Chesapeake Conference

Story by Andrew S. Lay

In March 2020, Highland View Academy (HVA) faced a dilemma—how to keep their campus family of faculty and students connected as they faced an uncertain future with a pandemic quickly taking over school and personal life. What started as a canceled Week of Service, followed by the inability for students to return after spring break, turned into a nightmare of Zoom classes, what ifs and unpredictability about the future. Using all known tools to maintain communication seemed to be the answer: emails, Facebook and Instagram posts, phone calls and mailed care packages to HVA students and parents.

by Heidi Wetmore

Story by Visitor Staff

Today the Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee elected Rick Remmers to serve as the union’s executive secretary. He plans to start his new role in January to fill the vacancy left by Rob Vandeman, who announced retirement as of January 1, 2021.

Remmers, a fourth-generation Seventh-day Adventist pastor with more than 30 years of experience, has been president of the Chesapeake Conference since 2011. He previously served as the conference’s executive secretary.

Editorial by Rick Remmers

We have finally arrived at the closing days of 2020. For so many unanticipated reasons, it has proven to be a watershed year. We know nearly everything in our lives has run into some measure of turbulence, and we don’t know when things will settle down or how different they will be in the years to come.

Story by Sylvia Urutia