion offered Salem a job as a gardener. Salem took care of the flowers and plants, mowed the grass, and kept the yard clean. The owner gave him a room in which to live and paid him a salary. This was the first time that Salem had ever received a salary.

Salem worked hard and diligently performed his duties. The owner noticed that he was not only a faithful employee but also very intelligent. He taught Salem to type and perform other office duties. He finally suggested that Salem look for a job in the city where he could earn higher wages. Salem found an office clerical position and also enrolled in night classes to become more fluent in the Dutch language.

Several months later Salem was given an opportunity to attend nursing school

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By Erna and John Siregar

A Faithful

Servant Glimpses of a life well lived

in Padang, the capital of the province of West Sumatra. He had always wanted to become a nurse and help sick people, so together with two friends, Karel Tambunan and Partompuan Gultom, Salem began nursing training.

After completing the program, the three men obtained positions as nurses and were happy in their new profession. The Lord, however, had even more planned for them.

A Seventh-day Adventist evangelist came to town, and the three young men attended his meetings, curious to hear what the evangelist from America

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had to say about Bible prophecies. The men were initially skeptical about the Adventist teachings. Eventually, however, through the workings of the Holy Spirit, they accepted the truths being taught and were baptized into the Adventist Church. The question now was: What’s next?

A New Beginning

The three men were excited about their newly acquired faith, and they prayed for guidance regarding their role as new church members. Adventism had only recently been established P h o t o

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in what was then called the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and native workers were needed to spread the gospel to the population. So in 1924 the church sent Karel, Partompuan, and Salem for ministerial training at the Malayan Union Seminary in Singapore. After graduation they were assigned to serve in Java.

Salem eventually worked for the church in various capacities in many cities. In 1925 he became an assistant pastor, and he and the senior pastor started a church in Semarang. Then in 1927 Salem was sent to Surabaya, East Java, to help with the literature evangelism program.

The following year he left for Borneo to open up the work there and plant churches. Salem later traveled inland along the Barito and Kapuas rivers on small riverboats, the only transportation then available. The Dayak people living in the region at the time were cannibals and embraced animism. Crocodiles inhabited the rivers, and most of the country was jungle filled with wild animals.

Despite all the inconveniences, Salem believed that the Lord would direct His work in spreading the gospel in the unentered territory. Because of his nursing background, he was able to treat many of the illnesses and ailments of the Dayaks; at the same time, he shared with them the love of Jesus.

It was not uncommon for Salem to be away from home for weeks at a time, enduring a rigorous life in the inland that was full of unsanitary conditions and diseases such as malaria and typhoid. Dina, Salem’s wife, was busy at home raising their children.

Since their house was close to the edge of a river, Dina designed a device that would retrieve the coconuts that fell into the river. The coconut meat was rasped and cooked, and the oil was pressed and sold for additional income.

Dina was unable to communicate

with her husband while on his travels, so she trusted that the Lord would protect him. She was always grateful and relieved when Salem arrived home safe and healthy.

In 1929 the church again sent Salem to Surabaya in East Java and later to Bandung, West Java, to head the literature evangelism work there.

In 1938 he was ordained as a Seventhday Adventist minister.

In 1940, shortly before World War II, Salem—now affectionately called Pastor Panjaitan—was called to serve in Semarang, Central Java. In 1942 the Japanese army moved south and invaded many countries in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia.

The war drew near to Semarang, and the Dutch government began burning homes and other buildings to slow down the approach of the Japanese while the people retreated inland.

Panjaitan first took his family to safety in a village outside the city, and then after nightfall he returned to the city to rescue other church members. He did not stop until the last member was safe.

For three and a half years the Adventist Church had no contact with the outside world, even with the division office. Local pastors administered church business and finance, and took care of the members. Panjaitan continued to serve his people and help them with their needs.

The Later Years

Panjaitan’s health deteriorated as a result of the hardships during the war, and he lost a great deal of weight.

When the war finally ended, leaders summoned Panjaitan to the Adventist Church headquarters in Jakarta and suggested that he take a vacation to restore his health. They also offered to provide him with a motorcycle to make it easier for him to visit church members. “How can I visit my members riding on a motor-

cycle, while many of them live in humble dwellings and do not possess much of the material world?” Panjaitan responded. “I do not have the heart for it.”

Shortly after the war Panjaitan was assigned a larger territory—all the churches in Central Java—but he still refused to use an automobile or motorcycle for his work. Instead, he continued riding his bicycle and other public transportation to visit members and other churches.

Panjaitan’s health, however, continued to decline, and he was hospitalized for several months. He never recovered, and, sadly, passed away at the young age of 50.

Not until his funeral did his family realize how many friends he had made in the city of Semarang. A milelong procession accompanied the pastor’s body to his resting place.

Thirty years later his wife, Dina, died and was buried next to her husband in Semarang. Later both bodies were exhumed and reburied on a small hill in the village of Siabal-abal.

