Story by Esther Hernandez
Blue Mountain Academy (BMA) began the new year with 161 students—an increase in enrollment over the past three years—and with several “power weekends” featuring speakers who shared their testimonies and challenged the young people and staff to take the steps needed to strengthen their relationships with God.
Justin Kim, assistant director of Sabbath School and Personal Ministries for the General Conference, challenged students not to settle for being mediocre.
Story by Tamyra Horst
Matt Stroup has joined the Pennsylvania Conference team as the new Media Ministries director. This new position will focus on creating resources to equip and help churches in their mission to reach everyone, everywhere. He will film and produce training videos and other resources that members can use to help share the gospel with their communities.
Story by Tamyra Horst
The second Friday night of each month, Carnegie, Pa., hosts the “Carnegie Crawl,” where Main Street businesses stay open late with live music and special events throughout the town.
Earlier this year, nonprofits were offered the opportunity to serve the community during the crawl. Members of Pennsylvania Conference’s Carnegie church joined the event by creating a “gratitude board.” As people walked past the group, members asked them what they were thankful for.
Story by V. Michelle Bernard
Missing fresh summer produce? Why not grow some indoors this winter?
Blue Mountain Academy’s cafeteria manager and a longtime gardener, Christina Houston, says it’s possible to grow lettuce, greens, microgreens and herbs indoors in the winter. She says tomatoes can also be grown indoors with proper sunlight and heat.
Growing rowing your own food can save money, if given a proper start, she says.
“Choosing plants that keep producing will give months of continuous harvest until the season changes. The more the plants are harvested, the more they will grow,” she says, noting you can save seeds from the plants for next year as well, helping keep your wallet green, too.
Story by Esther Hernandez
Nalda Hernandez was concerned for her son Antonio. He was being bullied in school, and the emotional stress resulted in him not caring about anything, including his grades. She knew he needed a change, but as a single mom, could she afford a Seventh-day Adventist education? On the other hand, could she afford not to?
She enrolled Antonio at Blue Mountain Academy (BMA) in 2019. “That was a lot of sacrifice at the time,” Nalda shares. “The atmosphere of an Adventist school was important to me, and here he had the opportunity to meet other students from all over the world who also shared the same beliefs.”