Members at Nairobi Central Seventh-day Adventist Church Seen on Video in Fistfight — and More News Shorts

In this week’s Adventist news round-up, Adventist worshippers in Nairobi engage in a fistfight, two nurses in Tennessee lead “diabetes reversal” seminars, and an accountant in New York gives financial literacy workshops to pre-teens.

Members at Nairobi Central Seventh-day Adventist Church Seen on Video in Fistfight. Unconfirmed reports indicate that worshippers at the Nairobi Central Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kenya engaged in a fistfight. A meeting had been scheduled to discuss a group that is seeking separation from the church. In video footage, a group of men are seen standing at the pulpit. A push and pull situation ensues as worshippers walk to the podium amidst shouts and cries. Reports also indicate Head Pastor Jean Pierre Maywa was roughed up during the incident. The Church is yet to make an official statement on the matter. A group known as the Nairobi Cosmopolitan Conference (NCC) had gone to court to challenge the church leadership. However, it lost the case, prompting the church leadership to have a crisis talk on the way forward. In December last year, elders locked the offices of the two pastors. It took the intervention of the Central Kenya Conference (CKC), using officers from the neighboring Nairobi Area Police Station, to help the two pastors regain access to their offices the following day.

Later on, a letter written by First Elder Enock Kinara and copied to the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists based in the United States, said the two pastors had failed to reconcile despite several interventions. In January this year, wrangles in the church intensified prompting Ted Wilson, the President of the General Conference, to release a message on Twitter. “Please join me in praying for the leadership of the East-Central African Division – President Blasious Ruguri, Secretary Alain Coralie, and Treasurer Jerome Habimana.” The church’s head elder responded to Wilson: “Yes elder Wilson that’s my division and leadership here is divisive. Pitting brother against brother, planting negative ethnicity. Central Kenya Conference is on the spot right now. Much prayer is needed for the largest church in the division: Nairobi Central church.”

From UReport, “VIDEO: Drama as Nairobi SDA church turns into battle field.”

Tennessee Semi-retired Adventist Nurses Lead "Diabetes Reversal" Seminars. Karen and Steve Wickham are white-haired, semi-retired Adventist nurses who have dedicated their lives to what they call "diabetes reversal." They have been offering six-week seminars to Type 2 patients in Grundy County, Tennessee. Karen says, "Our purpose in life is to try to help make a difference — first in our community." With slide presentations, the Wickhams explain the difference between sucrose and glucose and the science behind the fact that foods like potatoes spike blood sugar, while sweet potatoes do not. They preach eating as much fiber as a stomach can stand and dropping almost every kind of sweetened beverage. Then they demonstrate ways to burn all those calories. On one evening, Steve invents the "Beersheba Boogie" on the spot, asking participants to raise their knees and pump their fists in place. All these people will have to find a way to get active at home because there is no gym anywhere close. There is not a proper grocery store nearby either, so healthy cooking can become a real chore. These community-wide obstacles reveal why it can be a struggle for people to maintain their health in rural America. But the Wickhams are working to overcome those barriers. "I think God holds us responsible for living in the middle of these people and doing nothing," Steve says. The couple just sold their retirement home so they can say yes to all the invitations they have received, mostly through Seventh-day Adventist groups, to present their program to other communities around the United States. From NPR, “2 Nurses In Tennessee Preach 'Diabetes Reversal’.”

Accountant Gives Financial Literacy Workshops to Pre-teens at New York SDA Schools. This summer, 20-year accounting veteran Vivian London-Crooks is leading financial literacy workshops for pre-teens at the SDA schools in Nyack and Yonkers, New York. London-Crooks, a Rockland SDA school parent and CEO of London's Tax Services in Mount Vernon, developed the "Millionaire Mindset" program to help kids develop strategies for handling money and making their money grow.

The four-week workshop introduces children to investing and wealth-building. The idea came to London-Crooks two years ago in the same building where she now hosts the Rockland classes: Berea Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nyack. As a Bible-study teacher, London-Crooks said she would occasionally ask the children questions about finances. "They didn't know what the value of money was," said London-Crooks. "They didn't know what a mortgage meant or what a credit score was. They didn't know what a line of credit means, and I had an interest in educating them." She said her goal is to help youth understand the value of a dollar — fulfilling parents' dreams — so they can make better money choices for their futures. Financial literacy is not a fun summertime topic, London-Crooks admits, so making it interesting enough for children was a hurdle. "I found that games make it fun," she said. "I do card games, memory games, board games, scenarios, using actual money."

