Miss Anna Knight in the ATL, over a century ago.

Berean SDA Church History- Part 1

It is very probable that you have never seen this particular view of the big steeple that graces Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church. They don’t build em’ like this anymore! It is incredibly complicated.

ADVENTISM GETS A TOEHOLD IN BLACK ATLANTA

 

Somewhere there may exist meticulous records concerning the initial establishment of the group of worshippers that is now designated “Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, Atlanta.” The introductory material of this evolving history does not come from some hypothetical fountainhead, however. Most events that happened over 110 years ago are very lightly documented, assuming that they were even documented to begin with. The principal foundress and muse of the future Bereans was Sister (or “Miss,” if you prefer) Anna Knight.

 

Anna Knight’s pioneering missionary work in India, her long residency at Oakwood University, and even her intractable and unorthodox mixed-race Mississippi kinfolk and early mission work in her native state are all described in a satisfactory manner by various online sources. The time she spent in the Atlanta area, however, is less well-documented. A copy of her autobiography, “Mississippi Girl,” can only be examined by either travelling a good distance from Atlanta to one of the few dozen libraries (the nearest being near Chattanooga at Southern University) that possess a copy, or by purchasing one from Amazon for just a tad over $300. Here is the AMAZON LINK to what the site describes (most accurately) as a “rare and hard to find hardback autobiography.” Here is a link to another rare book connected to  African-American Adventism that is so rare as to be unobtainable: Dr. R. (Richard) E. (Edward) Tottress’s 1955 work “Heaven’s Entrance Requirement for the Races.” Google states that there is neither ebook nor hard copy available for this limited-edition product of Comet Press, buta few thoughtful institutions have scanned it and made it available HERE. Alas, Miss Anna Knight’s autobiography is not yet available online, at least insofar as the writer of these remarks has thus far been able to determine.

 

Anna Knight poses with the star from Edson White’s missionary steamboat the “Morning Star” at Oakwood College (the boiler from this ship was recycled to serve as the first heating plant for Oakwood).

An obituary for Anna Knight by Benjamin J. Baker tersely, and tantilizingly alludes to her productive sojourn in Atlanta:

 

Knight was appointed an administrator of a hospital for blacks in Atlanta. Knight was a sensation in Atlanta and became famous in its thriving African American community, lecturing and consulting.   

A good alternate to the elusive and expensive Knight autobiography is the following useful link to Chapter Four of Josephine Benton’s book, “Called by God,” one entitled “Innovative Administrator: Anna Knight” which describes Miss Knight’s relatively brief, but extremely fruitful Atlanta adventure. Here is a spoiler: one of Miss Knight’s boldest innovations was to utilize credit in order to get important work accomplished sooner, rather than later.

Miss Knight received an unexpected invitation from the Southeastern Union Conference to help develop a new sanitarium for black people in Atlanta. This was in 1910… leaders who knew and valued her overseas mission service and had now approved her call to Atlanta. When Anna arrived in Atlanta expecting to begin work at the new medical center, she found the sanitarium in an embryonic state… She decided to sleep in an empty room of the sanitarium. She was… invited by many groups to recount her work in India. This helped break down prejudice toward Seventh-day Adventists.

 

A much more formal version of the preceding image of Anna Knight.

…she accepted chairmanship of the board of the two-teacher church school in Atlanta. In a sacrificial act, [she] used her savings, earmarked for a winter coat [Atlanta was much colder than the Mississippi area she had immigrated from, and most assuredly colder than India], as the down payments on the stove and school desks. Some… were apprehensive about the debt. Anna assured them that the Lord… would impress the patrons to pay their tuition; and that, indeed, happened. However, the newcomer from Mississippi now had no funds for a winter coat to protect her from Atlanta’s frosty winter [God intervenes to supply Miss Knight a splendid coat, of course].

 

Another area of concern for Miss Knight was the fact that, although for black people there was a Young Men’s Christian Association in Atlanta, there was no corresponding institution for women; she decided to do something about it. She asked representative women to meet with her, and they proceeded to set up a local Young Women’s Christian Association for blacks… The new YWCA held mass meetings to present truths concerning health, temperance, social purity, and personal hygiene… The national YWCA parent organization commended the work being done but did not affiliate the Atlanta group just then because of its strong ties with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Miss Knight offered to resign as secretary, but the group preferred to continue operating as an independent local unit under her leadership.

During the last year she worked in Atlanta, as many new members were added through her ministry as there had been in the church when it was organized. Included among these converts whom Anna Knight won to the Lord were several prominent citizens of Atlanta [H.D. Singleton, the first president of the South Atlantic Conference revealed this information to author Josephine Benton in a 1988 phone call] …because of her example of sacrificial giving coupled with the sound Biblical instruction she gave on stewardship, each year while she was leader of the work there the tithes and offerings doubled. Because of Anna Knight’s spirituality, ability, and productivity, she advanced to larger responsibilities [to paraphrase, Atlanta should not be granted a monopoly on her talent].

 

When C.C. Crisler interviewed Anna Knight in Atlanta in 1914, the content was limited by the endurance of the participants. There really should have been a few additional sessions.

A second source of information on Anna Knight is this linked PDF: “ANNA KNIGHT,” a transcript of an interview with C.C. Crisler conducted in Atlanta on July 5, 1913. Alas! Although conducted in Atlanta, it says nothing at all about her Atlanta area activities.

A highly compromised third source of information on Anna Knight is the “Story of Anna Knight” (as told to A.W. Spalding in Atlanta, Georgia, Nov. 19, 22, 1914). A nearly illegible PDF of this interview is embedded in section 4/85 of a compendium of Black Adventist materials assembled by hardworking Delbert W. Baker titled “Telling the Story.” A free PDF is linked near the bottom of this page of  FREE BOOKS from blacksdahistory.org. All of these early oral histories fall just short of describing the Atlanta work. They represent a “Parson Weems” (a romanticizing early biographer of George Washington) version of the life of Anna Knight. They are most likely dry-runs for the 1952 publication (nearly four decades later) of Miss Knight’s autobiography.

What is unambiguous about Anna Knight’s Atlanta presence is the short paper trail that remains in the wake of her Greensferry Avenue residency. it spans from 1912 to 1915. The 1915 directory designates her as “Annie.” By 1916 she is no longer listed. In 1918 the widow of a man named A.W. Knight is named Anna, but she is not our Anna. The church itselfsurely did not suspend operations in this year, yet the name of it mysteriously vanishes from the city directory.

 

An Adventist school in Iowa writes to Arthur L. White to solicit Ellen White’s attitudes toward performing in blackface; a highly insensitive and idiotic thing to be asking in 1960. Only in America!

THE GENESIS OF THE “SOUTHERN WORK”

 

In an series of articles that Dr. Delbert Baker wrote for the “Adventist Review” in 1993 he makes the following observation with regard to the attraction that Adventism held for its pioneering African-American members:

The message contains elements that have special attraction to blacks- offering eternal life in the world to come, as well as a better temporal existence in the present world. And the black race was in need of a system of truth that could include the total person- mentally, spiritually, and physically. The Seventh-day Adventist teachings, while challenging in their unorthodoxy [Roman 12:12 advises us to “…be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind”], were simple and clear, suited to be understood by the masses and ideal for black people searching for direction.

 

A picture of Delbert Baker taken at the 2010 GC (held in the ATL) by Ron Pollard (who. like Charles Stanley, is a pastor/photographer).Ron is not Dr. Leslie’s son.

The writer must add that “what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.” It is not hard to extract a localized case of the appeal and efficacy of the Advent message from a fountainhead that is universally applicable. But American blacks (not only in the South) recognized a good thing when they happened upon it, and “masses” that might be presently seeking direction, purpose, and meaning in their lives, whatever their race may be, would do well to follow in the footsteps of an earlier generation.

This following brief timeline is culled from several sources. It will serve to introduce the beginning of a year by year analysis of the Atlanta City Directory that will attempt to trace the trajectory of the Atlanta Adventist congregation that is currently known as Berean. Dr. Delbert W. Baker refers to the era before Ellen G. White’s 1891 “call-to-arms” as the “inactive period.” In 1891 Sister White produced a tract called “Our Duty to the Colored People,” an attempt to remedy the contemporary Adventist church’s neglect of the benighted Southland. Scripture unambiguously asserts the equality of all races, but after the conclusion of the Civil War segregation and discrimination in the South (and elsewhere) actually intensified.

1876-1879– Adventist literature that trickled into the South laid the groundwork for Elder Charles O. Taylor (an “old Millerite preacher”) to ramble (in the manner of John James Audubon) about the region.

1885– Two literature evangelists (“colporteurs”),  George A. King and Charles F. Curtis arrived in Georgia with some significant reading material, including Uriah Smith‘s influential tome “Daniel and the Revelation” (link is to a PDF). They returned to the North to report that Southern fields were white for the harvest.

1887– Charles F. Curtis and his wife, and another couple named Anglebarger, with a minister named Charles Bliss arrive in Atlanta to set up a mission school and evangelize the inhabitants. The “damp spring weather” in the ATL disagreed with the Anglebargers, so they relocated to arid  Colorado. They were replaced by three Michigan [most likely meaning “Battle Creek”] Bible instructors, Clara Conklin, Anna Thomas, and Mrs. Charles Swartous. Charles Swartout accompanied his wife as a literature evangelist. The mission school was soon closed due to a bad economic climate.

1888– An Atlanta Adventist church was organized in the southeast section of the city in the fall of this year by Pastor S.H. Lane. Here is a moderately useful link to the history of Atlanta North SDA Church which glosses the white Adventist presence in the Atlanta area. Here is a quote from it: “The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Atlanta, Georgia started over a century ago when George King and Dr. C. F. Curtis began a Sabbath School with six adults and six children.”

The apogee of Caucasian Atlanta Adventist church architecture: Beverly Road SDA Church. Like John  Wagner’s remarkable headquarters building for South Atlantic Conference, it is no longer with us (see below).

1889– A “Review and Herald” office was established in Atlanta, and operated for twelve years. Southern publishing work was relocated to Nashville, Tennessee in 1901. Edson White was the instigator of the Nashville publishing house, one which came to be designated the “Southern Publishing Association.” They printed Anna Knight’s rare autobiography in 1952. They should have perhaps printed more of them!

1903– The online History of the Georgia-Cumberland Conference reveals that a sanitarium was established at this time in Atlanta. This was presumably a “white” facility. The “black” Atlanta sanitarium on Greensferry Avenue first appears in the 1910 city directory (see the extended chronology below).

