Our mission has always been leading children to Jesus. In 1891, Dr. John Kellogg sent a group of Christian medical students to University of Michigan. These students studied and ministered. On Sabbaths, they worshiped among themselves. On Sundays, they led a children’s school attended by community children. When the medical students returned each fall, forty to sixty children returned to the children’s school. One of those children became a charter member of the Ann Arbor Seventh-Day Adventist Church (AASDA) along with about 21members in 1895.
AASDA continued serving its church and community children, and the need for a church school became necessary. In 1950, a church school opened with 21 students in the home of its first teacher, Dorothea Williams. Since the church school’s establishment, two school buildings were built on AASDA‘s property due to its growth. Today, the church school is Ann Arbor Adventist Elementary School (AAAES). For over 130 years, AASDA has served its church and community children, following Jesus‘ command, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:14).
