On April 30, Dr. Don Leo M. Garilva was elected president of Mountain View College

Pastor Don Leo Miraflores Garilva, DMin, was elected president of Mountain View College (MVC) on April 30. He most recently served as a professor and the dean of the MVC School of Theology. A 1976 AB Theology graduate of MVC, Garilva has a varied background with much of his career devoted to service at MVC.

He is a popular presenter and prolific writer whose literary contributions have appeared in many Adventist publications like Ministry, Adventist Review and the Journal of Adventist Education.

He began his denominational work as a Bible teacher at Mindanao Mission Academy in Manticao, Misamis Oriental. After a year of service he worked as an assistant chaplain and later as the public relations officer for Mindanao Sanitarium and Hospital. He then took a sabbatical to pursue his Master of Arts degree in Religion, majoring in Systematic Theology at the SDA Theological Seminary Far East, now known as the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS). After completing his masteral studies, he was called to join the pioneering work of opening Central Philippine Adventist College in Alegria, Murcia, Negros Occidental as Dean of Men and Bible teacher. After three years, he became the head chaplain of Bacolod Sanitarium and Hospital while concurrently serving as the church pastor of the Bacolod Adventist Center in Taculing, Bacolod City.

His work at MVC started in 1986 when he was called there as a college Social Science teacher and part-time academy Bible instructor. A year later, Garilva became the first full-time college church pastor and campus chaplain, a post he held for the next 13 years. In 2003 he graduated with a Doctor of Ministry degree from AIIAS after three years of study there. The family then returned to MVC where he took up duties as the dean of the School of Theology.

He is married to Nancy Fordan-Garilva, a registered nurse and clinical instructor in the MVC School of Nursing. They are blessed with two sons, Criscel Leo and Don Leo II. Both are AB Theology graduates of MVC.

He has many dreams and goals for MVC that are rooted in his great love for his alma mater. “My dream for MVC is to become a world-class Seventh-day Adventist tertiary institution of learning at par with any of the church’s colleges and universities – excelling in academic discipline, mature in spirituality and mission, strong in research, active in extension services, and financially very stable in its operation,” shares Garvila. “With God’s help, all of these are within our reach,” he concludes. [AND]

The Adventist church in Indonesia continues to be a leader in religious freedom gatherings as it hosted a Festival of Religious Freedom on May 5 in Manado. With a theme of “Thank You Indonesia, Thank You North Sulawesi for Religious Freedom,” the festival was the second one held in Indonesia and the first one in Manado in the northern province of Sulawesi.

The first festival was held in Jakarta, Indonesia with several hundred participants in early March of 2010. Interest has certainly grown since then as the second festival attracted two thousand people to celebrate God’s goodness for the continuing religious freedom they currently enjoy. Various attendees were grateful for the opportunity to commemorate the combined work of the government and church denominations to preserve the inviolable rights of anyone to follow his own conscience, religious beliefs and ideologies.

Muslim leader Tamzil Permata shares that “we are committed to live peacefully together, Christians and non-Christians alike,” during the 2nd Festival of Religious Freedom in North Sulawesi. Permata and other religious leaders gathered to celebrate religious freedom in Indonesia. Photo by Jonathan Catolico

“We thank the Seventh-day Adventist Church for leading out in expressing our thanks to God and to the government for the religious freedom that we are enjoying in Indonesia and particularly here in North Sulawesi,” said the heads of organizations representing eight major religious churches and groups in East Indonesia as well as the Deputy Governor of North Sulawesi, the Honorable Roy Roring.

During the gathering, nine leaders of different religious denominations spoke and expressed their gratitude to God and the government for the vibrancy of freedom where all people in Indonesia are free to exercise their rights and beliefs, and to preserve the real essence of liberty and human rights. The speakers represented Islam, Hinduism, the Pentecostal Church, Buddhism, Confucianism, Seventh-day Adventism, two major protestant churches, and the Forum for Religious Liberty. A Catholic leader had been invited but was ultimately unable to attend the Festival.

During the May 5 Festival of Religious Freedom held in North Sulawesi, leaders of various religious groups were recognized for their part in preserving religious freedom in Indonesia.

The speakers commented that they have “never conceived such a wonderful opportunity to recognize leaders of the government or of different faiths and organizations for the value of preserving religious freedom until we have seen it today.”

Dr John Graz, secretary-general of the International Religious liberty Association (IRLA) and world director of the Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL) Department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, exhorted the denominational leaders and attendees, most of whom were members of the more than 100 Adventist Churches in the city and province “to continue to work for the preservation of religious freedom individually and corporately.”

“You may not be affected today as you still enjoy such freedom but tomorrow it may not be the same story,” said Dr Graz. “Religious freedom is good for peace, unity, and prosperity for the people and government.”

Other Adventist leaders attended, including Dr. Jonathan C. Catolico, PARL director of the Adventist Church in the southern Asia-Pacific region, and awarded certificates of appreciation to the speakers, dignitaries, and officers and department directors of the church headquarters in East Indonesia and North Sulawesi. [Stephen Salainti/AND]

The Southern Asia-Pacific Division (SSD) administrators and staff are saddened to announce the passing of Pastor Halomoan Didi Manurung on May 6 as a result of a stroke. Pastor Manurung served as the Family/Children’s Ministry Director of the Jakarta Conference.

