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Currently, I am reading Stories from Sunnyside, a 300-page book on Mrs. White's stay in Australia. Marian De Berg, the author, worked at the Australian White Estate branch office for 29 years and had a great deal of pleasure in collecting these stories. While you probably know of some of the hardships Ellen White faced in travel, this book really details more journeys than I knew about that Ellen White shouldn't have taken (from a human standpoint), talks she never should have given (physical weakness), and other challenges Ellen White had to meet down under. The development of Avondale as an Adventist center for higher learning was most interesting. Some of the ways Ellen White pushed to eventually save money involved altering building plans to put a second story on a building at nearly the last minute (more room under that roof). She also deeply regretted the length of time it took to get a proper campus church building because meeting in rooms where furniture and other were stacked around the walls and where bugs abounded that worshipers could take home in their clothing didn't seem too spiritual to her. If I keep going, you won't have to read the book so I'll just say that the half of the book read thus far has contributed much to my understanding of the beginnings of the Australian work. It also added to my appreciation of the Australian workers I worked alongside in Africa.

And... Those large lakes that take the place of the oceans? I envision them full of colourful coral reefs full of swimming creatures. I know that lakes are fresh water and reefs live in ocean. But this is the new earth! Just trying to imagine what the eye hasn't seen and the mind cannot conceive.

I am really enjoying this discussion- and all within the quote less parameters of this particular forum! Well done! I try to bear in mind that God's idea of salvation might be larger than our humanly, compartmentally-based mindset. I am not a universalist by any means, but if God is FOR me as the Bible says, ME... Then that broadens my opinion a bit.

The following highlights some SDA African-American women, who you probably do not know, but how made a difference: https://spectrummagazine.org/article/2018/02/22/hidden-figures-black-adventist-women-who-made-difference-part-1

I recall Ellen G. White's statement: "Many will be laid away to sleep before the fiery ordeal of the time of trouble shall come upon our world." (Counsels on Health p. 375) We may be nearing that time of fiery ordeal, when we see some of these elderly champions laid to rest.

I imagine Billy Graham would have been quite the "catch" evangelistically speaking for SDAs, and while he was given EGW books and was well aware of Adventist teaching, he stuck to just presenting Jesus to the world. Perhaps that was just his assigned duty as I realize that anyone who follows Jesus will be guided in their life path. We do not know what was in his heart. God alone will judge that. I have heard some Adventist pastors tell of being told to quit talking about Jesus so much! We need to hear it even more in this church. I watched his grandson on the news tonight tell how Billy Graham did not even like being told he was humble. He seemed to keep a very real perspective of his self. He was quoted as saying, "God is God, and I am not." We, as Adventists, also have a very favorable view of Martin Luther and any number of other reformers who also never kept the Sabbath. Because Billy Graham was not known to outwardly keep the Sabbath doesn't mean he did not respect it. While I disagree with many people on many things, judging someone's future relative to being in heaven or not is something I try very hard not to do, even if the devil wants everyone to get into the business of judging. I have found some who I thought really wrong and for some reason they come out really right. There have been others I very much respected their Christian witness and saw them do things that astonished me for how wrong it was. I guess looking at what others do is time spent contemplating someone else other than Jesus. Billy Graham seems to have figured that one out a long time ago.

Right now the obituary section looks especially sad with Billy's name for the other notable figures and Del for Adventists. To see both names together here gives an extra sad feeling.