Outstanding Church Leadership

It would be hard to imagine a more perpetually positive, progressive person than Joy Ford Butler. She is grateful for the blessing of being born into a joy-filled Christian family. Both her grandmother, a leader in the Salvation Army, and her mother modelled these wonderful characteristics.

Joy has become a citizen of the world. But that was a far cry from her thoughts as a girl growing up in a typical, conservative New Zealand home. After attending Adventist colleges in both New Zealand and Australia, she accepted the call to be a young, single missionary in Papua New Guinea; in the process, she had her first glimpse of a wider world.

Following her marriage to Bob Butler, they accepted a call to minister in Samoa and then Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia). In the 12 years they served in Africa, Joy was Bible instructor, church elder, Meals-on-Wheels director, piano teacher, vegetarian-cooking instructor, and mother to three growing children. All three caught their parents’ “world citizen” vision. Marlon, until recently a project manager for ADRA in three countries of Africa, is now studying international law; Emma is a gifted artist and writer in Sydney; and Ryan acts as a raft guide in Morocco and Switzerland.

When the family returned to their home base in Australia, Sydney Adventist Hospital called her to be a chaplain, where she served for four years. Then the Greater Sydney Conference invited her to serve as Director of Women’s Ministries, where she also served for four years. Most recently, the South Pacific Division invited her to serve in the same position for its territory, as well as to be coordinator of Prayer Ministries, positions she currently holds.

Joy has a major concern for poor and disenfranchised women in the world, especially in developing and warring countries. A particular passion, which has grown over the years, is combating sexual exploitation in all its forms, including human trafficking, sex slavery, and domestic abuse. In Thailand, where this problem is most egregious, Joy, with her son Marlon, conceived of a house of refuge for exploited girls—usually rural girls who are recruited for “good jobs” that will allow them to send money home to their families. Instead, they are subjected to sexual slavery. The “Keep Girls Safe” project, operated under the auspices of ADRA, provides a secure home for girls; combats prostitution, sex slavery, and abuse; and rescues girls who have already become enslaved and often are victims of HIV/AIDS. Everywhere she goes, Joy raises consciousness about the plight of these girls together with funds for their care.

One of the most gratifying evidences of Joy’s passion for the poor and disenfranchised victims of unspeakable abuse is the way she has reached out and helped organize women in Papua New Guinea, where an extremely high incidence of abuse occurs. In addition, she has connected with women from among the Aborigines of Australia’s outback. Members of these tribes rarely enter mainstream life in the Antipodes.

Joy bridges parochial barriers. Currently, she serves as the Christian Outreach Superintendent for the international Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and is a field recruitment officer for Africa.

In her occasional moments of relaxation, Joy enjoys forest walking (her home is on the edge of a forest of Australian eucalyptus trees), canoeing, reading theology and history, ministering to the elderly in the retirement homes her husband manages, playing the piano, and listening to classical music. Her greatest desire continues to be the encouragement of women to have a close walk with Jesus and to spread His love in the communities in which they live. She endeavours to help women look beyond their immediate environment to the bigger issues of the global village in which we live. On a personal level, she supports an orphan boy, Taurai, whom she found as a baby years ago in Africa.

One of Joy’s gifts is that she builds momentum on issues—she energizes others. She works with great enthusiasm and passion in her service for God.

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Philanthropic Excellence

Karen Hanson Kotoske was raised in a family of entrepreneurial women. By the age of nine, she found herself in the grip of an unusual obsession for one so young: she wanted to do important things for others! Her mother, Adora Hanson, insisted on practical training, so Karen became a dental hygienist. Adora encouraged her twelve-year old daughter's keen sense of compassion by taking her each week to a state facility for blind children so that Karen could read to a little boy about her own age.

Today this risk-taking entrepreneur works tirelessly to sustain, not a business, but her charitable conglomerate. The answer to Karen’s search for what she should choose as a ministry of compassion came after she visited her brother while he was a medical student in Mexico. After the Sabbath School program, medical students talked about participating in a flying clinic for the Huichol Indians. They invited her to join them that very afternoon. When the small plane landed, the Indians that surrounded them were not so much sick as starving. Karen caught a vision that day, shared it with her attorney husband, and in 1980 they formed the Amistad Foundation to do “a little bit of good.”

Soon Karen had a pilot drop her off unannounced in La Colonia, a Huichol village, where she was generously hosted by Chief Francisco and his wives. With the tools she carried with her--a Polaroid camera, a ball, and toothbrushes—she quickly became acquainted with the children, and by briefly sharing the local families’ lives, saw the needs of the people.

