Have you said, “Thank you!” to your Adventist Community Services director and their team for your church lately? If not, do not let another Sabbath go by without seeking them out and thanking them for their gracious ministry to our communities. I have such respect for those who volunteer their time to serve those who live in the community who truly need our help. The ACS mission statement states their goal is to “serve communities in Christ’s name, bringing hope, compassion, and practical support to those in need.” You may not realize this, but while ADRA has a similar mission, their territory is comprised of the world outside the North American Division. It is the ACS program that provides care for our communities here in Canada, the United States and Bermuda.  Here in Mid-America, our ACS-Disaster Relief team is so important in our territory for providing help in the aftermath of a disaster. In our region of the country, our response to wildfires, tornadoes and flooding hitting our communities is an important service we provide as a church. I am sure 95 percent of our members do not realize this, but the government looks to the Adventist Church to provide leadership for the warehousing needed for their emergency supplies sent to help those in need. This can be a huge undertaking, requiring weeks to facilitate and complete.  If there is a ministry in our church that needs our time and talents, it is our ACS programs throughout our territory. Whether you want to help with the disaster relief efforts or with your local ACS program for your community, your time and talent will make a significant difference in the way our communities receive the help they need. One shining example  I have heard my daughter-in-law, Baylie Thurber, talk about her grandmother’s service as an ACS leader. Karen Reed, and her husband, Bill, ran the ACS program for the Galentine Seventh-day Adventist Church in Missouri for 45 years. Everyone in town knew them and loved them for the way in which they cared for their community. Karen had a way of collaborating with other community leaders no matter what their faith background was. As the director of the ACS center, she would have between 10 and 20 volunteers working there with her every week from all different faith backgrounds: Baptists and other Protestants, Catholics and Mormons. Together they met the needs of those who lived in Galentine. I was able to attend Bill Reed’s funeral. The town’s people asked that his service not take place in the Adventist Church because so many people from the community wanted to attend and that church simply would not be big enough.  Baylie recently shared a story that highlighted Bill’s character. While she was visiting her grandmother, her car needed a mechanic before she could drive home. Karen suggested someone who Bill had used when he was alive. Baylie called him and he took care of her and fixed her car very quickly. When Baylie tried to pay him, he said, “Oh no, I am not taking any money from you. Bill was the finest man I have ever known and did more for me than I could ever repay.”  What a beautiful legacy the Reeds have left in Galentine, Missouri, through the ACS program and the way they served and loved their community. ACS is a beautiful calling and the work our leaders and volunteers do is so impactful.  Thank you to all of you who do so much selfless work for others through this ministry!  

Drive past the Colorado Springs Central Seventh-day Adventist church at 1305 North Union Boulevard on any day of the week, and all you see is an aging mid-century modern house of worship, not all that different from thousands of others of a similar vintage across the nation. However, hidden in the basement of the Central Church is a largely forgotten history shaped by world events. The first Seventh-day Adventist congregation in Colorado Springs was admitted to the Colorado Conference in 1890. It was a group of about twenty people organized into a church by Elder Smith Sharp (1847-1931), a Seventh-day Adventist minister who worked in Kansas, New Mexico, and Colorado before spending his later years in Tennessee (watch for a future post that tells more of his story). Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the Colorado Springs church relocated frequently, moving ever eastward from downtown. By 1963 the congregation had grown to 277 members, and they were no longer all able to fit in the building on North Wahsatch Avenue at the same time. This property was sold, the congregation started meeting in a rented Baptist church, and plans were begun for the construction of a new church on North Union Boulevard. The congregation broke ground for the new church in 1965. World at Risk As the design of the new church building took shape, it became more than just a place for the local congregation to worship. On October 20, 1963, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists voted to contribute $7,500 to the new church building Colorado Springs. (The Central Union Reaper later reported that the General Conference contributed $6,000. The discrepancy between the magazine report and the General Conference meeting minutes has yet to be resolved.) Local churches are the property of the local conference—the Colorado Conference at that point—so this unusual grant indicated that something different was happening in Colorado Springs. Since the United States had ended World War II by dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the world had come to feel increasingly unsafe. Americans lived, if not in fear, at least in anxiety that the Soviet Union might attack with nuclear weapons. In the 1950s, civil defense (what we now call emergency management and homeland security) focused on evacuation and mass casualty plans. In September 1961 President John F. Kennedy’s administration began a campaign to designate fallout shelters in which people could safely live for a period of weeks until radioactivity following a nuclear