Potomac Conference

If you walked or drove by the parking lot of the Takoma Park Spanish church in Takoma Park, Md., yesterday you would have heard a live Christian praise team; seen kids and kids-at-heart getting their faces painted, taking photos with the Guide magazine dog and singing interactive songs; while their parents selected free clothing and food and got free immigration and health counseling. As people chatted happily with the young people who staffed the giveaway stations and with each other the atmosphere was certainly festive. Located at the corner of University Boulevard and Caroll Avenue, the church is just blocks away from Langley Park, one of the largest Spanish-speaking communities in the Washington, D.C.-area.

The 13th annual Women’s Ministries Retreat of the Potomac Conference’s Hispanic Ministries recently held October 21-23 in Arlington, Va., drew more than 1,000 women representing more than 60 Hispanic churches.

Several communication professionals from the Columbia Union Conference took home awards from the recent Society of Adventist Communicators convention held in Lombard, Ill. Potomac Conference’s Communication Department won “Best in Class” for the Corporate Communication Website category. The team includes Dan Jensen, Communication director; Adrienne Suarez, graphic designer and Paolo Esposito, communication intern.

Some 50 Seventh-day Adventist legal professionals enjoyed fellowship and professional enrichment during the recent inaugural Columbia Union Attorney Weekend. The event was organized by Adventist Lawyers Association (ALA), which “exists to unite and support Adventist lawyers in service to the community and each other.” The general counsel offices of both the General Conference and the Columbia Union Conference sponsored the weekend.

Potomac Conference’s Richmond Academy of Seventh-day Adventists (RA) in Richmond, Va., celebrated 100 years of excellence in Christian education on October 14-16. The weekend festivities started with Dwight C. Jones, Richmond mayor, and Nancy Melashenko, Potomac Conference associate director for education, dedicating RA’s new brick commemorative walkway.

According to the King James Bible Trust, “The King James Bible is the book that changed the world … [It] was the culmination of an heroic 80 year struggle to give the English people a Bible in their own tongue.”

After 20 years of meeting for worship in places they could not call home, last weekend members of the Potomac Conference’s Virginia Beach (Va.) church celebrated the purchase of their own church building. Visitors from the community and over 10 sister churches in California, West Virginia, Maryland, Florida and North Carolina joined them for the grand opening ceremony. The sanctuary, lobby and hallways were standing-room-only when attendance soared to over 400 during the divine hour of worship.

The Hyattsville (Md.) church recently took part in the 32nd Annual Historic Hyattsville House Tour, an event hosted by the Hyattsville Preservation Association, Inc. (HPA) to showcase the city’s most beautiful and historic buildings. 

Fox 5 News reporter Holly Hunter recently filmed a live, three-segment story on Olney Adventist Preparatory School and their etiquette classes taught by Christine Chen, school board chair and cofounder of the Olney, Md., school and president of Global Professional Protocol.

There’s an active Spanish-speaking youth group in the Potomac Conference called Movimiento Joven Adventista (MJA). Just before Thanksgiving, they showered love and care upon needy families in Takoma Park, Md.