White Estate, Sabbath School release new apps, upgrades; felts to go digital
Two organizations at the Seventh-day Adventist Church headquarters are putting more of their resources on smartphone technology.
Both the Sabbath School/Personal Ministries department and the estate of church co-founder Ellen G. White have recently released upgrades to their apps. The newly upgraded app from The White Estate now makes available all of White's published writings. The Sabbath School department puts in an app all its study guides, from Beginner through the Adult Bible Study Guide.
Both apps are free; the iPhone/iPad versions are available in Apple, Inc.'s online iTunes store.
The Sabbath School app is available for the iPhone, iPad and Android platforms in English, French and Spanish, said Falvo Fowler, the department's editor and executive producer. The app also features media produced by the department, including Sabbath School University videos, Daily Collegiate Quarterly readings, multi-language podcasts and Kindergarten lesson animations. Cool Tools, a resource for Sabbath School and small group leaders, is built into the app.
The department also posts its Kindergarten animations on YouTube and Vimeo, Fowler said. The YouTube channel now includes closed captioning in both English and Mandarin. Resources in more languages are in development.
In addition, an iPad app set for release next month for the GraceLink study series will feature a digital felt board, Fowler said. Parents, teachers and kids will be able to tell stories by manipulating and moving characters and backgrounds specific to that week's story.
Fowler said apps can also connect to a projector or monitor for presenting to audiences.
The new app from the White Estate includes all 412 books written by White or later compiled from her writings, said Darryl Thompson, assistant director of the Ellen G. White Estate. The app also features search ability of the entire White library, a King James Version of the Bible and Webster's contemporary 1828 dictionary. It also allows users to create notes to share via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter. Additionally, every Bible verse reference is hyperlinked.
The Estate has also released EGW Lite, with content based on 10 of White's most popular books, Thompson said. The lite app was created for users with limited storage devices or 3G coverage.
The White Estate is developing an Android version for release later this year, Thompson said.
For more information on the White Estate app, visit whiteestate.org.
For more information on the Sabbath School app,
click here.<p>UPDATE:<p>The latest, released on January 11, is called InPrayer, and is the product of the church's Revival and Reformation Committee.</p>According to that group's website, "InPrayer is a mobile application developed by the Adventist church, which is designed to facilitate a global prayer chain that prays for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This prayer movement, called 777, is designed to encourage Seventh-day Adventists to pray 7 days a week at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. It is part of a larger initiative to encourage Revival and Reformation within the Seventh-day Adventist church."</p>
There are several modules available to InPrayer users: a configurable daily reminder to pray at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.; a map view that shows you where every other member interacting with the app is located; a daily devotional focused on the Holy Spirit; global prayer requests; a local prayer request module allowing you track your own personal requests; Facebook integration that pushes a configurable status to your Facebook account and Twitter integration that pushes a configurable tweet to your Twitter account.</p>
Versions of the InPrayer app are available, free of charge, for both the Apple iPhone and Google Android platforms.</p>
--additional reporting by Mark A. Kellner
