Adventist Embarrassment

Stories of Adventists feeling socially self-conscious.

• "The Fumble" - When Aren was new to Adventism, he did something after school one day that he's never gotten over. Which leads to another question: what about the person he did it to? (7 minutes)
• "Adventist Embarrassment" - A collection of embarrassing stories, from school to church to children's choir, and how each person decided to respond in their moment of shame. (22 minutes)

To learn more, including guest profiles and episode transcripts, visit our website adventiststories.buzzsprout.com, or follow us on Instagram @AdventistStories. Thank you to Blue Dot Sessions, Stellwagon Symphonette, the Pacific Union Conference, and Growing Young Leaders. Please subscribe to our show and leave a rating and review to help us reach more people. We appreciate your support.

Transcript

“The Fumble”

Aren Hi, Ben. 

Ben What's up, bro? What's up Aren? 

Aren How are you, man? 

Ben Good, good, good, good, good. 

Aren So in our first episode, you shared with me a story of when you were in college and you were in charge of dorm worships. 

Ben Yeah. My big mess up. 

Aren Perhaps a slightly embarrassing moment for you.

Ben Oh yeah.

Aren So I thought that I should return the favor and share one of my Adventist stories with you.

Ben Please do. I need to, I need to feel some balance from my tale shared. I need to hear from you, man. 

Aren Well, this story is possibly my most shameful moment of my time in academy. 

Ben When you say when you were in academy, so you were a student for this one? 

Aren So I was actually in seventh grade. 

Ben Okay. 

Aren Um, I was new to the school. I was new to the church. And seventh grade is just hard in general, right? I don't know if anybody likes being in seventh grade. 

Ben No, middle school's brutal. 

Aren Absolutely. But when I showed up, it was during the first week that I very quickly noticed–well , there was a girl that I saw. And…

Ben Okay. All right. All right.

Aren Suddenly, uh, seventh grade wasn't so bad. 

Ben Yeah. 

Aren I was like, I think I could be part of this religion. 

Ben [LAUGHS]

Aren But obviously as the new kid, I was quiet, I was shy, I was not interested in talking with her. I just was, uh, appreciating from afar. But then one day it was after school and I don't know how it was for you in school, but for us if, you know, there were the kids whose parents were there like waiting for the minute the bell rang to pick them up. And then there were us who, like, we didn't know when our parents would get there.

Ben Yeah, yeah. I pretty much walked home most of my time 'cause… 

Aren Exactly. [LAUGHS] And usually she was one of the kids who got picked up right away. But on this day she was in afterschool care with us. 

Ben Yeah, perfect time to make your move. 

Aren Exactly. So with the group of middle schoolers that were there, we decided to play football. So they make the teams. We're on opposite teams. Uh, tackle was not allowed and the game is going fine.

Ben No, no… 

Aren And then there was one particular play where she gets the ball. And she's running towards the end zone, and I'm the one who's in position to stop her from scoring. So I'm chasing after her to stop the play, and I had never seen her play sports before, but in that moment I discovered that she was very fast. [LAUGHS]

Ben Yeah. She turned on the jets. She showed, she's got the jets on. 

Aren She was avoiding me in more ways than one.

Ben [LAUGHS] Yeah. 

Aren And so I'm, I'm running after her and suddenly I realize like this has gone from a perfect situation to a tragic one where if I can't even catch up to her, like there's no chance that she would ever fall in love with me.

Not to mention the pressure of my team. I don't wanna let her score. I gotta make the play, so I'm running after her. My arms are extended to try to place my two hands on her back, two-hand touch, and I'm just barely able to extend far enough to where the tips of my fingers reach her back. And for some reason that I still, to this day, 20 years later… 

Ben No…

Aren Do not understand... 

Ben No, please... 

Aren I gave her a slight push. And obviously when you're running full speed, a slight push is all it takes, 

Ben Yeah, that’ll send you.

