Charles Sandefur was inaugurated as ADRA's president on March 1, 2002. Recently he sat down to talk with Richard Sanchez about his vision for ADRA, as well as the personal motivations behind his acceptanceof the responsibility to lead the agency into the twenty-first century, into a world that has been shattered by a host of world- and life-changing events.

RS: What was your first significant experience with ADRA?
CS: In 1996 I went on a trip to South America with my predecessor, Ralph S. Watts, along with several other North American church administrators. The first country we visited was Peru, where I saw firsthand ADRA's child survival programs. My wife, Dona, and I were moved by the impact that ADRA had made on the lives of mothers and little children. That was my first visual of ADRA. We visited numerous other projects in Peru and other countries, but that's the one that left the deepest impression on me.

What were your first days on the job like as the new ADRA president?
Day one: I gave worship and articulated my vision for ADRA to our staff here at headquarters. There was also a welcome reception for Dona and me, complete with food from around the world. That expressed just how truly international and cosmopolitan ADRA is.

Day two: I left for ADRA projects in the field.

Now that I've been with ADRA for a while, I find that I have two lives. I have a life here in the office that involves both strategic planning and responding to crises that erupt worldwide. The other half of my life I'm helping to build up ADRA's ministry in different parts of world.

ADRA trips aren't easy, but they're tremendously rewarding. I come face to face with dire human need; I also see our response to that need. And it's that response that makes ADRA's ministry so viable and vibrant. That's the other half of my life. Together, they're a complete assignment.

How would you describe your role as president?
I don't see my presidency so much as a role, but more of a privilege in being able to see what God is doing through thousands of ADRA staff members in partnership with millions of people who benefit from our programs. Being part of this effective global team that keeps ADRA working, and of God's transformation of the world, really appeals to me. That gives me an incredible sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.

How do you view the purpose of ADRA as an international organization?
I have fun watching the look on people's faces when I say that ADRA is not a part of the church, ADRA is the church. We are what make the mission and the message of the Seventh-day Adventist Church whole and complete.

Our church would demonstrate a reduced gospel if part of its public witness were not ADRA's ministry. I receive many compliments from other humanitarian agency staff about how they admire and appreciate that ADRA models its work after Christian convictions and virtues.

In the international community we're well known for implementing projects at the grass-roots level. We know how to use small groups to make change happen. ADRA's slogan is "changing the world, one life at a time." We accomplish that extraordinarily well.

Comment on ADRA's stance on providing assistance "without regard to race, gender, ethnicity, or political or religious affiliation".
If we're going to preach the complete gospel, and proclaim all three messages of all three of the angels (Rev. 14:6-12), part of that message is to exhibit God's love for the world with no strings attached.

Typically we human beings want to attach strings when it comes to loving others. Clearly not every cup of water can be supersized into a baptismal tank, and not every meal will be a Communion meal. We love and respond to others because God asks us to. The people whom we work with are absolutely astonished that strangers love them for themselves. I think that is such a rich expression of the gospel commission-taking words and transforming them into deeds.

How does an organization like ADRA, with a presence in 125 countries around the world, stay organized?
We're a growing organization. Each year we touch more and more lives. There are millions of people who know about ADRA. We have a presence in 125 countries, and in some countries we have hundreds of ADRA employees engaged in scores of projects affecting hundreds of thousands of people on a weekly basis, even a daily basis. We make sure that we do our work with quality, that we do our ministry faithfully, and that we have staff that are passionate about this ministry. We put much more emphasis on training staff to do their work well than trying to stay "super-organized." Our organization grows out of this stable foundation.

What are some of the best strategies you've encountered so far?
Community development. One of our programs involves giving small loans to people so they can take the first step toward starting a small business, or to till more land, or to help get their children into school. Our food security programs are probably the highest quality food distribution programs in the world. Then there are our child survival programs, HIV/AIDS awareness, and reproductive health. I could go on and on.