Along with children and grandchildren, some of whom continue to serve the Adventist Church, Salem and Dina Panjaitan left behind the legacy of lives worth modeling. Even though Salem Panjaitan’s lifespan was short, it was full of exciting experiences that resulted in the saving of a great number of souls for the Lord’s kingdom. He and Dina now await the second coming of Jesus. n

Erna and John Siregar are daughter and son-in-law of Salem and Dina Panjaitan.

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N A D F E AT U R E

A

Conversation About

Community

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C o m m u n i c at i o n s

An institutional church confronts changing demographics

BREAD OF LIFE: A food give-away at the Paradise Valley Church is augmented by a community garden, a thrift store, and classes in English and computer literacy.

love them. It’s exciting to see that when you try to be a loving, caring community, and you show that you’re a safe place, God brings the people who need you. Not a week goes by that we don’t have a new family, or two or three, who walk through our door on Sabbath morning.

INTERVIEWER: C. J. Cousins is an assistant pastor at Restoration Praise Center in Bowie, Maryland

D e e d r e

C o u s i n s

Rumor has it that baptisms are a regular occurrence here.

We keep the tub wet. It’s full of water right now; it’s ready to go. We have not had a public evangelistic series in the 11 years I’ve been here. But in the past two years we’ve baptized more than 100 people, and we just keep baptizing them. No pressure. I don’t ask people if they want to be baptized. They come to me and say, “We want to join your church. What do we have to do?” We just love them and accept them, and it’s an exciting ministry to be part of.

What has been the greatest challenge for you here at Paradise Valley church?

Keeping up with God has been a tremendous challenge.

Because every time we think we’re doing what God wants us to do, He opens another door. When we walk through that door, He opens another, and another, and it’s just a

The North American Division provides a free resource entitled “Called,” an electronic magazine available for most e-readers and tablets. One of the magazine’s features is a documentary video of young pastors visiting more experienced pastors, who share stories about their current ministries and the successes and challenges they face.

This interview was conducted with Will James, senior pastor of the Paradise Valley church in San Diego, California, as part of a documentary film. The visiting pastor was C. J. Cousins, an assistant pastor at the Restoration Praise Center in Bowie, Maryland. Here are some excerpts from their conversation:

What is the size of the congregation?

We have 800 members, and a typical Sabbath attendance is close to 500, sometimes as many as 600. On any given Sabbath, there is a minimum of 15 nonmembers in attendance, sometimes as many as 100. We don’t go out looking for them; God brings them to us. We just faithfully

NA D

I’ve been here 11 wonderful years. Out of my 38 years of pastoral ministry, this has been the most rewarding, partly because of the length of time. I’ve been able to be here long enough to see ministry grow and produce.

C o m m u n i c at i o n s

How long have you been a pastor at Paradise Valley church?

VISION CASTER: Will James, senior pastor of the Paradise Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church, leads his congregation in acts of faith and compassion.

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A Story With a Twist “Richard Stenbakken’s ministry, within and without the military, has touched countless lives with courage, honor, and patriotism. His story will provide inspiration for these challenging times.”

—Barry C. Black, U.S. Senate chaplain

Watch this video to learn more.

Richard Stenbakken, known for his dramatic portrayal of the centurion at the cross and other Bible characters, has a life story that reveals both his sense of humor and his willingness to serve wherever God leads. It begins when he is a baby given up for adoption and continues through a series of adventures that takes him to the Pentagon. His experience proves that no matter how humble your beginnings, God can use you to make make a difference in the world.

978-0-8280-2753-3 US$17.99 Prices and availability subject to change.

Canadian prices higher.

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N A D F E AT U R E constant moving forward in faith with God. If someone had told me when I first came here that we would be supporting about six local staff members and that we would be doing the kind of ministry we’re doing, I’d have said, “I don’t know how you could do that; I don’t know where the budget would come from.” But God has opened doors for us, and has provided the resources, as He promised.

How did your church catch this vision? Did it take awhile?

No church changes rapidly. It takes time, particularly when you have been a typical Laodicean church, doing nothing but coming to church. It takes a while to cast the vision, then have people catch the vision.

My wife, Peggy, working in community services, started with only a handful of volunteers. They’d have eight or 10 people come and work making quilts and giving out dayold bread. But as the need increased, so did the participation. We now have more than 125 volunteers working nearly every week in some form of outreach ministry, in actual ministry to the community. That’s not including the volunteers who run Sabbath school and church, Pathfinders and Adventurers, and all those things.

I have challenged my members that they’re all ministers.

I’m not the only minister of this church by any means. And if they will just faithfully, each morning, give themselves to God, He will use them. And He’s doing it. I don’t do all the Bible studies, I don’t reach all the people by any means.