Aren So I watch in slow motion as she starts to fall to the ground. And she hits that ground really hard and just slides like five to seven feet and then just lays still motionless.

I'm stunned. I don't think she's moving at this point.

Ben Mercy. 

Aren And the game just comes to like this sudden halt and all the kids playing just kind of circle around to check on her. And then I, uh, I notice…she had dropped the football. And the football I come from, that's a fumble. 

Ben The ball's live.

Aren So I look at her on the ground, I look at that football and I pick up the football and I sprint in the other direction, all the way to the end zone. 

Ben Bro. You felt bad for a few seconds.

Aren Not very long. Huh? 

Ben But then you said, you said, uh, a win’s a win. He went for the dub when she is on the ground. You might be the Michael Jordan of our generation. [LAUGHS] You saw her beating you on foot speed and you took it personally. 

Aren So, so I'm running and I get to the end zone. I think I spike the ball, I turn around. None of them care. They're not looking at me. They're all still surrounding her, like checking on her, taking her vitals. Um, well then I hear something and I look in the parking lot and my mother had arrived to pick me up from school. 

Ben Oh, snap. 

Aren And so I'm, I'm standing there in this moment and just like before I kind of had this decision to make where I could go and try to do the right thing. Console her, or at least just not be a bad person and like try to help. Or I could leave. 

Ben Please…

Aren And, uh, that is exactly what I did. I grabbed my backpack and I went straight to my mom. I could not get out of there fast enough. I told my mom, you know, like, take us home. I think I probably asked her if I could change to a new school. I just– 

Ben Wait, bro, before you even, like, I'm just so glad that you said what you said because I was worried that you got in your car and you’re like, “Mom, I just scored the best touchdown in my life.” [LAUGHS]

But Aren, you gotta tell me, did you ever follow, did you ever follow up with her? Like what? Was there ever any clarity about what happened that day? 

Aren So the next day I showed up and I pretended like absolutely nothing happened. Like, Ben, we went to school together for the next six years. I never brought it up. 

Ben There's no way. So you, you got away with induced amnesia. [LAUGHS] She, she forgot. She couldn't remember.

[LAUGHTER]

Aren No, I never… 

Ben Aren, no way. Never talked to her about it? 

Aren I never have. I, um–so are you talking about now? Like, do you think I should try to ask her about it? 

Ben This is years, this is a decade ago. Over a decade ago. 

Aren I think two decades. Yeah. 

Ben I don't know how you could even bring that up.

[PHONE RING]

Today on the show: Adventist Embarrassment. We’ve all felt it. Some of us will even talk about it. Four stories…and maybe we’ll see if that call gets answered. Stay with us.

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Ad 2: Adventist Education

“Adventist Embarrassment”

When Zach graduated from college, he got his first job as an academy chaplain and Bible teacher. And right away, there was one class he struggled with: The freshmen.

Zach This is the group that would like clown me, could not care what I would have to say anything. They were just not with it. 

And so, he makes a change. No more fun, easy going Pastor Zach. It was time to get serious. 

Zach This whole year, man, I've really struggled to like bring the gospel home to these guys. And so…

He decides the way to get them to straighten up and take their faith more seriously, is to teach them the theology of the Sanctuary. One of the Church’s most distinct doctrines.

Zach Don't ask me why. I was just like, these guys need a heavy dose of like Adventism, like we're just gonna give it to 'em straight.

Zach begins reviewing everything he’s learned about Fundamental Belief number 24–the Day of Atonement, the Investigative Judgment, 1844. Because this is what his students need right now.

It’s also during this time that Zach says something else had been happening. He’s newly married. He’s working over 40 hours a week. He has access to free meals at the school.

Zach You know, that cafeteria food's a little good. So, you know, I'm, I'm putting on—the Lord is blessing me and keeping me, making my way prosper and my waistline…

[LAUGHTER]

Zach My clothes are getting a little tighter, bro.

