Also in the News

* Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee, is ranked
one of the “Best Comprehensive Colleges—Bachelor’s” in the South by
the U.S. News & World Report’s 2006 edition of America’s Best Colleges.
Parents and prospective students primarily use the U.S. News rankings
to pick schools. In the 2006 edition, 324 comprehensive colleges,
ranked within four regions, are included in the report.

* Eighty thousand people have been baptized into the Seventh-day
Adventist Church since the launch of the growth initiative “Sow 1
Billion” two years ago. Laymembers and leaders in the church’s 13 world
regions have worked toward printing and distributing an extraordinary
850 million Bible study invitations around the world.

* The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is working to
improve the lives of people affected by HIV and AIDS in Africa by
providing counseling and educational services through their HIV and
AIDS training initiative, Training of Trainers (TOT). Since June 2004,
TOT has trained 327 trainers in HIV and AIDS counseling in Kenya,
Ghana, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Rwanda. Those trainers have in turn
trained 3,571 additional counselors. Since the program’s inception,
15,241 people have benefited from it; in addition, 69,233 people were
made aware of the sensitive issues related to HIV and AIDS throughout
549 communities across the continent.

* The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Voice of Hope radio station in
French Polynesia is reporting growth, says station director George
Develay. The broadcaster has been assigned two new frequencies that are
expected to reach up to 80 percent of the French Polynesian islands,
and is working with Tahiti’s communications minister as well. “Before
the end of the year, the radio station will be transmitting via
satellite to all French Polynesian islands, [as well as] the Cook
Islands,” Develay notes, reaching a geographic area larger than Europe.