| Author | Message | ||
| Ikilgore Registered user Username: Ikilgore Post Number: 3 Registered: 11-2006 |
Aloha everyone! I just want to say thank you for reading my story. I am what I believe would be a third generation Adventist. My grandpa is one. My mother and father are still Adventists and I used to be one. Here is how it all started. I grew up in Willamina, Oregon, a small town about 60 miles south of Portland, Oregon. My parents were members of the Sheridan SDA church which was about four miles away. We went every week. My parents were both fire fighters and paramedics so life was spent at either the fire station or at church. I went to public school k-1st grade. I always wanted play little league but of course I couldnít because of the Sabbath. My parents always just said that God wouldnít want me to break the Sabbath by playing sports on it. I was little so I went along with it. So the school year ends and my mom started to think about sending me to a Mennonite school in the area. She thought that would be a great thing as she wasnít impressed by the quality of the public school that I was attending. My dad was cool with it and it only had a two year waiting list so they could save up some money for it. I would just have to wait a little before going and stick it out in public schools. Then it happened. My mom and dad decide to send me to a local SDA school Yeah, it was like most SDA schools and it was pretty bad. They had the typical EGW doctrines and the works. We learned about the Sabbath and how it was so important. We studied how Adventism was the ONLY church teaching the true gospel. I went with it as I didnít know better. I had horrible experiences in that school. I wonít go into much detail but it pretty much sucked. My parents had enough and took me out and home schooled me. My parents then adopted five kids and we moved to Illinois a few years later. My dad worked for the Federal Government as a prison guard so he transferred to Peoria, Illinois. Our realtor was really cool during the move and found us an SDA church in the area and already made contact with members there for us. When we moved into the hotel we would stay in for the next three months, SDA people had stuff waiting for us. My parents were really moved by the hospitality shown by these people who didnít even know us! Even though I know now how sneaky SDAís are sometimes, I still think that that was pretty cool of them. We took off a week after traveling cross-country. Sabbath morning we decided to make our appearance at the local SDA church in Peoria. We came from a small church in Oregon to a big city church in Illinois. Wow. Big difference! We walk in and we get greeted by this really nice couple. They invited us over for Sabbath dinner at their house after church. My parents agree and then we go with them. After dinner is over they tell my parents that they want to start a church in the area. My parents are interested in the idea as they didnít really care for the whole big church that they just went to. The couple explains that the church would be different from all other Adventist churches. We met with them over the next few months and decided to help them out. The conference was cool with the idea and lots of people were going to help with it. We held church in a dentist office. Who would have thought??? Some of you might know about this church. It was like the poster child of the Illinois conference for years. Every year at that church planting conference at Andrews the founding members always spoke about how it started... Sorry its late and I need to get some sleep. More later today! Mahalo, Isaiah | ||
| Mwh Registered user Username: Mwh Post Number: 358 Registered: 4-2006  |
Interesting, waiting in eager to to read the rest of your story. In Christ | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 726 Registered: 8-2004  |
Me too! Mary | ||
| Seekr777 Registered user Username: Seekr777 Post Number: 617 Registered: 1-2003  |
ahhh the sign of a good writer. . . always leave them wanting to know more. Welcome, Richard rtruitt@mac.com | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 5039 Registered: 12-2003  |
Interesting story, Isaiah. I'm eager for more! Colleen | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 3098 Registered: 3-2004  |
I guess I will have to wait, also, for chapter 2. Thanks for starting it. Diana | ||
| Constance Registered user Username: Constance Post Number: 4 Registered: 11-2006 |
I cant wait to hear the rest!  | ||
| Jorgfe Registered user Username: Jorgfe Post Number: 272 Registered: 11-2005 |
OK. You've got my attention. <grin> Gilbert Jorgensen | ||
| Riverfonz Registered user Username: Riverfonz Post Number: 2346 Registered: 3-2005 |
Welcome Isaiah to FAF! With a screen name like Ikilgore, does that have anything to do with former presidential candidate Al Gore? (smiley) Stan | ||
| Ikilgore Registered user Username: Ikilgore Post Number: 4 Registered: 11-2006 |
