Potomac Conference

t’s a Sabbath morning and the small chapel at 5203 Manchester Drive in Temple Hills, Md., is packed. This is the inaugural meeting of the Arise church, the first Hispanic American church in the Potomac Conference and people have come from Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., to see what it is all about.

Because he attended a stop-smoking seminar and aired Voice of Prophecy seminars in his early radio career, local station owner Danny Wadsworth was familiar with the Tappahannock church and the members’ passion for community outreach. That’s why he called Clinton Adams, Tappahannock’s pastor, to offer him his 300-watt AM station.

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.

Last Friday Charlie “Doc” Shyab, a member of Potomac Conference’s Takoma Park (Md.) church, received the Bronze Star medal in a ceremony at Fort Meade in Maryland. Because of misplaced paperwork, the award was overdue by 44 years. It seemed only fitting that he would receive this recognition only a few days before the Veteran’s Day holiday.

The Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, Md., has become the first hospital in Montgomery County to perform a da Vinci robotic single-site operation. This comes less than a year after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved single-site instruments for the da Vinci robotic surgical system last December.

At the beginning of the year, Hispanic young people in the Potomac Conference received a CD chockfull of sermons, posters and other materials to help prepare them to become evangelists. Nine months later, those who accepted the challenge stood in front of friends and family preaching about Jesus during a recent youth evangelism week at their churches. Some 27 churches participated, including youth from the Bealton (Va.), Oxon Hill (Md.) and District of Columbia Spanish churches.

For many years, the building directly behind Potomac Conference’s Beltsville (Md.) church served as a parsonage. But on Tuesday, September 4, the building became a branch office of the Prince George’s County Department of Social Services. The office, located in the Adventist Community Services house at 4220 Ammendale Road, will offer emergency temporary cash assistance, food stamps and medical assistance.

Long time radio host Gerry Fuller, DDS, died Sunday, July 1, at the age of 83. Fuller, a member of Potomac Conference’s Sligo church, was best known as host of the Saturday morning broadcast, Breakaway, at Washington Adventist University’s WGTS 91.9 FM radio station in Takoma Park, Md

The Adventist-laymen's Services & Industries (ASI) Columbia Union chapter (CUASI) recently held their annual convention at Potomac Conference’s Vienna (Va.) church. Some 700 attendees, including church members, donated some $10,000 to fund upcoming CUASI projects that aim to fulfill ASI’s motto of “Sharing Christ in the Marketplace.”

While schools around the country engaged in Valentine’s Day activities, the campus of Takoma Academy (TA) in Takoma Park, Md., welcomed a man who walked with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as the nation prepared to address civil rights: U.S. Rep. John Lewis.