| LETTERSWanted: Adventist World
It has been two years, today, since I first got a hold of a copy of the Adventist World magazine. I learned about your magazine while attending the Koror Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Republic of Palau. I have been truly blessed. The information given is real, practical, and life-giving, unlike any other gospel magazines I have read.
Is it possible to receive copies in my private mail box?
God bless Adventist World! Keep up the great work; outshine the rest.
Koila Lalakato
Fiji
Our advice to this reader and others with similar concerns is to contact the Seventh-day Adventist Church union conference or division office in your region of the world. We are gratified that the magazine is filling this important need. In addition, those with access to the Internet may visit www.adventistworld.org.—Editors.
Women and Depression
My heartfelt thanks go to Allan R. Handysides and Peter N. Landless for their June 2011 column on women and depression. I hope everyone reads it. I struggled with depression for most of my life, starting in my early teens, but didn’t really know what I was dealing with. Messages from the church made me think I was sinful because I couldn’t banish the darkness.
After nearly 50 years of feeling like a failure, I finally got professional treatment. For the past 17 years I’ve been taking an antidepressant, and I can’t tell you how much better life has been! Praise God, He understands!
Name Withheld
Thank you for addressing an issue that Adventists usually ignore. The doctors’ column was extremely well-written (I say this as a medicated depressed/bipolar woman, Adventist, and a little critical—OK, highly critical—when it comes to Adventists claiming to know anything about this disease).
Having had those lovely, concerned Christians make those same comments to me (as mentioned in the article), and others comments, e.g., “Just put on a smile and everything will look better in no time, you’ll see”—I was secretly hoping you’d really pound it into the person who asked the question, but I realized that wasn’t being a Christian at all. The doctors’ comments were perfect. Thank you.
Thank you again for sensitivity on a delicate subject. God continue to bless you.
Rebecca Whited
Escondido, California, United States
Family Connections
Thank you for Bill Knott’s June 2011 Adventist World editorial, “I Call Her Blessed.” Truly Mabel Vreeland was everything that he said and more. She was the Bible worker in my home conference and certainly did keep busy with, I am sure, a small salary. And she never, ever neither questioned her status nor campaigned for ordination.
I can remember Vreeland best at camp meeting time. She was always there ahead of the hour set, while many of the ministers would “fudge” on time and find excuses not to appear. And she rushed around like a young person making sure that the women’s sleeping quarters were adequate and met the needs. The last I saw her she had developed a skin cancer of some sort on her face, and I had moved out of New York.
What the article told me was how she played into Knott’s family history. We lived north of Syracuse when Knott’s father went to Syracuse to teach church school, and it was there that he met Rosemary Galey and later married the “songbird” of the Syracuse church. Knott’s dad and I were at Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts, and I can remember him coming to school in an oil-burning vehicle day after day.
I was thankful to learn of two more stars waiting for Vreeland on that grand gathering on Homecoming Day! She was truly a minister of the Word—and with enthusiasm. Thanks again for the wonderful article.
Jerry Lastine
Metcalf, Illinois
Lesson from Two Missions
While reading the article “Lessons From Two Missions” (by Nancy Weber Vyhmeister), which appeared in the April 2011 edition of Adventist World, I was transported to the time when I was sitting in a classroom listening to Vyhmeister explain her position in regard to global mission. It was to really breathe missions! Learning of the shocking experience of her missionary work in many parts of the world encouraged us to go out and accomplish the church’s mission. The stories mentioned in the article were part of Vyhmeister’s “burden”—and those who are linked to the history of this mission at its small beginnings in South America.
We were so blessed to have spent those days of graduate studies with such an eminent and nice woman. I still have to appreciate the moment when, at the end of that class, Vyhmeister allowed me the honor of being in a photograph with her.
Oscar E. González
Villavicencio, Meta, Colombia
Letters Policy: Please send your letters to the editor to: letters@adventistworld.org. Letters must be clearly written and to the point, 250-word maximum. Be sure to include the name of the article, the date of publication, and page number with your letter. Also include your name, the town/city, state, and country from which you are writing. Letters will be edited for space and clarity. Not all letters submitted will be published.
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