astor Antonee Aguilar of Scappoose-St. Helens Adventist Church along with his wife, Principal Girlie Aguilar of Scappoose Adventist School, wonderfully demonstrate the principles of the “Together As One” church and school collaboration initiated and promoted to the Oregon Conference by Angela White, a former principal of Scappoose Adventist School and current Associate Superintendent of Education for the Oregon Conference.   While at Scappoose Adventist School, Angela and Pastor Larry Gibson successfully focused their efforts to connect with children and their families to strengthen relationships with Jesus.

Today the Aguilars are spreading the love of Jesus in both church and school. The school’s motto is “With Jesus – We grow, We love, We lead.” The school, with nearly 80 community students, includes many families who attend no church at all. For this reason, a top priority in the search for great educators is that they have a missionary’s heart. The school strives to be an impressive school of learning, as well as a builder of students’ characters, teaching them to have strong relationships with Jesus, and become leaders throughout their lives. Mrs. Aguilar is a beloved, trusted mentor and helper to both the children and their families. Pastor Antonee is continually involved in school activities, teaching math, and building relationships with the children as well as serving as school photographer and an important mentor. He is starting a mountain bike club for the older students. On the third Sabbath of each month, the church congregation welcomes students’ families as the school’s children present a portion of the church service. Students and their families are then invited to join in a potluck following the church service. Many church members regularly assist in classrooms and attend school activities, building relationships with families in this manner as well.

This year, Mrs. Aguilar is excited to add the Three Angels’ Messages curriculum. It is such a blessing and valuable tool to support the message of God’s love, to strengthen our children’s knowledge of America’s rich history and give them a better understanding to articulate their arguments against untruths, as well as spread the message of hope, the Three Angels’ Messages. “It is a timely addition to fill a great need and we thank those who brought us this.  There is an intense battle going on between good and evil, and much of it is over our children.”

To reach out to more children in our community, the school has a vision of a larger school, as it is not feasible to add on to our current building.

We must remember our schools are so much more than educational facilities in the communities they serve.

Nancy Reed, Volunteer Registrar

Scappoose Adventist School