Aloha again, Sorry about that guys. I didnít really want to leave you guys hanginí but we had a slight technical glitch. It decided to dump two feet of snow today! I posted the first part of my story and then went to bed and got up about an hour and half later and my mom said that it had snowed almost two feet!!! We are in good shape. We spent the day plowing snow. Anyhow, Letís see where did I leave offÖ Oh, yeah. So my parents go and start this church in Chillicothe, IL with this nice couple from Peoria. Chillicothe is only about 10 or so miles north of Peoria. They called it the Richland Bridge Fellowship. See how there is no mention of SDA in the name??? Yeah, they wanted it to be ìdifferentî. The church grew. It was different in the way worship was done. The way the service was done was totally different then all the other SDA churches in the area. The conference was pretty impressed with the whole deal. The attendance went from 20-30 people at the dental office to upwards of 50-70 people in the new church building. See once the church grew too big for the dental office they decided to go and buy an old elementary school and convert it into a church. Not a bad idea really. I really enjoyed the church a lot. They started a school upstairs in the building and all was good. I went to school there as one of the first freshman. I continued going until the next year when my parents once again had an issue with SDA teachers and pulled me out and sent me to a private Christian school in Chillicothe. You know that when you go from being in a SDA school and switch to a Christian school things tend to change. I went from being part of the ìin groupî in church to being an outsider overnight. It was like all my friends thought that I was totally crazy for leaving the SDA school and going somewhere that didnít have ìthe truthî. What can you do when your parents are paying the bill? I have to say that I really liked the Christian school better than the SDA place. After the school year was over I just happened to be in the church after a service one day and this older lady stopped me and wanted to talk. I sat down with her and was really curious what she might want with me. She proceeded to tell me that since I wasnít going to a SDA school that I was not an Adventist and that I might be ìlostî if I didnít come back to SDA schools. I was stunned. How could some one say that? I told my parents and they went ballistic about it. They were mad at the pastorís wife as it was her mother who said the things. (Side note: I donít want to name them as they are very close friends with my parents and I wouldnít want to have anything break that friendship between them. Never mind that they also are my parents employers!!!) The pastor and his wife said they would take care of it. Right. Nothing was ever said again. No apologies or anything. Oh well. Then I had this bright idea. My best friend ìTî (trying not to use the full name) was going to go off to academy! The school was called Great Lakes Adventist Academy in Michigan. (For those who might be of another generation I believe that it was called something like Cedar Lake Academy or something like that.) He wanted to know if I wanted to join him. I said sure. T was the pastors son. My parents were totally against it. They said that the SDA school system was junk and wouldnít allow it. My mom had a really bad experience with SDA academy system when she went to Lauralwood in Oregon. I donít know if I spelled it right but thatís what she called it. I begged them to let me go. They kept on saying no to the idea. Then one day the pastorís wife talked to my mom and said that it would be different. My mom caved in and said ok. That was in July and school started in August. I was really excited about the chance to go to an academy. I was in for the surprise of my life! Be back in a while with the next part... | ||
| Mwh Registered user Username: Mwh Post Number: 370 Registered: 4-2006 |
Oh my its getting exiting... this reminds me of Christmas calendars you know those with 24 parts, so you can count up till Christmas. Jesus, I want to hug you! | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 3111 Registered: 3-2004 |
I am on pins and needles waiting for the next chapter. Diana | ||
| Ikilgore Registered user Username: Ikilgore Post Number: 5 Registered: 11-2006 |
This part of my story is the hardest to write and yet it is some of the best. I donít mean to make long posts but if I am to tell how God broke the shackles of Adventism then you might as well know the complete deal. Thanks again for reading it. Sure is nice to have people understand what I am talking about. So here goes the next part! Me and T were best friends and we decided to get permission to room together in the dorm. Great idea I thought. See at GLAA each end of the dorms are separated by class. The juniors are upstairs and I was staying downstairs with T in the sophomore hall. Everything was cool at first. I met all sorts of people. The first week was great! Got to do all the cool stuff that they do at academies. Learned how I was suppose to be here and there and all that good Adventist stuff. I learned where all the classes were. (Oh, by the way, if my grammar doesnít add up you can thank the SDA school system for that!) I even got my first job! I was the only person who was able to work outside of the academy work program. I worked in the mornings for Quality Farm and Fleet. They went out of business years ago. The school classes were nice. The teachers were niceÖat first. Then it changed about a month in. I havenít used names for the most part in this story but I will now for the sake of showing what I was up against. I had this ìBibleî teacher named Elder Dick Wuttke. Donít know if anyone has