Sonia Garcia, assistant director of the Office of Religious Affairs in Cuba, described the current religious liberties enjoyed in her country and the challenges in further protecting religious rights. “Religions which are defenders of moral and ethical principles today, more than ever, have a great challenge to secure a better world, where respect for diversity can strengthen unity, love and the development of peoples,” said Garcia.


Paulo Tort Ortega, director general of religious affairs in Mexico, affirmed his government's commitment to protecting the religious freedom rights of its citizens. “In Mexico, we have separation of church and state and there is freedom of belief and freedom of worship,” said Ortega. “However, we see these freedoms to be part of two rights that fall under religious liberty.


In his presentation, Knox Thames, Director of Policy and Research for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (CIRF), acknowledged the current global crisis in religious freedom—the results of which he has seen first-hand through his visits to many different countries representing the US Department of State and through his liaison work with the United Nations and the OSCE. “I have seen that the efforts of individuals, faith groups and non-governmental organizations can save lives, change laws, and expand religious freedom,” said Knox. He warned that ongoing advocacy is difficult and results are never assured. He advised advocates to act with discernment and persistence, and to reject the temptation to exaggerate their cause or to speak without knowing all the facts.


Amjad B. Shammout, a prominent human rights advocate based in Amman, Jordan, presented a Muslim perspective on religious freedom. Shammout, a lawyer and former judge in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, left that work to establish and direct the Arab Bridge Center for Development and Human Rights. This non-profit organization aims to foster moderation, with the avoidance of violence, to bring about change. It promotes respect and understanding among people of all religions. Shammout underscored the need to work with young people in order to shape attitudes of peace and tolerance rather than violence. In conversation, he becomes passionate about human rights in regard to women, children, and others who are marginalized or ill-treated. “I have a vision,” he says. “It is that throughout the entire world people will be treated with justice and fairness.

”
Shaherya Gill, one of the more than 900 people from around the world who have traveled to Punta Cana, understands the challenges to religious freedom in Pakistan—he grew up there. Now working as an associate counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, an advocacy organization based in Washington, DC, he helps to oversee religious freedom cases in the country of his birth. Among the biggest challenges to religious liberty in Pakistan are the so-called Blasphemy Laws. These laws prohibit any action or words against Islam, including defiling a place of worship or a sacred object, defiling the Quran or demeaning the prophet Mohammad. Punishment for such offenses includes fines, imprisonment and even the death penalty. Gill noted that since these laws were passed about 30 years ago there have been about 1,000 charges against Christians in Pakistan. “Worse still,” says Gill.

“Everyone deserves basic human rights, at the core of which is the right to believe and express your beliefs freely,” said Amireh Al-Haddad, North American Religious Liberty Association leader for Southern United States and the discussion leader. She emphasized that regardless of the unique challenges within each culture, raising awareness of rights issues that particularly impact women is key to making small strides. “The things we take for granted, like driving or going to the store, aren’t allowed [for women] in some societies,” said Al-Haddad. In some countries of Africa, she added, it's much worse for women. In addition to restrictions on basic freedoms, there is also the practice of female genital mutilation and a high prevalence of domestic violence—although these abuses are often regarded in these societies as protection for women. 


Ted Wilson, the leader of the 17-million- member Seventh-day Adventist Church,  challenged believers to grasp the opportunities for open discourse that a secular state preserves. Although acknowledging the inevitable conflict between the values of believers and that of secular culture, he said: “We have to accept this tension as part of a free society. We have to accept the challenges and find appropriate responses, through God’s leading."

César Pina Toribio, Secretary of State for the Dominican Republic, told the attendees that his nation shares their commitment to preserving and promoting freedom of religion. He congratulated the Congress on its success, and thanked the organizers for their work in raising awareness about the vital role that freedom of conscience plays in building a strong, peaceful nation.
Regional IRLA leaders presented a compelling picture of the human cost of religious intolerance during a Tuesday evening presentation on the religious freedom crisis in the countries of Nigeria and North Korea. The meeting opened with a series of violent video images from Nigeria—bombed buildings, countless injured and murdered men, women and children, homes and families destroyed, churches demolished.

