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By George Crumley

“William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and hunger. But William had read about windmills, and he dreamed of building one that would bring to his small village a set of luxuries that only two percent of Malawians could enjoy: electricity and running water. His neighbors called him “misala”—crazy—but William refused to let go of his dreams.

With a small pile of once-forgotten science textbooks, some scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle halves, and an armory of curiosity and determination, he embarked on a daring plan to forge an unlikely contraption and small miracle that would change the lives around him.”

So reads the summary on the back of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

William was pulled out of school when his family could no longer pay for his education. He could have made excuses to stay home and relax or let feelings of frustration cause him to become despondent and bitter. Instead, he determined to make the best out of a bad situation, and placed himself where hope had a chance to ignite. After all, the truth was that though he could not go to school, he could still learn at the small library that was nearby.

As he perused the library’s collection of books, he spotted a picture of a windmill on the cover of an old, used eighth-grade science book. Curious, he opened the book to see what this tall standing tower was. After asking many questions of the librarian, he began to comprehend what the picture was and to understand what a windmill could do.

Excitement welled up as he thought of all the possibilities. As his understanding increased, so did his confidence that he was on to something important. He became determined to fan this spark of hope into a flame that would spread to make life better for himself and his whole village.

Nothing seemed able to cloud his determination. Even the ravages of poverty and hunger were quieted as he directed his thoughts away from his feelings and discomforts and toward his hopes. The project wasn’t a burden, and obstacles were not dead ends but merely detours on the road to success.

William was a good steward of his time and thoughts, which opened the door for accomplishments that would only have been smoldering embers if he had consulted his feelings and paid attention to what seemed like impossible odds.

As we near the return of our Lord and Savior, and the famine of life closes in, we too can choose to be good stewards of our thoughts and resources, determining to make the world a better place for others.

We can place ourselves where a picture of God leads us to search through His library of answers, and hope will ignite as we begin to understand all that He can do for our village. With a conviction that we are onto something important, our focus will cause obstacles to be small in light of what is to be gained by pressing on toward our hope in Jesus.

–George Crumley is RMC vice president for finance.

By Carol Bolden

The St. John family had just finished their traditional Christmas Eve supper of warm potato soup, homemade bread slathered with butter and blackberry jam, and apple cider. The two children hurried into the living room as Mom cleared the table, Dad stoked the fire, and Grandpa claimed his favorite chair. They sat at Grandpa’s feet waiting for the stories he invariably told during a family gathering after a full meal.

One forgotten ornament sat on the coffee table waiting to be placed on the tree—a lone lamb. It seemed to catch the eye of both children at the same time, and each grabbed at it, greedy for the privilege of hanging it on the tree. As they fought to gain control, the fragile lamb broke and crumbled onto the floor. Shocked, they looked at each other with accusing eyes and began quarreling.

“Listen, kids,” said Grandpa. “The lamb is broken and there’s nothing to be done. Why don’t you just sit down and listen to a story. Do you want to hear a story about a lamb?” he asked.

“Yes, yes,” the children cried in unison, looking somewhat chagrined. So Grandpa began. “A long time ago, when I was a young boy and lived on our farm in Montana, my job was to take care of my father’s sheep. I guess you could say I was a shepherd because Charlie, my border collie, and I made sure they had food and water and watched out for their safety.

“One December night, when I was about 15, with snow piling up in drifts against the house and a freezing wind howling, I awoke with a start. Charlie’s cold nose had awakened me. I knew something was wrong by the way he was acting, so I dressed in wooly layers and followed him out through the blowing snow toward the barn.

“There, within twenty feet of the barn, lying in a muddy patch of ice, lay a bleating ewe. She looked distressed and unable to rise from her cold bed. But Charlie had something else on his mind. He led me to a shivering, newborn lamb struggling to gain his footing on feet and legs completely unused to standing.

“I hadn’t expected the lamb to come so soon, but it was here now and needed care. With old rags I found in the barn, I rubbed the lamb dry and put it in a stall with dry hay. Then I did the same with the ewe, so that mother and baby were together in the stall, dry and warm. The ewe found renewed strength when she heard the bleating of her baby and the lamb was soon nuzzling the ewe.

