http://www.wtlgradio.org/latest-news.html Keeping you update on what's happening around the world today 60 © 2007 WTLG RADIO ® All rights reserved iWeb 1.1.2 http://news.wtlgradio.org/wtlg_radio.jpg http://www.wtlgradio.org http://news.adventist.org/2011/01/european-financial-w.html http://news.adventist.org/2011/01/european-financial-w.html Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:00:00 -0400 With unemployed members and decreased tithes, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Europe has been struggling to contend with the global financial crisis. Particularly in Greece, Spain and Portugal -- countries whose unemployment rates are among Europe's highest and where the financial crisis has been particularly dire -- the global Protestant denomination has been forced to make adjustments, striving to do the same work with less. "With faith in our Lord Jesus Christ we are doing the best we can," said Apostolos Maglis, president of the Adventist Church in Greece, which has already seen the adverse effects of the country's debt crisis on the church body. He anticipates these will spill over into 2011. Since receiving a bailout last year from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, Greece has introduced a number of austerity measures to significantly reduce its public deficit, spurring several protests and strikes from unions. The Adventist Church's Greek Mission, which consists of 10 churches, has seen the turmoil impact the church in various ways. These include a decrease in tithes -- down 20 percent at the end of 2010 relative to the previous year, for the first time in a decade, Maglis said in an e-mail. The mission expects that number to further drop to 35 percent lower in 2011, he added. The economic challenges represent yet another hurdle to the Adventist Church in this part of the world, where evangelism already faces considerable obstacles, including the dominance of the Orthodox Church and the inability to conduct public religious programs, Maglis said. "Many members lost their work and are unemployed," Maglis said, preventing them from paying rent and buying basic necessities. Several churches are collecting and distributing food to individuals in need, he added, "but this is not enough." He described two recently launched evangelistic programs -- one training people to be missionaries at work; the other, showing members "how they can bring a friend to Jesus." He said both have led to a record 56 baptisms in the past year and brought membership to about 570. The Greek Mission's baptism goals set for this year now must contend with reduced funds. Officials in the Spanish and Portuguese unions say they are experiencing similar problems, which are not limited to the Adventist Church or even Europe. The church's North American Division has reported slight but consecutive drops in tithe in 2008 and 2009, a decline attributed to U.S. economic woes. The "delicate" economic situation in Spain -- where the unemployment rate is the second-highest in Europe, with 3 million people out of work -- has put the Adventist Spanish Union of Churches in a difficult position since 2008, said Juan Andres Prieto, the union's treasurer. "The same thing that is happening in society is happening in the church," Prieto said, citing, as an example, a congregation of about 60 or 70 members, all of whom are jobless. The union is operating on a savings policy: Whatever they don't bring in, they don't spend. And although they continue trying to serve the church in the same way with fewer resources, certain things have been affected, Prieto said. Since November 2008, the union has suspended its practice of giving financial assistance to new groups just starting to rent meeting space, he said, and has even reduced occasional aid to established congregations. Union salaries have been frozen since that time as well. In an attempt to meet the challenges of the day, the union has proposed a voluntary program that would take 2 percent of pastors' salaries to create a reserve fund for supporting church members in need. Similarly, Portuguese church leaders are finding it difficult to perform certain activities, such as launching new congregations or establishing communities in certain areas, said Rui Filipe Dias, treasurer for the denomination's Portuguese Union of Churches. Unemployment in that country is at about 10 percent, he said. "The biggest difficulty I've seen is supporting all the needs of our members," Dias said, adding that the union typically sees offerings decline in the midst of a financial crisis. "Their needs are much greater than in a normal situation." "We are depending on the goodness of God to guide us," Dias added. http://news.adventist.org/2011/01/-last-years-january.html http://news.adventist.org/2011/01/-last-years-january.html Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:34:00 -0400 Last year's January 12 earthquake toppled a classroom column, crushing Iney Laguerre's left leg. The teacher was rejected by five hospitals before being brought to Haiti Adventist Hospital, where he underwent surgery to amputate his leg and two fingers. A year later, Laguerre is back to teaching full time. "The Lord has been good to me and I've learned that He gives us the strength and capabilities to