The Rookie Communicator, the White House Advisor, and the Grace of God

Loanne Liligeto was in tears. It was April 2024, and after 15 years as an English teacher and three years as the associate director for Family, Women’s and Children’s ministries for the Solomon Islands Mission (SIM), she was facing her greatest work challenge yet. A few days before, she had received a call from the leaders at the SIM office.

“Loanne,” leaders had told her, “with our communication director dedicated to Hope Channel Solomon Islands, we need someone else to manage our social media pages and increase our digital footprint. We have been praying, and we believe that person should be you.”

A Steep Learning Curve

Liligeto could not believe her ears. She had made a point of not owning a mobile phone and to eschew any social media presence; but now, seemingly out of the blue, church leaders were asking her to fill the role of Communication, News, and Promotions officer.

“I even wrote a letter demanding that I could stay with Children’s and Family ministries, for which I even have specialized studies,” she shared on the sidelines of the South Pacific Division 2025 Digital Discipleship Conference on the Gold Coast, Australia, March 16. Church leaders, however, insisted. “Here’s your phone. Please, start sharing all that is going on in the Adventist Church across the country.”

When a shocked Liligeto shared the news with her extended family, her nieces encouraged her. “Don’t worry, Auntie,” they told her. “We’ll teach you.” And so, little by little, her nieces introduced her to the world of social media posts, reels, and image sharing.

“Some nights I would cry out of frustration,” she recalls. “I practiced and practiced with the goal of getting it right, but sometimes it was too much. And my greatest distress came from knowing whether this was really a call from God—if the Lord, in His wisdom, was leading me in that direction.”

The entrance sign to the campus of Betikama Adventist College in the Solomon Islands. [Photo: courtesy of Barry Oliver, for Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists]

Students line up at the beginning of a class day at Betikama Adventist College in the Solomon Islands. [Photo: Betikama Adventist College Facebook]

Students at Betikama Adventist College participate in numerous social and talent-building initiatives, including choirs. [Photo: Adventist Record]

An Earthshaking Message

Six months passed. Liligeto kept learning what and how to post on social media to achieve greater impact. She began to attend church events and share the multiple activities and programs of an active Adventist church community across the archipelago. The church’s Facebook page, with 2,100 subscribers when Liligeto arrived, kept adding new people every week (as of March 2025, it stands at 8,400 subscribers—a 300 percent increase).

In mid-October 2024, six months into her new job, Liligeto stopped by Betikama Adventist College and recorded the Year 8 Girls’ Choir singing a special song. Later that day Liligeto uploaded a reel of it, adding the title and crediting its author: “When There’s No Hope (There Is Grace),” by Rick Hendrix.

A few days later Liligeto was surprised to find a contact message on the official Solomon Islands Mission church account. “Hi, I’m Rick Hendrix,” the message said. “I have found the reel of the performance of a song I wrote many years ago, and I was moved to tears as I listened.”

Liligeto set out to find out who the author was. It did not take long to learn that Hendrix is a U.S.-based award-winning composer and marketing expert, at the time White House faith advisor, and someone who had received a Lifetime Achievement Award from three U.S. presidents—George Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. Could it be? Liligeto wondered. Could it be that the actual Rick Hendrix was trying to contact the Solomon Islands Mission church account she managed?

Attendees listen to a plenary presentation during the 2025 Digital Discipleship Conference of the South Pacific Division at Surfer’s Paradise, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, March 15. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

Loanne Liligeto (right), with the Adventist media attendees from the Solomon Islands. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

The event allowed Adventist communicators to connect and network with colleagues from across the South Pacific Division. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

Adventist communicators participate in a special commissioning ceremony just before the closing of the South Pacific Division’s 2025 Digital Discipleship Conference on March 16. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

Meaningful Exchanges

When Liligeto, still dumbfounded, shared the news with her family, her nieces did not bat an eye. “Just write back to him,” they suggested. “Send him a direct message.”

Liligeto obliged. “Thank you so much. This song is a blessing here in the Solomon Islands.”

Hendrix wrote back. “This warms my heart so much. I am very humbled [God] is using the words He gave me. . . . I am so honored to have met you. . . . I was crying as I listened.”

When Hendrix asked if it was possible to watch the whole performance, Liligeto’s communicator instincts kicked in. “You’ll have to follow our page first,” she told him.

After watching the video, Hendrix sent her another message. “Just beautiful. I am crying all over again. I hope the kids and young [people] keep enjoying the song. . . . What a beautiful ministry!”

Greater Heights

Liligeto still reflects on what that “caress from God” meant for her confidence in her new position. “After that experience, I told myself, ‘Maybe God really wants me here, to help share His message and His love more than I have ever done before. Now I can even promote children’s and family ministries activities and programs better!’ ”

But if the exchange with Hendrix boosted her confidence in God’s leading, Liligeto shared that her attendance to the March 14-16 Digital Discipleship Conference in Australia served to confirm her calling. The emphasis on building trust and authenticity in reaching others in the digital world really struck a chord with her. And the whole experience of connecting with other like-minded Adventist communicators from across the South Pacific is bound to be a life changer, she emphasized.

“I was able to meet authors whose articles and news stories I had read for years.” Liligeto said. “I am still in awe about what God can do when we commit to serving Him!”

As the Sabbath sun set on the nearby beach on March 15, the small delegation of Adventist communicators from the Solomon Islands, including Liligeto, met by the ocean to commit their talents to God’s service in 2025 and beyond. The group decided to choose a motto that would inspire them in their mission-driven communication initiatives.

According to Liligeto, theirs was an apt choice. “We decided that our motto will be ‘God Has Led Us to Greater Heights,’ ” she shared. “We couldn’t have chosen a better one!”