When I started my educational journey in Lusaka, Zambia, I could never have imagined that eventually I would find myself more than 8,000 miles from home, still learning and helping others to learn.
A while back I was on a flight home after visiting my son, Scott, and his family in Germany. They were Adventists and vegetarians and during those two weeks eating vegetarian I began feeling better physically.
I’ll share my faith with others on life’s way. I’ll share my faith; There’s no time for delay. When Jesus calls for volunteers, I’ll hasten to...
When Jeremi Powell first tried out football, he thought it was the worst. At 10 years old, he’d been signed up by his mom to channel his energy and keep him out of trouble. What left an impression, instead, were the embarrassing tackles he endured.
My dad is a pastor, and when I was 9 years old, he got a call to leave our home country of the Dominican Republic to come to the United States as a missionary pastor. He agreed and July 25, 2016, we were on our way to America. At first, I thought we were going on a vacation, but I soon realized we were staying for a longer time.
“If you can hear me, clap once.” There was no responding clap heard through the melee that was my current classroom.
Lake Region Educator Named Teacher of the Year
While retrieving the mail one ordinary day in 2017, something caught my eye on the back of a magazine—a brightly-colored advertisement for a new kids’ program called Discovery Mountain.
Dear Young Person,
After retiring from GTE/Verizon, Rich Krajniak and his wife Jan returned to their hometown of Alpena, Michigan. But it didn’t take them long to get busy.
A West Michigan church is helping to tackle hunger by distributing supplemental food boxes to the community.
Dozens of community members gathered for a night of prayer Friday, March 1, 2024, at a Grand Crossing church following a mass shooting that killed two people only blocks away on Feb. 26.
The Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church honored South Bend Fire Department Station Two with a local hero award Saturday, March 9, 2024, thanking them for their service to the community.
When physicians unfamiliar with Ali Kaba walked past his inpatient room at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Bolingbrook, they initially assumed he must have many family members who lived nearby and visited him regularly because flowers and balloons often adorned his room.
As a surgeon whose practice focuses on the treatment of breast cancer, Kanesha Bryant, MD, is all too familiar with health disparities affecting Black Americans.
Growing up in Russia in a missionary family and as a daughter of a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, Sofiia Ialysheva always dreamed of attending an Adventist university.
Growing up in a lower middle-class family in Toronto, Canada, my younger self would have never believed one day I would be serving as a finance manager for UChicago Medicine AdventHealth in Chicago.
LaToya Austin’s introduction to the world of Pathfinders began through her daughters, who were members of the Pontiac Warriors Pathfinder Club in Michigan.
In May 1997, Rosana M. Perez was attending the Hayes Hispanic church in Milwaukee. She was concerned that there weren't enough efforts to help her daughters on their spiritual journey.
American International Academy in Inkster, Michigan, based in the suburb of Detroit, is not a Seventh-day Adventist academy.
Program helps Chicago brothers create community, find purpose
As we head into the season of Thanksgiving, our women's ministry leaders are reminding us to reflect on God's goodness. Let their stories in this issue serve as a triage of sorts to highlight the medicinal properties inherent in gratitude.
Deborah Egger Appointed Women’s Ministries Coordinator
My Dearest Daughter, It’s been nearly eight years but I can still remember the day with such vivid clarity.
It was Women’s Day at the Detroit Burns Seventh-day Adventist Church. Pastor Tricia Payne, Lake Region’s women’s ministry director, was talking about a special mother-daughter brunch that was coming up.
In August of 2022, DeeAnn Wallace felt moved to create a social media account to spread the gospel and share hope.
After an 11-year hiatus, the Illinois Conference revived its Chicagoland Convocation, an occasion for area churches to gather for a “camp meeting for the city.”
Darasimi Fajana, a native of Avon, Indiana, loves being a helping hand. The 9-year-old girl, who goes by Rachel, especially loves people.
Adventist Youth on a Mission Michigan was founded in 2021 by a group of youth and young adults determined to inspire their peers to have a deeper relationship with Christ, while also reaching out to the world around them.
Never underestimate the ripple effect of an act of kindness.