Senator Charles Schultz of Colombia reported on the strides made toward religious liberty among faith groups in Colombia during the past two decades. “The model of secular state is the best one for the protection of human and civil rights,” stated Schultz as he reported on the history of secularism and its benefits in the 32 states or provinces in Colombia. “There is a great need to unite further in defending religious liberty, as well as using legal instruments and procedural guarantees for human rights,” he challenged.  “We must remember that without rights there is no freedom, because the human being is a slave to his emotions and passions.”


Judge D Amjad Shammout gave an islamic perspective on religious freedom. “Freedom of religion in its Islamic context implies that non-Muslims are not compelled to convert to Islam, nor are they hindered from practicing their own religious rights,” said Shammout. “Many of the Qur'anic verses make clear that all people are free to choose the faith they want.” He also addressed the issue of apostasy in Islam—a concept he says has been often misunderstood and mis-applied. He concluded that the death penalty for apostasy was not prescribed by the Qur'an.


Dr. Larry Miller, secretary of the Global Christian Forum, offered an example of the integration of Christian values in the search for religious liberty. He recounted a story from 1569 of the Anabaptist martyr Dirk Willems of the Netherlands, who was fleeing a police officer and both were on a frozen lake. The pursuer fell in and was about to drown; Willems turned around and rescued the man, even though this meant Williems' arrest and eventual execution.


Reverend Neville Callam General Secretary of the World Baptist Alliance (WBA), told to the attendees that “the resolution of the tension between religious liberty and secularism is more easily described than achieved.” Speaking on the theme of the day—“How to Live Together”—he cited as a part of the problem, the increasingly pluralistic nature of society. Society is multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, with people who speak varying languages, and from different backgrounds and upbringings. “All this,” said Callam, “makes it difficult to agree on a minimal core of what is acceptable to all.”

Punta Cana, April 24, 2012, [M.Kellner/AR]. 
Addressing nearly 900 delegates and guests at the Seventh World Congress of the International Religious Liberty Association, Denton Lotz, a noted Baptist minister and IRLA president, summarized the purpose of this three-day event: "We're here today, because we believe that freedom of religion is basic to all human rights."
 
That view, sadly, is not shared in many parts of the world, something Lotz said made holding the sessions even more important.
 
"It's incumbent upon us to work together that we live together in harmony and concord," Lotz said to the audience of leaders from Christian, Muslim, Jewish and other communities. "We don't need religious wars."
 
That violence against believers remains a problem was evident from a session-opening video presentation noting the death sentences pronounced – but not yet carried out – on Christians in Pakistan and Iran on charges of "blasphemy," and the assassinations of Pakistani officials Salman Tasser, governor of Punjab province and minorities minister, Shahbaz Bhatti. Also cited was the extreme religious repression found in North Korea.

While the main Congress theme, "Secularism and Religious Freedom – Conflict or Partnership" may seem far removed from lands where persecution is active, Lotz took a different view.
 
"Most people worldwide suffer from a lack of religious freedom. Seventy percent of the world lives in places of religious repression," he said.
 
Speaking to an audience that included Seventh-day Adventists, Mennonites, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Mormons and Scientologists, among others, IRLA secretary-general John Graz noted the world congress is a multifaceted event.
 
"This Congress is about religious freedom, but it is not a religious event," Graz said. "We are all here together. We represent different faiths, different religions and different churches. We are different, but we are respectful of each other."
 
With the theme of "Secularism and Religious Freedom -- Conflict or Partnership," speakers and delegates will attempt to negotiate the challenges of a world which is increasingly hostile to a variety of religious expression in the public square. While standing for separation of church and state, IRLA leader Lotz issued a call for religion to avoid following a secular society's lead.
 
"When religion becomes secular, I believe it is the greatest challenge to religious freedom, allowing secularism to define what a religion believes," Lotz told delegates. "When we allow the secularization of our faith to transcend the transcendent, it loses its meaning," he added.
 
According to Lotz, "Religion will die when it no longer focuses on God, but only on autonomous man. Religion will thrive when it focuses on God."
 