“All was well in the barn, so I headed back through the blowing snow into the warm house and my warm bed, leaving Charlie to look out for the sheep. I knew he would be plenty warm inside the barn and he didn’t seem to want to follow me back to the house. He always took his job seriously.

“Warmed by my cozy bed, I fell into a deep sleep, a sleep uninterrupted until, again, I woke with a start, this time unexplainably because Charlie was not there. The clock read 4 a.m. What am I doing awake at this hour? I wondered. I turned over and tried to go back to sleep, but something was wrong. I could sense it. I don’t know how I knew, but something was off.

“I forced myself out of bed, pulled on the clothes I’d discarded on the floor just a few hours earlier and headed out into the snow. The beauty and peace were magnificent. The winter moon shone on the pure, white snow. My previous tracks were covered over with fresh snow, so my feet sank into new drifts with each step. Reaching the barn, I called out for Charlie, but there was no answer. In fact, the stall where I’d left the ewe and her lamb was empty.

“Where in the world could they be? I checked the other stalls, but found nothing. Then I headed out into the snow. Why would they have left the warmth and safety of the barn and why would Charlie let them, I wondered? Not sure where to look, I headed uphill to the fence. Finding nothing, I followed the fence line toward the back of the property.

“Before long, I stumbled over something in the snow and realized it was the ewe, dead and frozen. Just beyond the ewe, I discovered Charlie. He, too, was dead, but below him lay the lamb, warm and alive. He had done his job at the cost of his life. He had saved the lamb.

“I scooped up the tiny, wooly lamb and hurried to the house. It looked like I would have a babysitting job. She would need to be bottle-fed. A lot of my time over the next few months was spent taking care of that lamb, but while I cared for her, I did a lot of thinking. I tried to re-create in my mind what happened that night when Charlie saved the lamb’s life.

“I never did figure it out, but I learned a lot about responsibility and love as I thought about what Charlie had done. And I learned about trust as I watched Evie—which is what I named her because she was born on Christmas Eve— develop complete trust in me, the one who fed and cared for her in every way.

The faraway look in Grandpa’s eyes disappeared as he again focused on the children. “Can you kids think of a story in the Bible about a lamb?” Grandpa asked.

The children looked thoughtful as they searched their memories. “Didn’t the Israelites sacrifice a lamb in the temple for their sins?” asked Matthew, the oldest boy.

“That’s right,” Grandpa confirmed.

“Isn’t there a story about a sheep that went astray?” exclaimed Mary, the little sister. “The shepherd looked for it until he found it and brought it back to the sheep fold.”

“That’s a good one, too,” Grandpa encouraged. “The story of the lamb runs all through the Bible beginning with the story of Abraham being asked to kill Isaac. It continues with a special ceremony, called Passover, in Egypt where the Israelites were instructed to kill a lamb and put its blood over the doorpost. And it runs through the Passover supper with Jesus and His disciples.”

Grandpa explained that in all situations a lamb is offered as a sacrifice for a debt. “When John the Baptist who saw Jesus approaching on the road, he pointed to him and said: ‘Behold the lamb of God.’ By this, he meant for us to understand who Jesus is and the debt He paid for us with His death,” Grandpa told us.

The children were quiet until Grandpa said, “Why don’t we finish off the night with a cup of hot chocolate? Maybe we should pick up the broken lamb first.”

There was no more fighting now. Each child gladly shared in the clean up. Maybe it had something to do with the Lamb.

–Carol Bolden is RMC administrative assistant for communication.

By Rajmund Dabrowski

Grandma’s stories about hospitality were the best. As kids, we would listen to vividly-described events that took us back to her own childhood. The small incidents from the “grown-up” world grew large in the world of children. Sitting at my bedside, she would speak about things and happenings that are all too often missing from the fast-paced life of today. With our child-like imagination we could travel into a world where kindness was ever present and it wasn’t difficult to be happy.

