A deadly fire Jan. 8 left 13 children dead in a boarding school for mentally challenged children in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Many others suffered burns and other fire-related injuries. The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has provided relief supplies for the children who lost all their possessions. The survivors have been placed in another Dushanbe school for mentally challenged children.

United States—The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) received a generous donation of U.S. $14,749 from the Hamburg Community Seventh-day Adventist Church in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, as part of their annual Christmas offering to benefit ADRA projects. The money will be used in a variety of projects listed in ADRA’s annual Original Really Useful Gift Catalog. Over the past 10 years, the Hamburg church has donated a total of U.S. $74,744 to assist ADRA projects worldwide.

The Netherlands—Two hundred and fifteen new members joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Netherlands last year, reports Dr. Reinder Bruinsma, president of the Adventist Church in the Netherlands. This is a growth rate of more than 4.5 percent. “As far as I have been able to ascertain, this number of accessions to the church is the highest we were ever able to register,” says Bruinsma. When the official reports are compiled, the Adventist Church expects that the total membership of the Netherlands will pass the 4,700 mark.

Jamaica—Seventh-day Adventist churches in East Jamaica just launched a new web feature called Worship With Us, which shares the worships service of more than 100 Adventist churches in East Jamaica. The feature involves streaming audio/video versions of Sabbath programs available 24 hours a day. They are also making provisions to show the broadcasts live. See the web cast at: http://v2.praisecast.com/clients/ejconference/webcasts.shtml
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North America—The National Interfaith Cable Coalition, Inc. (NICC), doing business as Faith & Values Media, Jan. 17 announced the election of Fred Kinsey, assistant to the president of the Adventist church’s North American region for communication, to its Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees makes policy and has fiduciary responsibility for Faith & Values Media, the nation’s largest coalition of Jewish and Christian faith groups dedicated to media production, distribution and promotion. Kinsey previously was a communications professor and department chair at Pacific Union College in Angwin, Calif. Also elected to the NICC board was the Rev. Eric C. Shafer, communication director for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.