On the 2nd of July, the Flying Garudas, were excited for their 2 nights / 2 days 4th of July weekend. They started with lock-in at the CIASDA Church and opening worship, which was lead by Master Guide Barry Manembu. Several adventurers, youth, and parents were present as well. After worship, they had dinner, which then continued with several activities before lights out. The next morning, they started with breakfast, and ended their stay with morning worship before everything was loaded in the vehicles. Next activity, was hiking. Many wanted to take the short distance, and once it was reached, they decided to take the farther route, to reach the water fall. After the hike, majority of the youth headed to the campsite at Chief Hosa for the last leg of the activity. They unload, built camp, and spend the night with Nature. The program then ended on the morning of 4th of July with a closing devotion, brought by the Flying Garudas' Pathfinder director, Brianna Sondakh. She reminded us, like Joshua of the Bible, that God would never leave us nor forsake us. The takeaway: I'm sure to many, it was a tiring event. But to start from the church, a house of worship, and ended in nature, I found many profound and symbolical lessons of how Christians should walk with Christ. As babies in Christian walk, young people, we need to find shelter in Christ. We need to be in His presence every moment of our life. And as we hike through our mountain-of-life, we will get tired, we will find obstacles on our way, we may fall and stumble. However, we ought to remember that God will continue to be there with us and He'll be there to quench us with living water from the never ending fountain. Though we sleep in the mid of darkness, we need to continue to let the light burn. For it will keep us warm, and it will brighten our surrounding from darkness. There was a tent filled with a Caucasian family next to ours. They were about 8 - 10ft away and we're pretty sure they were not part of our church. At night, as their children were brushing their teeth to get ready to sleep, I greeted them. In the morning as I was packing and cleaning the campsite, their grandfather came to speak to me. Before I tell you what he had to say, mind you, that in our tent, we had a baby of 1 year old, a 4 year old boy and a 6 year old girl, along with 2 grown parents. Normally, at home, we're the loudest bunch, especially at night. But during that night, we tried our best to stay as quiet as possible, yes, even the little one. So as I was packing, the grandfather came to me and told me how amazed he was to see many young people with us. And to see a 1 year old, he praised us for allowing the youth to be exposed with nature. No, there's nothing that we did that is worth of praise. However, the God who formed us in our mother's womb, the one that created the genetic DNA of the nature we see around us, He will be the one to lead us through our walk of life and through the dark times. All He asked from us is to be strong and courageous, to follow His commandment so that we can find the true freedom in Him. "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." -Joshua 1:9 NKJV

With schools closing, countries under lock-down, and shortages of N95 respirator face-masks as well as toilet papers, many people are turning their eyes on the leaders of our country for solution. At this current time, there is no definitive vaccine to cure the novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and rumors have suggested that it would take at least a year to produce one. However, there are preventive initiatives that we can take to combat the rampant of this virus. On the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are suggestions on preventing the exposure and the spread of COVID-19. Some of the suggestions listed is to wash hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and (warm) water, and if neither is available, you can use hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% of alcohol. Avoiding close contacts or "social distancing" is also a suggestion posted in preventing the spread of the virus. Another good resource for prevention that I have found is a video of an interview with Dr. Neil Nedley entitled, Dr. Nedley and Pastor Doug Batchelor On The Best Coronavirus Prevention. The video took a slightly different perspective on the prevention and that is to boost our immune system with a worldwide known program or principle called NEWSTART (Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunlight, Temperance, Air, Rest, and Trust in divine power). Dr. Nedley went in depth on the need of eating healthy food and fruits. Dr. Nedley also mentioned about the study done by The New England Journal of Medicine, where they found that taking N-Acetyl Cysteine supplement twice a day can boost antibodies to fight against common cold. Not only that, they attribute the sources of many past pandemic diseases including COVID-19 to the exposure to the unclean animals, which the Bible prohibited. Mrs. Manembu, RN., our Adventurer instructor, recently forwarded me a voice memo that I find to be a viable preventive techniques in fighting COVID-19, which can be heard here. Based on the voice memo, it seems that the virus obstructs the airway and lungs with thick mucus that solidifies. So here are 10 preventive measures that were mentioned by the voice memo, Dr. Nedley, and the CBC. Drink warm-hot liquid (soups, ginger, or warm water) and take sips of the warm liquid every 20 minutes to moisten and wash out any virus in the mouth so it can be neutralized before entering the lungs. Gargle with antiseptic (vinegar, salt, or lemon) mixed in warm water every day. Because of the nature of how the virus attaches to hair and clothes, they recommend to wash your clothes with detergent and shower with soap straight away once you arrived home without seating. And if washing clothes daily is not possible, they suggest to hang the clothes on direct sunlight. Wash or disinfect metallic surfaces (door knobs, handle bars, etc.) carefully and daily, because COVID-19 can stay longer to about 9 days on these kind of surfaces. Don't smoke. Smoking causes lungs complication, which can make COVID-19 susceptible in attacking the lungs. Wash hands every 20 minutes using soap that foam, and wash your hands thoroughly for 20 seconds. Eat fruits and vegetables, especially fruits & vegetables that are high in zinc and vitamin-c. The virus is passed from human to human. Social distancing is important in preventing the spread of the virus. Avoid getting the common flu, like avoid eating cold sugary products which may lower and weaken your immune system. Sore throat is the early sign of a common cold. So if you feel like having a sore throat, attack it by taking the preventive method mentioned above. If not treated right away, the virus will stay on the throat for 3-4 days and move on to the lungs, which will later complicate your respiratory system. There are numerous resources or media coverage on the prevention on COVID-19 and since, the virus is a novel virus, there are still researches being done to bring up a 100% full-proof vaccination. As young people for Christ, let us continue to keep our body healthy for His glory and for the hastening of His second coming. Lastly, and most important way of preventing COVID-19, is to trust in God. Psalm 55:22 “Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you.” (NLT)

