By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Ted N.C. Wilson, President, Seventh-day Adventist World Church)

As we come to the close of another year, I would like to invite you for a moment to consider the most amazing gift of Jesus Christ. While we do not know exactly when He was born, the important thing is that we know for certain He was born, and that He came to this Earth on a very special mission.
Foretold by prophecy and announced by a heavenly being more than 2,000 years ago, we read in Matthew 1:21—“And she [Mary] will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His…

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By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Emanuel Millen)

Commonly referred to as “The most wonderful time of the year”, Christmas sees an increase in generosity, families and friends gathering together, and Jesus celebrated. Yet some Christians have difficulty with this day.
In the mid-19th century, a Protestant minister, Alexander Hislop wrote a book called, The Two Babylons, in which he compared the Roman Catholic Church to ancient Babylon. In his zeal to prove such a connection, he jumped over a few facts on several occasions.1
The idea of…

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By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Renata Paes)

For 40 years, smoking was part of 65-year-old Osvaldo Henrique da Costa’s life. Four decades of this habits brought him constant tiredness, a cough and difficulty breathing. The vice chained and anguished him.
Until one day he met a friend in his bar who told him: “Do you want to quit smoking? I’m attending a course and I’ve already stopped smoking.” Excited with the achievement, he did not think twice and attended the “How to quit smoking” course at an Adventist home in Bandeirinhas…

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By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Lucas Rocha)

A November oil spill in Brazil has become the country’s worst marine environmental disaster. Now, the disaster has begun to impact the finances of the families in the northeastern region of the country. After collecting more than 5 thousand tons of oil from the Brazilian coast, people’s willingness to consume fish and other marine food lowered considerably. Environmental groups estimate that in the state of Pernambuco alone, sales of clams, crab and oysters fell by 90%, while fish sales fell by…

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By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Ted N.C. Wilson, President, Seventh-day Adventist World Church)

Editors Note: Since May of 2019, the Adventist Church members in Burundi have endured ongoing persecution from the countries government. On October 24, the president of the Burundi Union Mission, pastor Lamec Barishinga, was arrested. This arrest was part of an escalating series of threats and attacks on the Seventh-day Adventist Church by the government of Burundi. For further reading about the situation of our Adventist brother and sisters in Burundi, please visit the Pray for Burundi…

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By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Ingrid Hernández)

The more than 4 million residents of the fourth largest island of the Philippines, Negros, will soon have access to better diagnosis and treatment for heart conditions thanks to a donation by the U.S.-based, 50-hospital health system AdventHealth.
AdventHealth’s Global Missions team shipped a donated cardiac catheterization
lab on Oct. 24 from Orlando, Florida, to the 120-bed Adventist Medical Center (AMC) – Bacolod facility. Expected to arrive by the end of the year, it will be the first…

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By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Edward Rodriguez, Communication Department, Southern Asia-Pacific Division)

A devastating 6.9 magnitude earthquake jolted Davao del Sur, South Philippines, at around 2:11 in the afternoon, Sunday, December 15. This latest earthquake is the strongest reported in the series of tremors experienced in the South Philippines over the past two months.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported that the epicenter of the earthquake was located almost 4 miles (6 kilometers) away from Padada, Davao del Sur, at a depth of 18 miles (30 kilometers).
…

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By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Daniela Arrieta/IAD News Staff)

After heavy rains caused the San José River in the municipal district of Apartadó, in Antioquía, North Colombia, to overflow Seventh-day Adventists moved quickly to provide shelter and gather relief supplies to help dozens of families affected.
“It was a very difficult experience for us,” said Jhon Jairo, one of those affected by the flooding. “Before we knew it, the river overflowed and swept away everything that we had. The community was left with nothing. My ranch came all down.”
Church…

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By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (ADRA International)

On December 17 and 18, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) joined more than 2,000 humanitarian practitioners and member states at the first-ever Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, Switzerland to find transforming solutions to the world refugee crisis, benefitting both refugees and their host communities.
More than a third of the world’s displaced population—some 25.9 million people, according to a 2018 UNHCR report—have been forced to flee their own countries entirely, leaving…

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By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (ADRA International)

The Philippines is known for being a disaster-prone country, ranking second on the global climate risk index in 2018 and fourth in the countries most affected by extreme weather events since 1999. This is largely due to its geographical location along a typhoon belt and in the Pacific Ring of Fire.
From February to August, ADRA conducted five disaster relief interventions in the most affected districts in the Philippines. This included mosquito nets, woven sleeping mats, blankets for the fire…

Source:: sda website