It was wintertime in the small Polish town of Radomsko. Her sister, Maria Stelak,* lived with three children, and for them Christmas was celebrated in traditional Polish fashion: a table full of typical holiday cuisine, festively decorated, with an abundance of freshly baked cakes covered with blue-black poppy seeds, all laced with laughter and wonder.

On Christmas Eve, the table was traditionally laid with one empty place left for an uninvited guest, a wandering stranger. Year after year, Aunt Maria would play hostess to someone at this empty place.

The house was off the beaten track, right at the edge of a forest. This particular year, instead of guests, there was an abundance of snow. The children had their noses glued to the frosted glass, waiting for their guests to arrive in horse- drawn carriages. But no one was in sight.

The evening games were later disturbed by a gentle knock on the door. “They are here!” children shouted. When the door opened, however, they found a stranger. He looked like a beggar, his beard white with frost. Under his arm, he carried a bundle. His clothes were torn and dirty. Grandma recalled that the stranger was a Jew. A traveler and a stranger, he was last thing they expected on that night.

His frozen feet were soon treated to a tin bucket of warm water. Then he ate like he’d never seen food before. Soon his face revealed the gratitude that can only adorn the countenance of a contented traveler. He wiped the bread crumbs off his face and beard, stood up, bowed, and walked toward the door. In an instant he was gone.

Hearing the door close, Maria shouted to bid him come back. “We must give him food to take away.”

“They went outside,” Grandma Janina continued. “There was no one in sight. Not even footprints in the freshly-fallen snow.”

It all sounded so real. Did she really experience such an awesome encounter? Later she would tell stories of her other encounters with miracles.

I keep asking myself, who was the stranger on that Christmas Eve in Radomsko? No answer comes, but I am convinced that angels visit good homes.**

Generosity—a gift that keeps on giving. Christmas is a celebration of the Gift.

–Rajmund Dabrowski is RMC communication director.

*Her son, Jerzy Stelak, pseudonym “Kruk,” was a cousin, and a contemporary of my mother, Alina. He was a WWII partisan, often pictured on his horse with a group of comrades roaming the central Poland countryside, creating resistance attacks against the German army.

**A Bible text comes to mind: “You welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself” (Gal 4:14, NIV).

By Ron Price

Several times in the Bible we are told how God wants us to treat our fellow sojourners on this planet. In three of the Gospels, we find Jesus teaching that we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Paul reiterates this theme several times in his Epistles and adds that we are not to be jealous of, or quarrel with, each other (1 Cor 3:3). Elsewhere he admonishes us to “serve” one another, “submit” to one another, “forgive” one another—I think you get the drift. Though I cannot confirm, I once heard there are 51 “one anothers” in the New Testament.

Hopefully we can agree that how we treat others, believers or not, is important to our Lord. Yet doing unto others as we would have them do unto us is sometimes more easily said than done. All of us have moments when we are not so easy to get along with, times when others won’t be motivated to run for president of our fan club. Most of us also have people in our lives who pose a challenge to living out Christlikeness—people who have an uncanny way of getting under our skin.

If we’re honest we can admit that we have hurt others at times we really didn’t mean to. It’s a fact of life that people who are hurting will hurt others. When we’re not at our best, for whatever reason, others around us will likely be the first to know as we tend to take our frustration or pain out on them. This is well-articulated in the old song lyrics, “You always hurt the ones you love.”

Typically these situations do not occur because we are evil or have poor intentions. When we are hurting we are not as able to control our emotions, our actions, or our words as we might otherwise be.

Well, if that’s true for us, is it possibly also true for those who hurt or mistreat us? Is it possible that when others do us wrong they may not have intended to do so?

That’s where A.G.I. comes in—“Assume Good Intent.” When others hurt us we have two choices: we can react to their hostility or minister to their pain. By practicing A.G.I. we give the other person the benefit of the doubt, we assume that he or she needs our encouragement and support more than our condemnation. This can have a huge benefit when the offending party is a family member, a church member, or some other important person in your life.

Practicing A.G.I. might not always be easy, but please explain someday to Jesus, Paul, Peter, Joseph, or any other stalwart of the Bible that life—and doing the right thing—is supposed to be easy. I doubt you’ll get very far with that argument.

