Professor Proposes Adventist Education for All of Nigeria—and More News
While addressing an audience at Babcock University, where he is dean of the School of Education and Humanities, Abiodun Adesegun “advocated for a thorough overhaul of public education in Africa through the use of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) educational enterprise model,” according to Gabriel Dike of The Sun Nigeria. “Adesegun made the call while delivering the 42nd inaugural lecture of Babcock University.”
In his paper, “Seventh-day Adventist Higher Educational Enterprise in Africa: Cleaning the Augean Stable in Public Education,”Adesegun said the components of [the] SDA education model were time-tested and true and stood the chance of offering the needed succor to an almost comatose public education.
According to him, SDA educational enterprise model has a lot of ingredients from which administrators of schools across Africa could borrow to revitalize the system.
“It is time to clean the Augean Stable by adopting and adapting approaches that could make positive impact on the state of things across the continent,” he noted.
He said “the SDA education, which is based on the Bible, the word of God, is a distinctive and unique approach to reality, truth and value.”
. . .
Adesegun said [that Adventists] also believed in promoting a healthier lifestyle in order for the students to be fit to serve God and fellow humans and to prevent diseases as much as possible.
He explained that SDA school administrators are mandated by policy to create job opening for students who are willing to work to earn their way through school.
He explained that SDA school administrators are mandated by policy to create job opening for students who are willing to work to earn their way through school.
This, according to him, is done so that when occupied in their spare time, they would have little or no time for vices such as cultism that tend to lead them in the wrong direction
. . .
The professor said a lack of adequate funding by government and an equal lack of accountability and corporate governance has led some of the infrastructure in public schools to become decrepit, out modelled and not in touch with current realities.
—From The Sun Nigeria, “Babcock Don Calls for Overhaul of Public Education with Adventist Model.”
Adventist Mental Health Outreach in Kenya Combats Beliefs in Witchcraft
“Health care professionals in Kisii, [Kenya], have raised concern on the steady rise in mental health related cases in the region,” according to Magati Obebo reporting for The Star. “Some people, they observed, still continue to hold on to mystic beliefs that some mental disorders are caused by witchcraft.”
Speaking at the Taracha Two Seventh-day Adventist Church, team leader Dr. Mary Njuguna, as part of a team sponsored by Gusii Mental Health, said that “such unhealthy practices only contribute to delaying medical treatment for those affected.”
“Njuguna said with concerted efforts, the level of awareness among Kenyans about mental health can grow and wean them off such barbaric beliefs.”
Gusii Mental Health, a United States-based medical group, provided “a team of 15 medical personnel . . . to conduct outreaches in churches and other public forums in Kisii and Nyamira counties.”
Margaret Mogaka, gender departmental head at the Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital, said incidents of gender based violence are rampant in the region with severe mental challenges.
"If we treat mental conditions we are in one way also addressing gender based violence as well," she said.
. . .
"As we mark the the mental health awareness week, we want to dispel this so that the patients can start medication early enough and get cured," Njuguna said.
According to the story, in Kenya, “over 10.3% of the population have mental problems,” and more needs to be done “to address funding gaps in the campaigns on mental health.”
—From The Star, “Belief in Witchcraft to Blame for Mental Disorders Rise in Kisii— Doctors.”
Los Angeles Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church Offering Anger Management Workshop in June
The Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church in Los Angeles, California, is offering anger management workshops in June that are planned to run for 12 weeks, reports Brian W. Carter for the Los Angeles Sentinel.
Elder Erica Tobin, a HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing social worker and other BWM members wanted to offer the difficult-to-find workshop to the community.
“The whole purpose of it, I realized a lot of veterans, among society, get angry very quickly—0 to 100,” said Tobin. “Learning and working with them, I’ve learned that once they’ve learned their triggers, it helps them learn how to attach coping skills.”
The [Berean Women’s Ministries] decided to start the workshops to better serve the community. They began brainstorming on what programs would benefit the community surrounding the church. A few of the BWM are social workers, some who facilitate anger management groups, they soon realized they had found the program they wanted to present to the community.
“How can we, as a church, be more supportive to what the needs are in society,” said Tobin
According to an npr.org survey in 2019, 84% of Americans are angrier today compared to a generation ago. Out of those polled, 24% stated they were angrier in the past year than any other time. If you factor in the 2020 COVID pandemic, homelessness, inflation, police brutality and racism, all of which has been persistently increasing in recent years—you have a lot of people dealing with mental health issues especially within the Black community.
“The whole point of anger management is learning to regulate your emotions, which some of us don’t have that skill because we’re just used to reacting without processing first,” said Tobin.
—From the Los Angeles Sentinel, “Anger Management Workshops at Berean Seventh-Day Adventist Church.”
Utah Optometrist Partners with Adventist Charity in Fiji to Provide Eye Care
Dr. Roger Pickering and his wife, Kristin, traveled to Vanua Levu, Fiji, to provide vision care in partnership with the Mission at Natuvu Creek, an organization founded by Adventists. “Though Fiji is often seen as a tourist area and described as one of the most developed areas in the South Pacific, the vision care of the people of Vanua Levu is poor,” writes Jan Felix for the Lehi Free Press.
“After a thirteen-hour flight, the Pickerings landed in Fiji along with twenty-six other volunteers from Utah to California. Among them were five optometrists, one emergency responder, six optometric students, and several nurses and volunteers. They arrived at the Natuvu Creek Mission after several long hours of plane transfers and bus rides.
“Over five days, they performed exams and provided glasses for more than 2,500 people, seeing over five hundred patients daily. Local Lehi citizens donated hundreds of pairs of glasses. Many of the citizens of Fiji traveled by prop plane and watercraft from the surrounding islands, and many others traveled several hours by bus to reach Natuvu Creek from the opposite side of the island.
. . .
After their return to Lehi, Roger and Kristin expressed being overwhelmed at the gratitude and generosity extended to them during their stay from the locals, feeling honored to serve them through optometric care. Kristin commented that “Their enthusiasm and love for life is infectious. It brought me great joy to serve such genuine and loving people.” Roger added that “They were so loving, humble, and grateful for any help given. One of the tremendous blessings of going on these humanitarian expeditions is meeting family and friends from across the globe that you never knew you had.”
According to its website, the Mission at Natuvu Creek was founded in 2006 after Adventist dentist Marta Tooma was invited to lead a group of dental students from Loma Linda University on a medical trip. The clinic now provides medical care in a variety of specialties.
—From the Lehi Free Press, “Lehi Optometrist Travels to Fiji to Provide Vision Care.”
Pam Dietrich taught English at Loma Linda Academy for 26 years and served there eight more years as the 7–12 librarian. She lives in Yucaipa, California.
Title image credit: Spectrum / screenshot from Babcock University via Youtube.
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