2/29/2020 Denver, CO... The Pathfinder and Adventurer ministry under the Colorado Indonesian American SDA Church have been acknowledged by the Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for 2019-2020. Our directors, Brianna Sondakh (Pathfinder director) and Farah Lolowang (Adventurer director), have worked tirelessly in making sure that both clubs are operating for 2019-2020 and finally we have received a certification of operation. Although the certification for the Adventurer club has a minor drawback, where the certification of operation adopted the previous name submitted by, Barry Manembu, he promised to get that fixed so the next certification will acknowledge the Brave Sparrow Adventurer Club instead of Flying Garuda Adventurer Club. Our Pathfinder & Adventurer ministries are excited on being acknowledged by Rocky Mountain Conference. We pray that God will continue to bless our ministries in 2019-2020 term. —Assdhy Lolowang

1/18/2020 Denver, CO... It was somewhat a quieter morning as CIASDA Youth entered the newly painted youth room. Around 10AM, the youth gathered on the round tables with cereal, fruits, croissants and their CQ Sabbath School lesson. Our Sabbath School teacher, elder Augustine Sheriff, walked in the room and started shaking everyone's hand with the usual Sabbath greeting. As the youth settled in with their breakfast and phone as the replacement of the Bible, the first question asked before opening prayer was about what our thoughts were regarding the Mile High Academy's (MHA) recent incident? A trending story filled the local news, on Thursday, January 16th, about a 17-year-old missing MHA student, who later was found dead on the back seat of a car. Authorities believed that an 18-year-old male, who apparently had a relationship with the victim, have killed her near MHA and drove the car aimlessly with the dead victim for hours. The alleged killer later claimed his own life as police officer approached his vehicle. So knowing that, as a father of two toddlers, I tried to avoid the continuation of the quiet somber morning, by jesting, "don't date." About half of the youth reacted with laughter and some thought, "that joke came on a bad timing bro," said Denzel. More then 50% of our youth (from the ages of 6 to 30) are either attending or are alumni of MHA. And as for the rest of the youth, we have had the opportunity to participate in many public events that MHA offered. So the incident made a huge impact to the CIASDA Youth. As the laughter recede, students of MHA continued sharing their thoughts about what had happened and how they and their school is coping with the tragedy. After opening prayer, we jumped into our Sabbath School lesson regarding Daniel, his three friends, and the infamous king Nebuchadnezzar. There, I found similarities between the story of the Israelite's youth and what are currently happening. No, there is nothing in that story that talked about dating. However, the similarities were solely about our loving God. The God who continued to love young people like Daniel and his friends, is the same God that is in love with the MHA student that have passed away, or the youth that were sitting around the round tables. Not only that, but the story of these four young people made an impact in the life of king Nebuchadnezzar. The king was not a believer of the Hebrew God and he probably have killed the family of these young men. Also, according to Daniel's story, this king defied God over and over again. Yet, God still loved king Nebuchadnezzar. I do not know whether we will see king Nebuchadnezzar in heaven, but what I do know for sure is, God have never left him, God had never left the four Israelite youth, God had never left the CIASDA youth, and He never turned His eyes away from the girl that had her life cut short. While there is a point in this world's story, where God promised to wipe away our tears, John 11:35 said, "Jesus wept." And because Jesus in His character is love, seeing His children goes through tragedy after tragedy also wept for us and with us. In fact, While there is still sin, Jesus is weeping. But God promised that on His second coming, He doesn't only wipe our tears away, but "there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” -Revelation 21:4 NKJV. Yes, tragedy will continue to happen in life, but the biggest tragedy would be if we, who knows about God's love, denied His love for us. — Assdhy Lolowang; 2nd & 3rd photos were taken from google image search.

