Summer Office Hours: Tuesday – Thursdays 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM (Appointments by Request)
Office hours: Mon-Thu 7:45 AM-4:00 PM | Fri 7:45 AM-2:00 PM
(916) 481-2300
Summer Office Hours: Tuesday – Thursdays 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM (Appointments by Request)
Office hours: Mon-Thu 7:45 AM-4:00 PM | Fri 7:45 AM-2:00 PM
(916) 481-2300
By day four of Student Week of Prayer, something has settled in. The students walking to the front of chapel are not performing. They are telling the truth. Barna research found that more than three in four American teenagers say they are motivated to keep learning about Jesus, and at SAA this week, that curiosity has a face and a name every single day.
| Theme | Be Real: honest with yourself, with others, and with God |
| Day 4 speakers | Camden (4th grade), Caleb (12th grade), Caleb and Rose (7th grade) |
| What connected all three | God does not need you fixed before you come to him, and he cares about the things you care about |
| Daily practice | Students pause to pray with a partner every day this week |
| Series | Day 4 of 5 days of student-led chapel |
| School year | 2025-2026 |
Camden opened with a question nobody saw coming. Have you ever seen your bones on the floor?
He had.
His family drove an hour to his cousins’ house for Thanksgiving. The afternoon had everything a holiday at a relative’s house is supposed to have: toys upstairs, swings outside, and chickens that had their own swing. When everyone came back inside, they found the wooden floor was perfect for sliding. Camden went chest first, his head jerked forward, and when he stood up, two pieces of his front teeth were on the floor. He ran to his dad crying. His dad held him and told him it was going to be okay.
His dad is a dentist. The next morning, he fixed the teeth.
Camden connected that to Moses on Mount Sinai. While Moses was up the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, the Israelites built a golden calf. Moses came down, saw it, threw the tablets, and they broke in two. God did not leave. He told Moses to make new ones.
“Even if we break something and we’re broken, God never gives up on us. God is always there for us, and he promises to heal our brokenness.”
His dad showed up the next morning with the tools to fix what broke. Camden said that is the picture.
Caleb and Rose each came with a story about something lost and a God who showed up anyway.
Caleb’s family goes backpacking in the summers. On one trip, he brought along a pocket knife his grandpa had gotten in Tennessee. It was small. It meant a lot.
Between campsites, he jumped over a small stream and dropped it. The current caught it and carried it over a little waterfall. His dad, his brother, and a friend stayed back to look. They searched for close to an hour. Caleb prayed, but admitted he did not really believe anything would happen. At the last minute, his brother waded in and found it.
Rose’s story happened when she was young. Her family was somewhere crowded when her toddler sister wandered off. Her mom searched and could not find her. She was in tears. She prayed. Right after she finished, her sister walked up.
Both stories connect to 2 Kings 6. A group of prophets were cutting trees near the Jordan River when one of them lost a borrowed axe head in the water. He cried out. The prophet Elisha threw a stick in the river, and the iron floated to the surface.
A borrowed axe head. A pocket knife. A toddler in a crowd. None of it too small for God to care about.
“It doesn’t matter how big or small your problems are. God cares about the things you care about too.”
The same God who made iron float showed up for both of them. They believe he will do the same for everyone in that room.
Caleb had 24 hours notice. The student originally scheduled got sick, and Caleb stepped in.
His freshman year, he gave a Week of Prayer talk. Afterward, a classmate named Kalini gave him a nickname: Pastor Caleb. It stuck. The problem was what it did to him on the inside. When he heard that name, he thought about what it was supposed to mean, someone who could quote scripture, someone whose private thoughts would hold up under scrutiny. His, he knew, would not. The nickname meant as a compliment became a source of shame, and some days he avoided God altogether because he did not think God wanted him showing up as he was.
He talked through three things he had to learn. God does not need you cleaned up first. David, who the Bible says had a heart after God’s own, went to God in Psalm 51 asking for a clean heart without fixing himself beforehand. God did the work. God can also handle your doubts. Psalm 13 has David asking God how long he plans to hide his face, proof that a heart after God’s does not mean a life without hard questions. And God does not want a church face, the Happy Sabbath version of yourself that shows up after everyone was fighting in the car on the way over.
“God doesn’t want a performance. He wants a relationship.”
He closed talking about college, money he does not have answers for, and questions he is still sitting with. That weight, he said, is too heavy to carry alone. It is not too heavy for God.
Each day closes the same way. The whole chapel goes quiet. Students step away from homework, from the playground, from whatever is filling their heads, and turn to the person next to them. The entire school ends the day with prayer together.
The point is not to do it perfectly on day one. The point is to keep practicing it.
Weeks like this give families a clear look at what this school actually values. Students are encouraged to be honest, share real stories, and look out for each other.
Visit our Student Life page to see more of what happens on campus, or browse the Articles hub for more stories. Learn about our mission on the About Us page, and when you are ready to see it in person, reach out to Admissions and we will set something up.
Sacramento Adventist Academy is accredited by WASC and the Adventist Accrediting Association. Our mission is to honor God by preparing students for academic success and a lifetime of service.