God is using the members of this church, and they have caught the vision. They have caught the fact that they are ordained of God, chosen of God, used of God. It’s a beautiful opportunity.

So you’ve noticed some changes in the demographics of your membership. Can you talk a little bit about that transition?

Well, Paradise Valley, way back, was the hospital church.

It was the church of doctors, nurses, professionals. That day is long gone. It was gone before I came. It was becoming an inner-city church. As the demographics of the community changed, professionals were no longer coming to church here.

When I arrived, there basically were three groups of people meeting here: there was a good group of Filipinos, there were 25 to 30 Hispanics, and the remainder was a smattering of Caucasians.

But because we have started touching the community, we have brought many more ethnicities into the church.

Today we see a very different face to Paradise Valley than it was even 11 years ago.

Some people say if you start encouraging different ethnicities to come in, you’re going to push others out. I have not found that to be the case. As I have encouraged our members to be open, loving, and accepting in that we are

God is using the members of this church, and they have caught the vision. all God’s children, that we are all precious to God, I haven’t seen any people fleeing the church, but rather embracing it.

Clearly the Community Services and refugee assimilation program have been a large source of the church’s growth. I understand that one of your hobbies turned into an integral part of Community Services. Tell me about it.

My wife and I had a hobby on our day off of going to high-end estate sales and seeing what was there. We would give them our business card and say, “If you’d like to make a donation of items after [the sale], we’d be happy to come pick it up.”

That has grown to where we have seven or eight estate sale companies that donate to us regularly. We never know for sure when or where. Sometimes it’s one a week, sometimes two a week. Refugees and volunteers go out with us to make the pickup. It’s a big job because we have to pack everything up, load the truck, bring it back, unload the truck. Then we have teams sort through the stuff, sorting it for either the thrift store or for our rummage sales.

We have two rummage sales a year. So anything not good enough for the thrift store goes to the rummage sale.

It’s a full-time job keeping all those things going.

The thrift store is a work-training site for refugees, and after they have learned enough English to communicate a little bit, we’re able to take them there. We have a program through San Diego City College where they take an evening class at the college,which qualifies them to be on a workstudy program. So we’re able to pay them to work in the June 2014 | Adventist World - nad

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N A D F E AT U R E

God wants nothing more than for us to be willing to do something for Him.

thrift store, but we get a rebate for 75 percent of their salary.

So it costs us $2 an hour to hire a student to work in the thrift store, instead of $8 an hour; and we have three or four students working in the thrift store.

There is an interesting history of this church, how it was started, and a special woman who was a part of that beginning. Tell us about it.

This hospital—Paradise Valley Hospital, which is next to us—was shown to Ellen White in vision by God. When she came to see it, it was a bankrupt tuberculosis sanitarium with no water. They were in a drought and had no water to irrigate or even run the sanitarium.

God told Ellen White to buy it. She went to the conference leaders, and they said, “No, we can’t buy it. We don’t have the money, and we don’t want it.”

So Ellen White went to another woman, borrowed some money, and between the two of them bought it. God showed Ellen White where to drill the well. The well driller came out of the well one day after digging 125 feet by hand and finding no water. He said, “You’re sure God told you to drill here?”

“Oh, yes,” she said.

So the man went back down to the well, and just a few minutes later his shovel broke through, and water gushed in so quickly that he had to leave his tools behind. And that well is still running today. They still do all the irrigation of the hospital with it. It’s irrigating our garden.

Tell us about the garden.

As we got the language school going, we found a lot of the refugees struggled with deep depression. When you get close to them, you find out that they’ve left their families behind. Some are hearing stories of fathers and brothers and family being killed back home. And because they’re here, they can do nothing about it. They’re lonely, and they don’t have a support system.

So we’ve become family to them. But how could we help them work through this depression? That’s when the thought came to us: Ellen White says that gardening is therapeutic. It’s healing to get your hands in the soil and

get involved in growing things. So we actually found a gardening club here in town that came and said, “We’ll teach gardening to your students. Can you find a place to do a garden?”

Well, we scratched our heads because there’s not a whole lot of land available. Then we saw some succulent plants over there on a hillside. We said, “Let’s just pull out the succulents and terrace this hillside.” As they got out there and started working in the soil, watering it with Ellen White’s water and growing things, they started singing songs from back home, and they’d start chattering with each other. They were smiling and happy, they were growing things they enjoyed having from home, and the depression just lifted.

I got a grant from the North American Division Health Ministries Department for $2,500 to get some retaining wall material for the garden, and the hospital has leased us 12,000 square feet of a hillside for $1 for three years to expand our community garden.

How does grant writing play a role in the ministry of a church?

We do a lot of grant writing. God has truly provided for us. We never know for sure where it’s going to come from, but we have raised well more than $200,000 in the past two years from various sources.

Just yesterday a community person came into our thrift store, learned about our ministry, and said, “I have a car that I’m not using. Would you like to have it?” So there’s a car sitting out here, donated to us, which will help one of our families.

