The Fayette Seventh Day Adventist Church had a special interest in the recent Leonid meteor shower.

During the shower, meteors seem to radiate from the direction of the constellation Leo and do so every 33 years.

It was the occasion of the meteor showers in 1833 that spurred the concern of a number of citizens. It seems that the shower was exceptionally intense that year in brightness, length and the number of meteors.

Many people felt it portended the scriptures regarding the advent of the second coming of Jesus Christ. William Miller was a Baptist preacher and believed with all his heart that the second advent awakening would take place in 1844. A following ensued composed of representatives of the various Christian faiths.

Even though 1844 came and went without the second advent taking place, in 1863 a new faith was organized and today the Seventh Day Adventist Church is composed of 900,000 people in the United States and 10 million worldwide.

The Fayette congregation dates back to 1984. Originally a group met in south Fulton County but decided to move to Smyrna. The Fayette countians in the group formed a church here, renting several small churches for several years, and built their own facility in 1994. The sanctuary can seat 200 people.

The congregation is mission-oriented and supports its general conference in worldwide missions, takes up a yearly offering for humanitarian relief that may include countries such as Bosnia, the quakes in Turkey or floods in the United States as well as local agencies such as the Fayette Youth Protection homes and the Samaritans.

Elder of the church is Gary Fordham. He was born in Texas and reared in Hawaii, where his father worked at Pearl Harbor. He is a graduate of the Pacific Union College, an Adventist school, and he attended an Adventist college in England, graduating in 1965 with a degree in theology and history.

He received his master's degree in divinity and arts at Andrews Seminary in Michigan. He also has received a master's of religious education from the Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Texas.

He has worked in Uganda where he taught at a seminary for five years and in Kenya, where he operated a seminary for nearly four years. In the United States, he worked in Indiana for six years. He came to Fayette County in 1988 and oversees two churches, the one here and one in Austel.

He is married to Kaarina, a native of Finland, and they met at Andrews Seminary. They have been married for 32 years and are the parents of Sonja, who teaches English in Korea, and Sari, who is continuing her degree in writing.

The church's Sabbath services are on Saturday, with Bible study at 9:30 a.m. and worship service at 11 a.m. Vespers are Saturday evening at 6 p.m. There is a prayer meeting Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. and men's study is Sunday evening at 7 p.m.

The church is at 844 New Hope Road and can be reached at 770-460-5904 or 770-739-4267. Its web site address is www.tagnet.org/fayettesda.

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