News Articles

On the night of April 12, 2020, my wife Lou and I were getting ready for bed and listening to the weather forecasters announce the tornado watches and warnings. When they announced that the worst of the storms had passed, I turned the TV off. We changed ino our pajamas, said our prayers together, which is our nightly custom. The screech of metal and loud banging woke me from sleep. It was our tin roof being yanked off the house as a tornado hit.

Uber drivers Alex and Janeth Partyka found that one of the more difficult — and intimidating — aspects of witnessing was knowing when and how to witness in a non-invasive way. When Janeth started driving full time, she came up with an idea that has opened up many more opportunities to witness to their riders in a natural, personal way.

The New Hope Seventh-day Adventist Church, Columbia Union Conference, and several ministries at the North American Division (NAD) contributed funds to provide two separate meals to the approximately 1,000 healthcare workers on staff at Howard County General Hospital.

Behind the numbers of cases and deaths related to COVID-19 are human beings with loved ones and families. Those loved ones are not able to say their goodbyes gathered around the bedside, nor are they able to lay the deceased to rest with a memorial service, or any of the customary practices. This creates an unusual circumstance for those who care for the living and the dead.

Can our Adventist students make a difference in the global fight against COVID-19? Brendon, a student at Forest Lake Academy, gives a resounding “Yes!” When asked about his innovation with the face masks, Brendon explains, “God has put me in this position knowing the skills I have to help put an end to this crisis.”

Students at SOULS West, Pacific Union Conference’s evangelism training school located in Prescott, Arizona, are partnering with the Pacific Press Publishing Association to help deliver hope. With help from Pacific Press, SOULS West students started raising funds to send thousands of copies of "The Great Hope," an abridged, modern-language version of Ellen G. White’s classic book "The Great Controversy," to COVID-19-ravaged Los Angeles, California.

NAD ACS is committed to supporting the operations of the ACS food pantry ministries of the 60 local conferences within the NAD territory (United States, Canada, Bermuda, and Guam-Micronesia). In order to provide that support, NAD ACS is investing $1.5 million and allocating a grant of $25,000 per conference for relief efforts.

An EF-3 tornado brought havoc and death to southeastern Tennessee and north Georgia in the middle of the night on Easter Sunday, April 13. The tornado caused widespread destruction and 16 deaths. Two Seventh-day Adventist Churches in Tennessee were significantly damaged.

Adventist Health announced on April 8, 2020, that it has acquired Blue Zones®, a pioneer in taking a systemic and environmental approach to improving the health of entire cities and communities. This revolutionary move by Adventist Health comes at a time when public attention is especially focused on the interconnectedness of our health to that of our friends and neighbors in the face of the coronavirus disease crisis.

Tornadoes touched down just feet away from the It Is Written ministry headquarters in Collegedale, Tennessee, early Monday morning, April 13, 2020. Reports of power outages, missing persons, and deaths filled local news reports Monday morning. When staff went to check on the building, they were met with debris all across the parking lot and hundreds of trees snapped in half all around the building.