News for July 2008

 

 

 

Thank You Pastor Clarke and Family

The Bahamas Conference office staff, pastors, departmental directors, conference administrators, committee members, and local church elders and their spouses, came together on Monday, July 28, 2008, at 12 noon, to bid farewell to Pastor Eric Clarke, his wife, Patrice, and their children, Duran, Dannia, Danesha.  Pastor Clarke was elected president of the Cayman Island Conference of Seventh-day Adventists at the recent Conference Session held in Cayman Islands.  The family will take up residence in Cayman by the end of August in time for the new school year for the children.   We all gathered under white tents at the rear of the Conference office where we listened to remarks and best wishes from various individuals.  See photos below.  Click to enlarge.

	President Johnson bids farewell
Denise Johnson speaks on behalf of the ministers spouses	Anthony Burrows, school principal, speaks on behal of Bahamas Academy
	The Tent
Sidney Forbes, head elder of the Centreville Church, speaks on behalf of all elders.	The gifts
What a surprise!	C. Melvin Lewis, hosting the special occasion
Barrington Brennen, director of Family Ministries, speaking on behalf of the departmental directors	Dean of Adventist pastors in The Bahamas gives sound advise to Pastor Clarke
	"That you for this Eddie Minnis painting" Pastor Clarke said.
	Pastor H. A. Roach gives his remarks
Pastor Paul Scavella giving the prayer	Charlisa Cash singing
Pastor Eric Clarke	The fellowship

 

 

 

 

 

Internet Ministries Explodes

Here are two new ways to experience excitement and make new friends over the Internet.  These are two ways of creating our own online Adventist community. 

This week Internet Ministries created two new websites for the purpose of members to interact with each other.  First, there is “Da Dillie Tree.”  It is a website designed for Adventist Youth to interact with each other.  This is their meeting place for fun, sharing of files, information, news, events, etc.  

Second, there is “The Bahamas Conference Fellowship Hall”  This site is designed for every member to share and fellowship.  Anyone can read everything on each website.  However, only approved members can join in the discussions, forums, etc, or share files.   To become a member each person is approved by a moderator.  Dr. Martin Hanna is already online to answer your Bible Questions (Pow Wow with Dr. Martin Hanna)  Go online, join, and have fun.

These website are wonderful places for Adventists to meet anytime during the week  (day or night), including Sabbath.  It is a place we can discuss positive points heard in a Sabbath sermon, this week's Lesson Study, etc.   The links to these website will always be located on the front page of this website on the top left site under the name "Adventist Meetings Rooms"

What is important is that these rooms are not designed for persons to defame anyone or spread gossip or rumors, etc.   It is a place for honest sharing and Christ-like dialogue.  The use of vulgar language is prohibited.  Barrington H. Brennen, Web Servant

 

 

 

 

Adventist Basketball Champions

Centreville Seventh-day Adventist Church Stoppers

 

‘Miss Claris’ has her mind made up at age 102

Claris Davis holding book

Claris is greeted by ADRA Director, Pastor Wenford Henry

'Miss Claris' is being fed with a piece of her birthday cake by her daughter Eileen.

Pastor Patrick Allen, President of WIU, presents 'Miss Claris' with her plaque.

 

News from the West Indies Union Conference Webpage

Story by Carlene Grant/Nigel Coke/WIU July 11, 2008

"I've got my mind made up and I won't turn back, because I want to see my Jesus some day,” was the chorus sung by Miss Claris Davis on Wednesday July 9, 2008. She was in a very jovial mood because she was celebrating her 102nd birthday at home with family, friends and the presidents of West Indies Union Conference and East Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (EJC), Pastors Patrick Allen and Adrian Cotterell.

“Presented to Sister Claris Davis on the occasion of her 102nd birthday for her faithful service within the church and community. May the Lord Bless you abundantly,” were the words read by Pastor Allen as he presented ‘Miss Claris’ with a plaque donated by the East Jamaica Conference. “Congratulation!” he said. “This is just a simple recognition, but we know you are waiting on the great recognition from Jesus Himself. The Lord Bless you.” To this ‘Miss Claris’ replied “And also you,” to the cheer of all present because she does not always speak clearly at times. Pastor Allen then prayed a prayer of dedication for ‘Miss Claris’.