The next freshman Bible period arrives. Zach begins dishing out his heavy dose of Adventism–with mild response. But he presses on.

And then, as he’s writing on the whiteboard…

Zach I drop my marker and I bend over to get it and I just feel a rip all the way, like all the way up my rear side, down my leg. And I'm just like, bro, my heart drops within me. 

Aren The rip was all the way down your leg?

Zach Bro, all the way. Your boy did not play. You know, your boy was rocking the skinnys. I was in my emo phase still. Yeah, all the way up my rear, like all the way down to probably like my knee.

Aren You could feel the breeze at that point, man.

Zach Bro I could feel the AC. I could feel that cool breeze. 

At this point, Zach’s back is to the board. Only he knows what’s happened. But any movement could jeopardize that. The last thing Zach wants is to reveal his backside to a group of students who already didn’t seem to respect him.

Zach I can't do anything. Like my, it felt like at that time my desk was a mile away from where I was standing. So I was like, if I like try to shimmy across the wall, it's gonna look weird. So I just was like, “Zach, think, think, think. Okay, what can you do?”

In that moment, he makes a plan. Forget the lesson. Forget the new, more serious Pastor Zach. And announce to the class…

Zach You know what, guys? I'm tired. I'm tired. So I sat down. I sat down and I was like, “You know what? You guys are free. Leave.” 

Aren [LAUGHS] You just sent them out. You said, class is over. 

Zach Class is over. Get out of here. And they all like looked at me. They're like, really? And I was like, yeah, you know what, it's been a long week. Just get outta here. Just go 

From there, Zach still had to get from his classroom to his car. At first, he thought about how he could play it cool. Keep his dignity intact. But then…he didn't think about that. 

Zach I just, like, ran like a wild man. I just like held my pants and I just ran across the street and just like hid him my car, bro. Safe to say I got a new wardrobe after that, man. I was like, I gotta bust out of these slim fits. [LAUGHS]

Aren To your knowledge, did any kid see it or did any kid ever find out? 

Zach Bro, so here's the story. None of them ever saw it. But I ended up sharing it during their senior graduation. 

Student Our speaker, Pastor Zachary Surovec.

[APPLAUSE] 

Zach And they were flabbergasted, bro. They were like dying on stage. It was hilarious. 

Zach [GIVING SPEECH] And I looked at them and I said, “You know what? Because you guys are such a good class, I'm gonna let you out early.”

[LAUGHTER]

Zach Definitely humbled me, man. Definitely humbled me. Reminded me that, uh, you know, can't take yourself too seriously. 

Zachary Surovec is an associate pastor in Arizona.

So I heard Zach's story after putting out a call for any embarrassing Adventist moments, and the responses began pouring. I heard one story of how a broken pew led to a drenched church choir. One of somebody falling down the stairs after preaching. And another from someone who began choking on the grape juice during communion.

And some of these stories were from close friends, but others were from people I hadn't heard from in a long time. 

Dani Hello. How are you? 

Aren Good. How are you doing? 

Dani I'm good. 

Like Danny. She was in my youth group years ago. As a 2-year-old. Danny's parents moved the family to Guyana in South America to serve as Adventist missionaries. Her mom is a nurse and a pilot and would fly patients to the hospital while her dad would coordinate the flights, “do all the government stuff,” as she puts it.

And Danny liked her upbringing. She says she got to experience so many things as a child in the mission field. And along the way she developed a particular habit that seemed fine overseas.

Dani I never wore shoes. Like unless it was a special occasion. It's like if we're going to town, I would wear shoes. But other than that, I'd never, never wear shoes. 

Aren Is that a cultural thing there or is that just a Dani thing or what? 

Dani It's mostly just a me thing. Yeah. [LAUGHS]

If you listen closely, you can hear birds in her background. Dani called me from her backyard. It seemed fitting.

Aren Why did you like being barefoot? 