Denver, Colorado … The year 2019 has been one full of blessings for the Flying Garuda Pathfinder Club. To close the year and to promote the spirit of service among its members, the club hosted their first-ever blood drive at the Colorado Indonesian-American Seventh-day Adventist Church parking lot on Sabbath afternoon, December 21. A collaboration with Vitalant Blood Center, formerly known as Bonfils, two buses and a total of eight staff members came from Denver and Colorado Springs to attend the event. Nearly 40 people from the Colorado Indonesian-American Church in Denver and Rocky Mountain Indonesian Church in Aurora, including its Krakatau Pathfinder Club, registered as blood donors. Donor candidates who met criteria such as having normal hemoglobin levels and having never been exposed to malaria were able to give. At least 30 people met the criteria, allowing close to 100 people to benefit. Among those donors, one community member, who lives near the church, joined in. As a regular donor with Vitalant she was glad that instead of having to drive to the blood drive site, the buses came to her neighborhood. “It’s very convenient for me. Thank you for doing this,” said Lorraine Earley. Vitalant’s blood drive coordinator, Michelle Lowry, onsite to help with staff expressed, “This is actually a good turnout. We need to do this again.” She was thrilled to see junior Pathfinders helping out with snacks and water bottles, while the staff helped with registration. The best part, however, was when the eligible youth, ages 16 and above, who earlier had been reluctant, agreed to participate as donors. Having never given blood before, some were afraid to be poked. Yet, after some persuasion from the Pathfinders staff, and with words of encouragement from the parents, they decided to donate. “It’s actually not as bad as I thought it would be,” commented Brussel Gultom, one of the Pathfinder teens. “I saved lives and I also got a free t-shirt. That’s pretty cool.” For Michelle, after learning firsthand what Pathfinders and Adventurers are all about, she thinks it would be a great idea for the children to visit Vitalant Blood Lab in the near future. “We do that all the time with school kids, and I am sure they would love the opportunity to learn about the different parts of blood and how we process it to be ready for transfusions for those who need it,” she said. — Barry Manembu; text and photos Manembu, Barry. “Flying Garuda Pathfinders Hosted Their First Blood Drive” NewsNuggets, 16 Jan. 2020, www.rmcsda.org/flying-garuda-pathfinders-hosted-their-first-blood-drive/.

A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other permanent surfaces. And as for any piece of art, it allows the beholder to create an open interpretation of what the mural is about. For 2020 the CIASDA church have revamped the leadership positions in many of the church's departments. As someone who beheld the outcome of the church election, the Youth department was not ignored. As the church look to the future, the church laid her eyes in trusting the youth to become future leaders. This may be in itself a work of art. In youth department, the electoral committee, chosen by the CIASDA church members, have appointed Eldridge Turambi as the youth director along with his team of assistant directors, Brussel Gultom and Denzel Turambi. The committee also appointed Ronnie Lasut and Assdhy Lolowang as the youth sponsors. One of the goal from the leadership team of the CIASDA Youth department is to create unity within the youth, and one of the goal is to remodel the "youth room", which have became part storage room and part youth Sabbath School room that is located on the basement floor of the church. The youth decided to work together to empty the room, repaint, and to create a mural of CIA along with a mountain range within the letters. From left to right: Brianna Sondakh, Clarissa Suyatno, Eldridge Turambi, Denzel Turambi, Brussel Gultom, Frans Sondakh & Christabelle Deeng. Although the mural may just be another mural where young people expresses their creativity, I, however, think otherwise. CIA from CIASDA stands for Colorado Indonesian-American. These three letters are not just another abbreviation, but it is a statement of belonging and a sense of identification of who these young people are. At a quick glimpse, the mountain range within the letters can portray the Rocky Mountain range of Colorado. However, I believe it is also a an image of what life can be for the young people. Through the experience of the ups and downs of life, there will be a peak in our life where we can stand still and see the beauty of what God have done in our past and what He is preparing up ahead. This can be just a mural, and like this mural, 2020 can be interpreted as just another year where these young people climb their "mountains of life" like they always do. But in the end, it will be their decision in climbing the mountain alone, or to climb it together with Jesus on their side.

