NN April 2020 Page 5

Growing up at the southwest tip of Lake Michigan, just about a mile from the shoreline, I had my share of snow days. My brothers and I took full advantage of the snow in every imaginable way, while my mother baked sugar cookies for us to decorate. We played board games and built puzzles and read books and reveled in not being at school. In a day or two, we were back in class, much to the relief of my mother.

Now, it feels like I’m having endless snow days, only without the sugar cookies and snow forts. I’m still working a full week, but rarely go in to the office. I transact real estate by computer, keep in touch with colleagues by text message, and have meetings through various programs available on my laptop. I’m tired of it, and I suspect you are as well.

I miss just walking into someone’s office to ask a question. I miss restaurants. And even when I do get out to a grocery store, it’s an eerie experience, with shelves emptied of critical supplies, people wearing masks, and everyone on edge as we move carefully to maintain a “safe” distance.

And I really, really miss church. I get my sermon every week, but it’s not the same. I can tell you from years of experience in the pulpit that a sermon is an interactive experience. You can feel the congregation going through the message with you, and when I see a speaker who is clearly alone in front of a camera, I know they are missing the feedback. For all they know I’m eating pistachios and spitting the hulls into a vase. I’d rather be there in person to feel, as well as hear, a good message.

I feel too silly singing along with the praise leaders, their I-phone sending out the video from their living room, he at the piano and she harmonizing. They are talented, I am not, and I don’t have a congregation to cover up my caterwauling so I just wait it out.

Even the prayer is awkward. It may be in real time, but if I’m not in the room with them, I don’t get the same connection.

You don’t know how important community is to you until you don’t have it. Work, shopping and church are all out of sync, and I don’t like it. I still work because I need to, and I still shop because I have to get stuff. But church is different. I still go to church online because I want it, I need it, and the barriers that make it feel strange can’t keep me from it.

The truth is, as much as I loved snow days, I was always ready to head back to school when the weather permitted. And I still cherish an unexpected day off from work, but I will be so glad to get back to the office routine when this is over.

And oh, how much I will be happy to get back to church. Whether I’m in the pulpit or the pew that first Sabbath back, I am going to praise God that I can get back to worship the way I enjoy, with real handshakes and all of us singing and a genuinely interactive sermon. How much I miss the community it gives me!

Right now, though, please take a minute to reflect on something: There are people in your church who miss it every week. They used to be there, but age and infirmity caught up with them, and against their wishes they are homebound on Sabbath mornings. They can catch a sermon online, but it’s not a substitute for being with people to praise God in His sanctuary. What you feel now, they feel regularly, and it’s not going to change in a few weeks or months. This is their life.

So, when you get back, rejoice! But also remember those who can’t get back. Pay a visit to someone who longs for the community we all used to take for granted.

—Doug Inglish, RMC Planned Giving and Trust Services director; photo by Rajmund Dabrowski

Denver, Colorado … What’s special about this Sabbath? All around Rocky Mountain Conference members are joining in the RMC Day of Fasting and Prayer. While we may be physically distanced, our hearts are together, interceding for all of our RMC members and beyond.

In addition to the ways you pray with your local church, RMC Prayer Ministries invites you to join a conference-wide prayer gathering twice, 8-9am and 6:30-7:30pm via ZOOM. Click this link to join: https://rmcsda.link/rmcdayofprayer

We’re happy to offer you a prayer guide with helpful suggestions and prayer points https://www.rmcsda.org/3d-flip-book/short-form-prayer-guide-for-2-chron-20-jehoshaphat/

Helpful tips for fasting can be found here: https://www.rmcsda.org/3d-flip-book/rmc-day-of-prayer-and-fasting-helpful-tips/

Here’s a prayer activity for young children https://www.rmcsda.org/3d-flip-book/prayer-story-activity-for-children-based-on-2-chronicles-20/

And thanks to RMC Youth for this activity for older kids/teens! https://www.rmcsda.org/3d-flip-book/rmc-youth-prayer-activity/

Apart, yet together in prayer: RMC – Let’s PRAY!