What I admire most is that we don't manage programs from inside an office and then recruit other entities to go out and do the work. We go out there and do it ourselves. I was traveling in Bolivia with a physician. The landscape was dry and barren. Every so often you'd see a puff of dust on another road two or three miles away, and he would say, "Oh, that's an ADRA worker on a motorcycle, going over to another village." We saw this whole network of ADRA workers out there in the field, working directly with mothers, weighing babies.

Our best strategy is to get our fingernails dirty.

What issues and challenges facing ADRA are currently topping your list?
Perhaps more than anything else is both the church's and ADRA's response to HIV/AIDS. ADRA has been involved in various HIV/AIDS projects for several years, including prevention, treatment, care, and awareness. This disease is now pandemic, especially in Africa.

The church cannot be silent on what is probably today's most significant social, humanitarian issue. One of the advantages of being judgmental is that you don't have to be responsive to need. That's a way of screening people out. But 1 Corinthians says that church members should care for each other; ADRA cheers for that. Our specific ministry is geared more toward meeting needs in the world through the support of our members and other donors.

Another challenge we face is playing a biased role in favor of the gospel yet remaining unbiased about political issues. We are avowedly nonpolitical, yet we are Jesus' witnesses to the world. We must show that we do what we do in His name-not in the name of any ideology or political party.

Take Afghanistan, for example. We have an office in Kabul, and we have been especially working in the northern region of that country. But the more conflict-ridden the country, the more challenging ADRA's presence becomes.

For ADRA to respond to needs in the name of Jesus is not to have a prepackaged method. Jesus simply responded to each unique human need.

Let me ask what's on many minds: Where does ADRA's funding come from?
Hard work, a solid track record, good stewardship, much prayer, and faithful donors. Some people ask about government funding and whether or not accepting that in some way hampers our ministry, so I think it's important to talk about that. Yes, we get funding from foundations and governments worldwide, similar to the way the church does for its global network of hospitals, health care, and educational institutions.

We accept funding if an assessment clearly identifies need and if ADRA's capacity and infrastructure matches that need. We also work closely with government and local community leaders, because the key to a successful project is ownership, or partnership, at grass-roots level. That could be through food-for-work programs or donated land, for example. Here's where that "no strings attached" belief also comes into play. At the end of the day, when a village has clean water, a clinic has been established, a child can go to school, or a farmer can grow crops, ADRA has to be able to say that it's been true to its beliefs. If funding would in any way compromise our "Adventism," we just wouldn't accept it.

What really excites me are the millions of dollars donated each year by church members-individuals who have placed their trust in the agency to carry out His ministry. And I'd like to say thanks to them. I hope that through my letters, they get to see what we see and how their donations really do make an impact. It doesn't matter how much someone gives-whether it's $1 or $1,000Ñwe can make something happen.

Take Indonesia, for example. We're training farmers for about $5 each in a system of rice production called SRI [System for Rice Intensification] that results in up to a 50 percent increase in production without increased input costs.

So what would you say is the single major challenge facing ADRA's ministry?
The biggest challenge I see is not ADRA's challenge so much as it is the church's challenge. Members aren't always encouraged to use ADRA as an identified designated hitter for caring for the world. But we're not supposed to be a withdrawn church that fires evangelistic and caring words from some safe place. We are to live in the world and not be of it. We are to be a witness, an alternative witness, to the kingdom instead of to the societies that we live in. Having Adventists embrace that is one of our biggest challenges.

How does Seventh-day Adventism play a part in ADRA's mission?
First of all, ADRA is one of the largest church-based humanitarian aid agencies that exists. Being church-based is one of our greatest strengths. ADRA cannot be ADRA without the church, and what we do best is what Seventh-day Adventists do best, and that is to transform people's lives. In the jargon of humanitarian aid agencies, we are just great implementers.

A favorite quote of mine comes from Nikolai Berdyaev, a twentieth-century Russian philosopher. It says, "The question of bread for myself is a material question, but the question of bread for my neighbor is a spiritual question."

We realize that it's God's love and care for the world that we're trying to embody-that in the end it is Jesus who transforms the world, and that we are instruments of His grace. Jesus is the Messiah. He is God; we're not. Some of the more secular humanitarian agencies burn out because they think that they alone will save the world. ADRA doesn't save the world. God does.

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