News Articles

On December 30, 2021, the Marshall Fire tore through portions of Colorado, reportedly burning up to 1,000 homes and structures. Sunrise brought to light the full extent of the damage throughout Superior and Louisville, Colorado, after firefighters fought to contain the blaze in Boulder County. It also confirmed the fears of some families that their house was gone, while others tried to get information any way possible on their property.

In 2021, the North American Division website garnered more than 1.2 million unique page views. More than 408,000 unique page views were directed to NAD news articles. The top 10 most-visited news articles for 2021, with links to each story, are listed here.

Make no mistake, while Nicole and Victor Broushet run two restaurants in Massachusetts, with the second one opening in July 2021, they are involved in so much more that they hesitate to define their cafés — and their career paths — as traditional. “We consider what we do medical missionary work,” said Nicole. “And it’s about creating community. We’re not just a restaurant. I always joke about how I actually forget sometimes that we are a restaurant, because we have all of these other aspects.”

On December 12, 2021, the sun beamed down on a crisp afternoon as a stream of personal vehicles pulled into the North American Division headquarters’ parking lot. Once parked, people of all ages were welcomed and directed inside to the second COVID-19 vaccine clinic held this fall at the headquarters.

December 10, 2021 was a momentous day for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Adventist HealthCare (AHC) and distinguished Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), as the life and legacy of Lucille “Lucy” Byard was both recognized and honored. Lucy Byard was a Black Seventh-day Adventist member who was turned away by the Washington Sanitarium in 1943 because of the color of her skin.

For the second year in a row, the Orangevale Seventh-day Adventist Church hosted a drive-thru Christmas event for its community. On Dec. 11, the California church welcomed more than 350 people who came to view a manger scene with real animals, hear voice and bell choirs, enjoy refreshments, and receive gifts. They also had the opportunity to participate in a canned food drive for the church’s food closet.

The phone rang late on New Year’s Eve. The call relayed the worst news.  The Smiths* had not returned from their trip to Kotzebue, Alaska. Edna and Jose, Arctic Mission Adventure (AMA) workers, sprang into action. As members of the Selawik search and rescue team, they knew that they’d be working against the clock.

North American Division Adventist Community Services (NAD ACS) has been working to keep up with the latest situation in the U.S. states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Arkansas, Missouri, and Mississippi after a historic long-track tornado ripped a wide swath of destruction across these states. The tornado event struck late Friday, December 10, into Saturday morning, December 11. 

On a Thursday afternoon this fall quarter, students in Charles Dickerson’s Introduction to Black Studies class, a new offering at La Sierra University, got an up-close look at a pair of rough iron slave shackles carefully displayed in a shadow box frame — historial objects Dickerson purchased more than 20 years ago. For some it was an emotionally powerful moment. 

G. Alexander Bryant: “Here we are again, the end of another year, 2021. And as we look back on this year, we can see that there have been challenges, there have been COVID restrictions, there have been vaccination mandates — there have been all these challenges that we've had before us.”