Earlier this year, beginning in the summer of 2024, the Bemidji Seventh-day Adventist church stepped out in faith, asking for God’s guidance as they once again embarked upon a faith journey. This particular journey is not totally unfamiliar to them, but had not occupied a place in their immediate past due to various circumstances. You see, the Bemidji church has had a long history of holding Christian education as vital in the lives of those attending church families with children of elementary school age. The church school was also important to the church’s very life, thus intricately connected.
A couple of decades prior, there was an exodus of families from the church community who had academy aged children needing that next level of Christian education. These families felt it necessary to make their way south so their youth could attend Maplewood Academy in Hutchinson, MN. Our church’s elementary school would continue to operate for a few more years following this mass exodus, but as the local students became fewer in numbers, it became obvious the church would have to close the school doors since there were not enough students to operate it.
It wasn’t long after that decision was made that another decision to sell the school property came about. This decision was reluctantly acted on and the hearts of many of the congregation were deeply grieved at feeling forced by circumstances beyond their control to make this heart-breaking move. The three-classroom school that had been in operation for decades, educating children for eternity, at 15th Street and Delton Avenue was eventually sold. The school was soon demolished and an assisted living facility took its place.
Fast forward to today! Having left the funds from the sale of the church school property largely untouched, the amount that had built up in the account was found sufficient to investigate possibilities of building, and ultimately a decision to erect a new building. This new construction would include two classrooms with dedicated storage rooms for each, bath/washrooms, kitchen/lunchroom, and a very large multi-purpose space that could act as a recreation room/gymnasium. With ample space on the church property, the new building is being constructed adjacent to the church at 4400 Eckles Rd NW along U.S. Hwy 2 West Bemidji, MN.
It is with joy and celebration in God’s leading that the Bemidji Seventh-day Adventist church family has embarked on this new journey to pick up where it left off some years ago. Stepping out in fatih, the church saw an opportunity it could not pass up. In today’s turbulent atmosphere that pervades the public school system and the “Woke” agenda that is being forced on so many families which use that system, contrasted by the dire need to educate children in an atmosphere of Christian morals and values, we had to act!
While this building will be used to educate elementary school children in an Adventist Christian environment, the congregation also intended for it to be a place of ministry, to reach out to our local community with the Gospel message (in various ways) that we as Christians have been commissioned to carry forth to the world, starting in our own backyards.
We would invite those who have an interest in knowing more to discover for themselves what is happening here on the Bemidji Adventist campus. Perhaps your family might wish to become a part of our church and school or the ministries God is leading in. So, inquire, or come and see for yourselves.
By Thomas Reynolds
