Connecting Columbia Union Seventh-day Adventists

Chesapeake Conference

The Chesapeake Conference has over 13,924 members in 74 congregations (64 churches, 10 companies) in Delaware, Maryland, and on the edges of Virginia and West Virginia. It has a pastoral workforce of 65, and its largest congregation, Spencerville (Silver Spring, Md.) has a membership in excess of 1,719. The Chesapeake Conference operates a strong Christian educational program that includes nearly 100 teachers and more than 1,050 students in 11 schools including one high school, a Pre-K - 12 grade academy, a Pre-K - 10 grade academy and eight elementary schools. It also operates an Adventist Book Center and four Adventist Community Services centers in Maryland and Delaware.

Mt. Aetna Camp and Retreat Center, outside Hagerstown, Md., is a fully-accredited camping and retreat center that hosts more than 700 youth during the conference's annual summer camp program. The site, which houses a nature center with a collection of stuffed animals, birds, insects, and reptiles from around the world, is used for field trips, outdoor learning programs, church retreats, spiritual seminars, and camping and hiking excursions.

Bob and Barbara Brostrom, members of Chesapeake Conference’s Williamsport (Md.) church, have seven kids, including three teenagers that still live in their West Virginia home. It’s no shock that media plays an important role in their lives. Could they “survive” an entire week without it—no TV, Internet, social media, video games, texts, even unnecessary phone calls?

Although kids, work and just plain ignorance once kept these five members from staying fit, they all finally determined, “No. More. Excuses!” They traded in apology for action and not only improved their own heath, but helped give others more motivation to move.

Story by Tanisha Greenidge

“I Found Balance in My Life”