Chesapeake Conference

On July 16, a father and son sea kayaking team will embark on a self-styled expedition they’ve named the #bay200challenge, a 12-day kayaking project that will take them on a 200-mile (320 km) north-to-south traverse of the Chesapeake Bay, the largest bay in the United States. The challenge will help raise awareness and support for one of the most pressing COVID-19-related issues affecting people today—hunger.

Maryland resident Hearly Mayr and his 13-year-old son, Andreas Mayr, decided to create the challenge to spend time together outdoors this summer after more than a year of being mostly home due to travel and social distancing restrictions.

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28, NKJV).

This verse has taken on many meanings throughout the course of my life. I remember first hearing it while listening to the radio program Your Story Hour. Throughout the story, the main character kept saying that “all things work together for good.” To my young self, this meant that, no matter what, everything would be OK, and nothing too terrible would happen to me because God wouldn’t let it. Of course, now I think a little differently.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4, NKJV).

One fateful Friday in 2015, my wife, Hellen, and I were celebrating our fifth anniversary in Cancun, Mexico. We spent the morning on the beach. Shortly after lunch, my head started aching severely. Back at the hotel, I felt sick and began to vomit. I thought perhaps it was due to food poisoning.

When I woke up several hours later, I had no strength to move. My wife helped me to the bathroom, where I began to vomit again. Then I experienced something that changed my life forever: “Sweetheart, I am seeing double,” I told my wife.

Story by V. Michelle Bernard / Feature photo by David Kim

Several churches in Baltimore/Washington, D.C., area have been part of the effort to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine.

Chesapeake Conference’s Washington-Spencerville Korean church in Silver Spring, Md., recently held two two-day clinics—helping 316 people receive the first dose of the Moderna vaccine and about 350 people the second dose.

Story by Andrew S. Lay

Who could’ve imagined that three young people who all lived in Mongolia at one point in time would reunite, become friends and graduate together at Chesapeake Conference's Highland View Academy (HVA)?