Health and lifestyle conference
Geneva, Switzerland—The University of Geneva will be the venue for a gathering of people interested in global health issues and individual lifestyle, July 6–11, 2009. For the first time, the World Health Organization is partnering with the Seventh-day Adventist Health Ministries department in working on a program that will present global priorities and lifestyle determinants of health and disease in an attempt to align objectives for faith-based health delivery services. The conference also seeks to function as a cross-fertilizing forum where ideas, collaboration, and cooperative action can be fostered.
The conference will feature speakers from several disciplines in health delivery, including for the purpose of strategic planning, administrative leadership. This leadership track will emphasize the need for visioning at the institutional board level to address not only the day-to-day operation but the future response to the issues of health in the respective locations of the institutions.
At a primary care level, the conference will offer seminars that cover many global issues ranging from mental health to nutrition and lifestyle. For specific groups of health professionals, there will be individualized tracks so that nurses, dentists, physicians, and public health and allied health professionals will have their own forum. The National Council of Churches in the United States recently found more than 75 percent of congregations offer some form of health ministry outreach to their community, and there is a need for laity interested in health ministry to become informed of the wider opportunities available to them as health care advocates. For more information, go to www.healthlifestyleconf.com. [Allan Handysides]
Seminars give birth to new initiatives
Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania— Training seminars organized by the Trans-European Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (TED) were held in the cities of Tartu, Estonia, Riga, Latvia, and Kaunas, Lithuania, February 16–26, 2009. More than 120 pastors, Bible workers, and lay members from Adventist churches in the Baltic Union Conference (BAUC) renewed their commitment to evangelism and explored new ways to evangelize to unchurched people in their territory.
During the seminars, participants came up with interesting, new ideas for evangelism. In Estonia, social networking ideas received the most support. The idea of inflatable and portable churches won the most support in Latvia, while the participants from Lithuania forwarded the idea of contacting local bakeries for advertising the Adventist Church on their bread labels. The next step is for church members to refine these ideas and turn them into projects.
Bertold Hibner, president of the Adventist Church in Lithuania, said, “This was a well-timed seminar. I believe that this training seminar has helped people to crystallize what they have been thinking and praying about. I feel that people are very encouraged to become actively involved in evangelism by receiving practical training and being genuinely supported by the church leadership. I expect that church members will boldly take on their responsibility and share their faith with their friends.”
“As I cherish close personal relationships with my friends, I was happy to hear that seventy-six percent of people who are coming to church are doing that thanks to the close friendly relationships,” said Pastor Toivo Kaasik, who pastors two small churches in the center of Estonia. “A friend, relative, or a neighbor who doesn’t believe in God [is] the first one whom we should invite to study the Bible with us, [and] with whom we should talk and lead on the path to Christ.”
“This seminar was very productive. It was a great opportunity to refresh our commitment to evangelism and think about new strategies,” said Viesturs Rekis, president of the Adventist Church in Latvia. [G.Bukalders & L. Beekmann/TED News Staff/TED News]
Ministry editors teach classes
As a part of their responsibilities with the General Conference Ministerial Association, the editors of Ministry, Nikolaus Satelmajer and Willie E. Hucks II, engage in pastoral training from time to time. Satelmajer taught an ethics class at Zaoksky Adventist University in the Russian Federation, February 12–16, 2009, and Hucks taught a course in homiletics for the extension school of Middle East University in Arua, Uganda, March 8–15, 2009.
