Albania—A new evangelistic center was opened in Durres on Nov. 26, the second center in Albania funded by the December 2000 worldwide thirteenth Sabbath School offering for Albania.  Pastor Leigh Rice, outgoing president of the Adventist Church in Albania, challenged the Durres group to use the facility for ministry to the community.

The Adriatic Union and the church in Albania commissioned Felicia Jean Phillips to serve as an associate in pastoral care.  She is the first woman to be commissioned in this union, and the second person to be given credentials for Adventist pastoral ministry in Albania.

Jamaica—The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Jamaica shared the prestigious Gleaner award for excellence for its role in humanitarian and disaster relief and community-building in Jamaica. Four other organizations shared the award. This came in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan, which devastated the island of Jamaica last year. The local Adventist Development and Relief Agency was among the leading organizations that began immediate collaboration with government agencies and other organizations locally and abroad to bring relief and comfort to those who suffered. The coveted “Man of the Year Award,” made annually by The Gleaner, Jamaica’s oldest and most respected newspaper, is normally given to an outstanding individual, but organizers broke tradition this year.

Croatia—The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is repairing homes and distributing winter aid supplies to war-stricken families in Croatia who continue to return to their homes after the Croatian War of 1991 to 1995. In cooperation with local government authorities, the ADRA office in Croatia has repaired 806 houses through support provided by the German and Canadian governments, as well as other donors. ADRA also distributed winter supplies for returnees and, for the next three months, ADRA will distribute food and hygiene parcels, firewood, bed sheets, blankets, and kitchen utensils to 600 families. The distribution project is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs through ADRA’s office in Norway.

United States—Dr. John Banks, Andrews University professor of anatomy and physical therapy, spent 600 hours in the dissecting lab working on the Atlas of Clinical Gross Anatomy. The Atlas is the textbook he recently co-authored with two Andrews graduates, Kenneth Moses, staff physician and assistant professor at Loma Linda University in California, and Darrell Petersen, biomedical photographer and architect in Elkhart, Indiana, as well as the chair of the Pathology and Human Anatomy Department at Loma Linda, Pedro B. Nava. Published in May 2005 by London-based Elsevier Publishing, the world’s largest publisher of medical education materials, the atlas can already be found in the classrooms of Harvard Medical School, the University of Connecticut Medical School, and the University of Southern California’s physical therapy program. It’s the first book of its kind to be published in 20 years, and the first-ever to also include text. It is also being marketed extensively for international distribution.

Canada—Dr. Lorne Babiuk, director of the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), has been named the 2005 recipient of the Prix Galien Canada Research Award, which honors a leading researcher judged to have made the most significant contribution to pharmaceutical research in the country. The award, judged by an eight-person jury of leading university and industrial scientists in the pharmaceutical field across Canada, recognizes outstanding research in the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of diseases. Babiuk, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Vaccinology and Biotechnology, is honored for his visionary research into the mechanisms by which infectious organisms cause disease and mammals respond to infection. Among other accomplishments, Babiuk is a member of the board of trustees of Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center.