Since becoming a triathlete in the summer of 2021, I had one great goal. I wanted to be an Ironman.
Several academy students attending the Lake Union Secondary Leadership Conference at Camp Au Sable, Sept. 29 – Oct. 2, 2022, received much more than they signed up for.
When I was growing up, I experienced God in some unique ways, including involvement in a cult called SOLAR: School of Light and Realization.
I remember very well the first day I saw Boo. My daughter Hannah and I were at the Humane Society for Hamilton County, near our home in Arcadia, Indiana. We were looking for a new pet.
Faith is the fulcrum of Wesly and Stephanie Luckadoo’s lives. Before converting to Seventh-day Adventism, the duo was deeply involved in the Christian Reformed congregation in Holland, Michigan.
Jill Jennings has a goal – to bring the message of healthy eating and lifestyle choices to patients and the community.
One Friday, my supervisor informed me that I was being let go from a good retail job I’d worked for about seven years. “I know what God wants me to do next,” I said, handing him a copy of “Steps to Christ.”
Elmer Capiña enjoyed his job as a physician assistant, especially working alongside his attending physicians to care for patients every day. But something seemed to be missing.
I was working almost 2,000 miles away from my hometown when I received the news.
Which would you rather have or give away: $92,000 or $100,000? This is not a trick question. Unfortunately, it is a reality that many people face when it comes to the distribution of assets after a loved one dies.
Higher education used to look just like every other level of education: students in a classroom, listening to a professor lecture.
In 2022, the Andrews University Center for Faith Engagement launched “In Passing,” a podcast that aimed to spark a sense of intimacy with God by uncovering the beauty of humanity through stories of students at Andrews University.
What started out as an ordinary summer day turned into a life-changing experience for Andrews University student Esfir Zavricico.
Change has always been something I was familiar with, whether it was good or bad. I grew up in a family that moved around a lot due to my father’s job, so I eventually accepted the fact that I could never call one place “home.”
Friendship Evangelism Leads to Baptist Pastor and Wife Joining Adventist Church
One of my favorite lines in Scripture is a simple statement found in Psalm 31:15, “My times are in your hand.”
There’s an energy at work in Ezra Jean-Baptiste. He has a distinct conviction, a profound sense of godliness.
Early in life Stephanie Peterson felt a call to help others. Little did she know that calling would lead her to a life of service as a hospital chaplain and lay pastor in her home church.
The Michigan Conference dedicates every year to evangelism, and this year is no different. Throughout the state evangelism-based initiatives have taken place as a lead-up to the Michigan-wide public campaign to be held at the end of September.
If you pay attention, the majority of Christ's major moments happen around food. Jesus ate with sinners and social outcasts like tax collectors (Matthew 9:9–13; Mark 2:13–17).
“Mommy, let’s do a lemonade stand!” My 6-year-old daughter exclaimed excitedly.
When a Chicago church member made a large donation to the Shiloh Church school, the extraordinary act of generosity made headlines in the Lake Union Herald.
Dan Grentz thought he heard a voice through his protective headphones as he maneuvered his John Deere tractor through the horse pasture, mowing weeds with his brush hog (which makes a lot of noise). However, he ignored it—at first.
When news of the Oxford school shooting reached my school in Canton, Michigan, it affected my students, myself, and my fellow teachers.
You are the light of the world - like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. (Matthew 5:14-16 NLT)
LET’S BE HONEST. Every job, from fast food worker to funeral director, has some level of stress (especially in the wake of COVID-19).
When Jamaican native, Kemol Lloyd, was very young, his father moved to the United States. His mother left town to find work and never returned, so Lloyd was brought up by his grandmother, a strict and devout woman who raised him in the church, accepting no excuses when it came time to attend the service every Sabbath morning.
My name is Joseph Burton, and I am studying theology at Andrews University, having just finished my freshman year. Looking back on my childhood, I do not remember knowing much about the character of God. I grew up in a dysfunctional home characterized by family conflict and the presence of drugs and alcohol. I did know about the Sabbath and other Seventh-day Adventist beliefs, however, and I clung to what I knew.
The Ministry of Celebrate Recovery
Educator on Holy Land academic tour initiates prayer for Texas school shooting victims. What happens next surprises her.
