This Month's Issue

At the Columbia Union Conference Constituency Meeting in May 2016, union leadership and conference presidents made a commitment to continue the strong focus on evangelism in the new quinquennium, starting with an initiative themed “Share the Light, Share the Hope.” Here are some highlights to date:

Durante la reunión de fin de año de la Unión de Columbia, los miembros del Comité Ejecutivo analizaron el documento sobre la Unidad en la Misión votado a principios de octubre por el Consejo Anual de la Asociación General. Muchos expresaron su preocupación por la intención, el propósito, las suposiciones que implica el documento, y cómo impactará la misión de la iglesia en esta región.

Diego Boquer, pastor of Chesapeake Conference’s Living Word church in Glen Burnie, Md., recently wrote “Journey to Freedom: Leaving the past behind and moving to a new life,” a 40-day devotional on the book of Exodus.

Read our full feature on the 2016 Columbia Union Camporee, "Fearless," a classic Christmas tale edited by Joe Wheeler and more in the December 2016 Visitor. (You can download the pdf here too!)

Can't get enough Christmas concerts this season?  Click here to see a list of concerts hosted around the Columbia Union Conference.

Joseph Leininger Wheeler, fondly known as “America’s Keeper of the Story,” has a doctorate in English, and has edited and compiled 94 books of stories that have sold more than 1.5 million copies. He is best known for the Great Stories Remembered, Heart to Heart, The Good Lord Made Them All and Christmas in My Heart series, whose 25th book was just released by Pacific Press Publishing Association and is available at Adventist Book Centers and other booksellers.

If this story were fiction, editors would reject it as being too implausible or coincidental to have ever happened. Yet these storm-induced events did occur a number
of years after Hitler’s armies ravaged Europe. Of true stories of Christmas, few are treasured and re-read more. It was published in Christmas in My Heart 3 and reprinted here with permission of editor/compiler Joe Wheeler and Review & Herald Publishing Association.

Multiple studies have shown that practicing gratitude results in being more resilient, more relaxed and less materialistic. It is difficult to be depressed and full of gratitude at the same time. This should not be surprising for people of the Word. “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God.” (Col. 3:17). And “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (I Thes. 5:18).