On the island of Bermuda where she was born 79 years ago, Georgia Carter has become a legend as a Christian servant to her community. Twenty years ago, when the AIDS epidemic frightened the world, and the medical profession struggled to establish all the means by which the disease could be transmitted, Carter put aside her fears and opened her home as a Hospice center to nurse seven AIDS patients. Nothing could more eloquently testify to her selfless Christian service ethic.

She has ministered in her local congregation in numerous traditional ways including Cradle Roll Leader, Youth Teacher, and Community Service Leader—a position she held for 22 years. The Bermuda church also has a Gourmet Committee of which she is an active contributor. But as if that were not enough, she also has found informal ways to serve, including providing cooked food for the homeless and creating a telephone and visitation ministry to cheer people in Bermuda with few outside contacts, especially senior citizens to whom she gives hand-knitted comforters and slippers.

Her visitation schedule includes the small local prison where Carter takes a special interest in inmates from other countries and no family to visit them. She shares devotional material and monthly care packages.

Society has long recognized the selfless service of this godly woman, including the government of Bermuda, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, the local Rotary Club, and the Melvin Jones Fellow International. A local Protestant minister once wisely observed: “The only fault I have encountered in her is that her modesty sometimes hides a woman of remarkable strength and rare abilities.”

In 1973 Dr. Jasmine Jacob co-founded REACH (Render Effective Aid to Children) International, a not-for-profit organization, presently serving 26,000 children in 24 countries. A most unusual journey brought her to this ministry. She was born in a very humble home in Sri Lanka, later moved to Spicer Memorial College for education, then to America to attend Andrews University and Michigan State University. After arriving in the United States, Jacob accepted various teaching jobs while continuing her graduate education, eventually serving as a Reading Consultant in the Benton Harbor School District, a poor neighborhood just a short drive from Andrews University.

In 1989 Jacob took early retirement with the State of Michigan and began working full-time for REACH International without salary. For thirty years, under her entrepreneurial leadership, REACH International has established its own schools, hostels, orphanages, and vocational centers for destitute children, now with branches in 24 countries. Through childhood education this organization has helped thousands of children break their inherited cycle of poverty. Because this is a ministry, not only an education program, these children are introduced to Jesus.

The REACH International Mission Statement proclaims it is a faith venture in partnership with God. With this commitment in mind, the founders and staff of the organization wrote: “We will not rush before the Lord but patiently, prayerfully await His bidding.” With millions of children in the world in desperate need, REACH International remains open to new ways to approach the goal of feeding, both physically and educationally, as many children as possible, and seriously considers any request for help.

Dwight Nelson, Jacob’s pastor, lauds Jacob for her outstanding commitment and courage and says, “Jasmine has cast her vision far and wide and today leads a global team of individuals who continue to expand this mission of mercy to earth’s kids. She powerfully evidences the meaning of Christian and Christ-like leadership, all the while neither clamoring for recognition nor climbing for position and prestige.”

First among the many notable facets that characterize Dr. Lynette Carrington Cox’s life is the way she seamlessly integrates her personal faith and professional life.

Rarely do you see a physician offering Bible studies eagerly attended by university hospital administrators, medical directors, other physicians, nurses, and members from the full spectrum of hospital employees. But as a member of the Columbia University faculty, the Director of the Urgent Care Center and Associate Director of the Emergency Department, at Harlem Hospital Center—an extremely active emergency department—she does this with ease and passion. In the process she has led many individuals to accept Jesus as their Savior.

Many in Harlem are poorly served by healthcare, and Carrington Cox considers it her calling to serve them both at a physician/patient level, and as an administrator in the development of polices that enable them to gain access to the full range of health-care services.

On most Sabbath mornings you will find her worshipping at her Mount Vernon, New York, church where she is a Sabbath School teacher, chaplain in the children’s chapel, and an Elder.

Born on the island of St. Vincent, Carrington Cox took her undergraduate studies at Long Island University and gained her medical degree from New York University. Her husband, Sterling Cox, is a lawyer. Together they have chosen New York City as their mission field.

Dr. Patricia Foster is Professor Emeritus of Nursing of the Loma Linda University. Since 1999, she has devoted her considerable organizational skills to the success of the AAW. For three years she led the AAW as president (2001-2003), using the executive skills honed during a long and successful career and in such leadership positions as President of the California Inland Empire Council of Nursing Educators. In addition, she has coordinated two annual AAW conferences, served as liaison office for three other AAW conferences, and chaired the Woman-of-the-Year Awards for two years.

While pursuing her academic career, Foster was also actively involved at the Loma Linda University Church, serving as Elder, member of the Church Board, and Sabbath School Superintendent—a key leadership role in such a large congregation.

