any Adventist members were left homeless on April 14 when a sudden tornado touched down in the Garzivita and Ntetrokona districts of Northern Bangladesh. The storm left 51 people dead and 1,200 injured. Even though the three area Adventist chapels were all spared, the tornado destroyed the homes of hundreds of people. There was no loss of life among church members.

Dwight Taylor, acting director for Adventist Development and Relief Agency/Bangladesh (ADRA), along with other employees, went the next day to visit those areas to assess the needs for relief to the community and to church members. The government Minister of Health and Prime Minister flew by helicopter to assess the damages. The police established their operational center in the campus of our church/school in Gazirvita in order to control the looting that was already going on in the affected/surrounding areas.

Several officials from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Bangladesh visited to the affected areas and the Mymensingh General Hospital, where 600 people received medical care. Normal life came to a standstill because the effect of such a tornado was massive, and the calamity is unprecedented. More than 500 houses are totally destroyed, thousand of trees were broken or uprooted, and crops were badly damaged. Many households lost their crockery, bedding, and clothing.

ADRA and the World Food Program gave relief assistance to nearly 7,000 persons, providing 300 boxes (2.25 metric tons) containing vitamin and mineral-enriched biscuits. Each person received 75 grams daily during four days.

There are nearly 20,000 Adventists in this country bordered by India and Myanmar (formerly Burma) with a population of 133 million people. The Adventist Church has been present since 1906. The majority of the population are Muslims (88 percent) followed by Hindus (11 percent) and Buddhists.

Please keep Bangladesh, a country located in the heart of the 10/40 Window, in your prayers.

Typhoon Damages Yap Adventist School, Church
Three of the seven buildings on the campus of the Seventh-day Adventist School on the island of Yap were completely destroyed by Typhoon Sudal on April 9. The other buildings, including the church, suffered damage from high winds of up to 125 miles per hour.

Pastor Eliki Kenivale Ravia said all church members were safe, although many have severely damaged homes. According to the Pacific Daily News, much of the island's reef was smashed in the storm, and nearly half the island's structures were destroyed.

Keith Rodman, education director of the Guam-Micronesia Mission (GMM), declared the school year over and released the 15 volunteer teachers from the United States, Mexico, and the Philippines. Rodman says property loss could be more than $500,000.

About half of the roof was torn off the school's apartment building, which housed the principal and volunteer teachers, and its contents were completely soaked. The GMM Adventist Development and Relief Agency assisted with repairs. The Adventist Wellness Center, operated by Mrs. Ravia, also lost its roof but continued to serve the community.

Adventist Surgeon Reattaches Hand
An Adventist plastic surgeon practicing in Honduras recently reattached the hand of a man who had been assaulted in a robbery attempt.

The patient, an employee of the finance ministry of the government of Honduras, had his left hand severed by a machete. His wife picked up the hand and rushed it and her husband to the local hospital, where an orthopedic doctor iced the hand and arranged immediate transportation to a hospital in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Dr. Emec Cherefant, the plastic surgeon, needed a special surgical microscope to perform the delicate procedure. Donated by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency in Honduras, it had arrived just three days before. But it was not yet unpacked and had been locked in the hospital's maintenance department. Because the accident happened on a Saturday when the hospital engineer was not available, the hospital director approved breaking down the storage door to reach it.

"I was familiar with the model, so we put it together," Cherefant said, "and began the surgery at 10:00 p.m. and were finished at 8:00 a.m. the next day." The patient could flex his fingers and "will be able to use his hand after months of therapy," the doctor said. He describes working in plastic surgery as the "most splendid expression of the power of God." This was his third hand reattachment in 10 years.

A fourth-generation Adventist, Haitian-born Cherefant attends the Tegucigalpa Central Church and is a member of Adventist-Laypersons' Services and Industries (ASI).

Adventist GI Dies in Iraq
The Adventist Review has learned that Army Spec. Frank K. Rivers, Jr., of Newark, New Jersey, is the first reported Seventh-day Adventist to die in military service in Iraq.

Rivers, 23, enlisted following graduation from high school in 1999. He died April 14 after collapsing during physical training exercises in Iraq, according to a report in the Washington Post on April 17. Army officials said the cause of his death is being investigated.

Active in the Trinity Temple Adventist Church in New Jersey, Rivers spent "every Saturday there when he was home," the Post article said. His grandmother, Betty Rivers of Newark, described him as "a church boy," always available to help his friends. He was sent to Iraq in November.

Funeral services were held at the church on Friday April 23. During the services Rivers was posthumously awarded a Bronze Start. "Specialist Frank Rivers Jr. is an American hero," said Major General William H. Russ as reported in Newsday. "Today, we will present this star to the hero’s hero. You all recognize that Frank Jr.'s hero is Frank Sr."

Rivers joined the army to follow in his father’s footsteps, according to Newsday. He was based at Fort Lewis, Washington, and had spent several years on the West Coast since enlisting.

Frank’s brother Lamar is currently serving in the U.S. military in Germany.

LLU Medical Staff on Animal Planet Channel
One of the lesser-known life-saving procedures of Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) is being featured on Animal Planet's "Venom ER" series through June 1.

Dr. Sean Bush is assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at LLUMC and is one of the world's foremost authorities on treating venomous snake bites and scorpion stings. He and other LLUMC staff are shown treating bites that took place during the summer of 2003.

Bush says venom is being researched and used for medical treatment of strokes, heart attacks, cancer, hypertension, and pain, among other things. "God created the snake-He must have had a reason for doing so," he says.

The series was filmed at LLUMC by the BBC's WildVision department over a span of five months.                            --Adventist News Network

Cuba Requests Information for Centennial
The Adventist Church in Cuba will be celebrating its one hundredth anniversary in June 2004.

One of its challenges is to compile historical facts about the Colegio or Seminario de las Antillas (Antillian College/Seminary), which functioned until 1967 in Santa Clara.

The Santa Clara Adventist Church's communication department urges former students or teachers to send old photos, writings, and information to: iasdsantaclara@yahoo.es

ADRA Celebrates 20 Years
The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) celebrated in April its twentieth anniversary of providing development and relief assistance worldwide.

In 1984 the organization had fewer than 600 staff worldwide, with operations in 75 countries, providing total aid of $24.7 million. ADRA's current staff numbers more than 4,000 worldwide in 120 countries. Last year ADRA provided development and relief assistance valued at more than $120 million, benefiting more than 22 million persons.

"While we celebrate the achievements of ADRA these past 20 years, we also remain focused and passionate about the task ahead to improve the lives of those in distress and poverty around the globe," said Charles Sandefur, president of ADRA International.

Formerly known as Seventh-day Adventist Welfare Service (SAWS), the organization's name was changed in 1984 to reflect a broader emphasis of community development and disaster relief without regard to political or religious association, age, or ethnicity.     --Adventist News Network

News Notes

Dr. J. Wayne McFarland, 90, long-time member of the General Conference Department of Health Ministries, was recently awarded the 2003 Health Ministry Medal of Distinction, highest honor given by the church's international headquarters. McFarland, of Loma Linda, California, co-founded the "Five-Day Plan to Stop Smoking" and has helped people quit smoking for the past 50 years. Since retirement McFarland and another physican, Dr. Harvey Gimbel, have been consultants on health education for the People's Republic of China.

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