In a statement read to delegates, the country's President, Leonel Fernandez Reyna, offered "a most cordial welcome to the Dominican Republic, a land of freedom. The Dominican Republic is a place of freedom for Christians, Muslims, Jews and people of other faiths."

Mark A. Kellner, News Editor, Adventist Review, reporting from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Bern April 26, 2012 [T.Kukolja/Huffingtonpost]. The international community is this month remembering the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which started on April 6, 1992. During the 1,425 days of the siege 11,541 people were killed, of whom 1,500 were children. Early in 1993 I had the privilege of spending one month in Sarajevo as a guest of the humanitarian agency Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), and to share a taste of what it meant to live in an open concentration camp. Moreover, I witnessed the hard and sacrificial work of 120 ADRA volunteers that made a major difference in the lives of the people who fought daily for their survival under the longest siege of the 20th century.
Now, 20 years later, ADRA's relief work in Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 war should not be forgotten. Apart from the relief work of the U.N. agencies, ADRA was by far the most powerful and respected relief presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina thanks to its strict ethnic and religious impartiality. This is why I am gladly giving my contribution to its remembrance by revisiting the memories of my visit to Sarajevo in early 1993.
A sudden burst of sunshine heralds the arrival of a new day. "Who would say this is war?!" says Detlef Riemarzik, a photo journalist from Germany. The two of us are sharing a room in the home of Radomir and Mira Nikolic. Radomir is an Adventist pastor and the director ADRA in Sarajevo.
Through the window of our room our eyes scan the authentic mixture of European and Asian buildings and roofs around us. The last patches of snow are visibly melting, revealing the ugly nakedness of the wounded city. The surrounding hills gripping Sarajevo in a deadly embrace appear cunningly still.
It is 8 o'clock in the morning, March 1993 -- only a few days ahead of Easter. The rooms and corridors of ADRA's offices in Sarajevo resemble a beehive. The chief coordinating team is meeting to discuss the priorities of the day. Today 120 volunteers will be busy distributing humanitarian packages, preparing an additional warehouse for the arrival of 30,000 food packages from a number of European countries, and distributing hundreds of letters that have arrived into the city with the latest convoy. In the first year of the Sarajevo siege ADRA provided the city's only efficient postal service, delivering close to 50,000 letters to its citizens cut off from the rest of the world.
Detlef checks his cameras, lenses, film. Stepping out of the sheltered ADRA residence into the open is a hazardous adventure. A group of people at the street gate asks us for a handful of any kind of food. "Just a potato or two, please," pleads one of them. Then, suddenly a sharp, metallic, thunder-like sound splits the air. Mortars -- one, two, three hit the nearby houses. Heavy machine guns rattle. Sniper bullets shriek through the air. Metal fences and gates ring. Heavy dust rains upon the gardens, houses, streets. Detlef and I hide behind a wall. There, together with another 50 people, we wait for another round of deadly blasts to pass.
An hour later we find ourselves visiting Kosevo Hospital -- overcrowded with the wounded and dying. Mufita Lazovic, a doctor, takes us around. People who have been disabled for life are telling us their stories. Hasan and Hana Camdszic, husband and wife, were wounded by an air missile while sleeping in their bedroom. Hasan has lost both, and Hana one of her legs. A tank missile has permanently disabled Elizabeta Krasni. Wounded Munira Milanovic describes with the tears in her eyes how she survived the blast that instantly killed her husband.
"Children suffer the most," explains the doctor while escorting us out of the hospital. "Not long ago we had to amputate both legs from a 6-year-old boy. After the surgery he begged his parents to give him back his legs."
