News Articles

More than a year after record-setting Hurricane Harvey made landfall, the damage done to Texas still seems harrowingly fresh. This is no surprise, considering that 50 inches of rain flooded homes, schools, businesses, and more. Many people are still struggling to recover from the category four hurricane, however, the Oaks Adventist Christian School (the Oaks) in Cypress, Texas, is able to count many blessings that resulted from the tragedy.

The North American Division piloted a Women in STEM conference initiative in partnership with Ophelia Barizo, Ph.D., the STEM coordinator at the Chesapeake Conference, on April 19, 2019, at Spencerville Adventist Academy in Silver Spring, Maryland. Middle and high school students were invited to participate in the conference that included a panel of women from government agencies and the private sector who are leaders in the field of STEM.

Doctors at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital recently conducted the institution’s first stem cell transplant in a sickle cell disease patient, effectively curing her of the inherited blood disease. The successful procedure offers hope and accessible treatment to those suffering from the disease in the Inland Empire and surrounding regions.

On March 13, 2019, Pastor Robert Costa, speaker/director of Escrito Está, It Is Written’s Spanish-speaking ministry, visited President Jimmy Morales, president of Guatemala, to both express Escrito Está’s commitment to sharing Jesus and to pray for him in his role as the country’s leader.

Seventh-day Adventist church member Darrell Patterson’s religious discrimination case against Walgreens continues to gain interest and support. Patterson asked the United States Supreme Court to hear his religious discrimination case. He was fired by Walgreens in 2011 because he refused to work at a call center on the Sabbath.

The Union College Red Cross Club was called into action to manage a multi-agency warehouse in Omaha for donations coming in from around the country for victim's of the March 2018 flooding across Nebraska.

Adventist Community Services Disaster Response (ACS DR) recently entered into a partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help restore livelihood to residents still recovering from Super Typhoon Yutu, which struck the Northern Mariana Islands and the Philippines late October 2018. The islands are part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America’s (NAD) Guam-Micronesia Mission.

The Sonscreen Film Festival broke records this year as 265 student filmmakers, professors, professionals, and enthusiasts screened 57 official selections during the event on April 4-6, 2019. The official selections came from a pool of 95 submissions.

For 18 years the festival has provided young adult filmmakers the opportunity to share their work, learn from professionals, network, and receive recognition for their work.

Carl McRoy was officially voted to serve as publishing/literature ministries director for the North American Division on November 2 during the division’s 2018 Year-End Meeting. The position had been vacant for more than 10 years. McRoy had previously worked as publishing director for the South Atlantic Conference for nearly 11 years, in his final two years in the position, he also served as the conference’s communication director.