Active in Ministry

Nehemiah VBS goes to Bethel

6/18/2025

The Wrangell VBS team embarked on their annual mission trip to Bethel SDA Church in early June, marking their 11th consecutive year (albeit missing 2020) of faithful service to this community. This year's Vacation Bible School centered around the inspiring theme of Nehemiah, exploring themes of rebuilding, restoration, and God's faithfulness.
Over the course of five days, three dedicated team members worked alongside two local volunteers to provide a rich program for up to 20 children. The week was packed with engaging activities, including crafts, story time, nature exploration, and community service projects that helped children understand Nehemiah's mission of rebuilding. A highlight was the prayer wall, where children could share their hearts with God.
New this year was "Nehemiah's Good Booth," a creative addition that taught kids about healthy eating through exploring fruits and vegetables. One of the most memorable moments came when children successfully learned a particularly challenging memory verse, demonstrating their eagerness to grow in God's Word.
"It may seem chaotic at time, but this is why we come," reflected one team member, capturing the beautiful reality of ministry—that God works powerfully even amid busy, energetic moments with children.
The strength of this ministry lies in its consistency and unwavering focus on children. After 11 years, the relationship between our churches has deepened through faithful service and shared mission.
We invite others to consider joining this meaningful ministry, especially youth who are seeking mission trip opportunities. There's always room for more hands and hearts in this vital work of sharing God's love with the next generation.
Visit our DIY VBS blog for ideas on VBS.

KWRG 99.9: Sharing God's Love Across Wrangell

5/27/2025

KWRG 99.9 FM is a special low-power radio station housed right here at Wrangell SDA Church. Our mission is simple: to spread God's word through the airwaves across our beautiful island community.

You'll hear a wonderful mix of programming on KWRG, including uplifting hymns and sermons from well-known Adventist speakers like John Bradshaw and Doug Batchelor. We also feature programs like "Your Story Hour" for children, "Authentic" with Shawn Boonstra, and several shows focused on healthy living and wellness.

In recent years, we've been excited to add more local content to our programming lineup. We now record sermons from our own church services and air them weekly. Each year during Thanksgiving week, we broadcast our annual Week of Prayer services. We've also had the privilege of recording and airing Southeast Campmeeting, sharing these special gatherings with our wider community.

A dedicated five-person board works diligently to keep our station running smoothly, supported by our trusted radio programmer who works remotely from Nome. Time and again, we've witnessed God's provision – whenever we need funding for equipment or programming, the resources appear in our account without any advertising revenue. Over the years, we've been blessed with new recording equipment and programs, and this year we're especially grateful for a new computer that helps everything run more smoothly.

We occasionally hear from listeners in our community who share encouraging words like, "Your programming is so calm and peaceful." To comments like these, all we can say is "Praise God!"

We're honored to serve the Wrangell community through KWRG 99.9 FM, and we're grateful for the opportunity to share hope, peace, and God's love through the power of radio.

KWRG 99.9 Radio

Health is a Gift

4/24/2025

Seventh-day Adventists have a rich history of focusing on holistic health. In February, Brooke Reynolds, Wrangell elder, launched an wholesome series highlighting three critical components of wellness: rest, exercise, and nutrition.

In her first sermon titled "Come Rest," Brooke presented compelling data about how rest—or its absence—impacts overall health. Drawing from Scripture, she emphasized God's invitation to rest, noting that true restoration extends beyond mere sleep.

Her second sermon, "Let's Move," addressed exercise—one of the most common New Year's resolutions and often one of the most challenging to maintain. Brooke again turned to biblical teachings, highlighting our calling to be good stewards of our physical bodies.

In the final sermon, "Let's Eat," she thoughtfully acknowledged the diverse approaches to healthy eating. With engaging humor, including an anecdote about someone referring to black pepper as "the devil's dust," Brooke consistently emphasized God's desire for balance and perspective in our approach to health.

To hear these insightful messages, please click the links below.

The Miracles of Jesus Continues

3/31/2025

March 22, 2025 saw the Wrangell Seventh-day Adventist Congregation interacting with part 7 of the Miracles of Jesus sermon series. This series was start last April (see blog post here) with the elders leading the congregation chronologically through the stories about Jesus’ miracles. The congregation continues to respond well to the more relaxed sermon style.

