WORLD NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

t press time, the latest tallies show that Hurricane Charley damaged 26 Adventist churches and schools as well as other church property in Florida and Cuba.

In the Florida Conference, 14 churches, six schools, some conference-owned storage facilities, and many church members’ homes were damaged as a result of Hurricane Charley, reported conference secretary Evan Valencia. The hurricane struck Cuba and then Florida on August 12 and 13, killing at least 26 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.

Southeastern Conference secretary Hubert Morel says three churches were damaged by the hurricane in his conference, including those in Fort Myers and Port Charlotte. David Noel, pastor of the Bethanie French Church in Port Charlotte, lost his home in the storm. Also, Inter-America ADRA director Wally Amundson reported that the San Antonio, Alquizar, and Güira de Melena churches and many church members’ homes in Cuba lost their roofs due to Charley.

Several of the Adventist-owned buildings in Florida were only minimally affected; however, the churches in Punta Gorda and Arcadia as well as the school in Port Charlotte experienced moderate to extensive damage, says Valencia, but no loss of life has been reported. Adventist Community Services Disaster Response has set up distribution centers in Tampa, Punta Gorda, and Port Charlotte.

“Many members were affected and some of the older members are having a more difficult time, but most of the people seem to have come through OK,” says Valencia. “Many volunteers have come together and worked together so smoothly to meet the needs in the area.”

Forest Lake church members in suburban Orlando were among the first responders to the disaster, using their Pathfinder chuck wagon to provide hot meals and bottled water.

“The first night we served 450 people on $200 worth of food; it didn’t make sense,” says Forest Lake church member Doug Gondera, who headed the chuck wagon crew. “We just went down and started feeding people who needed to eat. We couldn’t help but think of the loaves and the fishes.”

Several Pathfinder clubs, students and staff from Forest Lake Academy, and many other church members from the Florida and Southeastern conferences have also volunteered their time and energy to assist with the crisis.

For more information go to www.floridaconference.com.        --AR

AFGHANISTAN: ADRA Office Damaged, Staff Injured in Kabul Explosion
An explosion that destroyed a building in downtown Kabul August 29 damaged the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) office in Afghanistan and injured an ADRA staff member.

"The windows and doors of two ADRA buildings have been damaged by the blast," says Peter Jaggi, country director for ADRA Afghanistan. "Debris from the car bomb is in our yard, and our office and apartment are full of glass splinters." Fortunately, only one staff member sustained minor injuries.

ADRA's recent projects in Afghanistan include water, hygiene, and basic health initiatives. The humanitarian agency also completed an education project that rehabilitated a school and provided desks, chairs, sports and playground equipment, water wells, and glass for classroom windows.

"Clean water and sanitation is a serious problem in Afghanistan," says Fabiano Franz, projects director for ADRA Afghanistan. "In urban areas, 65 percent of the population is without clean water, and 77 percent have no sanitation facilities. It's even worse in rural areas where about 81 percent of the rural population doesn't have access to safe water, and 92 percent are without access to sanitation facilities. As a result, Afghanistan is rife with cases of diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, and malaria."

Additional information about ADRA can be found at www.adra.org.
                                                              -ADRA News Release/AR.

BANGLADESH: Thousands of Flood Victims
Receive Aid From ADRA
Seasonal floods in Bangladesh, triggered by monsoon rains, have forced more than 25 million people to evacuate their homes. In response to this natural disaster, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is providing food and water to 80,000 people severely affected by the floods.

"Thousands of people in the region are without shelter, food, or potable water," says Frank Teeuwen, ADRA International bureau chief for disaster response. "Crops, livestock, and livelihoods have been lost. A disaster of this nature, in an impoverished region like this, has the potential to increase poverty and disease, and create food shortages."

The project, funded by the Swedish Mission Council through ADRA-Sweden and ADRA offices in Canada, the Netherlands, and Norway, is valued at more than $130,000.

For more information, go to www.adra.org.     --ADRA News Update/AR

IRAQ: Religious Affairs Ministry Officials
Visit Adventist Headquarters in Baghdad
Adventist Church leaders in Baghdad hosted a visit in August from Iraq's newly formed Ministry of Religious Affairs. The ten-member team discussed the future of the Adventist Church in Iraq, as well as a wide range of topics including Adventist history and beliefs. According to Basim Fargo, secretary-treasurer for the Church in Iraq, one of the visiting officials had studied at the Adventist school in Mosul in his youth.

