The Mid-America Union Communication Department presented its first Excellence in Communication Ministry award today during the MAUC Year-end Executive Committee meeting. This award will be given annually to an individual in the territory based on their dedication to fulfilling the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, their creativity, collaboration, and innovation in addressing communication challenges.
The first award was presented to Dakota Conference communication director Jacqueline Biloff.
When Biloff was hired in 2009 she was surprised to find that the Adventist Church as a whole, and Dakota Conference in particular, has kept financial rather than personal records of churches, members, baptisms, pastors and teachers. While searching for some of that history, she was amazed to find Adventist cemeteries in the Dakotas. These she recorded, and set up means for their protection and signage. Part of that process resulted in the establishment of a Dakota Conference Time Line.
Biloff realizes that the fortitude and faithfulness of the aging population has contributed much to the Dakotas. To acknowledge and remember those passing each year, she started the Hall of Remembrance feature during camp meeting— a slide show set to music featuring a person’s photo, date and place of birth and death, and home church.
In addition, Biloff launched the Dirt Kicker Charity Run as a communication outreach initiative to bring the community to a familiarization of Adventism, while at the same time donating funds to a local charity. It is now a national run and considered one of the top 10 in the state of North Dakota.
Employment in the communication department has allowed her the flexibility to travel with her husband, Dakota Conference president Neil Biloff, and meet wonderful people and hear and share their stories. She says that serving in this role has stretched, humbled and challenged her, for which she is grateful.
