We learned a vital lesson from our Wildfire student-led evangelistic series: never underestimate what God can do through young people.

 

On February 17-24, Campion Academy, Campion Adventist Church, and Loveland Adventist Church partnered together to hold Wildfire: a youth-led evangelistic series. Our team consisted of staff, church members, and mostly students. Seven students preached powerful, Christ-centered messages: Cassandra Carr (salvation), Jake Graybill (second coming), Diana Miranda (state of the dead), Nathaniel Sanchez (Sabbath), Ashley Halvorson (judgment), David Marroquin Jr. (health), and Chantelle Bravatti (heaven). We were stirred by their Spirit-filled passion and contagious enthusiasm.

 

We'll never forget when Ashley and Chantelle made appeals for baptism. They had never made public appeals before, much less calls for baptism. But with much prayer and unflinching faith, they invited people to come forward. And to their amazement, they watched as several people paced slowly to the front. Seven souls (one adult from the Loveland Church and six students from Campion Academy) made decisions for baptism.

 

In February the 5th and 6th graders from Mr. Bragaw's class at HMS went to serve food at Front Porch Ministries as an effort for the 40 days of "Show Him." They had a great time!

The students served an Adventist staple: haystacks! The meal was a success, and those who came to eat loved it! They also loved the fact that there are still schools that encourage the students to go out and do something for those in need!

The students were a great joy to work with and they left a great impression on those who volunteer at Front Porch Ministries and those who were served.

If you are looking for an opportunity to invite friends and neighbors to a unique church event, you will have that chance on Sabbath afternoon April 15. That is the day before Easter, a time when people are open to Biblical events and celebrations.           

The Journey to the Cross and Beyond will start at 1pm and run through 7 pm. Events include gathering in the church sanctuary for programs and drawings, then a trip through the Jerusalem marketplace with plenty of interaction with locals, including Pontius Pilate, the High Priest, and more. On exiting the village, guests will participate in brief but moving crucifixion and resurrection dramas. Guests will then be invited to the Academy cafeteria for refreshments and viewing/discussion of Dick Stenbakken's Roman military materials, coins, and first century artifacts.

                 
When people are in the church, they can register for a drawing to win either one of Jamie Autrey's hand-made first century reproduction oil lamps, or a DVD set of Faces Around the Cross. Two awards will be given each hour, with a grand prize of the ten volume Bible Story books.

Invite your friends, neighbors, family, and fellow workers. It is an interesting, non-threatening way to engage the community with the central message of Christianity.

We still need people to decorate and staff shops in the village, and also need shoppers in the village. Costumes will be supplied. The popular "gold" coins will be given to guests so they can "buy" items as they go through the market-place---if they can avoid the tax collector, the beggars, and the Roman soldiers.

                 
Assistance will be needed to set up the village on Monday, April 10, starting at 10 am, and for taking the village down and putting it back in storage on Monday, April 17.

This is one of the largest public events the campus offers to the community. Your involvement will help it be a success.  If you have questions, or can volunteer, call Dick Stenbakken at 970-667-0866.

Article: Ardis and Dick Stenbakken

Fifteen years ago, Patty Oden asked me if I would be willing to help her bring a 9Health Fair to our church. We decided that we would go ahead, and she became the site coordinator and I the non-medical coordinator . However, three years later Patty went through cancer and while she was in the hospital before her death, she trained me on the site coordinator's responsibilities as she did not feel she would make it to our next fair two months later. She passed and her memorial service was the Sabbath before our 9Health Fair that year. That year I was the site coordinator and non-medical coordinator. It was a real emotional day.

 

After all these years, I need to step down and let someone else take over. Beth DiVittorio has also decided that this will be her last year as non-medical coordinator. Ellen White tells us that the health message is very important and Jesus did more healing than He did preaching, so I hate this important community program to die because of no leadership. This is one way that people in the community know that we are here and there are people that come year after year to our fair. It is also a way for people to get help with their health screenings at a reasonable cost. As a leader, you will need to have computer and organizational skills. Most everything we do involves using the computer. If you are interested, please contact Pastor Nestor as he wants to see that the health fair continues at our church.

 

This year t he 9Health Fair will be held at the Campion Church on Sunday, April 23, from 7 a.m. to 12 noon. We have had from 350 to 600 people come to our fair so many volunteers are needed. We are in need of more volunteers, both medical and non-medical, so hopefully some of you reading this will agree to participate.  As a volunteer, you can get 20% off your own screenings. You can call or text Beth DiVittorio at 970-539-0158 for non-medical and John Fagan for 970-744-1701 for medical.

 

The fair will be offering many more blood screenings this year, including blood chemi stry, PSA, Vitamin D, Testosterone for males and females, Vitamin B12, Blood Cell Count, Hemoglobin A1c, as well as a colon cancer screening kit. All of these are offered at a low price; plus, this year, the Vitamin B12 screening will be free with the purchase of at least one other screening. We also have many screenings such as Body and Balance, Spinal Screening, Oral Screening, Vision Screening, Diabetic Education, and several other educational centers.

