WORLD NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

welve months after its launch, the Adventist Church's initiative to "blanket the world with Bible studies" is yielding exciting results, but also some challenges, according to Bettina Krause, coordinator of Sow 1 Billion. The task of distributing hundreds of millions of Bible study invitations is underway, and already thousands of people have been baptized. But some of the church's 13 world divisions are struggling to cope with the demand for Bible study lessons.

The Adventist Church in every region of the world has adopted the Sow 1 Billion plan, and the many different designs and languages used in the brochures reflect the diversity of cultures in which the Adventist Church operates. Krause says recent reports offer a snapshot of how Sow 1 Billion is having an impact on the communities in which these invitations are being distributed.

In the Southern Asia-Pacific Division, Adventists have distributed 18 million of their 103 million-brochure goal, and are working to fill 388,412 requests for Bible studies.

In Korea, church members have received 40,000 requests for Bible studies after distributing 2 million of their 30 million-brochure goal.

In Kenya, 2,572 people have already been baptized because of Sow 1 Billion, and some 400,000 people have requested Bible studies.

In other countries in Eastern Africa, there is an average response rate of 20 percent, with Burundi showing a 41 percent response rate. In such areas the church has limited resources to fund enough Bible lessons for those responding; church leaders are urgently addressing ways to meet this challenge.

The Sow 1 Billion effort continues even in areas of the world where secularism and postmodernism make Bible studies less attractive to the general population, says Krause. But while the results may be lower in real terms, as a percentage of the attending audience they represent major breakthroughs for the church. In Japan, with just 15,000 church members among a national population of almost 130 million, church leaders sought to maximize the impact of Sow 1 Billion no only by distributing 5 million brochures, but also by printing a Bible study invitation in 14 national newspapers. This was the first time in Japan that a potential reading audience of 35 million had ever seen a message from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Requests for Bible studies in Japan increased 800 percent since the same time last year.

Coordinators in Norway, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania, and other European countries have also planned their Sow 1 Billion efforts with the challenges of secularism in mind. The Polish brochure, for example, features a nationally known actor and a musician--both Adventist church members--who relate in a few words how the Bible has changed their lives. Already, 2,000 people have responded to the invitation.

Adventists in North America began distributing an unprecedented 25.9 million Bible study invitations earlier this year. One Bible study ministry, Voice of Prophecy, has reported some 17,500 new requests for Bible studies so far through Sow 1 Billion. In the Canadian province of Quebec, with few Adventists and slow church growth, church members have taken up the Sow 1 Billion challenge, says Emile Maxi, personal ministries director for the region. He reports that church members have nearly 2,000 new requests for Bible studies so far. Sow 1 Billion is helping church members see that, even in difficult areas, personal outreach is possible, Maxi says.

In Mongolia, the 600 church members are working toward their goal of placing a Bible study invitation leaflet in every gur, or traditional round canvas-covered house, in the country.

Similar stories are coming in from around the world as more and more lay people catch the excitement of sharing their faith through Sow 1 Billion, says Krause.                                         --Adventist News Network

BY SANDRA BLACKMER, Adventist Review news editor

n the wake of Hurricane Ivan, Adventists continue to work with state and civic relief agencies to help hurricane victims in their own communities and in other storm-ravaged areas of the United States and the Caribbean.

Volunteers from several churches and schools in the Florida and Gulf States conferences are working with the State of Florida's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to provide disaster relief in Crestview, just east of Pensacola, one of the hardest-hit areas of the Gulf Coast. A distribution center was set up in a Crestview pavilion, and residents lined up for miles to get ice, bottled water, and food.

David Canther, Florida Conference disaster response director and senior pastor of the Mount Dora Church, also responded to an EOC request for assistance in Century, located just north of Pensacola. Power restoration in Century is not expected for several weeks. Canther and his team drove semi-trucks loaded with supplies for hurricane victims in that city, and set up a distribution center at Century's city hall.

"When we arrived, the mayor hugged me and said that her prayers that a team would come to help were answered," says Canther.

"The distribution center became a one-stop shop for everything storm victims need-tarps, ice, water, food," adds Canther. "Supplies were distributed at the rate of four semi-truck loads per day. The navy and army also assisted as the traffic moved through nonstop."

According to Canther, church members are anxious to help. "Those who are hurting the most want to help the most," says Canther. "So they are receiving their healing through volunteering, and God is really blessing."

Canther is planning to work with the Century church pastor and the mayor to hold a seminar at the city hall entitled, "Who Are Your Friends, the Adventists?"

"Almost one million tons of supplies have been distributed through our warehouse in Tampa, which has been set up since Hurricane Charley hit," says Southern Union disaster relief coordinator Larry Buckner. According to Buckner, teams of Adventist volunteers are also helping in Alabama and Mississippi, and state officials have asked him to set up a warehouse in the Florida panhandle. An exact location has not yet been determined.

"Probably 70 or 80 Adventist volunteers are working in these areas," adds Buckner, "and we've also received offers of help from conferences other than those that have been affected by the hurricanes." Becky Grice, communication representative for the Gulf States Conference, reports that the steeple of the University Parkway Adventist Church in Pensacola, Florida, was blown down, leaving a hole in the church roof.

Several Adventist churches in southern Louisiana served as shelters during the storm. The West Bank United Adventist Church community services center in New Orleans in the Southwest Region Conference opened its doors to assist hurricane victims with food, water, and other necessities. According to Lavida Whitson, director of Community Services and coordinator for Disaster Response for the Arkansas-Lousiana Conference, the worst damage from the storm was in Plaquemines Parish (county), where five residents' homes were totally destroyed and many others damaged. Whitson and her team are working together with other Louisiana volunteer organizations and civic groups such as the Red Cross, Goodwill, United Way, and Amish and Methodist church groups.

"We plan to set up disaster response classes to help train members in our local churches how to help injured people and ways to respond to several different types of disasters," says Whitson. Clarence Hodges, public relations director at Oakwood College, says that because of high winds and heavy rains, the college was closed for two days. He adds, however, that there was no structural damage to the school and no problems with flooding.

ADRA is distributing more than 22,000 pounds of medicines and medical supplies to facilities in Jamaica that are assisting those injured by Hurricane Ivan. The supplies, provided by AmeriCares, are valued at more than U.S.$183,000. They are being distributed to Andrews Memorial Hospital in Kingston and shared with other facilities, including 10 clinics serving more than one million persons in the eastern region and clinics in Spanish Town and Kingston.

These medical supplies are in addition to the nearly 150,000 pounds of food boxes, hygiene kits, and other relief supplies airlifted to Kingston by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which are also being distributed by ADRA.

"We appreciate the outpouring of support ADRA is receiving from those wishing to help people affected by the recent hurricanes," says Frank Teeuwen, bureau chief for Disaster Preparedness and Response for ADRA International. "The best way for individuals to help ADRA . . . is to make a monetary donation to help ADRA deliver the specifically requested items." ADRA/UK has also appealed to church members in the United Kingdom for support and has sent supplies to both Jamaica and Grenada.                                                                                          --AR

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