Being a practical person, Karen’s first priority was to help create solutions to some of their most urgent problems—dirty water and poor nutrition—partnering wherever possible with other interested parties, including the flying clinic and Missions Unlimited, but most importantly, with the people themselves. To this day 27 years later, Amistad continues to provide a flying medical/dental clinic, air ambulance services, and hot meals for 250 Indian students at three schools (that’s 46,000 meals per year). The teachers train students in sustainable agriculture, which has enabled Huichol families to create small family enterprises.

Karen’s new-found vision quickly expanded. Amistad Foundation became Amistad International, and through this entity, Karen raises half a million dollars annually for projects in ten countries. In Mexico, where she has sponsored work for several native Mexican tribes, in addition to her continuing work with the Huichols, she builds schools, libraries, churches, serves thousands of hot meals to children, and builds water supplies.

In India she sponsors a free primary school, Buddha’s Smile School, for Dalit or untouchable caste children as well as Soma Home, in Kolkata, for the daughters of sex workers who have no caste and are lower than even the untouchables. In Mongolia she provides hot meals, literacy classes, health classes and small business startup funds for poor families and abandoned mothers through the Nairamdal (Friendship) Project. She also provides funds for the humanitarian aid that Dr. Vesna Wallace carries with her each year to the impoverished families of Mongolia. In China, she makes it possible to take children by train annually to visit their imprisoned mothers and provides money for physical therapy training for caregivers in families with disabled children.

In Thailand in response to the 2004 tsunami, Amistad was instrumental in founding an EcoTourism Training Center (www.etcth.org) in KhaoLak, Thailand. The purpose of the Center is to provide scholarships, in order to prepare young Thai citizens for careers in environmental tourism. Their training includes beach restoration, coral bed eco-recovery, diving, English, computers, and tourism hospitality. The Center has now graduated two classes of young people from their 9-month program, with a third class in training.

In Kenya she sponsors Amri School, a free elementary school for AIDS orphans, children of Rwandan genocide victims, and others who are destitute. In addition, she sponsors training programs for trainers who seek to prevent female genital mutilation. In a separate project in Kenya, she provides micro-enterprise loans of up to $100 to nearly 500 persons to start small businesses.

In South Africa she assists Lambano Sanctuary and Katlehong Project for AIDS infants and toddlers. In Zimbabwe she offers primary support for Paula Leen’s (WOYA 2006) feeding program for children and women, her home for children orphaned by AIDS, as well as for agriculture and water projects. In Tchad (Chad), she provides AIDS medications to the Bere Adventist Hospital.

All told, Amistad has built many churches, clinics, schools, libraries, and water systems; trained people in sustainable agriculture, hygiene, and financial planning; and provided countless hot meals to improve the nutrition of children. She has made Christianity magnetic.

Karen Kotoske’s vision encompasses needs in countries around the world, and her energy is prodigious. But we honor her most for her great heart. She is a model of what Jesus commended, going about doing good.

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Humanitarian Award

Rigmor Mari-Anne Nyberg first felt herself drawn to international service as a child. Although encouraged by her mother and grandmother to become a nurse, she instead took business courses, and in this decision set the course of her life. At 26, two years after completing her studies in Business Administration in Stockholm, she received a call to become business manager of the Ethiopian Adventist College. She accepted this most unusual invitation to one so young and inexperienced.

After three years, Rigmor returned to Sweden, married, and had a child, but then went back to Ethiopia as an administrator and auditor for the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), which was attempting to ameliorate famine conditions. Nine months later civil war broke out, and she was forced to evacuate. In 1980, Rigmor began a five-year term as Business Manager of Ekebyholmsskolan, the Adventist junior college in Sweden.

In 1985, the newly formed ADRA International chose Rigmor to open its first Swedish office. “Some assumed from my name that the new director must be a man and that I was his wife or secretary,” she recalls with a laugh. Rigmor showed herself to be perfectly suited for the task. She had already established herself as a trusted business manager with government and international experience, with a heart wide open to meet the needs of others. She soon built ADRA Sweden’s project portfolios and developed a network of relationships within government agencies. She submitted only the highest-quality proposals and revealed herself to be a reliable humanitarian partner.