For 40 years Foster taught medical and surgical nursing, and served as a consultant to the Montemorelos School of Nursing, and nursing schools and hospitals in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Peru, and as Nurse Consultant on the Loma Linda Medical/Dental team that visited Guatemala.

The educational foundation for her four decades of distinguished service is a B.S. in Nursing from Loma Linda University, an M.S. in Nursing from Vanderbilt University, and a Ph.D. in Higher Education from Claremont Graduate School. Because of her expertise in general education, she also taught graduate students Teaching and Learning Theory, Curriculum Development, and the History and Philosophy of Higher Education and became Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for LLUSN. She has published research papers on Nursing Education in professional journals.

Foster was widowed three weeks after the birth of her fourth child in 1968. She returned to graduate school to study for her Ph.D. while mothering six children in a blended family. She and her husband, Glenn, are the grandparents of ten.

According to her daughter, Terri, “Pat is widely admired for her organizational skills, her superb interpersonal abilities, and her unrelenting pursuit of excellence.”

The number of women who have followed in the footsteps of Jesus and accepted the calling to be teachers outnumber men. But only infrequently do these dedicated women have opportunity to lead Christian education. Over recent years Dr. Andrea Luxton has blazed a trail for Adventist women worldwide. Today she is Associate Director of Education at the General Conference. The settings where she gained the experience for this appointment include: Principal, Stanborough School and President, Newbold College in England; Education Director, British Union; Vice President for Academic Administration, Canadian University College.

Along with her passion for Religious Education, Luxton introduced Women’s Ministries to the churches and conferences of the British Union, nurturing the movement during its infant years by preaching, conducting workshops, and creating resources to bring the movement to maturity.

Luxton is a careful writer who has published extensively in church publications. She served as the local editor for the Collegiate Quarterly at Newbold College, and at present serves as Chair of the Advisory Board for the Journal of Adventist Education.

In her present responsibilities, Luxton supervises accreditation for SDA colleges and universities around the world and gives special attention to four world divisions: North America, Trans-Europe, West-Central Africa and South Pacific.

Luxton was born in the United Kingdom, and received her education at Newbold College, Andrews University, and Catholic University of America. When she is home, she teaches a Sabbath School class at her home church, Sligo, in Takoma Park, MD.

Dr Marilyn “Lyn” Savedra is a specialist in pediatric nursing and maternal child nursing, recognized internationally as an expert on children’s pain. She developed a pioneering instrument for assessing their pain which is used around the world.

For 19 years until her retirement in 1994, Savedra worked at the University of California, San Francisco, as professor and widely published researcher, where she was named a fellow of the Academy of Nursing. She is now Professor Emeritus of that University.

As an adjunct professor at Loma Linda University, Savedra helped develop the Ph. D program in the School of Nursing.

Savedra’s mentoring spirit also blessed the Adventist church in Berkeley. Long before a pastor was appointed who was sympathetic to the unique challenges and interests of university students, she personally provided spiritual support for Adventist youth that came to study at UC Berkeley and other area universities by developing active campus ministries for them, opening her home to them for Bible study, food and conversation, and becoming their advisor and friend.

Savedra’s professional accomplishments were never undertaken at the expense of church or family life. At her local church she serves on the board, as a lay pastor, fellowship coordinator, deaconess, and Sabbath School teacher at various times in children’s, collegiate and adult divisions.

This incredibly active woman became a widow eight years ago after nearly 20 years of marriage and today is a devoted grandmother to four children.

When Rhonda Whitney became the Executive Director of Portland Adventist Community Services (PACS) in 1994, she redefined “community service,” and revolutionized the delivery of care to the needy. She took a $60,000 per year organization and transformed it into a $2.3 million operation with a food warehouse, a thrift store, and a free health clinic utilizing the services of local physicians and nurses, a local hospital and nursing school. PACS now serves 174,000 people a year.

Whitney developed a new food delivery system that preserved the dignity of her clients by providing them with nutrition education and allowing them to choose their own food from a supermarket-type facility. The thrift store provides clients with clothing and household items in emergencies, and is a low-cost shopping facility for the community of the working poor. It generates up to $14, 000 a month to support PACS’ community services.

This organization has become a model for other programs in Oregon, and Whitney is recognized as a resource person who serves on boards and committees across her state and the nation. She is a past member of the State of Oregon Food Bank governing board, and a member of the North American Division Community Services Steering Committee.

Before becoming Executive Director of PACS, Whitney served as Medical Staff Education Coordinator for the Adventist Medical Center in Portland.

Whitney is a member of the Tabernacle Adventist Church in Portland, where she serves as an elder, member of the board, and a trainer and participant in the church’s Stephens Ministry program.