SDA Kinship members interact with each other online via Facebook and WhatsApp. If you aren't already connected with one or more of the groups (main, men, women, youth, seniors, etc, etc), please send a note to info@sdakinship.org or send Floyd Poenitz a private Messenger note and ask to be added to these groups. If you use WhatsApp, let us know so you can participate there too.

If you speak Spanish or Portuguese, be sure to ask us to add you to the Kinship en Espanol or Kinship Brasil groups!

Here in Maryland, January is leaving us with the coldest temperatures in a very long time. I feel for our members in the Midwest! I hope everyone in the Northern Hemisphere stays warm and safe. For those in the Southern Hemisphere, enjoy the beautiful weather.  We will feel warmer thinking of you. 

What I really love about SDA Kinship is that it’s always been a safe space for members to be who we are, regardless of where each of us is on our journey. Some members are in long-term relationships and some are married. Others feel that celibacy is right for them, and still others are dating. All of us want to be on a path that works best for our lives.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 members of the LGBTIQ community participated in the annual Creating Change Conference in Detroit, January 23-27.  I was glad to be a part of the Spiritual Care Team and meet hundreds of participants in the Many Paths spiritual space including a number of Seventh-day Adventists who were attending the conference.  Along with a number of plenary sessions, there were hundreds of workshops available, making it a challenge to figure out which ones to attend. 

I had the privilege of being the guest lecturer for a class on Religion and Gender at La Sierra University.  I shared the story of my journey and had a conversation with the students regarding their questions about our community.

Caring words from John & Carolyn Wilt - Family & Friends Coordinators

Feelings are the world’s universal language. Do you have feelings? Do you know where they come from? Or what caused them? Do they impact your life? Are they important to you and your life?

How We Fit In is a podcast project dedicated to sharing the stories of current and former Seventh-day Adventist church members all around the world. We want to explore how over 25 million unique individuals fit under one belief system. We all have stories to tell, and they deserve to be heard.

Reinder Bruinsma has been a Seventh-day Adventist conference president for the Netherlands and for Belgium, General Conference administrator, pastor, and author - among several other things. In what he loosely calls his "retirement" he continues to write, speak to Adventist leadership and laity conferences and, attend other meetings around the world.