- The President of the Allegheny East Conference (AEC), Henry J. Fordham, and wife, Sharon Fordham, died tragically in a fire on July 18 at their home in Douglassville, Pennsylvania. Elder Fordham had served as AEC president since October 2012 and spent his entire 47-year ministerial career serving the AEC as a teacher, pastor, departmental leader, and administrator. Sharon Fordham dedicated her life to raising her children and grandchildren, and as first lady of the Columbia Union’s second largest conference, she was instrumental in supporting her husband’s ministry. Their compassionate, godly leadership had a great impact, and they will be missed by all.
- More than 23,000 people joined the Adventist church after a coordinated evangelistic event across Mexico in June. The special week of “reaping” crowned months of evangelistic initiatives across the five unions in Mexico. The guest speaker for the closing week was Pastor Alejandro Bullón, whose messages reached an average of 280,000 people each evening, on top of the more than 300,000 on the opening night, thanks to the region’s distribution platform systems through the support of Hope Channel Inter-America.
- Amidst social unrest, Adventists in Cuba are living by faith, reports Pastor Aldo Pérez, president of the Cuban Union Conference. “God is sustaining us with His hand, and we solicit the prayers from all our brothers and sisters in Inter-America and around the world, so we don’t feel alone, and see God’s work in bringing peace and reconciliation to our nation.” Although they are experiencing many hardships, God is working miracles among His people, according to Pastor Pérez, who is asking for prayer from the worldwide family of Seventh-day Adventists.
- Following unprecedented flooding and disaster in the country of Belgium, ADRA worked with local authorities and social services to assess needs. On July 19, ADRA mobilized teams of volunteers from various Adventist churches in Belgium to help the victims of the floods in Verviers. In addition to clearing debris and evacuating homes about to collapse, the volunteers also provided comfort and emotional support to the victims. ADRA also deployed a team in Germany following flood damage in that country.
- Despite the pandemic, youth work has moved steadily forward in the Southern Africa- Indian Ocean Division. Following the worldwide Youth Week of Prayer and Homecoming Sabbath this past Spring, unprecedented numbers of young people decided to be baptized. In the Southern Zambia Union Conference, the Lusaka Conference baptized more than 1,900 youth. In the Northern Zambia Union Conference, more than 12,000 young people were baptized. Leaders attribute the results to dedicated young people, prioritizing youth participation in the church’s mission, and God’s intervention.
- Due to God’s blessing and the unconventional efforts of 36 Voice of Youth (VOY) teams of the Northern Luzon Mission in the Philippines, 549 people, including 3 pastors from other denominations, were recently baptized following the efforts of the VOY young people. Because of COVID-related restrictions numerous creative outreach methods were used, including limited face-to-face evangelistic meetings, house-to-house visits, radio broadcasts, Google Meet, Facebook Live, and online Bible studies