About
Revival and True Education in this Generation.
Zechariah 9:12
Who?
God gave us the vision. We’ve been commissioned to follow it. Prisoners of Hope is produced by students and for students who thirst for revival and reformation and a finished work in this generation.
Why?
It’s easy to point fingers and complain when we see worldliness creeping into our congregations and educational centers. Instead of despairing in the darkness, we want to light a candle. God is calling us as students and institutions back to our original purpose: mission. We believe that He is calling on this generation to finish the work. Our prayer is that in publishing and implementing God’s plans for true education, a great revival and missionary movement will emerge from our increasingly secular educational institutions in our lifetime.
How?
We are working with students and graduates from numerous Adventist schools, first to publish and then to raise up faithful companies who by God’s grace are working to implement His plans in places where they have been largely abandoned or perhaps never heard of before.
Our mission is to promote revival and educational reform–especially in our academies, colleges, and universities. Step by step these institutions have become more and more like the world, but we believe all are prisoners of hope, and if we will respond to our Father and Guide, He will bring us back to our upright position of distinction, accomplishing His mission through us.
Meet The Team
Rianna Davis
EditorEllen White said that an army of rightly trained youth will finish the work, but the problem is that we haven’t been ‘rightly trained’. Having been born and raised in the UK, Rianna knows first-hand how very easy it is for young Adventists to live comfortable lives without ever really knowing God or risking anything for Him. She left the church as a teenager, but God has brought her back and given her a greater calling for her life: youth ministry, an essential mode of education. For Rianna, Prisoners of Hope’s call to mission is a mandate from God. It enables Him to use her passion for writing and her background in editorial and publishing, combining them both in a heart which is burning to share His Spirit and truth with other youth who, like her, have long journeyed with a warped vision of who God really is.
Jake Graybill
Head of PromotionsGod had promised that we can hasten His coming, and it is Jake’s greatest desire to see Jesus return in his generation. Inspiration has revealed to us that young people will be involved in starting and finishing this final great work, and Jake wants to see all these different forms of evangelism come together. This requires preparing our communities – pastors, teachers, business people, congregants – to be missionaries in our marketplaces, no matter our occupation. His fervent hope is to be involved in the bringing about of God’s second coming so we can see the final events take place. Ultimately, Jake’s involvement in Prisoners of Hope is fueled by the dream that our schools will catch this vision so we will be ready to receive the Holy Spirit in the latter rain.
Dylan Homan
Head of Design, Study CoordinatorThroughout his schooling, Dylan has been taught the value of True Education. However, even though he owes so much to the True Education he’s been blessed to receive, he believes that we have not reached that ideal we once had long ago. Dylan wants to see our church collectively strive for “something better”. Despite growing up in the church, he recognises in his own life a danger to slide out—to go with the flow right out of the church. His intention for his personal walk with God is to follow a decided path upward that helps him to grow closer to Christ, thus eliminating the risk of naturally sinking lower into the world. In being faithful in the little things, he’s learned different skills—writing, design, research—that have come together for practical use in Prisoners of Hope. He wants to use these God-given gifts to share the vision of an ideal “higher than the highest human thought”.
Nathanael Jensen
PresidentPeter said the church has both a privilege and an obligation to look for but also to hasten Christ’s second coming. However, reaching the whole world in one generation can’t happen “by might or power” but only by God’s Spirit. Nathan is burdened to see this final outpouring of the Holy Spirit in this generation. Growing up in rural Iowa, he has been heavily involved in youth activities and youth leadership with Pathfinders for nearly a decade. Having attended both Adventist academy and university, he sees the incredible power of true education but also the far-reaching consequences of departure from God’s vision. In his commitment to serving in missions to the unreached, he has been blessed to work as a Bible, health, and agriculture teacher abroad. He sees Prisoners of Hope as an answer to the earnest, united prayers of God’s people, especially youth, for revival and reformation in this generation.
Heidi Krick
SecretarySince childhood and early education, Heidi has had a burden for revival and reformation among young Adventists. She grew up and was educated within Adventist circles, but despite seeing the mercy drops falling, she wants to work and plead for the showers of blessing both in her life and in the lives of those around her. Having seen so many young people broken and trapped, Heidi’s burning desire is that they may be truly whole and free in Christ. In her first year of college, she started to understand more of God’s plan for true education, and now truly grasps how it works in tandem with true revival. This makes true education vitally important to her. She is excited that God has brought specific people to this project, Prisoners of Hope, for such a time as this—and that she is one of them. Most importantly, Heidi is excited to see how readers will be impacted by this acorn of a project because, as Ellen White says, the oak truly is in the acorn.
