Twelve years ago the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Rwanda was thriving with some 285,000 members. But then came the Spring of 1994 and more than 800,000 people were murdered during the first 100 days of the Rwanda genocide, including an estimated 10,000
"With many of our new members surviving on less than 50 cents per day there is no way that local Adventist churches can support the salaries of teachers," said Pastor D. Ronald Watts, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Southern Asia.
"It used to be that even if you were qualified for a top position in the church as a woman you would not be considered at all," says Daisy Orion, an associate treasurer for the Seventh-day Adventist world church.
North America: Andrews University Appoints New Academic Deans, South Africa: Missionary and HIV/AIDS Worker Awarded, Loma Linda University to Host American Health Care Congress, Cyprus: Arabic Health Book Launched in Middle East
The impact of changes and flexibility within the structure of the Seventh-day Adventist world church was presented during the 2006 Annual Council by Lowell C. Cooper, a general vice president of the world church and vice chair of the 102-member Commission
More than a century after the first Seventh-day Adventists began working in the nation, the church in Latvia is on the verge of official recognition as a traditional faith by the government, according to regional church president Valdis Zilgalvis.