A major challenge soon became evident: how to implement the numerous worthy ideas that came to her desk. That Rigmor found ways to embrace so many needs is clear evidence of her managerial genius. Recent catastrophes for which she has provided relief include the great earthquake in Pakistan, the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, HIV and AIDS in Africa, and desperately needed help in Bangladesh, Liberia, and war-torn Sudan. Through the years, Rigmor promoted projects that helped women and young girls obtain an education and become financially independent. “To see the difference in people—especially young women and young girls—when they have been involved in our projects was very satisfying,” she says.

During a period of rampant inflation in Vietnam, ADRA Sweden implemented its first Cow Project. ADRA donates a cow to a family, which uses the milk, dung, and calves to generate income. The simplicity of the project appealed to Rigmor. As she wryly remarked, “Regardless of inflation, the value of a cow has always been the value of a cow, and that impressed me.” Over 20 years, Rigmor took the Sweden ADRA annual budget from $200,000 to $2,000,000. She has raised $50,000,000 for ADRA’s humanitarian projects during her tenure.

As Rigmor reflects on the key qualities which have enabled her to succeed, she says, “I have always had a desire for justice and fairness. I have learned to listen closely to what people tell me they need; I know how to make a budget, how to read a budget, and how to read financial statements; and I have a bad memory when it has to do with bad things.” She gives enormous credit to loyal friends who gave consistent support, and especially to her daughter, Annilie, who unselfishly shared her mother with those she helped.

When Rigmor began her work 40 years ago, she usually found herself the only woman on boards that included Union and Conference presidents. These men often ignored what she suggested until a man made the same proposal. She observes that people are usually appointed to a board because of their position and that those with the highest rank, have “preferential rights of interpretation.” In her experience, it has been difficult for women to make a contribution to the pool of ideas in these settings. She looks forward to the day when women can have a more respected part in discussions.

Now that Rigmor has retired as Sweden’s ADRA Director, there can be no doubt about the wealth and worth of her ideas and stewardship. Only eternity will reveal the countless numbers whose lives have been touched and enriched by her great heart, keen mind, and administrative skill.

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Outstanding Achievement

It is difficult to summarize the many gifts of Qin Zheng Yi or, as she is better known, Zhang Zhu. In a different era, we would have called her simply a warrior, because she is so determined and resolute in the face of fearsome obstacles. She is also a publisher, trainer, financier, and administrator.

Her grandfather, a prosperous Sichuan landowner, was highly regarded because he practiced the Confucian virtues of integrity and altruism and gave generously to his community. Her father grew up within the conflicting ideologies of Communism and Christianity. Long dominated by foreign powers, China had been exploited, but Communism promised egalitarianism and the elimination of poverty. Zhang Zhu’s father and his brothers gladly gave up their privileged positions to join the Red Army in pursuit of these ideals. As a reward, Zhang-Zhu’s father became chief of the Court of Justice in his home town. He died in his late 40s, leaving Zhang-Zhu, then only 10 years old, an orphan.

As the heir of a revolutionary martyr, Zhang Zhu received an excellent education at Chongqing Teacher’s Training University. After graduation, she spent an obligatory year on a farm where those with university training were “re-educated.” The experience led her to question the ability of Communism to fulfill its goals. The Cultural Revolution began the following year, and Confucian principles were ridiculed. The government soon had Zhang Zhu investigating peasants and working in a publishing house—unaware that this latter training would prepare her for an important element in her life’s work. Through this experience, she lost her belief that Communism was the ultimate solution. Early in the Cultural Revolution, she married and had two children.

In search of meaning, Zhang Zhu explored Buddhism and Taoism, but without success. She pursued wealth with her chemist husband and managed a paint-manufacturing business. They prospered, became affluent, and Zhang Zhu freely helped her many relatives. But the marriage deteriorated, and her husband left her in 1988. Her prosperity collapsed, and soon after a niece confided to her that happiness would only be found by believing in God. Through the influence of another Christian, Zhang Zhu learned to believe in God and joined a Sunday-keeping congregation.

As she studied the Bible, an elderly retired Adventist pastor loaned her The Desire of Ages. At that time there were no Chinese Adventists holding public worship on the seventh-day Sabbath. So when Zhang Zhu became convinced in reading The Desire of Ages that she should keep the Sabbath, she could not find anyone to join. But she would not be deterred. She shared her new-found convictions widely. In time, a congregation of 500 Christians in Jintang (some two hours from where she lived) accepted the biblical Sabbath, and they shared this knowledge with their families and friends at home and in other counties. Christian leaders in the area were shocked by this development, calling it American imperialism and anti-revolutionary behavior for which instigators could be imprisoned.

