Stories & Commentaries

As we remember how life in the United States and around the world changed 20 years ago when 3,000 lost their lives in terrorist acts on September 11, 2001, I urge our members in the North American Division to pray for those who were impacted by these events and lost loved ones on that day.

Tim Kosaka, director of marketing and public relations at Southwestern Adventist University (SWAU), never saw himself living and working in Texas. His prayer, though, was that God would lead him to a place where his faith would be strengthened, with a church community in which he could serve.

The Marshall Islands got a little brighter this summer with the arrival of the first Marshallese GLOW tract. These pocket-sized pamphlets attract readers by offering information on relevant topics like health, relationships, and Biblical truths. The Marshallese tract marks the first one published in the local island language.

The political and social events of the year 2020 have once again pushed unresolved issues around race relations in the United States to center stage in our national and international conversations. The video-recorded murder of George Floyd by a police officer on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, represented for millions a tipping point, one that elicited an outcry by leaders who highlighted historical inequity and called for social justice across a diverse range of political, commercial, academic, and ecclesiastical institutions.

Growing up today as a teenager is challenging to say the least. On top of social pressure, which has always been around, we have social media, which didn’t exist when I was growing up. Some of the issues that confront youth today include anorexia, bullying, cyber addiction, depression, legalized marijuana, sexting, sex trafficking, fake news, vaping, drinking, and smoking, to name a few. What is a parent to do? What can the church do? 

At 17, Charis McRoy is Guide magazine’s youngest columnist by several decades. That doesn’t, however, mean she has any less to say than her more experienced counterparts. When Lori Futcher, Guide’s editor, and Laura Samano, managing editor, met McRoy at the 2019 Pathfinder Camporee, they knew they’d found someone special. They prayed with McRoy then and there about her potential future work with the magazine.

Adventist World executive editor Bill Knott recently spoke with Karnik Doukmetzian, general counsel of the General Conference and the North American Division, about dubious charities with unverifiable projects that take advantage of church members.

The North American Division and the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church designate a special day each year during the month of June for Refugee Sabbath ("World Refugee Sabbath") to raise awareness of the needs of the unprecedented numbers of refugees who have fled their homes due to war and persecution. This year, on June 19, two significant events occurred on Refugee Sabbath, serving to empower refugees and their leaders in ministry.

Marissa Channer doesn’t know the exact moment her disease started, but she remembers a significant turning point with her health. It was in February 2016, around the same time she started her role as a financial services accountant at AdventHealth University in Florida.

When the pandemic started, Southwestern Adventist University nursing graduates Dex Esmeralda (2019) and Luke Zabala (2018) were fresh in their careers. Little did they know, they would soon join thousands of nurses across the country experiencing a time unlike any other — encountering more trauma in a year than some nurses encounter in a lifetime. Yet both were prepared for the challenges at hand because of the clinical and spiritual training they received at SWAU.