Daniela Quiroz, a senior at Milo Adventist Academy in Days Creek, Ore., had many great experiences and wonderful memories growing up in an Adventist Christian home, but as she grew older she began to drift away.
Like a typical teenager, she didn’t want to be told what to do or how to live her life. “I began to reject the guidance that my parents and church provided,” she says. “The events and being involved in church began seeming like more of an obligation and less of something that I truly wanted to do.”
Feeling discouraged, thinking she could never live up to the church’s expectations, Quiroz decided she would live the way she chose instead of what others chose for her. “I knew that the church and my family would not approve,” she says, “but that was the point. I was free. Or so I thought.”
In high school, Quiroz began hanging out with the wrong crowd, adopting many of their worldly customs and habits. She rationalized that “we’re all sinners anyway,” and eventually things started spiraling out of control. “I was lost but didn’t know it,” she remembers.
Finally, when everything seemed to be going wrong all at once, Quiroz says she faintly heard God calling her to turn her life around, but she thought she was already in too deep. She feared that trying to change wouldn’t make a difference because sin would pull her back in.
Since she didn’t know where to start, Quiroz decided to leave it up to God. That’s when she felt the Holy Spirt working in her life. “I knew there had to be something bigger and better out there for me," she says. "I just didn’t know what.”
Quiroz's younger sister had been accepted to attend Milo Adventist Academy, and the family drove up from California to help her get settled in. Having no intentions of enrolling, Quiroz only brought clothes for the weekend.
That changed. "That weekend when I was up there, God transformed my life," says Quiroz. "The environment was gorgeous, and the people so, so nice, nicer than anyone I had met, and I was completely captivated by the heartwarming environment. It was so clear to see that God wanted me at this school. It is a place where my faith has grown tremendously, and I have gotten to know God better and have strengthened my relationship with Him. I know that this school is a huge blessing not only for me but for others as well. I definitely would not trade this blessing for the world.”
When God opens a door, sometimes things fall into place faster than one can imagine. Milo staff pulled together to expedite the admissions process over the weekend, and Quiroz started classes on Monday, wearing borrowed clothes but secure in the knowledge she was right where God wanted her to be.
For more information about Milo Adventist Academy, contact Kathy Hernandez.
Daniela Quiroz went to Milo for the weekend, became completely captivated and stayed.