blast decayed to safer levels. Throughout the 1950s, Seventh-day Adventists worked with civil defense in their communities in a number of ways. Dorcas societies (now Adventist Community Services) collaborated with local authorities and the Red Cross in disaster response. Both Union College (Lincoln, Nebraska) and Walla Walla College (College Place, Washington) hosted civil defense drills in which Medical Cadet Corps, nursing, and home economics departments demonstrated how to manage mass casualties and feed crowds of displaced people. In 1961, Adventists began designating buildings as fallout shelters as part of a national campaign for building such facilities under President John F. Kennedy’s administration. A community fallout shelter, capable of 460 people for two weeks, became part of the plan for the new church in Colorado Springs. This space (now the Adventist Community Services room) was not all that big. Church member Ron Baptist was about twelve years old when the room was completed. He remembers how crowded it was during a test run of the shelter. It was the first church building in Colorado Springs to qualify as a public fallout shelter. However, this was not the reason the General Conference used its own funds to support the project. World at War In April 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson increased American troop strength in Vietnam to over 60,000. While most Adventist soldiers in the 1960s trained as medics at the Medical Replacement Training Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, once trained they could be sent anywhere, including one of Colorado Springs’ several military installations. These installations encompassed both Army and Air Force. Camp Carson was constructed in 1942 as an Army training site for World War II. In 1954, it became Fort Carson. While Camp Carson was under construction, Colorado Spring’s municipal airport was converted to an army airfield, named Peterson Field in 1942 (the airport moved to adjacent land on the south side of the army airfield). Although Peterson Field was deactivated for several years after World War II, when Ent Airforce Base (AFB) was opened in 1951 at the corner of East Boulder Street and North Union Boulevard, Peterson Field became an ancillary installation to Ent AFB (two years after the Army closed Ent AFB, it became the United States Olympic Training Center). In 1961 construction began on the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, which was completed in 1965, and over the next several years its capabilities were expanded. Meanwhile, the Air Force acquired land in northern Colorado Springs on which to establish a service academy. Classes moved from their temporary location in Denver to Colorado Springs in 1958. While the academy’s mission was officer education, the Air Force installations focused on national defense through early warning detection systems for incoming missiles. Fort Carson was processing and mobilizing soldiers for deployment to Southeast Asia. Because Adventist men were encouraged to wait for draft selection rather than volunteer and due to an informal understanding between the Seventh-day Adventist National Service Organization and the United States Army in which Adventist were assigned to the Army Medical Corps, it is probable that most, if not all, Adventist servicemen coming through Colorado Springs were soldiers at Fort Carson. Between 1965 and 1967, just when the Central Church was under construction, 29,000 soldiers were mobilized through Fort Carson for service in Southeast Asia. In October 1965 Fort Carson was home to 9,658 soldiers; in March 1967 it housed 24,735 soldiers. How many of those were Seventh-day Adventist is impossible to know, but it was enough for the <a class="cat-post-excerpt-more" href="https://www.outlookmag.org/a-mid-century-modern-church-building-addressed-mid-century-problems/" title="Continue reading A Mid-Century Modern Church Building Addressed Mid-Century Problems The Colorado Springs Central Seventh-day Adventist Church was built to serve the community.“>Read more…

Four years fly by quickly, and just as students start feeling like they’ve figured college out, they are marching to “Pomp and Circumstance” and preparing for life’s next challenges. As Union Adventist University interviews graduating seniors each year, they are always asked what advice they have for new students. Here are the responses from five of Union’s newest alumni.  Quinn Gillespie Having given many campus tours and greeted many lost new students while working in Union’s Ortner Center, Quinn Gillespie has a lot of advice to give incoming freshmen.  “By the time you finish college, you’ll be a completely different person,” Gillespie said. “Someone told me that before I went into college, and I thought, there’s no way, but I am. Just trust the process and know that God is working in all things. He’s going to shape you into who you need to be.” Another recommendation is to ask a favorite professor to be a spiritual mentor. “By the time I started HeartScan with Dr. Byers, I had finished taking classes from her,” Gillespie said. “Instead of never getting to see her, we would meet and color together while we talked about life and God.” Next school year, Gillespie will be on the other side of the desk as she teaches third and fourth grades in Manassas, Virginia, and like her mentors in Union’s Education Program, she has no plans to give up coloring or talking about God.  