Columbia Union Visitor for 1988

1.7 EDITORIAL VISITOR REVISITED Anise and cumin Those of us trained from earliest THAT'S was sitting with a group childhood to put the tithe aside as of strangers. This was my support group. I was coming the first step in money manage- JUST ment—even when our income was here twice a week for help for my son. All eyes in the only a few pennies for chores—de- WHAT group were turned toward me. What changes was I veloped habits of systematic benev- MY WIFE going to make? olence that have made us happy, The people in our group were fast becoming close involved members of the church. NEEDS For us there has never been the friends, sharing secret things which a few months ago slightest temptation to withhold or we would never have revealed to anyone. Just how divert the tithe in our adult years. meaningful it was going to be for me was slowly dawn- Blessings upon our godly parents ing. I was making changes. who early taught us to belong to the I wanted everyone else to change, too. This experi- Adventist church by financial par- ticipation, as well as attendance at ence would help my wife. A discussion in a previous services. session was just what she needed. Several times I ob- CLINTON TROTT served that these required sessions would definitely be Centerville, Ohio helpful to my daughter. But tonight was my night. My changes. Bundled Visitors I appreciate the professional qual- I've reflected on that painful experience many times ity of the Visitor. Whenever my son since. And here's what I've learned. Changed behavior "comes home" to New York, I count can only happen when we honestly look at ourselves. on a bundle of Visitors coming with I thought I could be powerful over the rest of the fam- him. They help me keep in touch ily, when my responsibility rested in my concentration with what's going on at the Advent- ist headquarters. on changes I needed to make. PATRICIA HOWELL HERBERT H. BROECKEL I have the desire, and God pledges His support. The President Wappinger Falls, New York Mountain View Conference Bible says, "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength,"—Philippians 4:13 NIV. Covering politics It's amazing how something so simple and so true I find no redeeming value in your partisan political cover of February sinks in so slowly. Most of us concentrate on trying to 15. Enough has been said by E.G. change others when all along the only person one can White condemning political dabbl- change is himself—and then only through a power ing that I need not repeat it here. higher than ourselves. One wonders if this is continuing The next time you are tempted to think that the prob- evidence of the preoccupation of too many Adventist journalists with lems you face are the fault of circumstances, external social, ethnic and political topics events or other people, take a risk. Ask God to show in which social engineers delight. you what changes He wants you to make. It will sur- These lead to a gospel of divisive- prise you how quickly He will come to your aid. ness and polarization rather than You might even discover, as I did, that when you con- Christ-centeredness. GERARD FREEMAN centrate on making needed changes in yourself, cir- East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania cumstances will suddenly seem better. And the power for change comes from God. There is no greater dis- At first glance at the front page on covery in life than this. the February 15 issue of the Visitor, I was shocked. The Visitor is a church The text credited to NIV is from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, International Bible Society. Used by permission of religious magazine; the election of Zondervan Bible Publishers. a president is a state issue. CHARLES ALBRIGHT York, Pennsylvania Editor's note: Members of the Visi- tor staff thought it was unique that a Columbia Union member was run- COVER: Last November Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, ning for president. Our cover pic- Maryland, celebrated the 11th Annual Great American Smokeout, when the hospital challenged patients and staffers to go 24 hours without smoking. tures throughout 1988 will feature Infants in the nursery were dressed in T-shirts to honor the day, as modeled people of the Columbia Union, for by the two babies held by M. Amanda Morgan, a registered nurse. Glenn Dalby, God loves neither buildings nor in- staff photographer at WAH, photographed the scene. stitutions, but people. 