Debbie Michel
May 22, 2025Pioneer Memorial Church Pastor Ben Martin was racing back and forth beneath the white canvas tent, trying to troubleshoot a cascade of technical issues. The projectors weren’t working. The slides wouldn’t load. Cameras were down. It was the ninth night of The Tent, an 11-day evangelistic series led by junior high schoolers from Ruth Murdoch Elementary School, and everything seemed to be falling apart.
Then someone mentioned the forecast: a storm was on the way.
Martin glanced at the time—just before 7 p.m.—and gathered the team for a quick prayer. “God, please hold the storm back until we’re out of here,” he said.
The meeting began moments later and ended just before 8. The sky was clear—not a cloud in sight.
An hour and a half later, the storm arrived.
By morning, the tent—brand new and only recently purchased after months of fundraising—was destroyed. Poles snapped. The vinyl shredded. And nearby, the campus’s oldest and largest sugar maple tree, estimated to be up to 300 years old, lay fallen.
The next morning, students gathered in the music room. They prayed, reflected and decided together: the meetings would continue. They relocated to the youth chapel at Pioneer Memorial Church. Though the space lacked the open-air appeal of the tent, their mission remained the same.
This year’s theme—God With Us—now took on a deeper, more personal meaning.
“God never promised there wouldn’t be storms,” Martin told them. “But He did promise He would be with us through them.”
The storm didn’t just take down the tent.
It also toppled a towering sugar maple tree near the Howard Performing Arts Center, located just steps from the tent site. The tree had long been a silent sentinel on campus, standing between the Howard Center and Andrews Boulevard near the guardhouse. With a trunk nearly six feet in diameter, it was the largest and oldest sugar maple on campus—estimated to be between 250 and 300 years old.
In fact, it may have stood on the land when the Potawatomi people passed through the region in the 1700s. It certainly was here in 1901 when Emmanuel Missionary College relocated to Berrien Springs.
Campus lore suggests that Percy Magan, the college’s first dean, once spent a night in prayer beneath that very tree as he wrestled with a major life decision: accept a lucrative executive role with W.K. Kellogg’s cereal company in Battle Creek—or stay in ministry. At sunrise, he chose to remain in God’s service. “I must stick to this Message,” he later wrote, “and give whatever time and talent I had to the making of Adventists rather than to the making of Cornflakes.”
The tree nearly met its end in 2008, when new road construction called for its removal. But thanks to the advocacy of campus landscape designer Stan Beikmann, it was saved—regraded around and preserved as a historic campus feature. It quietly hosted birds, insects, and the occasional skunk family in its hollow base. Now, after all those years, it had fallen—its legacy a reminder that even the most enduring things of this world are still vulnerable to life’s storms.
The same system that hit Berrien Springs on May 15 also produced three tornadoes across Southeast Michigan. As of May 18, the National Weather Service had confirmed 25 tornadoes in the state—well above the yearly average of 16.
Michigan had already been hit hard earlier in the year. On March 29, a devastating ice storm in Northern Michigan knocked out power to tens of thousands. Roads were blocked, homes damaged and trees brought down under the weight of ice.
Michigan Conference Adventist Community Services Disaster Response (ACS DR), led by Chelli Ringstaff, moved quickly. They delivered 55 personal care kits to a shelter in Gaylord and partnered with Camp Au Sable to offer hot meals and showers to those affected. “Some people hadn’t showered in days,” shared Bailey Glenn, who oversees hospitality at the camp.
Ringstaff said the impact was long-lasting. “We’re still recovering from those ice storms,” she said. “More than 500 cases are still open—people with downed limbs, trees on their homes and no power for weeks.”
Local churches and volunteers played a major role. In Lansing and St. Charles, members helped remove debris and restore access. Strong Tower Radio broadcast how-to instructions for residents to report damage and sign up to volunteer via the state’s 211 system, which connects to a database called Crisis Cleanup.
We’re blessed to have dedicated teams across Michigan,” said Ringstaff.
Michigan isn’t alone. Just one day after the tent was destroyed, deadly tornadoes swept through Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin. In total, at least 21 lives were lost and thousands of homes were left without power.
The North American Division's Adventist Community Services quickly mobilized, coordinating with local teams to assess needs and plan an aligned response. “We’ve notified our union and conference ACS leaders and held a coordination call,” said W. Derrick Lea, NAD ACS director. “As we begin responding, we’re asking members to lift up those impacted in prayer.”
Back in Berrien Springs, the students of Ruth Murdoch Elementary School finished what they started. The final meetings of The Tent were held indoors, but their message was never more powerful.
Even when the structure comes down.
Even when the centuries-old tree falls.
Even when the sky that was once clear turns stormy—
God is still with us.
Debbie Michel is editor of the Lake Union Herald.