—DeeAnn Bragaw; photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Right off the bat, I’m going to be quite honest with you all in regards to how I’ve been living my life. I am a  type A person who is “go! go! go!” until there is no more mental energy to “go” anywhere else. To be transparent with you, I feel as if this way of living has been rubbing like sandpaper on my soul. I swing the pendulum back and forth so forcefully and rapidly that I’m either going at one hundred percent or in recovery. Since graduating college, I have yet to find that sweet spot of balance in between doing everything and doing nothing.

There are countless cons created by the novel COVID-19, my phone is sure to remind me of that every hour, but my goodness have I found a pro!

When business was as usual in Colorado during November 2019, my husband, Kiefer, and I began listening to audiobooks whenever we were driving in the car together. We had long been anticipating one of our favorite pastors, John Mark Comer’s, new book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. Ten minutes into this book we had to hit pause and sit there soaking in the words that rang all too true for both of us. We were hurried, rushed, overwhelmed people and that is not the way of Jesus. I would like to say this book shook me enough to radically apply it to my life, but it didn’t at least not completely. Events still needed to be planned, materials still needed to be created, staff still needed to be hired, spreadsheets still needed data, and I still felt the need to find meaning in what I could do.

Fast forward to March 2020, business is not as usual in Colorado. Church buildings are closed with worship offered virtually, restaurants are closed, offices are virtual, students are distance learning, and the future is uncertain. Amazingly, this crazy time has forced me to slow down. There is still so much work to be done, but it seems more manageable. My schedule is mine to create. There’s no such thing as being “too busy” to spend quality time in prayer or to go for a walk.

While all might not be right in the world, I encourage you to find that silver lining. To reclaim your schedule, to reclaim your family, your relationship with Jesus, your life!! Use this opportunity of minimal distractions to set aside deliberate time with God each day, make meals that will bless your body, exercise, get some fresh air, have meaningful conversations with your family and friends. Use this time to feel more like a human being. God created you to enjoy life, to create, to be filled with joy and peace!

Someday, hopefully soon, COVID-19 will be our history and not our present. Life will gradually return to a new normal. So, what will your new normal be?

I leave you with these words from Commer: “Should you enlist in the war on hurry, remember what’s at stake. You’re not just fighting for a good life, but for a good soul. So, dear reader and friend, you, like me, must make a decision. Not just when your own fork-in-the-road kind of midlife crisis comes (and it will come), but every day. How will you live?” (The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, p. 255).

–Jessyka Dooley, RMC Assistant Youth Director

Loveland, Colorado … I remember being in fourth grade and counting on my fingers to see what year I would graduate: 2020. Perfect vision, I remember thinking. Now, with the coronavirus causing so much uncertainty, the year of “perfect vision” seems ironic. Too often, I hear people say my class is special to be part of such a huge world event; the first senior class ever to experience a worldwide pandemic such as this.

This, however, is not the first historical milestone the class of 2020 has seen. The year we were born, the world grieved the attack on 9/11, and we will be the last graduating class to have been alive for that infamous day. When we were six years old, the first iPhone was released. When we were five, Facebook was available, and by the time we were in fifth grade, Instagram was popular. The first black president of the United States was elected when we were in first grade. Throughout our lives, school shootings have been a constant threat. We saw the rise of the #metoo and #blacklivesmatter movements. Our freshman year began with the election of Donald Trump. The end of our senior year is marked by COVID-19.

This latest event in our lives has derailed all the plans we have been making the past four years. Being a senior stinks right now, and although we will always be known as the class that had our senior year stolen from us, I hope that we will also be known for our ability to adapt to life’s challenges.

The world we will join after graduation is vastly different from the world we were born into, but all the changes we have seen in our lifetime have helped to prepare us for the many curves life will throw at us. The class of 2020 may not have a perfect vision of the future, but we can see how to rise above the challenges that come our way.

—Ashley Herber, Student Editor, This Week at Campion; photo supplied

Denver, Colorado … “I feel like I am living on Zoom right now,” remarked Lonnie Hetterle, RMC Education superintendent. He was giving a report during the RMC Executive Committee’s March 31 meeting about how the schools in the Rocky Mountain Conference are faring as they provide virtual teaching in this time of coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

Hetterle said that “for our educators, this is a complete paradigm shift. With a quick learning curve, we’ve all become like first-year teachers.” The schools are in a distance learning mode, challenged with technology, and with providing needed equipment and resources for some students. He summarized, that “the education system is actually stronger than before this crisis. The schools are doing better than anyone thought they would,” he said.