1909– The responsibilities and duties of Edson White’s semi-private “Southern Missionary Society” were transferred to the new General Conference Negro Department. The Atlanta work among African-Americans had been initiated by the newly superseded SMS.

[1912, 1914, 1917, 1918, info from the website linked above]- 150 people (again, presumably Caucasian people) were baptized by Carlyle B. Haynes (a kind of abridged white edition of C.D. Brooks) “and a new church was built,” the 1918 Cherokee Avenue facility, one might provisionally assume.

 

The property that Beverly Road SDA Church sat upon is right across Peachtree Street  from the national HQ of Equifax. A sad tale must be associated with the abandonment of 0 Beverly Road by the denomination.

1910– The African-American Adventists appear in the Atlanta City Directory for the first time.

 

1912– The name of Miss Anna Knight shows up in connection with Greensferry Avenue for the first time. This date probably has nothing to do with her arrival in Atlanta, however, as Josephine Benton writes that she was living in a room of the mission schoolhouse. Much of Benton’s information may come from Anna Knight’s autobiography. This timeline will get substantially revised should the writer happen upon a copy, but he ain’t about to pay no 300 bucks for one!

 

On 6/9/2016, a high dignitary of the Fulton County Public Library brusquely informed me that “You are not allowed to take pictures in here!” I replied that people came from around the world to photograph the famous Atlanta Library. He was placated by this recognition of the building’s obscure niche in architectural history.

ON THE FIFTH FLOOR OF THE ATLANTA LIBRARY

 

The top floors of big-city public libraries usually house the “special collections,” and are therefore sparsely populated. This is especially the case at the Fulton County Public Library, as they have locked all of the public bathrooms. The bathrooms in the three floors just below the fifth are constantly thronged by the homeless, and excluding them from the fifth floor facilities has the peripheral effect of excluding the majority of them from the fifth floor. Only in America!

Silence in the Special Collections Room is strictly enforced, unless you happen to be a Margaret Mitchel Impersonator. You are then allowed to make a loud and noxious spectacle of yourself, and do this with the blessing of the head librarian. “Peggy” Mitchell was an unorthodox Southern Belle, but was fundamentally well-synchronized to her time and place when it came to her attitude toward African-Americans. She may have secretly put a few medical students through Morehouse, but, as they say, “one swallow does not a summer make.”

A rendering of Marcel Breuer’s 1980 “Brutalist” design for the Fulton County Library hangs by the elevators on the fifth level. With it’s unapologetically rough concrete wall surfaces, this ephemeral architectural style was in fashion just prior to the dawn of the era of computer generated, photorealistic architectural renderings (a development that served to put a lot of artistic types out to pasture).

The library’s self-promotional literature describes Breuer as “one of the founders of the modern Bauhaus school of design.” This is 98% baloney, as Walter Gropius was the true father of this operation. The Bauhaus, a German trade school, was the crucible of modern architecture, and the principal variation of Modernism that held sway from the fifties through the seventies was Brutalism. Buildings built in a style similar to the Fulton County Library are currently both unloved and underappreciated. They are currently being demolished all over the world. The “crown jewel” artifact of the Brutalist canon, the Boston City Hall, may remain safe from the wrecking-ball, but all others are prime candidates for obliteration. Breuer, like the writer’s former employer (and like Zsa Zsa Gabor) was a Hungarian-American, But unlike uber-hawk and H-bomb advocate Dr. Edward Teller (and conceivably Zsa Zsa herself), Marcel Breuer (and Tony Curtis, too) was a good Hungarian.

 

Stanley Kubrick’s character “Dr. Stangelove (portrayed by Peller Sellers) was based on Hungarian mad scientist Edward Teller, whose unworkable “Star Wars” initiative had the happy side effect of forcing the Soviet Union to fold its hand and quit the thermonuclear poker game.

The library PR sheet mentions Marcel Breuer’s work for the Whitney Museum in New York as being comparable to his Atlanta design. The Whitney no longer occupies its unfashionable Brutalist structure, however. Their current facility was designed by Renzo Piano, an Italian “High-Tech” maestro who also designed the latest expansion to Atlanta’s High Museum of Art. Piano, a very good salesman, is currently “in fashion.” Piano has designed an opera house for Atlanta that has not yet been (and never will be ) built in Midtown.

What does all of this have to do with the history of Berean SDA Church? Not much! The Fulton County Library Historical Collection is nestled inside of an iconic, and inevitably doomed, work of art. This article is not about the container, but the contents. In the Special Collection there are plenty of microfilmed editions of the Atlanta newspapers available for both serious researchers and amateur genealogists alike, a nearly-complete set of Atlanta city directories, scads of Margaret Mitchell memorabilia, and (inexplicably) a copy of the largest printed book ever produced (a stunt: see below).

 

A smattering of homeless people (ones possessing capacious bladders) appreciate the laid-back fifth floor ambience, but must descend one floor in order to use the restroom. Area shelters eject their transient lodgers on all but the coldest winter days, and  the ejectees must find a warm place to congregate before they are permitted back into their bunkrooms (the reader is advised to examine George Orwell’s memoir of his own experiences as a tramp, “Down and Out in Paris and London”).

 

George Orwell despised the fact that the Salvation Army (“Sally Ann”) required him to attend services in order to spend the night in their shelters. In Atlanta they require you to pay around $10 a night for lodging.

The library is a popular, but far from ideal spot to pass a winter day in. A long line of patrons stands outside the entry just prior to the 10 am weekday opening. Passing through security is time-consuming. Every package must be inspected, and most of the homeless folk are forced to carry all of their possessions with them. Once inside the experience is rather sadistically compromised, as the decision-makers of Fulton County have  insured that there exists not one comfortable chair for the public in the entire library. (Note: the benches in fast-food restaurants are designed to become uncomfortable after a quarter-hour or so; this facilitates “turnover,” Only in America!)

The “world’s largest printed book” is a collection of twin-bedsheet sized mediocre color photographs of Bhutan. Audubon’s “Birds of North America” it ain’t!

AN UNLIKELY LEAD, FROM AN UNEXPECTED SOURCE

Here is some information from the website of the General Assembly of Free Seventh Day Adventists. They are wonderful people, but feel compelled to embellish their separation from the main Adventist denomination with many verses of Scripture which, while justifying division, do not allude to the primary reason for their “defection.” This writer will provide one for them: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) The white leadership of the mainstream Adventist church were certain, in their deceitful hearts, that they knew what was best for the  American “negro.” Tithes by the black membership to the main office were a form of taxation without representation. Racial integration was evident in the earliest Seventh-day Adventist congregations, but the growth of post-Civil War segregation resulted in the creation of companies and churches that were racially distinct (Miss Anna Knight experienced her own misadventures as a result of this growing intra-denominational schism). Many pioneering Adventists leaders of color grew weary of the patronizing attitude of the Caucasian leadership of the Adventist Church and subsequently  “flew the coop,” among them James K. Humphrey, Lewis C. Sheafe, and the man of the hour, John W. Manns.

James K. Humphrey

Lewis C. Sheafe

John W. Manns

Below are some brief, but enlightening revelations from the “Free Adventist” website:

 

John Manns pioneered the Seventh-day Adventist work among African-Americans in Florida and Georgia.  Anna Knight [our foundress] felt that he was the most effective preacher among African-American ministers.  Others said he possessed extraordinary natural leadership gifts. [from “Perspectives: Black Seventh Day Adventist and Church Loyalty,” Elder Charles E. Bradford D. D., p. 16]

Here is a LINK to the source of the preceding quotation. The source is not much larger than the extracted quote. In a short memoir by Harold D. Singleton (an inadequate internal link; here is a second, less incestuous LINK) recalls a story he heard as a child which claimed  that John Manns was killed by one of his ministers, a man named Mosel,y so that the latter could take control of the Free Adventist empire. Elder Singleton emphasized that this was just a rumor, just a rumor. The story of the demise of Malcom X is similarly encumbered with rumor and innuendo (which just may be truth).

 

This Stefanie Small attended Oakwood, and lives in Atlanta. Could this person be the official Berean Church Historian?  She does not look old enough to be a historian! Could she be the Historian’s daughter?

HISTORY OF THE BEREAN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH

 

This history goes back (according to the “Free Adventist” website linked above) to 1903 when a small company of believers, led by Sister Anna Knight, was organized into a church [this date, 1903, is, regrettably, several years in advance of the actual arrival of Miss Knight in Atlanta].

Services were held in the home of one of the believers until a building was purchased on Greensferry Avenue and named Second Seventh-day Adventist Church (this specific nomenclature does not appear in any of the early 20th Century Atlanta City Directories). Elder G.E. Peters organized the First Mission School in 1906 and Sister Anna Knight was the first teacher (the 1906 date is in disagreement with the one supplied by author Josephine Benton of 1910, unless the school operated without a teacher for its first four years).

A picture of a picture of the original Greensferry Avenue location of the entity currently known as Berean SDA Church. The original hangs in the Choir practice room. The writer’s ugly mug is reflected in this photograph.

The red star in the upper left of this image is the location of the Greensferry Avenue church. The big green oval is the original location of Fort MacPherson, and current site of Spelman College. A map from 1878.

The immediate environs of 211 Greensferry Avenue, the church address, as portrayed in a 1928 Atlanta street map.

The footprint of the church is a perfect match for the photograph of the church seen at the top of this set of four images.

Elder W.H. Sebastian served as the first pastor, assisted by Elder M.C. Strachan.  Elder John Manns became the new pastor when Elder Sebastian was reassigned. The preceding statement was lifted directly from www.atlantabereansda.org, About Us, Atlanta Church History- This link presently (6/9/2016) leads directly to nowheresville. Even the archive.org data is missing! The current main Berean site, atlantaberean.com, does not delve very deeply into church history (an incredible understatement), but there does currently exist (12/30/2016) an official Church Historian, Stefanie Small, along with a an Assistant Historian (Berean Women’s Ministry Director Currine Harris), and a committee of nine others that includes Elder Irene Bowden, a modern type of Anna Knight (she is much too humble to accept such a comparison, however).

 

An interesting advertisement in the 1907 Atlanta City Directory. “A Large Boarding School for Negro Women and Girls.” Become a teacher, a nurse, or a housewife!

