NN April 2023 Page 3

Ciara Felix – Loveland, Colorado … In place of classes, Campion Academy students spent Friday, March 31, serving the community.

While many students helped with the RMC Music Festival, the rest of the student body dispersed to community projects. Some students went to Glacier View Ranch and Eden Valley where they completed Spring-cleaning projects and built fences. Other students picked up trash on the highway, helped at Habitat for Humanity, or were assigned to various projects on campus.

A few of the students returned to Habitat for Humanity and sorted donations. “I liked that I was able to return to Habitat for Humanity; I found it to be the same positive experience I had last semester: being able to help and talk to people I don’t normally hang out with,” shared Jalen Contreraz, a senior at Campion.

Unfortunately, the windy weather cut a few projects short. Dominic White, a student assigned to the campus maintenance team commented, “We went out to the baseball field and painted the dugouts and put metal sheet roofing on them. Sadly, we couldn’t finish fully because the wind started picking up making it hard to place and hold the sheets. But other than that, it was a lot of fun.”

Principal Don Reeder commented on the value Campion places on service days: “Reaching into our community is staying true to our mission of teaching young people to serve others. One of our goals for Community Service Day is for our students to learn the value of service even without an external reward.”

—Ciara Felix, Campion Student News Team. Photos supplied.

Eric Aakko – Brighton, Colorado … The first of six lifestyle medicine seminars hosted by the Brighton Adventist Church, March 25, attracted 55 participants. The inaugural seminar was welcomed by the Brighton Church after its annex was severely damaged in a fire nearly two years ago.   

“Our mission is to be a center of influence, a place where the community and families can find health, healing, and hope,” said senior pastor Wayne Morrison. 

The lifestyle medicine program follows an evidence-based curriculum developed by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine which contains 6 pillars: healthy eating, exercise, sleep, avoiding risky substances, stress reduction, and social connections. 

“What is unique about our approach is that, at every session, we will also have a professional plant-based cooking and tasting demonstration, recipes, resources, and expert guest speakers,” said Eric Aakko, lifestyle medicine program director. The March event featured cardiologist Dr. Chris Cannon who spoke about preventing and treating heart disease. The April 22 seminar will feature a cardiac exercise specialist, and the May 13 event will be presented by the director of sleep medicine from the Platte Valley Medical Center. 

Each of the 6 pillars of lifestyle medicine will be featured once per month with interactive activities between sessions to keep people engaged such as using text messaging. For free downloadable factsheets about the 6 pillars, including a schedule of the seminar series, visit www.lifestyle692.com 

—Eric Aakko is the lifestyle medicine program director at Brighton Adventist Church. Photos by Clara Aakko.

Jessie Prince – Denver, Colorado … Fourteen youth and young adults from Denver South Adventist Church Youth ministered to local community with three different outreach events on Sabbath, March 19. 

Three separate groups chose to minister to a greater number of community members in different venues. Some went to a local fire station to deliver donations of snacks and household goods. The firemen and women were very grateful and gave a tour of the fire station, letting us sit in the firetruck and model some of their gear and tools. 

Another group set up in the church parking lot to hand out light refreshments to first responders driving by. We had hot and cold drinks, doughnuts, and other snacks. Several signs lined the roadside, held by enthusiastic young people, advertising the “Free Coffee and Donuts 4 first Responders” and “free Hugs & Prayer.” 

Finally, a group walked from the church to the Denver University campus, toting signs for “free hugs” and “free prayer.” Although the students were on Spring Break for the week, there was a National High School Color Guard competition happening on campus, so the group still found multiple people who were overjoyed to have prayer and hugs.

On returning to the church, having walked four and a half miles, we closed out the Global Youth Day by beginning our Youth Week of Prayer, entitled “Love is a Verb.” 

“Every night for the following week, we gathered to hear six of our youth taking turns sharing messages to us, and we prayed for our church and our community. We hope that the people we ministered to were blessed and able to see God through our actions,” commented a participant.

—Jessie Prince is the administrative assistant at Denver South Adventist Church in Denver, Colorado. Photos Supplied by Nayeli Delgado.

Ella Jean Albertsen – Loveland, Colorado … Loveland Adventist Community Services (LACS) has been actively involved in helping house local homeless families and provide quilts to these and foster families. You may say that the LACS is a Loveland Church project, but the truth of the matter is that there is only one volunteer from the Loveland church. The rest of the volunteers, both in the efforts to house homeless families and in the quilting area, are from Campion Church. Loveland Church supplies the space and Campion Church supplies the labor!

Five quilts have been shared with a family this month alone who has graduated from the Family Promise homeless program and have moved into their own home. Campion Church donates money to house these homeless families for several weeks a year in motels.

In the last six months, 48 baby quilts were given to Little Willows, an organization that gives a box of clothing to a child taken from a home and put in foster care. This organization gave out 800 boxes in Larimer and Weld counties in 2022.  

A label is sewn on each quilt that says: “A gift from Adventist Community Services, Loveland. Colorado.” While the patterns may not be the fanciest, we do our best to select colors that compliment each other from the fabrics that have been donated. 

One quilt recipient, who recently moved into her new Habitat for Humanity home, shared, “Thank you! [The quilt is] so beautiful! The colors are just right for my new home. “

The project has been a blessing to the volunteer quilters as well. One quilter said, “It’s so nice to know we are doing something that makes a difference for others.” Another shared, “I come because we are accomplishing something for someone else.” And all have shared in fellowship as one quilter said, “I appreciate the friendships I’ve made quilting.”

So, if you can tie a square knot, join the group on Tuesday mornings. Contact Sadie Torrez or Ella Jean Albertsen at [email protected] 

—Ella Jean Albertsen is a layout editor for Campion Connection newsletter. Photos by Ella Jean Albertsen.

Debbi Lake – Boulder, Colorado … High winds in Boulder, Colorado, are nothing new. But the winds on Friday, March 31, were stronger than usual and led to two events at the Boulder Adventist Church.

The first event was that one of the big fir trees on the church property fell over onto the fountain in the side yard. Thankfully, the tree did not block the street, sidewalk, or even hit anything other than the fountain.

After noticing the fallen tree, we went inside the sanctuary and discovered that one of the west windows had been broken. Not by the tree but by the wind. By late afternoon, when the wind had finally died down, the staff of Smiley Construction, who rent an office in the church, enclosed the broken window. Now we could meet on Sabbath morning as a church.

Pastor Geoff Patterson says, “We are particularly thankful that the tree and broken window happened on a weekday and not on a Sabbath. Especially this particular Sabbath. Apart from our regular Sabbath services in the morning, the Boulder Chamber Orchestra and Boulder Chamber Chorale were scheduled for a concert in the evening. The glass from the broken window caused at least three gouges in the upholstery of the pew it landed on, and we are so thankful there was not a person sitting there.”

—Debbi Lake is the office manager at Boulder Adventist Church. Photos by Debbi Lake.