October is an exciting month!
Here in Texas, it is normally a time to enjoy the State Fair of Texas and all that goes with an outing to Fair Park—tons of unhealthy foods to sample, new cars to check out, carnival folks trying to get you to try their games (and lose your money). For a German, Oktoberfest is an event to be social and, again, associated with overindulgence in food. It’s a time when I can wear my Lederhosen in public and not be embarrassed.
For our community, October 11 is National Coming Out Day. It’s a day to raise awareness of the LGBTQ+ community and to share your authentic self with others. For SDA Kinship, we claim the whole month as Kinship Awareness Month (KAM). It’s a time to highlight our projects and accomplishments as a community. It’s a time to raise awareness in the Adventist community that we exist; and it’s a time to help those who are not aware of our community to learn more about us.
We kicked off KAM on Friday night, October 2, with a Kinship Worship, which will be a monthly vespers event to welcome the Sabbath and to provide spiritual encouragement to our members. If you missed it, you can check it out on our public Facebook page (www.facebook.com/sdakinship) or on our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/sdakinshipint). We intend Kinship Worship to be rich in the talents of our members around the world and to be in various languages. So if you are interested in singing, reading your favorite Bible verse, praying, or even preaching a sermon, let us know (
We have several events planned throughout the month for you. On the 11th, we will have a Kinship State of the Union Zoom meeting where everyone is invited to hear about what the organization is up to. So we ask that you submit questions in advance for the board members to respond to by sending an email to
On October 18, at 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time, the Family and Friends coordinators are hosting a Zoom meeting that is open to everyone. It is a good time to invite your parents and family members to join in and share with others who understand where they are coming from.
We will be debuting a new film from our Kinship Australia region about being part of the trans family and being Christian. We’ll be having a watch party for the Kinship documentary and will be completing the month with a Week of Prayer during the last week of the month.
Those are just some of the scheduled activities. Watch the Facebook and WhatsApp groups for details about dates and times. October is a month to celebrate us...celebrate you...celebrate being a part of God's rainbow family. You are the most important part of the SDA Kinship community. Why not share SDA Kinship with your friends and loved ones?
Floyd Poenitz
SDA Kinship Vice President