Her one-and-a-half hour courses tackle two main areas of finances: savings and investing. Oakview Principal Eric Imbert liked the idea of teaching students about personal finance when he heard London-Crooks discuss it at a PTA meeting. "It's important for them to learn money management because that will help them in life," he said. Joanne Bernadeau, who attends the Nyack church, said she thought the workshop would be perfect for her 12-year-old son, Kyle, who was already showing interest in money. From lohud, “Rockland parent wants to get kids to develop that 'millionaire mindset'.”

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.

Image credit: Nairobi Central SDA Church Facebook page

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://spectrummagazine.org/node/9752

"Fisticuffs For Jesus"

Totally shameful…what happens when power, greed, and politics combine. Hopefully there can be some way out of this whole mess before the SDA church there is damaged even more.

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Wonderful Caption!!!

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The problem is as old as Cain and Able. We are kinship under either Adam or Christ. If one is going to preach Sanctification then one must first establish Christ as the new Adam. Being born again Should eliminate tribal,differences.

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Tom –
Apparently our training Universities which confer Masters of Divinity, and Doctors
of Divinity on our African church pastors and leaders fail in providing the
Real Good News of the Gospel. That there is no longer males, females,
tribal groups because ALL are one in Christ.
BUT, our SDA church continues with the “Subordination Doctrine” and this
Filters Down to the African Church and so we have the Divisions of the males
and females. We have the Divisions among Family-Tribal groups that one is
MORE IMPORTANT than another.
Then the SDA Church becomes culpable in the Genocide of one tribe over another.
And we have seen this not long ago.

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**Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God

Working Definition:

  1. They work for peaceful resolutions to human conflicts. One by one.
  2. They fight for equality, fairness and justice for the oppressed.
  3. They dislike war, anger, fighting and vengeance as a means of settling controversy.
  4. Peacemakers seek to bring out the best in others. To create harmony instead of differences.

God’s Response: Called children of God. They are his immediate family; the ones God feels proud of.

Imagine: Ambassadors from a galaxy 100 billion light years away are visiting God’s palace in the cosmos somewhere. I image that earth politics is a constant topic. God takes out his photo album to show to the ambassadors—Have you seen my children on planet Earth? Ones creating lights of peace and compassion in the midst of earth’s darkness. I am so proud of them…Speaking with his musical voice, extending his chest and his proud face upturned in deep approval. He says they are my children.

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There is a lot at play than the article appreciates. The institutional church was taken to court by some Nairobi Central Church members who did not agree with the outcome of church nominations that had polarised the church. The pastor succeeded to polarise the church along tribal lines by poisoning one against another. at the Business meeting to adopt the names, the pastor who was chair, bulldozed the list and a large section of the church walked away leaving fewer members that vetoed the list. Thus the Nairobi Cosmopolitan Conference that draws its members across churches in Nairobi and Kajiado counties DID NOT TAKE THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH TO COURT. The court returned that it has no jurisdiction on ecclesiastical matters and ruled for internal mechanisms to be followed in addressing this matter all the way to the GC. surprisingly they are aware but no efforts at addressing it.

Nairobi Cosmopolitan Conference is a member driven initiative that seeks to carry out the adventist mission. The clamour for a Nairobi conference has been there since the 90’s but the institutional church has ignored its own advisory at creating one. The church is representative and members are not prohibitted to create a conference that is in line with adventist ideals.

Members feel church matters have been mismanaged for the benefit of those in position of church leadership and there is an apparent loss of trust in the process of election of church officials. The elections done by a delegate system largely unrepresentative as the incumbent gerrymanders his way.

The church in kenya is supported in law by the society act that recognises all faith based institutions, and we also have the companies act that forms a legal entity (SDA East African Union Ltd) to manage the affairs of the church. Nairobi Cosmopolitan Conference is recognised by the companies act like the SDA EAU Ltd. Their is no split from the church as the cosmopolitan conference is formed by members from churches as recognised by the society’s Law/ and the church manual.

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Thank-you for giving more information on the situation there. So…if I am reading this correctly- the corporate SDA Church fell down in their duties to create a Union that would have elevated the current situation?

Exactly, failure to create a Nairobi conference for fear of losing the wealthiest station that is gerrymandered out at elections is at the heart of the matter.

Members moved and created one, that has members subscribing to it directly. Some churches I hear have joined.

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