REGIONAL LEADERS ELECTED: Two new regional presidents of the Seventh-day Adventist Church were elected April 17, 2003, during Spring Meeting, a two-day meeting of the church’s executive committee. Albert Gulfan will become president of the church in the Southern Asia-Pacific region, based in Silang, near Manila, Philippines, on Jan. 1, 2004, succeeding Violeto Bocala. In the Northern Asia-Pacific region, Dr. Jairyong Lee has been elected to succeed current president Pyung-Duk Chun, who has completed 43 years of service. At the same time, resignations were announced for two world church leaders: Leo Santos Ranzolin, a general vice president of the church, and Larry R. Colburn, assistant to the president.
MISSION FUNDING, PERSONNEL URGED: Leaders have also voted to invite the church’s organizations—local church areas and institutions—to serve as “donor organizations,” channeling money and personnel to missionary projects in the “10/40 window” of the world where Christianity is hardly known and where Christian work is difficult. The region defined as the “10/40 Window” extends from West Africa to East Asia, from 10 degrees north to 40 degrees north of the equator and encompasses the majority of the world’s Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Communists.
YEAR OF EVANGELISM EVENTS ANTICIPATING: It’s simply a moment of celebrating, Seventh-day Adventist church president Jan Paulsen told the participating members of the church’s Executive Committee who gathered for a two-day annual Spring Meeting April 16 to 17. Paulsen was speaking about the Year of World Evangelism 2004, an initiative that attempts to involve every Adventist church member in evangelism. “I think it is significant that … 150,000 evangelistic events will be held during 2004,” he said. “An event can be many things—I think in many fields these will be events as small group activities. There are parts of the world where these small groups have proven enormously effective as instruments [of evangelism].”