Stories & Commentaries

Angel, with the blue eyes, lurked on the outskirts of our Chester, Pennsylvania, Message Community Infusion in July 2021. I don’t blame him for being wary of our enthusiastic bunch. How desperate do you have to be to clean up an empty city park, trim the trees, set up the praise team and band, bring in free food and give away free COVID shots — all so we can attract a potential contact who needs Jesus?

“God, if You want me to go down there, I have no problem with it. If You want me to leave everything I know, ... and move to Texas, away from everyone—to take on a job that I’ve never done, that I’m not quite sure about—I’ll do it.” This was Robert “Bob” Allen’s prayer eight years ago as he and his wife contemplated leaving their lives and jobs in New York for camp ministry in Texas.

It’s always encouraging to hear the words “thank you.” We love feeling appreciated and also hearing it expressed. There’s a good reason for our affection towards appreciation, it’s built into our DNA — we received the trait from our heavenly Father. Expressing our thanks has no expiration date. I discovered this after expressing my gratitude to my former neighbor for her unselfish act of Christian kindness towards me a long time ago.

Google led Iris Miranda to the Peoria Seventh-day Adventist Church’s weekly “Sabbath Stream” livestream. Iris and her husband, Herminio Irizarry, weren’t able to find a local church home during the pandemic, so they began joining the Peoria church each week: “I am seriously hesitating going back to my church here in Virginia,” Iris wrote, “because I don’t want to stop watching Peoria’s services.”

Adventist education tends to have a ripple effect. Josie Reeves is a junior nursing major at Southwestern Adventist University (SWAU). Though she started attending only three years ago, her connection to SWAU goes back all the way to 1955, when her grandfather, Gary Heinrich, headed off to attend Southwestern Adventist Junior College. 

Shari Leader, a member of the Lighthouse Fellowship Company in Fuquay Varina, North Carolina, regularly conducts evangelistic series twice a year. She was in the middle of preaching an evangelistic series in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began to take a turn for the worse. Then infection numbers rose again during the 2020 holiday season. “In January, I was concerned about whether we should do it again. I had the money to do it, but I didn’t have money to waste,” said Leader. “I can’t see the future, so I took it to the Lord.”

While assisting with mobile distribution of goods in Maurepas, La., in early October, a contact from the Indian Nation reached out to Arkansas-Louisiana Conference ACS director Lavida Whitson, asking if we might be able to help them. During the recovery effort after Hurricane Katrina, ACS assisted the United Houma Nation for many months and, based on this history, they were now asking if we might be able to assist during Hurricane Ida recovery.

As we move closer to the enditnow Summit On Abuse in November, we pray that our members will purpose in their hearts to stand for the vulnerable among us. And may we all practice compassion and loving support through acts of kindness and familiarizing ourselves with proper procedures for prevention, reporting and healing in our churches.

Preparing for a new baby is stressful. So is planning for the approach of a dangerous storm. Lindsay Friedmann recently had to do both — at the same time.

For Heather Chirinos, a recent nursing graduate and former student nurse association president at Southwestern Adventist University, her involvement in campus life helped shaped her values. Learn more in this interview.