Only a few minutes' walk from the hospital lies Bare Cemetery with no more room to receive the daily increase in the number of the dead. Kosevo Football Stadium has been turned into its extension. In reverence we stoop down and observe the thousands of orderly aligned graves. Detlef reluctantly decides that he must take a few pictures -- for the record. Next to one grave, three men support a collapsing woman. She is sobbing, screaming, cursing. There lies the dead body of her 19-year-old daughter, buried only a few days earlier.
A couple of hours later we arrive at the main ADRA warehouse in the city. Hundreds of people slide patiently toward the entrance that leads to four huge storage rooms packed with thousands of recently arrived humanitarian parcels. It seems as if the endless hours of queuing do not bother people doomed to waiting.
Through the eyes of his cameras, Detlef captures every moment worth remembering: an elderly woman with shaky hands placing her food parcel into something that used to be a stroller for babies; two young men loading their received goods onto their bicycles; a man totally immersed into reading the only paper published daily in Sarajevo; two women in tears embracing each other; a cat with a broken tail gliding through a jungle of human legs; and a man in a long queue slowly drifting forward and shouting "Thank you ADRA!"
In Sarajevo every moment, every movement and every picture tells another story.
We then join Senad Vranic, one of the 50 ADRA postmen in Sarajevo. Not long ago one of their postmen was killed on duty while delivering letters to the homes of people not far from where we are. Although a volunteer, like any professional postman, Senad brings the letters right to the doorsteps of involuntarily separated mothers, fathers, children, grandparents and friends.
"There are hazardous days, too! Sudden blasts, mortars, bombs, snipers! Not a safe place to be! Still, I go because I know how much hope these letters bring to people separated from those they love the most," explains Senad as we reach the gates of a small oriental-looking house occupied by a young couple. As we enter their home we hear an exciting welcome: "Our ADRA, our friends have come to us!"
It is getting dark and we are back at the ADRA offices in Tepebasina 7. Hedviga Jirota, a cheerful 82-year-old lady of whom none would ever guess her age, has prepared a delicious supper composed of various humanitarian ingredients: blended cheese from Czechoslovakia; macaroni from Italy; rice and tinned corned beef from England; hot powder milk, enriched with white coffee powder from Germany. She invites Radomir, Mira, Detlef, myself and a few others to take our places around the table. Could we ever expect a more beautiful feast in the undernourished Sarajevo?
"It is not easy. Many eyes are upon us. They think that ADRA can do what others can't," reflects pastor Nikolic at the dinner table. "In fact, we could do more if we would only have more trucks, diesel, better international support," he adds.
By now it is almost midnight. Detlef and I are staring again through the window of our room. The engines of the U.N. planes shake the dark sky above the city. Tonight they are bound for eastern Bosnia where they will parachute several tones of food into the night. A sudden burst of machine guns echoes through the streets somewhere close by. We hear angry shouts, screams and more firing. A couple of distant explosions break in the night. And then everything is quiet.
The moonlit houses look strange with all the lights out. The city, which appears to have fallen into a deep sleep, with only a few distant and dimmed lights creeping through the blankets stretched over the darkened windows, remind me of the romanticized pictures of Bethlehem the night when Jesus was born.
I wonder if in 1993, in more than a metaphorical way, Jesus walks the streets of an imprisoned and wounded Sarajevo? I cannot help but love those 120 dedicated volunteers of ADRA, Muslims and Christians together, who against all odds feed the hungry, distribute humanitarian aid, deliver the letters and give medicines to the sick. No doubt they are fulfilling Jesus' commission: "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Through them God is sending His message that He has not forgotten Sarajevo.

