“I’m so happy to let you know that the Caravan of Hope (Caravana de la Esperanza) is going way beyond all expectations!” wrote an excited Ruben Ramos, assistant to the Columbia Union president for Multilingual Ministries, in an email sent this morning. “When the week of evangelism and harvest was planned with the leadership of New Jersey Conference, we set a goal of 100 souls for the whole week.”
The Women's Ministries team at New Jersey Conference’s Union City Spanish church recently led a weeklong evangelism series, themed “United in a Vision is Our Mission.” Together a team of seven women preachers allowed the Holy Spirit to use them to share God’s Word. One of the preachers, Glenny Morel, (pictured) was baptized only six months ago, while another was baptized 18 months ago.
During year end meetings last week, Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee members voted to give $40,000 to the Allegheny East and New Jersey conferences to aid them in their super storm Sandy relief efforts. The three union officers then prayed over José H. Cortés, New Jersey Conference president; and Henry J. Fordham, Allegheny East Conference president; as well as for the efforts of volunteers throughout New Jersey.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Claudia Ramirez, whose colleagues had just dropped her at home. They spent the day delivering 300 personal care kits to a shelter in Northern Burlington County, New Jersey. “I’ve seen a family lose a house or a few families lose their homes to fires, but nothing like this. This is very different. These were hundreds of people who just lost everything because of Sandy.”
“The disaster has passed but winter is coming and they still need blankets, coats, jackets, sweaters and so much more,” said Ricardo Cala, pastor of the Paterson Temple Spanish church in New Jersey. “In the name of God first and then the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the New Jersey Conference, we are here to help.”
With family at the core of the New Jersey Conference’s pillars of prayer, stewardship, evangelism, Bible study, and Christ, this year’s camp meeting focused on building stronger churches through building stronger families.
Chesapeake and New Jersey conferences recently conducted a joint ACS/Disaster Response (ACS/DR) training exercise for 34 pre-trained and volunteer participants from their territories, along with the Ohio Conference.