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OREGON CONFERENCE NEWS<br />
Ron and Marta Davis celebrated<br />
their 50th wedding<br />
anniversary with their Grants<br />
Pass Church family on Oct. 6,<br />
2012. Never would they have<br />
imagined 50 years ago that their<br />
journey together would bring<br />
them to Grants Pass, where they<br />
manage Better Life Broadcasting<br />
Network, the second-largest<br />
Adventist television network in<br />
the world.<br />
They also never would have<br />
imagined that they’d be celebrating<br />
their golden anniversary<br />
by renewing their marriage<br />
Marta and Ron Davis<br />
Better Life Couple Celebrates<br />
Re-baptism and Anniversary<br />
vows and being re-baptized<br />
in an Adventist church. After<br />
moving to Grants Pass in 1995<br />
they began watching Better Life<br />
and were ultimately converted<br />
to the Adventist faith in 1998.<br />
Two years later they began<br />
managing the very station that<br />
had helped bring them into the<br />
church.<br />
As the date approached for<br />
their 50th wedding anniversary<br />
the couple thought it would be<br />
appropriate to renew their vows<br />
and be re-baptized. They had<br />
been baptized by immersion<br />
years earlier, but in thankfulness<br />
to the Lord for all He had<br />
taught them since, they desired<br />
to be baptized again in an Adventist<br />
church.<br />
During a special fellowship<br />
dinner, Henry Martin, a familiar<br />
host on Better Life, read<br />
the history of Ron and Marta’s<br />
journey together. A slideshow<br />
showed pictures of Ron and<br />
Marta from when they first met<br />
to the present. The meal was<br />
topped off with a beautifully<br />
decorated carrot cake cut and<br />
served by the couple.<br />
Following the fellowship dinner,<br />
everyone was invited to the<br />
sanctuary for the vows renewal<br />
and re-baptism officiated by<br />
Marvin Clark, Grants Pass<br />
Church pastor. The wedding<br />
vows were brief, relevant and<br />
sentimental. Bart Shields sang<br />
special music and led attendees<br />
in worship.<br />
As Clark baptized the couple<br />
simultaneously, many people<br />
gave a hearty, “Amen!”<br />
Jennifer Burkes, Grants Pass<br />
Church communication leader,<br />
with Doug Garcia, Better Life<br />
Television creative director<br />
Baptism Celebrated at Evans Creek<br />
Keith and Harmony Strong<br />
have looked forward for<br />
some time to publicly declaring<br />
whose side they have chosen in<br />
the great controversy between<br />
Christ and Satan.<br />
Married on Jan. 16, 2010,<br />
the Strongs approached their<br />
baptism this past Septe<strong>mb</strong>er<br />
as a marriage to Christ. John<br />
Witco<strong>mb</strong>e, Rogue River Church<br />
pastor, performed the wedding<br />
for the couple and then their<br />
recent baptism.<br />
Marta and Ron Davis cut the<br />
carrot cake in celebration of<br />
their 50th anniversary.<br />
The Strongs’ church family<br />
supports them in prayer and<br />
with the apostle Paul’s promise<br />
in 2 Tim. 1:12, “I know whom I<br />
have believed and am persuaded<br />
that He is able to keep that<br />
which I have committed to Him<br />
until that day.”<br />
Harry Smedes, Grants Pass<br />
Church communication team<br />
me<strong>mb</strong>er<br />
Ron and Marta Davis about to be re-baptized into the<br />
Adventist church.<br />
January 2013 • GLEANER<br />
19
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