Dani I don't know. I don't know. I just liked it. It was weird to have shoes on, like my coordination was off. It just, like, my feet felt bigger than they were, and it was just, it was uncomfortable, so that's why I just like, I never wore them.

After 10 years in Guyana and three in the Philippines, Dani’s family returned to the States. She was 16 and now preparing for life back in America. She enrolled in the local academy for her junior year. 

Dani Yeah, rough year to enter high school. [LAUGHER] Yeah. And so I was like, “Okay, you know, uniform.” I suppose, you know, I have to wear shoes, whatever.

Each morning, Dani dons her school uniform, and puts on a pair of black boots. They may as well have been scuba fins.

Dani I would trip over myself all the time. It was just so uncomfortable and strange. Yeah, it was just weird. It was like, it kind of felt like wearing snow shoes, but like on a smaller scale. It just, it didn't feel right.

But then Friday rolled around and we had like a non-uniform day that day. 

Dani thinks, “Hey, casual Friday. No uniform.” And so, during a break, at last, she unties her boots, and starts walking around school barefoot. She feels like herself again. But then, a classmate comes running up to her, looking confused and concerned. 

Dani She's like, “You gotta put your shoes on, you know, you're gonna get in trouble. You're gonna get sent to the principal's office.” I was like, “Okay.” So I put them on. And it was the most uncomfortable experience for like the first good six months or so. It was very strange. I'd never heard of, like, shoes having to be mandatory, you know? [LAUGHS]

Aren Yeah, absolutely. To be told like, “Oh, it's actually improper for you to be without shoes in public. That was must have been really weird.” 

Dani Yeah, no, it was, it was very strange to me. I'd never heard of that, you know? It was just, yeah. America had a lot of rules that I was not aware of. [LAUGHS]

Dani The closest thing I knew about high school is through like TV shows. You know, like Teen Wolf or like Mean Girls. I was very disappointed at how like unexciting High School was. I thought there was gonna be a lot more going on just, you know, from the TV shows there wasn't.

Aren [LAUGHS] You saw Mean Girls and you're like, “That's what high school for me will be like too.” 

Dani Yeah, yeah. You know, I thought there'd be like, I don't know, a lot more adventure than there was. It was just homework.

Aren Do you ever go barefoot now?

Dani I do, yeah. Um, I don't do it as much as I used to just because my calluses have kind of disappeared over, you know, having to go to school all the time. I had shoes on all the time. Um, but like if I'm, if I'm out by myself, I go barefoot sometimes. Yeah. 

Aren That's funny. Yeah. You must have very tough, strong feet.

Dani I did. I did. I'm trying to get it back. It's so disappointing to like not have that anymore.

Dani LaBore. She’s now in Southern California pursuing her degree in aircraft mechanics. Unfortunately, they do require her to wear shoes.

Coming up, more stories of Adventist Embarrassment. And this next one’s going to require a special guest. Stay with us.

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Okay, so more Adventist embarrassment, and I'd like to welcome somebody new to the show. Can you introduce yourself? 

Paige My name is Paige Matsuda Rennacker. 

Aren And how do we know each other? 

Paige We are married. 

Aren We are married. That is true. So this week's episode is all about moments of Adventist embarrassment, and it made me think of a moment we had. And I haven't told you what it is, but I am sure you remember it.

Do you recall when I was pastoring at my second church and late one Friday night you were helping me prepare slides for the service the next day? Do you know where I'm going with this? 

Paige I know exactly what you're talking about. 

Aren Okay, so let me just set this up. Um, I would often help with the visuals for the service, and this particular weekend was significant because we were having an important, uh, guest speaker at our church. It was Dr. William Johnsson, an esteemed Australian theologian.He was editor of the Adventist Review. Um, unfortunately passed away in 2023. But when he came to our church, you know, he was in his eighties and it was a big deal to have him. And so the night before, I am preparing the slides, which include what he's sent us for his sermon. And you were helping me. 

