WORLD NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

wo days of rioting in the streets surrounding Karachi Adventist Hospital (KAH) in this Pakistani seaport city did not touch the campus of the facility, according to administrators.

The riots first broke out on May 30 after an Islamic religious scholar, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, was shot dead while his son, nephew, and the driver were injured in an ambush near the Jamia Islamia Binoria in the city's New Town area.

Shamzai's supporters allegedly killed 15 people, injured a dozen, including eight policemen, and damaged property. According to Donald Jacob, Karachi Adventist Hospital administrator, tires were burned in the street in front of the hospital, and debris was hurled across the street at a nearby cinema.

"All I could think to do was pray," says Jacob, "so I went to my office and asked our Lord to help in this time of trouble. God's angels were protecting KAH because it was not damaged."

On Tuesday, June 1, funerals were held for the 15 people killed. The road in front of the hospital was closed and, by 2 p.m. the mayhem started again in the street, Jacob reports. Part of the neighboring Hamdarad University Hospital was set on fire, while shops and buses sustained gunfire damage.

"The administrative committee which was due to take place that day at KAH was cancelled, and instead they spent some time in prayer. Then the committee members took precautionary action, moving patients away from the front of the hospital and making sure employees and patients were safe," Jacob adds.

Karachi Adventist Hospital was established in 1950. There are more than 8,000 Seventh-day Adventist believers in Pakistan.
                                                              --Adventist News Network

GC Hosts Centennial Birthday Celebration
for Former Church Leader and Missionary
Family and friends celebrated former church leader Emanuel Warthou Pedersen's 100th birthday at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The banquet, held June 1, was hosted by General Conference president Jan Paulsen.

Pedersen was born on May 28, 1904, in Odense, Denmark, and has worked for the church for more than 50 years. He served in Denmark (1925-37), Uganda (1937-1943), Kenya (1943-53), Great Britain (1953-58 and 1962-66), the United States (1958-62 and 1966-1971), and Lebanon (1974). Having graduated from the Theological Seminary at Potomac University, his broad spectrum of work includes Bible instructor; teacher; pastor; evangelist; departmental director; field, union, and division president; and general field secretary. He has served on all levels of administration, ranging from the local church to the General Conference. He considers his greatest achievements to be laying the foundation in Uganda for what is today Bugema University and gaining permission to establish the Cuba Adventist Seminary in 1967-68.

The year he was born, the church had a membership of fewer than 100,000 in 2,000 churches, was served by about 600 ordained ministers, and had an annual tithe income of approximately $600,000. Throughout his lifetime he has seen the church grow to more than 13 million members in 50,000 churches and served by 15,000 ordained ministers. The annual tithe income is now 1.2 billion dollars. Despite his age, Pedersen still possesses a remarkable memory. He describes names, places, and events that happened in Uganda in 1940 with accurate detail. According to friends and coworkers, his sensitive insight into human nature, paired with his well-developed sense of humor, was always a good weapon in dealing with controversial issues.

Pedersen was married to his late wife, Esther, for 70 years. They had two children, Kirsten and Glenn.             --Borge Schantz, Denmark

IAD Publishing Association Elects New President
The Inter-American Division Publishing Association (IADPA) Board has elected Pablo Perla as the new president of the publishing house.

Perla is currently ministerial secretary for Central America's three union fields. He has also pastored churches in North America and filled positions such as president of missions in Costa Rica and Honduras, university president in Costa Rica, and union president in the Dominican Republic and Central America.

IADPA, one of two publishing houses in Inter-America, was established in 1984 and is based in Miami. It provides materials in Spanish, English, and French. The second publishing house is located in Mexico. Perla will relocate to Miami with his wife, Marta, and will take up his new responsibilities on July 28.                        --Inter-American Division

GC Leaders Hold Northern Ireland Campaign
"My grandfather sailed from this river, the Foyle, to the United States at the time of the potato famine," said retired General Conference president Neal Wilson during an evangelistic campaign he and son, Ted Wilson, a vice president of the General Conference, held in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. "We have returned to our roots to tell again the wondrous love of our Lord Jesus Christ."

The three week series entitled "The Revelation of Hope" began on Sunday, May 16, at two locations in Londonderry: the YMCA, Drumahoe, and the City Hotel, Waterside. Assisting the father-and-son team were Dr. Peter Landless, associate director of health ministries for the world church, who presented a nightly series of health lectures, and youth volunteers from Australia, Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland.

Attendance at the series was consistent, but it "was measured not by hundreds, but in tens" of people. According to Ted Wilson, years of religious factionalism have engendered some resistance on the part of the general public. Only one person was baptized at the end of the series; another professed a desire for baptism and several others may be baptized in the near future.

Ted Wilson says several of the people who attended the meetings are being led back to the Bible by the Holy Spirit and are no longer letting tradition dictate their beliefs. He described one attendee, Margaret, as an example: "Margaret hardly missed a night. She was drinking it in and always taking notes." But he added that even though she was obviously affected by the truth, he knew it would take time for her to "work it out within her own personal circumstances."

The Wilsons were each given civic plaques by Mayor Shaun Gallagher, an event featured in the local newspaper.

"There is a much greater visibility for the Adventist Church [in Northern Ireland] because of this lecture series," Ted Wilson said.

Adventist Volunteers Aid West Virginia Flood Victims
Mountain View Conference disaster relief coordinator John Ridpath responded quickly when torrential rains in late May and early June caused massive destruction in the southern part of West Virginia. The catastrophic damage to bridges, roads, public buildings, and homes resulted in power outages and water pollution. It also made it impossible for emergency medial teams to reach many homes in response to medical emergencies.

Ridpath arrived within 24 hours of the floods with a truckload of blankets, comfort kits, and cleaning supplies that he and other volunteer workers had gathered and loaded on the truck. "I really appreciate the timely and practical aid that Adventists bring in times of disaster," said West Virginia Governor Bob Wise.

No reports of Adventists suffering damage from the disaster have been received.                                                   --Visitor News Bulletin

News Note

The Cornerstone Church of Wichita, Kansas, received the June 2004 eChurch Award for Outstanding Web Site of the Month among Seventh-day Adventist churches in North America (www.cornerstone-sda.org). The North American Division Office of Communication, PlusLine, and TAGnet recognize outstanding Adventist church Web sites each month. Winners are posted on www.plusline.org/article.php?id=4695.

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