The Seventh-day Adventist Church is playing its part in raising the issues of world hunger in anticipation of next week’s G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland.

In Scotland itself, members of the Crieff and Edinburgh Seventh-day Adventist Churches were among the 225,000 anti-poverty campaigners who joined hands and formed a massive human white wristband around Edinburgh as part of the “Make Poverty History” demonstration.

During the morning service at Edinburgh Seventh-day Adventist Church lay preacher Mike Lewis spoke of the Israelites marching around Jericho, its walls unable to withstand the onward march of God leading His people to victory. He drew a parallel with the walls of evil, corruption, poverty and oppression that encircle people today that will ultimately fall as God finally ushers in His everlasting Kingdom of peace.

The Crieff church is the nearest Seventh-day Adventist Church to the location of the G8 Summit, just nine miles up the road at Gleneagles. Local Adventist member Steve Logan galvanized his church, along with a number of Christian groups, to coordinate locally the “Make Hunger History” protest in the run-up to the G8 summit. Included in the events will be a 12-hour Prayer Vigil on July 5 between noon and midnight. The church prepared a PowerPoint presentation in connection with the Prayer Vigil, which is available for free download from www.adventistinfo.org.uk/resources.

Speaking of yesterdays demonstration, Lewis told ANN “I was proud to be there, part of the biggest demonstration ever to be held in Scotland. The group’s longer term aim is to continue with MPH after the G8 and all the protesters have gone home, giving time and effort to a long-term project that will make a difference in developing countries.”

Meanwhile in Philadelphia, Adventists played a full part in the Live 8 concert, one of 10 concerts around the world prior to the G8 summit. The Adventist Humanitarian Resource Center of Philadelphia partnered with other Adventist entities to take charge of health care during the concert festival. Working out of a 60-foot (18 meter) trailer that had a big yellow and black banner with the words “THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCHES OF THE DELAWARE VALLEY,” they passed out thousands of pieces of literature, provided health screening services, provided advice and collected names for follow-up. The team dealt in a real sense with poverty issues as many people who came to the screening could not afford medical insurance and were grateful for the advice.

Bruce Atchison, community service director of the Pennsylvania Conference, stated, “It was a golden opportunity to reach thousands of people.” Gerry Weathers, a registered nurse from 1st Adventist Church of Coatesville, was delighted to promote wellness from a holistic point of view. She emphasized that the entire family benefits from disease prevention, stating that “proper diet reduces stress and plenty of water will also reduce plaques of disease.”

The 58th world session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in St. Louis, Missouri, is also taking hunger and poverty issues seriously. The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) international is protesting global poverty at its exhibit. Tereza Byrne, bureau chief for marketing and development for ADRA, hopes that exhibit visitors will partner with ADRA in fighting poverty. Locally, sales at the ADRA booth are being donated to local charities to deal with poverty and development issues in the deprived areas of St. Louis.

Byrne states that, according to the World Bank, 2.8 billion people, about half the world’s population, struggle to survive on less than U.S. $2 a day. ADRA’s community development programs in food security, primary health, basic education, and economic development help address the debilitating effects of poverty.