Bob Johnson, a mathematics teacher at Portland Adventist Academy (PAA), is retiring this June 2021 after 39 years of teaching. Initially, Johnson had planned on a career in medicine, but after a year at Loma Linda University, he decided he wanted to teach.

This June 2021, Portland Adventist Elementary School (PAES) will bid farewell to a pillar of their institution, Nancy Stinson, as she retires. After graduating from the University of Oregon, Stinson began her first full year of teaching at PAES and remained there for the rest of her 37-year career.

The 2020-21 school year began with all four Oregon Conference schools in Washington able to open fully, but only 6 of 28 of our schools in Oregon able to offer full in-person instruction. Now, due to a shift in Oregon’s guidelines that became effective in January of this year, the Conference’s Oregon schools have joined their sister Washington schools in offering daily in-person learning.

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This year has been financially challenging for some families to attend Adventist Education, but God will always provide when we seek him. Recently, the Oregon Conference Education Department team was approached by three of our school principals asking if there was any financial assistance available to support a couple of families attending their schools. These community families were thriving in the Adventist school system but could not afford to continue for the second half of the school year. Just ten minutes after the prayer session, one of our superintendents was notified of a missed phone call from an Oregon Conference church member. He called this person back and found out that they were wanting to donate scholarship funds.

A new driveway for Central Valley Christian School, located in western Oregon, means expanded outreach potential and serves as a reminder to the school of God’s faithfulness.