Allegheny East Conference

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.

“Things in North Carolina were pretty rough. They didn’t want us there anyway,” says Phillip Herout, now 85 years old, recalling his basic training at Montford Point Camp in New River, N.C., which was set up to train the first black Marines. “The place was full of mosquitoes and snakes.” They also lived in substandard housing and suffered abuse from their white drill instructors.

On Sunday at the Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee in Hershey, Pa., members voted to adopt the following values for the 2011-2016 term: Christlikeness, unity, respect, excellence, equality, integrity and service.

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.

The pastors at Allegheny East Conference’s Metropolitan church in Hyattsville, Md., weren’t planning on performing a baptism on Sabbath, September 17. Members were in the midst of “Lifted,” a two-week long evangelism campaign that attracted some 300 people each night and the only baptism scheduled was for the second Sabbath. But the Holy Spirit had been working on Christopher Robinson those first few days and he couldn’t wait another week to publicly commit his life to Christ.

Seventh-day Adventist volunteers from churches throughout the Allegheny East and Pennsylvania conferences worked at five sites throughout Pennsylvania on Sunday to offer aid to their neighbors still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. Just two weeks ago, the Adventist church in Paterson, N.J., partnered with Lowe’s Home Improvement stores to distribute items to a community reeling from flood damage As the home improvement store looked to aid flood victims in eastern Pennsylvania, they again worked with Adventist church members who, with little notice, were quick to volunteer their time, hugs and prayers.

Lifelong Paterson, N.J., residents Kathy and Greg are expecting a baby in one month. However, due to flooding from Hurricane Irene they have not been able to get to her home on Haledon Street for the past week. Recalling that when she left she had water up to her knees in her living room, Kathy said, “Our apartment was condemned this week, and we have been in a shelter, and we need all the help we can get.”

“Sometimes as young adults, especially those who are single, we go our own way on Friday nights. But with this ministry, we can open the Sabbath together,” says Anthony Barnes, a member of Allegheny East Conference’s First church in Washington, D.C. It was at his church that young adults from around the region recently met for the “First Fridays” worship service.

Members of the Allegheny East Conference’s Emmanuel-Brinklow church in Ashton, Md., recently stood witness as a former member of the Klu Klux Klan embraced a man who he beat some 50 years ago. Back then that man was a Freedom Rider participating in the Civil Rights Movement. Today that man who was beaten is better known as U.S. Congressman John Lewis. Rep. Lewis was one of four people that the Emmanuel-Brinklow church recently honored during the church’s sixth annual Living Legends Awards for Service to Humanity. The honorees included Frazier and Virginia Mathis, Emmanuel-Brinklow members and founders of Global Vessels—a missionary organization; Ella Jenkins, a Grammy-award-winning children’s musician; and Congressman Lewis.

Dwain Esmond, editor of the youth magazine Insight, had an idea: What if everyone who came to the Super Bowl had an opportunity to meet Jesus? It was a big dream and he had no idea how it could happen, but he took the first step—he began planning an issue of his magazine that would tie in with the biggest sports event in North America.