EVIDENCE FROM THE ATLANTA CITY DIRECTORIES

 

The Free Adventist website assertion that 1906 marks the founding of an African-American Adventist mission school would indicate that a search of the city directories should begin with that year. Unfortunately, this particular edition is missing from the Fulton County Library Special Collection. We shall therefore commence our investigation with the year 1907.

Tuition at Morris Brown College, Atlanta (run by the AME Zion Church) was $1 per month in 1907.

1907– The Greenferry Avenue location of the original African-American Seventh-day Adventist presence in Atlanta, Georgia is now firmly embedded in the Atlanta University Center, The exact parcels that were designated 209-211 Greensferry are now owned by Atlanta University. A 5 1/2 acre amalgam of former single-family plots is presently accessed at nearly 35 million dollars (2017).

In 1907 the site of the future mission school, #209, was occupied by William A. Scott and his wife Susie. His profession, like that of our Lord’s temporal father, was carpentry. Josephine Benton’s remarks about the unfinished condition of the properties Anna Knight encountered at this location provokes a romantic conjecture that carpenter Scott may have been associated with this work in some capacity.

The 1907 Atlanta City Directory includes information about an existing (undoubtedly white) Adventist church at either 507 or 509 East Fair (neither Road nor Street nor Avenue; just plain “Fair”), as two distinct entries provide two different street numbers.

Information about the incomes of City of Atlanta officials in 1907 reveals that most of the top brass (including the mayor) earned a $3,000 a year salary. An exception was the fire chief, who in those perilous times no doubt deserved the extra $1,000 a year that his position paid.

A Cuban cigar distributor on Broad Street advertises in the 1908 Atlanta City Directory. His wares would have been anathema to nascent Adventists, but Uncle Sam would have been cool with their Cuban origin.

1908– No Adventists yet. No Anna Knight either.

 

In 1909 Atlanta boasted many more saloons than churches. If you were a hypocrite seeking to avoid detection, you could have a gallon of whiskey discreetly shipped to your house for $4.25 (prepaid price).

1909– Still no data on Greensferry Avenue Adventism. The short 1909 telephone directory assigns the number “Main 1” to the Department of Public Works and City Stockade (an archaic term for the City Prison). All of the cigars and whiskey represented by the two advertisements displayed above must have served to swell the population of the stockade. The linked City of Atlanta history page discloses that “Most prisoners were incarcerated for petty crimes and misdemeanors, with the average stockade sentence being 15 to 20 days. The original prison housed both sexes and races, as well as children. The prisoners were used for physical labor within the city.” If more labor were needed, the police probably arrested more people.

 

The name “Sanitarium” signaled competence in 1910, and attaching this powerful name (a name coined by Adventists, the originators of the “Sanitarium” concept) to any healing enterprise practically insured its success.

1910– The Adventists have landed!

 

209 Greensferry Avenue is now officially occupied by “Seventh Day Adventist Sanitarium.” Anna Knight herself may even have been present. She learned the craft of nursing the sick under the direction of Doctor John Harvey Kellogg at the “big” sanitarium back  in Battle Creek, Michigan. Anecdotes about her nursing activities in Atlanta furnished by author Josephine Benton reveal (as does the story of the healthy dietary choices of the captive Hebrew youth in the Book of Daniel) the superiority of Scriptural health measures to the prevailing medical quackery of that era.

211 Greensferry Avenue is now home to “Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Nestled between these two parcels at #210 is the residence of Julia E. Blue. The personal listing for her reveals her occupation to be “car clnr Pullman Co.” The paternalistic founder of this successful company, George Pullman, employed a racially and ethnically diverse workforce. He had survived a cataclysmic labor strike sixteen years earlier (1894). At its height, 250,000 workers in 27 states were involved. Wages and hours had declined, but the founder did not correspondingly lower the rents of the company-owned housing many of his laborers called home. Then President Grover Cleveland used Army troops to keep strikers from obstructing commerce. Thirty striker were killed, and many more wounded during the course of this strike.

1911– Missing! [The writer has visited the home of a former college professor who simply hung on to any reference book that he took a fancy to.]

 

Atlanta firm Wrigley Engravers captures our attention with a graphic style that is in the Art Nouveau manner. Englishman Aubrey Beardsley was one of scores of disseminators of this “decadent and erotic” style.

1912– 209 Greensferry is no longer designated as “Seventh Day Adventist Sanitarium.” The new label reads “Y M C A (c),” and a second occupancy is proclaimed to be “Seventh Day Adv M School (c).” The “(c)” signifies that the institutions are “colored.” The “M” in the school title may or may not stand for “Middle,” as there is no key to abbreviations in this directory. It might even stand for “Military” in any other context than that of Adventism, but alternate listing for the school reveals that “M” stands for “Mission.” The “Y M C A” [the writer has preserved the quaint and archaic spacing of this acronym that the ancient directory employs] would soon redirect its focus under Miss Knight’s guidance.

 

Sleeper car cleaner Julia Blue remains, in 1912, sandwiched between the two Adventist strongholds at 209 and 211. She resides at 210 Greensferry Avenue.

211 Greensferry, like 209, also lists two distinct occupancies. The first of these reads “Seventh Day Adv ch (c),” followed by the name of Dr. John S. Cheshire. The sanitarium formerly listed at #209 may have claimed some of Dr. Cheshire’s time, but the business section of the directory reveals that he is currently practicing medicine at 16 1/2 Broad Street.

The business listings also include this enterprise: “COCA-COLA CO, THE, Asa G Candler, pres, C H Candler, vice pres, F M Robinson, sec-treas, mfrs of “Coca-Cola” he best of all drinks, 50 Magnolia, Bell phone, M-1011.

Anna Knight is finally officially recognized as a resident of Greensferry Avenue in 1912. She is not mentioned in the street directory, but her personal listing reads “Knight Anna (c), sec colored branch Y M C A, r 209 Greensferry av,” the site of both the “Y” and the school.

 

In 1913 Black super-entrepreneur Alonzo Herndon was making a fortune catering to the vanity of all races (“Two Entrances”) with his legendary Tonsorial Parlor. It was right at the corner of Peachtree and Broad.

Largely irrelevant to this marginally useful research is the fact that former Pullman Car cleaner Julia Blue is still living at #210, but her occupation is now “cook.”

Anna Knight is not mentioned in the 1913 directory, but this omission does not point to a physical absence, for there remains much work to be done in Atlanta.

 

The 1914 directory includes a sample page reproduced by the “Southern Multigraphing Company.” This is a very early mimeograph, great-grandfather of the Xerox!

1914– The multitasking nature of the newly consolidated and diversified parcel known as “209 Greensferry Avenue” gets ignored by the 1914 Atlanta City Directory. All the street directory reveals is “Seventh Day Adv Ch (c).”  It was business as usual, one presumes, beneath this Spartan masthead.

Julia Blue of #210 is back working for the Pullman Company,. her one-woman walk-out  having now ended.

 

Americans of German ancestry in 1914 were all proud of their heritage. The anti-German propaganda after the American entry into World War I had them all scrambling to distance themselves from their roots.

1915– Putting the cart before the horse, in 1915 neighbor Julia Blue has departed (for the moment, at least) Greensferry Avenue. A cook named Mary Overton (c) has taken her place.

 

The “horse,” Annie (sic) Knight appears to have finally acquired her own residence, one immediately adjacent to the newly amalgamated Adventist holdings. She is listed in the personal section of the city directory as residing at 207, a fifteen second walk away from her several workplaces. This spot will serve as well as any other to note that Knight biographer Josephine Benton records that energetic Anna Knight conducted upwards of 500 Bible studies while living in the Atlanta area.

 

In 1916 the John M. Smith Company was located close to the “color-line” on Auburn Avenue (aka “Sweet Auburn”). He sold some very nice cars, probably to anyone who had green, be they black or white.

1916– The purported tenth anniversary of the Adventist presence on Greensferry Avenue coincides with another scale-down of the  amount of information in the city directory for this year.

#207, the new Anna Knight residence, is absent from the Greensferry address listing.

The accessory annals of #210 continue with the departure of short-term resident Mary Overton (Tenant? Delinquent buyer? Family member?), and her replacement by a person named “J. Blue” (Julia, of course).

The name of Anna Knight disappears from the 1916 Atlanta City Directory. This name recurs in 1918, but it only “an” Anna, and not “the” Anna [“our” Anna].

1917– Missing in action! Some nefarious speculator may have purloined it, sliced it into individual plates, framed it, and then sold the spoil at an antique market. Stuff like this happens, you know.

 

The Atlanta Independent (“The Standard Negro Newspaper in America”) was headquartered in the historic Odd Fellows Building on Auburn Avenue from 1903-1928. It still exists on microfilm, but not online.

1918– Research into the Greensferry Avenue presence of the Adventist Church that would eventually `come to be designated as “Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church” hits a temporary snag in 1918. Perhaps worship was temporarily suspended due to the overarching demands of World War One. There is a fair amount of justifiable defection at this time by African-American Adventists from the myopic mainstream denomination, but membership levels in the official “Seventh-day Adventist Church” experience considerable growth, despite the attrition. In this seminal year, W.H. Green is elected to be the first Black Secretary of the Negro Department of the General Conference. The whole world is in flux.

 

The 1918 Atlanta City Directory lists the sole resident of 209 Greensferry Avenue to be “Elder Tate.” Any initial assumption that this person may have been a church elder is dispelled upon consulting the personal listings of the 1918 directory. The man’s first name actually is “Elder,”

Julia Blue is once again absent from #210, and a man named Hugh Austin is in.

The “false” Anna Knight previously mentioned,  widow of A.W. Knight appears for the first time in the 1918 city directory. The true Anna Knight has, by this time, been deemed by the General Conference and the Negro Department to be too important to confine to the relatively narrow environs of Greater Atlanta. From a future base at Oakwood College she would be in a position to offer encouragement, leadership, and inspiration to all American Seventh-day Adventists, with an emphasis, naturally, on those of African heritage.

Anna Knight lived to be nearly one-hundred, and there are several current (2017) members of Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church (and undoubtedly of many other churches as well) who can reminisce about their personal encounters with this beloved and enthusiastic propagator of the Advent message.

 

Anna Knight (1874-1972)

Creation

God Himself Is With Us

Matthew Nativity

Praise to the Lord

Some Cool Stories to Tell Beside the Campfire

The Christian Storytelling Honor

A Component of the Witnessing Master Award

Requirements 

1. Name one source where you have found material for stories for each of the following categories. Tell a story from each category.

