Philippines: ADRA Responds to Flood and Mudslide Survivors ... In response to a massive mudslide that blasted the Southeastern region of the Philippines in mid-May, flooding six provinces and displacing over 20,000 families in Northern Mindanao’s Agusan del Norte alone, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) provided food for more than 800 families. One of the first non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to respond to the disaster, ADRA distributed the emergency food packets containing staples such as rice, milk and beans.

United States: Six-foot Albino Alligator Visits Florida Hospital ... A live, six-foot alligator named Tibou checked in at Florida Hospital on June 8 for a CT scan, stunning even the most senior members of the Neuroradiology department. The event was video-taped for a PBS/WNET/National Geographic Channels International documentary being produced by Icon Films in the United Kingdom looking into the history and conservation of crocodiles. Although not a crocodile, this alligator, one of fewer than 100 albino alligators in the world, will provide valuable information since the two animals have similar internal structures and are in the same crocodilian family [Jacqueline Lorenzetti/Florida Hospital]

Philippines: 57 Baptize Following A Bible Seminar ... A May 14 to 26 Happy Family Forever Bible Seminar held in Silang, Philippines drew an approximate nightly attendance of 200 people. Alberto C. Gulfan, Jr., president of the Seventh-day Adventist church in the Southern Asia-Pacific region, delivered each evening’s presentation. Topics ranged from financial issues to family management. The 13-day series resulted in the baptism of 57 attendees.

Tajikistan: ADRA Delivers Joy to Children ... The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) presented gift packages brimming with school supplies and toys to 500 children attending 13 schools in the Rasht area of Tajikistan.  Collaborating with the country’s Department of Education to identify recipients most in need, ADRA targeted children from large, poor, and/or single-parent homes, many of whom were orphaned in the country’s civil war, which raged from 1992 to 1997.  “The distribution of gifts is a wonderful event in the lives of schoolchildren like those from the Rasht area because their childhood is very difficult,” said Zafar Muratov, project director for ADRA Tajikistan. Now children who once played with gun cartridges are enjoying books, colored pens and pencils, and toys. Plans are in place to repeat the project in 2007.