Carter Alger When reflecting on his time here at Union, Carter Alger thinks about the community he’s found. “I originally came to Union for the IRR program but I found so much more. I found community,” he said. “At Union, you can strike up a conversation with anyone. Events like Project Impact have brought me lots of friends, and I’ve really appreciated the spiritual life here at Union.” Alger’s advice for incoming freshmen is: “Don’t be afraid to make connections. Those connections will help you in classes, friendships and jobs. Over my time here, I feel like I know 40 to 50 percent of the campus. I have also made great relationships with my professors. I feel like I can have conversations with them at any time.” Jailly Gadea-Sanchez “I remember coming to Union for tournaments and music festivals during high school and seeing how powerful the worship here was,” Jailly Gadea-Sanchez said. “I saw how intentional Union was with their worship programs, and I wanted to be a part of that.”  That vision of herself helping lead in praise and worship came true during her time at Union. “I have enjoyed being able to lead others to Christ through music, which is something I always dreamt of as a kid,” she said. “I’ve really appreciated how Union changed my view of Jesus for the better. That is something I will be eternally grateful for!” Gadea-Sanchez advises her students and new freshmen to lean on God. “For three years, I was trying to go through school on my own,” she said “It wasn’t until junior year that I got burnt out and realized something had to change. I realized how important it is to pray for strength and to bring your worries and burdens to God; He can make your load light.  Take some time in your day to be still and to reflect, relax and pray whether that means waking up a little earlier in the morning, taking some time in the middle of your day, or even at night.”  “I promise you, even on the busiest day, when you pray and bring your worries to God, you will end the day having done everything you needed to and with little to no anxiety and stress,” Gadea-Sanchez continued. “God is there waiting to help; all we need to do is open the door just a little bit for Him to come in.” Ahchen Edwards Ahchen Edwards transferred to Union from Antillean Adventist University to study music, and he has been blessing the campus with his voice and instrumental artistry ever since. During the Christmas Concert last December, he even directed the orchestra in the debut of a song he composed, “An Afternoon Adventure.”  His advice to new students, whether freshmen or transfers, is to get involved. “There’s so many different groups and communities within this grander community of the university. You can just say, ‘Hi, I want to join in,’ or ‘I want to start doing something new,’ and that’s all it takes. You’re a part of it now.” Ella Foster Ella Foster’s Union experience took her to the other side of the world when she volunteered to serve with Adventist Frontier Missions in Palawan, Philippines.  “My student missionary experience changed my life and how I see the world,” Foster said. “It was amazing and hard. During my time there, my eyes were opened to see how God works in my life and the lives of others around me. Now, I see Him in all aspects of my life.” A biomedical science major, Foster plans to continue her education next year in Union’s new Master of Public Health Program. Foster’s advice for those who are just beginning their college journey is to try everything. “It’s OK to change your major, emphasis, whatever,” she said. “Try new things and get involved to learn more about what you like to do. It’s OK if you don’t have it all figured out when you start.”   Compiled by Rebekah Fingerson, an English education major from Wisconsin, and Scott Cushman, director of public relations at Union Adventist University

“Grandpa, will you please pass the potatoes?” Silence. “GRANDPA!” “HUH?” “Will you please pass the potatoes?” “HUH?!” “PASS THE POTATOES!” Talking to my grandpa was difficult. A lifelong farmer, years of working around loud machinery had damaged his hearing, and his hearing aids didn’t help much. It was hard to have a conversation when I wasn’t even sure if he could hear me. “HUH?!” seemed to be his favorite word. Plus, he was usually covered in dirt and smelled like cows—not exactly someone you’d want to cuddle up with for a story. As a result, I didn’t spend much quality time with him. One day during a visit, my mom told me that Grandpa wanted to take me on a 3-wheeler ride around the farm. I climbed up to sit behind him and held onto his overalls. “Where are we going, Grandpa?” “HUH?” “Never mind…” Off we went, bumping across the pasture as Grandpa pointed out grazing cows and fields of golden wheat in the distance. As we looped back along the gravel road, a neighbor drove by and stopped to chat. I was shocked when Grandpa said, “And this is my granddaughter Kelli, visiting from Minnesota.” He then went on to share what grade I was in, that I was taking piano lessons, and even details about my school projects. I sat there, dumbfounded. I had assumed he didn’t care because it was so hard to talk to him, but all along, he had been paying attention. He knew all these things about me! Sometimes, talking to Jesus feels a lot like talking to my grandpa. “Dear Jesus, I’m struggling with…” Silence. “JESUS, DO YOU HEAR ME? DON’T YOU CARE? TURN UP YOUR HEARING AIDS!” In the Bible, people asked Jesus the same thing (check out Mark 4:35-41 and Luke 10:38-42). But at least they got to speak to Him face-to-face and hear His response. It’s much harder when we send our prayers into the air and have to trust that He hears us, cares about us, and is responding—even when we don’t see it. But here’s the truth: Jesus never says, “Huh? What did you say? I wasn’t paying attention.” It is impossible for Him not to hear us! Next Sabbath, open the hymnal to #181, “Does Jesus Care?” The chorus says: “Oh yes, He cares; I know He cares! His heart is touched with my grief; When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares.” I can picture Jesus turning to an angel in heaven and proudly saying, “That’s my beloved child! Let me tell you how amazing they are!” So keep talking to Jesus. He knows you. He loves you. And He cares—deeply. Kelli Wasemiller is a former Adventist educator who now stays home with her twins Thomas and Hazel. She and her husband, Stephen, live in Rapid City, South Dakota.