The first SDA activity in Second Life® has so far been documented to Evandro Falck a Brazilian pastor who started an SDA group.
On January 28, 2007, LadyDawn Starbrook founded the Way Station and created the "Adventists of Second Life" group. When Evandro discovered this he transferred his group to the new group and joined with the Way Station project. The Way Station visitor rate averaged about 14 per day. (Closed 12/21/2015).
Vinhold Starbrook was dragged into SL by his son Cron Stardust who had been introduced to the world in one of his college game programming classes. It so happened that Vinhold joined on the same day and chose the same last name as LadyDawn had! But it was not until September 2007 that Vinhold discovered the rest of the SDA in Second Life® which came about when Jean Ross presented a series of meetings by Amazing Facts in New Zealand. During this series he was contacted by Narz Hax who was working with LadyDawn in the operation of the Way Station. Was Amazing Facts interested in helping with the project? The information was sent on to the IT department head who forwarded it on to Vinhold. That evening Vinhold met with Narz in SL and joined the Way Station team, bringing in the Final Events movie on Sept. 12, 2007 which was recently released by Amazing Facts. Attendance at the Way Station went up dramatically to 77 visitors in the next 48 hours and remained at a higher rate since. Later the Amazing Facts programs for Everlasting Gospel and Central Study Hour were added. A Meeting series using video from Amazing Discoveries' Genesis Conflict was run showing one video per week. Up to this time the videos could only be run for all present at once. Late comers could not see it. The play option was improved so each person could select and watch a program independently of anyone else. This tech breakthrough improved the display of programs greatly. Amazing Facts' Most Amazing Prophecies were run using this new format.
Antwanadan Kantos founded the Great Controversy Island in May of 2008 as a place to create a 3D model of the church the local SDA congregation wanted to build. When that project had been completed, the land was open for use and he desired that it be used for the Gospel message. December 2008 Vinhold joined him in working out a presentation plan for Bible Prophecy on the island and the present program started to take shape with help from other contributing SDA members: MarcSeven and Donetta. In January 2010 Antwanadan could no longer support the project and sold it to Vinhold. This website was created to showcase the project and what is taking place in Second Life® as a ministry outreach at the same time.
A Bible Study group was formed by Windan Rayna at the Way Station meeting once a week. A regular group of people started to attend it.
In March 2010, Donetta agreed to rent and manage the Bible Recreations land area to build the Exodus project on it. Now you can tour the events of the Exodus: From Egypt to Canaan in that area of the island.
During the summer of 2010, Vinhold was joined by Theo Zelin and Pheona Avon who wanted to try starting an SDA church in SL. Various designs for a church were constructed and eventually a design created by Vinhold and daughter Tinare was accepted as the church. The church opened its first service Sept. 17, 2010 Friday at 1:00pm SLT with Pastor Paul in Australia preaching. Additional content in this website documents the progress and development of the SDA church in SL.
Soon after a Portuguese language service was started by MarcSeven.
The first SDA Church in Second Life® opened Sept. 17, 2010 Friday at 1:00pm SLT with a presentation on "Finding Peace in a Restless World" by Pastor Paul in Australia. 12 people attended this meeting! See the FirstService event entry in the Picture Library.
May 2011 the church group organized its first church board meeting. Jeff Parker agreed to head up the church group board and project as the pastor. Daniel Matteo, a senior theology student joined our church team. In June we put in an application, with Daniel writing it, to get some partial funding for the church project. The application was approved in August to be part of the 2012 funding cycle. The church group would raise a portion of the funding by parcel rentals on the island space and donations.
Our First Year of Church operation anniversary was Friday Sept. 16 2011 SL Time. ImExcited presented the sermon and JeffOh gave the dedication prayer.
Oct. 2011, DayStar Adventist Community Church region was added to the Bible Prophecy Island estates to be the home of the SDA Church project. This addition has greatly enhanced the ability to use the church space to hold evangelism meetings with attendance up to 200 people at the same time.
This is a big pioneering step for the church group and the DayStar name derives from the early Seventh-day Adventist / Millerite publication.
Church services started at the new church location on 11/11/2011.
January 2012 saw several of the conference staff changes applied. To our wonder and surprise our first pastor Paul was called to serve as the NNSW conference in Australia which put him as the contact person for the church project funding. No one could have possibly foreseen this situation except the Lord.
Jan. 2013 Through the efforts of Daniel Matteo the Avondale Theology Dept approved theology students to get the same class credit for preaching in our virtual church as they would for preaching in a home church. This project can help with training pastors and evangelists!
Feb 4, 2012 a new church group and service was created for the USA time zones so the people there could have church service time they could more easily attend. Daniel Matteo is the group's pastor (in training).
Oct. 15, 2013 the ability to show live stream content from SDA churches was implemented providing live Sacramento Central SDA Church services in the SL Church as well as the Novo Tempo Church services in Rio de Janeiro Brazil.
Oct. 1, 2014 The Brazilian Church group closed operation due to lack of participation. Perhaps it may reopen if we can find someone willing to lead out in it.
Oct. 27, 2014 The Adventist Chapel opened on Arlene Bronet's region. This location plays the AFTV broadcast 24/7 except during the time when the Live Granite Bay Church service is active.
Dec. 21, 2015 Just a bit short of 9 years open, the Way Station had to close. LadyDawn could no longer maintain the cost for it due to health troubles at home. It had been the anchor point for the SDA Operation in SL during this time. It is hoped that it will be able to be reopened again in the future if the situation changes for them.
Mar. 27, 2016 LadyDawn's husband's disability was approved so she was able to obtain some land again in SL and reopened the Way Station project at a new location.
May 1, 2017 The Bible Recreations project was closed due to lack of funds to support it. My son took over the land for a project he had been working on for several years which removes it from the general Bible theme of the island.
June 26, 2018 The Adventist Chapel closed. Arlene could not continue the lands she held in SL. The chapel was open for visitors for just short of four years.
Jul. 9, 2019 Second edition of the Way Station closed. Insufficient funding to keep up the extra property.
July 5, 2022 Daystar / Adventist Community Church region was closed and sold in SL. Rentals to help fund the region were not staying rented and there was not enough donations to cover the additional $100 the rentals were not providing. Church had been in operation in this region for just short of 11 years. Church has been relocated to a space that was the BPI side of the Amphitheater.
Dec. 2022 Adventist Community region had to close due to lack of funding to keep it open. Also the main island region of Bible Prophecy Island lost half of its funds, so half of the region was parceled out for the needed rental spaces in it and the Church.
Note: This project is independently owned and operated by individual SDA members as personal ministry projects. Permission to use select video programs in Second Life® has been provided by Amazing Facts and Amazing Discoveries for the content presented there.
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