So let me close with an encouragement to frequently read and commit to memory the words of Philippians 2:1-5 that urge us to encourage and support each other. We should live this way not only for the benefit to others, but as the surest path to peace, joy and more satisfying relationships in life.

–Ron Price is a member of the RMC executive committee from Farmington, New Mexico.

By Rick Mautz

There are people who are rejecting a God that doesn’t exist. The God they’re rejecting is one cleverly projected by the enemy of God and man. As Christians, our most important role is to present a clear and true picture of God to the world around us.

When you look in the mirror, you get an almost perfect picture of what you look like because you are seeing your own reflection. That is what God has called us to be, a reflection of His character, made possible only when He lives in us and transforms our actions and attitudes.

So how do we go about doing this reflecting? Do I go door to door, telling people that I am here to reflect God to them? Not likely. What’s needed is a connection with people through natural interactions. We could meet a need, join them in enjoyable activities, or learn together through an educational endeavor.

Health is one of the most natural subjects that meets all of these criteria. Through health programs, cooking schools, and screenings, we can connect with people in a way that few other topics allow. Everyone wants to be healthy.

In the box below are a few suggestions on how to utilize the topic of health not only to connect with people, but to reflect God’s character to a world that may have the wrong picture of who He is. I call this approach “Connect to Reflect.” Our main goal is to reflect His character, but to do this we must connect with people. What is the best way to reflect Him? By doing. By exemplifying what He does.

When we care enough to listen, we reflect a listening, caring God. When we ask questions, we reflect a God who wants people to know that they are important to Him.

When we provide ongoing support by calling people even after the program is over, we reflect the Holy Spirit who is always walking beside us, helping us through our struggles. Sometimes it’s easy to give information, but difficult to listen. Let us practice our listening.

Christ is waiting for a people who will give a clear reflection of His character to their world. Do we care enough to learn the skills that reflect Him the most? Take advantage of an online training opportunity at rmcsda.org/support. Remember, I am here to listen to you and support you as you polish your mirror to become a better reflector of the God that is worth imitating.

–Rick Mautz is RMC health director.

By Becky De Oliveira

“Children are the heritage of the Lord, and unless parents give them such a training as will enable them to keep the way of the Lord, they neglect solemn duty. It is not the will or purpose of God that children shall become coarse, rough, uncourteous, disobedient, unthankful, unholy, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. The Scriptures state that this condition of society shall be a sign of the last days.” —The Signs of the Times, September 17, 1894.

The discipline of children has changed dramatically over the past few generations. My great-grandmother was a first generation American, the child of Norwegian immigrants who were, evidently, very strict. If she did anything worthy of punishment at school, she’d receive an extra beating at home that evening. When her older brothers am- bushed her with a hidden ski jump on her cross-country commute home from school and she fell, hurting herself quite badly and laughing with hysteria the way one some- times does after a scary injury, she got a good thrashing from her father. Foolish laughter was not tolerated; nor was inappropriate smiling. Even my mother, who was born in the late 1940s, attended a one-room school and her older brother— who today would have been almost certainly diagnosed with ADHD—was beaten routinely, sometimes with fire pokers and yardsticks.

By the time I started school in the late 1970s, corporal punishment was administered at school only if parents provided written permission. I remember one boy whose parents had evidently agreed that he could be spanked in school. The teacher paddled him almost every day because he couldn’t read. Sometimes she outsourced this task to another student, a young girl who was a proficient reader and who was given a paddle studded with holes and instructed to hit him if he stumbled over words or misbehaved during reading. My parents did not sign the spanking agreement, and so most of my punishments at school consisted of writing hundreds of sentences or even essays detailing my unfortunate behavior. At home, I was assigned unpleasant chores, had privileges taken away, or was sometimes told to go to the back yard and select a “switch” from the elderberry bush that grew near the tree house. This long thin branch made a whistling sound as it sliced the air on its way to contact with my bare thighs.

