Kenyan Government Granted Broadcast Licences To Adventist Church Nairobi/Kenya | 30.11.2005 | Media The Kenyan government has granted a broadcasting licence to the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) to operate 10 Television and four Radio stations. The stations will be operated in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Kitui, Nyeri, Kakamega, Bungoma, Homa Bay, and Kisii towns. Also granted were licenses for TV station channel 21 and 105.4 FM for Kitui town and its environs. Speaking to pastors during the quinquennial session for SDA church leaders at Kamagambo Adventist College in Mig
Romanian Adventists: From a Bucharest Small Studio to a National Media Centre Bucharest/Romania | 30.11.2005 | Media A small studio in Bucharest was once the scene for the Seventh-day Adventist Church's television production in Romania. Today, a national media centre stands in this capital city with the task of producing radio and television programs for the nation. On November 24, the media centre officially joined six other major church-owned media centres around the world. "I come with joy to this place, and this centre is a way of bringing light to the hearts of many people," Romanian Senator Virginia
World Summit of the Information Society: A 100 dollar PC for Third-World children Tunis/Tunisia | 18.11.2005 | Media The prototype of a wind-up laptop which costs at most US$100 has been unveiled; it is geared for the education of children in developing countries. The prototypes were presented to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the World Summit of the Information Society, under way in Tunis. The highest-ranking expert of the Institute of Technology, Nicholas Negroponte, showed the low-cost, colourful laptops for the first time. Their scope is to facilitate the education of millions of ch
Kashmir Earthquake Survivors Receive Continued Aid from ADRA Silver Spring, Maryland/USA | 17.11.2005 | ADRA The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) continues its efforts to provide aid for the survivors of the South Asian earthquake, providing medicine, blankets, tents, and hygiene kits for survivors in the District of Bagh, a town that was badly damaged by the earthquake near Muzzafarabad, Pakistan. ADRA has completed the first phase of relief operations, delivering tents and food kits to 300 families in Bagh District, as well as providing medical screening for survivors. ADRA has a
Oman: Muscat Adventist Church Celebrates Fifteenth Anniversary Muscat/Oman | 16.11.2005 | International Located at the Eastern horn of the Arabian Peninsula, the Sultanate of Oman has a relatively small population -- around 3 million people -- of which about 550,000 are workers from other lands. Overwhelmingly Muslim, the presence of Christianity, though permitted, is tiny, to say the least. Yet, last week, about 130 people attended the local Adventist Church of Muscat, Oman's largest city, to celebrate the 15th anniversary with a special commemorative service. Addressing the church in the
Adventists Should Embrace Environmental Concern, Church Experts Say Silver Spring, Maryland/USA | 16.11.2005 | International Even though the Bible promises a "new heaven and a new Earth" at the conclusion of the book of Revelation, that's not a reason for Seventh-day Adventist Christians to ignore pressing environmental concerns, said experts who spoke with Adventist News Network (ANN). "I believe deeply that as stewards of God's creation we've been entrusted with responsibilities that we sometimes neglect out of ignorance," said Dr. Zdravko (Zack) Plantak, chairman of the Department of Religion at Columbia Union
Growing Need of Talking Bibles for Illiterate Population in India Escondido, California/USA | 16.11.2005 | Bible Talking Bibles International, a non-denominational mission-support organization, has distributed in India more than 3,000 boxes of The Talking Bible® in 18 different languages in the last 2 1/2 years. According to Baskara Chandran, Talking Bible's India Country Director, that number will grow exponentially, up to 100,000 boxes, in the next five years. The Talking Bibles are machines with God's word recorded on them for those who can't read. "Sixty percent of the population in India are illit
Saudi jailed to 40 month in prison for discussing the Bible Riyadh/Saudi Arabia | 16.11.2005 | Religious Liberty A court sentenced a teacher to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes for "mocking religion" after he discussed the Bible and praised Jews, the Saudi newspaper Al Madina reported November 13. The newspaper said secondary-school teacher Mohammad al-Harbi, who will be flogged in public, was taken to court by his colleagues and students. He was charged with promoting a "dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the Gospel and preventing students from leaving cl