This past weekend, Brooke Reynolds, elder, lead with two miracles around blind men, the blindman at Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26) and the man born blind (John 9:1-12). She pointed out that both these stories point to Jesus individualizing his approach to healing. Then Marlin Benedict, elder, picked up with the stories of the boy with the unclean spirit (Matt. 17:14-20) and the miraculous temple tax in the fish's mouth (Matt 17:24-27). Being a fisherman too, Marlin shared that it would be one thing to find a fish with something in its mouth but it was miraculous to find the exact amount needed. The congregation shared their thoughts at intervals, including what these miracles tell us about who God is.

There are only 3 more sermons in the series before it wraps up. All sermons in this series can be found at www.wrangellsda.org/sermons-2025 or www.wrangellsda.org/sermons-2024 look for the graphics that say “Miracles of Jesus.” The church looks forward to the next series.

Alive in Jesus Continues to Roll Out

2/26/2025

On April 2, 2025 Brooke Reynolds (Wrangell Lead for Southeast AK (Children's Ministry Team Lead)) and Jerilyn Burtch (Palmer Lead for Southcentral/Valley) participated in the 2nd year of Alive in Jesus (AIJ) Training on behalf of the Alaska Conference. The morning started with an introduction to the new curriculum for Kindergarten and Primary. Both of which will be available starting January 2026. The day progressed with learning about ways to utilize the materials so that it is accessible and fun to all learning styles and abilities.

At the lunch break, Brooke and Jerilyn, got to speak with Sherri Uhrig, Children's Ministry director for the North American Division, about the challenges and amazing ways that God is leading in Children's Ministries in Alaska. In the afternoon, the AIJ team did a live demonstration on using the Kindergarten and then Primary curriculum. This included an interactive mission story and some games. At the end of the training Brooke and Jerilyn were inspired to write down some ideas to share with the rest of Children's Ministries team in Alaska. They look forward to helping train and implement AIJ across Alaska.

Alive in Jesus is the new sabbath school curriculum. Babies and Beginning materials is now available. Training is happening each year as the curriculum rolls out so that churches can be ready. See the post about last year's training: here.

The New Year Starts with Communion

1/28/2025

January 4, 2025, was the first Sabbath of the New Year and a communion Sabbath. The communion service is a time to reflect on the sacrifice/death of Jesus our Savior on the cross. In that service we have three elements footwashing, taking of the bread, and the grape juice ("wine"). The footwashing reminds us of Jesus' last night, before His death. He washed the disciples' feet as an example of His servant leadership. We partake of the bread that symbolizes His broken body for us. And then the grape juice as the blood of His sacrifice.

At this most recent communion, elder Marlin Benedict reminded the congregation that communion was a time of reflection and gratitude. It is a time to recall that the story does not end at the cross either. After this, the rest of the service proceeded as usual with, as mentioned above, footwashing, the bread, and the grape juice. A closing song was sung to remind everyone of the occasion's solemnity.

Many people skip church when they hear that there is going to be communion. There are a variety of reasons that we'd heard, "I'm uncomfortable with having someone wash my feet," or "I am not spiritual enough to take communion." The good news to all of that is this... That is the point! We aren't good enough or worthy by ourselves and communion reminds us who is. Jesus paid it all so that we could have a fresh start through Him. May we start this New Year afresh in Christ.

To learn more about what Seventh-day Adventist believe about communion see the video below.

For the sermon from this past communion click the picture above.

Cookie Gifting

12/29/2024

Sunday, December 1, the roads were icy to the Wrangell Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church. Nevertheless, a few brave and determined women decided to meet anyways to carry on the cooking making tradition.
This year the group was tasked with making cookies for the local schools, as a part of the Wrangell Ministerial Association project to show support for the teachers. This made getting the cookies done all the more imperative.
The women quickly took inventory of where else they would be making deliveries, including the local medical clinic, mental health office, and senior apartments, to name a few.
The cookies were mixed, cut out, and baked in what felt like record time. Then the fun of decorating began, while a Christmas movie played in the background. Once that was completed the cookies were boxed up and slated for delivery.
The next day during delivery, a cookie recipient shared, "We look forward to these cookies!" The women believe their time was well spent despite the ice to bring a little bit of cheer to the community.

