TED News Bulletin Trans-European Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church 6 February 2008 In this issue: ------------------------- * England: RELAY Christ Receives Large Grant * Cyprus: First KID to Cyprus * Sudan: Sudan Field Hosts Pastors' Council * Denmark: ADRA Denmark Project Wins Prize * USA: Adventist Elected Judge of International Criminal Court ------------------------- ‘RELAY CHRIST’ RECEIVES LARGE GRANT...[TED News Staff/TED News] St Albans, England – The Trans-European Division (TED) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church recently received a large grant of 4.5 million US Dollars for its new project, RELAY Christ, an innovative evangelistic outreach project. This funding which was made possible through extraordinary tithe allocations from the Headquarters of the World Church, was granted in response to the submission of an integrated proposal with united goals and action steps to be implemented in the TED region during and within the next five year period. RELAY Christ has three main goals: To increase the retention of young people from 52% to 70% in the Church, in 25 of the countries in Europe and the Middle East; to train and engage 20% of youth by 2012 in spiritual leadership, and application of innovative outreach work; and to create a continuous satellite and World-Wide-Web presence using interactive programmes to reach the Net Generations, with a potential audience of 628 million viewers and surfers. “This is very encouraging, and shows that the focus of our Church on mission and outreach is still strong, despite the challenges our territory faces.” commented TED president Bertil Wiklander. “We are grateful to the World Church for what it has done, we are adding funds to their allocation, and pray that God will bless these initiatives.” Raafat Kamal, Field Secretary, and co-author of the proposal wrote: “What we do today has implication for how future generations will be reached. The history of the Church reveals how certain generational waves change the Church in some fashion, often bringing renewal. We envision that reaching children and youth...over the next five to eight years will bring renewal [to the Church].” Last year, nearly 1,1 million US Dollars was allocated from the Trans-European Division and the office of Adventist Mission of the World Church, to support Evangelism projects in the region. FIRST KID TO CYPRUS...[MEU News/TED News Staff/TED News] Strovolos, Cyprus – The Adventist Church in Cyprus has initiated the Kids in Discipleship (KID) pilot programme in Nicosia, in response to the challenge of retaining young people in the church; aiming for the goal set forth by the founders of the KID programme: “...to lead children to be faithful, fruitful disciples of Jesus Christ.” “Our congregation has taken intentional steps to launch the KID programme in our church,” says Joanne Elmadjian. “The church sponsored four of us to attend the KID’s training workshop in England last March, with the understanding that we would come back prepared and equipped to launch a pilot programme in Nicosia, and then eventually train a KID team in Limassol, the second largest city in Cyprus. Apart from that training, our weekly preachers were provided with relevant discipleship topics to present in the run-up to the launch date. Plus we have had an active prayer ministry team who has upheld the presenters and the programme in regular prayer...So far we have been very encouraged with the attendance, not just by our members but with the significant support of friends from other denominations too.” In order to facilitate parents who may need to pre-arrange childcare to even contemplate attending such meetings, the Children’s Ministries department of the church provided supervised crafts and activities for their children so that they could listen and participate without distractions. Valerie Fidelia, recently appointed KID director for Cyprus, said: “Our church members – scattered across the island – have a burden for the families in our church and also in the community. We are praying for ‘staying power’ not only for the participants but also for the very enthusiastic leaders. We believe that God has led greatly thus far and we are relying on His power to take us forward.” SUDAN FIELD HOSTS PASTORS’ COUNCIL...[MEU News/TED News Staff/TED News] Khartoum, Sudan - Some forty pastors and Bible workers from various parts of Sudan attended a Pastors’ Council, initiated by the Middle East Union (MEU) and Trans-European Division (TED) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, to strengthen the ministerial force of the country. The Pastors’ Council dealt with various topics such as: Pastoral Work, The Pastor’s Role, Theological Foundations for Salvation, Servant Leadership and Contextualized Preaching. Moreover, numerous practical and theological questions were dealt with during the lectures, which were held in the Sudanese Capital, Khartoum, from 16-20 January 2008. Dr Bertil Wiklander, TED president and also one of the lecturers, was present to hear the reports from the various parts of the country, as well as share in the thrilling news that 733 people had given their lives to the Lord in 2007, bringing the total membership, just in the Northern Region, to over 7,000. Other lecturers from the TED included Dr Daniel Duda, ministerial director, and Dr Janos Kovacs Biro, evangelism director. Dr Kjell Aune, president of the Adventist Church in the Middle East, whose territory includes Sudan, and Dr Maywald Jesudass, Education and Ministerial director, both traveling from their headquarters’ offices in Beirut, Lebanon were, likewise, among the guest lecturers. Dr Aune comments that “It was inspiring to spend time with the pastoral team in the Sudan Field. They were attentive, and had many interesting experiences and challenges to share. This is a group of hard working, dedicated servants of the Lord, with a dynamic leadership. The training given, together with other systematic pastoral training provided to these workers, will hopefully lead to further growth in the great country of Sudan.” ADRA DENMARK PROJECT WINS PRIZE...[ADRA.dk/TED News Staff/TED News] Naerum, Denmark - A television serial drama produced by ADRA Denmark in cooperation with ADRA Malawi, and financially supported by Danish International Development Assistance (Danida), recently won the local prize, “National Achiever”, for their ability to engage the local population in issues associated with HIV/AIDS. The serial drama, “Tikuferanji”, produced for both TV and radio broadcasting, has been created with the intention of providing information about the consequences of HIV/AIDS, preventive measures to the disease, and existing treatment. It is estimated that the serious message, wrapped in humour and intrigues, is being watched weekly by more than 1 million TV viewers, and has about 5 million listeners. “We are trying to...set off a debate among people which will increase the awareness of the disease and even more, how to avoid contracting it”, says Anja Larsen, Technical Advisor for ADRA in Malawi. Malawi in one of the countries with the highest percentage of HIV infected persons per inhabitants. It is estimated that about 15% of the population aged 15 – 49 have been infected with the virus, which totals about 900.000. ADVENTIST ELECTED JUDGE OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT...[ANN Staff/TED News] Maryland, United States - A Seventh-day Adventist law professor was sworn in as one of the 18 judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), The Hague, Netherlands, on 17 January. Dr Daniel D. Ntanda Nsereko, most recently a professor of law at the University of Botswana where he also headed up the Department of Law, was nominated to the ICC by the Ugandan government and endorsed by the African Union last year. Nsereko and two other nominees were elected by ICC member states from among 10 candidates in early December. Previously, Nsereko worked as a trial lawyer in Uganda, and was later named an ICC bar counsel, which allowed him to represent clients at The Hague. Nsereko, a prolific writer on international and criminal law and human rights, has taught related subjects at the university level for more than 25 years. In 1996, the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law awarded Nsereko a medal recognizing his contributions to international human rights and criminal law reform. He has also served as visiting scholar to a number of universities and institutes. The ICC, an independent court established in 2002 to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, currently has jurisdiction over its 105 member states. ___________________________________________________________________ TED News Staff: Paul Clee, News Director and Editor Heidi Kamal Kendel, Editorial Assistant 119 St Peter's Street, St Albans, Herts., AL1 3EY, England E-mail: tednews@ted-adventist.org Website: www.ted-adventist.org TED News is an information bulletin issued by the Communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division. You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin without the need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify TED News whenever you publish these materials. You can unsubscribe from this mailing list by replying to this email and putting "unsubscribe" in the subject line.