Adventist Health System, a nonprofit health-care
organization operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, is raising $190
million for new projects, the Orlando Business Journal reported this week.
The organization intends to raise the money through new bond
debt sold exclusively to TD Bank, the newspaper said, citing C. Robert Foltz,
associate chief legal officer for Adventist Health System’s treasury department,
at a June 10 meeting.
Foltz said the organization has not yet decided which
projects will be financed with the bonds.
But Adventist Health System has invested considerable
funding into new projects already this year, spending $166.5 million in the first
quarter on capital improvements, which can include new facilities and new
technology, the Orlando Business Journal reported earlier.
Altamonte Springs, Florida-based Adventist Health System
employs 79,000 people at 45 hospital campuses and has nearly 8,300 patient beds
in 10 states.
Seventh-day Adventist and government leaders have met at
Pacific Adventist University in Papua New Guinea to discuss the expansion of
Adventist-run Hope Channel television and radio on the eastern half of the Pacific island.
Papua New Guinea’s communication minister, Jimmy Miringtoro,
and representatives of the NICTA telecommunications licensing authority
tentatively approved a nationwide rollout of the university’s popular gospel
radio station 2G 97FM, rebranded as Hope Channel Radio.
“A license is in place; equipment is being purchased,” said
Leigh Rice, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Papua New Guinea.
Miringtoro also assured church leaders that a Hope Channel
television license would be issued after Papua New Guinea switches to digital
broadcasting in 2017. He recommended that the church start the process of
negotiating a broadcasting agreement with service providers.
A Bulgarian Seventh-day Adventist church that offers poetry
readings and organizes events with Bulgarian diplomats has officially opened in
London.
"We are excited to officially open the Bulgarian church
today," said Terry Messenger, executive secretary of the South England
Conference, said at the May 24 event, according to adventist.org.uk. "The
church membership has grown since being planted two decades ago, and is
flourishing."
The church's origins hark back to Adventist-run Newbold College
in the 1990s, where a few people met. Ten years ago, the group evolved into a
church plant with 20 members. Today, the church has 130 people who regularly
attend worship services, and many invite friends and families to various weekday
programs.
The church regularly organizes English-language courses,
children's events like “Messy Church,” health expos, Bible seminars,
excursions, and “fun evenings,” some of which are co-organized with the
Bulgarian Embassy.
"Sometimes we hold Bulgarian song and poetry
evenings," the church’s pastor, Eduard Keshishyan, told adventist.org.uk. “We've
found many people from the community come and enjoy these.”
After a decade in planning, Lincoln, Nebraska-based Union
College has opened a $15 million state-of-the-art facility for science and
mathematics, the magazine for the Mid-America Union Conference reported.
The 57,000-square-foot facility, called the Krueger Center
for Science and Mathematics, started hosting classes in March but the grand
opening ceremony only took place in May, the magazine, Outlook, said.
Nearly 2,600 donors contributed the $15 million needed to
complete the building, which includes a 126-seat amphitheater, five biology
teaching and five chemistry teaching laboratories, and 14 faculty offices.
“We now have a dedicated physics lab
and an engineering lab, which is great," Keith Wade, a junior physics major, said in an article on the college's website. "The building has the potential
to greatly expand the physics department.”
More than 700 children and adults have gathered for a long
weekend Adventurer Camporee in Britain that focused on “the smallest creatures
in God's wonderful creation,” said Kevin Johns, Pathfinder director of the
South England Conference.
Among the creatures discussed was the clown fish, which
guest speaker Clive Palmer, from the North England Conference, challenged the
children to identify a clown fish in exchange for a prize during a packed evening
presentation.
Little did he know that most of the children had seen the
Disney animated film “Finding Nemo” and knew exactly which fish it was, Johns
told adventist.org.uk. He was overwhelmed by the flood of children who dashed
to the front to answer his question.
Campers had the opportunity to earn a new Ant honor and to
construct an insect zoo from the insects found in Stanborough Park during the
late May event.
Contact Adventist
Review news editor Andrew McChesney at [email protected]. Twitter:
@ARMcChesney
