Out of His deep love for humanity, God changes our lives and asks us to move His love into our community and world. We are uniquely positioned at Andrews University to share the story of God’s love from the residence halls to the farthest parts of the earth. We accomplish our mission by engaging people across generations to be disciples of Jesus through the process of Connect. Grow. Serve. Go.
Pioneer Media supports the local ministry needs related to classroom and teaching technology. It also creates content for and manages Pioneer's online presence and produces our broadcast television program.
We have volunteer teams that help you to serve the church and the neighborhood in a variety of ways. The best place to serve is where you’re using your God-given gifts, talents, and passions the most.
Your financial gift helps support ministry here at Pioneer. From local to global ministry, keeping our facility safe and clean, to outreach and family growth activities, it all provides a space to worship, learn, and grow together. We invite you to Give Purposefully, Give Faithfully, and Give Joyfully.
Dwight Nelson served as lead pastor of the Pioneer Memorial Church on the campus of Andrews University from 1983 to 2023. During his time at Pioneer he spoke on the “New Perceptions” telecast, taught at the theological seminary and has written books, including The Chosen. He and his wife, Karen, are blessed with two married children and 2 granddaughters.
• #1—“Two are better than one” because you have someone to share the . (Financial benefit)
- “Research has shown the financial benefits of marriage. Long-term marriage offers a 77% better rate of return than staying single and total wealth of married persons increases 16% year over year. In other words, the you are married, the more money you make. . . . [I]f this was the reported returns on a stock growth fund, we’d all be jumping in.” (www.moneyunder30.com/financial-benefits-of-marriage)
• #2—“Two are better than one” because you have someone to help you . (Emotional benefit)
• #3—“Two are better than one” because you have someone to keep you . (Physical benefit)
• #4—“Two are better than one” because you have someone to help you . (Security benefit)
» A great love story most have never heard . . .
- C. S. Lewis: “We feasted on love; every mode of it, solemn and merry, romantic and realistic, sometimes as dramatic as a thunderstorm, sometimes comfortable and unemphatic as putting on your soft slippers. She was my pupil and my teacher, my subject and my sovereign, my trusty comrade, friend, shipmate, fellow-soldier. My mistress, but at the same time all that any man friend has ever been to me.” (Quoted in Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts 142)
- Les and Leslie Parrott: “If there is a lesson to be gained from this amazing love story, it must be that partners without a spiritual depth of oneness can never compete with the fullness of love that enjoy. Marriage, when it is healthy, has a mystical way of revealing God; a way of bringing a smiling peace to our restless hearts.” (142)
» The third strand
• Jeremiah 9:24—“Let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know [yada] me, that I am the LORD.”
• Genesis 4:1—“Adam made love [yada] to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant.”
• God takes the same word for “making love” [yada] and declares “That’s what I want in a relationship with you—the between a husband and a wife—I want you to know me like Adam knew Eve.”
• Alan McGinnis: “There can be no intimacy without .” (The Friendship Factor 105)
• Alice Fryling: “[Sex] is an expression of intimacy, not the to intimacy. True intimacy springs from verbal and emotional communion. True intimacy is built on a commitment to honesty, love and freedom. True intimacy is not primarily a sexual encounter. Intimacy, in fact, has almost nothing to do with our organs. A prostitute may expose her body, but her relationships are hardly intimate.” (www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/three-lies-about-premarital-sex/)
• Don’t miss Adventist Engaged Encounter with Jeff/Twyla Smith (Nov 1-3).
• Ecclesiastes 4:12—“A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
- The Third Strand—Proverbs 18:24/John 15:13-14
- #1 Felt Need—How to grow a relationship with God
In 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 225 tragically crashed shortly after takeoff, resulting in the loss of 155 lives. Miraculously, a four-year-old girl named Cecelia was the sole survivor. Investigations revealed that during the plane's descent, Cecelia's mother, Paula Chican, unbuckled her own seatbelt, knelt in front of her daughter, and wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia to shield her from the impact. This selfless act of maternal love protected Cecelia, demonstrating the profound lengths to which a parent's love can go.
Oh my, the love of a mother, this is what God is telling us today, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (Isaiah 49:15,
NIV). The local church should be a place where people feel that kind of love.
John 13:35 says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
As we celebrate Mother’s Day next week, let’s return our tithes and offerings with grateful hearts knowing that Christ’s love is even greater than the love of a mother. Let’s worship God today, and may we love Christ
deeply as we appreciate our mothers.
—North American Division Stewardship Ministries
Young Adult Mission Trip in Peru!
Maranatha Volunteers International invites young adults, ages 18-28, to join Catalyst, a service experience for their age group. Build a church for the Calapuja Adventist Church, operate medical clinics, and lead VBS programs. Learn more at Maranatha.org/volunteer or call 916-774-7700.
ZOOM IN! Summer Camp 2026
ZOOM IN! to God’s Amazing World at The Crayon Box Summer Camp, running June 1–August 20, 2026. Children entering Kindergarten through age 12 will enjoy a summer filled with nature, science, creativity, teamwork, and play as they explore how God’s hand is at work all around them. Each themed week encourages campers to notice the small wonders, big ideas, and amazing details of God’s creation. Located on the beautiful campus of Andrews University, The Crayon Box offers a safe, joyful, faith-centered place for children to spend their summer vacation with on-campus adventures, campus field trips, and visits from zoo and wildlife educators. Enrollment is open now at andrews.edu/services/crayonbox/summercamp. Space is limited. Forms are due May 18, 2026.
