Photo and Commentary ©2023 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, October 13, 2023
The other day, in a public building, I happened to notice this magazine lying on a table. I paused to study its cover. “I’ve seen that photo before,” I thought to myself. “Where?”
Then it dawned on me. I had that magazine at home! Then I studied the title more closely: Adventist Journey. And in the lower right corner it said “Adventist World included.”
Both these magazines—often bound and mailed together—share stories of how Adventists, mostly young members, are changing their worlds in creative ways. The gentleman you see on the cover is Ignacio Goya, director of Andrews University’s Center for Community Change. I’ll give you the link to his dramatic faith story at the end of this blog.
Okay, so what’s an Adventist Journey magazine doing in a public hallway? My first thought was, “Well, maybe an Adventist brought it along to read and simply forgot it.” Then I turned the magazine over, and saw that the mailing label had been carefully cut (not ripped) from the back cover.
Interesting, right? Adventist Journey isn’t a tract meant for the general public. It’s mainly targeting people who are already SDAs. So why is it here?
The conclusion I came to was that whoever owned this magazine had long ago developed the habit of sharing the literature of the Adventist church in public places. Maybe every time this person got an Adventist Review, or a Signs of the Times, or even the Gleaner, the church paper for Pacific Northwest Adventists, he or she snipped off the label and carried it along, and left it somewhere.
And if someone eventually takes this magazine home, and looks up Ignacio Goya’s story, he or she will learn how Ignacio’s father was once a highly placed leader in Chile under Salvadore Allende, and eventually escaped that regime. Studying the Bible led Ignacio’s dad from Communism to the Christian faith.
Literature is important. God has always used the printed word to focus humanity’s attention on His agenda. It struck me recently that by focusing on national and world news, I have tended to become more cynical than a Christian should. I was encouraged by Ignacio’s story. You can watch him tell that story at
this link: