Government officials in the Uzbek state of Surkhondaryo recently invited a team of Seventh-day Adventist health professionals from America to conduct a week-long lifestyle program in the city of Termiz, located on Uzbekistan’s strategic border with Afghanistan. “This was the first Adventist public event in this southern state in the history of 100-plus years in Central Asia,” says Dr. Richard Nelson, who served as main speaker for the program known as Health Expo.

Five hundred people attended the lectures and exhibition, which began five days after last month’s terrorist attacks in the United States. Four hundred and fifty visitors attended an earlier Health Expo in the city of Karshi, located north of Termiz. When news of the American tragedies reached the city of Karshi, “the [primarily Muslim] audience at the Health Expo stood for a moment of silence and expressed their sadness, bringing flowers to the platform,” says Nelson.

“We are so sorry to hear of the terrible events in America . . . we are peaceful people, ” a Termiz health official said several days later. Nelson reports that local authorities welcomed the health team to the region, provided the best meeting hall in the city, and featured the program on regional television.

After the one-week health exhibitions, local Adventists are conducting three-month follow-up programs to address public health issues in their cities. A major problem in Termiz is the city’s highly developed illegal drug trade. A large portion of the heroin produced in Afghanistan is thought to be exported through former Soviet nations. Other health concerns in Uzbekistan include coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis, and nutritional problems such as iron-deficiency anemia.

Health Expo is a California-based lifestyle program combining the physical, mental, social, and spiritual aspects of health. Founded in 1982 and directed by Dorothy Nelson, Health Expo has presented seminars in more than 240 cities in 35 countries. More than 70 programs have been held in former Soviet nations.