News

The WGTS 91.9 staff and volunteers from the community celebrate a successful 2017 fall fundraiser that yielded more than $1.2 million.

Historia de Personal de WGTS

El 8 de mayo de 1957, en el sótano del hogar de varones en el campus del entonces Colegio Misionero de Washington, WGTS 91.9 comenzó a emitir en un transmisor de 10 vatios, cubriendo apenas una milla cuadrada en Takoma Park, Md. 

Las letras—WGTS—se hicieron eco del lema de la universidad “Gateway to Service”. 

Members of Potomac’s Living Hope church in Haymarket, Va., provide massages and distribute literature and register 100 people for health seminars and Bible studies at the Town of Haymarket’s 2017 Parade.

Story by V. Michelle Bernard

In 2016 conferences within the Columbia Union territory started 50 new church plants, the most in the North American Division (NAD) that year. To make this possible, the union provided $67,500, and solicited $250,000 from the NAD and General Conference, reports Frank Bondurant, vice president for Ministries Development.

Story by Visitor Staff

Members from 30 Hispanic churches across the Potomac Conference recently gathered at the Southern Asian church in Silver Spring, Md., to celebrate 215 baptisms during “Pentecostes Now.” Thirty evangelists, led by Pastor Abel Pacheco, president of the Salvadoran Union, joined Potomac pastors to preach during 30 series across the conference and visit attendees in their homes.

The pastors who conducted the meetings each shared testimonies and reports from the event. The 215 baptisms are part of the 2,498 that have taken place in Columbia Union Hispanic churches in 2017. Members from around the union will gather to celebrate these evangelism efforts at Vivangelismo 2017, December 8 -10 in Ocean City, Md.

Editorial by Josh Voigt

Addict. It’s a word we don’t like to use to describe ourselves. But at age 17, I was addicted to alcohol and cigarettes, and a user of marijuana, PCP (Phencyclidine) and other drugs.

I cannot place blame for my poor decisions on my parents or upbringing, as I was raised in a loving Seventh-day Adventist home. I became addicted through peer pressure and my inability to say no. I wanted friends to like me, and never wanted to look like I was too afraid to try something. 

Photo of Norman Carter by Kevin Cameron

Story by Tamaria L. Kulemeka

Norman Carter, a member of Allegheny West Conference’s Temple Emmanuel in Youngstown, Ohio, is also on the frontlines of the drug crisis. 

“[The opioid crisis] is a beast that’s been unleashed. … In order to stop it, you have to stop drugs, and we know that is not going to happen. I think that all we can do is be prepared to provide services to those in need,” says Carter, who kicked his crack cocaine habit nearly eight years ago, and three years ago founded the Carter House, a transitional residential program in Youngstown. 

Photo of Darcel Harris by Kelly Butler Coe

Story by Tamaria L. Kulemeka

Darcel Harris is thankful for the success her 12-step group, patterned after the Regeneration model, has experienced for nearly three decades. Harris, a middle school Language Arts teacher, psychology professor and author in Westminster, Md., says the group grew out of Chesapeake Conference’s Westminster (Md.) church, where she is a member. Today they meet every Friday night and during a branch Sabbath School service called True Vine. They also operate a non-profit called Grow, which enables them to provide resources and minister to the needs of homeless people, drug addicts and the less fortunate in the community.

Photo of James Jackson by Darrell Bullock

Story by Tamaria L. Kulemeka

“[The church] is supposed to be a hospital, but we’re not all ready to address the sick,” says James Jackson, AEC’s coordinator for Adventist Recovery Ministry (ARMin), and a member of the Mount Olivet church in Camden, N.J., who spent 20 years under the influence of alcohol and other drugs. After being “restored to sanity” and getting clean, he worked as a counselor and retired as a clinical supervisor for an agency that provided mental health and substance abuse services in the city. 

Bonnie Franckowiak, professor and coordinator of the Master of Science Nursing Program at Washington Adventist University, says recognizing substance abuse varies from age group to age group. For example, adolescents showing changes in mood or failing grades could be signs of drug use. In more advanced age groups, needle marks could be a clue that someone is using. She says the biggest determinant is recognizing a person ceasing to function as he or she once did, not to mention their finances vanishing for no visible reason.

 

Photo by Bonnie Franckowiak by Tijuana Griffin