Paige Yeah. Yeah. I remember we were sitting in a really small room and I was probably on my phone. And then at one point, yes, you asked for my help. 

Aren Mm-hmm. Exactly. Yeah. So I'm having you read me the list of what Dr. Johnsson has said he wants projected on screen so that I– 

Paige Yeah. Slide one, slide two, slide three. 

Aren Exactly. I would type it up. And we get to one slide. Which says “Follow the money.” But that's not what you read to me. What did you read to me? 

Paige [LAUGHS] Uh, I said, “Follow the monkey.” And I wholeheartedly believe that's what it said. 

Aren Why? Paige There's a lot of reasons. One, my focus was not all there. 

Aren Hmm. Fair.

Paige Two, I love monkeys. [LAUGHTER] Like, from a young age. I literally love monkeys so much, and I am thinking about monkeys a lot, and so I've never made that mistake before–well, you know what. There may be lots of other times where I see the word “money” and I just read it as “monkey.” That might explain a lot. [LAUGHTER] But this is the first time this mistake was, was caught. 

Aren Actually, now that I think about it, you do have a habit of inserting the word monkey into things. Like there's that one song that was really popular a long time ago. And it, the title of it was, “Now You’re Just Somebody That I Used To Know.” But you sing it as, “Now you're just some monkey that I used to know.” 

Paige Yeah. But that's not because I think the lyrics are literally monkey.

Aren Mmm.

Paige It's just because I think it sounds better that way. 

Aren Okay. [LAUGHS] And I remember thinking when you read that, I'm like, “Huh. Follow the monkey.” Like, I can't wait to find out what that's about. 

Paige I was really engaged too. I was like, I can't wait to hear about monkeys. I love monkeys. 

Aren So we finished the slides the next morning. I'm there for first service. Dr. Johnsson takes the stage. I'm in my position to run the slides and we get to the point of, of this slide, and he hasn't mentioned monkeys yet. But rule number one of projection, do whatever the speaker has asked of you.

So he gets to the part of this slide and I think it was his third point of the message. So I click and show it on the screen. In big, bold letters” “Follow the monkey.” At the same time that he says, “Follow the money.” And I realize… 

Paige Yeah. 

Aren There's been a terrible mistake. Now you weren’t at church in that moment.

Paige Yeah. I wasn't at church because this church had two services. This was the earlier one, which I did not attend, and I was planning to attend the 11 o'clock one, the one later in the day. 

Aren So not only had you given me this grenade the night before, now you were not present to see it go off. 

Paige Yeah, I was not there.

Aren So after a good 10 seconds, I'd say of me just making double sure he's not gonna start talking about monkeys, um, I take the slide off the screen. I quickly correct it. I project it again correctly and I'm wondering, you know, like, okay, how many people saw that? And then my senior pastor texts me and it just says, “Did that slide say monkey?”

[LAUGHTER]

Aren: And so, right then I know, yes, people saw it. My boss saw it. A lot of people are wondering the exact thing he just texted me and they all know who's running slides. It says in the bulletin. [LAUGHS] So after this happens, I don't tell you right away, 

Paige No. 

Aren I wait until second service when you are sitting with a congregation, I'm still running slides. And when he gets to the follow the money part, I text you and say, “Hey, this funny thing happened in first service.” What did you think when you saw that text from me? 

Paige You know when like you're in a situation where you can't laugh, it just becomes a million times more funny? And I'm [LAUGHS] trying so hard not to laugh. And then I felt really bad. 

Aren Yeah. Were, were you more disappointed that you had caused me to make a mistake or more disappointed that the sermon you were going to hear that morning was not in fact about monkeys?

Paige [LAUGHS] No, I definitely felt bad that I caused you to make a mistake. Because people probably just assumed, “Oh, Aren made a mistake.” And nd it wasn't Aren, it wasn't you. It was me. 

Aren I mean, I should have maybe double checked that one. Why would Dr. William Johnsson be talking about “follow the monkey” in a sermon? I think that's shared responsibility on this one.

