On September 21, 2019, Laurelbrook’s church services began with a Sabbath School song service led by Maria and Michael (seniors), accompanied on the piano by Felix (senior). The opening song was “Love at Home”. Dafne (senior) welcomed everyone, and Jafet (sophomore) read Ecclesiastes 10:4 “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.” Dafne had prayer.
Sebastien Roy-Lavallee then read a mission story about Seventh-day Adventist member whose funeral service led to the building of a crude shed to serve as a Seventh-day Adventist church for the funeral. Despite opposition a villager was baptized. His life changed. He gave up drinking, smoking, and cursing. Eventually his wife was baptized.
He called for the Laurelbrook Missions Offering, which was collected by Freddy (freshman) and Mark (senior). Denisse and Maria (seniors) played a violin duet for special music.
Heisel (senior) had the theme talk titled “Pillow Fight?” She illustrated various phases of her talk with pillows. After her talk, she announced the classes. Clayton Brandt taught the adult Sabbath School class in the main sanctuary, Stephanie Roy-Lavallee the student class outside underneath a tree in front of the church and Harry Varmaak a student class in the boys’ dorm lobby.
Some notes from the theme talk:
- A normal home or school will have conflicts that need to be dealt with.
- Ecclesiastes 10:4 “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.”
- Matthew 7:12 “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
- We need to think how others will view an action or words before we act or speak.
- Humor is one way to relieve a possible conflict.
- Finding five positive things in a situation helps, too. But we are conditioned to seek out the negative.
- Many times when we have a conflict with someone else, we avoid contact with him/her.
- Jesus says that we should love our enemies. We should do things that Christ would do with His help.
- The best way to solve conflicts is with love that God gives us and look for solutions to conflict together.
- Sometimes we use other activities to divert attention from a conflict, but these activities need to be positive and benefit everyone.
Personnel Other Than Students:
Clayton Brandt – works with Laurelbrook’s heavy equipment
Harry Varmaak – works with the Laurelbrook agriculture program
Sebastien Roy-Lavallee – Laurelbrook men’s work coordinator
Stephanie Roy-Lavallee – Laurelbrook girls’ dean / wife of Sebastien