We had an anonymous donor who left us $85,000 in her will. That was an unasked-for, unexpected gift to us from God. Another estate, again unasked-for, unexpected, brought in $33,000. I don’t know where it came from. I’ve told my members enough times that if God asks you to do something, He’ll provide the resources. And He’s showing us that He does that.

Do we need more money? Of course. If you want to give us some money we’ll be happy to accept it. I’m looking for $30,000 right now to cover some refugee children at June 2014 | Adventist World - nad

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N A D F E AT U R E

our academy. I’m convinced it’ll be there somewhere. God knows who it is, God knows where they are, and God will bring it to us.

Do you have any closing words of encouragement to share about your experience here at Paradise Valley?

Ask God what He wants you to do, then be willing to do it. God will show you. If you’re willing to step out in faith and begin to do what God shows you, He’ll open doors for you. He wants nothing more than for us to be willing to do something for Him. Ellen White wrote: “[God] desires us to remember that when we are humble and contrite, we stand where He can and will manifest Himself to us. He is well pleased when we urge past mercies and blessings as a reason why He should bestow on us higher and greater blessings” (In Heavenly Places, p. 129).

That’s what motivates us. n Reprinted with permission from the North American Division Ministerial Department Web site: nadministerial.org/article/794/for-nad-pastors/nad-ministerial-articles/close-toparadise?search=paradise.

The video story of the immigrant ministry program of the Paradise Valley church can be viewed at vimeo.com/nadadventist/visittosandiego.

ALL YOUR MINISTRY NEEDS FROM

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39

E l l e n

The

G .

W h i t e

E s tat e

Adventist Story North American

Division

By Benjamin Baker

In the

Ghetto

Frederick Carnes Gilbert

A Jewish pioneer of Adventism in North America

A

s more than 18 million Seventh-day Adventists worldwide commemorate 150 years of God’s mighty leading of the great Second Advent movement, we recall, from the North American Division, a story of courage that inspires us on our way to an uncertain yet certain future.

A Strict Upbringing

Frederick Carnes Gilbert was born in London, England, on September 30, 1867. His Russian Jewish parents had found sanctuary in that country after fleeing hostility to their faith and ethnicity in the land of their birth and in continental Europe.

Gilbert had a strict Jewish upbringing, was trained by a rabbi, went through confirmation, had a bar-mitzvah, and even wore phylacteries. He hated Christianity, not only because of the teaching he received, but because of the persecution that his ancestors—and more immediately his parents—had received at the hands of Christians. When he passed a Christian church, he would spit in revulsion, and his fingers itched to throttle any Christians he might encounter.

Gilbert had a turbulent childhood. He had poor health, and, near death, was hospitalized on several occasions. On one occasion he fell into a fireplace and was almost burned alive. Early in Gilbert’s teen years his father died. His lifethreatening asthma and lung disease led a physician to suggest that he sail to America: the sea voyage would improve his condition, and the climate in America would be more conducive to his health.

But Gilbert trembled at the thought of America. His father had warned of its godlessness. Nevertheless, he boarded the boat, had a bad accident, and, upon arriving in New York City, went straight to the hospital.

In America

North America was indeed godless, Gilbert decided. At his factory job he was persecuted because of his peculiar

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Jewish beliefs. Although joining a labor union and paying his dues, he was fired from a promising job with no recourse. The young immigrant went from one employ to another, often walking the streets of New York at night with no food, inadequate clothing, and shivering from the cold.

Moving to Boston at the age of 21 in the hope of something better, Gilbert obtained boarding with the Fiskes, a Seventh-day Adventist family. They were weird: they didn’t eat pork and kept holy the seventh-day, but they believed in Jesus. They won him over because “they lived their religion more than they talked it.” He entered the Fiske household as an observer of the Jewish religion but left two years later a committed Seventh-day Adventist Christian.

After Gilbert’s conversion in 1889, life became more harrowing—at work, on the street, with relatives in England and New England, including his beloved mother, who disowned him as an apostate who had embraced the oppressors’ religion. Employed at a shoe factory at the time, Gilbert quit to be a colporteur. After nine months of that, he entered nearby South Lancaster Academy (associated later with Atlantic Union College), to prepare for the ministry.

For His People

After college Gilbert labored among the Goyim (Gentiles) of New England for 10 years. In 1896 he wed Ella Graham, to whom he was married for almost half a century. In 1898 he was ordained to the gospel ministry.

In the first years of the twentieth century Gilbert embraced the reorganizing, contextualizing ethos within Adventism that sought specific ways to make the gospel appealing to specific peoples.

He launched an out-and-out campaign to reach the 300,000 Jews of New England in the United States with methods undergirded by a hands-on and communitarian approach to evangelism borne out of a love for humanity.