CIASDA church has undergone new changes in leadership. Through prayers, names were chosen by the election committee and the result, we have Brianna Sondakh as our new Director while Darlyn Tielung have been chosen to be the Associate Director for the Flying Garuda Pathfinder Ministry. Brianna, a freshmen in University of Colorado - Boulder, have accepted the position as the Flying Garuda director. While studying Neuroscience and possibly double majoring with MCDB (Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology) she started her term in 2020-2021 by gathering the previous Pathfinder leaders available to share her vision and goals. Through her PowerPoint presentation, which can be found here: http://wix.to/dcDbBcU, she emphasized that ministry is God's work and as staffs to the Pathfinders, her goal is to "build Godly character" within the Pathfinders of the CIASDA church so they can "be a blessing to the world". With the obstacles that Flying Garuda have faced in previous years, consistency will be the obstacle that Brianna wished to overcome. Her vision is for the junior youth to "build characters who seek and obey God." She has a strong desire to teach the youth in how to have a personal relationship with God and not to force the youth to have a personal relationship with God. Also, Brianna wants to build the skills for success through encouraging the youth to have passion, patience, hard work, and listening to the right advice. Brianna along with her pathfinder staff also planned to do personal visitation to introduce her plan to parents and the youth and as well as to see the need of the youth and the parents. Master Guide Barry Manembu, the former director of the Pathfinder ministry whom now have accepted the position as the church elder, have shown full support to Brianna's plan. He is excited to see what the Pathfinder ministry would look like in 2020. As the former Associate Director, I too, cannot wait to see what God have planned for Brianna. At the age of 18, Brianna is currently the Manager on Duty and Lesson instructor at Ridge Recreation Center. Her expectation in 2020-2021 is to make Pathfinder ministry a routine as well as to build characters to serve God and to support others.

What is Pathfindering? Although there are many definition defining Pathfindering, for the Flying Garuda Pathfinder, it's about making commitment, and a purpose in finding a path that leads to a specific source. It needs a total concentration and focus to reach that goal, and that goal should be about Jesus. On the 23rd of November, Brianna Sondakh, one of the deputy director of the Flying Garuda took the stand and lead the younger youth to their 2nd Investiture Class. We started with the Pathfinder song, and followed by opening prayer by Emily. After the prayer, Flying Garuda's associate director, Assdhy Lolowang, took the Pathfinder to Luke 9:37-42 and as devotion we talked about how Jesus healed the possessed boy. The associate director then related to the young people of today, how we are also possessed by movies, games and often time those things create the type of character that we become. However Jesus have never ran away from the boy, He never cursed the boy, or say "ew, you're vomiting and acting like you are possessed." Jesus knew that the disciples could've healed the boy, but because they were "faithless" they failed. We may have friends that we feel as if they are so bad and should be kicked out of the community, but instead of doing that, we should have the same faith that Jesus had, because it was faithfulness in God that healed the boy. After the devotional, we went straight to our classes and focused on the assignment given to us by Deputy Director, Brianna Sondakh. What is Pathfindering? Pathfindering is about having faith in Jesus that He will lead the way.

It was a very special day for the Pathfinders and Adventurers from Colorado Indonesian-American Seventh-day Adventist Church in Denver. On 2019 World Pathfinder Day, September 21, not only did they have the chance to commemorate the 69th anniversary of the Global Pathfinder Movement, along with 2 million pathfinders around the world, they also had the privilege to share their faith on the neighboring houses via literature evangelism. This was the first time that both Flying Garuda Pathfinders and Brave Sparrow Adventurers celebrated World Pathfinder Day. Starting with congratulatory video from Andreas Peralta, the World Pathfinder director, members and staff marched in, recited the Pathfinder/Adventurer pledge and law, and led the entire worship service. Three young Pathfinder staff—Derwin Suyatno, Eldridge Turambi and Darlyn Tielung—presented a sermon entitled “Created with Purpose,” emphasizing the fact that God created us to be full in Him and to be a blessing to others. At the end of the sermon they challenged the congregation and made an appeal to follow and fulfill God’s plan in their lives. Following the church service, led by Derwin, who recently served as a youth colporteur in Utah and Nevada, a group of 25 pathfinders, adventurers and staff participated in literature evangelism by sharing GLOW tracts around neighboring houses. “Many of the children have never done a door-to-door evangelism before and were understandably anxious at first. But with much prayers and encouragement, plus a brief training by Derwin, the group was ready to visit the nearby houses,” explained Barry Manembu, leader of the Flying Garuda Pathfinder Club. The participating groups knocked on doors, distributed the GLOW spiritual message pamphlets, and also prayed for those with a prayer request. Barry said that “many [people] opened their doors and some of them were willing to be prayed for. A man named Abdullah, for instance, asked for healing, and so a staff member prayed for him. Group members rotated on specific tasks and there was an occasion where a three-year-old Little Lamb girl offered a short prayer, which warmed the heart of a household,” he explained. Many of the kids were undoubtedly tired after walking around the neighborhood. “Yet, they said how they enjoyed every minute of it. During the post-activity briefing some were even saying that they would like to do it again,” Barry added. —Barry B. Manembu; photos by Grace Carolinda, Novie Sondakh, Barry B. Manembu Manembu, Barry. “Flying Garuda Pathfinders Share Their Faith in the Community” NewsNuggets, 26 Sept. 2019, https://www.rmcsda.org/flying-garuda-pathfinders-share-their-faith-in-the-community/.