Paige Maybe, maybe.

Aren Paige, thank you for joining the show today. 

Paige Of course.

Our final story for today comes from Amador. He also goes by AJ. And I have to be honest, without building it up too much, when AJ messaged me with his story–I thought to myself, “If I don’t hear any other stories of Adventist embarrassment, this was worth it.” It took place when AJ was just six years old, and in his church’s children’s choir, called the Star Light Choir. I’ll let him take it from there.

AJ My parents were very new to Adventism and new to the culture. So, um, my parents were very insistent that I do every, like, after Sabbath activity there was. And also my mom and dad are very musical people. My dad plays the drums. And my mom plays the accordion, like classically.

Aren I didn't know you could play the accordion classically. [LAUGHS]

AJ Yeah. And my church was very musical in terms of if you start off in Star Lights, you could be part of “Messengers,” the adult choir, and actually go on tour. And like maybe one day you'll perform at the GC with the Messengers. And that was like our version of Adventist Glee. Like, “Oh, we'll get to go to General Conference!”

AJ But one Saturday, really unannounced, like there was just a lot of kids at church. And even at that age, I kind of put together, “Oh, there were other choirs at church today.” For some reason, I think it was like communion? But there were multiple choirs lining up that weren't my church's choirs. 

Aren So they were, they were guests. They were visitors. 

AJ They were guests. They were visitors.

AJ So the moment she saw this lineup of children get on stage, I remember my mom just like slowly freaking out in silence and talking to my aunt in Tagalog, uh, Filipino language. And I knew immediately in my head, “Oh, dear God. That's not my choir. I'm not performing today. I'm cool.” And my mom was like, you need to be up there. And I'm like, no, I don't. And then she understood as like, today's the day my child decided to choose a fight with me. And I'm like, no, truly this is, I know no one there.

Aren And she thinks this is your Starlight choir.

AJ She thinks this is my Starlight choir. And– 

Aren But you know it's not.

AJ I know it's not. And she didn't want to embarrass herself thinking that she was confused in front of other parents.

Aren Or my kid's the one kid who isn't going up. 

AJ Right. “Oh, how messy of me.” And so while the children were filing up from like left to right, my mom drags me by my left arm down to center aisle in front of everybody. And pulled me onto stage down the center aisle. I was such in like silent shock about what was happening to me. Six year old me was like, oh,, this is the worst possible thing. 

Aren When she's dragging you up the aisle, had they started singing yet or were they still lining up?

AJ They're still lining up and she sticks me front row.

Aren [LAUGHS]

AJ She sticks me front row and then the director looks at me. I look at the director, she looks back at me and I go, “I'm so sorry.” [LAUGHTER]

AJ This is the only reason why this sticks. I was standing for so long in front of this stranger.

Aren Do you, do you remember how you were feeling in the moment?

AJ I remember feeling betrayed. I remember feeling, um, a sense of I must survive this. I knew I had to figure it out in a way.

AJ And I just pretend to be like a Muppet for three songs total. Just, I know that when the hand drops, the mouth opens. When the hand lifts, the mouth closes.

Aren Now, did you know the songs?

AJ No. I'm six years old. The repertoire of, like, Christian songs at that age is very small, right? “This little night of mine” and like, if that's not in the repertoire, like it's over.

AJ It felt like it lasted forever because it lasted forever because it was three songs total. That's a long moment to forget.

Aren Yeah. [LAUGHS]

AJ At the end of the set, the children like turned right at the same time to leave the stage and as they exited stage right, I just walked right up that central aisle. Like, “I don't want to sit with them.”

Aren Back to your seat? [LAUGHS]

AJ Back to the seat. I'm like, I, I knew my mom knew that she messed up.

This might actually–this is actually very therapeutic for me. This is the first time my mom has ever apologized to me in memory, in memory.

Aren Did you guys ever talk about it again after that moment?