Sarajevo 1993 Photo Essay

Tihomir Kukolja is Forum for Leadership and Reconciliation, Executive Director; Renewing Our Minds, Director

Bern, April 26, 2012. [CD-EUDnews]. “The man is as big as his dreams are’ – this motto has driven me in my spiritual life” said Kassabov, Seventh-day Adventists Bulgarian Churches Treasures.
“Coordinated by Euro-Africa region Women`s Ministries Department, we are establishing relations with the Rom community in the town
of Chirpan by education and social work .”
In 2011 the project to organize literacy courses by Women`s Ministries Department was started in Chirpan Bulgaria. It was intended for young and juvenile mothers, teenagers and children with the aim to be made literate in order to have prospects for the future. The project was initiated a lot earlier by the former Director of Women`s Ministries (WM) Department in Euro-African Division Christian Vertallier and later supported by the new WM Director Denise Hochstrasser.
Since her first visit was in the autumn of 2010, she managed to motivate the church members to be involved in it with their gifts and abilities and we started the project two months before the end of the fiscal year. Four women came to the first meetings and we started with them. Unfortunately, their non-believing husbands interfered and forbade them to attend the course. But the interest of the community to our activities was increasing due to the influence of the church members and there appeared new candidates. Therefore it was necessary to be flexible. Some people came up who needed computer courses, family counseling, a knitting course for young mothers and fathers.
On Denise Hochstrasser’s initiative there was developed a new smaller project for musical education of children and teenagers attending the church. For example, about 30 children came to the Sabbath school whose parents were mostly non-believers. They had Muslim origin and their native language was Turkish. In all schools in Chirpan the subjects are taught in Bulgarian so these children fell behind with school lessons and soon left school illiterate. Except musical education we decided to organize weekly professional courses in literacy from my wife who is a teacher.
As we had to hold all these activities in one room of 12 m2, we decided to enlarge it by removing the wall and including the terrace. Thus it became possible to hold two courses simultaneously. Our goal was to save the heating resources. The extension was realized with the voluntary help of church members and a neighbor whose job is a builder. As a result the master builder was baptized. Meanwhile his wife was involved in the literacy project.
Results so far:
A man was baptized, the knitting course ended successfully, three people received computer training, family communication lectures were delivered. The musical project is the most successful: we have two musical teams – one exclusively from children, the other from children and young people.

A brief summary of RBWH. Church members are encouraged to read or listen to one chapter of the Bible each day beginning today April 17, 2012, the first day of the Spring Meeting. The reading plan begins with world church President Ted Wilson, and he will conclude it by reading Revelation 22 during the 2015 General Conference Session in San Antonio, Texas.
During these 1,171 days, participants will cover the 1,189 chapters in the Bible. By reading one chapter each day and two chapters during the General Conference Session, millions of participating members will complete their journey through the Bible.

United by His Word. “Revived by His Word” will go beyond simply reading or listening to one chapter of the Bible each day. It will direct the attention of the entire Adventist world church to the importance of knowing Jesus better through His Word and encourage families to read the Bible together. In cultures where the Bible is not readily available, this initiative will encourage elders to gather the church family to read the Bible aloud. It is simple, practical and affordable.
“Revived by His Word” can unite the entire Adventist church around God’s Word and make a difference in millions of lives. It can be a catalyst for regular, systematic Bible study. The goal of this initiative is to encourage every church member to allow the Holy Spirit to transform their lives as they meditate and pray over one chapter of the Bible a day. Pastor Wilson said: “I would like to invite every church member to join the worldwide family of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in reading one chapter of the Bible a day. I am confident that this journey through the Bible together will draw us all closer to Jesus. As we prayerfully read and meditate upon God’s Word, we each will be led to a renewed experience with the Savior as we look forward to His soon second coming.”

Bern, April 15, 2012. [ANN]. Organizers of this month’s 7th World Congress for Religious Freedom say they’re focused on helping religious liberty advocates stay ahead of the curve in recognizing new threats to religious freedom and responding effectively.
Imam Seyyed Mohammad Ali Abtahi, an Iranian theologian, scholar and pro-democracy activist, was a speaker at the most recent World Congress for Religious Freedom held 2007 in Cape Town, South Africa. [photo: courtesy IRLA]
The three-day conference, set to begin April 24 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, is expected to draw more than 800 government officials, legal experts and religious liberty advocates from 60 countries to explore the impact of “radical secularism” and other forces that are thought to erode religious freedom protection around the world.
The event comes as research shows that global restrictions on religious freedom are on the rise. A Pew Research Center study last year reported that religious freedom restrictions increased for about a third of the world’s population during the last decade. The limits were mainly due to government restrictions occurring in a few, but populous, countries.
The congress will focus on the theme “Secularism and Religious Freedom—Conflict or Partnership?” which highlights an area of increasing concern.
“For many people of faith, the word ‘secularism’ carries a host of negative connotations,” said John Graz, Secretary General of the International Religious Liberty Association, which is sponsoring the event. “They may see it as a force that’s hostile toward religion. But religious freedom has historically flourished under a secular government that doesn’t play ‘religious favorites.’”
Other issues to be addressed at the Congress include the political and religious fallout from the Arab Spring revolutions, and well as continuing fears around the world of religious extremism and religiously motivated violence.
According to Graz, another emerging threat to religious minorities is so-called “radical secularism,” which casts religion as just another “special interest group” in society, and seeks to limit religious expression on the grounds of “protecting secularism.” He cites the 2011 “burqa ban” for Muslim women in France as an example of this trend.
Among those attending the 7th World Congress are government officials and legal experts from the United States, the Caribbean and South and Central America, Europe, Russia and the Middle East, along with scholars and human rights activists from around the world.
The International Religious Liberty Association was chartered by Seventh-day Adventist leaders in 1893 and is dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of religion for people of all faiths. The IRLA has non-governmental organization consultative status at the United Nations, and affiliates and partner associations in 80 countries, and is the world’s oldest association for defending religious freedom.
Daily news and video from the congress will be available at www.irla.org.