He could be found in the ghetto conversing with rabbis;

G e n e r a l

G e n e r a l

C o n f e r e n c e

A r c h i v e s

preaching in Yiddish on a soapbox; canvassing from tenement to tenement; taking in orphans; caring for the sick; finding jobs for those unemployed; and lobbying against Sunday laws (which threatened religious liberty for Jews).

Gilbert established a refugee center for persecuted Jews disowned by family and friends with no means of support; he started gospel magazines in Yiddish—The Good Tidings of the Messiah, The Messenger, and other tracts and booklets; and he spoke in synagogues and halls. In return he was viciously accosted, physically assaulted, and sent death threat letters. Sometimes his head was drenched in blood; other times his body was wracked with pain from pummeling. All this he counted joy, to suffer for his Messiah.

In 1907, at Gilbert’s urging, the Central New England Conference created a Jewish Department. Gilbert, its first director, developed strategies and raised funds to reach the Jewish population in New England, which was growing considerably at the time in Greater Boston and other cities along the Eastern seaboard. He was also the first Jewish representative for the Atlantic Union Conference, joining M. L. Andreasen (the Scandinavian representative) and J. K. Humphrey (the Black representative) as ethnic missiological specialists.

Ellen White encouraged Gilbert in 1908: “My brother, the Jewish people are not the only ones who are being helped by your work. Our own people need the example thus set before them. I bid you be of good courage. In your labors, do not wait for some great and wonderful opening, but seize the opportunities as they come. The power of truth will be vindicated as the servants of God make faithful use of the opportunities that present themselves for labor.”

In 1913, at Gilbert’s behest, the North American Foreign Department established the Jewish Department Advisory Committee, Gilbert serving as superintendent. Five years later he became superintendent of the Jewish Advisory Committee at the General Conference.

C o n f e r e n c e

A r c h i v e s

Left: FIELD SECRETARY: F. C. Gilbert (front row, center), a field secretary of the General Conference, poses with members of the Southern Asia Division Executive Committee in India in about the year 1935.

Above: BOSTON MISSION: Gilbert started a mission to reach Jewish people in Boston.

This photograph was taken about 1905.

When advancing age no longer allowed his labor in the ghettos among his people, he took to writing books for Jews, showing the myriad similarities between Judaism and Adventism. His sophisticated works, such as Practical Lessons From the Experience of Israel, Messiah in His Sanctuary, and Judaism and Christianity, present Christ as the culmination and realization of Hebrew cultural rites and retain their power today.

Gilbert served as a field secretary for the General Conference from 1922 until his death on August 31, 1946.

Christ’s Methods

The North American Division has implemented an outreach model of six building blocks derived from the ministry of Christ to reach the 350 million people in its division with the gospel. Gilbert’s life and ministry embodies each of these. He recalled, “In beginning the mission work, we felt that we should follow the methods laid down by the Savior as far as possible.” The results were remarkable, reaching “tens of thousands of Jews in Boston” and beyond.

“Jews would come to the mission from cities and towns a long way from Boston, and tell us that they had heard about the work that was being started for their brethren.”

The wonderfully affirming testimony of a non-Adventist Christian who attended his meetings one day provides an instructive note for us today. “It seemed to me,” he said to Gilbert, “that I could just see the New Testament lived right out all over again, and it certainly was wonderful. It is very convincing to my mind.” n

Benjamin Baker is an assistant archivist of

the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. A longer, fully documented version of this article appears on the Adventist World North America Web site.

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B I B L E

Q U E S T I O N S

Why do some believe that God originally created more than one couple in the Garden of Eden?

A N S W E R E D

Two?

Only

Humans can provide some sort of evidence to support almost anything they want to believe. Hence the need for establishing a foundation for defining and determining what is truth. Ideas have a history, and knowing about it could help us understand why people embraced them, and where the idea took them.

1. Origin of Polygenesis: This big word simply implies that at the beginning God created several couples. The opposite is monogenesis—the idea that God at the beginning created only one couple. Monogenesis was the Christian teaching up to the seventeenth century, when some began to teach that there were different divine creations of humans. This was primarily an attempt to explain the existence of human races. In other words, the differences between the races were so remarkable that they were understood to be the result of polygenesis (God created different couples).

But ideas are not static. This idea was later used to justify racism, even slavery and segregation. In Christian thinking monogenesis was theologically used to support the dogma of original sin: Sin was universal, and it was transmitted through procreation from one original couple to all humans. Under the influence of natural evolution, Catholicism no longer uses monogenism to support the dogma of original sin.

2. Other Arguments: Some have tried to use biblical arguments to promote polygenesis. It is argued that when God created fish, animals, and birds, He created, not a single pair of each one, but a large or significant number of them.

With respects to humans He could have done the same. It is even suggested that the Hebrew word adam means “humankind,” not necessarily one or two of them, and that it implies that at the beginning God created many humans.