2 VISITOR, April 15, 1988 HARVEST BO NEW JERSEY—Pastors have organized plans OHIO—Members of the Zanesville church to conduct 88 evangelistic campaigns during the rejoiced with Jerry Davis as he brought his new TRAIN spring. In setting long-range goals, the pastors ATTEND bride, Kathy, to church each Sabbath. And their plan to establish 20 new churches in various joy was full when the young woman was bap- parts of New Jersey, bringing the total number tized, reports Wilma Powell, church communi- of congregations to 89 by the end of 1990. cation secretary. The church workers and their families spent a few days together One Sabbath, the Davises sat with Pastor Merlin and Sarah Burt in retreat at Doanington, Pennsylvania. Conference President during dinner after the morning worship service. Kathy explained Robert Boggess said, "Jesus said it was necessary for evangelistic to Sarah that she had been baptized by sprinkling as an infant, but workers to withdraw from the crowds for a short time of physical didn't understand baptism by immersion. "How do you get bap- and spiritual renewal. We met with our colleagues in ministry to tized?" she asked. study and pray together, and to plan for the work of God." Not ones to miss an opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus, Robert Wood, church ministries director for the Southwestern Sarah and her husband visited with the Davises often, studying the Union who has coordinated dark county work for the Texas Con- Bible together. ference, gave practical information on organizing and starting new Several months later, Kathy was baptized. At her request, Zanes- congregations. Roland Hegstad of the General Conference Public ville member Margaret Pinotte sang "Amazing Grace," a favorite Affairs and Religious Liberty Department brought devotional mes- hymn Kathy remembered her grandmother singing during times of sages and news from Liberty magazine. trial and temptation. FACE TO FACE: Profiles of newly baptized people Naeem Newman, Margaret Cori- Michael Estes, Calvin Griffin Sr., ennifer Martin, Jim Wallis, Sea- Beshia Lee, Al- Emmanuel Brink- oni, Capital Me- Takoma Park, Po- Franklin, Poto- Takoma Park, brook, Potomac. lentown, Penn- low, Allegheny morial, Potomac. tomac. The liter- mac. After study- Potomac. Jenni- Jim started Bible sylvania. A native East. He resisted A follower of sev- ature evangelist ing the Bible with fer's parents are studies looking of Taiwan with a the pastor's ap- eral Adventist ra- he was dating Charles Reep Seventh-day Ad- for a way to "stay master's degree peals for a while, dio and television studied the Bible since 1983, he ventists. Because close to God." Af- in library science, but "My heart programs, she with him. He felt it was time to she wanted to ter getting a po- she was baptized kept saying, also studied inde- then attended a commit his life to follow in their sition at work that in December of 'Stand up! Stand pendently before community Bible the Lord and was footsteps, she gave him Sab- 1987 and enjoys up!" He was her profession of class and was baptized in Oc- was baptized in baths off, he was the church's VBS, baptized in faith in Novem- baptized in Feb- tober of 1987. January of 1987. ready for baptism Pathfinder and March of 1987. ber of 1987. ruary of 1987. in July of 1987. youth activities. VISITOR, April 15, 1988 3 He's been quoted in numerous periodicals and newspapers and has been featured in Ebony, Newsweek, KEITH POTTS Time and the Wash- ington Post. But the story you won't find captured by the public The, media is Dr. Ben Car- son's vital, malleable critical connection bond with Jesus—the and Ultimate Healer. Ben Car- press me—and He Ben Carson grew son, 36, leads does. He gives me def- up in Detroit, Michi- a very busy inite impressions of gan. His was not an schedule at which way to go and easy life. "My par- Johns Hopkins invariably it is the right ents were divorced Hospital in way." when I was eight Baltimore, His impressions and years old," Carson S Maryland. supporting actions have remembers. "My He faces an intenser surgery schedule impressed others. Recently, Al Konrad, brother, Curtis, and I were raised by my and a wide variety of surgical situations. pastor of the Wheaton, Maryland, Sev- mother in a Christian home as Adventists." He does craniofacial reconstructions, enth-day Adventist Church and host of With that foundation, Carson began his correcting birth defects of the upper "Sabbath Celebration," a weekly contem- academic career in one of Detroit's in- face, head and skull joints. porary Christian music-talk program on ner-city schools. It was an uphill climb Carson works on brain tumors, vascu- WGTS-FM, interviewed Carson by tele- from the start. "I was not a good student lar problems, head injuries, brain and phone during a broadcast. initially. I was quite a poor student. In related deformities, problems of the spi- "How can a man educated in science fact, I was the worst student in my class," nal cord and compression tumors.

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