{"id":4335,"date":"2020-01-08T11:04:04","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T11:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2020\/01\/08\/larnaca-deputy-mayor-praises-seventh-day-adventists\/"},"modified":"2020-01-08T11:04:04","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T11:04:04","slug":"larnaca-deputy-mayor-praises-seventh-day-adventists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/larnaca-deputy-mayor-praises-seventh-day-adventists\/","title":{"rendered":"Larnaca Deputy Mayor praises Seventh-day Adventists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>8 January 2020 | Larnaca, Cyprus [Marica Mirilov]<\/p>\n<p>Forty special guests enjoyed a family atmosphere dinner at the Seventh-day Adventist church community centre, Larnaca on Saturday, 4 January 2020. Among them was the Deputy Mayor of Larnaca, who highly praised student missionaries Melina and Elias Orlando for their unselfish service to the community.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignright size-full wp-image-4332\" style=\"margin: 5px 5px 5px 10px; float: right;\" title=\"[Photos: Melina Orlando]\" src=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside.jpg\" alt=\"Meeting point  centre\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside-500x280.jpg 500w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside-800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside-1100x619.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside-350x197.jpg 350w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside-700x394.jpg 700w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside-900x506.jpg 900w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Meeting_point_NY_outside-560x315.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Melina and Elias Orlando arrived in Cyprus from Argentina at the end of March 2019 to serve at the Meeting Point, an Adventist community centre, which has now become a hub of life-building activities. Elias is an enthusiastic teacher who offers Spanish and English language classes \u2013 with guitar lessons as a bonus.<\/p>\n<p>Together with Melina the couple organise health emphasis programmes, provide dietary counselling and offer free massages. Inspired by their enthusiasm, a dedicated church member, Anne-Sofie Nielsen, offers free Greek lessons. These are well attended. A Kids\u2019 Club is also run with much love and imagination.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_news-2020_singing_group_atnew-year_dinner_at_meeting_point.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignleft size-full wp-image-4333\" style=\"margin: 5px 10px 5px 5px; float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_news-2020_singing_group_atnew-year_dinner_at_meeting_point.jpg\" alt=\"singing group atnew year dinner at meeting point\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" \/><\/a>Most of the forty guests for the special New Year dinner were from contacts made during a week-long health expo in the summer. This took place on the main promenade in Larnaca. Some 400 visitors were registered and took full advantage of the medical services offered.<\/p>\n<p>The dinner invitees are now friends of the centre and are regular students of different classes offered at the Meeting Point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, there was a limited number of seats at the dinner table and some will be the first on the list for the next such event,\u201d Elias commented after the dinner. The number of positive contacts that the team have developed far exceeds the capacity of the centre.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Deputy-Mayor_of_Larnaca_meets_MaricaBranislav_Mirilov.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignleft size-full wp-image-4334\" style=\"margin: 5px 10px 5px 5px; float: left;\" title=\"Deputy Mayor of Larnaca meets Marica and Branislav Mirilov.\" src=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Deputy-Mayor_of_Larnaca_meets_MaricaBranislav_Mirilov.jpg\" alt=\"Deputy Mayor of Larnaca meets Marica and Branislav Mirilov.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Deputy-Mayor_of_Larnaca_meets_MaricaBranislav_Mirilov.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Deputy-Mayor_of_Larnaca_meets_MaricaBranislav_Mirilov-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Deputy-Mayor_of_Larnaca_meets_MaricaBranislav_Mirilov-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Deputy-Mayor_of_Larnaca_meets_MaricaBranislav_Mirilov-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Deputy-Mayor_of_Larnaca_meets_MaricaBranislav_Mirilov-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Deputy-Mayor_of_Larnaca_meets_MaricaBranislav_Mirilov-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Deputy-Mayor_of_Larnaca_meets_MaricaBranislav_Mirilov-700x466.jpg 700w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Deputy-Mayor_of_Larnaca_meets_MaricaBranislav_Mirilov-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Deputy-Mayor_of_Larnaca_meets_MaricaBranislav_Mirilov-1100x733.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/images_departments_Deputy-Mayor_of_Larnaca_meets_MaricaBranislav_Mirilov-560x373.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>After enjoying an international, vegetarian dinner, and tasting the flavour of the Meeting Point spirit, Deputy Mayor Jason C. Jasonides was exuberant in his words of praise for the young couple and the whole team volunteering at the Meeting Point. His only regret, he said, was that he had not brought his wife with him to enjoy the evening.<\/p>\n<p>The Meeting point is an example of Community Centres of Influence that are developing across the island. Dr Branislav Mirilov, president of the Cyprus Region, stated, \u201cToday the vision of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Cyprus being a church that serves the community has proven a reality. We have church community centres in each major town in Cyprus and we want to be a blessing to our neighbours, leading them not only to a wholesome life here but to eternal life too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Find out more about the Meeting Point by visiting and liking their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LarnacaMeetingPoint\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>ted<\/em>NEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, editor; Deana Stojkovi\u0107, associate editor<br \/>119 St Peter&#8217;s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England<br \/>E-mail: <a href=\"mailto:tednews@ted.adventist.org\">tednews@ted.adventist.org<\/a><br \/>Website: www.ted.adventist.org<br \/><em>ted<\/em>NEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division. Readers are free to republish or share this article with appropriate credit including an active hyperlink to the original article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>8 January 2020 | Larnaca, Cyprus [Marica Mirilov]<\/p>\n<p>Forty special guests enjoyed a family atmosphere dinner at the Seventh-day Adventist church community centre, Larnaca on Saturday, 4 January 2020. Among them was the Deputy Mayor of Larnaca, who highly praised student missionaries Melina and Elias Orlando for their unselfish service to the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1569,1581,7],"tags":[371,180,370,372,369],"class_list":["post-4335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication-media-technology","category-cyprus-region","category-news","tag-branisal-mirilov","tag-cyprus","tag-larnaca","tag-marica-mirilov","tag-meeting-point"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}