This past weekend, July 25-27, I went to Battle Creek, Michigan, to do some photography for the “Our Heritage” series I’ve been writing for 3ABN World. Battle Creek is the home of the Historic Adventist Village, and there are many sites related to Seventh-day Adventist history in the area. So many of my friends and family and coworkers have been there, but I’d never been there to visit.
Providentially, my friend Diana was leading a group of Bible workers at Battle Creek, and she invited me to come. The timing was perfect, since if I had waited any longer, their evangelism series would have been over, and I would have lost my “inside connection.” Thanks, Diana!
The drive there would have been about 7.5 hours, except for a little mishap. Near Effingham, Illinois, a police car came up behind me, and flashed its lights. I was driving exactly the speed limit, so I couldn’t guess what would be the problem. He pegged me for two things: not having a front license plate (my saving grace was that I had the missing plate in the car, having intended to put it on as soon as I could visit a dealership), and my back plate was half off! I could hardly believe it. We walked around to the back of the car, and as I was fiddling with the plate to see if I could reconnect it, the other screw popped out, and the whole thing fell to the ground! (The screws were the ones that came with the car, but they were definitely non-standard.) The officer was friendly, though, and didn’t fine me for anything. He told me where to go to get it fixed, which I promptly did. The whole episode cost me maybe 30 minutes.
When I arrived in Battle Creek, the night’s evangelism series was in progress at the local SDA academy, so I went directly there. The evangelist was Ted Struntz, someone who I’d never met, but indirectly knew: He was the father of a girl I knew in academy and whom I had done LE work with one summer (Julia). Also, it just so happened that I sat down, without realizing it, next to David and Marie Tenold, who had been staff at Oklahoma Academy when I was a student there. Also, Marie had been my work supervisor for two years. The night’s message was good, and it was encouraging to hear that quite a few non-SDAs were attending and interested in baptism. Besides Diana, I also bumped into someone else I knew that night: Phil Mills.
The Bible workers were staying right at the Historic Adventist Village, and they let me stay with them. I had a nice, comfortable room to myself, on the second floor. The room had eight windows, four each on two adjacent walls—really nice.
Sabbath morning I went to the Dime Tabernacle, the main SDA church in the area. There was a large painting behind the pulpit, Heinrich Hoffman’s “Christ and the Rich Young Ruler”—one of my favorites—which I thought was cool. I joined a Sabbath school class taught by Jerry Finneman, which was really good. The sermon was by the evangelist, and was part of the series. Later, at lunch, I met a couple more people I know: Doug Carlson, an associate pastor who previously was the pastor at my grandma’s church in Edenville, and Ranger Jim from Kids’ Time on 3ABN! He was showing off a hummingbird and a chipmunk, both of which were in large glass jars.
Sabbath afternoon I took the official tour of the village.
William Miller’s prophetic chart, on display in the visitor center:
The pulpit in a church where Ellen White spoke:
Garth Stoltz, Village Director:
The Whites’ home:
An early edition of Early Writings, published in Battle Creek:
The dining room in their home:
Where Ellen would write jounal entries, manuscripts, and letters (these are not the original items of furniture, but are similar to what she would have used):
Copies of her writings (pretty good penmanship!):
A carriage similar to what the Whites would have used:
That evening we returned for more of the evangelism meetings. Later back at the village, we had a long discussion about women’s ordination; it lasted past midnight! Although the five or so of us most involved in the discussion had deep-seated opinions on this subject, the entire exchange was very civil, and I came away with greater perspective on the subject.
The Bible workers:
In front of David Hewitt’s home:
On Sunday we all went out to eat at a pancake place. This was mainly in honor of the Bible workers for all their hard work, and was paid for by Pastor Russell from Andrews who had oversight of them. But they invited me along. It was a good meal! But my stay was over all too soon!
I left soon after we got back from the restaurant, but on the way home I stopped at this cemetary in Battle Creek where many SDA pioneers are buried:
The tombstones of James and Ellen White:
On the way home I passed these vehicles. I took this while driving, so it’s a bit blurry. But if you look closely, you can see the car on the left is one of those models that can be driven in water. You can see two propellers under the bumper, and it has a high exhaust pipe to keep the water out. The other truck is towing a log cabin!
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