The Lord has blessed ‘Miss Claris’ with one precious daughter, Eileen Grossett who, at age 58, ensures she is well cared for by staying at home with her. “There is never a sad moment around Mama because she keeps you smiling all the time,” said Miss Grossett. “We all have desires for many things, but Mama’s only desire is to see Jesus. She is always praying and singing.”

Also in attendance at the function were; Elder Bancroft Barwise, Treasurer of EJC; Pastor Wenford Henry, Director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), Pastor Channing Allen, pastor of the Macedonia Church along with church and community members.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

World Religious News From Religion News Service

Adventist Review News for July 13, 2008

Churches Get Creative in Helping Offset Gas Prices
http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1966
Reshuffled schedules help reduce parishioner’s travel costs.

Religious Giving Tops $100 Billion
http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1966
Church giving increased by 4.7 percent last year.

Grassley: Some Investigated Ministries Make Reforms
http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1966#2
U.S. Senate probing financial practices of ministries.

Birmingham Named Most Generous City
http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1966#3
Residents give 3.6 percent of income.


Adventist World News

Internet PIoneers Honored at GIEN Conference
http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1980
 

 

 

Spotlight on Adventist Education

Adventist Review, July 11, 2008

The prophet once wrote, “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children” (Isa. 54: 13, KJV).  One of the treasured values of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is Christian education. True education is the intersection where faith and learning intersect, where Christian principles are passed on to future generations. This week the Adventist Review shares articles and resources from our archives on the value of Adventist education.

Adventist Education in North America
http://www.adventistreview.org/issue.php?id=1295
How do we stack up?

Adventist Education Refocuses on Mission
http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1708

Gathering Greatness
http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=634
The unique strength of the Adventist school system

Improving the Odds
http://www.adventistreview.org/issue.php?issue=2008-1519&page=5
Invest in the future of our Adventist young people.

Less Pomp and More Circumstance
http://www.adventistreview.org/2004-1510/story1.html
An inside look at how Adventist students are being challenged to change the world

A Journey to Excellence
http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=704
More than 6,500 educators gather in Nashville for the NAD Teachers Convention.

Is Spirituality Dead on Adventist Campuses?
http://www.adventistreview.org/2004-1518/story4.html
A firsthand view of Christian commitment on Adventist college campuses

The Torch is Passed
http://www.adventistreview.org/2002-1523/story4.html
Leslie Pollard shares his reflections on Christian education.

 

 

Online Broadcasts For This Weekend

You can watch Pastor Eric D. Clarke on Sabbath morning, July 12, 2008, at 11:00 (Eastern Daylight Savings Time) from the Centreville Seventh-day Adventist Church, Nassau, The Bahamas.  He will be preaching in a live service on ZNS Television (Channel 11 local Cable) which is also available online on "Da Bahamian Ting."  Just click HERE and first click on "Internet Vision"  then "ZNS TV."  Make sure your speakers are on.  Invite a friend to join you.

Also this weekend you can enjoy online two programs produced weekly by the Audio Visual Section of the Communication Department of the Bahamas Conference.  They are:

• Adventists Speak:  ZNS Television, 1 p.m. Sundays WATCH  (Domestic Violence)
• Adventist Spotlight: Cable Bahamas, 8 p.m. Fridays  WATCH (Pastor Ryan Simpson)

 

 

 

Ray Turner, Bass in Original King's Heralds, Dies at 99

Reported by Adventist News Network, with information from the Voice of Prophecy, and AR Staff

Adventist Review, July 9, 2008.
 

Ray Turner and his wife, Ouida.  They celebrated 75 years of Marriage on July 31, 2007

Ray Turner, the bass in the original King's Heralds Quartet, a singing group long supported by the Seventh-day Adventist Church's Voice of Prophecy radio ministry, died May 15 at a care facility in Killeen, Texas. He was 99, and roughly five months from celebrating his 100th birthday.
 