1.1 a. Sacred history
1.2 b. Church history
1.3 c. Nature
1.4 d. Character story
1.5 e. Object lesson with visual aids
1.6 f. Web sources

2. For the above stories you tell, do the following:

2.1 a. Tell one of your stories to children, aged five and under, for at least three minutes.
2.2 b. Tell one of your stories to the 10-12 year-olds for at least five minutes.

3. Make a written outline of a story you are to tell.

4, State how and under what circumstances course material is to be modified for the following:

4.1 a. Telling the story in first person, second person, and third person
4.2 b. Different audiences, ages, and purposes
4.3 c. Making the story shorter
4.4 d. Making the story longer

5. Tell why a definite aim is necessary in telling a story.

6. Tell one story of foreign missionaries, not less than five minutes in length.

7. Tell one story that teaches health principles.

Requirement 1- Six Stories

1.1: Sacred History: “Those Sneaky Men of Gibeon!”

Primary Source- The Ninth Chapter of the Book of Joshua

The Verse Version

The trumpets blew and the people shouted, and the walls had fallen flat.
Jericho was defeated, and A-i after that.
Everybody felt the edge of the sword, except for Rahab and her clan.
The rest of the Canaanites heard the news and readied a battle plan.

But the citizens of Gibeon were as subtle as a snake.
They would con the chosen people, with the lies that they would make.
Phony baloney ambassadors dressed up in tattered rags,
And then took some worn out gunny sacks and tied them to their nags.

They got some old and moldy bread and wineskins that were torn.
They pretended they had walked a million miles from the place where they were born.
They limped into the Hebrew camp with a counterfeit fatigue.
They told those fightin’ Israelites they wanted to make a league.

They said they had heard About the God of Israel.
That even in the boondocks they knew His name.
They just wanted peace with His chosen people.
This was the only reason that they came.

Such a flattering presentation just could not be ignored.
Joshua and his princes didn’t wait for direction from the Lord.
They swore they would not tussle with Gibeon In their faraway land.
The Gibeonites were gratified, everything had gone as planned.

Three days later the truth came out; they were practically livin’ next door.
The Hebrews murmured against the princes for the oath that they had swore.
The leaders were in fear of the wrath of God if they smote their brand new neighbors,
But they’d get back at those Gibeonites by imposing heavy labors.

They were hewers of wood and drawers of water,
Under the curse of bondage from now on.
But they were delivered from the children of Israel,
And unto this day their fears are gone.

The Prose Version Five minutes in length, targeted to 10-12 year-olds

Everybody has heard about how Joshua and the people of Israel defeated Jericho. They just walked around the city seven times, blew their trumpets and the walls came tumblin’ down. God was with them, that’s for sure. The only people who lived in Jericho who managed to survive were Rahab and her family. Rahab had heard about how God was on the side of the children of Israel, and knew that “if you can’t lick em,’ you might as well join em.’ She was a big help to the Hebrew spies who had gone to take a look at Jericho before the battle. The Hebrews spared Rahab and her kinfolk because they were grateful for her help.

There were some other Canaanites that the chosen people spared the lives of, the Gibeonites, but thgis wasn’t because they were helpful to the Hebrews (although they would be helpful later on). No, it was because in those days, and it ought to still be that way today, when you made a promise to someone you had to keep it, even if the person you made the promise to wasn’t being totally upfront with you when you made the promise. You had sealed your promise with the name of God, and, after all, the third commandment says “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Promises are sacred, so you have to be very, very careful about the promises you make. It is sad, but some people will tell you a lie just to get what they want. It’s up to you to decide if they are trustworthy or not.

In the Book of Joshua, in Chapter 9 the Gibeonites took advantage of the importance of promise-keeping to trick Joshua the other leaders of the Hebrews into promising to spare their lives. Gibeon was directly in the path of the conquering Israelites. God knew that the bad influences of the original inhabitants would turn people’s hearts away from Him. History has shown that this turned out to be all too true. God had instructed the Israelites not to spare anyone they came across in Canaan. The Gibeonites made a plan that would fool Joshua into thinking they didn’t even come from Canaaan. They made some elaborate preparations in order to convince the Hebrews that this was the truth, but it was really just a big fat lie. They not only said they were not from Canaan, they also took a lot of trouble to make it look like they had been on a long, long journey to get to the Hebrew tribes and to make a covenant with them. Covenants are the same as promises.

The first thing they did was take some worn-out sacks and spread them on the backs of the animals they were riding. Then they got some tattered wineskins they had and tied these to their beasts. Then they put shoes on their feet that were falling apart, and they dressed-up in really old clothes. The finishing touch was some bread that had gone all moldy. They were now ready to meet the conquering Hebrews. All of the props they had made their first words of greeting to the Hebrews seem like the God’s honest truth! Here’s what they said:

“We’re from a far country. We came a long way to make a treaty with you.” The words gratified the vanity of the rulers of the Hebrews. It made them all felt special. These complete strangers had gone through all the trouble of taking a long, long journey just to make peace with them, even though they lived so far away the Hebrews weren’t interested the least in going to war with them. The Gibeonites kept laying it on thick, saying “We heard of the fame of your Lord, how He delivered you from Egypt, and how He caused your enemies to fall before your might.” If the Hebrew leaders were like most folks, it is likely that they credited themselves, rather than God, for most of the success their army was having. They might have even felt a little bit like gods themselves when they decided to honor the request of the Gibeonites. The men of Gibeon continued to describe the perils of their long journey, and to point out all of the wear and tear and mud and mold that this ordeal had caused. So Joshua and the princes of the twelve tribes swore an oath, a sacred oath that they would never, ever go to war with Gibeon.

Luke 8:17 says that “all that is secret will eventually be brought into the open, and everything that is concealed will be brought to light and made known to all.” Soon enough, just three days later, the Hebrews came across the nearby hometowns of the Gibeonites. The tribes got very upset when they discovered that, not only had the phony ambassadors lied about where they lived, but their own leadership, Joshua and the princes, had been gullible enough to swallow this big fat lie. They should not have made this important decision on their own. They really should have asked God what He thought about it all. But what was done was done! A sacred oath could not be broken, the leaders told the people. The Gibeonites were safe from harm, and would remain safe. But the Hebrew leadership was not happy to have had the wool pulled over their eyes by men of Gibeon. They would get a little payback.

The princes of the tribes decided that the Gibeonites would live peacefully alongside the Israelites throughout the rest of their history as a nation, but they would not be performing very prestigious work. They would be menial workers. They would have to cut wood for the cooking fires of the Hebrew people, and they would have to fetch water for them as well. The Israelites would soon come to depend on the useful services that the Gibeonites performed, but would always feel superior to them.

Some believe that the Palestinians who live in and around modern Israel are the descendants of the Gibeonites. Jews still consider them to be second-class citizens. But when Jesus returns, and we are caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord, there will no longer be any first or second class citizens. The old things will pass away, everything will be brand new. Hebrew and Gibeonite alike, if they have accepted Jesus’ gift of forgiveness and salvation, will one day live as equals. God will love and care for one and all forever and ever, even if they used to be sneaky liars like men of Gibeon.

1.2: Church History: “Earthquake, Darkness, and the Sky is Falling!”

Primary Source- The Adventist heritage Manual

The Verse Version

Back in 1755,
The ground started shakin’ and the walls came tumble in’ down.
Ain’t never been that way before;
A new thing under the sun,
God done gone and done something,
Something ain’t never been done.

(It’s a sign of the times!)
The end of the beginning.
(It’s a sign of the times!)
The beginning of the end.
Earthquake! Pestilence!
Famine! War!
They all been around for the longest time,
But never like this before!

Back in 1780,
The lights got turned down low.
Sun seemed to disappear without a trace.
Couldn’t even see a hand held up to your face.

Blind!
Blinded in the broad of day.
Blind!
Just can’t find the way.
Help me!    Help me!
I’m stumbling around the room.
Ain’t never been this way before,
It’s darker than the tomb!

Back in 1833,
The stars not only fell on Alabama;
Two times they dropped like fallen angels,
Headed from heaven to hell;
From dusk to dawn, on land and sea,
Fiery tracers fell.

Jesus!
What can these things mean?
Jesus!
Is this the end of time?
Save me!    Save me!
I wanna vanish without a trace!
Show me the direction to the fire escape!
I wanna get out of this place!
(It’s a sign of the times!)
(It’s a sign of the times!)

The Prose Version Five minutes in length, targeted to 10-12 year-olds

1755.

Twenty-five years later, in 1780.

And then, in 1833, some really weird things happened on planet earth.

Too weird! But sometimes fact is stranger than fiction.

What happened was that three signs of the end of the world appeared that took everybody by surprise. Three spectacular signs, some stuff that was so crazy that nobody alive could remember such crazy stuff ever happening before. The first thing was a giant earthquake, one so big that all of the world could feel it. The second thing was a night that was so dark that nobody could figure out why. The third thing that happened was a couple of nights where it was like all the stars were falling on earth, so many it was amazing that there was any left in the sky. Like I said, it was crazy! Super-crazy!

The newspapers were all full of people’s opinions about what these crazy things might mean. A lot of people who study the Bible were sure that these signs were a warning that Jesus would return to earth soon, very soon. From 1755, the time of the big earthquake, to 1833, the two nights that the stars all fell is a 78 period. Just eleven years later, in 1844, the 2,300-year period that Daniel wrote about in Chapter 8, Verse 14 of his book came to an end. Big things happened on that day, too, but they happened in heaven instead of earth. But the biggest thing that is going to happen hasn’t happened just yet; that’s Jesus coming back to the earth. It could happen at any moment. It could happen right now! When it does happen, you can’t say that you didn’t get any warning. The three big things that happened were three big warnings, warnings way too big to be ignored.

The first, the 1755 earthquake was really big. They talk about the “Big One” that will hit California someday, should the world last a little longer. They are so scared about the “Big One,” they made Loma Linda University tear down their old hospital and build a brand new one, one that can hold up to a major earthquake. The “Big One” that happened around 250 years-ago is known as the Lisbon Earthquake. That’s because Lisbon, in Portugal, was the center, or what they call the “epicenter” of all the shaking.

Back in those days there were a lot of people who were trying to convince other people that God didn’t have much to do with running the world. One of these was a Frenchman called Voltaire. For him, the Lisbon Earthquake was proof that God just didn’t care about His creation. He wrote about this in a book called “Candide.” Voltaire wasn’t a Christian, that’s for sure!

