An annual initiative at the Adventist-operated University of
Eastern Africa Baraton has resulted in the baptisms of more than 1,300 young
people in a single day.
The university church has a program called “Outreach” where
students and faculty reach out to high school students up to 200 kilometers
away from the school campus every Sabbath. Once a year, those students who have
accepted Jesus are authorized by their respective high schools to come to the
university to be baptized.
More than 5,000 people streamed to the university campus to
witness 1,356 baptisms on Sabbath, May 31, said Dani Harelimana, the university’s deputy
vice chancellor for finance and an active participant in the “Outreach”
program.
“It is a very encouraging spiritual experience for those of us
who participate in one way or another,” he said by e-mail. “With little means
and few people, the Holy Spirit performs great things.”
The church’s South Ghana Conference has launched a five-year
strategy aimed to helping improving the welfare of church members and the
communities where they live through job creation and education.
Conference President Chris Annan-Nunoo, who unveiled the
plan on Sabbath, June 7, said a priority would be placed on the creation of jobs for
church members and the renovation of Adventist schools, the Ghana Web news
portal reported.
He also said skills training seminars would be offered to
local professionals and church members alike.
A group of Adventist young people created a buzz in the U.S.
state of Oklahoma by giving away free snow cones.
The members of the Enid Seventh-day Adventist Church handed
out the shaved ice dessert in a park last Sunday.
“We’re just giving them away free. God’s grace is free and
so is this,” church elder Jordan Fender told the local Enid News newspaper.
He said the initiative sought to encourage the young people
to get more involved in the church and the community.
The young people funded the event by collecting donations
during church services. They also spent 10-15 hours in preparation, including passing out 600 fliers advertising the event.
Fender said the church hoped to repeat the giveaway this summer.
A Jamaican-born Adventist woman has celebrated her 107th
birthday in a Brooklyn nursing home, surrounded by loved ones and well-wishers,
including Jamaica’s consul general to New York.
Ena Schouburgh, born on June 9, 1907, is a lifelong
vegetarian who never drank from the tap, preferring instead to sip aloe vera
water, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.
More than 90 people showed up at the CABS Nursing Home,
decorated with pink tablecloths and balloons, to celebrate her birthday Monday.
“Not many people achieve that milestone,” said Jamaica’s
consul general, Herman LaMont, according to the newspaper.“Those that do, we must pay homage, and
give thanks.”
Schouburgh, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1945 and never
married, worked as a nurse at Adelphi Hospital and volunteered at the Bethel
Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Contact Adventist
Review news editor Andrew McChesney at [email protected]. Twitter:
@ARMcChesney