By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Gustavo Cidral)

On April 1, the mayor of Londrina, Brazil, Marcelo Belinati officially established Pathfinder Day in the Calendar of Official Commemorations of the city. The date will be celebrated annually on the third Saturday of September.
The law was authored by Councilor João Martins de Souza, a Seventh-day Adventist. The official signing into law happened during a ceremony held in the mayor’s office with pastors and representatives from the region’s Pathfinder Clubs.
“In Londrina and neighboring cities,…

Source:: sda website

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

Elementary students at the St. Maarten Seventh-day Adventist School wore colored socks and donated $1 US dollar during a special activity in observance of the World Down Syndrome Day, on March 21, 2019. Kindergarten through sixth-grade students took the day to bring about awareness of the disorder and shared their donations with the Sister Basilia Center on the island which provides resources for persons diagnosed with Down Syndrome. It was the first year that the Adventist school of 337…

Source:: sda website

By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Loma Linda, California, United States)

We all know the saying “laughter is the best medicine,” but have you ever wondered how many body systems it really benefits? Laughter has a huge impact on both mental and physical health, and is possibly the cheapest medicine available, aside from fresh air, sunshine or exercise.
Lee S. Berk, DrPH, associate dean of research affairs for Loma Linda University School of Allied Health Professions, is serious about laughter. Berk has been studying the effect laughter has on the body since 1988,…

Source:: sda website

By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Adventist Review & Adventist News Network)

Adventist Church treasurer Juan Prestol-Puesán highlighted his team’s sense of deep gratitude to church members and God in his presentation of the 2018 Financial Report to the members of the church’s Executive Committee on April 9, 2019. His report, entitled “The 2018 Financial Story,” told a story of trust in what he believes is God’s past, present, and future leading.
“The audited financial statement indicates the blessings we received, and the guidance of the Lord,” he told church leaders…

Source:: sda website

By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Sam Neves, associate director, Seventh-day Adventist World Church)

The second global summit focusing on Seventh-day Adventist Church membership retention is revealing the rate and reasons members leave their local church. Since 1965, 39% of new members have left the Adventist church. More than 160 leaders from every continent mourned these figures and vowed to reverse them.
The event extended from April 5 to April 7, 2019 at the global headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, located in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. Over 30 speakers and many…

Source:: sda website

By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Gabriela Philips and Gerald Babanezhad)

Story 1: This Church Knows
As I (Gaby) walked into Jamila’s home, I knew something was seriously wrong. Her usually cheerful self was hiding under puffy eyes and a somber mood. I did not see any of her colorful Kurdish outfits, just black — black robe, black shoes, black memories from a past that, as a refugee, she wanted to keep buried.
Since the mosque mass shootings in New Zealand three days before, her locked-tight grief and fear suddenly now ran loose, untamed. When words failed her, a…

Source:: sda website

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

Members of the Mount Scenery Seventh-day Adventist Church on the Caribbean island of Saba recently distributed 33 brand new bicycles to a group of children and young people from needy communities during a special event.
The new bicycles, complete with helmets, gloves, lights, and water-bottle holders, were distributed as part of a project proposed by church members responding to the Dutch government’s anti-poverty initiative. Saba is officially a “public body” of The Netherlands.
Before the…

Source:: sda website

By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Prince Bahati, Communication Director, East-Central Africa Division)

Recently, Adventist World Radio (AWR) gathered more than 90 radio producers from nearly 30 countries in Africa to the city of Arusha, Tanzania for two weeks of training and evangelism that resulted in 1500 baptisms.
For two weeks, each attendee had the opportunity to practice preaching. Every morning, the AWR team coached them on how to improve for next time. In the afternoon, participants were sent to preach in site located all around Arusha. Some of them had never preached before but they…

Source:: sda website

By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (Kimberly Luste Maran)

The SONscreen Film Festival began somewhat inauspiciously in 2002.
Stacia Wright (then Dulan) was finishing up her postgraduate internship in the North American Division’s Vervent office when Director Jere Wallack (who passed away in 2018) said to her, “I have a project specifically for you. I sat down with Ray Tetz and we came up with a name—it’s called SONscreen. But we have not defined what SONscreen is. That’s up to you.”
Wallack explained that the division wanted a project for young…

Source:: sda website

By AdventistNews@gc.adventist.org (James Ponder)

A vegan diet was found to produce the healthiest levels of diet-related biomarkers compared to other diet patterns, according to a Loma Linda University study. The study was reported last month in The Journal of Nutrition.
Like clues at a crime scene, biomarkers in blood, urine, fat tissue and other biospecimens can serve as indicators or predictors of health and disease. Biomarkers may have favorable or unfavorable health effects, promoting or preventing cancer, cardiovascular and age-related…

Source:: sda website