Free Mass Male Choir Preview

We have unfortunately reached a cut-off limit for new applicants. But the good news is that at 18h00 on 14 August at Athlone SDA Curch the male choir will deliver a brief recital featuring the current repertoire. All welcome to come and listen. For the choir members, your rehearsal starts at 16h30. See you there.

A date for the recording [DVD & CD] has been finalised being the 17 October 2004. Please watch this site for the ticket prices.

Women's Ministries Retreat

Ladies, are you stressed by today's frantic and complicated pace or caught between too much to do and too little time, maybe you are pulled in so many directions they don't know whether you are coming or going. If this sounds like you, then here's how to handle life's priorities so you can become a Woman of Excellence. Adventists Woman's ministries (AWM) is sponsoring a seminar by Nancy van Pelt in picturesque Hartenbos in October.

Not to be out done the Youth Adventist Women's Ministries (YAWM) also brings you Sapphires, Rubies, Pearls and YOU! by Gail Hamilton Masondo at the same venue. A wife, mother, chaplain, writer, consultant--she is a visionary in every right.

For more info and contacts download poster here
Guys we'll have to organise our own getaway in October.

Great Firewall of China

This story is about a week old but recently in China, the government has allegedly denied Internet access to a wide variety of religious websites, including sites concerning religious freedom and the Tibetan Dalai Lama. The Forum 18 News Service reports that the Internet censorship is an effort by the Chinese government to control Internet usage in a country where nearly 80 million people are connected to the web. That number is expected to double in the next six months. Interestingly, China’s Golden Shield firewall only blocks religious freedom websites written in Chinese languages but allows such websites written in European languages.

So next time your'e surfing be thankful can read this and the majority of the internet. In South Africa we have other restrictions however. Did you know VoIP is illegal in SA. But that's another issue for another time.

Sudan still in Crisis

Sudan is condemning the U.N. Resolution for its government to disarm the Arab militia (Janjaweed) in 30 days. For fifteen months already an armed militia have been accused of killing thousands and destroying entire villages. Children have been wounded and are sick, and thousands of women have been brutally raped.

So far, ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) has airlifted 35 metric tons of relief aid, including blankets, tents, therapeutic food, and medicine to 45,000 people. And 12,000 more are receiving clothing and seeds.

Let's hope the politicians stop dragging their feet and do something constructive.
Source: BBC

UPDATE: Safarig, a Global Mission Center in the Darfur region of Sudan, was attacked and leveled to the ground by Janjweed militias. Homes were burned, and an Adventist church was destroyed.

“Everybody fled for his life,” says local church leader Daniel Marach. Forty-six church members, along with many others, managed to travel safely to a camp in Abujabra. According to Marach, the journey was difficult, but no one was injured.

Source: Adventist News Network