WORLD NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

United States Marine Corps court-martial has sentenced a marine, who came to a belief in noncombatancy shortly after signing a two-year reenlistment, to seven months in jail, rather than separating him from the military. Observers say this is a highly unusual outcome for such a case, which is generally handled less drastically.

Marine Corporal Joel David Klimkewicz, a native of Birch Run, Michigan, is married and has a 3-year-old daughter. He will be imprisoned, suffer a reduction in rank to private, and given a Bad Conduct Discharge from the Marine Corps, according to the December 14 verdict of a trial held at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, one of the nation's largest Marine Corps bases.

"In 36 years of dealing with these cases, this is the first one I've seen go so far," said Richard O. Stenbakken, a retired U. S. Army chaplain and Seventh-day Adventist church pastor who, until recently, headed Chaplaincy Ministries for the 13.4-million member church.

Adventist Church attorney Mitchell Tyner said, "The Marine Corps, in its zeal to prevent others from avoiding combat, has totally misread this soldier, and the result is a serious miscarriage of justice. We hope the Corps will reconsider the total disproportional nature of the sentence and reduce it immediately."

Klimkewicz, who experienced a religious awakening while on a shipboard assignment in the Marines, formally joined the Adventist Church in the summer of 2003. Before his conversion, Klimkewicz, by his own admission, led a less-than-exemplary life. Afterward, his wife, Tomomi, a Japanese citizen who has a temporary residence permit and is seeking permanent resident status in the United States, as well as his coworkers and superiors in the Marines, noticed a marked change in his behavior and attitude.

Klimkewicz told Marine Corps officials that he was willing to serve, but not to carry a weapon or to take a life. The Adventist Church supports noncombatancy for its members who serve in the military, but leaves such decisions to a member's individual conscience. In such cases, a service member is often given an assignment that supports his or her views, or is given an administrative discharge from the military. Klimkewicz volunteered for two separate deployments where he would help clear land mines in Iraq, a task in which he would not have to carry a weapon, but superiors refused him. He was charged with "disobeying a lawful order" from a superior, Major Kirk Cordova, executive officer of the Second Combat Engineers Battalion of the 2nd Marine Division, to carry a weapon.

Stenbakken and attorney Tyner are asking the Marine Corps to revoke the sentence imposed on Klimkewicz, which can be done either through an appeals process or by the commanding general of the 2nd Marine Division. The two believe no useful purpose is served by jailing the corporal: "This is not a man who needs to be 'reformed,'" Stenbakken said. "He's turned his life around, and his peers say so."

Local Adventist church members in the Jacksonville, North Carolina, area have indicated they will help Klemkewicz's wife and daughter as needed through this situation. With approximately 114,000 congregations in 203 countries and areas of the world, the Adventist Church has long advocated nonviolence and peaceful solutions to conflicts. The church operates one of the largest educational networks in the world, and also emphasizes healthful living in its worldwide outreach.
                                                            --Adventist News Network

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: 7-Year-Old Boy
Abducted, Returned Safely by Police
A 7-year old boy was returned unharmed to his parents after being abducted by kidnappers in Bonao on December 7. The child was taken after one of the kidnappers forced his way into the boy’s home, located on the campus of Dominican Adventist University. Following a deadly exchange of gunfire in which two of the alleged perpetrators were killed, local police returned the child to his parents 16 hours after the abduction.

"It is a miracle that my boy is alive," says his father, Ysaias Javier Dominguez, an administrator of the university. "God is the only one who worked [out] this whole situation."

Hours after the child was taken, Javier received a call from the kidnappers, who demanded he pay a ransom of 800,000 pesos (approximately U.S.$30,000). He immediately went to the police. Javier later received a second call from one of the kidnappers, who threatened to kill his son if the ransom wasn’t paid. Javier says he recognized the voice of the caller as belonging to a night security guard who had been employed by the university two years before. He provided this tip to the police, who soon located the child in a house 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from campus. The former security guard was killed in the ensuing gunfight. He had a criminal record, according to police.

Javier says the church headquarters in Santo Domingo was notified immediately after his son went missing. As a result, news spread quickly throughout the university campus and among Adventists on the island, who prayed for the boy’s safe return. Many of the university staff members searched the surrounding community for the child and possible witnesses. The incident brought national media attention to the entire island, says Sylvestre Gonzalez, communication director for the Adventist Church in the Dominican Republic.

"Our church has never had something like this happen to one of our members, and we praise God for intervening," says Gonzalez.

"This is the first kidnapping of a minor that has happened in our city," says Javier. "It shocked our community, and I was amazed by how soon my boy was returned." He adds that police officers told him that negotiations with kidnappers usually last about three days in situations like these.

The incident prompted university leaders to implement additional security measures on campus. They have also hired a security company to work in tandem with their own security team to more effectively protect the more than 1,000 students and staff living on campus.

The boy, the oldest of three, says he is happy to be reunited with his parents and siblings. He will return to school in January.

Javier says his family is especially thankful for the efforts of the local police and the many prayers that were lifted on behalf of his son and family by the Adventist Church family throughout the island and the United States.                                —-Inter-American Division/AR

Typhoon Damages Yap School Again
For the second time this year a storm has damaged the Seventh-day Adventist school in the Yap state on the islands of Micronesia. Typhoon Nanmadal devastated the Philippines and left hundreds dead, then lost power as it touched down on Micronesia as a tropical storm Nov. 30. The storm caused only minor damages to crops, homes and buildings, and there were no fatalities, according to the Pacific Daily News.

"This typhoon was less severe than the one that devastated the island last April," said Keith Rodman, education director for the Guam Micronesia Mission of the Adventist Church. "This storm only tore off the roof of the kindergarten to third grade building," he added. "However, this is a big loss for the school which is already struggling," Rodman told ANN.