Other folks, ones who read the Bible and knew that God cares a whole lot about His sons and daughters, knew that the earthquake was part of the Lord’s master-plan for the salvation of mankind. It was obviously something that had been predicted in Revelation Chapter 6, verses 12 and 13. In Revelation there are seven seals that only Jesus is worthy enough to break open. When He gets up to the sixth seal a “great earthquake” hits the earth.

The second big sign that happened is described in the Gospel of Mark, a prediction that Jesus Himself made in Chapter 13, verse 24 of this book. Jesus said that the sun would be darkened, and the moon wouldn’t give any light. This was how it was on the night of May 19^th back in 1780. This happened eighteen years before the end of a 1,260-year period that is mentioned in not just once, but in seven places in the Bible. In 1798 the earthly power that the popes had had for over a thousand years came to an abrupt end. What is now known as the “Dark Day” was a signal that this was about to take place. Just like He did with Pharaoh in Exodus, God can use some unlikely people to get things done. Napoleon was the man responsible for the Pope of Rome losing most of his privileges, but Napoleon, like Voltaire, was not exactly a Christian either.

The third big sign that happened was a pair of meteor showers so huge that they amazed everyone who was alive back then. These showers took place in November of 1833. Ellen Harmon, who grew up to become Ellen White, was just about to turn six-years-old when these showers took place. Her parents might have taken her outside of their farmhouse to look at the big fireworks display that God was making for the world. She probably wasn’t scared at all, but a whole lot of grown people were scared to death! Maybe a lot of them should have been scared, because those who don’t accept Jesus as their Savior are going to miss out on His forgiveness, and His promises to look after us when the end of the world arrives. A prediction about this third sign can be found in the Bible in the same place as the prediction of the first sign, in Revelation Chapter 6, verses 12 and 13. In fact, all three signs are mentioned in these verses, so I am going to read them to you:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

If all this came true, you can bet that the rest of the things that the Bible predicts will come true. Jesus will come again alright, and sooner rather than later! You better be ready!

1.3 Nature Story: “You Need to Start Working as Hard an Ant, Lazybones!”

Primary Source- The Book of Proverbs 6:6-8

The Verse Version

Go to the ant, thou sluggard,
Consider her ways and be wise.
She’s probably been workin’ like a dog
Since before sunrise.
While you’re lyin’ in the bed,
She’s just tryin’ to get a head,
Getting ready for the lean times that will
Take you by surprise.

You are eating the bread of idleness.
It ought to be a crime.
People got to sweat for the bread they’re eating
Ever since Adam’s time.
We ain’t livin’ in the Garden of Eden.
There are things that you will be needin.’
You don’t work, you don’t eat.
Get out of bed and go earn ypurself a dime.

The Hebrews had a mind to work
When they rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls.
Get a mind to work, for works will follow you
When your bles-sed Savior calls.
Hard work never hurt anybody,
Unless the workmanship was shoddy.
Six days shall ye labor might be
One of the good Lord’s laws.

Whatever thy hand findeth to do,
Do it with all of thy might.
There may be a little bit of scratch left after you have
Satisfied your appetite,
And with the surplus from your labor,
You maybe could help your neighbor,
So work the works while it is day,
For no farmer can work at night.

But none of this can happen
If you’re hiding in the sack,
for Reveille has sounded,
It is high time for attack.
Wise King Solomon said,
Don’t be a sluggabed,   C
Cause you ain’t good for nothin’ when you’re
lying on your back!

The Prose Version Five minutes in length, targeted to 10-12 year-olds

Proverbs 6:6-8 has this to say:

“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.”

Solomon wrote these words. Ants always seem to be working. It wasn’t just in the Middle East that people thought that ants were a good model for people to follow. Most everyone has heard the fable about the ant and the grasshopper. This was written long ago by a Greek person. Eventually, most Greeks would come to know the true God, but when Solomon was writing Proverbs the Greeks were what is called “polytheists.” “Poly” means many, and “theist” means belief in “God” or “gods.” So “polytheism” means “belief in many gods.” The Canaanites that lived in the land of Canaan before the Hebrews arrived also believed in many gods. So did the Egyptians, the people the Hebrews were running away from back in the Book of Exodus. In fact, the Jews of that time were just about the only people in the world who worshiped only one God. But even polytheists could learn some of the same lessons from nature that the Hebrews did. Nature was created by God, so it has plenty of clues in it to show us how we should live, and about how our Creator does His job, even if we are just a bunch of ignorant polytheists. Everybody will get to know about God someday. In Isaiah 45, verse 23 God is on record as saying, “…unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.”

The fable of the Grasshopper and the Ant mostly tells about how lazy the Grasshopper was compared to the Ant. While the Ant worked hard during the good months to gather enough food to last him, or “her” as Solomon puts it, through the bad months, the Grasshopper did nothing at all. When winter came and there was no food to be had except for what had been stored beforehand, the Grasshopper was in awful bad shape! He had nothing to eat. The Ant had worked hard to prepare for the hard times. He, or “she,” was able to survive until the world came back to life in the springtime. This fable contains a useful lesson for everyone, and is a lot like the description of the lifestyle of ants that Solomon provides in Proverbs. If you think about it, the Grasshopper was kind of like people who don’t prepare for the troubled times that will only get worse just before the Second Coming of Jesus. These people are like all those foolish virgins in one of Jesus’ parables who did not have enough oil in their lamps to let them light the path of a bridegroom when he returned. From his wedding feast. The Ant, however, was like those virgins who had plenty of oil, and can be compared to hardworking Christians who are doers, rather than just hearers of the Word.

One lesson that Solomon’s Proverb teaches much more clearly than the fable of the Grasshopper and the Ant is the importance not always relying on others to have to tell you what you need to do. If you know what the purpose of your task is, and you know how to accomplish this purpose, then you should not need to have a boss or a supervisor always breathing down your neck, trying to get you to do your work. Solomon writes that ants have neither “guide, overseer, or ruler.” The greatest kind of motivation is self-motivation. A biologist would say that ants are not really operating as independently as they seem to be, since they lack the ability to reason. A biologist would also say that it is instinct, and chemical triggers that drive the ants to work as hard as they do. But Solomon was not trying to teach the world a biology lesson. He was trying to inspire people to give 100% in every situation that they might find themselves in, not only in the workplace, but in whatever they happen to be doing, and wherever they may be doing it.

One of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Ellen G. White, was a big believer in the positive benefits of hard work. Too many people in her time, and in our own time as well are just like the Grasshopper. They do nothing, and are even misguided enough to think that physical labor is somehow beneath their dignity. Ellen White has this to say about ants in the book she wrote that is called “Education:” “The ants teach lessons of patient industry, of perseverance in surmounting obstacles, of providence for the future.” These nice words may be too complicated for some young people to understand. Here is an explanation:

“Patient industry” means that we stick to our tasks, even when it might seem like the work that we are doing is not immediately accomplishing anything. It is most likely that things are actually changing and getting better, but that this is happening too slowly for us to be able to notice it. Ants haul in food for the wintertime just a tiny bit at a time, but these tiny bits soon add up to nice-sized piles in the storage chambers of the ant colony. It is kind of interesting to know that the ants bite off the ends of the seeds that they gather so that they do not start sprouting while they are in storage. A biologist would say that this action came about through trial and error, through evolution. They would say again that ants are not really that smart. But even if ants are not smart, God is smart. He designed ants, you know, and then He created them. They did not get to be so good at what they do through a process of trial and error. They were good from the get-go!

Ellen White’s statement “Perseverance in surmounting obstacles” can be translated into this familiar saying: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!” A famous quote from inventor Thomas Edison goes like this: “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” “Persevere” means to stick to a task until a good solution can be found. A popular song about how ants will “persevere,” or in other words stick to a task until it gets done was sung by Frank Sinatra back in your great-grandfather’s day. It is called “High Hopes,” and part of it goes like this:

Just what makes that little old ant
Think he’ll move that rubber tree plant
Anyone knows an ant, can’t
Move a rubber tree plant

But he’s got high hopes, he’s got high hopes
He’s got high apple pie, in the sky hopes
So any time you’re gettin’ low
‘stead of lettin’ go

Just remember that ant
Oops there goes another rubber tree plant!

“Providence for the future” is like the parable of the wise and foolish virgins that was mentioned a minute or so ago. Jesus was talking about the end of the world, and comparing Himself to the returning bridegroom in the parable that He told. Getting ready for this difficult time by getting right with God is a really good example of “providence for the future.” Keeping a little extra food around the house just in case you might get unexpectedly stuck there, and keeping some savings in the bank to get you through some unforeseen crises are a few other examples of “providence for the future.” “Saving up for a rainy day” is what Ellen White is probably referring to, at least on the surface of her statement about ants. But like the ocean, there are hidden depths that lie beneath the surface, not only in the Bible, but in the Spirit of Prophecy as well.

1.4 Character Story: “A Sailor for Souls- the Joseph Bates Story”

Primary Source- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bates_(Adventist)

The Verse Version

An eighty-ear voyage, a man of the Sea.
Signed on as a cabin boy while still a lad.
My friend Joseph Bates told his story to me,
Of all the adventures that he’d ever had.

With much dedication and much native wit,
He rose through the ranks ’til he captained his crew.
The gold that he gained added up quite a bit.
He ditched the bad habits that he was chained to.

The drink and tobacco that all the crew cherished
Offended the captain, who knew that these vices
Corrupted the soul ’til all discipline perished
Made sailors’ lives an unending crises.

Joseph Bates now had a fortune in hand.
He’d lived to age fifty amidst salty waves.
He’d sail his last voyage upon the dry land,
Proclaiming to lubbers just how Jesus saves.

He knew of the Millerite warning that soon,
The Savior would gather His sheep in the fold.
The message was urgent, the signs were at hand,
The end of the age just as Daniel foretold.

Eighteen firty-four, on day twenty-two
In the month of October was fixed as the date
When the Lord would return, but a Great Disappointment
Was spread when the Lord, He appeared to be late.

But on the next morning a fellow named Edson
Was praying for light as he walked through a field.
The Savior had entered the Holy of Holies,
The key to to this mys’try had just been revealed;

Day told in Daniel was not about earth.
In time it was learned our High Priest’s transition
Was so that He might judge the Saints by their deeds.
Bates, he accepted our Savior’s new mission.

Santification means keeping the law;
Not just acknowledging only a part.
The commandment to keep ev’ry seventh day holy
Was an issue that Joseph Bates took to his heart.

He wrote of Creation’s perpetual sign,
An observance the churches of earth had rejected,
But one that was easy enough to embrace
By the saints in their process of being perfected.