It has been also suggested that the creation of more than one couple would nicely explain the origin of Cain’s wife. According to this theory, she was born from one of the other couples that God created and placed in a different place on the earth. Some of the creation myths from

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the ancient Near East suggest that the gods created humans as a mass. According to one of the Babylonian myths, humans were created to take the place of minor deities who were in change of servile work for the major deities. This obviously required the creation of many humans, or a collective creation.

3. Biblical Evidence: The biblical account is unique in introducing in the beginning the creation of humans as male and female—a single couple. As far as I can tell, the literature of the ancient Near East does not contain a narrative about the creation of woman. The fact that Genesis 1 and 2 stand together indicates that we are not dealing with two different accounts of human creation, but with the same divine act. Genesis 1 states in a concise way that God created humans as a couple (male and female), and Genesis 2 provides the details of their creation.

Eve was not an afterthought, but an expression of the original divine intent as God sought to create them in His own image. The biblical text is very clear: Eve became “the mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20). Paul stated: “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26). Cain obviously married one of his relatives from the many sons and daughters that Adam and Eve had (cf. Gen. 5:4).

The biblical teaching should be allowed, through the power of the Spirit, to pierce the human heart that is filled with pride and arrogance, to shout deep into our conscience: We all belong to a single race! There is no room for a gradation of the value of human beings. Perhaps no other generation has witnessed the horrors to which such a gradation has led the human race more than ours. In the light of the cross of Jesus, the church, as the global community of faith drawn together from every nation, tribe, and people, is where this miracle of grace should be self-evident. n

Angel Manuel Rodríguez is retired, after serving the church as a pastor, professor, and Bible scholar.

B I B L E

S T U D Y

How

By Mark A. Finley

Faith Grows I

recently conducted a weekend series of meetings for college students about the Holy Spirit and revival. After one of the presentations a student asked, “Pastor Finley, how can I have more faith? My faith at times seems weak.

I would like to have greater faith, but I am not sure how to go about getting more.”

The student’s question was not new to me. Over the years I have heard it regularly. In this month’s lesson we will explore how to have a growing, vibrant, living faith.

1 What did Jesus say about faith at end time? To discover Jesus’ answer regarding end time faith, read Luke 18:8.

Evidently, genuine faith will be in short supply when Jesus returns. A lot of things may pass for faith, but in this passage Jesus reminds us with this very question about the need for authentic, biblical faith.

2 What is biblical faith? How does the Bible define it? Find the answers in Hebrews 11:1.

Faith is the foundation of our Christian experience. It is the assurance that God loves us, and desires only good for us. Faith believes God’s promises implicitly. Faith is a relationship with God as a friend we know well that leads us to do whatever He asks.

3 What is another word for faith? What do you discover in Proverbs 3:5, 6? How does this passage help you understand faith?

Ellen White defined faith this way: “Faith is trusting God— believing that He loves us and knows best what is for our good. Thus, instead of our own, it leads us to choose His way. In place of our ignorance, it accepts His wisdom; in place of our weakness, His strength; in place of our sinfulness, His righteousness. Our lives, ourselves, are already His; faith acknowledges His ownership and accepts its blessing.”*

4

Who is the source of all faith? How do we relate when we feel as if we have little or no faith?

Read Romans 12:3.

Faith is a gift God gives to each believer. It is not an emotional feeling, or some type of humanistic, positive-think-

R i ya s

H a m z a

ing mind-set. When we make a conscious decision to surrender our lives to Christ and become children of God through His Holy Spirit, He gives us the gift of faith. Faith grows as we exercise the faith we have.

5

If faith is a gift God gives us, how can we increase our faith? Read Romans 10:17 and 2 Corinthians 1:18-20.

As we read God’s Word with a prayerful attitude, the Holy Spirit develops a stronger faith within us. As we accept God’s promises as His eternal “Yes” to us, our faith grows.

6 Does merely reading the Bible always benefit us?

What surprising truth do we learn from Hebrews 4:2?

Reading the Bible alone will not grow our faith. It is possible to read the Bible in a careless, detached manner. When we read the Bible with a trusting heart, claiming God’s promises as our own, our faith will grow.

7 Reflect on the story of the woman with the “issue of blood” who Jesus healed in Luke 8:43-48.

What does her experience tell us about faith?

At least two vital truths about growing faith are contained in this story: First, the woman believed that Christ could and would help her in her desperate situation. Her faith was not in herself; it was not in her faith; it was in Jesus. Biblical faith always has a focus, and that focus is Jesus.

Second, as this woman exercised her faith, it grew. If you desire a growing, vibrant faith, recognize as a child of God that Jesus has given you the gift of faith. Believe His Word; fill your mind with His promises; exercise the faith you have. Then watch your faith grow. n *Education (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1903), p. 253.

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IDEA EXCHANGE Jesus turned the water into grape juice.