Seizing the opportunity to improve Community’s health
While at work on a job site on Lake Michigan in early 2021, electrical contractor Don Starlin knew he was in trouble. “I was carrying tools and ladders from the main house on the bluff down 88 steps to the lake house on the beach,” Don recalls. “I noticed I was short of breath. I said to myself, ‘This is not good. I need to do more cardio and start walking again.’”
For Levi Pemberton, returning to church was like finding a missing puzzle piece. “Throughout life, people have their problems. I guess you could say that I was looking for a missing puzzle piece,” he said.
When I was a child, I used to love making concoctions in the kitchen. I would dump in any and all ingredients I was allowed to use. But there was one item in the pantry I wasn’t allowed to use. I wanted to so badly, but my mom said I wasn’t to use it.
Who am I? That is a good question. Two years ago, I would have given you a quick answer, an elevator pitch, as I was a confident, almost arrogant wretch, instead of the priest, father, husband and leader God called me to be.
Today is Easter Sunday and, yesterday, a friend passed away leaving a wife to try and make sense of life in the days, weeks, months and years to come.
Over the weekend of March 19 and 20, Detroit-area pastors of the Lake Region and Michigan conferences led their congregations in a deep study of how the Bible addresses issues of ethnocentrism and cultural superiority among believers.
Bolingbrook Church feeds and mingles with their neighbors
Keeping the Faith on a Public University Campus
Christian stewardship may be defined as “utilizing and managing all resources that God provides to us for His honor and glory.”
Anyone who has attended Andrews University in the last thirty years has likely seen two particular ladies walking around campus. On a recent bright summer day, I had the privilege of joining them.
Several families are experiencing relief after Bolingbrook Church raises funds to pay off overdue school lunch accounts in the Valley View Public School District.
AUNG TUN WAS BORN IN BURMA and grew up in Mae La refugee camp in northwest Thailand, the largest camp for Karen refugees in Thailand. As of June 2019, over...
Employees make a surprising discovery
Our riverboat glided through the steamy night on the inky black waters of the Rio Negro in Amazonia, Brazil. Sleeping in hammocks slung across the upper deck or housed in tiny cabins below, 36 Americans and Brazilians set off on this jungle adventure on July 4, 2019, with mission in mind. Ten of us were from the Lake Union.
Remembering that day still brings out the emotion in Peter Romero’s voice. “The first word I read was, ‘Congratulations…’”...
I was in my early 30s when I was left with two young boys to raise, ages 2 and 5, and seven cents in our savings. It was Christmas. I didn't know how I was...
While many are quarantined at home figuring out what to do with their time, Keila Sánchez, scarf designer and church member at Paw Paw Seventh-day Adventist Church, has put her skills to work sewing medical face masks for local and out-of-state healthcare providers.
I was thinking the other day about my treasures here on earth. Something I like to do is find unique things at bargain prices and collect them. The only...
Ninety-three-year-old Shares Christ
I moved to Michigan nearly four years ago, but it wasn’t until recently that I discovered that the American Robin is the Michigan State Bird. I had...
A Daughter Makes Peace with Her Mother
Indiana members credit prayers for their Covid recovery
“I believe prayer is important because it reconnects us with the heart of our loving Savior and our Best Friend,” says Jacqueline Rae Martinez, graduate student in the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) program at Andrews University.
Some people minister for tradition’s sake, while others do it out of obligation or to quell religious guilt. Sangneu Sang is not one of those people. Since leaving Myanmar and coming to the U.S., via India, the 23-year-old has immersed himself in the Battle Creek Tabernacle Church.
For the last six years, the Green Bay Seventh-day Adventist Community Services has had increasing opportunities to branch out from a small "give away" store and food pantry.
"There will come a time in our lives when it takes courage to say "No" when we are faced with temptation, when we know something is not right. But we must have the courage to say "No."
19-year-old, Nathanael Velez opens up and shares his struggles with porn and mental health. "I wasn't quite suicidal and don't believe I was clinically depressed, but I was heavily saddened." Using a caring & committed youth pastor, his academic interests and especially the Word, God revealed a new path of surrender and responsibility.
