RMCNews – Denver, Colorado … Cathy Kissner, Community Services and Disaster Relief coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC), was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the 2026 Adventist Community Services (ACS) Convention, Wellspring, April 15-17, in Greenville, South Carolina.

Cathy began her service with the Seventh-day Adventist Church 46 years ago in the then Nebraska Conference until her husband, and former RMC pastor, Mike Kissner, transferred to RMC for Literature Evangelism. She became RMC’s ACS coordinator in 1996 in which she has since led the conference’s disaster relief efforts in the state of Colorado for all—except two—incidents and for two incidents in Wyoming.

During her tenure, Cathy has sat on the Colorado Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) as board chair for two terms and vice chair for one term as well as vice chair for the Wyoming VOAD for one term. She also holds the role of Mid America Union Conference ACS coordinator and has worked with the North American Division (NAD) on developing the multi-agency warehouse manual which will be presented in May at the national VOAD conference.

Through Cathy’s efforts, the Rocky Mountain Conference holds a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the State of Colorado and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in which they will call upon her in to assist with disaster relief. By request of the NAD, Cathy has traveled as far as Saipan, a U.S. commonwealth in the western Pacific, to more local incidents within the continental United States including the 2025 Kerr County Floods in Texas and the St. Louis tornados.

The largest and most recent incident in the RMC in which Cathy led ACS involvement was the Marshall Fire that swept through Louisville and Superior, Colorado, in December of 2021. Over 3,700 family units received assistance, and Cathy and her team were able to donate over $6.5 million in volunteer hours to the state.

Cathy remarked that this incident was particularly noteworthy as they were rotating 100 new volunteers every two hours. “It was amazing. Just amazing … the relationships that you develop with people when you work that long that hard to continually solve problems,” she reflected.

Currently, there are over 13 community centers and food or clothing banks across the conference, with Cathy having helped procure $10,000.00 seed improvement grants from division level for almost all of these centers.

“Cathy’s ministry has been an incredible blessing to those who are facing life’s crises. She exemplifies Jesus’s message found in Matthew 25 of how we are to serve those in the deepest need and, in doing so, serve Him,” praised Dave VandeVere, RMC president.

When asked why she has continued to serve in this often-stressful ministry for so long, Cathy replied, “A number of years ago, I read a book where the author described having a mission statement for your life. My mission statement is to show the love of the Father to His hurting children. And God’s children continue to hurt.”

—RMCNews. Photo courtesy of NAD Adventist Community Services.