In the face of growing violence against the Asian-American community, the Adventist Church in North America (NAD) calls on members to stand up and support their Asian-American friends and neighbors.
The 2020-21 school year began with all four Oregon Conference schools in Washington able to open fully, but only 6 of 28 of our schools in Oregon able to offer full in-person instruction. Now, due to a shift in Oregon’s guidelines that became effective in January of this year, the Conference’s Oregon schools have joined their sister Washington schools in offering daily in-person learning.
Coming together for camp meeting is the highlight of our year, a special opportunity to experience common faith and enjoy the fellowship of believers. Since pandemic restrictions do not allow us to meet together at the Gladstone campgrounds, this year’s event will be a new way of meeting – programming that allows us to gather both online and in person.
This year has been financially challenging for some families to attend Adventist Education, but God will always provide when we seek him. Recently, the Oregon Conference Education Department team was approached by three of our school principals asking if there was any financial assistance available to support a couple of families attending their schools. These community families were thriving in the Adventist school system but could not afford to continue for the second half of the school year. Just ten minutes after the prayer session, one of our superintendents was notified of a missed phone call from an Oregon Conference church member. He called this person back and found out that they were wanting to donate scholarship funds.
A local friend, an experienced photographer with an uncanny sense of direction, promised me, “You can’t miss the perfect little muddy trail that leads down to Secret Beach on the Southern Oregon coast.” Three tries later I had proved him wrong. I could follow his good, detailed directions and still miss it.
Today, the Oregon Conference office and Adventist Book Center (ABC) remain closed due to lack of electricity on the campus. We still have no ETA for when power will be restored.
It’s All About Jesus! The mission of Oregon Conference churches and schools is to focus on Jesus in all things, knowing, loving, and serving Jesus and others as we share Jesus with the world. Sometimes, that feels challenging. Yet our communities need the peace that Jesus brings even more today than ever as we address the COVID-19 pandemic together.
That’s why the Oregon Conference is committed to cooperating with the guidelines of local health authorities and government agencies to promote the public health and wellness of our communities. We are especially concerned for those who are most at risk for severe complications of COVID-19.
The Sweet Home Seventh-day Adventist Church has been alive and well during the pandemic. Despite all the social distancing guidelines God is showing us how to do what we can, with what we have, where we are and still meet all the regulations!
Before the end of January, all 32 Oregon Conference schools will be meeting in person! “It’s not been easy,” says Conference Vice-President forEducation, Gale Crosby, “but God’s been leading us through the challenges everyday.”
As Seventh-day Adventist followers of Jesus in the Oregon Conference we share deep concern about what we witnessed today in the United States of America with a crowd violently breaching the US capitol.