You’ve Been Drafted Sitting in my pickup, I was waiting at an intersection for a red light to turn green when a police cruiser pulled up behind me and turned on his lights. The stoplight turned green, but I sat…
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Minnesota has been prayerfully considering the best path forward for Adventist education, and specifically for Maplewood Academy. During its October 26 Board of Trustees meeting, the board voted to reaffirm its mission-centered approach to Adventist…
An Unpleasant Camping TripKirk was a boy who lived across the street from my family when I was about 12. We rode bikes together, climbed trees, played games, and ate milk and cookies his mom served us on their back…
Earlier this year, you received an update about Maplewood Academy’s financial condition. The debt had grown significantly, and income was not keeping up with expenses. Thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends, and specifically to the efforts of…
Return of the Butterfly When our boys were young, my wife once bought a monarch butterfly caterpillar in a small cage. It was eating its favorite food, milkweed. The boys carried their new treasure home to observe the transformation from…
Five Dollars Warms a Blizzard Several years ago I was trying to get home from California to Maryland in the aftermath of a blizzard. After three days of canceled flights into Baltimore, I finally managed to fly from Los Angeles…
A Lot of Noise—But Going Nowhere In the 1970s our family owned a large fake-wood-paneled station wagon. One day my younger brother, Mitch, who was about four years old, decided he was going to drive into town. Click to read…
Spring Lake Park, Minn. (June 29, 2025)—At its June 29 meeting, the Minnesota Conference Board of Trustees voted a plan in response to the financial challenges facing Maplewood Academy. These decisions are intended to stabilize the school’s short-term operations and…
Fear and Trust—at the Same Time I just finished a deep dive into the book of Habakkuk. This is not a book we study often, but it deserves to stand on par with the rest of Scripture. Habakkuk brought a…