On Sabbath, May 6 he experienced a stroke during his early morning preparations for a speaking engagement at Serang SDA Church in Banten. He was taken to a local hospital but was transferred to a larger facility in Jakarta after doctors determined that his condition was severe and needed more extensive treatment. Despite the physicians’ attempts there, Pastor Manurung died at the hospital on Sunday evening.

Pastor Halomoan Didi Manurung, the Jakarta Conference Family/Children's Ministry Director, passed away on May 6 in Indonesia as a result of a stroke. photo by Daniel O Tambunan

Pastor Manurung was born on July 1954 at Porsea, North Sumatera. He served as a Literature Evangelist for several years at the Central Sumatera Mission in the early 1980s. After four years of study, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Theology from Indonesia Adventist University (UNAI) at Bandung in 1988. He went on to serve for a number of years as a pastor in what is now known as the Jakarta Conference. He later worked as the Publishing Director for the conference until his appointment as the conference Director of Family & Children Ministry in January 2012.

Pastor Manurung is survived by his wife Siringoringo Manurung, their three children – Deborah who is married and resides in the United States, Irwan who is married and resides in Jakarta, and Ronny who is an accountant at SSD – and three grandchildren.

The funeral service will be held on Thursday, May 10, 2012 in Jakarta. [AND]

The Adventist church in Negros Occidental (NOC) in the central Philippines celebrated its 50th anniversary of an Adventist presence in the territory with ceremonies and an evangelism seminar during the April 30 to May 7 event.

Since January, the administrators from the NOC conference headquarters have conducted a series of satellite meetings resulting in over 800 baptisms to date. The series continued even during the week of the anniversary celebration. Gary Gibbs, former vice president for Hope TV International and now the director for Ministries Development in Chesapeake Bay Conference, was the evangelism seminar’s featured speaker.

At the opening of the golden anniversary celebration, leaders of the church spoke. Among them were Agapito Catane, president of the church in central Philippines (CPUC), Luisito Tomado, NOC president, and Dr. Alfredo Amada, CPAC president. Other guests included ninety-two year old honoree Orlando Aguirre Sr., the first treasurer of what was then known as Negros Mission. Other retirees who served NOC also attended. In addition, Chester Clarke III of the Adventist Laymen Services’ Youth for Jesus programs and the youth representative to the General Conference Executive Committee, Congresswoman Cynthia A. Villar of the Las Piñas city district, and other local government officials joined in the celebration.

An estimated crowd of 10,000 filled the Central Philippines Adventist College (CPAC) church and campus to overflowing on May 7 for the 50th anniversary celebration of Adventism in the Northern Occidental (NOC) territory of the central Philippines. photo by A Gulfan

During the week of the evangelism, approximately 7,000 people registered for the event which filled the campus of Central Philippine Adventist College (CPAC). The dormitories and classrooms were packed with guests, tents sprawled the campus grounds, and all roads seemed to only lead to the college. The nightly meetings were held in the college church while an extension monitor was installed in the gym to accommodate more attendees.

A highlight of the NOC 50th anniversary of Adventism celebration was the mass baptism on Sabbath, May 7. Approximately 1,300 people were baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist church. photo by A Gulfan

The final day of the celebration was a very memorable Sabbath as more than 1,300 accepted Christ as their Savior and were baptized. The baptisms took place in the CPAC swimming pool with the program lasting for two hours in order to accommodate all of the baptismal candidates. Pastor Alberto Gulfan Jr, president of the church in the southern Asia-pacific region (SSD), was among the pastors performing baptisms. An estimated 10,000 church members were present that day.

The church’s territory of Negros Occidental has 280 churches, 116 companies and over 33,000 members. [Teresa Costello/AND]

The Southern Asia-Pacific Division (SSD) is pleased to welcome Pastor E. Doug Venn and his family to the SSD team. Pastor Venn will serve as the director of Adventist Mission effective May 1. He replaces Jim Brauer who accepted a call to serve as the president of the Bangladesh Adventist Union Mission.

Venn brings a wealth of cross-cultural experience to the position. During college, he served as a student missionary teacher and children’s ministry coordinator in the Republic of Palau, a Pacific island country in the Guam-Micronesia Mission territory. After graduating from Walla Walla University in College Place, Washington, he pastored for 14 years in the northern part of the United States.  During that time, he also earned a Master of Divinity degree from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. A significant part of his ministerial experience included youth work, community service, and church planting which prepared him well for the ministry in Thailand to which God called the Venn family in 2006.

For the past six years, the Venns have led in the Hope for Bangkok Church Planting Initiative (H4BKK). Pastor Venn coordinated nine multicultural church planting teams in a focused, contextualized outreach effort. In addition to training young people in creative evangelism techniques, nurturing new church plants in the city, providing cultural awareness education for foreigners, and promoting awareness of the needs and progress of H4BKK, he also coordinated a series of city-wide evangelistic, community service and health evangelism programs.

Venn notes that “It’s been exciting to see how God has changed the lives of the people there who have had the chance to meet Jesus personally. In addition to our time with laymen in expanding the work there in Bangkok, seeing the transformation in these lives has been most rewarding. We see that God has led us and now He is calling us here to SSD to serve Him in expanding the work in cities, villages and unreached groups. We must communicate the message of hope to the 994 million people within the 14 countries of this territory who have never had the chance to hear the Gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ is coming soon,” emphasized Venn.

Pastor Venn’s family includes his wife Dawn and children Josh and Hannah. Dawn has been heavily involved in teaching and friendship evangelism and the entire family has assisted in church planting projects. [Teresa Costello/AND]