Potomac Conference

Last Sabbath hundreds of people gathered at Potomac Conference’s Sligo church in Takoma Park, Md., to celebrate the life of John Konrad, who since 1996 served as vice president and general manager of Washington, D.C.’s contemporary Christian music station, WGTS 91.9 FM. Konrad, 43, died at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, January 2, after a short illness.

It’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.

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.

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.

If you are ever in Baltimore on a Friday evening, you can find Yehuda Mordechai in the basement of an old Jewish synagogue. Allegheny East Conference’s Berea Temple now occupies the building, but its Jewish history holds special significance to Mordechai, who is working to build up the newly established Baltimore Hebrew Adventist congregation in an area with a large Jewish population. It is in this place that Mordechai leads a Friday night Shabbat service designed to reach Jews for Jesus.

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

For the past 16 years, the Potomac Conference’s Hispanic Evangelism Festival has drawn pastors and laypeople interested in learning how to better share the gospel with the world.

A veritable list of who’s who gathered on November 15 to celebrate and recognize Erwin Mack, a member of Potomac Conference’s Sligo church in Takoma Park, Md. Some guests attended 80-year-old Mack’s retirement party held at Washington Adventist University also in Takoma Park. This marked the second time that Mack retired from the Takoma Langley Crossroads Development Authority, a business association, which he founded and chaired for more than 20 years. Through that organization Mack lobbied for increased police surveillance, combined advertising, utility improvements, and street and pedestrian safety enhancements.

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.