heard of him or what but that was his name. I use the term ìBibleî teacher very loosely as he didnít teach the Bible. He taught Ellen G. White! Yeah, it was one of those types of deals. In typical SDA fashion you have to take religion courses throughout the school year and it counts towards graduation. (I think that is the most ridiculous thing in the world to be graded about your knowledge of their religion. But it doesnít surprise me now.) It was very subtle at first in his classes. He would teach from the Bible and then use a little Ellen here and there. Then it would just become an Ellen White love fest. It was pretty sickening. Thing about SDA Bible classes is that they really arenít that at all. They couldnít preach a Bible class if their life depended on it. There is only one SDA person that I have ever known that could preach from the Bible and only from the Bible. His name was Pastor Paul Greggoroff. He was one of the nicest people in the world and it is really sad to know that he has passed. A couple of years ago he even said that I shouldnít have gone to GLAA. The thing about Wuttkeís class was the fact that he used so much EGW that you couldnít find anything in them about the power of Jesus Christ. It was EGW this and EGW that. I would call home and tell my parents about the classes and they were like, ìJust stick with it.î Right, great idea. We did this project in Wuttkeís class about some topic that we could pick from that he had. The thing was that you had to do all the research in EGW books. You couldnít use the Bible or anything like that. I totally disagreed with the whole concept and told him that. He said, ìWell the Spirit of Prophecy was more expounding on the topic than the Bible and that not all the answers were in the Bible.î I told him that I didnít agree with that and that all the answers were in the Bible and that maybe he should think about that. He just looked back and said that was fine and all and that my grade depended on the quality of the report and how I followed the directions. I walked out of his office and went back to the dorm. I had to get something like over a hundred references from EGW on this particular subject and they had to go in order or something like that. I borrowed Tís EGW cd encyclopedia and just did a search for keywords on the subject. I then went and handed them in and said ìHere you goî. I got a C on that deal and I really didnít care. You donít go telling me that I can only use EGW for research on something that is easily explained with the BIBLE! As the year went along I started to see that EGW was the focus of the school and not the Bible. They started to do morning chapels with all EGW quotes and very minimal Bible verses. I would leave morning chapel and go to work in a daze. See when you here something from EGW that contradicts the Bible you have to think about what you just heard. I would show up to work and do my job and that was it. It was pretty miserable when it came to religion at that place. So bad that I started to protest the whole EGW deal by carrying a copy of the Book of Mormon with me while I went to school! Yes, I had a genuine Book of Mormon in my book bag and when it wasnít there it was sitting in plain site on my desk in my dorm room. Yeah, I probably been suspended or kicked out for having such a publication but I really didnít care. My parents, I kid you not, gave me their blessing on keeping the Book of Mormon in my room. My room mate thought I was nuts for having it as he was a hard core SDA. I told him that I really didnít see a difference between EGW and Joseph Smith. He thought I was lost on that one. I really didnít care. I was forced to attend church every Sabbath. If you werenít sick then you had to go or get written up. Yes you can see the Christian love in that oneJ. We couldnít have any type of music in our dorm rooms. No cds, mp3ís or whatever. I thought it was really stupid of a rule and broke it. I hid Christian mp3ís on my computer and cds in my Bible and all sorts of stuff. See while some people hid drugs in their rooms, I hid the best drug of them all: Christian music. I love music. Especially the Newsboys!!! The people who ran the academy ran it like prison. You had so many restrictions it was crazy. My dad who was an ex-correctional officer (prison guard) for the Federal government said that the inmates had more freedom than I did! On the weekends I did have one really cool distraction from academy life. It was called friends. They werenít the ones at GLAA, they came from the place I worked at while going to school. I worked with this lady named Margo. She was a Methodist. I also worked with another guy named Frank. He was married to the pastor of the Methodist church. They had a woman pastor. I thought that was pretty different, but very cool. During Sabbath afternoonís I would go and check myself out and go to their house. I would walk about two miles each way to go to Margoís house. Her husband and her would make lunch and all sorts of stuff. Their kids were great. We would play Nintendo for hours each Sabbath afternoon. We had a great time. Margo knew what I was going through with school and didnít care about having me over. It was a time for me to get rejuvenated for the next week. At work I was always questioned about my beliefs by Frank and Margo. We would go into theological discussions