Small group leaders came together to share a meal at the Perea household. Elders for discipleship Tom Cleveland and Steve Eickmann brought together the leaders for these groups to find ways to support them and help them to continue to grow in their ministries.

Ten families shared information on how their group was doing and where they felt they could improve. The leaders shared the different topics they are studying and how the health of the groups are.

We would like to see our Small Group numbers double by next year and try to fill the gaps of where other small groups may be needed for the continuing health o f our members. Our desire is to have every member connected with fellow believers outside of the church service on Sabbath---a place where they can pray, share, and grow together.

We are pleased to announce that we've hired a new teacher, Mrs. Leah Anderson, for the 2017-18 school year!  Mrs. Anderson will be the third and fourth grade teacher and the music teacher here at HMS.

Mrs. Anderson taught at the Bemidji Adventist School (MN), Minnetonka Christian Academy, Wisconsin Academy, and most recently Petersen Elementary School in Columbus, WI. Mrs . Anderson won the Irma Leech Award for excellence in teaching in 1997. Mrs. Anderson has served 25+ years in Adventist Education, has a Masters of Science in Education, specializing in Reading and Literacy, and has served on the North American Divisioin Assessment Taskforce 2012-2015. She comes highly recommended and we feel blessed that she will be a part of our HMS Family!

 

Every month for our Wednesday chapels, we have studied about a value in CHERISH. For the month of March, we focused on Honor, and I would like to share with you what my students did to show honor.

 

Since October, we have been doing a Project-Based Learning project in our classroom on the presidency. We have learned all about elections and held a student-led election in our classroom complete with campaigning and voting. The elected officers had to create a monument or sculpture to "leave behind" to honor someone they feel worthy of being represented. They researched the cost of clay and together, the seven elected officers created a memorable sculpture. They molded it, painted it, and finally wrote a speech and presented their creation to honor Mr. H (Mr. Hammond, the principal)!

 

I wish you all could have heard how sincere they were as they presented their sculpture with the 7th and 8th graders as their audience! I did not help them at all with what they wanted to say! Evie Lange, the president of the class, introduced the officers: Megan Clark - Vice-President; Benjamin Nelson - Spiritual-Vice President; Adrian Balbin - Secretary; Mazi Hughes - Treasurer; Autumn Greenfield and Brian Magallanes - Sergeant of Arms. They thanked him for leading our school, showing us Jesus, and caring for everyone. Then, Benjamin Nelson offered a prayer of dedication to Mr. H.

 

Mr. H, these children truly look up to you! Thank you for all you do. You are an awesome principal; we are so fortunate here at HMS to have you as our leader. May Jesus continue to bless you and your family.

 

Sincerely,

The Media Ministry Team has grown the past two years. We now have five positions that have to be filled each Sabbath. These five positions are: Video Switcher, Camera Operator, Sound, Sound for Stream, and On-Screen Presenter. At this time, we could use a few more volunteers so that some don't have to be on the schedule all four weeks a month. If you would like to learn how to help in any of these positions, please contact Dave Oden. I would also like to thank our team for their hard work each Sabbath.

Since 2012 we have been using Adventist Church Connect as our streaming provider. We have always had some issues with whether you could watch the stream from all of the current web browsers. In February we tried a new streaming service provided by Sealing Time Ministries. During this time, we found that our stream was viewable from all the current browsers with little or no issues (unless you were watching from an internet connection that was very slow). Sealing Time Ministries provides two different streams that your computer or mobile device chooses from depending on your internet speed. They also provide stats so we know how many unique visitors we have watching each month. If you are a regular viewer and are still experiencing issues, please email [email protected] and tell us about your issue.

In the chart you can see that for the month of February 2017 we have had viewers from 7 different countries, 150 unique viewers and a max of 29 viewers at one time.

 

The Campion Health Ministry team cooked some delicious, healthy, comfort food alternatives for an eager group of participants at the Loveland Seventh-day Adventist Church on March 12.  On the menu were beet burgers, sweet po tato fries, chickpea nuggets, vegan macaroni and cheese, and an avocado pudding. 

The team was joined by Alyse Houghton, owner of the Crash Cuisine Plant Based Delicatessen & Bakery that will soon open in Loveland. Alyse demonstrated a vegan ranch dressing that was great dipping sauce for the chickpea nuggets.  She also presented the participants with a sample plate of her artisan vegan cheeses with crackers. 

This was the first time the Health Ministry team took to the road to present a cooking class to the public.  It is the hope of the team to continue to reach out to the public, teaching them and reconnecting them to food instead of food-like substances.  If you are interested in expanding your already healthy eating menu or would like to taste some tried and tested favorites of the Health Ministry team, we invite you to watch the calendar for our next cooking demonstration.  Next month the Health Ministry team will be presenting an opportunity to get physically active with fitness instructor Susan Dupper on April 30.

Article and Picture Credit: Phyllis Zimmerman