By the time my own children were born, corporal punishment in schools was mostly illegal, and today parents in many places can be prosecuted for striking their children. And regardless of the law, many parents have simply abandoned the practice. It seems like a quaint relic from a past in which people thought children would become better people if they were dealt with severely and without mercy. But even in this gentler age, most of us lack clarity about exactly how to raise children—how to avoid turning them into people who are “rough, course, uncourteous, disobedient.” And there are so many opinions! Absolutely everyone has a perspective about childrearing, whether or not they actually have children themselves. It’s hard to know exactly which methods will “enable [children] to keep the way of the Lord.” Most parents express regret about how they’ve brought their children up; nearly everyone wants a do-over. In a recent interview on NPR, even the famed novelist Toni Morrison confessed that the older she gets, the more she focuses on her mistakes as a mother. “Now that I’m 84, I remember everything as a mistake, and I regret everything.”

As Christian parents, we have every reason to take our responsibility seriously. It’s the most important job we’ll ever have. We believe we are, after all, preparing our children for eternity—to be “lovers of God.” The last thing we want is to make any kind of mistake that might put that at risk. Yet we all recognize that there is only so much control we can ever exercise over our children. Richard Lavoie, a well-known speaker and writer, notes the ineffectiveness of many of the ways we attempt to steer our children, most notably punishment, which “is effective only as long as the threat of punishment exists.” Children who are under the control of adults often “begin to misbehave the moment you leave the room or turn your back.” Obviously, Christian values have to be deeply instilled in individuals so that they develop a sense of ownership of these values. We have to raise our children in such a way that they will adhere to Christian principles even outside of our presence and in the absence of fear of punishment or disapproval.

How do we do this? My own parenting is still a work in progress—and I will not claim to have definitive answers, but I like this quote from Franklin Delano Roosevelt: “Do something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t . . . do something else.” The important thing is to keep trying, to keep loving, to keep praying, to keep the faith. Ours is a faithful God, and he promises that, “I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save,” (Isaiah 49:25 NIV).

–Becky De Oliveira is a writer, designer, and editor who lives in Boulder.

By Barbara Parrott

Only a handful of people know the breadth of the services offered by the planned giving and trust services department at the Rocky Mountain Conference, but Margaret White is one of them. She discovered the department when she was invited to teach secondary school at Oke-Ode in Nigeria.

Although she wanted to go, she wasn’t sure how she would handle bill-paying from the other side of the world. A friend introduced her to Gerry Chapman, then director of the RMC planned giving department, who helped her do the paperwork to give him power of attorney to handle her payment of her bills.

Every month, he would pay her bills out of her bank account. Sometimes, he would send birthday money to her grandchildren or wire money to her in Nigeria. Because corruption is rampant in Nigeria,Western Union employees would always caution him, saying, “She’ll never get it.”

But Gerry Chapman was creative, and Margaret always received the entire amount of money sent and was able to serve in Nigeria for six years.

Another way planned giving and trust services helps is demonstrated in the story of a farming couple who, many years ago, requested a visit from a trust officer. They wanted help to make sure they provided for their children and for the Lord’s work. Because their two children were small, they chose a guardian who would take care of their children in the event of their untimely deaths.

The naming of a guardian is a major decision that parents of young children should put in writing. Without it, your state of residence will select a guardian for you. This individual may or may not be someone you would have chosen.

Many years later, after the wife had died and both children were married with children of their own, making the farmer a great-grandfather, he requested another visit from a trust officer. His hands bothered him when he wrote checks and he realized he needed more help to make sure his affairs were in order. His children lived in other states and he didn’t want to bother them. He hoped that a trust officer would come by each month to help him write checks to pay his bills, including checks for tithe and various church ministries.

When the trust officer arrived, the farmer explained that he only had four years of church school education because of eye problems that made it difficult to learn, so his parents decided he should learn about farming. In his four years of education, however, he had learned about tithing. He knew that tithing was not “giving,” but was returning to God what was already His. “Giving,” he said, is “an expression of thankfulness to God for His blessings.”

This dear brother has been sleeping beside his wife for many years now, but through his careful planning, along with help from our attorney and several trust officers over the decades, he left an example of good stewardship and his generosity lives on.

His faithfulness and stewardship continues to benefit and bless his children, grandchildren, and great- grandchildren, his local church, church school, and the Rocky Mountain Conference.

