This Month's Issue

Story by LaTasha Hewitt

Zina Johnson, choir director at Allegheny East Conference's Capitol Hill church in Washington, D.C., recently participated in the gospel musical Netflix docuseries, Voices of Fire. The series, produced by recording artist Pharrell Williams, follows his uncle, Ezekiel Williams, and a team of gospel leaders as they travel to Hampton Roads, Va., in search of talented singers to build a world class gospel choir.

Story by Jenevieve Lettsome & V. Michelle Bernard

Schools around the Columbia Union Conference are also striving to teach students about caring for the earth, using various activities such as installing solar panels and planting gardens.

Mountain View Conference’s Highland Adventist School in Elkins, W.Va., recently received a rain barrel from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) Division of Water and Waste Management to help provide water for their greenhouse growing program.

Editorial by Jenevieve “Jenna” Lettsome

In what can be seen by many as a faith-destroying time, stories of answered prayer and God’s love continue to shield me, protect my faith and remind me that God still exists and is bigger than life itself.

Like many grateful believers before me—in the Bible and beyond Scripture—I am impressed to tangibly give back and praise God, not just for my life, but the lives and world around me.

Story by Jenevieve Lettsome & V. Michelle Bernard / Cover photos by Brad Barnwell

Going on Sabbath walks and appreciating nature—God’s second book—are longstanding elements of Seventh-day Adventist culture. Should this appreciation impact the way members care for the environment? And can it bring them closer to God?

Adventism, [in its early years], was more outdoorsy because the culture back then was more connected with the [nature] around them,” says John Henri Rorabeck, a naturalist and educator. “[But] Ellen White and her contemporaries were [also] really pushing the boundaries and really leading.”