Iraq is home to approximately 800,000 Christians, making up about 3 percent of the country's population, including more than 200 Adventists. "In the past, Christians and Muslims have lived and worked together harmoniously," says Middle East Union president Michael Porter. "Looking to the days ahead, one wonders what the future may hold."
                                                              --Middle East Union/AR

JAPAN: Adventist Wins Annual Mount Fuji Race
Thirty-two-year-old Mark Werner came in first in the annual Mount Fuji race held in Japan on July 23. He ran 13 miles, ascending more than 10,000 feet in a time of 2:45:54. Werner was presented with numerous trophies and certificates in honor of his accomplishment, including a certificate signed by Japan's prime minister Junichiro Koizumi.

"It was quite a spiritual experience," says Werner, describing the race. "[After crossing the finish line] I sank to my knees and thanked God for giving me such a good race. He had helped me all the way to the top."

This fall Werner, who was born in Africa to missionary parents and has been living in Boulder, Colorado, will begin teaching in the Mathematics department at the American University in Cairo.                     --AR

AUSTRALIA: Signs of the Times Has New Web Site
The Australia Signs of the Times, an outreach magazine produced by the Adventist Church in the South Pacific and featuring articles on topics such as healthy relationships, families, and lifestyle choices, is now available in cyberspace.

"A great feature of the Web version of the magazine is the ability to present additional or expanded material that the print version does not allow us to offer due to space limitations," says Signs editor Nathan Brown "It also gives us the opportunity to share multimedia content."

The Australia Signs of the Times began in Melbourne in 1885. The just-launched Web site is www.signsofthetimes.org.au.
                                                   --Adventist News Network/AR

BELGIUM: Church Representative
Leads Debate on Religion Laws
Jonathan Gallagher, associate director for Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the Adventist Church, expressed serious concerns about new restrictions being imposed on religious minorities in Europe during a debate he headed at an inter-parliamentary conference held in Brussels on August 6, 2004.

"Our concern is that as more nations in Europe and further east adopt religion laws that increasingly restrict the ability of religious minorities to operate, freedom of belief is being compromised and violated," says Gallagher. "Religion laws are frequently counterproductive, and may be used in some cases as a form of control and repression."

The 2004 Inter-parliamentary Conference on Human Rights and Religious Freedom included delegations from such countries as Angola, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Italy, Jordan, Korea, Morocco, Portugal, Slovakia, and Turkey.

Joseph Grieboski, president of the Institute for Religion and Public Policy and sponsor of the inter-parliamentary conference, said, "This is an opportunity for us to dialogue together and act so we can take the first steps to prevent negative laws, shift current negative laws, and promote positive laws on religious registration laws."

The Institute on Religion and Public Policy was founded as a think tank and advocacy organization to study and understand the relationship between religion, ethics, and morality and public policy, government, culture, and politics in both the international and domestic arenas.
                                      --Public Affairs and Religious Liberty/AR

Adventists Elected as Directors of WWCTU's Christian Outreach and Alcohol-Free Hospitality
Joy Butler is the new director of Christian outreach for the World Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WWCTU). Butler, the director of women's ministries for the Adventist Church in the South Pacific, accepted the position at the organization's 36th triennial convention, held recently in Auckland, New Zealand.

"Once I realized the closeness of the connection between women's ministries and the WWCTU, I just had to accept," says Butler.

That connection goes far back into Adventist history: Sarepta Henry, one of the early leaders of the WCTU (a national subset of the WWCTU in the United States), became an Adventist while a patient at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in 1896. She resigned as national evangelist for the WCTU in 1898 to implement, with the encouragement of Ellen White, a plan for what she called "woman ministry."

Margaret Martin, a member of the Adventist Church in Albany, Western Australia, was elected as the new director of alcohol-free hospitality. "We work to protect the home and the family, says Martin. "The WWCTU encourages Christians to stand up and be counted, especially on social issues."

About 150 people from 21 different countries attended the convention.
                                                      --Adventist News Network/AR

CÔTE D'IVOIRE: First International Congress Held for Adventist Women in West and Central Africa
More than 3,000 women gathered in the city of Grand Bassam in August 2004 for the first International Congress of Adventist Women in West and Central Africa.

"We are here . . . to consolidate unity, fellowship, personal and collective growth, and to acquire the appropriate tools for an effective leadership," said Ardis Stenbackken, Women's Ministries director for the Adventist World Church. "God is using millions of women from our church all over the world. Let it be the same for the women of West and Central Africa."                                             --The Congress Newsletter/AR

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