Karen Stewart and her husband tried giving Bible studies at their home, but they weren't successful. “We have always wanted to have Bible studies at our house. We had couches and chairs in a circle in our living room so it was a good atmosphere. People would say they wanted to study the Bible, but then they would quit coming,” she explained.
Rather than let this deter them from Bible studies, Karen and her husband decided instead to pray. “I started praying, Lord, help us to be able to interact with those who are ready for the harvest. That was my prayer,” explained Karen.
After they began this prayer, Karen was sitting in church one Sabbath when she felt impressed to walk over and introduce herself to a couple whom she didn’t know. She said hello to Daniel and Samantha Reeves and their six-year-old boy. She asked if they were members at the church, to which they responded that they weren’t members but they’d like to be. No one had approached them before.
“Well, is it okay if I call you tomorrow? Would you guys be interested in Bible study?” Karen asked. They were interested. Karen called them and set up a time to begin meeting and doing Bible studies.
Karen saw this as an answer to prayer, but didn’t realize it was only the beginning. Angel Garmen-Soule, a relative of one of the church members, was also looking for someone to lead Bible studies. Karen scheduled a time to begin meeting with her. Shortly after beginning these Bible studies Karen bumped into her niece, Laurie Cole, whom she had not seen in a while. Karen had recently reached out to her but hadn’t heard back. “So we connected and she told me, ‘Ever since you called, it’s been on my mind to come back to church.’ She joined us in the Bible study,” said Karen.
That’s God right there
Daniel and Samantha had become acquainted with some of the Adventist teachings through a radio program on 91.7 FM. “I started listening and it was talking about how Saturday was the Sabbath—not Sunday—and I’d never heard that before in my life,” said Daniel. This caught his interest and he asked some pastors about it, but never received a satisfactory answer.
They heard about Seventh-day Adventism by continuing to listen to 91.7, so they chose to begin attending the local Adventist church. “We started going to the [Bakersfield] Hillcrest Seventh-day Adventist Church and we fell in love with it. But during COVID, we kind of fell back and quit going,” said Daniel.
They began attending the church again a little over a year later. “I thought to myself, If somebody would just reach out to us from the church we would take this more seriously this time,” said Daniel. “Literally the next Sabbath, Karen came up to us. She asked, ‘Hey, have you guys been coming? Would you like to do some Bible studies?’ I thought, That's God right there. That was God answering that thought!”
During the Bible studies, Samantha opened up about how she and Daniel had been trying to have a baby for the past three years but were unsuccessful. “And so I just gave it to God and quit trying,” said Samantha. “Karen told me to claim Psalm 37:4, ‘Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.’”
Not long after, they received a call confirming that they were going to be able to adopt a baby. They felt this was God’s answer to their prayer. When Samantha told Karen the good news, Karen laughed and said, “You know what's going to happen? You’re going to adopt this baby and then you’re going to get pregnant.”
“Two months after we started the process to adopt the baby, we got pregnant,” laughed Samantha. “That was God giving us more than we asked for. He gave us two babies in the same year.”
All of these blessings led them to choose to join the Adventist church and commit their lives to God. They were baptized in August 2024 at the Bakersfield Hillcrest Church. “What made us fall in love with the church and the people within it is that we could feel God's presence there like we could never feel in other churches,” said Daniel. “There’s so much love and it’s non-judgmental. We feel so welcomed and not judged; we feel like family.”
We found a church we finally love
Daniel and Samantha Reeves told their friends Wayne and Kimberly Wiggins about the Bible studies. Daniel and Wayne had reconnected after knowing each other as kids, and Daniel invited them to learn about Adventism. “They called me out of the blue and said, ‘You know what? We found a church we finally love!’” explained Wayne.
Wayne and Kimberly began by attending the seminars in Bakersfield led by Pastor Eddy Perez. They enjoyed these, and started visiting the church as well. When they went to the Adventist church, they were surprised by the acceptance and love they felt. “Everybody was introducing us to everybody else. I went to church for years. Nobody ever did that in my church,” said Daniel.
They are now over a year into their Bible studies with Karen, and are considering baptism. “We’ve been having a blast. We got involved with the church. We like going out and helping with the homeless center. I really love the church because I feel the spirit there,” said Daniel.
“I wouldn't trade it for the world,” added Kimberly. “They just took us in and I’ve never felt more love out of a church than this one.”
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