Zhang Zhu countered the threats with her knowledge of the Chinese constitution, which states that the government has no power to enforce religious practices. She declared herself a defender of the law and the heir of a revolutionary martyr who died for a new China that pledged to give peace and freedom to its people. As a result of Zhang Zhu’s preaching, many more people accepted the Bible Sabbath. Zhang Zhu developed training programs, organized house churches into districts, and published guidelines for these leaders-in-training, using the skills she had acquired while working for the government. She also created a baptismal tank in her dining room in which to baptize new believers. When not in use, she made it look like a bed to disguise its real purpose.

When no other place could be found for the growing number of Sabbath keepers to worship in Chengdu, Zhang Zhu’s town, they met in her home on the fourth floor of an apartment building in a government compound on the opposite side of the street from the government Security Bureau. By 2003, the church started by Zhang-Zhu had a membership of 4,000, scattered all over Sichuan Province. To validate her pastoral leadership, three pastors from East China came and ordained her, her son David, and three other women ministers. Today there are 6,000 Adventists worshiping throughout this province.

Zhang Zhu is more than an evangelist and a church planter; she functions ably as a matchmaker for Adventist couples, an advocate for justice in the court system, and a mediator of family disputes. Meanwhile her son David is a pastor, and her daughter Rebekah, who will receive her doctorate from Andrews University in 2008, is planning to open an Adventist seminary in China.

Zhang Zhu would not say it, but she, like Paul, has fought a good fight, and there is laid up for her a crown of righteousness, which the Lord will give her at His appearing.

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Professional Distinction

Nancy Weber Vyhmeister, born in Portland, Oregon, found herself immersed in another culture at age seven when her parents were invited to participate in the establishment of the new Uruguay Adventist Academy. Her father laid out the farm; planted orchards, vineyards, and gardens; and established a dairy, all of which would give students work to help pay tuition. Able to turn his hand in many directions, he expected his children to do the same. Nancy soon spoke Spanish so spontaneously her mother became concerned that her daughter would forget English. So she made a rule: If you speak to your mother in Spanish, there will be no answer!

A furlough back to the States allowed Nancy to finish high school at PUC Prep. During the next year in Uruguay, she schemed for more adventure. She wanted to attend the Adventist Seminary in France to learn French, and to study violin at the Geneva Conservatory of Music. When she shared her dream, her father promptly bought her a ticket, and she was soon on her way. While home in Uruguay for the summer, she planned her second year of college at Bogenhofen in Austria in order to learn German. However, her father was accidentally killed that summer, and Nancy returned to the States with her mother instead, graduating from PUC in 1958 with a major in French and minors in German and English, having made the decision to make teaching her life work.

As a graduation gift, Nancy’s mother took her to the 1958 General Conference in Cleveland, where she met Werner Vyhmeister in an elevator. They were married in Argentina in 1959, where her mother was then working at River Plate Sanitarium and Hospital. They made their first home in Chile, where Werner taught at the Adventist College, and here their first child, Heidi, was born. But being a new mother did not slow Nancy down. She took Greek classes from Werner and taught Educational Psychology.

They returned to River Plate College in 1961, where Nancy taught Greek, English, Church Music, and Health Principles and where their son, Ronald, was born in 1962. In 1966, Werner went to Andrews to complete his M.Div., and Nancy completed a master’s degree in Biblical Languages, adding Hebrew to the languages in which she was proficient. After returning to Argentina to resume teaching, she began writing books, publishing a Greek textbook in 1968, and a book on cooking and nutrition in 1970. In 1972, when Werner became Education Secretary for the South American Division, Nancy became co-translator (6 years) and later Copy Editor (11 more years) of the Spanish translation of the seven-volume SDA Bible Commentary. All told, she invested parts of 17 years in the Spanish SDA Commentary project, in addition to the years she spent as associate editor of volume 12 of the Commentary Reference Series, Handbook of SDA Theology (in English).

In 1975, Werner returned to Andrews, which gave Nancy the opportunity to complete her doctorate in Religious Education. Then she became an Assistant Professor on the Seminary faculty. In 1984, the couple went to the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies in the Philippines, where Nancy designed the Master of Theology and Doctor of Ministry programs. Turning her hand to numerous areas, as did her father before her, she helped prepare architectural plans for the new campus, including the library and a women’s dormitory. Although their six-year stay in the Philippines included the turmoil of a revolution, Nancy remembers these creative years with pleasure. During this time she published her first articles.