Every individual has an estate. It is comprised of every- thing you own—your home, car, land, checking and savings accounts, investments, life insurance, furniture, and personal possessions. These things are only useful to you when you’re alive, but you would probably like to direct where they go when you die.

To insure your wishes are carried out, you need to provide instructions in writing indicating who is to benefit from your estate at the time of your death. You will, of course, want this to happen with the least amount paid in taxes, legal fees, and court costs. That is estate planning— making a plan in advance to provide for your family and the Lord’s work after you die.

Take advantage of this season in your life by planning for the rest of your life and the lives of those you love. This is what good stewardship is all about.

“It is the ministry of the planned giving and trust services department to help you develop a structured plan of giving,” explains Joanne Smith, administrative assistant for the department.

The service provided for conference constituents through planned giving and trust services facilitates your ability to provide for your family by planning for the distribution of your assets after death. It also gives you the ability to direct a portion of your estate to the program or mission that represents your interests or passions. The department staff is also trained and able to facilitate current giving, e.g. land, stocks, etc., so that you may support the missions of the church that you are passionate about during your lifetime.

The planned giving department staff has had the privilege of seeing the happiness, thankfulness, and blessings that comes from careful planning.

With the many banking and government regulations in place and the constant change in laws, it seems impossible for an ordinary person to know where to begin.

Our department employs the best team of experts in the entire conference territory. Our trust officers are required by the General Conference to be certified through an intense three weeks of classroom instruction followed by a one-week internship. Annual continuing education requirements maintain the certification.

“I am very grateful to be able to assist our members with the estate planning process,” states Daryl Davison, field representative and associate director of the department. “It gives me a chance to connect with our members and I am so blessed by our conversations.”

“Using the information collected by our field representative,” explains C.J. Cress, “I evaluate what is wanted and prepare the file, whether it’s a will, a trust, power of attorney, or living wills for the attorney to review. I love my work,” she enthuses.

If you would like to have our department help you with your estate plan or if it is time to review your estate plan, please contact our office. A trust officer will be happy to visit with you to see how we can help. Call our department at 303-282-3640 or feel free to email [email protected].

–Barbara Parrott is RMC planned giving and trust services director.

By Craig Carr

Identifying just what the priorities of pastoral ministry are can be overwhelming. Among the many duties that pastors perform are: leading, training, sermon preparation, preaching, Bible study, visit- ing, counseling, meetings, planning, prayer meeting, conducting weddings, funerals, dedications and baptisms, and a host of other responsibilities.

The skills required to perform these tasks include: listening, Biblical knowledge, life-long learning, excellent people skills, diplomacy, financial management, administration, motivational skills, communication, vision casting, teaching, preaching, conflict mediation skills, counseling, janitorial (yes), time management, social skills, public relations, and a knowledge of technology and social media.

These lists of job duties and skills are just the beginning when seeking to summarize what a pastor does, which can make the expectations of the job inexhaustible.

In an effort to bring focus and clarity to the role of pastors in the Rocky Mountain Conference, the ministerial department led a group of seven pastors* through a six-month process of identifying, prioritizing, and simplifying the role by establishing core values for ministry. The five-word acronym that summarizes these values is the foundation for the ministerial core values of Friendship, Adaptability, Integrity, Teamwork, and Humility.

These ministerial core values (F-A-I-T-H) embody the character attributes and leadership principles that can offer clarity and guidance on both a personal and professional basis. This is further demonstrated by the two-fold aspiration of “Living and Leading by F-A-I-T-H” in which pastors are invited to adopt these values in both their personal lives and their focus in ministry.

Approved in concept by the RMC executive committee, these core values have already been embraced by pastors in every region of our conference as the values take center stage for this year’s evaluation and planning process.

Over time, “Living and Leading by F-A-I-T-H” has the potential to bring greater clarity, consistency, and common understanding to the role of ministry among pastors in the Rocky Mountain Conference.

–Craig Carr is RMC ministerial director.

