May 28, 2019
Patricia Cruzan, Editor, 2014-
In 1976, I joined the team working with Editor John Bevis in the Publishing House in Plainfield, NJ. First, I arrived to do some office work one day a week—and there I discovered that I had a passion for producing the Sabbath Recorder. Before long I was working as Art Director with Sandy Clare (typesetting), Etta O’Connor (proofreading), and Leon Clare (printing). Later, we were the first staff to work at different locations when John moved to Alabama. Using telephones and “snail-mail” to communicate, John would send us the editorial material—and I would then create the layout and produce the pages for printing each issue. We operated successfully for three years until the denomination moved the headquarters from Plainfield, NJ, to Janesville, WI, in 1982. Many of us could not relocate so an entirely new staff continued the printing of the Sabbath Recorder.
During the next several years I continued as a graphic artist in the advertising department of the local newspaper and then at an advertising agency. Also, I continued with projects for the Seventh Day Baptist denomination—including tract and booklet designs, book covers, logos, etc.—and I did advertising at home for the Shiloh SDB Church. But I have always been excited about the possibilities of spreading God’s Word through the Sabbath Recorder!
And so here I am, some 30 years later, working on the Sabbath Recorder as the Editor. I work at my home in New Jersey. All of the authors and editors send me their articles by email which I “copy and paste” into the layout document on my computer. The proofreaders are here in Shiloh while other office jobs, such as the mailing list, are taken care of at the Center in Janesville. I email the SR document to C&M Printing in Wisconsin where it is printed and distributed for mailing. We now have four full-color pages in every issue and online the entire magazine is full-color. You can read the SR much sooner on the SDB LINK app (which you can download for free) because it is posted online each month long before the print copy can be mailed to you.
Words cannot describe how blessed I feel. My prayer is that you will be inspired by the messages, be informed by the news from Seventh Day Baptists, and share the SR with others. It is humbling to be carrying on the publication of the Sabbath Recorder as it celebrates the 175th anniversary. WOW!!!
“It could very well be that the best is yet to come!”
