Inside Story for Friday 18th of October 2024

By Andrew McChesney

A Native American man walked onto the construction site.

“What are you guys building here?” he asked, watching volunteers place log walls on the concrete foundation of the All Nations Center in Wapato, a town in the U.S. state of Washington. “Another church?” he said, shaking his head. “You guys don’t even know what day of the week to keep.”

Image © Pacific Press

A construction leader, Jeff Weijohn, struck up a conversation with the man, who had never heard of Seventh-day Adventists. The man thought that the new church would be open for worship on Sunday, but he believed that the Creator should be worshiped on Saturday.

Jeff was surprised. “It was the first time that I heard that some Native Americans have a history of Sabbath keeping,” Jeff said in an interview.

Later, Jeff sought clarification from a historian familiar with Native American history. The historian confirmed that one or two tribes on the Yakama Indian Reservation, where Wapato is located, traditionally believed that the seventh day was the Creator’s day and worshiped Him on that day.

The realization that God had planted a Sabbath seed in Native hearts energized Jeff and his wife, Terri, in mission outreach to Native Americans.

The outreach program got its start with the help of a Thirteenth Sabbath Offering in 1990. A highlight of the program is the All Nations Center, which opened in 2001 and was designed as a multipurpose building. It has a worship corner, where people gather to worship on Sabbath mornings; a food area, where meals are served and an annual Mother’s Day brunch draws 300 to 400 people; and volleyball and basketball courts, where up to 200 children and their parents come for game nights. The center also offers day camps, Vacation Bible Schools, and after-school tutoring.

Native Americans and others can lease space. “One reason we built the facility was because the community had nowhere to meet,” Jeff said.

In a notable instance, a Native American leader chose the site over a native-owned casino to conduct health seminars, saying gambling was destroying his people.

“It was quite a testimony that he didn’t want anything to do with the casino,” Jeff said.

The center’s culturally sensitive concept has proven so successful that it has been replicated elsewhere, including in Canada, he said.

Thank you for your Thirteenth Sabbath Offerings that continue to make a difference. Pray that God uses them to proclaim the everlasting gospel to every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24d-03-inside-story-a-sabbath-seed/

Daily Lesson for Friday 18th of October 2024

Read Ellen G. White, “ ‘God With Us,’ ” Pages 19–26, in The Desire of Ages.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father. He was the surpassing glory of heaven. He was the commander of the heavenly intelligences, and the adoring homage of the angels was received by Him as His right. This was no robbery of God [Proverbs 8:22-27 quoted].

“There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was One with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplendent with divine, original glory. This truth, infinitely mysterious in itself, explains other mysterious and otherwise unexplainable truths, while it is enshrined in light unapproachable and incomprehensible.”—Ellen G. White Comments, The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 1126.

“Jesus has said, ‘I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.’ John 12:32. Christ must be revealed to the sinner as the Saviour dying for the sins of the world; and as we behold the Lamb of God upon the cross of Calvary, the mystery of redemption begins to unfold to our minds and the goodness of God leads us to repentance. In dying for sinners, Christ manifested a love that is incomprehensible; and as the sinner beholds this love, it softens the heart, impresses the mind, and inspires contrition in the soul. . . . Whenever they [people] make an effort to reform, from a sincere desire to do right, it is the power of Christ that is drawing them. An influence of which they are unconscious works upon the soul, and the conscience is quickened, and the outward life is amended. And as Christ draws them to look upon His cross, to behold Him whom their sins have pierced, the commandment comes home to the conscience.”—Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, Pages 26, 27.

Discussion Questions

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24d-03-further-thought-the-backstory-the-prologue/