In his president’s remarks, Ed Barnett referred to decisions taken by the RMC leadership during weekly consultations which bring the team together on a Zoom call. In recognition of special regulations by the state and county administrators, RMC made a decision to close churches, schools and the Denver office until April 17 and recommend virtual meetings. This date will likely be extended in harmony with official government decisions. “We feel strongly about following decisions from our local and state governments,” he said.

Barnett shared with the committee that he is “encouraged to hear stories from pastors and teachers about how they are engaging with church members, coping with social distancing, and providing spiritual support.” He, Eric Nelson and George Crumley, VPs for administration and finance respectively, have been calling RMC employees with words of encouragement.

Barnett also informed the committee members that the officers issued a letter to all church members, mailed directly to their homes. In it, they referred to the Day of Fasting and Prayer, and wrote, “If you have any extra time under our unique circumstances, please spend quality time in God’s word. It always gives hope and encouragement. We are having a special Sabbath on April 4. We have set this day aside as a Day of Fasting and Prayer for the Church in the Rocky Mountain Conference. I believe this can be a day to draw closer to Jesus and a day to bring our Conference and each member into prayer.”

The committee was also informed that RMC 2020 Town Hall Meetings have been postponed. “We are exploring how best to fulfill this important interaction and expedite it during difficult times,” said Eric Nelson.

In his comments, Don Reeder, principal of Campion Academy said that it is “strange to see our campus with no students.” He also shared that a group of fourteen international students returned after the spring break and went into quarantine. “They could not return to their countries as international travel is restricted,” he added. The school is  “not sure about graduation if it will take place or not,” he remarked, and decisions will be made in accordance with what will be possible to organize in view of the restrictions.

“Pastors are doing quite well,” said Mickey Mallory in his ministerial report. “They are adapting ministry, evangelism and outreach in new ways. Many are doing live-streaming of church services. Some are doing zoom from home. Twenty years ago, we could not have imagined communication in this way.  But people’s lives are still being impacted by their pastors in these circumstances,” he commented.

Several churches are preparing to use It Is Written programs in their web-based online evangelism. The lay members would serve as virtual Bible workers. Mallory informed that training and class work is being provided weekly for the pastors via Zoom meetings.

The committee voted to impose a hiring freeze for any new employee positions that are being proposed. The filling of current pastoral positions currently under way, will continue. This includes the pastoral search for Newday, and Denver South.

El Refugio group, a multicultural Hispanic church, was voted in as a Company of Believers. Currently, there are about 40 members with 20 visitors in attendance, informed Eric Nelson.

Reporting on Northeast Colorado Catch 2020 outreach, Wayne Morrison, pastor from Brighton, shared that more than a dozen churches began evangelistic meetings at the same time. However, after the second weekend in mid-March, they had to be shut down due to the pandemic. Many interests are continuing via livestream, he said. “Some churches have not lost any of their interests. While it seemed like a disaster, it turned into huge miracle. Brighton had 10 interests that have not missed a single follow-up meeting. Attendance at church and Bible study has increased through the on-line services. It is felt that there is greater success in some of the churches. Some churches were not that keenly interested in the meetings but are excited now as they see the interest in those who are participating,” Morrison said.

In his Financial Report, George Crumley reported that total tithe is down 13.97 percent through February 2020 when compared to February YTD last year. The primary reason for this is a large windfall tithe amount that was received last year.

He went on to mention that “through February of this year, the RMC actual operations are tracking better than what we budgeted, but that as we proceed further into 2020, we could be challenged because of the impact of a slowing economy on operations.”

Crumley also said that many churches are signing up within RMC to utilize AdventistGiving, an online giving program developed by the North American Division. Church members can use this giving method for their charitable donations. Across the North American Division there have been close to 900 churches that have signed up or are signing up to use this easy-to-use giving method.

The next committee meeting is scheduled for June 2.

—RMCNews; photo by Rajmund Dabrowski