While a student at Southwestern Junior College (now Southwestern Adventist University) in Keene, Texas, Turner began harmonizing with the three Crane brothers -- Louis, Waldo, and Wesley -- and formed the Lone Star Four Quartet in 1927.
 
They were hired as a quartet in Oakland, California after graduating from nursing school. But the $30 each earned a month didn't pay the bills during the Depression. The four men traveled south

 to the Los Angeles area and began working at Glendale Sanitarium and Hospital.
 
ORIGINAL BASS: Ray Turner, right, with the King's Heralds and H.M.S. Richards circa 1937. [photo: courtesy VOP]
Upon hearing the group, hospital chaplain H.M.J. Richards recommended them to his son H.M.S. Richards, founder of the Voice of Prophecy, who asked the Lone Star Four to join his evangelism and radio team in 1936.
 
The group was featured during a one-hour program every afternoon on Hollywood's station KMPC. On Saturday mornings they sang for a program on KNX, also in Hollywood. Every evening they assisted with Richards' evangelistic campaign in his tabernacle in nearby Long

ORIGINAL BASS: Ray Turner, right, with the King's Heralds and H.M.S. Richards circa 1937. [photo: courtesy VOP]

 Beach and assisted other evangelists in the area when they could.
 
The following year, the Voice of Prophecy conducted a radio contest to re-name the quartet, since the name "Lone Star," a Texas reference, was no longer applicable in California. The winning name was the King's Heralds.
 
Though Louis and Waldo Crane left the quartet in 1939 to attend medical school, and Wesley Crane left in 1943, Turner's bass voice was featured in the King's Heralds until 1947. Besides singing, Turner also directed Voice of Prophecy live broadcasts at the radio studio.
 
Turner and his wife, Ouida, then began a life-long career in evangelism. Ouida played piano while he sang for church services and evangelistic campaigns around the world. The couple last year celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary.
 
Survivors include Ouida, the couple's two daughters, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his son, James Milton Turner, in October 2002.
 
 

World Religious News From Religion News Service

Adventist Review, July 8, 2008

Virginia Judge Sides with Breakaway Episcopal Churches
http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1963
Judge rules that the churches can keep their properties.

Study: US Faith Has More Nuance, Less Dogma
http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1947
Researchers studied 35,000 people.

Anglican Head Rebuffs Challenge to His Authority
http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1963#2
Conservative Anglicans plan new leadership group.

Bibles to be Available at China Olympics
http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1963#3
Some 180 organizations are funding the distribution initiative.
 

 

300 Came to Run, Walk, Cycle, and Push

Cassandra Lewis, Member of the Independence Committee and organizer of the Fun Run/Walk for Adventists

[July 6, 2008] More than 300 Seventh-day Adventists turned out on Sunday morning, July 6, 2008, at 6 a.m. for the "Fun Run/Walk" as a part of a week of celebrations leading up to the 35th Independence Anniversary, July 10, 2008.

The Independence Celebration Committee, of which Cassandra Lewis, a member of Johnson Park Seventh-day Adventist Church, Nassau, is a member, organized the event to be held on Saturday morning, July 5, for the nation and specifically on Sunday morning for Sabbath keepers. On Saturday morning about 1000 came out to represent the nation. We were happy for the 300 who came out on Sunday morning representing the Adventist Church in Nassau. Pastor Leonard Johnson, Conference president; Pastor Eric Clarke; Secretary; and C. Melvin Lewis, Treasurer, led the energetic group of Adventists.   As the hundreds of Adventists passed Goodman’s Bay Beach, West Bay Street, they were seen by the Prime Minster, the Rt Hon. Hubert Ingraham, who was with a small group of Cabinet Ministers, and Adventist lawyer, Michael Dean. They were starting their regular morning exercise routine.

Although the majority walked the five-mile route, there were a few that ran while some pushed their baby carriages. The event started in front of the Kendal Isaac’s Gym, Queen Elizabeth Sports Center, and ended at Fort Charlotte, where participants were served fruits and water. It was truly a fun event. Happy Anniversary Bahamas!  See photos below.  Click on photos to enlarge.

