Fox News Video: Church Members and Neighbors Working as a Team

This is really touching! A recent Fox News report highlights what an Adventist church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti is doing to survive after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked the country January 12. The church members and people from the church's surrounding neighborhood are doing something very different from those fighting and looting for food across the city.

They've gathered together and are camping just outside of their destroyed church. Instead of adopting an "everyone for themselves" kind of attitude, these survivors are working together as a team. They've organized themselves and are combining their money to send a few people to buy food at a local market. Then, they bring the food back to group and share it with anyone willing to chip in!

It's so heartwarming to see people act unselfishly --even when all they have is gone.

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Video: "Thank you, God, for keeping me alive"

Faradhia Moise was trapped in the rubble of a Haitian store for more than 2 days. After being rescued, she spoke with CNN about what helped her make it through the ordeal. Video below:

Source: CNN

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Update: Damages from the Earthquake in Haiti

The North Pacific Union's Gleaner is reporting that the earthquake has damaged 2 of the largest Adventist Churches in Haiti. These churches housed 5 congregations. The Haitian Adventist University was also damaged but is being used to stage relief efforts. The Adventist hospital in Port-au-Prince is still up and is being used a clinical center. However, a newsletter from the Adventist Church in North America says there are "conflicting reports" and are "sketchy because of downed power lines and poor communication in Haiti."

As you may know, ADRA is providing aid in the relief effort. However, you should know that ADRA "cannot use donations to specifically target the special needs of the Adventist Church." If you want your donation to specifically help the Adventist Church in Haiti, you need to put your donation in a tithe envelope and mark it “Haiti Disaster Relief.”

Churches can include a special insert in their church bulletins for this upcoming Saturday available from the North Pacific Union Conference.

Source: Gleaner. Image Source: North Pacific Union Conference.

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Haitian Earthquake: What's Happening So Far

The Haitian National Palace --destroyed by the earthquake. Image Credit: AFP/Getty Images. Source: CNN
In case you haven't already heard, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday, January 12. It is the strongest earthquake to hit Haiti in over 200 years.

Officials fear that tens of thousands of people may be dead, however no one knows for sure. According to the Associated Press, there are dead bodies all over the streets: from the very young next to their schools, to the older with stunned expressions frozen on their faces. Damaged roads and fallen buildings are making it difficult to send relief where most needed.

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency is responding to the earthquake. Right now the most urgent needs are "water purification supplies, food, temporary shelter materials, hygiene kits, and medical assistance." ADRA says it plans on providing access to clean water to an estimated 90,000 people a day.

You can give the people the help they desperately need by donating to ADRA's Haiti Earthquake Response Fund. ADRA is needing to raise $500,000 in the next 7 days.

The Adventist Church has several institutions in Haiti. Most of the church's large institutions, such as its hospital and university, are based in Carrefour, a city on the southern outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Although Carrefour is not close to Delmas, church leaders are waiting to hear more about potential damage to those institutions as well.

Inter-American church leaders say they are hoping to have more information tomorrow. So far, the church's headquarters in Haiti have suffered no structural damages, according to local church officials.

The earthquake also delayed a volunteer project from a church in the United States that partners with a Haitian orphanage. A group of 31 church members from the New Hope Adventist Church in Fulton, Maryland last night canceled their week-long trip to the Eden Garden Orphanage, 60 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince.

Needless to say, please keep everyone in Haiti in your prayers. U.S. citizens seeking information about family members in Haiti can call the State Department Operations Center at 1-888-407-4747.

Video (below) shows the dust from destruction that hangs over Port-Au-Prince:


Sources: Adventist News Network, CNN, ADRA | Legal Info

GYC 2009 Unashamed Conference

Can't make it to this year's GYC conference or missed a nightly meeting? Watch it live here! Event schedule.

Below the video feed, we've also included a real-time Twitter stream from the event.

This live stream of the GYC 2009 "Unashamed" event is being streamed from the GYC's Ustream webpage available here.

Video: "Unashamed" GYC 2009 Promo

Generation of Youth for Christ (GYC) is an Adventist grassroots movement led by young adults and youth across the United States. Besides regional and local chapters, GYC also holds an annual nationwide conference where attendees get equipped to better share Jesus in their home towns or wherever they may be.

This year’s conference will be held in Louisville, KY and the theme is “Unashamed” based on Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ…”

List of speakers, seminars, and event schedule. (PDF)

Jesus' Surprise Birthday Party

The Florida Hospital Church asks, "If you threw a surprise party for Jesus, what would it be like?"

By the way, we wanna wish you a very Merry Christmas! Hope it's a happy one filled with lots of warm memories!

-- The youth at A Sabbath Blog

It's True: Army of Youth 3.0 is Now Live

Army of Youth, a Christian social networking site geared toward Seventh-day Adventists is now up and running.

Last week, we wrote about how the website was taken down for upgrades. We speculated that major upgrades were taking place when we were able to login in to the site through one of its other webpages. As it turns out, we were right!

When you log in to the site, expect to see the changes we had written about such as new profile layouts, and a new "Command Center." Also expect to see Churches, Entities, and Youth Events with their own profiles. As we mentioned before, you'll notice the website's rebranding from "Army of Youth (AOY)" to "Army of Youth Ministires (AYM)."

Although the website is still a little buggy and some features aren't yet working, go explore the updated website for yourself at armyofyouth.org. Be sure to come back and vote in our poll (below).

Read: Is Army of Youth 3.0 on its way?

The Live Nativity

From the people behind "God's Chisel," this hilarious video follows a nativity scene actor who takes his role way too seriously!

Video and copyright by The Skit Guys (www.skitguys.com).

Is Army of Youth 3.0 on its way?

UPDATE: (12/22/09) The new Army of Youth website is up and running. Read about it ➞

Looks like the Adventist social networking website, Army of Youth might be getting a major upgrade. The website went down Monday (12/13/09) afternoon and currently displays a message saying, “Website Upgrade in Progress.” However, users were still able to login to the site through one of its other webpages. If the website really is being updated, you could expect to see a lot of changes.

Click to enlarge
➜ Please note that all the information in this article is based off what the website looked like when this article was written. We’re not saying this is what the website will finally look like and we can’t guarantee changes will actually happen. Now that we got that out of the way, here are some of the changes:

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