The remnant alive at the close of probation
Must manifest faultlessness our God will seek,
But Joseph Bates will not be one of this number,
For he fell asleep in Battle Creek.

An eighty-year voyage has come to an end.
He had nourished the good and rejected the bad.
My friend Joseph Bates told his story to me,
Of all the adventures that he’d ever had.

The Prose Version Five minutes in length, targeted to 10-12 year-olds

If Joseph Bates were alive today, he would be 224 years-old. He died in 1872. He was pretty old when he did die, and very old for the times he lived in. He probably lived such a long life because he didn’t smoke or drink or eat meat. He went to sea when he was only fifteen, and spent the next twenty-one years living on a ship. He started out at the bottom as a cabin boy, and then rose through the ranks until he became a captain. In those days, captains were paid a part of the profits that the ship earned. Since Joseph Bates was a very good captain, he managed to earn and to save a good amount of money. He was able to retire from the sea when he was only thirty-six. But the close of his seafaring days marked the beginning his days as a hardworking man of God. The treasure that he had laid up on earth ended up being laid up in heaven instead, a place where thieves do not break in and steal. He spent all of his fortune helping the Seventh-day Adventist Church survive its difficult childhood. When he fell asleep in Battle Creek, Michigan, the church was, by that time, a healthy and growing adolescent.

His time spent at sea was very educational for this grand old man of Adventism. He had ample leisure between watches to study the Bible. His shipmates furnished memorable lessons in what not to do, for the sinful nature of many sailors of that era is well-known.

When he retired in New England, Joseph Bates associated himself with the growing Millerite movement. The Bible, and the signs of the times all pointed toward some significant event that was abut to take place, At first, the followers of William Miller thought that 1843 would be when this event would occur, but this was later modified to 1844. Former Captain Bates was several decades older than his friends and fellow Millerites James and Ellen White, so his wisdom, stability, and experience were something the young couple could lean upon in difficult and disappointing times. For just a moment, the level of this disappointment became so high that it came to be came to be called the “Great Disappointment.” October 22, 1844 marked the end of the 2,300-year period foretold in Chapter 8 of the Book of Daniel. William Miller and his followers believed that the “cleansing of the sanctuary” prophesized by Daniel in verse 14 of Chapter 8 referred to the Second Coming of Jesus to the earth. Miller’s message made a lot of sense to a lot of people, including Joseph Bates. When Jesus failed to return as expected on this day Bates, along with many other believers, wondered exactly what had actually happened. The times indicated by the prophecy were crystal-clear, and the signs were unmistakable, yet life on earth seemed to go on as normal. Nothing remarkable happened on October 22, 1844. Or so it seemed!

Another Millerite by the name of Hiram Edson was able to shed some light on the mystery. While walking in his cornfield on the morning after the “Great Disappointment,” he beheld a vision of Christ entering the “Holy of Holies” of the heavenly sanctuary. The Lord had just started what has come to be known as the “Investigative Judgment.” Out of the 50,000 or so people that had followed William Miller, only abut fifty believed in Hiram Edson’s vision. All of the others lost confidence in William Miler. For the first five or six years after the Disappointment, early Adventists believed that (just like the parable of the wise and foolish virgins) the entering of Jesus into the Most Holy Place marked the end of everyone’s chances of being saved. Probation was closed, and if you were not already in the ark, you were going to be drowned by the coming floodtide. This reference to Noah’s Ark was called the “Shut Door” interpretation. After 1850, however, the group that would soon become the Seventh-day Adventist Church came to believe that Christ’s judgements were still ongoing, but these judgments were directed only toward those who are doing (or perhaps only claiming that they are doing) the work of the Lord. Revelation 14-12 describes true Christians as “those who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Most people who say that they are Christians do not obey all of God’s commandments, believe it or not!

The founders of Adventism, including Joseph Bates, believed that it is indeed possible to fully conform to God’s will. The important role that the remnant church is to fulfill in the end-times requires that their robes be spotless. This second interpretation of Hiram Edson’s vision came to be known as “Pefectionism.” Ellen White believed that in the final tribulation there would be no intercessor for the members of the church, and they would have to live sinless lives in order to endure to the end of the age, and to win their crowns of glory.

Joseph Bates’s most important contribution to this quest for perfect obedience was in educating everyone about the fourth commandment. The worship of God on the first day of the week, Sunday, had become the norm at that time, but the fourth commandment demands that we worship on the Sabbath. This is the seventh day of the week, which is Saturday. Bates wrote several books on this important subject. Church historians even credit Joseph Bates for being personally responsible for convincing his friends James and Ellen White of the Sabbath Truth.

His efforts, alongside the efforts of his good friends, bore fruit when the Seventh-day Adventist Church was officially created in 1862. Like a United States Marine, Joseph Bates had fought his battles on both sea and land. The motto of the Marine Corps is “Semper Fidelus,” which is Latin for “Always Faithful.” The hero of our story, Captain Joseph Bates, always was faithful.

1.5 Object Lesson with Visual Aids: “Shem-e-i Throws Stones at King David”

Primary Source- Second Samuel 19:16+

The Visual Aids

A nice sized rock is all you need

The Verse Version

Shim-e-i chucked stones at old King David.   The
The king was on the run from Absalom his son.
Sim-e-i was kin to the former king, King Saul,
And I reckon that he wasn’t fond of David’s reign at all.

He called King David murderer and scoundrel.
He cussed him left and right, and he did it in plain sight.
The things he said to David were not pleasant.
He reminded him he was not king at present.

He claimed it was the vengeance of the Lord,
For all the blood that he had shed, and all the people who were dead.
Shem-e-i rubbed salt in David’s sores,
But one day there would come a time for settling old scores.

But this was not the time or place.
David suffered Shim-e-i with dignity and grace.
Like the curse of Balaam that the Lord turned upside down,
The infamy of Shim-e-i might help restore the crown.

Despite the admonition of A-bish-a-i,
Shim-e-i  protested, but he walked on unmolested.
Under torrents of abuse, David walked his weary way,
Until Shim-e-i stopped fussing by the ending of the day.

Now Absalom was fatally defeated.
His finish was not nice. He had followed bad advice,
So David journeyed back to take his former throne.
Shem-e-i was waiting, but not to throw a stone.

Shim-e-i fell down before the king,
So eager to please, that he groveled on his knees.
A-bish-a-i again proposed that he be killed.
David answered “Not today.”  Shim-e-i was thrilled.

This was not the time or place.
Shim-e-i  repented, there were ashes on his face.
David had commanded, so he could not be ignored.
Shim-e-i would not die by the sword.

Maybe it was just the king’s caprice.
He could leave the past behind or he was free to change his mind,
Or maybe oaths aren’t binding when you’re lyin’ in your grave.
He would return to Shem-e-i the trouble that he gave.

The years flew by and David lay a dyin’.
He called Solomon his son to tell him things that must be done.
A bloody grave for Shem-e-i was one of his requests.
He knew that loyal Solomon would do his very best.

Now Shim-e-i was under house arrest.
It should have been a cinch. He just had to warm the bench.
Solomon said “You will die the day you leave this town!”
Shim-e-i left anyway, so justice struck him down.

The tender mercies of my God are surer.
When forgiveness you implore, He remembers sins no more.
David wasn’t perfect. Perfection lies above.
Thank God for the consistency of our Redeemer’s love.

The Prose Version

God was not pleased when the Hebrews decided that they wanted a king to rule over them. They wanted to be just like all of their neighbors. The first king to rule over them was named Saul. God was not pleased with the way that Saul was behaving. He set the prophet Samuel to go and anoint a new king, a man after His own heart. This new king’s throne would be established by God to last forever and ever and ever.

There were plenty of setbacks for David along the way. One of the worst was the rebellion of his own son, Absalom. It looked for a while as if he would be ruler in the place of his father. Some people who were not happy with King David being their ruler welcomed the brief reign of his son. The relatives of the king that David replaced, Saul, were especially delighted. But David’s son, Absalom was no more likely to give them preferential treatment than his father would have. Their power in the new kingdom had pretty much disappeared with the death of Saul. But they still hated David’s guts.
When Absalom was on top. and it seemed as if the days of David’s rule were over for good, one of Saul’s kinfolk by the name of Shim-e-I decided to go and give David a hard time. He would “kick him while he was down,” which everyone knows is an unsportsmanlike thing to do. This mean person’s name was Shim-e-i. When David eventually regained his throne, Shem-e-I was among the first to apologize for his bad attitude, and his bad conduct, for he had followed David and his men as they were trying to escape from Absalom. It might have been the lowest point in David’s life, because this enemy was his own son. The real enemy in all of this was, of course, Satan, for Satan had entered into Shim-e-i just as surely as he did into Judas when he betrayed Jesus. Ellen White briefly writes about Shim-e-I in “Patriarchs and Prophets:”

“The spirit that leads man to triumph over, to revile or distress, one who is in affliction is the spirit of Satan.”

As I said, Shem-e-I apologized to David right after the king put down Absalom’s rebellion and regained the throne. This apology was probably intended just to save his own skin. David may have felt that Shim-e-I did not fully repent of his misdeeds in his heart, and the apology was not very sincere. Shim-e-I had said some awfully mean things to the king, and had even thrown rocks at him. David had patiently endured all of this verbal and physical abuse.

When the king was safely back in Jerusalem, he gave his word to Shim-e-I that he would not order that he be killed for his bad actions. David could have added, “not in my lifetime, at least,” for Shim-e-I had sown the wind when he insulted the king. David could not entirely forget the trouble that Shim-e-I had made for him. He decided to leave the punishment of Shim-e-I in the hands of God, and in the hands of his son Solomon. Shim-e-I had indeed sown the wind, and after the death of King David he would reap the whirlwind. On his deathbed, David instructed his son Solomon to not forget the evil that Shim-e-I had caused.

After his father died, Solomon decided to keep Shim-e-I within the walls of Jerusalem. If Shim-e-i ventured outside of the city even for a moment, it would mean the end of his life. Given the extreme consequences of leaving Jerusalem, you would think that Shim-e-I would be happy to leave well-enough alone, and to simply stay put. But one day a servant of his left town, and Shim-e-I was stupid enough to decide to go after him in order to bring him back. When Shim-e-I returned with the servant, Solomon reminded him of the condition that he had placed on him. Shim-e-I paid with his own life the price for breaking Solomon’s ground rules, but in fact he was really paying the price for the sins he had committed back when he, and his secret advisor Satan, decided that they would throw some rocks at God’s anointed. He had lived a good, long period between his crime and its punishment. Justice may not have been swift, but it had definitely been sure. You reap what you sow. Only a turning away from sin, and Christ’s atoning death on the cross can spare each and every one of us from the same kind of punishment that Shim-e-I received. As ye sow, so shall ye reap!