Last minute news from Morocco.

The oldest woman, Adventist church member in Morocco, died recently at 82.

D. E., 82 , was the oldest church member from and in Morocco. She was born in Maghreb, lived in Casablanca till her death. She knew the Adventist message at the end of the 1960's in the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Casablanca. She was baptized by pastor Pellicer.
Her baptism and her decision of following the Lord was a hard and strong one. Her husband repudiated her publicly after her baptism, so did her family too. Nobody in her family took care of her anymore, since then till her passing away recently.
In those days when Dada met the Lord for the first time, the Seventh Day Adventist Church had two prosperous communities and churches, one in Medina of Casablanca, where D. E. met the Adventist Church, and another one in Tangier. It was at the beginning of the 1970's when the new monarchy expelled most of the Seventh Day Adventist Church members out of Morocco, and expropriated the most of its properties.

During these years of family loneliness, siege and prosecution from the society and the authorities, D. was often arrested accused of apostasy. Pastor John Kenf was one of the very few Adventists who could visit D. in the 1990's.

Most of the expelled church members in Morocco went to France, looking for liberty and religious freedom. Doubtlessly this venerable old woman has been an example of faith and steadiness to those few who knew her in life.

This story intends to leave an endurable testimony for the next generations, and to enlist D. as an heroine of faith.

Today, the Seventh Day Adventist Church is still with no official and recognized presence by the authorities in Morocco, but this is not an obstacle to the church members that are living their faith in secret there.

Bern, March 28, 2012 [ANN]. Before the start of a massive March 24 evangelistic outreach in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, Pastor Ted N.C. Wilson, General Conference president, had encouraging words: “Everyone can be part of God’s remnant church.”

Speaking to a congregation of 2,000 at the São Paulo Adventist University Center (UNASP) Church – with another 5,000 to 6,000 viewing a broadcast at other locations -- Wilson said he planned to join thousands of church members that day in distributing what turned out to be 4 million copies of The Great Hope, an outreach book based on The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White, a pioneering co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist movement. A total of 25 million books are to be distributed throughout the South American Division in one day, he noted.

Adventist world church President Ted Wilson poses with a group of volunteers holding copies of The Great Hope, a sharing book based on church co-founder Ellen G. White's classic, The Great Controversy. Wilson led a March 24 distribution of 4 million copies of the book in São Paulo. [photos: Arumí Figueiredo]

Officials in the South American Division emphasized that the March 24 effort is not an isolated venture. The following Sabbath, March 31, will be a “friendship day” in which neighbors are invited to participate in an Adventist worship service and lunch with Adventist families. The goal of the “Impact Hope” campaign is to inspire Seventh-day Adventists in the South American Division to live a lifestyle of personal evangelism.

For his part, Wilson lauded the division’s massive one-day literature outreach, and said other world church divisions could benefit from similar programs.

“The beauty of all of this is that it motivated the entire church on every socio-economic level to participate in distributing the book to loved ones, friends, neighbors, and others,” Wilson wrote later in an e-mail message to Adventist Review. “It got the church out into the community to meet the people and the Holy Spirit blessed the efforts enormously. … It has shown that a single event approach, along with every other personal outreach activity and local church outreach, can be a huge rallying point to galvanize God's people for witnessing and missionary work. Divisions and unions around the world need to use this approach to bring church members together in something that is far bigger and grander than anything we could do individually.”