Mark Brown Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada An Urgent Prophetic Calling

Big-Picture Theology

Thank you for publishing Lothar Wilhelm’s article “Big-Picture Theology” (April 2014). Way to go! This needed to be said, and Wilhelm was very articulate in doing so. I fully agree that Adventists should accept “the Bible alone” as “our rule for faith and life.”

Jen H. Oregon, United States Moderation?

I’m writing in response to the health article “Moderation?” by Peter N. Landless and Allan R. Handysides (March 2014). Alcohol drinkers frequently point to Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine as justification for their indulgence. Nothing could be further from the truth! The Greek word for “wine” can mean both alcoholic wine and nonalcoholic grape juice. We can safely assume that Jesus would never give people a drink that would lower their inhibitions to the point of committing such sins as theft, adultery, and murder, things we know all too well happen with the consumption of alcohol.

Prayerw

Thank you for printing Ted N. C. Wilson’s article “An Urgent Prophetic Calling” (February 2014). Wilson put into words what I have been trying to say! No one—neither my church nor my family—is listening, and I feel alone. I realize I must be the change I want to see, and I know being a leader sometimes means I may have to stand alone. I will follow where God leads and continue to be used as a mouthpiece.

Please pray for me. God bless!

Linda Eskridge via e-mail Immanence!

There are two spelling mistakes in Tim Matsis’ article “The Fence” (January 2014). First, and most important, the word “imminence,” which means nearness, in time terms, of occurrence, should read “immanence,” which in Christian usage (at least, mainstream Christianity: see Reader’s Digest Word Power Dictionary) signifies God being present throughout His creation. The Christian concept of God has always seen Him as both transcendent (above, beyond, distinct from His creation, not to be identified with it) and immanent.

Too much so-called contemporary worship is more like a pop concert with a veneer of religiosity.

— Barry Gowland, Fishermead, Milton Keynes, England The other error is the spelling of Matsis’ hometown: it should be Invercargill, not Invergargill!

Reverence and respect in the worship of God? Yes! Too much so-called contemporary worship is more like a pop concert with a veneer of religiosity. If Roman Catholics, High Anglicans, and Eastern Orthodox go too far in the other direction, it is at least well meant. Herein lies a possible danger: quite a few of those raised Seventhday Adventist will desert to groups where a higher standard of behavior in church is the norm.

Barry Gowland F ishermead, Milton Keynes, England You’re right, twice! We apologize for introducing these errors, which changed its meaning, into this devotional.—Editors.

PRAISE

Even though my dad is the breadwinner in our family, I pray that he would seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, rather than giving our needs first priority and transgressing the law of God. Brian, Kenya

44

Please pray for our daughter and her family, and our son and his family, that they will realize they need Jesus in their lives.

I praise God that after 59 years of prayer, my husband accepted Jesus and joined the Adventist Church.

Betty, United States

Adventist World - nad | June 2014

Please pray for my family. My brothers’ wives and neighbors hate us without a cause.

Dick, Kenya Please pray for me. I need the Lord’s healing.

Angelita, Philippines

Where in the

Is This? orld W

Letters Policy: Please send to: letters@adventistworld.org.

Letters must be clearly written, 100-word maximum. Include the name of the article andsend the date of publication with your letter.

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Not all letters submitted will be published.

Also include your name, the town/city, state, and country from which you are writing. Letters will be edited for space and clarity. Not all letters submitted will be published.

Thank you for praying for me. I got my admission to university!

Elo, Cameroon Thanks for praying for my mother.

God worked that situation out for us, and I praise His holy name.

Ann, United States

F e r r e i r a , H e l d e r

ANSWER: In Porto, Portugal, General Conference youth ministries director Gilbert Cangy (left) poses with Inter-European Division youth leader Stephan Siegg and several others during an outreach effort at the Geracão Adventista em Missão (GAM) event in early 2014. The group was at the São Bento station.

Thank you for your feature on our institutional anniversary (“95 Years Ago,” Idea Exchange, April 2014). It was a pleasant surprise to be mentioned.

The last paragraph reads: “Today the Union Adventist Educational Complex (Complejo Educativo Adventista Unión) has three campuses, including a campus in Ñaña that includes Peruvian Union University and Peruvian Union Academy.”

The Union Adventist Educational Complex (Complejo Educativo Adventista Unión) no longer exists, and does not have three campuses that include the university and the academy. It has grown into Peruvian Union University, which has three university campuses one of which is in Ñaña, Lima, Perú. On the campus of Peruvian Union University (Universidad Peruana Unión) is the university school named “Union School” (Colegio Unión).

Le-Roy Alomía D irector of Public Relations and Corporate Image

A u s t r i a

95 Years Ago—and Today

Revived by His Word A Journey of Discovery Together Through the Bible God speaks to us through His Word. Join with other believers in more than 180 countries who are reading a chapter of the Bible each day. To download the daily Bible Reading Guide, visit RevivedbyHisWord.org, or sign up to receive the daily Bible chapter by e-mail.

