100th anniversary of Adventist communication

Last week marked 100 years of Adventist communication! What an incredible milestone for our global church! I just happened to notice the Adventist News Network article about the event on a friend's Facebook post. Did you know that our denomination was "the first Protestant church to organize a formal public relations program?" I sure didn't before I read the article, but how neat is that?!

After reading the article and learning a lot about the origins of Adventist public relations and communication, I realized that I should be following Adventist news more carefully. As a communication major, I regularly keep track of at least three secular news sources and try to keep fairly current with world news. But why should I stop there? As an Adventist communicator I need to keep current with church news as well.

I encourage each of you to keep up with the news of our church around the globe, too. Knowing what is happening in our denomination throughout the world keeps us connected. Some of the stories show us God's wonderful blessings. Others reminds us to pray for certain people and places or about certain circumstances. And by reading these stories, we ourselves can be encouraged and keep our eyes and thoughts on Jesus' coming.

In our own small way, I believe that the Orchard City SDA Church is doing our part to assist with the public relations aspect of our denomination. All of you members who allow your pictures to be taken and posted on this blog by my mum, who send in stories and pictures, poems and recipes, prayer requests and answered prayers, who leave thoughtful and encouraging comments - you are helping to show Jesus to our community and to the world. How exciting to be part of something like that! Thank you so much for your cooperation and support. As an overseas volunteer myself, I have to say that being able to feel connected to Orchard City Church while living far away really means a lot. I love you all and am so happy I can still feel part of our amazing church even while halfway across the world!

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For those who would like to follow Adventist News Network (ANN) or ADRA stories, click either link to bookmark, follow the RSS feeds, add the subscriptions to Google Reader or do whatever works best for you to be able to keep up with our church news. For very easy access, I have put both the ANN and the ADRA news feeds on the sidebar of this blog, right underneath the list of mission blogs. Please take a few minutes each day or week to look at the headlines and read any stories that interest you. I was blessed to browse through the stories today and I know you will be, too!

Love always,
- Ali