 

 

 

 

 

This Week's Devotion

By Patrice Williams-Gordon (July 3, 2008)

Mango Tree Parable Part Two

Every good gift and every perfect present comes from heaven; it comes down from God, the Creator of the heavenly lights, who does not change or cause darkness by turning. James 1:17-18 TEV

God seemed to have been wrestling with me by way of this mango tree. It was as if he had decided not to let me go until I had gotten all the messages He so badly wanted me to have. So here I was, another day beneath this same mango tree. The last message He gave to me was “Do not be distracted by a made up mind. Look around at the many other ways I have blessed you”. Just when that message had cemented itself in my mind, I had to wrap my understanding around another message.

We were preparing for a Sabbath birthday vesper for a special friend, Annamae. With the finishing touches already applied I retreated to the front yard to enjoy the lowering sun, set to the rhythm of a light evening breeze. That was when I heard the thud and I knew came only from a falling mango. “Oh.” I thought “God had delivered a birthday gift for Annamae.” I rushed in the direction on the sound; I knew exactly where it had fallen. In my mind I was already preparing a speech to present this special mango to the birthday celebrant. However, my disappointment was enough to stall the sunset; the mango was small, immature, damaged and inedible. This could not have been God’s gift for her.  As I lingered beneath the tree clutching my defective fruit, I heard another thud. Again my excitement peaked, could this be the gift? And sure enough it was; Large, succulent, ripe and unblemished this was the gift from God. I could barely retain my enthusiasm to share this new parable with my friends.

Were Jesus visiting our vesper that evening, maybe He would have said, “The Kingdom of heaven is likened unto a woman who having watched for her promised fruit was not discouraged by the first fruit that fell but waited and received the promised fruit.”

Have you ever found yourself holding on to something you know with all your heart could not be God’s gift for you, but through doubt in His promise, hold on to it anyway? Maybe you have examined the dimensions of your circumstances and know full well that this could not be God’s plan for your life yet you refuse to let it go. You have read in God’s word the characteristics of his promised gift for you and you know that which you presently hold bears no resemblance, yet for fear that you won’t have another gift you settle for so much less than you know you deserve.

 I know you know what I mean. God never goes back on his words and there is no limit to the resources from which he blesses you. He never expects you to settle for less than you deserve. God never plants a passion in your heart that he cannot provide for. So if the fruit you currently hold to is contrary to the plans you know he has for you, don’t settle. If the gift you are holding calls for compromise of your calling you know you are settling. If the gift you are holding usurps your dreams and quenches your God given passions then you know you are settling. If

Patrice Williams-Gordon is a motivational speaker, founder and president of Deliberate Living, a Christian, motivational and inspirational organization.  She is married to Pastor Danhugh Gordon, and a mother of two lovely, energetic daughters.  See her web site at www.deliberatelivingnow.com   Contact: deliberate_living@yahoo.com

 the fruit you are holding, elicits a hollow feeling of dissatisfaction, resentment and guilt then you know you are settling. Drop that imposture and wait patiently on your fruit from God. Jeremiah says “The Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for him, to those who seek for him.  It is good both to hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”(  Lam 3:25-26 TLB)

Today I invite you to,  “Stay always within the boundaries where God's love can reach and bless you. Wait patiently for the eternal life that our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy is going to give you.  Jude 21-22 TLB

 

 

 

Pastor Michael Toote Releases Book

Dr. Michael Toote wrote “Successful Life Now” as a guide for people everywhere who feel that there is more to life than they are currently experiencing.  The book is intended to be a most helpful resource both in discovering and releasing a person’s God given potential.  The book can also be used as a manual for person who lead out in self-help or personal development programs.   By diligently following the principles set out in the book, readers are both invited and enabled to explore their limitless potential.   Proceeds from the book will go to aid the building project for the new Bahamas Academy on Marshall Road, New Providence.  It is available at the Adventist Book and Nutrition Center, Tonique Williams-Darling Highway, Nassau, The Bahamas.  Michael Toote is the pastor for the Breath of Life Seventh-day Adventist Church, Nassau