February 23, 2015

Give & Take

Adventist Life

When our children were little, my husband decided to use the Thanksgiving holiday to visit his seriously ill father. My next-door neighbor and best friend, Sharon, invited the kids and me to Thanksgiving dinner. As we visited in her kitchen, she opened the oven door to check on the turkey. My 3-year-old son, Jon, looked on curiously. “What is that?” he questioned, looking up at me.

“It’s a turkey,” I replied cheerily.

“Is it dead?” he asked slowly.

“Yes, Jon, it’s dead.”

He thought for a few seconds and then asked, “Are they going to eat it?”

Sharon was not an Adventist, but she was familiar with our vegetarian diet. She took it all in stride and replied good-naturedly, “Yes, Jon, some people do eat turkey for Thanksgiving.”

—Charlotte Erickson, Battle Creek, Michigan

My Prayer for the Church

O Lord, the great and dreadful God, we have sinned and have rebelled; we have not hearkened unto Thy servants the prophets. We do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousness, but for Thy great mercies. O Lord, forgive! We long for the harvest to be gathered, and we plead for what will mature the grain, the latter rain, Your Holy Spirit in great abundance, as You have promised Your people! Revive us, unite us, and give us compassion for the millions who still do not know You!

—Danielle Seban, a local church leader who reaches out to the Waldensians in Torre Pellice, Italy [see Dan. 9]

My prayer for the church in 2015 is that she may allow the latter-rain power to possess her members for the speedy finishing of the gospel proclamation so that Jesus can return.

—Alberto Gulfan, Jr., president, Southern Asia-Pacific Division

Sound Bite

“Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. . . . Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him.”

—Ellen G. White,
Steps to Christ, p. 93

Did You Know?13 1 9 4 7

The Southern Asia Division (SUD) is comprised of four countries: Bhutan, India, the Maldives, and Nepal. There are more than 4,000 Adventist churches in a population of about 1.2 billion. The largest membership of this division resides in India. The Adventist Church in India operates six higher educational entities and 12 health institutions.

Church structure grew around clinics and hospitals founded by early missionaries. This is still the case in many areas in this division. In Nepal, Scheer Memorial Hospital is a major regional health-care institution in Banepa, just outside of Kathmandu.

Hope TV India started in 2008 in the southeastern city of Chennai. The first Adventist television channel in the country broadcasts 24/7 in Hindi, Tamil, English, Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu.

—information gathered from www.adventist.org/world-church

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