Abandoning a career that promised financial prosperity, John shares his testimony of how life improved after surrendering to God's will.
Asking the Lord to guide me as to whom should receive a book has given me an adventure that I will never forget. To date, I have completed 14 races and have passed out over 40 books. Allow me to share a few of my experiences as God has lead me along the way.
Her move to a small community meant big changes for Arlette Baptist.
Putting herself before others comes naturally for Michigan resident, Janice Emanuel McLean.
With the help of a key volunteer, Hinsdale Adventist Academy’s library undergoes a big renovation.
I watched in dreaded anticipation as the two women approached me in the waiting room. Today, Salem was being evaluated by his speech therapist, Maddie, and her supervisor, Susan, to see how he had progressed since starting therapy. Knowing what his original goals had been, I knew the results of his evaluation would not be good.
Sixteen-year-old Chicago-area twins, Jae’O’na and Jae’Bel Middleton, grew up attending camp meetings with their parents, Jeff and Donna, and noticed...
It’s usually late morning, on a Friday, when Matthew Lucio goes into the Peoria (Illinois) church to record. Timing is critical as the “studio” space, converted from a small library by the Peoria members, is just about 100 feet from a busy road. Traffic noise can disrupt a recording session.
How can a church reach its community when its residents are unresponsive to invitations about evangelistic meetings? The Petoskey Church used health as an avenue and it worked! More than forty people attended a recent supper club.
On Sunday, May 19, at 11a.m., Chicago artist Milton Coronado, equipped with paint supplies, arrived at the corner of 16th Street and Newberry Avenue in Pilsen, and began work on a mural, dedicated to Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, the nine-months pregnant, Chicago mother who was strangled to death and had her baby ripped from her womb.
Every year, senior Nursing students take the class Intercultural Mission Service in Nursing. The goal of this class is to facilitate an experience where students learn how they can use their profession as nurses to continue the healing ministry of Christ to people of a different culture.
Pastor Appreciation Month was established in 1992 by a group of pastors and church leaders to honor those who serve in ministry. They grounded the celebration in Paul’s words to Timothy: The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching (1 Tim. 5:17). In honor of our pastors, I’d like to share a story about how they ministered to our family last summer in a way we will never forget.
Christopher Clark, a 43-year-old native of Chicago’s west side, was an easy target to spot at the Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University. In...
Everyone is busy these days. Retirees, young children — and most in-between — can feel pulled from different directions with all sorts of demands requiring time and energy. Your pastor/ministerial couple is no exception. You may think you know what they’re juggling, but do you truly understand how much many of them travel, break up squabbles, smooth over hurts, counsel marriages, prevent suicides, coordinate events, act as PR reps, conduct human resource duties, manage projects, financially advise, serve as child caregivers, advocate for social justice, recruit, lend funds, respond to mechanical/maintenance calls, and wrestle in prayer over you and your burdens?
GET REAL is a reminder that youth ministry doesn't have to be expensive or flashy. It just must be done in love. When someone travels north from Kalamazoo...
The seven tillable acres have borne much fruit for God's kingdom. | PC: Art Dmytriyev A group of young adults were huddled around a table in the dimly-lit...
Greg participating in the 2016 Xenia, Ohio, Marathon | Courtesy Greg Zdor Fifty-one people, roughly ten across and five deep, stood on the blacktop track....
On a cold February Sabbath afternoon, thirteen Religion, Social Work, Nursing and Dietetics students from Andrews University (AU) left campus with Bill...
Children's Sabbath school chicken project aims to help children in Africa.
When I met my wife, Dee Piekarek, we were both working as counselors at a residential treatment center for children. I had recently left the Catholic...
Elementary school teacher Sabrina Webb was born and raised in Chicago, where she attended the Chicago SDA Jr. Academy starting in Kindergarten. In 2013, upon...
On the first day they served 50 local families and gave away more than 700 items of clothing. From then on, they would appropriately call the service, “The Open Door.”
Michigan native Mugisha Menani, 22, has to take medication every day to keep his kidney functioning. This is a lifestyle familiar to him since he was born...
