ROCKY MOUNTAIN

Community Outreach Brings New Students to Intermountain Adventist Academy

Adventist education has a strong presence among the community in Grand Junction, and community outreach is at the center of the education experience at Intermountain Adventist Academy. Classes at IAA began on Aug. 12 with 32 students enrolled, including five community children. The five families had a specific reason to send their children to IAA.

IAA head teacher Joel

Franktown Church pastor, was putting the final touches on his sermon at his office on a Friday afternoon. Outside it was a beautiful day—white fluffy clouds in the sky. But suddenly a loud clap of thunder filled the office, followed by the sound of rain pounding the roof. Then the unmistakable roar of Harley Davidson motorcycles filled the empty church.

“As a motorcycle rider

Photos: Rajmund Dabrowski

Reyes explained, “We have two [families] that are coming from public school. For them, when education went via Zoom last year, in their opinion the public school system was a disaster for basic education. They were impressed with what we did and how we handled it. They are afraid of the results of another lockdown, and they would rather be with us.”

Outreach opportunities myself, I knew what was happening—a couple riders were trying to get out of the heavy rain,” Houghton said.

He went outside to meet them and a conversation started. The couple asked questions about the church and what Adventists believe. As the conversation grew, the topic of the Sabbath arose.

The storm came to an end, and the man expressed, “I think God sent the rain so we could meet you and find exist for pupils of IAA. “There’s a Catholic community service here that has an outreach program for the homeless,” adds Reyes. “They have daily lunches and free laundromats for them. We’ve volunteered in the past with them. The Catholics are wonderful!”

While the current pandemic has made volunteer opportunities difficult, hope exists that the school will once again be able to give back to the community. “I’m trying to work out something with the local parks department because I want to find something outdoors where students can distance,” said Reyes.

Educators are facing unique challenges in teaching while a pandemic ravishes the nation. “It’s hard to stay apart. It’s hard to listen to kids read from 6 feet away,” said Jami Simpson, second through fourth grade teacher. this church.”

As Houghton preached the next day, he scanned the audience but didn’t see them. “The next Sabbath, though, I was walking up to the front pew to start the announcements and some people waved at me. I went over and they said, ‘Hey! We are the motorcycle people,”’ Houghton said.

The couple has become regulars at the Franktown gatherings, and they are “And the masks. We try, but they don’t always stay on.”

Temperature checks are performed on students each morning, and those students who wish to attend without wearing a mask are kept away from the others.

With 17 students in fifth through eighth grade, IAA moved the classroom to the fellowship hall of the Grand Junction Church while the gym was being retrofitted with audio absorption boards to maintain social distancing. Having a classroom in the church brings its own unique challenges, including moving all the desks and teaching materials against the wall after school on Friday and arriving early on Monday to re-assemble the classroom.

Jon Roberts is communication/ media assistant for the Rocky

Rainstorm Leads Harley Couple to Church

Jamey Houghton,

Mountain Conference. excited to share with everyone they meet how a rainstorm changed their outlook on life and opened new doors of faith to them.

Navajos Take to the Air Waves

Adventist church member Kyle Boyd is sensing that God has given him a special opportunity to reach out to his fellow Navajo tribal members. “Our people are desperately searching for hope,” he says. Recently, he was able to realize his dream of sharing God’s message in a very special way.

About a year ago, he heard from members at his home church in La Vida Mission of an idea to establish a radio station to reach the Navajo Nation with God’s last-day message. He immediately volunteered and discovered that the Voice of Prophecy had produced programs for the Navajo many years ago. That source, with updated scripts from long ago, forms the basis of his ministry. On Aug. 2, his voice was heard for the first time around the huge reservation—the largest in North America—and his ministry was launched.

The original dream of Navajo church members was to acquire their own radio station. However, a plan to participate in a radio license auction scheduled earlier this year was foiled when the coronavirus epidemic hit and the auction was postponed.

They saw the postponement, though, as a mere delay, and their strategy changed to the concept of a trial run on KTNN, the most prominent station on the reservation. Thanks to numerous private donations and a sizable contribution to the project from Adventist World Radio, the group had enough funds to buy airtime on “The Voice of the Navajo Nation.”

They had no expectations for receiving feedback from listeners after their first half-hour on the air, but four listeners called for the study course that was offered. Three programs in, five more people asked for Bible studies.

Kyle Boyd is assisted by Michael Mace, a volunteer at La Vida Mission who was previously involved with setting up a studio. He is a nine-year French missionary veteran who has worked in Adventist broadcasting internationally. He came to La Vida Mission not knowing he would be involved in radio ministry.

“I just applied and God’s will had to be done. So now I know there was a radio behind [God’s plan], but I didn’t know that before I came,” said Mace. He set up the studio and serves as an engineer.

Pastor Steve Gillham (pictured above), director of La Vida Mission, said, “We have had this dream of winning the reservation for Christ. We just kept asking ourselves here on the front lines, ‘What can we do?’ and we talked it up when we were around others.” They got Allen Steele’s ear (a former AWR vice president), and “We talked to others involved, and in God’s providence, word came from AWR [that there was] interest in a Navajo station,” he shared.

Now programs are on the air and Bible studies are being requested. La Vida Mission has increased its outreach among the Navajos.

The early surprise response has energized the program producers in their new work of preparing radio programs and follow-up that the requests have generated. To prepare programs, three church conferences with territory in the Navajo Nation agreed to make programs possible by installing small production studios where tribal members can conveniently record their radio messages.

The Rocky Mountain Conference helped fund a studio at La Vida Mission in San Juan County, New Mexico. The Arizona Conference installed a studio at the Adventist church in Window Rock, the national capital. The Texico Conference installed a studio at its Gallup Church in the western part of the state. Holbrook Indian School in eastern Arizona also has a studio and hopes to involve students in the programs. Thanks to a weekend of training by Steele, a dozen volunteer program producers were ready to go into action.

Until the next opportunity arrives to acquire their own station, the trial run has convinced church members that radio ministry is the best way to reach out to the huge desert expanse of their territory that straddles the three states of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Allen Steele with Rajmund Dabrowski

Michael Mace is a nine-year French missionary veteran who has worked in international Adventist radio broadcasting. He now serves as engineer for the radio outreach to the Navajo Nation.