AJ Yes, because this was the one thing I held over her for like two years. It didn't always work, but if I brought it up amidst company, she would be, she would quickly just go like, “Yes, let's go ahead and you can have a second dessert.”

Amador Jaojoco is a digital art director in Northern California.

[PHONE RINGS]

Voicemail Your call has been forwarded to an automated voice messaging system…

After sharing my story with Ben at the beginning, I decided to see if I could make right a moment of Adventist Embarrassment. A moment that I still carry some guilt over. And, through the powers of Adventism, and social media, I was able to find the girl I pushed down in middle school. Her name is Kaitlin, by the way. And we were hit and miss on connecting. She’s got small children, life is crazy. But I was eventually able to ask her what she remembers about that moment, did she know I liked her, and I apologized. And I wasn’t sure what she’d say. But then I got a text back. Here’s what it said:

“Hey Aren. Honestly I have a pretty vague memory of that day on the football field. It was definitely embarrassing. After I landed on the ground, I didn’t really know what had happened. But I remember the boys were laughing about it (which made me feel like they were laughing at me), while the girls were concerned and checking to make sure I was okay. I think at the time what was most embarrassing was looking completely uncool and awkward falling in front of all the cute boys!

What I do remember is knowing that you felt really bad. I’m pretty sure you even apologized afterward. I think the boys gave you more of a hard time about it. But honestly, I always knew it was just an accident, so I never thought much about it after that. The only lasting impact was that I may have been a little hesitant to play football with you again. And no, I didn’t know at the time that you liked me. But I think I suspected you might.

And thank you for the apology, but truly, you have nothing to apologize for. It was a simple accident with no harm done. Honestly, I think part of the reason I remember so little about it is because I got to know who you are and your character in the years that followed. I have so many wonderful memories of you that this football-field incident barely registers in comparison. If someone asked me about Aren, it’s one of the last things that would ever come to mind.”

I want to thank Kaitlin for those generous words, and all our guests today, for their vulnerability and for the reminder that our embarrassing moments–whether we’re the one pushing someone to the ground, or we’re the one who got pushed–can still be just that: A moment. One that doesn’t last forever, and can even be written over by newer moments. Better memories. And sometimes, the opportunity to look back, make it right, and move on. Maybe within every story of embarrassment, is another story of growth and resilience.

Episode Outro

[“Wouldn’t Be Enough” by Will Bell]

Adventist Stories is a production of the Pacific Union Conference and Growing Young Leaders. It is hosted and edited by me, Aren Rennacker, with the support of many. Cover art designed by Taji Saleem. Music provided by Blue Dot Sessions, Stellwagon Symphonette, and Willie Mxses. Willie is a producer and R&B artist, this is his single “Wouldn’t Be Enough”. To hear more Willie Mxses music, you can find him on Instagram, YouTube, and wherever you stream your music, at Willie Mxses. That’s M-X-S-E-S.

To learn more about our show, please visit our website, adventiststories.buzzsprout.com, and follow us on Instagram @ AdventistStories. We would also be so grateful for you to share this show with a friend and also leave a rating and review on your podcast app. Next week will be our Season 1 finale, we’ll be taking a small break after that as we work hard on Season 2, we already have some great stories lined up that we can’t wait to share. But in the meantime your support of the show means everything, so thank you. 

And thank you, of course, to our amazing Union president, my boss, Bradford Newton, for his support of our show. And in case you haven’t heard, Brad declared that at the end of his term this summer, he will be retiring. Which is so well deserved, but was also hard news for many of us to hear. And, what was especially strange about it, was the way he announced it. One day during staff meeting, he just stood up front and said:

Zach You know what, guys? I'm tired. I'm tired. So I sat down. I just sat down and I was like, you know what? You guys are free.

Thank you for everything, Brad. And thanks to all of you for listening. We will back next Sunday night with a brand new episode, our season finale, and we hope you join us then for more Adventist Stories.

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