Seventh-day Adventist Pastor John Arthur, recently retired after 45 years of denominational service which included 11 years as executive director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), has been given his country's top honor for public serv
Seventh-day Adventist Pastor John Arthur, recently retired after 45 years of denominational service which included 11 years as executive director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), has been given his country’s top honor for public service, the Order of the British Empire.
This is not the first national honor Arthur has received. In 1994, Albania’s then-President, Dr. Sali Berisha, presented Arthur with the country’s highest civilian award, the Order of Mother Teresa, in recognition of his humanitarian services.
Arthur was listed as a recipient of the British award, known as the OBE, in The Queen’s Birthday Honours List, which is drawn up by the national government of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. According to the official Web site of the British monarchy, King George V established the Order in 1918. Today it “is the order of chivalry of British democracy. Valuable service is the only criterion for the award, and the Order is now used to reward service in a wide range of useful activities.”
Useful activities would certainly describe John Arthur’s life. Following a four-year stint as president of the Adventist church in Britain, he headed ADRA in the church’s Trans-European region, based in St. Albans, England. During these years he was responsible for coordinating millions of dollars worth of humanitarian aid, dispatching emergency supplies and initiating numerous development projects throughout Europe, the Middle East and Northeast Africa.
Not content to remain behind his desk, Arthur made many visits to countries where ADRA funds were sent. Frequently, he put his own life at risk when, with several willing volunteers from the area, he delivered huge amounts of aid into Albania, Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia, at the height of the civil war in the Balkans.
When the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, was cut off from the outside world for three years, ADRA was a major player in distributing food, clothing, medicines and hospital supplies to thousands of desperate people. The agency even operated the city’s post office during the darkest days of the conflict. Two of its 103 volunteers were killed in action.
Arthur was also active in publicizing and promoting ADRA’s work at home. Many local schoolchildren will recall how Arthur, accompanied by BBC Television News Correspondent, Bill Hamilton, visited their schools and asked for help, particularly for the children of Albania. At the time, the infant mortality rate in this country was more than four times higher than the rest of Europe and some babies were dying, weighing a pound less at six months than when they were born. Moved by the plight of these innocent victims of war several local schools got together and raised enough money to buy life-saving respirator/ventilators for each of the country’s maternity hospitals.
Arthur’s role with ADRA has also taken him to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, and Sudan. It was here he had an amazing escape when local tribesmen wielding submachine guns attacked the vehicle in which he was traveling.
Nominations for the Queen’s Birthday Honours are carefully vetted and researched, and those who eventually receive the honors have to come very highly recommended. Although we do not know the full details of how Arthur’s nomination was dealt with, a number of high profile individuals spoke on his behalf. Among these were: Sarah, Duchess of York, who is highly involved in charity work; comedy actor Sir Norman Wisdom, who traveled to Albania with John Arthur and formally opened an ADRA warehouse there; Pavli Qesku, the former Albanian Ambassador to the UK; and Adventist Pastor Ralph Watts, ADRA president for 16 years; and leaders of several other aid agencies.
One of Arthur’s foremost supporters has been Bill Hamilton, who first met him in connection with a report he was preparing for BBC Television about the deplorable conditions in Albania in the early nineties.
“ADRA was conducting a feasibility study regarding the urgent need for locally-produced food for babies,” he recalls, “bearing in mind that Albania had the highest infant-mortality rate in Europe at that time. Subsequently, I saw ADRA deliver countless tons of aid to the most vulnerable in Europe’s poorest country. Later I did some additional filming relating to the agency’s £20 million (US$37 million) aid package for the people of Kosovo in 1999. Projects included the renovation of 400 school buildings, the cleaning of 2,000 contaminated water-wells, the vaccination of 40,000 cattle, the installation of wood stoves into hundreds of homes, and the re-establishment of a children’s dental service.”
Hamilton added, “I have also accompanied John to dozens of schools throughout Britain to increase awareness regarding the needs of the under-privileged and the disenfranchised. What a thrill it was to see children as young as four engaging in all sorts of fund-raising activities to help their unfortunate counterparts. One school in High Wycombe raised no less than £16,000 (approximately US$30,000) for respirator-ventilators which directly saved many lives.”
“I have seen John appealing to a large [European Union] sub-committee in Brussels on behalf of the needy, negotiating with prime ministers regarding cooperation agreements, and liaising with the leaders of other agencies to ensure that the delivery of aid is well coordinated.”
On hearing the news about his award Arthur said, “This is the mother of all surprises, and really it is a tribute to the marvelous international team with which I have been privileged to work. Their unflagging and sacrificial efforts in the most desperate circumstances have to be seen to be believed.”
Arthur is writing a memoir about his travels to 106 countries around the globe.