Upper Columbia Conference held its annual Family Fellowship Festival at Upper Columbia Academy in Spangle, Wash., Nov. 7–8, 2003.
This year’s special guests were Ivan Blazen, Loma Linda University religion professor, who was the keynote speaker of the event, and Steve and Scott Peterson, Christian musicians of Sonora, Calif., who offered special music as well as a saxophone concert on Sabbath afternoon.
Many local pastors and speakers also offered seminars on topics such as health, prayer and Bible study.
But one often-overlooked feature of the Family Fellowship Festival is the children’s programming. During Sabbath School and the afternoon seminars, a full crowd of children filled each level of classes. And each class had several dedicated leaders and teachers who spent hours preparing the program.
In the kindergarten class, the children were taught the story of how Saul became a follower of Christ on the road to Damascus. As the story was being told, the children got to lead the blinded Saul down a life-sized path that represented what roads might have been like in Saul’s time.
In the junior class, the children learned about different reptiles and handled a live, red boa constrictor. The snake was a pet of one of the academy students and was kept in the biology department classroom. There were also many other exciting programs for the beginners, earliteen, youth and other classes.
It would be impossible to experience everything that happens at a Family Fellowship Festival. But there is definitely something for everyone.
Gayle Haeger, Upper Columbia Academy biology teacher, teaches the junior Sabbath School class at the Family Fellowship Festival about reptiles and this red boa constrictor, which lives in her classroom.