By Rajmund Dabrowski

Katie Morrison’s letter asking whether the RMC offered internship opportunities in communication indicated more than just an interest in spending 10 summer weeks in a professional, work-related environment. Katie knew exactly why she wanted to work in Colorado. She wrote: “Being able to work with the Rocky Mountain Conference in any capacity, would be an amazing learning experience.” She wanted to have “the opportunity to grow as an individual, and develop skills in every area possible.” And she wanted to be close to her family, too. Her dad, Wayne Morrison, is a pastor in Brighton, north of Denver, and just 28 miles away from the RMC office.

She came—and she conquered. August 6, 2015 was her last day with our team. As part of her responsibilities, Katie did news writing, and plenty of it, including 20 major stories. She also edited the NewsNuggets, prepared items for Mountain Views, assisted the conference with social media and related online tasks, and helped market various aspects of our communication programs.

As someone who has been a communication intern in my professional past, I was delighted to have an intern who could be trusted with a variety of tasks, and to witness the talents, skills, and work ethic for which we will remember Katie with fondness. Her internship included assisting with news development at the General Conference Session in San Antonio, TX—and it was of particular benefit to the North American Division, and the Mid-America Union Conference’s news coverage to have a Millennial’s frank appraisal of what was said and done.

“Katie has brought energy and an ability to help all of us look at things through different glasses. Her articles for publication always provided a different slant than we are used to,” commented Ed Barnett, RMC president. “She uses different words since she sees things through the eyes of a twenty-one year old.”

From San Antonio, Katie’s articles from the General Conference Session were shared with the church around the globe. “It was pleasing to hear our North American Division communication director comment that ‘we will keep our eyes on you when you are ready to graduate from Union College.’ We watched a young college student come into her own this summer. Personally, I want to thank Katie for a job well done,” Barnett said.

On her last day at the office, Katie reminisced: “I remember how I felt at the beginning of the summer, nervous and unsure of how I would fit in, and now that I’ve reached my last day, I can’t imagine not coming into the office tomorrow and seeing the people who have taught me so much these last 10 weeks.”

“My summer, which looked so dismal and boring in May, turned out to be one of the most impactful experiences of my life and I couldn’t be more grateful for what I’ve learned and the people who taught me,” she added.

Katie’s immediate plans are to spend a year learning Italian at Istituto Avventista di Cultura Biblica Villa Aurora in Florence, Italy. She will return to Union College next year to complete her B.S. in Business (Marketing) with a minor in Communication.

Viaggi sicuri, Katie—and thank you. You are missed.

 —Rajmund Dabrowski is RMC communication director.

By Katie Morrison

We all know the Golden Rule: love your neighbor as yourself. But Derek and Alicia White are taking this rule and making it their goal in life.

Back when they were dating, Alicia and Derek were already interested in serving their community. They got especially involved with refugees, namely from Burma and Sudan. “We always look for ways to build community,” Alicia said. “We want to live together and be a family to them.”

Everything this couple does is entwined with serving their community. Derek attended law school and immediately upon graduation, began volunteering for the Colorado African Organization, where he is currently employed. Alicia got her undergraduate degree in international studies before completing nursing school. In the last few years, she has also gotten involved with Bridges to Care, a group that targets frequent emergency room visitors, helping them overcome behavioral health issues and other barriers through sending specialists and nurse practitioners to their homes.

Three years ago, they were asked to take charge of the community garden in Aurora, Colorado. Derek provides legal services to refugees, including assistance with green card applications, and had already met quite a few Burmese families living in the area.

Many refugees used to work in agriculture and farming before they moved to America. “In America, there aren’t as many opportunities, especially if you live in a big city,” explains Alicia. “This is just one way we can connect with them and make this new strange place feel like home.”

Alicia is not a gardener. “I mostly talk with the families and play with the kids,” she laughs. “But many of the refugees have taught us different tricks!”

The garden has a chain link fence around its perimeter. Hanging about a foot apart are small wooden squares, each painted with different scenes, styles, and colors. As a way to include the children of the families who use the community garden, Alicia had them each paint their own square to be hung up. “It’s a way to make the kids feel more included,” she says. Unfortunately, they were all stolen a few years ago. Slowly they are being replaced by new pieces, but thieving and vandalism are still issues.

