Renton church takes on diabetes
Published 4:13 pm Thursday, April 12, 2012
One Renton church is making a commitment to educate people about diabetes and healthy living locally and in Romania.
Members of the Renton Seventh-Day Adventist Church in the Highlands are taking steps to inform their congregation about the disease that 25.8 million children and adults have in the United States, according to the American Diabetes Association.
That’s about 8.3 percent of the population.
In addition to informing its community, the church plans a mission trip to Romania in September to promote the same healthy-living message.
The prevalence of diabetes in the European Union is similar to the United States, with 8.1 percent of the adult population or 32 million having diabetes, according to Euradia, the Alliance for European Diabetes Research.
The Renton church’s pastor, Adrian Petreaca, is Romanian and thought about doing a health-based mission trip to his home country after he went to Romania in 2009 and saw the negative effects the adoption of Western fast- food culture was having on the country.
“I discovered a different lifestyle, different habits, people developing the Western world style of life,” Petreaca said. “I discovered that, unfortunately, people tend to make changes in the negative area instead of the positive area.”
Although people in Romania now have access to more information and resources, they tend to use it for entertainment purposes, he said.
Fast food invaded the country in a similar way, Petreaca said, and people there don’t seem to have the intention or desire to educate themselves about their nutrition options.
Diabetes is a common disease in post-Communist Romania and Europe, the pastor said.
“People indulge and they don’t watch their diets; they are not educated in this area, so naturally diabetes is the No. 1 disease that is developing right now,” he said.
In September a delegation from the church plans to travel to Romania and offer people there blood-glucose testing strips to discover their risk of the disease. They also plan to distribute information about prevention and promote health lifestyle behaviors.
On the road to their Romania mission trip, members of Renton Seventh-Day Adventist will host different events to educate their members and the community in Renton about diabetes and raise funds for their trip.
They had one such fundraiser March 31 when they hosted a movie and information night. Part of their goal that night was to have the youth educate other youth in the community and church about their risks for diabetes.
“We saw that the numbers were really really high and quite alarming,” said 16-year-old Taylor Tutyko. “So, we decided that that would be a really good thing that we could help other kids learn about the risks and how they can prevent getting it as well.”
About one in every 400 children and teens has diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.
The church’s efforts are very “precious” to member Michele Alston who lost two relatives to diabetes complications and has a sister who was just diagnosed with Type II diabetes at age 63.
“So this is something very dear to my heart,” Alston said. “Also I felt what a privilege to educate these young people at a young age about diabetes and health and how to eat in a nutritional way.”
As part of their faith, church members incorporate healthy living into their worship.
Members plan to attend and volunteer at the American Diabetes Association Expo in Seattle on April 21.
The expo, at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, will present a wealth of information about the disease and prevention as well as offer free health screenings, cooking demonstrations and resources.
AMERICAN DIABETES ASSOCIATION EXPO
WHAT: Diabetes-related screenings, resources, maintenance and prevention tools
WHEN: 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., April 21
WHERE: Washington State Convention Center, 800 Convention Place, Seattle
COST: Free
MORE INFO and REGISTRATION: www.diabetes.org/exposeattle
