Rogue Valley Adventist Academy recently celebrated 100 years of Seventh-day Adventist education in the southern Oregon valley, during the third annual Valley-wide Church Service. Valley-wide Church, which began as a regional convocation service in 2024, brought together over half a dozen area churches for worship, fellowship, and, of course, haystacks.

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“We have lots of alumni here in the Valley and so many others we wanted to reach out to, as well,” said Brad Bennett, principal at Rogue Valley Adventist Academy. “Our school is in such a beautiful location here in Jacksonville. We’re on 30 acres of what used to be a pear orchard, so we thought, ‘What if we could get our alumni involved and make more of the weekend event?’”

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The event began Friday evening with vespers on the school lawn. David Davies, former RVAA principal, shared a message of reflection with stories about the impact Adventist teachers had on his life over the years. During his years as teaching principal, Davies played a pivotal role in helping to bring 12 grades to the Rogue Valley. On Sabbath, Dr. Darrold Bigger spoke about the parallels between God’s leading of the Israelites and the many miracles experienced in the Rogue Valley that have allowed Adventist education to continue through so many generations of students. Dr. Bigger, who spent a large part of his life at Rogue River Academy during the 1950s, now serves as interim pastor at Walla Walla University Church and has held many roles as faculty, chaplain, and pastor at WWU.

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Over the past century, the Seventh-day Adventist School in the Rogue Valley has gone through many incarnations, beginning as Rogue River Academy from 1926-1956, then as Rogue River Junior Academy from 1956-1993. From 1993-2004 it was known as Rogue Valley Adventist School and, finally, as Rogue Valley Adventist Academy from 2004 to the present day. Some of the gathered visitors included alumni now past their 90th birthdays as well as three former principals representing years of service dating back to the 1980s.

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Brad Bennett, who now serves as principal, has worked at Rogue Valley Adventist Academy for 30 years. Looking toward the future, Brad shared, “I hope that God will continue to use our school in whatever shape or size it needs to be in order to point lives into a walk with Jesus Christ. I hope it can really be a place that introduces students to Jesus as we move forward into this new century, for however long is needed before His imminent return.”

See photos of the weekend, provided by Sao Beasley on our Flickr page...