The East Salem Seventh-day Adventist Church has been thinking hard about how they can better connect with their surrounding community.

On Sabbath, August 27th, 2022, the Pleasant Valley Church (PVC) in Happy Valley, Oregon will become the first Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Oregon Conference to have a multi-pastoral staff led by a female pastor.

Sunday morning was one of the busiest days of the year at Big Lake Youth Camp. As the staff worked to clean up from summer camp and transition Big Lake for family camps, Facilities Manager Ross von Pohle received a search and rescue call.

By the time he retired in August of 2020, Pastor Jim McMurry says he had a couple of rooms stacked floor to ceiling with books - and it was time to sort them out!

The Winter Retreat provided the chance to do what Big Lake does best – reconnect its visitors with their community, their earth, and their God.