You may see a new sign in the Rogue Valley Adventist Academy gymnasium soon thanks to an unlikely encounter during their recent historic snowfall. During the first week of February, the Medford, Oregon, area experienced the seventh largest 24-hour accumulation of snow on record. “As a school leader and as a principal, big weather events can be a challenge,” shared RVAA principal Brad Bennett. “This event hit right in the middle of a school day. Traditionally, it warms up enough and other schools were staying open that day, but the snow kept falling and we had to dismiss early. It was a wet, heavy snow, so I had a lot of fun during the last hour and a half of the day trying to make sure we could get vehicles down and get a path for parents to pick up the kids. We survived unscathed, but when we started thinking bigger picture about the coming days we were like, ‘How are we going to clear this driveway and parking lot to make them accessible? We don’t have the kinds of maintenance and shoveling crews that the public school district has.’”

Some time later, RVAA maintenance man, Mike Glasgow was headed to a routine medical appointment when he noticed a tractor plowing the parking lot of the medical building. He immediately thought of the school. “Mike called and asked, ‘Do we need to hire someone to clear our driveway?,’” continued Bennett. “I knew we did, because we had attempted to do it ourselves and hadn’t made a lot of headway. We had probably accumulated a foot of snow over the past two days and our work had already disappeared. So Mike talked with the guy [plowing the parking lot]. Later that day, they arrived with their tractors and in no time they had taken care of our drive and the parking lot for the Valley View Church, too! It was just such a miraculous way that God made that connection for us.”

As for the sign in the gym? After the crew had finished plowing the parking lot they connected with Bennett. “The guy told me that they would normally charge close to a thousand dollars for the work they did,” shared a grateful Bennett, “but he said, ‘We’re not going to charge you. The only thing we ask is enough money to pay for the fuel we used.’ The total was around $200! We were excited to share the story. In our gym we have areas for business advertising that helps fund our sports programs, and we’re going to give them a free spot as a thank you for their help!” said Bennett. “Even though our little private school doesn’t have the laborers for something like this, God found a way to send them to us right when we needed them.”