Along with a burgeoning Adventist medical missionary outreach in the region, Wilson said literature distribution is a key means by which mega-cities such as São Paulo, with a municipal population of 11.3 million (and an additional 8 million in the surrounding metropolitan area) are to be reached. The city will also be one of 12 host cities when Brazil welcomes the 2014 FIFA World Cup soccer championships.

“The world church has committed itself to distribute 175 million copies of The Great Hope and the larger version [The Great Controversy] this year and next year,” Wilson told the congregation. “Can you imagine how many new Seventh-day Adventist believers we will have because of this? And we give God all the glory.”

Wilson added, “God uses His Word to change people’s lives. He uses books like this [The Great Hope] to change peoples’ lives.”

That change was evident in the life and testimony of Sheyla Guimarães, a homemaker from the city of Mineiros do Tietê, about 140 miles (225 km) from the city. Her heartfelt video testimony was played during the worship service, and described the story of a spiritual seeker who was dissatisfied. In October 2011, Sheyla’s daughter found a copy of The Great Hope in the family’s mailbox. She “devoured” the book, and said she found answers that were not provided in other churches. Today, she’s a Seventh-day Adventist.

An Adventist volunteer tosses a copy of The Great Hope to a resident of Brazil's largest city.

Guimarães and her daughter came to the platform and were greeted by Wilson and other church leaders. She told Wilson and the congregation how happy she was to be a part of the family of God.

During his sermon, Wilson emphasized the role of the Seventh-day Adventist movement as “a unique people with a unique message.” He explained that because of the gift of the Spirit of Prophecy, which Adventists believe was manifested by Ellen G. White during her 70-year ministry, the church has a special responsibility.

“We are told the greatest wealth of truth ever entrusted to mortals has been given to [the remnant] to give to the world,” Wilson said. “When we understand that by grace we are saved, when we understand the completeness of salvation as explained by the sanctuary service, then we begin to understand that Jesus is our creator, isour redeemer, is our example, is our high priest and is our coming King. In Jesus we have everything we need to be saved. What a message it is to share with people today!”

Before joining the thousands at the UNASP church in going out to share The Great Hope, Wilson said he’d been told that São Paulo had the greatest population density of Seventh-day Adventists in Brazil.

“By God’s grace, São Paulo will become even more populated with Seventh-day Adventists” as a result of the March 24 outreach, Wilson said. “Let us go into every corner of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Belém, Fortaleza, Manaus – and throughout every country of South America. Bring the wonderful news: Jesus is coming again!”

Following the worship, Wilson and other church leaders visited Jd. Colombo, one of the slum neighborhoods in São Paulo’s Paraisópolis, or “Paradise” district to share that “great hope” with residents.

The day concluded in São Paulo with a rally of more than 60,000 Adventists celebrating the outreach effort. Combined youth choirs and a full orchestra, Wilson reported, led “a program organized of thanksgiving to God and, of course, thanks to the great efforts of so many people who dedicated themselves to this great missionary task.”

Bern March 22, 2012 [CD-EUDnews]. “The Franco-Belgian Union is an integral and vital part of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church” says General Conference President Ted N.C. Wilson.
About 40 leaders from the Franco-Belgian Union, the North and South of France, as well as the Belgium-Luxembourg Conferences met Ted Wilson and his wife Nancy in Lyon, France on March 15-17, 2012.  Representatives from the Euro-Africa Division were also at the meetings.
President Wilson was warmly welcomed by Bruno Vertallier, the Euro-Africa Division President, as well as by Jean-Claude Nocandy, President of the Franco-Belgian Union. The work meetings focused on direct exchange with the world church leader. The reports presented by the conferences aimed to give the GC president and fellow leaders an insight in their lives, activities and strategies.
Ample time was reserved for questions and answers with President Wilson. Leaders wanted to know many things, like what is the focus of the General Conference regarding the work of the world fields? Why Revival and Reformation? How should we as Adventists relate to other religions and denominations? How do we handle lay initiatives within the church? And much more.
It was an open, fair, relaxed, sometimes even humorous atmosphere. The fact that president Wilson talked extensively and even preached in French brought him close to the heart of the audience. The participants also learned that Nancy Wilson is doing departmental work at the General Conference for Shepherdess (Ministry to Pastors’ Spouses) and Transitional Ministry.

