rthur and Montina DeBardeleben, both originally from Cleveland, Ohio, now reside in Monroe, Georgia. Arthur was raised SDA and attended Adventist grade school for a short time. Montina became an Adventist in 1995 and attended public school. We were married in 1987 and experienced many marital challenges. By God’s grace and power, we have survived a divorce, re-marriage, addiction and much more. Arthur is a CDL truck driver and Montina has worked for the Southern Union Conference in the education department since 2015. Arthur loves spreading God’s word by passing out literature to everyone he meets and Montina enjoys gardening. We have four grown sons now 34, 30, 29 and 25 years old. Each of them attended Adventist schools beginning in 1999.

Our four sons experienced Adventist primary and secondary Education. Each of them has great stories about dorm life, academy travel on mission trips, with choirs and the lifelong friends they made there. But my husband and I want to share our story of sacrifice and rewards. Neither of us went to academy so we had no idea what to expect let alone how much it would change our financial situation. By the time all was said and done, we gladly signed over every tax refund, bonus and furniture or car down payment we even thought we had to keep them in school.

With both of us working full time, we drove back and forth to the school, for years, trusting God's traveling mercies every time. Not only that, we recruited, encouraged and supported other parents and their kids to do the same. How many times did we host students over home leaves and school breaks? How many times were our sons fed and housed by other parents? Only Jesus knows. We can honestly say we have no idea how all the tuition bills got paid. Someone sponsored $0.50 per school work-hour, scholarships, school/church/conference match program; somehow the bill got reduced here and there, or another one paid for a trip.