This Month's Issue

Photo by Cher VernalEQ on Flickr

Blog by Rob Vandeman

For centuries, throngs of people sung Psalm 133 on the road as they made the ascent to Jerusalem for festival worship. Our imaginations readily reconstruct those scenes. How great to have everyone sharing a common purpose, traveling a common path, arriving toward a common goal, that path and purpose and goal being God. How much better than making the long trip alone: “How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!” (Ps 133:1 NLT)

Photo by Dwight Sipler on Flickr
Story by V. Michelle Bernard
 
Aaron Weber, director of vocational education at Pennsylvania Conference’s Blue Mountain Academy (BMA) in Hamburg, has overseen the school’s organic garden for five years. Don’t want to add more chemicals to the soil? Weber recently shared these tips for creating a greener garden:
  • Grow native plants and choose plants that will attract beneficial insects, which will reduce the amount of harmful bugs in the garden
  • Keep your garden area clean. Not having a lot of junk and garden debris around will reduce the habitat for harmful bugs
  • If you want to avoid using pesticides, try Neem Oil instead

Story by Tamyra Horst

Born in Calcutta, India, Kalyani Prakasam received bachelor degrees in Education and Teaching from the University of Calcutta (India). She taught school for 10 years in India before moving to the U.S., and has been teaching children at the Lehigh Valley Seventh-day Adventist Elementary School in Whitehall, Pa., for the past 42 years. She earned a Master of Education in 1983 and received her reading specialist certification in 1985.