“It was very, very helpful to me to meet President Wilson personally,” one of the leaders said. “I have heard many rumors about him since Atlanta, but I am glad I could see and listen to him. I find he is a very approachable person, humble, with plenty of administrative experience, wise, and a real leader. And I realized that he is genuine.”
On Sabbath many church members from France and Switzerland had an opportunity to meet, greet and to listen to the sermon of President Ted Wilson in the crowded Collonges campus church. The Campus Adventiste du Saleve gladly received President Ted Wilson with good music, and a welcome speech by campus president Ralf Wegener.
In his sermon, President Wilson urged the listeners to follow the biblical emphasis of personally humbling themselves before God.   They who are actively expecting the soon return of Jesus Christ will be made witnesses of His salvation throughout Europe.

Bern, 20 March, 2012. [CD-EUDnews]. On Wednesday March 21, in the presence of the Belgian royal families, in the two Belgian towns of Heverlee and Lommel, a memorial ceremony will be held in remembrance of the 28 victims of the school bus accident that occurred in Switzerland, one week ago, on Tuesday, March 13.
This will be a day of mourning, not only for the Belgian families that lost their beloved ones, but also for all of us who have been touched by this tremendous tragedy.
Exactly what happened in that 2.5 km tunnel close to Sierre, Switzerland, continues to be a mystery. A coach with 46 children (11 to 12 years old), 4 teachers and 2 drivers, on its way back to Belgium after a week-long ski trip, crashed unexpectedly against the wall of an emergency stop area in the tunnel. The impact was terrible and 22 children lost their lives, as well as the 4 teachers and 2 coach drivers.  The accident also left 24 children injured, 4 of whom are still in Swiss hospitals due to severe injuries.
The news of this tragedy immediately circled the planet, astounding the billions of people who wonder how such an accident could have happened. For the moment, any hypothesis is only speculation. The fact is that what should have been a joyful ski trip, turned into a cut-breath casualty.

A young girl, one of the victims of the accident, wrote only a few days before to her parents:  “Hello to all of you at home. I took the lift today; my ski instructor is super nice…. We also did some walking, afterwards we slid down the slope on a plastic bag, and in the evening we sang all the songs. It’s really marvelous here.” And finished: “I miss you so much.” Now the contrary is the reality– and for the other victim’s parents as well.

Two military planes transported all the victims to Bruxelles. A long applause welcomed the little white coffins carried by the soldiers.
We can imagine the feeling of those waiting for their beloved who tragically passed away.
The personnel of the two Catholic schools, Saint Lambertus in Heverlee and ‘t Stekske in Lommel, are mourning for their pupils and teachers.

Barna Magyarosi, Seventh-Day Adventists Education Director, Central European Region said, “As a religious denomination so sensitive to education, we are shocked by this tragedy that affected so many pupils. We can imagine the suffering of all the families, students, and teachers involved, and we express our deepest sympathy to all.”
Elsa Cozzi, the Seventh-day Adventist Children’s Ministries Director for the Central European Region added, “We are deeply touched by this tragedy. Children bring joy and life and we can hardly accept their death.  The sadness overwhelms all of us, as we think of these 22 kids who will not be going back home any more.” She continued, saying, “We think as well of all the victims’ classmates who, every time they enter their classrooms, will see the empty places; the memory of the tragic journey will remain in their mind for long time. I’m asking to the Lord to give comfort to all the mothers, fathers and relatives who today are mournful and experiencing such great loss.”

Pastor Bruno Vertallier, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Central European Region, which also includes Belgium, affirmed:  “I want to express to all the families of the victims, the most heartfelt and deepest condolences on behalf of the European Adventist Church. We are close to all of them through our prayers and feelings.”
The members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church join those who are in silence and in prayer, respecting all who are suffering in this moment of the heavy loss of their beloved.