Miracle of Jesus- Week of Prayer 2024

11/30/2024

The Wrangell Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church's annual week of prayer aired on KWRG 99.9, the week of November 24-30, 2024. This year's theme was the "Miracles of Jesus." It is a special subject for the church family. Since they are without a pastor right now, the church looks for creative ways to have sermons that didn't involve watching a prerecorded sermon from the internet. For several months, the two elders, Marlin Benedict and Brooke Reynolds have been jointly sharing with the congregation a couple of miracles a month (in chronological order). The congregation was then invited to share what they learned about God from these miracles.

This same series was then turned into this year's week of prayer. Over the seven days a selection of miracles were covered. This included the miracles of the miraculous catch of fish, the Centurion, and the crippled woman. Marlin and Brooke anchored the 20 minute episodes by sharing straight from the Bible and bringing in what had been learned during the series at the church. The series can be listened to here: Week of Prayer 2024.

Significant Women's Retreat

10/27/2024

The weekend of October 18-20, 2024 was a busy one for the Wrangell SDA Church. Several church members helped with the community health fair in town. While others headed south to Ketchikan for the first annual women's retreat in Southeast Alaska. Ketchikan Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church graciously hosted the event. And in addition to Wrangell, ladies from the Craig SDA Church joined. All attendees made it to the event on time despite a delayed plane from Wrangell.

After introductions and music, a round of "comparison bingo" was played to illustrate the speaker’s, Brooke Reynolds, topic for the evening. Brooke’s talk was entitled “The Comparison Game” in which she talked about the story of Leah (Genesis 29). Brooke’s main point was that comparison gets us nowhere and we should put our focus on the One that really matters and knows us, God.

Sabbath morning, the women participated in the Sabbath School at the Ketchikan SDA Church service. Special music was shared by some of the ladies from Craig. Kari Defreest, elder at the Ketchikan SDA Church, gave the sermon on Leah called “Learning to Praise.” Kari talked about how praise can be incremental. Sabbath afternoon those who wished to went for a hike around Ward Lake and were blessed with some decent weather.

In the early evening, Janet Fairchild-Hamilton (in ministry with her husband at the Ketchikan and Craig SDA Churches) lead a discussion on legacy. Janet read passages in Genesis 29 and reminded everyone that God used several of Leah's children in a special way. Janet emphasized that from Leah’s son Judah Jesus our Messiah would be born. To end the retreat, after sundown the women watched the movie Unsung Hero, the story of the Smallbone family. The movie brought the point home that our significance is provided by God.

The group hopes to meet again next year with more women including those from other Southeast Alaska communities. See you in 2025!

Wrangell SDA at the Health Fair

10/20/2024

Some of the goods that were available at the booth.

Wrangell SDA Church Volunteer, April, shows off some of the goods that were at the booth.

The Wrangell Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church participated in the local health fair on October 19, 2024. They had several books available including Redemption at Hacksaw Ridge, the story of Desmond Doss (see below if you are interested in a copy being mailed to you). Glow Tracts were available on a variety of health topics. Church member, Marilyn, who is known for her healthy cooking, shared two recipes and provided samples for the crowd. The pumpkin spice muffins were a big hit. Some folks were more skeptical of the brownies made with dates but several church members attested to their deliciousness. There were two prize drawings. One for kids and the other for adults. The kids' cookbook is pictured in April's hand in the photo to the left. April reports that the booth went well and that several people came by to say hi. She also passed out some flyers for the newly formed Adventurer club. Additionally there was a shepherd and sheep craft available for kids to take home. The annual health fair is a highlight for the church and a great opportunity to share with the community about the importance of spiritual and physical health.

Active in Ministry Blog

Welcome to the blog of the Wrangell Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The purpose of this blog is share what is going at our local church. We are a small church and active in endeavors to share with others.

Our hope is that you get to know us a little better. We'd love for you to join us!

Archives

June 2025
May 2025
April 2025
March 2025
February 2025
January 2025
December 2024
November 2024
October 2024
September 2024
August 2024
July 2024
June 2024
May 2024
April 2024
March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023

Categories