ANN Bulletin - April 22, 2008 - unOFFICIAL ADVENTIST FORUM

Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do.
And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with
– even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department.
Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently. Romans 14.1: The Message

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#168586 - 04/27/08 08:06 AM ANN Bulletin - April 22, 2008
magilly46 Registered: 10/29/02 Posts: 133 Loc: BC	Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters April 22, 2008 In This Issue: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adventists join world faith, aid agency leaders against poverty US$1 billion in funds to empower women, girls committed; 'When you educate a girl, you educate a nation' April 16 Washington, D.C., United States West Indies: Adventists call for a ban on smoking in public places New chapter against drugs and tobacco established April 15 Mandeville, Manchester, Jamaica Adventists among survivors of Congo plane crash Minnesotan missionaries were visiting son in central African country; Family reunited in hospital April 17 Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adventists join world faith, aid agency leaders against poverty April 16, 2008 Washington, D.C., United States ... [ Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adventist Church vice president Dr. Ella Simmons joined world faith, aid agency and government representatives April 13 to commit to ending world poverty. During small group meetings the following day, Simmons said leaders brainstormed tangible ways to meet that goal. [photo: Rajmund Dabrowski/ANN] Linking poverty to economically fettered women, world faith, aid agency and government representatives said April 13 that it's no coincidence an estimated 70 percent of the 1.2 billion people who subsist on just US$1 a day are women and girls. Reversing such troubling statistics is a "moral imperative," leaders gathered at a packed National Cathedral for the Women, Faith and Development Summit to End Global Poverty agreed. "We do not accept that poverty is an inevitable part of the human condition," former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said during her keynote address. Summit attendees, among them Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders, met to launch the Women, Faith and Development Alliance -- a partnership between women's, international development and faith-based organizations -- and to commit funds toward curbing global poverty by empowering women and girls. "While the gap between rich and poor continues to broaden, we must meet this challenge with more than a response to immediate needs. We must do something deeper and more long-term," world church vice president Dr. Ella Simmons later said, calling for sustainable solutions to poverty. Among the more than 70 agencies that committed US$1 billion toward that goal was the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, which pledged US$1.5 million to tighten gaps in women's literacy and girls' access to education. While claims that poverty can be eliminated often elicit eye rolls or shoulder shrugs, Albright said the goal is "achievable" and such complacency is the enemy of progress. "I have to ask, 'What's the deal? It's not like we're trying to reverse gravity. Poverty is not a force of nature. Poverty is a choice that society makes, and let's declare that what we have the ability to choose, we have the power to change," Albright said. Summit speakers agreed that merely funneling money into disenfranchised hands does little to dent poverty rates. Rather, any solution to poverty must fully utilize women and girls as "agents of change, not just objects of charity," said Dr. Ishmael Noko, general secretary for the Lutheran World Federation. "If you want a country to make progress, then empower women, educate girls -- that's the only way to do it," said Mary Robinson, former president of the Republic of Ireland, who spoke at the event. World leaders must in the coming weeks and months "roll up their sleeves" to address the practical side of the largely "symbolic" partnership, Robinson added. "We have to make this work." The task is one both government and faith leaders must shoulder, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in a video address to summit attendees. Singling out faith communities, Tutu said "religion is too often used as a tool to oppress women" and that religious leaders have wrongly chosen to ignore rather than "condemn" such culturally sanctioned practices as child marriages and female genital mutilation. Ignorance of such "appalling abuses" can no longer be an excuse, Albright said. "Some may say, 'All this is cultural and there's nothing anybody can do about it.' I say it's criminal and we each have an obligation to stop it," she said. Global YouthAIDS ambassador and American actress Ashley Judd echoed Albright's viewpoint, calling rape and other crimes against women "gender apartheid." Summit speakers vowed anti-poverty plans would address the spectrum of challenges women and girls face, including gender-based violence. Speaking of the relationship between poverty and illiteracy, Liberia's first woman president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, said developing nations must capitalize on the talents and ideas of women and girls. "When you educate a girl, you educate a nation," she said. Simmons, also a faith community representative to the WFDA Leadership Council, said while women and girls may be unfairly affected, efforts to alleviate poverty should include men and boys as partners. "If we advocate for all, we uplift all," she said. Joining collaborative efforts such as WFDA is a way Adventist Church representatives can "maximize" the impact of their work through relationships with other like-minded leaders. "We're called to bring the gospel to the whole world, and that includes responding to the human condition," she said. The summit also provided valuable networking opportunities, said Heather-Dawn Small, director of the Adventist Church's Women's Ministries department and WFDA member. "It's important to hear from other women leaders, to see what works in other countries and to be able to bring that back." West Indies: Adventists call for a ban on smoking in public places April 15, 2008 Mandeville, Manchester, Jamaica ... [ Nigel Coke/ WIU/ANN Staff ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Victor Roach, president of the International Commission for the Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency (ICPA)-- Caribbean Bloc. He encourages a ban against public smoking at the launch of the Jamaican chapter of the ICPA. [photo: Nigel Coke/WIU/ANN] Seventh-day Adventists are lobbying to snuff out smoking in public places throughout the Caribbean islands. Victor Roach, president of the International