BREAKING NEWS

Violence Scatters Ugandan Adventists

recent dramatic increase in attacks by Kony rebels in Uganda has caused about 175 Seventh-day Adventists to scatter, and their situation is currently unknown, reports Beat Odermatt, president of the church in South Sudan.

An increase in attacks on the highway between the Ugandan towns of Kampala and Arua has also resulted in the death of one church member. The Adventist, a merchant from Sudan, was killed when the bus he was traveling on came under attack.

Kony rebels have also attacked refugee camps in Acholpii and burned more than 150 grass huts, causing about 25,000 refugees to flee further south, leaving their possessions behind. The risks involved in transporting food and other necessities have caused many, including the United Nations, to suspend deliveries to towns and refugee camps. In mid-September, a United Nations driver was killed and several others seriously injured.                             -Adventist News Network

Hundreds Make Decisions to Become
Adventists in Pakistan
The difficulties and persecution faced by Christians in Pakistan has been regularly in the news over the past months. However, last month's visit by Pastor Roy Patterson, director of ASI, Sabbath school and children's ministries for the South Central Conference, has seen hundreds of Pakistanis respond to invitations to become Seventh-day Adventists.

Pastor Patterson's first speaking appointment was to conduct a Revelation Seminar for more than 150 pastors from various denominations. "Many of those who are not Seventh-day Adventists were seeking to find out more about what they learned," he reports. "There will be many who will one day soon become members of our church."

Speaking engagements included large evangelistic rallies, visits to local churches and schools, and training sessions for pastors. Pastor Patterson spent the first Sabbath of his trip at Pakistan's largest Adventist church and school complex in Faroogabad. "There were members and pastors in the area who came to hear the black American preacher," he reports. "One minister told me his people were waiting for him at their church, but he didn't mind being late--he wanted to hear the black American preacher."

In Lahore, he preached at the final meeting of the northern Pakistani conference's convention. Over the four days of the convention the crowd had grown to 3,000 and the place was packed, with soldiers all around the meeting place.

"I had rewritten the sermon on my trip to Lahore," Pastor Patterson reports. "I had to speak without using the term Sabbath and without offending people of many different denominations. God was good and the message was a success. At the end I made an appeal, and over 1,000 people came forward. However, there appeared to be many others who wanted to come forward, but were scared of possible danger. But the Lord really blessed the meetings, and there are many who will become members of God's church."

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