Aidan Martell
Vice PresidentAfter reading the story of the Madison school in his junior year of college, Aidan realized something was missing from his educational experience. Born and raised in Loma Linda, he had been limiting his vision of the future to a respectable career in medicine. While trusting the process of going to school and getting good grades to make him successful, he had neglected to develop “the power to think and do.” For Aidan, Prisoners of Hope is an opportunity to start a conversation about how we as Seventh-day Adventists can be educated to clearly see, faithfully follow, and effectively accomplish God’s true purpose for our lives. It is his desire that the magazine will inspire others to honestly question their educational experiences so that God can have room to speak His tremendous, yet often unconventional, plans to their hearts.
Sarah McRoberts
Study CoordinatorRevival and education go hand in hand. Through Sarah’s experience of seeking God’s will in knowing where to go to college, she saw God use a ‘wilderness’ period to bring true revival in her life. She realized the goal wasn’t to get an ordinary education to get an ordinary job and live an ordinary ‘American dream’ life. Rather, it was God’s call to her to fully surrender her life and obtain an education that would prepare her for not only this life but the one to come. Sarah recognizes that revival is our greatest need. In a period of history where there is a lost vision of what it means to walk with God, and a lack of understanding of the true education blueprint, she believes that God has called her to be part of Prisoners of Hope to be able to share God’s vision of true education and revival so that Jesus can come soon.
Monique Pintos
Illustrator, DesignLord, that’s my family! There are people we know and love who may not be in heaven. Can we bear to see them lost? What of the countless other people who are human beings with thoughts and feelings, just like us, yet without hope? Monique has been through the dark valley many young people have trodden. She knows the joy of finding Jesus as her own personal Savior, but for her, this is not enough. Her heart breaks to think of all the other people who are wandering lost, and she feels God’s calling to reach as many of them as possible, including her own extended family. God gave her artistic talents, and being part of the design and illustration team of Prisoners of Hope enables her to use these skills to fulfill the call to arms that God’s trumpet has sounded.
Jared Ratcliff
Digital/Website Manager, DesignAfter working with youth ministries in the United States and teaching elementary school for several years abroad, Jared has cultivated a deep love for children and an ardent desire to see His young friends accept Jesus. He understands the misconceptions of God that young people in our church too often have, and sees Prisoners of Hope as a spark, a tool to relight the fire of relationship with God and revive His church. Jared’s experience with website design and management allows him to build and run the technical foundation of the organization, and to employ this platform to spread the call for revival. Ultimately, he hopes to see this magazine and message reach our youth with the hope of a God who inexpressibly loves them.
Tegan Smith
Organizational RelationsMany young people today are taught to be spiritual reflectors, present in the church only because it is the environment they are most comfortable in. Tegan understands this better than most; she was once one of these young people. Through her own transformative journey, she has gained a passion for helping youth develop a lasting relationship with their Savior. The method of education encompassing spiritual, mental, and physical development, coupled with the numerous Bible verses and counsels through God’s prophets, has led her to be actively involved in the revival and reformation of our youth through Prisoners of Hope. She hopes that youth across the globe will realize the privilege they have in Christ Jesus and develop a longing to share their hope in Him with others.
Kali Sopha
PromotionsWe have been on this earth too long and it’s time to go home. In her own educational journey, Kali was saddened and frustrated by the options available for higher education. Stories of students who left our schools spiritually dead inspired dreams of someday starting her own school. She longs to see our schools become places of spiritual explosion. Recently directed by God to become a teacher, she has the opportunity to learn how to be a part of that change. And not only in the future but now. She believes this is why God brought her into Prisoners of Hope for “such a time as this.” By responding to God’s call, she’s using the creative talent He’s given her for writing. And what time is “this?” Time to do things God’s way. Time to go home.
Lilienne Stafford
TreasurerWhile growing up in the Adventist church, Lilienne began to see that there was something more to Christianity than nominalism—that there was more life and joy and purpose to experience in serving God than just carrying the name. While she’s been encountering and embracing other core principles in the last few years, recently the concept of true education has come to her focus; she’s gained a deeper understanding of its meaning and significance. In both its far-reach and principles, she is excited to discover more of what it embodies practically and how it can increase the power and effectiveness of our church educational institutions. Lilienne is excited for the conversations that Prisoners of Hope will open and continue, to help us as a people come closer to the beautiful ideal she knows that God has for us.