ADRA partners with PSI to Assist Genocide Survivors in Rwanda Silver Spring, Maryland/USA | 14.11.2005 | ADRA In honour of the North American " National Philanthropy Day®" on November 15, the Philanthropic Services for Institutions (PSI) has chosen to feature and raise funds for the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International’s food security matching grant programs. Featuring its food security programs worldwide, and with a special emphasis on its work in Rwanda, which includes many survivors of the 1994 genocide, ADRA has launched a campaign for matching grant funds. By leveraging i
U.S. Religious Freedom Bill Gets Hearing Washington D.C./USA | 12.11.2005 | Religious Liberty The fight to protect the faith of America's workers on the job advanced slightly in the United States House of Representatives Nov. 10, when the Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations held what is believed to be the first hearing on the "Workplace Religious Freedom Act," or WRFA. Attorney James Standish, congressional liaison of the Seventh-day Adventist world church to the Congress, said the hearing was a milestone. A similar hearing in the United States Senate is expected sometime in
United States Releases 2005 International Religious Freedom Report Washington D.C./USA, | 09.11.2005 | Religious Liberty The U.S. Department of State released the seventh Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, which examines the status of religious freedom around the world. The annual report to Congress is mandated by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and seeks to examine barriers to religious freedom in 197 countries and territories. The report also notes countries in which conditions have improved and outlines U.S. actions to promote international religious freedom. The 2005 report
ADRA Commemorates World AIDS Day 2005 Around the World Silver Spring, Maryland/USA | 09.11.2005 | ADRA On December 1, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) will join the world in celebrating World AIDS Day, a day aimed to increase awareness about the scourge of HIV and AIDS. ADRA has also released an awareness kit addressing the tragedies caused by the HIV and AIDS epidemic, both in the U.S. and around the globe. The theme for this year’s kit is “Learn. Care. Act!” The kit includes a World AIDS Day poster, sermon/presentation outline, activity ideas, facts, stories, and a discuss
Cameroon: New Radio Studio to Reach Africa's Fulani People in Their Language Maroua/Cameroon | 06.11.2005 | Media The Biblical message of hope and salvation will reach even more people in West and Central Africa with the opening of a new Seventh-day Adventist radio studio that will produce programming in the Fulfulde language spoken by the Fulani people who live in the Sahel region there. The Fulani are reported to be the largest nomadic group of people in the world. Construction of the new radio studio has just been completed. It is located at the North Cameroon church office in Maroua, Cameroon, Afric
Former U.S. State Department Official Claims Religion Washington D.C./USA | 06.11.2005 | Religious Liberty The major problem with the foreign policy of the United States of America, said Dr. Tom Farr, former director of the Office of International Religious Freedom in the U.S. Department of State, is that "we're not taking religion as seriously as we should." Farr, the featured speaker at the Washington Coalition for International Religious Freedom's October 27 meeting, spoke on the subject, "Still Missing: Religion and American Foreign Policy" to the 40 representatives that make up the group.
Rosa Parks, Civil Rights Pioneer, Touched Adventist Lives in Her City Washington, D.C./USA | 03.11.2005 | International Sometimes it is the end of a journey that lets you see where you've been. The recent passing of Rosa Parks has had that effect on many in the United States of America and around the world. Among those who reminisced about the historic action of this humble woman and its far-reaching consequences were three who were there in 1955. Or at least they were close by. Laura Smith and Dorothy Webb had known each other only about one year in 1955. They were both baptized as new members of the Seventh
Switzerland: Leaders of Christian World Communions Meet, HIV/AIDS a Major Focus Geneva/Switzerland | 02.11.2005 | International Leaders of a wide range of Christian churches met in Geneva, Switzerland, for a series of consultations October 16 to 22. The Conference of Secretaries of the Christian World Communions (CS/CWC), a loosely structured group, has met annually since 1957, providing a venue for frank and open dialogue in an informal setting, according to conference secretary Dr. John Graz, who is also the director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church. "This confe