1.6 Web Sources “Where Can I Find Some Good Nectar?”

Primary Source- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bees_algorithm

The Visual Aids

The props that are required are four real or artificial flowers. They must be two different types, and these types must be easily distinguished from each other. If they are flower-shaped paper or cardboard cut-outs, then perhaps half of them could be one color, and the other half could be a different color. You must make sure that the colors are different enough so that there is no possibility of confusing the two.

One type of these two distinct props will represent flowers that have very good nectar.
The second type will represent flowers that have nectar, but not good nectar.

The Object Lesson Suitable for children of all ages

This is a story about Internet search engines. This is a story about evangelism. This is a story about bees looking for honey, and how when they find it they go back and tell their friends how good it is, and where they can find it.

Where I am standing here with you will be the beehive in this story about bees. Here are four flowers [the “flowers” are now displayed to the listeners]. Two of them have really good nectar. The other two have nectar that is OK, but maybe not the greatest in the world. I am going to put two of these flowers kind of close to where I’m standing. One of them is a great nectar flower, and the other one is just an OK nectar flower. I am now going to put the other two flowers further away. Again, one will have great nectar, and the other one will have nectar that is just alright [the “flowers” are all positioned, and the lesson is ready to begin].

Like I said, you have to imagine that I am standing in the beehive. I am a bee. You are bees too, if you want to be. I am a bee who is like an explorer, and I am about to go looking for nectar. If I had some helpers, we would divide up the territory we had to explore. Some of us would go farther out to look around, and some would looking closer to our beehive. We would try to be organized about how we searched for nectar as a group. If it were “every bee for themselves,” than we would end up wasting a lot of time duplicating each other’s efforts.

Internet search engines look for information instead of nectar. Evangelists are out looking for people who are ready to turn from their sins and accept Jesus as their Savior. But bees are looking for nectar, and God has designed them to be very good at doing this. Many internet search engines are modeled on the behavior of bees. Salesmen looking for new customers (and evangelists are kind of like salesmen) use these techniques as well.

So here I am, a bee, and I am about to go look for some nectar. Buzz buzz buzz! Buzz buzz buzz!
[The narrator quickly flaps his or her hands in the manner if a honeybee in flight, following a seemingly random trajectory. After a few seconds he (or she) discovers the nearest flower, one which has the characteristics and coloration of one with OK, but not so great honey. The “bee” takes a big sniff, get a resigned look on his (or her) face, and then buzzes directly back to the “beehive,” a trajectory that is often termed a “beeline.”]

So here I am back at our beehive. I found this flower that has some OK honey, but maybe not the best in the world. At least the source is pretty close to the hive. How am I going to tell all of you other bees about my discovery? I’m a only a bee, you know, so I can’t talk. But I can dance! I’m going to do what naturalists call a “waggle dance.” I will dance around in a figure-eight pattern, and in the middle part of the dance, in the middle of the figure 8 I will head in the direction where the flower I discovered can be found. The number of times that I go through the figure-eight will tell the other bees how far it is to the flower. Since the flower with OK honey is close by, I will just do a couple of passes through the figure-eight. The reason that they call this dance a “waggle dance” is that I will waggle my body while I am dancing in the direction of the nectar source. If I waggle real fast, that means there is really good nectar where I have just come from. If I waggle kind of slow, that means the honey is OK, but not anything to write home about. Here goes. You have to pay attention, because I am the only bee looking nectar today. You are the bees who will have to go and fetch it and bring it back to the hive. But, like I said, this first flower patch I discovered would not make very good honey. I am still hoping to find better. If I can’t find anything better later on, though, we may all end up working with the patch of flowers I have already found.

[The narrator “dances” twice, the “waggle” segments of the dance, which are pointing toward the nearby flower with mediocre honey, are not very energetic.]

You notice that I am not waggling very fast. I am not really excited about the flower, but it is definitely better than nothing. Most of you ought to just hang out in the beehive a while longer, hoping that something better will indeed come along. I am going to try again. Since I am working alone right now, I will continue to try to search close to home.

[The random meandering search is resumed. The second nearby flower, one with excellent nectar, is soon discovered. The narrator makes another “beeline” back to the hive.]

Now I am excited, and I know that you other bees will be excited as well when I tell you what I have found! My latest discovery is just as close as the previous flower, but this one has fantastic nectar! When I go through the “waggle” part of this dance, I will be waggling like crazy! Notice that I will be pointing in a slightly different direction than the first dance. We could do this demonstration outdoors sometime, and hide the flowers where you could not actually see them. You could find them just by watching my “waggle dance.” Here goes!

[This second dance has the same number of circuits as the first, but the “waggling” is much more energetic.] Buzz buzz buzz! Buzz buzz buzz!

There! That dance ought to light a fire under all of you! If we really were bees, most of you are not already busy doing something else should immediately fly off to this great flower patch and load up on nectar. It is well worth the effort. It’s still early in the day, so I’m going back to work now.
[The narrator bypasses the zone of nearby flowers and starts to randomly explore the areas of the room that are further from the hive. Soon he (or she) discovers one of the farther flowers. It is another lackluster flower, so the nectar not exceptional. After a third “beeline” return to the hive, another waggle dance is performed. The waggles are not very enthusiastic, but the number of passes that point in the direction of the flower are four in number, rather than two. This indicates that the distance is greater than was the case with the previous discoveries. Dialogue with the listeners is improvised, with regular interjections of “Buzz buzz buzz! Buzz buzz buzz!”]

I’m throwing in a few extra passes in to tell you all that the latest flower I’ve discovered is pretty far away. Since the nectar is not all that great, and the flower patch is not nearby, none of you are likely to be excited by my news. It may turn out to be important if we don’t find anything better later on, but for now you better not waste any time on it. I am going to make one more trip before I take my lunchbreak. I’ll be back as soon as I can.

[The narrator bypasses again the areas close to the hive that have already been explored, and when he (or she) reaches the distant parts of the room he (or she) meanders in an area adjacent to the previous flower that was discovered. The excitement of a fine discovery is apparent from the body language of the explorer bee as he (or she) encounters the final flower of the morning’s explorations. A little hop, and a waggle of the hands precedes a last “beeline” back home. The figure-eight dance the explorer bee now does is completed energetically, but in silence, and is terminated by another little hop and an excited flap of the hands. The scout bee emits one last self-satisfied “Buzz buzz buzz!” The narrator now faces the audience for the last time, and offers a few concluding remarks and observations.]

It is good that I found some more good nectar this morning. We naturally began today’s explorations close to home. All of the easy-to-get-to nectar was discovered and gathered first thing this morning. As the day progresses, we will have to fly further and further to find good nectar. We may end flying so far that we run into other bees who are trying to do the same thing that we are doing. I hope there is enough nectar for everyone.

Requirement 2- Age Groups of the Targeted Audiences

2.1 Modifications to “You Need to Start Working as Hard an Ant, Lazybones!”

A Three-Minute Version Suitable for Children 5-years-old and Under.

Your parents have to work very hard so they can be able to look after you, and to take care of you. I am sure that you are thankful for all of the hard work that they do.

The animals that God made are hard workers, just like your parents are. Some seem to work harder than others do. I think that the smaller the animal is, the harder they work! Except for creatures so tiny we can’t even see them, insects are among the smallest, and also the hardest working animals there are.

You’ve probably already heard about King Solomon. He was a smart person. He was the King of Israel after his dad, King David died. He was interested in all kinds of things. He studied the natural world, and learned a lot by doing this about God, and about how we should live our lives. He wrote down a lot of the things he learned in the Book of Proverbs. It is easy to find Proverbs in your Bible, because it is right in the middle of it.

One of the proverbs that Solomon wrote was about ants. God must love ants, because there are lots of ants in the world, billions and billions of them. They are good survivors, because not only are they really hard workers; they are also very well organized. They spend the times of the year where there is plenty of food available to gather this food, and to put it in storage. When the wintertime comes, and there isn’t any food to be found outside of the ant’s homes, there is enough inside, in storage, to keep all of the ants fed until springtime comes. This is a great plan, and God is the one who came up with it. All the ants have to do is follow God’s plan. This is the key to their success, and is the key to our success as well.

King Solomon wants us to learn about how we should go about our work from the ants. Here is what he wrote in Proverbs about ants, and about how we should work as hard as they do, and about how we should make good plans for the future:

“Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.”

We all need to work hard, even when there is no one telling us what to do. One of the reasons that we go to school is so that we can learn how do things right. One day you will be able to figure out all on your own what needs to be done in order to solve a problem, or how you can help another person who is in trouble. Once you have figured out what you need to do, then you have to work hard to get things done. Just like ants do!

2.2 A Note on the Target Audience for the First Six Stories, 1.1- 1.6

1.1-1.6 are all five-minute stories composed to be understood by 10 to 12-years-olds.

Requirement 3- Story Outlines

3.1 A Written Outline of “Those Sneaky Men of Gibeon!”

A. Introduction

1. The defeat of Jericho by the Hebrews
2. The fear of the Canaanites due to the military successes of the Israelites

B. The Preparations by Gibeon to Deceive the Hebrews

1. Tattered clothing
2. Worn saddlebags
3. Torn wineskins
4. Moldy bread

C. The Initial Encounter between the Gibeonites and the Hebrews

1. Pretended to be weary
2. Lied about how far they had travelled
3. Spoke of God and Israel’s undefeated record of conquest
4. Requested a vow from the Hebrews that there would be peace with Gibeon

D. The Princes of the Tribes of Israel Establish a Covenant with Gibeon

1. A solemn oath is sworn by the Hebrew leaders
2. The Gibeonites are pleased by the success of their deception.

E. The Hebrew People Question the Actions of their Leaders

1. Three days after the oath the proximity of Gibeon is revealed
2. The people murmur against the princes
3. The princes refuse to violate their oath, which is sacred in nature

Conclusion

1. The Gibeonites are consigned to servitude to Israel
2. A caution about the negative consequences of deception
3. A general plea for forgiveness, one of the lessons Joshua 9 teaches us

Requirement 4- General Story Modifications

4.1 The Use of First, Second, and Third Person Narrative Styles

The first-person viewpoint is an intimate one only insofar as the listener cares for either the person who is doing the talking, what he or she is talking about, or (preferably) both speaker and subject. But, as we all know, there are some who seem to talk about themselves to an excessive degree. This type usually has a very good opinion of themselves. They are so interested in themselves that they are convinced that you will also be interested. Spellbound. Edified. Amazed! The result- the boredom of the listener, is opposite of the speaker or writer’s intent. They are attempting to acquaint you with the most interesting topic on earth- themselves! How can you possibly be bored?

