Profile: Craig Harding School Advisory Board Chairman

As a young fifth-generation Adventist, I found myself an "Adventist" much more by default than by choice. At age nine, I read through The Great Controversy, which helped me discover that the Protestant Reformation and our unique Biblical heritage as Seventh-day Adventists is well worth living for.

I am blessed with a wonderful family who home schooled me through twelfth grade. After taking my GED, I began working at a building supply store in Alaska, where I lived. I soon found myself in charge of the flooring department and involved in purchasing. At age eighteen, I took my real estate license exam and passed, and started selling real estate on my nineteenth birthday. As I was selling real estate, I began to study E.G. White’s four-volume set on the 1888 message. As I read, I found my ideas and mind strangely warmed by the love of Christ and the matchless gift of Christ our Righteousness!

In 2004, I began to struggle with God’s plan for my life. I had been tremendously blessed with success in real estate. I loved the business and intended to do it for the rest of my life, but I found that I could not find peace. The thoughts of the times we live in kept nagging at my mind. Finally I concluded that if I lived a good and godly life, was honest, and sold real estate the rest of my life, I would still look back at the end of my life and have regrets that I had not worked more actively for God. So I sold the land that I had bought at the base of the beautiful Alaskan mountains and walked away from real estate.

I went to ARISE Institute, directed by David Asscherick, to follow God’s plan for my life. After graduating from ARISE in 2005, I came to work here in Benton, TN, with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Lifestyle Center of Benton, and the AM radio station (1540 WBIN). God works in mysterious ways and I have recently started my own real estate practice here in Tennessee while I continuing to work with the Church, Radio Station and Lifestyle Center. On October 8, 2006, I married my best friend and beautiful wife, Alicia, 
and we have begun a happy home together!

I am convinced that if we follow God and His plans 100 percent––whether in evangelism, home life, business, or education––we will find that He, as the original Creator and Educator, knows what is best! I believe that as "prisoners of hope," we have a bright future to look forward to in God’s plans for education!