Mexico brings a record breaking 23,000 new church members; and other world news

This week on ANN News: In Mexico, Seventh-day Adventists celebrate the more than 23,000 people who joined the church after a coordinated evangelistic event across the nation. The special week of ‘reaping’ crowned months of evangelistic initiatives across the five unions and major church regions. For the closing week of evangelism, the guest speaker was Alejandro Bullón, who delivered a spiritual message online every evening from Brazil. Under the theme “Hope Beyond Uncertainty,” Bullón’s messages reached an average of 280,000 people each evening. The comprehensive effort was coordinated by the city of Mérida, where the Southeast Mexican Union leaders led the rest of the church regions in Mexico in facilitating the landmark initiative. The feature film ‘Uncertainties,’ produced by the video platform Feliz7Play, was awarded in the Best Foreign Film category during this year’s International Christian Visual Media (ICVM) Crown Awards held on June 23 in the United States. During one of the world’s largest Christian media events, the ceremony took place, at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. ICVM was created in the 1970s to celebrate films and the work of filmmakers to encourage and inspire creativity by presenting examples of excellence in communicating Christian values. Under its motto, “Justice, Compassion, and Love,” the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Colombia recently distributed 1,100 hygiene kits among Venezuelan migrants in the northern town of Arauquita. The kits distributed by ADRA’s workers and volunteers will benefit families displaced after conflicts broke out in the area and arrived in the 43,000-resident border city looking for shelter. The team traveled to Arauquita to support local lay church members and volunteers in distributing the kits to the families in need. The country of Slovakia has witnessed highest number of COVID-19 cases, with nearly 100 news deaths daily from January to March this year, according to Worldometer, a real-time world statistics database. The death toll has been decreasing, according to local reports. Still, older adults, people without homes, marginalized communities, and people with disabilities remain heavily impacted due to lack of access to COVID-19 resources. The most vulnerable are the elderly, whom the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has been aiding. In Portugal, church and state have been separated by law since 1911. It was not until 2001, however, that the state legally recognized full religious liberty rights. Since that time, with the approval of the Religious Liberty Law, citizens and communities have enjoyed an open and tolerant legal frame to live, practice, and share their beliefs. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of this law, the Portuguese Religious Liberty Commission, an official entity that defends and upholds the law content; and the High Commissariat for Migrations, a governmental agency that promotes inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue, organized a conference detailing the history, achievements, and the future of religious liberty developments in Portugal. The conference included participation by the president of the Republic of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the Minister of State and Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Minister of Justice, and other official entities, religious and academic leaders. The Samoa and Tokelau Adventist Mission launched its first-ever online visual radio station. In the region, the Samoa and Tokelau Adventist Mission president, Sione Ausage, made the first transmission delivering a spiritual message. He emphasized the significance of the Three Angels’ Messages going to all the world. Streaming on weekdays from 6 am to 6 pm on Facebook, knew station includes a diverse range of Bible studies and health programs. According to reports from the Samoa and Tokelau Mission media committee, implementing an online radio has been a priority due to the easy access and ability to reach a much wider audience. The North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church represents more than 1.2 million members spanning from Bermuda over the mainland to Palau. Adventists in North America continue to reach out to and form community with native people groups such as Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and First Nations people in their local communities across the region. More from Adventist Mission. For more current events and inspiring stories, go to News | Adventist News Network Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3BhyB_ciZ4