New White Estate Web site and apps

Silver Spring, Maryland, United States—For the past several years, the Ellen G. White Estate has been actively working on producing a Web site of Ellen White books in multiple languages. Currently, this free Web site, www.egwwritings.org, contains resources in the following nine languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, and Spanish. The Web site is fully searchable instantly in all the languages.

In addition to the writings of Ellen G. White, the writings of many Adventist pioneers, as well as the Bible in each language, are also included. The online books section of the site has more than 80 Ellen White audio books in various languages, in addition to free downloads of various popular e-book formats: ePub, Kindle, Mobi, and PDF (ePub books are available in all languages). With the ability to download all of Ellen G. White’s published books in e-book formats from our site, users of these devices can access the writings of Ellen White on the go like never before.

At the 2010 General Conference Session in Atlanta, the White Estate launched a new app for the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch called EGW Free, with 17 Ellen White titles. Just six months later, the Ellen G. White Estate released its much anticipated upgrade to the EGW Free iTunes app on December 20, 2010, in the iTunes app store: http:// itunes.apple.com/us/app/egw-free/ id374790551?mt=8. The latest release also has a new name: EGW Writings. The application’s name change reflects that it now contains 412 books of the complete published writings of Ellen G. White. This app is compatible with iPhone/iPod touch iOS 3.2 and above as well as with the latest iPhone iOS 4 retina display. Also, a high-definition version for the iPad is included with the app. It is still free and available in the iTunes app store right now. Developers have started working on an Android version of the app and are seeking partners to provide funding for its development costs so that it also can be made available at no cost when completed.

Users who currently have EGW Free installed will be notified of an upgrade available for version 2 of EGW Writings. More than 13,000 iTunes accounts have downloaded the EGW Free app to date.

The White Estate also has a second new app called EGW Lite, using the same interface as EGW Writings, but the content is based on the ten Connecting With Jesus (CWJ) books by Ellen G. White. This lite app was created for users with limited storage on their devices, limited bandwidth, or no option other than mobile broadband coverage.

EGW Writings allows you to create bookmarks, highlight passages, create notes, and share them via email, Facebook, or Twitter. You can manage all of these in the new study center by creating subject category folders for different studies or topics. You can also use AirPrint with supported printing devices or output your iPhone 4 or the iPad device’s screen to an external monitor or data projector. [Darryl Thompson, Ellen G. White Estate]

Faith, politics, and organ donation

London, United Kingdom— Faith and politics rarely mix well. However, on November 23, 2010, a group of members of Parliament and faith representatives sat around a parliamentary table in the House of Commons to discuss faith and cultural aspects in relation to a national campaign on organ donation.

Seventh-day Adventists were among the invited guests to the official launch of the report on work with faith communities and organ donation. Sharon Platt-McDonald, health and disability ministries director for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Great Britain, was there as a contributor to the document. She reported on work undertaken within the Seventh-day Adventist Church to raise awareness of this issue.

The Organ Donation Campaign is a joint national initiative of the Organ Donation Taskforce and the Department of Health. The faith communities and organ donation document highlights the key objectives of the national campaign and sets out recommendations to raise awareness and increase the level of organ donations, particularly among black and minority ethnic groups (BME).

This is important as people from these groups are three to four times more likely to be affected with kidney failure; while they make up 8 percent of the UK population, 25 percent of patients actively waiting for kidney transplants are from this group. Thus, it is hardly surprising that they have to wait longer for transplants— up to eight years—and are far more likely to die while waiting.

The statistics note that only 1.7 percent of donors are black, 1.6 percent Asian, and 95.6 percent white; thus, increasing donations from BME groups will make a radical difference in the treatment of diseases such as end-stage kidney, heart, and liver failure.

The work with faith groups is key in helping raise awareness among BME groups as faith and cultural beliefs and practices often impact an individual’s perception and decision to become a donor or recipient. Groups participating in the Organ Donation Campaign include Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists; representatives from these groups attended the launch event. They were able to share some of the barriers, challenges, myths, and cultural and religious perspectives that had previously discouraged individuals from becoming involved in organ donation. However, there were many encouraging reports about the increase in engagement within these communities as a result of the ongoing national campaign. For more information on the Organ Donation Campaign and/or to register to become a donor, visit www.theodc.org.uk. [Sharon Platt- McDonald/tedNEWS]


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March 2011

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