Commission for the Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency (ICPA) Caribbean Bloc, made a public plea to area governments during the April 13 launch of the Jamaican chapter of the ICPA. "I call upon the governments of the region to introduce laws to ban smoking in public buildings and also to prevent young people from purchasing alcohol and tobacco as a practice," said Roach. "The fight against drugs is the fight against health problems, crime, poverty [and] abuse of human rights." Roach called the use of alcohol and drugs-- including tobacco--a "burden to the resources of our economies and the productivity of the people in this region and this country." The launch was organized by the Adventist Church's Health Ministries department in the West Indies and was held on the campus of Adventist-owned Northern Caribbean University in Manchester, Jamaica. Dr. Allan Handysides, an ICPA board member and director of health ministries for the Adventist world church, supports smoking bans everywhere. "If you can reduce places to smoke by 20 or 30 percent then there is a sizable and measurable reduction in disease consequences," Handysides explained. "The more prohibitions placed on where you can smoke the more difficult it is to smoke, so the rates of smoking decline." Michael Tucker, executive director of the Jamaican National Council on Drug Abuse, also spoke at the launch and said drug education should start from kindergarten so students can take drug prevention into their adult lives. Tucker said that according to a 2006 National School survey done in 70 schools across Jamaica with students between the ages 11 and 17, more than 70 percent had used alcohol, 33 percent had use tobacco, 25 percent marijuana, 3 percent crack cocaine and 33 percent showed the use of alcohol before the age of 10. Pastor Milton Gregory, Health Ministries director for the Adventist Church in the West Indies and director of the ICPA Jamaican chapter is already planning seminars, workshops and marches in hopes of changing attitudes toward alcohol and drug use. Founded in 1952 the International Commission for the Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency is a nonsectarian, nonpolitical organization with chapters globally placing the spotlight of science on alcoholism and other drug dependencies. Adventists among survivors of Congo plane crash April 17, 2008 Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo ... [ Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marybeth Mosier, right, and her family escaped a fallen plane April 15 after it skidded through Goma's commercial district. Having worked in Tanzania for 8 years, the Minnesotan family was considering a move to the Congo, where their eldest son Keith heads up Frontline Missions for the central African country. [photos: courtesy Mosier Family] "I'm so happy they're alive," said Keith Mosier, center, who was waiting at the airport for his family to arrive when he learned of the crash. A Seventh-day Adventist missionary family survived a plane crash yesterday, emerging from the wreckage just moments before it exploded. Barry and Marybeth Mosier of Dodge Center, Minnesota, and two of their young children were aboard a DC-9 passenger jet headed for Kisangani, where their eldest son, Keith, 24, leads the Congo Frontline Missions. "The seats in front of them were smashed down, trapping some people underneath, and there was a fire behind them," Keith said in a widely distributed email, describing conditions soon after the jet crashed during takeoff from Goma Airport, located along the country's eastern border. The couple's youngest daughter, April, 14, crawled through a small hole in a fuselage panel. "She didn't know if Mom, Dad and Andrew had made it out safe until they all met at the hospital," Keith said. Barry and Marybeth escaped after unpinning their adopted son, Andrew, from the debris. The three-year-old suffered a broken femur during the ordeal. "I remember dad complaining about the airport at Goma," Laura Abbot, Barry and Marybeth's grown daughter, later said in an email. "About a third of the runway is covered with lava from a volcanic eruption, making it a really difficult takeoff." Media reports released yesterday indicated at least 40 people died in the crash and over 100 were injured. Reports also said more than 100 people survived the crash. Many of the casualties resulted when the jet skidded through a congested outdoor market in the commercial district of Goma, Abbot said. Barry and Marybeth have served as missionaries in Tanzania for 8 years with the Kibidula Institute of Outpost Centers International, an Apison, Tennessee-based supporting ministry of the Adventist Church. The family was visiting the Congo to help them decide whether to join Keith's outreach and humanitarian efforts there. "We're praying about whether the Lord wants us to move to Congo," Barry Mosier later told the Adventist Review. "It was a rough introduction to Congo a couple of days ago, but wherever He leads, we'll go." In an email update, Keith asked for prayers as his family recovers from the "traumatic" and "sobering" experience. "I'm so happy they're alive." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- news.adventist.org ANN World News Bulletin is a review of news and information issued by the Communication department from the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters and released as part of the service of Adventist News Network. It is made available primarily to religious news editors. Our news includes dispatches from the church's international offices and the world headquarters. Reproduction Requirements: Reproduction of information in this article is encouraged. When reproducing this material, in full or in part, the words "Source: Adventist News Network" must appear under the headline or immediately following the article. The words "Source: Adventist News Network" must be given equal prominence to any other source that is also acknowledged. Ground 7 News Podcast: Ground 7 News is a review of news and information issued by the Communication Department from the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters and released as part of the service of Adventist News Network. Reproduction of the ANN podcast is encouraged. When rebroadcasting this material, in full or in part, the words "Source: Adventist News Network" must be mentioned before and after the podcast. ANN Staff: Rajmund Dabrowski, director; Ansel Oliver, assistant director; Taashi Rowe, editorial coordinator; Elizabeth Lechleitner, editorial assistant. Portuguese translation by Azenilto Brito, Spanish translation by Marcos Paseggi, Italian translation by Vincenzo Annunziata and Lina Ferrara and French translations by Stephanie Elofer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.23.3/1391 - Release Date: 4/22/2008 8:15 AM
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