In April this year, three of the campus' seven buildings were destroyed and property damage totaled approximately U.S. $500,000 when typhoon Sudal hit, according to Rodman. Many of the island's 8,000 residents were homeless after Sudal destroyed their homes.

The Yap Adventist school began in 1987 and has 224 students. The Federated States of Micronesia, a grouping of hundreds of small islands in the Western Pacific lying just above the Equator, is home to nearly 4,000 Adventist church members.               --Adventist News Network

CALIFORNIA: Pomona Designates
Adventist Church a Historic Landmark
On November 1, 2004, the city of Pomona, California, voted to approve historic landmark status for the Pomona Adventist Church. Located in Southern California, the church is well over 100 years old, having been built in stages between 1877 and 1909.

"The structure is an integral part of the growth and development of the city's cultural history. The church grew along with the city to meet the religious needs of the Methodist and, subsequently, Seventh-day Adventist, population," the Council's Resolution stated.

The city found that the church's rare Victorian Stick architecture represents a short-lived style quickly replaced by the more popular Queen Anne Victorian style. The church's organ, which was imported from Switzerland, is the only one of its kind still in its original setting. Originally pumped by bicycle, the instrument was electrified in the early 1900s.

According to current pastor Vasco Brown, even though the city's resolution to approve the Pomona Church's application for historic landmark status was received as good news, Pomona members are continuing to focus on outreach to help meet the community's spiritual needs. Former Pomona church pastor Mike Elias initiated the designation-application process.
      --Southern California Conference communication department/AR

AU Professor's Ph.D Project
Among Time's Top Inventions
While it might never be a desirable experience, future blood tests should be a significantly less-threatening, thanks to the work of Gunnar Lovhoiden, assistant professor of engineering at Andrews University, whose Ph.D project was recently highlighted in the November 29, 2004, issue of Time magazine as one of the year's top inventions in health science.

While a doctoral student at the University of Tennessee College of Health Science Engineering in Memphis, Tennessee, Lovhoiden worked with Herbert D. Zeman, associate professor of biomedical engineering and radiology, to successfully design a device that enables medical professionals to detect usable veins in 94 percent of all difficult intravenous cases. The device, named OnTarget, beams infrared light into a patient's skin, utilizing the differing absorption properties of veins and surrounding tissue to create a real time "map" of the subdermal region. This image is then captured, processed, and projected back onto the patient's skin, showing precisely where blood vessels lie. Lovhoiden now sits as a minority shareholder on the Board of Directors for Conenhill Biomedics, a company seeking to produce commercial units of the device.

Andrews University is located in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
                                       --Andrews University media relations/AR

ADRA-Ghana Facilitates
Donation of Cardiac Equipment
A biplane angiogram machine was donated to the Cardiothoracic Centre at the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital in Ghana by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA). The first of its kind in the West Africa region, the machine is valued at $1.6 million. It allows doctors to more accurately and efficiently diagnose heart and blood disorders, and will also be used to train cardiac surgeons throughout the region.

"The Biplane Angiogram machine is the most technologically advanced cardiac machine in the region," said Samuel Asante-Mensah, country director for ADRA-Ghana.

"Such features as being able to connect to the internet for consultation with cardiac specialists in Europe or the United States make the machine even more valuable to us."

ADRA provides individual and community development and disaster relief in more than 120 countries.                                             --ADRA/AR

Canadian Union President Holds Evangelistic Meetings
Daniel Jackson, president of the Adventist Church in Canada, conducted evangelistic meetings in the metro-Toronto area in Ontario, November 5-December 1, resulting in 15 baptisms with more anticipated later. Average attendance was 200 during the week, and 400 on the weekends. The series was held at the Northview Heights Secondary School in North York.

One young woman who attended every meeting demonstrated uncommon commitment by checking herself out of the hospital where she had been admitted to attend the last meeting of the series. She has asked for further Bible studies and plans to be baptized.

Jackson was elected president of the Adventist Church in Canada in 2002. He held an evangelistic series in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 2003, and plans to hold a series of meetings every year in some Canadian location.

More than 52,000 Adventists worship in 329 churches in Canada.

Center for Women Clergy at AU
Provides Support, Mentorship
Addressing the need to provide for a growing enrollment of women in seminary classes, the Center for Women Clergy opened at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, in October. According to Patricia Mutch, vice president for academic administration, the center helps women taking seminary classes prepare for ministry through mentoring and networking.

"Obtaining professional degrees is equally important to women as it is to men, so attending seminary is a logical next step following college," says Mutch. "Many of these women are also professionals from other fields who have felt the call to ministry and changed careers to enter professional ministry." There are 95 female students in the seminary, up 20 students from two years ago.

Seminary student Dilys Brooks has been involved with the establishment of the center for three years. "We see the need to be an advocate, a listening ear," Brooks says. The center is working on providing a system where "any woman anywhere who feels a call to ministry should know there's someone she can call."

Brooks says that women come to the seminary from all over the globe, including Africa, Korea, Mexico, North America, and Europe, and range in age from early 20s to 60s.

After graduation from the seminary, Mutch explains, women become involved in a variety of ministries, including pastoring in churches, youth ministry, and chaplaincy.

Andrews University is located in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
                                                     --Adventist News Network/AR

General Conference Session Notice
Official notice is hereby given that the fifty-eighth session of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists will be held June 29 to July 9, 2005, in America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The first meeting will begin at 15:00 hours, June 29, 2005. All duly accredited delegates are urged to be present at that time. --Jan Paulsen, General Conference president; Matthew Bediako, General Conference secretary

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