A while ago, a close friend of the Whites had grown some enormous watermelons. He was ecstatic, so proud of his fruit, and excited to eat them. He planned to let them sit a day or two more before picking them. He returned to the garden to take them and they had been smashed all over the ground. “He would’ve been okay if they had been taken to be enjoyed,” Alicia explains, “but they were just wasted and ruined.”

Recognizable produce, like watermelons and pumpkins, is often stolen or vandalized. In addition, the sizable shed that sits in the corner of the garden repeatedly ends up covered in graffiti.

“We try to have one work day a month where we have everyone come,” Alicia says. “We paint over the graffiti on the shed and we try to have a potluck. That’s kind of for selfish reasons because I love Burmese food!” The Whites strongly believe that a community garden’s purpose is for the community members to garden together, working in cooperation. But unfortunately sometimes it becomes prideful and individualistic, with everyone worrying about their own plots instead interacting with each other. The scheduled workday and potluck provide an opportunity to get together and garden at the same time.

“We were looking for ways to build community. We were uncomfortable with the idea of being benefactors. We wanted to live together, be a family to them. A great way to get in with the families is through the kids. They’re much easier to communicate with and very open,” Alicia says.

The garden, founded through Denver Urban Gardens, boasts quite a full roster. There are 36 plots and 10 raised boxes, a new feature that allows for some families to move off of the waitlist and get involved. Currently at least 45 different families work in the garden. Some families share plots, including Alicia and Derek. “I see new people I’ve never met here sharing with another family,” Alicia says. “The waitlist has about ten families on it now, but if we were to tell the refugees we had more space, we’d definitely be able to fill the garden again.”

The city of Aurora does offer free transplants and seeds that the gardeners have access too and many take advantage of that; but many also bring their own plants and seed, some completely unfamiliar to Alicia. “When we went to Burma last year, we tried to bring some seeds back and half of them got taken by security,” Alicia shrugs. “Apparently you aren’t allowed to do that!”

In October 2014, Alicia and Derek were able to indulge their love of travel and visited Burma. They met the families of many of their new Burmese friends from Aurora and got to develop new relationships as well. For years, one of their major life plans has been to live outside of the United States. Alicia studied abroad in Morocco when she was younger and Derek worked as an intern for the United Nations in Lebanon. Unfortunately, life has not allowed for that dream quite yet. Between school, legal cases, and now an adorable 2 1⁄2 month-old baby named Isaiah, the timing just hasn’t been right. “We moved to this area two years ago because this is where most of the refugees settle. While we wait for the timing to be right, we wanted to find ways to get involved in our city,” explained Alicia. “We do want to be open in regards to where we go. We pray lots and we’re just trying to see where God wants us to be. He doesn’t always say, ‘Go here!’ That would be too easy.”

When asked about how they juggle all their different commitments along with being new parents, Alicia laughs. “We’re figuring it out! We’re really blessed that Isaiah is so chill because I just carry him around.” She explains how important it was to her and Derek that their mission wouldn’t suffer as their family grew. “We want to give him that same mission. We bring him along as much as we possibly can,” she said. “We’re very busy and sometimes we overextend ourselves, but we did that before him too!”

Although they hope to move abroad in the next year or two, they’re making their current home welcoming to the entire neighborhood. “We want to live with people where they are. We like to have them over for meals, celebrate special events with them, like weddings,” she said.

Alicia told the story of a good friend, a refugee from Eritrea. Apparently she was the wrong kind of Christian and was put into prison. She was threatened and mistreated, but escaped the country with the help of smugglers. After flying from Russia to South America, she made her way all the way up and across the border. “Every time you talk to her, she says ‘God is good’,” Alicia says. “Her faith through all that is incredible.”

“We’ve met so many amazing people and have been so blessed by the relationships. We learn so much from these people,” she gushes. “Really it’s kind of selfish of us! We get to meet such amazing people. They teach us how to grow stuff and share their stories with us. We are lucky to know them.”

–Katie Morrison was RMC 2015 summer communication intern.