The theme for this school year at Hillcrest SDA School was Shine Your Light.
Our class read portions of The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White for worship each morning. The first half of the year was spent learning about reformers—great men and women who let their light shine for God no matter the cost. During the winter our readings took us through William Miller and the beginnings of the Adventist Church.
We asked Pastor Rob Alfalah to come and present a study on the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation to help us understand what William Miller was learning. Each lesson brought clearer understanding of what we were reading in The Great Controversy.
After this study, one of our students decided to be baptized. As a show of support, we asked Pastor Alfalah to take our whole class through Bible studies for baptism. Reading The Great Controversy helped us understand how important it will be in the end times for God’s people to understand the Bible and be able to stand for the truth no matter the cost, and we thought this would be a great way for the students to learn how to give Bible studies.
This experience has blessed my classroom like no other in my previous years of teaching. I was worried at the beginning of the year because I realized worship was going to take much longer than it had before when we read a simple devotional reading. However, God blessed the sacrifice of time by giving us quick understanding all year in our other subjects.
We’ve grown closer to God and one another through this year, and as we finished this cherished book on the last day of school we felt blessed and challenged to stand for God and His word no matter what the cost.
