cripture is filled with examples of God's people being commissioned to a helping ministry. Deep concern for the poor, despised, and deprived is required, with condemnation falling on those who turn their backs to the plight of the needy. Based on this biblical support and the example of Christ's life, the Seventh-day Adventist Church responds both corporately and individually to the less fortunate around the globe.

Following World War II, the Seventh-day Adventist Welfare Service (SAWS) was established (renamed Seventh-day Adventist World Service in 1973). In 1983, to more clearly define its growing emphasis on community development, the church's corporate humanitarian effort was renamed the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA). This year ADRA celebrates 20 years of service--20 years of representing the hands and heart of Christ and the hands and hearts of the now more than 13 million Adventists whom it represents.

Every initiative of the church reveals the love of God in its specific way. ADRA is the "Gospel in Work Boots."

The General Conference Working Policy commissions ADRA to express the church's concern for the less fortunate and to awaken concern for the poor and victims of disasters, and also to meet emergency needs and provide long-term solutions by partnering with those in need to find culturally appropriate solutions, and to communicate the values that the church holds without using those values as a criterion for giving aid. ADRA's programs are to enhance the quality of life and well-being of communities in developing countries, especially the extremely deprived ones.

ADRA has boldly and courageously accepted God's commission. The opening sentence of its mission statement declares that it will "reflect the character of God through humanitarian and developmental activities." In its Belief Statement, the agency confirms, "Through humanitarian acts we make known the just, merciful, and loving character of God." "To work with those in need is an expression of our love for God." "The compassionate ministry of Jesus is its own abundant motive and reward." "It is an agency of change, and an instrument of grace and providence."

ADRA believes all resources, opportunities, and advantages are gifts that must be responsibly managed and shared. As such, it sees itself as a medium for those of us who are blessed with the resources and advantages of freedom, health, education, ample food, a home, and income that God's people are required to share with a world that struggles to survive without these blessings with which we find ourselves enriched.

These beliefs are the truths ADRA holds. They are the truths that have guided it through 20 years of service. They are the truths that confirm that the church's mission would be incomplete without ADRA's ministry. They are the truths that set its course, guiding ADRA in its Christ-commissioned ministry to "change the world, one life at a time."