Nancy and Werner returned to Andrews University in 1991, where Werner became Dean of the Theological Seminary and Nancy, Professor of World Mission, and co-editor and later editor of Andrews University Seminary Studies. Of special interest to women is her position as Chair of the ad-hoc Seminary Committee on Hermeneutics and Ordination, and editor of Women in Ministry: Biblical and Historical Perspectives. This was the seminary faculty’s response to the Utrecht vote against allowing the North American Division to proceed independently of other divisions to ordain women to the gospel ministry. Altogether, Nancy has published eight books and 39 articles.

Retirement in 2000 allowed the Vyhmeisters opportunity to accept special assignments to the church’s educational institutions in India and Mexico and to go to three African universities to help establish the new Adventist University of Africa.

When she sat beside her dying father, Nancy promised to meet him in heaven. She will keep that promise! But she also anticipates the joy of meeting her countless students from across her lifetime as well.

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Entrepreneurial Church Leadership

Dorothy Eaton Watts enjoyed an ideal childhood in rural Ohio, and while undeniably a mischievous girl, she excelled at school—especially in creative writing. She had the privilege of being raised by a mother that modeled a life of service including giving Bible studies, visiting shut-ins, and preaching sermons. Dorothy worked in the family landscape and floral business, and later worked as a literature evangelist in summers in order to attend an Adventist academy and Columbia Union College.

Dorothy met Ron Watts on a blind date in 1959; they married five months later, and they are still firmly together 48 years later. Five years into their marriage, they went to India, where they spent the next 16 years as missionaries. As a child Dorothy had dreamed of being a mother, a missionary, a teacher, and an author. All her dreams came true, although not always in the ways she had imagined. Upon arriving in India, she was immediately called upon to teach school for the children of overseas workers. She later became a principal.

Although Dorothy and Ron did not have a family of their own, their hearts went out to any child that needed care. They adopted the first three that they took into their home—Stephen, Selvie, and David. But in 1979, when their home could accommodate no more, Dorothy established Sunshine Orphanage. Today it cares for 100 children. Later Dorothy founded ACCA (Adventist Child Care Agency) to oversee the support of some 5,000 children through such organizations as Asian Aid, REACH International, The Quiet Hour, and CHER Canada.

In 2003 Dorothy helped establish the Southern Asia Division Child Care Office, which administers her newest program, Adventist Child India, with the goal of providing scholarships to 10,000 rural Adventist children so they can attend Adventist boarding schools. ACCA still exists to care for The Quiet Hour and CHER programs and is part of the new Division Child Care Office, which also oversees the ACI (Adventist Child India) program. She has helped establish several new girl's hostels and has worked to get an equal number of girls into the ACI program to assure the development of women who can help lead the church in India in the future.

Soon after the Watts family returned to the United States in 1981, Dorothy wrote some of the 26 books she has authored, several of them focused on the needs of women. She has been a frequent speaker at women’s retreats, and, in 1997, became the second Women’s Ministries Director of the General Conference. During her tenure, she and developed a four-year curriculum for Women’s Ministries leaders. It that is still used around the world.

Being Women’s Ministries Director for the General Conference is a responsibility she enjoyed more than anything else she has done. But she had to relinquish that love when Ron received the call to become the President of the Southern Asia Division. Back in India, she was appointed an Associate Secretary of the Division, which she describes as the “most difficult job” she has ever undertaken. In the past decade, while some in India have achieved considerable prosperity, the gap between rich and poor has widened. The poor are desperately poor, barely able to sustain themselves. But the promises of the gospel appeal to these people, and baptisms in the Division are soaring.

Dorothy has established empowerment programs to enhance the lives and independence of women by providing such things as goats, sewing machines, tailoring classes, and wet grinders. She has also created programs for deaf women. Aware that education is the path to a better life for women, Dorothy initiated a plan for 135 literacy centers and found the funding through donors for this program that empowered the Women's Ministry Department to move forward to conduct this year-long program of literacy, health education, and AIDS awareness. Two hundred sixty-five 265 programs have now been completed and now 200 more are in progress. She and her colleagues have a goal of 1,000 new centers for women's literacy. So far the Women's Literacy Program of India has taught more than 13,000 to read.

Great opportunity to alleviate suffering came after the 2003 Pakistan earthquake displaced tens of thousands and the horrific tsunami of 2004 disrupted countless lives. Dorothy Watts has worked with such creativity, effectiveness, energy, and vision that she has gained the respect of women and men everywhere. Her life of service inspires women around the globe to use their gifts to spread the gospel of compassion and grace. Without question, one of the homes Jesus has prepared in heaven must have her name on it, and some day soon she will hear the Master say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

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