move forward," Laguerre, one of several earthquake survivors addressing a crowd of hundreds of worshipers and church officials gathered outside the hospital, said yesterday. Participants sang and prayed at 4:53 p.m., one year to the minute after the worst natural disaster in the nation's history, which eventually took the lives of some 300,000 people. As Seventh-day Adventists joined their fellow countrymen in commemorative church services nationwide yesterday, this gathering outside the denomination's hospital here marked what for many has been a highlight amid struggling rescue efforts. Built in 1978, the structure only suffered minor damage in the last year's earthquake. Operations were moved outside and 200,000 patients were treated by hospital staff and volunteers in the eight months following, hospital officials said. More than 4,000 of those were surgeries. http://news.adventist.org/2011/01/two-organizations-at.html http://news.adventist.org/2011/01/two-organizations-at.html Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:10:00 -0400 Two organizations at the Seventh-day Adventist Church headquarters are putting more of their resources on smartphone technology. Darryl Thompson, assistant director of the Ellen G. White Estate, says the Estate's newly upgraded iOS application makes White's complete published writings available to iPhone/iPad users. An Android version is in development. [photo: Ansel Oliver] fans to the point of ousting God and religion as their priorities, they were certainly not healthy. But generally, he said, sports encourage strong relationships. Both the Sabbath School/Personal Ministries department and the estate of church co-founder Ellen G. White have recently released upgrades to their apps. The newly upgraded app from The White Estate now makes available all of White's published writings. The Sabbath School department puts in an app all its study guides, from Beginner through the Adult Bible Study Guide. Both apps are free; the iPhone/iPad versions are available in Apple, Inc.'s online iTunes store. The Sabbath School app is available for the iPhone, iPad and Android platforms in English, French and Spanish, said Falvo Fowler, the department's editor and executive producer. The app also features media produced by the department, including Sabbath School University videos, Daily Collegiate Quarterly readings, multi-language podcasts and Kindergarten lesson animations. Cool Tools, a resource for Sabbath School and small group leaders, is built into the app. The department also posts its Kindergarten animations on YouTube and Vimeo, Fowler said. The YouTube channel now includes closed captioning in both English and Mandarin. Resources in more languages are in development. In addition, an iPad app set for release next month for the GraceLink study series will feature a digital felt board, Fowler said. Parents, teachers and kids will be able to tell stories by manipulating and moving characters and backgrounds specific to that week's story. Fowler said apps can also connect to a projector or monitor for presenting to audiences. The new app from the White Estate includes all 412 books written by White or later compiled from her writings, said Darryl Thompson, assistant director of the Ellen G. White Estate. The app also features search ability of the entire White library, a King James Version of the Bible and Webster's contemporary 1828 dictionary. It also allows users to create notes to share via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter. Additionally, every Bible verse reference is hyperlinked. The Estate has also released EGW Lite, with content based on 10 of White's most popular books, Thompson said. The lite app was created for users with limited storage devices or 3G coverage. The White Estate is developing an Android version for release later this year, Thompson said. For more information on the White Estate app, visit whiteestate.org. For more information on the Sabbath School app, click here. UPDATE: The latest, released on January 11, is called InPrayer, and is the product of the church's Revival and Reformation Committee. According to that group's website, "InPrayer is a mobile application developed by the Adventist church, which is designed to facilitate a global prayer chain that prays for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This prayer movement, called 777, is designed to encourage Seventh-day Adventists to pray 7 days a week at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. It is part of a larger initiative to encourage Revival and Reformation within the Seventh-day Adventist church." There are several modules available to InPrayer users: a configurable daily reminder to pray at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.; a map view that shows you where every other member interacting with the app is located; a daily devotional focused on the Holy Spirit; global prayer requests; a local prayer request module allowing you track your own personal requests; Facebook integration that pushes a configurable status to your Facebook account and Twitter integration that pushes a configurable tweet to your Twitter account. Versions of the InPrayer app are available, free of charge, for both the Apple iPhone and Google Android platforms.