To join this initiative, start here: July 1, 2014 • Ezekiel 4

I have an uncle who has cancer. He left the church and now, at almost 80, he feels that he isn’t prepared to die.

Please pray that he surrenders his soul to Jesus before his imminent death. I also ask for prayer for his wife and family to have God’s solace.

Milene, Brazil

The Place of Prayer: Send prayer requests and praise (thanks for answered prayer) to prayer@adventistworld.org. Keep entries short and concise, 50-words or less. Items will be edited for space and clarity. Not all submissions will be printed. Please include your name and your country’s name. You may also fax requests to: 1-301-680-6638; or mail them to Adventist World, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600 U.S.A.

June 2014 | Adventist World - nad

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IDEA EXCHANGE “Behold, I come quickly…”

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Our mission is to uplift Jesus Christ, uniting Seventh-day Adventists everywhere in beliefs, mission, life, and hope.

years ago

On June 2, 1943 Choi, Tae Hyun (1888-1943) died after being tortured by forces that occupied Korea during World War II. He was a graduate of Won Heung Middle School and studied at Korean Baptist Seminary. In 1910 he joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church and entered evangelistic work, serving as a licensed minister in the Central and West Chosen missions (1910-1922).

After his ordination in 1922, Choi, Tae Hyun served variously as district leader in Manchuria, a Bible teacher at Korean Union Training School, and as a mission president.

During World War II he was president of all the Adventist work in Korea. But occupying forces that controlled the country had a policy to suppress Christianity. He was imprisoned, along with many other Christian leaders, and tortured to death. He was probably the first Seventh-day Adventist martyr in Korea.

Source: Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia

percent of people who have high blood pressure don’t know it.

Have your blood pressure checked at least twice a year. Normal is 120/80. Anything higher than that could indicate the beginning of high blood pressure.

Consult your doctor if you have questions.

Source: Journal of the American Medical Association/Women’s Health

Publisher The Adventist World, an international periodical of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The General Conference, Northern Asia-Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists®, is the publisher.

Executive Publisher and Editor in Chief Bill Knott Associate Publisher Claude Richli International Publishing Manager Pyung Duk Chun Publishing Board Ted N. C. Wilson, chair; Benjamin D. Schoun, vice chair; Bill Knott, secretary; Lisa Beardsley-Hardy; Daniel R. Jackson; Robert Lemon; Geoffrey Mbwana; G. T. Ng; Daisy Orion; Juan Prestol; Michael Ryan; Ella Simmons; Mark Thomas; Karnik Doukmetzian, legal advisor Adventist World Coordinating Committee Jairyong Lee, chair; Akeri Suzuki, Kenneth Osborn, Guimo Sung, Pyung Duk Chun, Suk Hee Han Editors based in Silver Spring, Maryland Lael Caesar, Gerald A. Klingbeil (associate editors), Sandra Blackmer, Stephen Chavez, Wilona Karimabadi, Kimberly Luste Maran Editors based in Seoul, Korea Pyung Duk Chun, Jae Man Park, Hyo Jun Kim Online Editor Carlos Medley Operations Manager Merle Poirier Editor-at-large Mark A. Finley Senior Advisor E. Edward Zinke Financial Manager Rachel J. Child Editorial Assistant Marvene Thorpe-Baptiste Management Board Jairyong Lee, chair; Bill Knott, secretary; P. D. Chun, Karnik Doukmetzian, Suk Hee Han, Kenneth Osborn, Juan Prestol, Claude Richli, Akeri Suzuki, Ex-officio: Robert Lemon, G. T. Ng, Ted N. C. Wilson Art Direction and Design Jeff Dever, Brett Meliti Consultants Ted N. C. Wilson, Robert E. Lemon, G. T. Ng, Guillermo E. Biaggi, Lowell C. Cooper, Daniel R. Jackson, Geoffrey Mbwana, Armando Miranda, Pardon K. Mwansa, Michael L. Ryan, Blasious M. Ruguri, Benjamin D. Schoun, Ella S. Simmons, Alberto C. Gulfan, Jr., Erton Köhler, Jairyong Lee, Israel Leito, John Rathinaraj, Paul S. Ratsara, Barry Oliver, Bruno Vertallier, Gilbert Wari, Bertil A. Wiklander To Writers: We welcome unsolicited manuscripts. Address all editorial correspondence to 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600, U.S.A. Editorial office fax number: (301) 680-6638 E-mail: worldeditor@gc.adventist.org Web site: www.adventistworld.org Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible references are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Texts credited to NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011

by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.

Adventist World is published monthly and printed simultaneously in Korea, Brazil, Indonesia, Australia, Germany, Austria, and the United States.

Vol. 10, No. 6

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Adventist World - nad | June 2014

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