Laurelbrook Academy SDA Church

Sabbath services on March 24, 2018 began with a song service led by Itzel and Jissel (sophomores), accompanied by Jacqueline Miller on the piano.  The opening song was “I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go”. Dorka Ellis had prayer. Daryll Ellis welcomed everyone.

Delmeana Reid read the scripture reading – Romans 8:38-39 “38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Felix (9^th grader) and Suriel (junior) collected the Laurelbrook Missions Offering, which goes to support Laurelbrook mission trips.  Barbara Ellis then played a number on her harp for special music.

Chelsea Briley had the superintendent’s remarks on India and had the closing prayer.

The congregation then became two Sabbath School classes, one taught by James Brenneman in the church sanctuary and one in the back of the sanctuary “behind the glass” taught by Ricardo Reid.

Following are a few notes from Chelsea’s talk:

1. Many things students learn at Laurelbrook are very useful when in actual work.
2. Originally she didn’t want to be a nurse, but one day when she stepped on the walk bridge at Laurelbrook the thought came to her that she was supposed to become a nurse and a medical missionary.
3. After graduating as a nurse and working in Chattanooga’s Erlanger Hospital, an acquaintance of one of her friends met with her and talked with her about working in an orphanage.  She was not really interested,  but then the group started talking about working with maternity care in India.
4. She works with Living Springs Overseas Missions, having begun in 2016.
5. God took care of every excuse she had for not going to India – her possessions, her horse, her dog, her dad.
6. Where she works in India is a school with vocational and academic programs. She works in the medical work, specifically in maternity care.
7. She works both at the campus and in the villages.  Every day is different. You never know what is going to happen.
8. One case involved a little girl who put paper in her ear (it had to be extracted).
9. Another case involved a little boy who got his toe caught in a bike wheel while his father was going fast to get him to school. Fortunately, the campus clinic was nearby.
10. Please pray for the work around the world. This is something students can do.
11. In Haiti in 2010, after the earthquake, she worked with medical work in four different orphanages.
12. Her first mission trip was a Laurelbrook trip to Mexico. This got her started with missions.
13. Romans 8:31 “What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be] against us?”
14.  Romans 8:32 “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
15. Romans 8:33-34 “33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? [It is] God that justifieth. 34 Who [is] he that condemneth? [It is] Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”
16. Doing mission work requires daily devotions and a relationship with Jesus just like work at home does.
17. What is important is not what we do but what Christ does through us that is important.
18. Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
19. Romans 8:36 “As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
20. Romans 8:37 “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
21. Romans 8:38-39 “38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
22. Satan cannot take us from God’s protection, but we can choose to walk away from God’s protection.

Personnel Other Than Students:

Barbara Ellis – wife of John Ellis, a retired mechanic living nearby

Chelsea Briley – 2008 Laurelbrook graduate working in India / graduated from the nursing program at Southern Adventist University

Daryll Ellis – Laurelbrook graduate who works for nearby Majestic Stone Company / local church deacon

Delmeana Reid – wife of Ricardo Reid, the local church head elder

Dorka Ellis – wife of Daryll Ellis

Jacqueline Miller – semi-retired nurse living on the Laurelbrook campus

James Brenneman – teaches some of the academy English and social studies classes