First-person is great, but only if you have something interesting to say. “The Great Controversy,” like the Book of Revelation, was originally written in the first-person style. When avant-garde journalist began writing in the first-person back in the sixties, it was such a novel approach that this style of reportage came to be known as “New Journalism.”

The second-person viewpoint is intrinsically accusatory. Unless you are saying nice things about the person that you are addressing, you are likely to upset and offend them by using the second-person approach. The incendiary word “you” straddles the dangerously unstable literary area that lies between flattery and insult. This style is best left alone. Please feel free to talk about anyone you wish to, as long as it is not me!

The third-person style is always a safe gambit. Not longwinded first-person self-promotion., Not discourteous second-person finger pointing. Just the facts! It can frame even the most outrageous opinions in a manner that makes them seem to be balanced, rational, and scholarly. Nobody gets hurt. I don’t get hurt. You don’t get hurt. It can only make trouble for those other people, and they are not here to object. Not me! Not you! Them. And they are all at a safe distance, light-years away in third-person land.

4.2 Tailoring the Message to Fit, and Even Changing the Meaning

Here at the end of a discouraging political season 9December, 2016), observant citizens will all be aware of how a candidate can seemingly speak out of both sides of his or her mouth. Recently deceased songwriter Leon Russell wrote a song called “Magic Mirror” which described the involuntary and automatic way in which his fans, and he himself, would seem to adapt themselves like chameleons to emphasize whatever mutual characteristics the two parties may share. Mr. Russell felt that was not a particularly noble or healthy phenomenon. It is perfectly acceptable to “write up” or “write down,” or to “speak up” or “speak down” to effectively communicate a message to those who may have differing levels of comprehension (i.e. “age groups”). To modify or even entirely change the meaning of a story or a speech could, however, very clearly indicate either lazy craftsmanship or a lack of moral fiber in the writer or speaker. Ancient Greece and Rome were both infested with peripatetic instructors in the art of “rhetoric.” For a price, these hired guns would teach you how to convince anyone of anything. This is a useful trick for politicians, but it is not very Christ-like! You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. A “change of meaning” is like a deviation from the truth. A different function or intent merits a fresh, new form. This is assuredly not the kind of answer that the writers of this requirement were expecting, but is nevertheless one based on a lifetime of experience in fashioning new wineskins for new wine.

4.3 Making the Story Shorter

Shortening a story is what professional editors that work for newspapers and publishing houses do all day long. Thomas Wolfe’s editor at Scribners, Maxwell Perkins, must have lopped a couple of hundred-thousand words off of Wolfe’s manuscripts in order to make them more digestible for the reading public. He operated in the early twentieth-century. It has been noted that, prior to the advent of television, the reading public included practically everyone.

Kids don’t have very long attention spans. A guest speaker at a recent evening musical presentation at Berean Seventh-day Adventist church in Atlanta commenced a story in the avuncular manner that most patronizing storytellers adopt when they are attempting to engage the younger generation. What should have been a three-minute talk passed the five-minute mark. All of the preschoolers had already stopped listening. When the speaker passed the ten-minute mark, he had managed to lose absolutely everyone else. Yet, as it turned out, he was only getting started. The adults were all enthralled, enchanted and spellbound. The kids, by contrast, not only suffered, but will doubtless suffer again. “What a great storyteller! We simply must invite him back! He can really relate to children!” Adults do all of the booking, you know…

4.4 Making the Story Longer

You can “pad,” or “flesh-out,” or simply extend, augment, embellish, or ornament any story that was ever written. You start with associated material that lies closest to the narrative thread. You pump some of this literary silicon into the tale. If you add too much, and it starts to squeeze out of the primary conduit, you can attach some branch lines that could contain the excess. When you do this frequently, you have successfully emulated the literary style of Kurt Vonnegut. When the digressions and asides are so excessive that the main channel gets completely, irrevocably lost, then you have just managed to duplicate Laurence Sterne’s “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.” When a main narrative thread doesn’t even exist, then you may be Gertrude Stein, who famously wrote “A rose is a rose is a rose…”

Requirement 5- Why is a Definite Aim Necessary?

If you don’t have a definite aim, that you are still Gertrude Stein [see above]. Seriously, life is too short, and the return of Jesus too near, for us to be wasting valuable time on pointless activities. Without an aim, you are without a purpose. Pointless stories only serve to divert one’s time and attention from more important tasks. When you find an aim, a purpose, or a point that you can build a good yarn around, pray that it transcends the shallow, but dominant aim of most of the media that gets created at present. This is primarily designed to distract you, and mollify you, and hypnotize you to the point where you are only sleepwalking through life. Don’t waste your time, and try very hard not to waste other people’s time!

Requirement 6- A Foreign Missionary, “Michał Belina Czechowski (1818-1876)”

The Seventh-day Adventist Church may have been started in the United States, but very soon after it was first organized there were lots of men and women who were willing and able to go and share it with the rest of the world. You can find Christians, and Adventists in some of the unlikeliest placed these days. If you should ever stumble across one in some Oriental market, or on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean you will know that somehow the three angels’ message had been brought to their notice. These days, it may be because they learned about Adventism on their radios, or by watching TV, or by looking it up on the internet. But it most likely means that a real, live human being has journeyed from afar to come and speak to them in person. These messengers are called missionaries. The job that they do makes Jesus very happy, because he told us to go unto all the world and preach the gospel. The great prophet Isaiah wrote something about spreading the Word of God, and Paul thought it was so important that he wrote it down again. Here is what it says:

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!”

If you have been a Seventh-day Adventist for very long, then you have probably heard of Andrews University. It is highly possible that your pastor may have gone to school there. It was named for John Andrews, who was the first official Adventist missionary to Europe. But before his official mission began in 1874, a Polish-American had been laying the groundwork in the Old World in an unofficial way. I hope I can pronounce his name right! It is “Michał Belina Czechowski.” He was a very energetic person, but not always a reliable person. He had hoped that the leaders of the Adventist church would sponsor his activities in Europe. He was born there, and spoke many of the languages that they use. Sometimes, however, Michal’s plans were bigger than his ability to fulfill these plans, and he was also much happier being his own boss than with allowing more stable and experienced people to guide him. But despite his willfulness and pride, God still used him to further His work. Without much support at all, Michal sailed from America to Europe in 1864, a whole decade before John Andrews did the same thing.

Michal had originally moved from Europe to the U.S. to serve as an evangelist for the Baptist church. In 1857 he attended an Adventist camp-meeting in Ohio. He recognized the truth when he found it, so he became an Adventist himself. He started his own church in New York three years later. When he decided that he needed to go back to Europe and tell everyone there about the Advent message, he ended up getting sponsored by some American Adventists who were not Sabbath-keepers. As I said, he was too green and intractable (meaning hard-to-manage) to qualify for official sponsorship.
He went on to work in Italy, Switzerland, and Romania. He was especially interested in telling the Waldenses of the Italian Piedmont (which means foothills) about Adventism. Ellen G. White thought the Waldenses were really good people, mainly because they were obedient to God’s laws, instead of men’s traditions.

Michał Belina Czechowski may not have been official, but this does not mean that he was not useful. He helped to prepare the soil, and to plant the seeds of faith on the European continent that others would soon arrive to nurture to maturity. Adventism is now firmly established in the Old World, but it is sad to think that a lot of Europeans do not seem to be interested in their own salvation these days. The Old World is a very worldly place, and it is impossible to serve Jesus and the world at the same time. The peoples of Europe may all be well-educated, and financially prosperous, but are nevertheless deprived of what matters the most in everybody’s lives; a relationship with Jesus. It would offend nearly every European if you were to tell them that they are serving Satan, rather than God. If you ever take a trip over there, you are encouraged to tell them about Jesus. Try not to get discouraged when they tell you that you are full of baloney! If they turn a deaf ear to you, then you must pray extra-hard that the Lord will make a way for His light to enter their hearts.

Requirement 7- A Health Story, “The Adventist Health Message”

The health reform message of the Seventh-day Adventist Church began way back in 1863. Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church Elder Tracey Wallace, M.D. often gives presentations that refer to the amazing accuracy and efficacy of Ellen G. White’s insight into the importance of the proper maintenance of what Paul describes as “the temple of God,” our bodies. Dr. Wallace attended Loma Linda University, a medical school that is currently squarely in the center of denominational health affairs. He is an enthusiastic evangelist for the Adventist “Health Message.” He describes it as being 150 years ahead of its time. It was originally concurrent with now obsolete medical practices such as “bleeding, purging, and poisoning.” Dr. Wallace notes that Ellen White’s prescient revelations are founded upon Scriptural prescriptions for healthy living, with an emphasis on dietary law.
The evils of tobacco and meat were apprehended early in the history of the church. Even before Ellen G. White’s 1863 “Health Message” vision occurred, Adventist pioneer Joseph Bates had become aware of the evil effects of alcohol and tobacco on the constitution. He was so far in advance of his own time, he even stopped eating meat. He was a big influence on his friends, James and Ellen White.

Recent observers note that “the world has gone after” the health message at this time (much of the world, but regrettably not all of it). Here is a long quote from a recent article on health reform from the Adventist Review: Ellen White, while explaining her vision of 1863, did not have or need scientific credentials. Indeed, the science of the day would have hindered rather than helped. Instead, she laid out a number of simple ideas that were at the time fairly revolutionary as a package, although not individually unique. Contemporary Adventist scholar Leo Van Dolsen once summarized these simple health principles—nutrition, exercise, water, sunlight, temperance, air, rest, and trust—in terms that were easy for most people to understand.

Results bear out the significance of the “Health Message.” Seventh-day Adventists who follow the health guidelines that the denomination promotes and publicizes live to be much older than those who do not. The “Health Message” incontestably adds “years to your life.” The messages that are found in the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy add “life to your years.” A long, healthy, and productive life is the end result of adhering to these messages. Christ came so that we could all have an abundant life.

Away in a Manger