WORLD NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

ifty-five of the world's largest cities will see gospel outreach programs funded in part by three major offering collections in Adventist congregations worldwide. Donations will support "Hope for Big Cities," a worldwide urban outreach by the Adventist Church, with more than 100 new congregations planned for those cities, church leaders say.

In 1950, only 18 percent of developing countries' populations lived in cities; soon, that number will be half of those nations' populations. The "Hope for Big Cities" initiative seeks to reach these major population groups.

The first of this year's offerings will be gathered April 9 in Adventist congregations outside of North America. Churches in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda will have a collection for the project three weeks later, on April 30. On July 9, all the church's congregations-and the world business session in St. Louis, Missouri, United States-will participate in a third offering for the project. According to the General Conference Office of Mission Awareness, a number of local growth projects will be "brought to life" because of members' contributions.

Target cities will include Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with a population of more than 2 million; Mexico City, Mexico, with a population of more than 22 million; and Johannesburg, South Africa. Experts predict that by 2015 the rapidly growing areas of Johannesburg, Pretoria, and their satellite towns will become a single megalopolis, the 12th largest city in the world.

In North America, many large cities have been relatively untouched by the Adventist Church. More than 80 percent of North Americans live in metropolitan areas, but most Adventists don't. Only one in three Adventist congregations is located in big cities. Montreal, Canada, will be the North American target city.

For more information, go to www.hope4cities.org.

NEWS COMMENTARY

The Success of Failure

BY NATHAN BROWN, editor of the South Pacific edition of Signs of the Times and the South Pacific Division Record

t has been said that we learn more from our failure than our successes. And, as reported by Reuters, Seo Sang-moon may well be the best example of that in the world at the moment.

A South Korean, Mr. Seo recently passed the academic test as the first step of a driver's license examination-on his 272nd attempt. Seo will soon turn 70, and being illiterate he decided to use the oral test process to learn the road rules that he was unable to read.

During the past five years, Seo took the test as often as he was able, obviously learning a little from each heroic failure. On attempt number 272, he received the minimum score needed to pass the test.

The testing officials found themselves part of this quest. "He has been coming here for more than five years, and we regard him almost as being one of the family," said one official.

Of course, Seo is yet to actually drive a car, but not only has he learned the road rules, his succession of failure and ultimate success has taught him something more: "Driving seems a bit hard," said Seo. "But after trying 271 times to pass the oral exam, what do I have to be afraid of?"

In a success-driven society-and even sometimes within the church-we too often lose sight of the value of failure. We fete the safely successful and ignore-or even criticize-those whose creativity, innovation, and self-sacrifice are marked by risk.

The teachings of Jesus remind us that the kingdom of God measures success and failure by a different standard. The mustard seed becomes the largest of garden plants (see Matt. 13:32). Jesus said, "The last will be first, and the first will be last" (Matt. 20:16, NIV).

As Mr. Seo would testify, failure can be just another kind of achievement.

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