History:

The October 22, 1951 Gleaner heralded the organization of yet another church in Upper Columbia Conference--the Ephrata Seventh-day Adventist Church.  Following months of evangelistic meetings directed by district pastor Elder Aaron Wagner and led by evangelist Roland Hegstad, conference officials joined members in Ephrata on October 13, 1951 to officially organize the new church.

Under the leadership of Pastor Roland Hegstad, the new congregation quickly moved into an ambitious church building project.  Charter member Howard Mullen remembers how various phases of the construction project were adopted by families, many of whom worked evenings or Sundays to complete their phase of construction.  Materials came from diverse sources, such as heating radiators from a school house in Dixie, WA and brick supplied by the conference.   Many members remember the bake sales to raise money for things like the tile floor, with a number of women putting in many early mornings baking pies and doughnuts.  On December 17, 1955 the members joyfully held their first worship service in the newly constructed church.

Just over a week before the Ephrata Church's first official Sabbath, a committee was formed to explore the possibility for a church school.  Two years later they had a site, and by the 1954-55 school year, 36 students were occupying the newly built church school and were taught by Mr. & Mrs. Robert Bedingfield.

While in Ephrata, Pastor Roland Hegstad had attempted to start a group in Quincy with evangelistic meetings in the early 1950s, but it wasn't until 1979 that members from the Ephrata church spawned a new church in Quincy.  With God's blessing, within four years after the Quincy church was planted, the Ephrata church had a larger membership than it right before the church plant.

In the fall of 1983 the two churches together launched Whispering Winds School, successor to the church school in Ephrata and located on a piece of donated land on Hwy 283.   

God has richly blessed the Ephrata Church.  More than any building has been the wealth of people God has brought over the years to the Ephrata Church.  Looking back on God's blessing in the past, the current congregation anticipates the future and what God has in store for us as we endeavor to impact our community for eternity.