about everything. We talked about the Sabbath, the state of the dead, you know the usual stuff that Adventist preach. But we didnít talk much about the life changing power of Jesus. Thatís really sad when I think about it. I was having trouble convincing Frank that Adventism was the right way to God. He was always questioning the whole notion of EGW as a prophet, the need for the Sabbath, the need to have an investigative judgement or any of the main core Adventist doctrines. I was getting frustrated by his knowledge of the Bible and how his view made more sense than mine did and how he was perfectly ok with his own beliefs. I was also amazed by his faith in God. His total trust in Jesus as his savior was stunning. But as an Adventist I knew that I had to get him to the ìtruthî. How to do that was the problem. I needed some help. I need to post these during the day as I get really tired this late!!! Be back in a while with more... | ||
| Mwh Registered user Username: Mwh Post Number: 376 Registered: 4-2006 |
Oh my oh my | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 3117 Registered: 3-2004 |
At La Sierra the first Bible class I took was about the life of Christ. We used Desire of Ages (DOA). As I am typing this I look at DOA and cannot help but think of "dead on arrival" and think "there has to be a lesson in here some where". We used very little of the Bible. We have such an awesome God. Diana | ||
| Susans Registered user Username: Susans Post Number: 230 Registered: 8-2006 |
Diana You are so funny! It's sad, though. My son had to take a class at Andrews his first semester. I can't remember the name of it, I think it was on the Gospels but he had to deal with all the EGW stuff too. (It may have been called Life of Christ now that I think further). I am ashamed to say that when I looked over his syllabus I was pleased.  I am thankful that today I place my trust in God's word alone. Isaiah, I'm thrilled to read your story. It's heartwarming to see you stand for Jesus with such opposition on all sides. It sounds as though your parents are very supporting. I eagerly await the next installment to your testimony! Blessings in Jesus, Susan | ||
| Pheeki Registered user Username: Pheeki Post Number: 838 Registered: 1-2003 |
I am hanging by a thread!! Come on back Ikilgore! I too had an academy bible teacher who crammed EGW down our throats. He also loved to scare the crap out of us with backmasking tapes..."Turn me on dead man, number 9, number 9..." Remember all that horse crap?! I seriously went home once from bible class and broke all my rock records. I could have kicked myself later, as there were some classics there! My brother and I somehow got exposed to Keith Green "So You Want to go Back to Egypt" record. We loved that record, played it day and night until my mom decided it wasn't proper and wasn't SDA. She made us destroy it too. That's sad, because Keith Green was the closest we ever came to hearing the Gospel. We were stuck with Dell Delker and company! Remember those two overweight (no offense to anyone-just how I remember them, in reality, they may have been small) sisters who toured the SDA churches singing "He's Alive!" Also, for a time, Little Richard toured too. I saw him at the Keene SDA church, sing and preach. He's not right. Then there were the Heritage singers...ohlala! What a thrill. I have to say...I attended the a CTA reunion a couple of years ago, and it was supposed to be a Sabbath School sort of class thing...they had loud music, like Cold Play type music, blasting in the gym and a slide show of yearbook photos going while everyone talked. I was surprised...I am sure it offended some people. I of course, no longer SDA, wore my jewelry. I had a few say to me...If I had known you were going to wear your jewelry, I would have! Crazy, isn't it! | ||
| Pheeki Registered user Username: Pheeki Post Number: 839 Registered: 1-2003 |
Just to let you all know...I just got this email and I don't know how I got it! Re www.adventistfoodstore.com Truckload arrived this week, most products back in stock, when they are sold out again the price will be removed. The demand was much higher than expected. BREAKING NEWS $10 DISCOUNT EXTENDED FOR A FEW DAYS ON ORDERS OVER $49 USE COUPON3 WHEN YOU CHECK OUT. Many retail stores can not buy as cheap as you can with the discount coupon. Soy Milk and other product lines have been added. The www.adventistfoodstore.com has new management and is now www.discountedfoods.com FREE SHIPPING Continues on all food orders over $25 in the '48'. Working hard to save you money. The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription: You are subscribed to the following list: Team Adventist News _______________________________________________ If anyone is interested in MSG laden, soybean stuff...here ya go. It's on sale! I have to admit, I do like some of it! Notice they changed their name and took the Adventist out of it!!! Typical. | ||
| Susans Registered user Username: Susans Post Number: 235 Registered: 8-2006 |
Pheeki, Have you ever registered at ClubAdventist? I received that email too, and in trying to track down all the links, it led me to ClubAdventist. This might be how you received it as well. Susan | ||
| Pheeki Registered user Username: Pheeki Post Number: 841 Registered: 1-2003 |
Yes. I was registered there once. That must be why! |
