Senior Pastor: Homero Salazar

Tel: 301-622-3535
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In 1953, Dr. F.E. Wall, the Dean of the Washington Missionary College (today known as Columbia Union College), decided to teach a Sabbath School class in Spanish. Some Spanish students like Ernesto Santos and other former missionaries like John Livingston taught the class on the balcony of Sligo Church.

Every Friday over a period of sex months William Mulholland, Ernesto Santos, Lucas Días, Daniel Hammerly, José Rivera, Enrique Nieman and Gabriel Castor taught a series of meetings in Spanish. Other volunteers visited the homes and offered Bible studies to the Spanish community. The first ones to be baptized were Leopoldo Bobes, Dámaris de Adams.

In 1956, Pastor Víctor Dietel took on the leadership of the group until 1957 when Pastor Manuel Rosado arrived in Takoma Park, MD and accepted the responsibility to continue leading the group. One day, Iris Marrero de Santos asked Pastor Rosado: “Why don’t we try to organize a Spanish Church?” Pastors Walter Schubert, Wesley Amundsen and William Mulholland were asked to speak with the leadership of the Potomac Conference about this idea. At first, the President of the Conference did not see any light in this request. However, after countless prayers and discussions the Potomac Conference approved the request.

On May 4, 1957, the group met for the first time in the basement of the Capital Memorial Church. Finally, on September 14, 1957 the very first Spanish church in the Conference was organized. There were 46 members at the time.

In 1960, the church moved to a building that belonged to the Free Methodist Church on the streets of Van Buren and 4^th in Washington, D.C. That building served as a temple until 1982 when the church that we are worshipping in today was built on 12604 New Hampshire Avenue. Since its small beginnings 50 years ago, the Spanish work has multiplied in 60 churches in the area. All glory is to God.

12604 New Hampshire Ave Silver Spring, MD 20904

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As a Christian church, Seventh-day Adventists are a faith community rooted in the beliefs described by the Holy Scriptures. Adventists describe these beliefs in the following ways:

God's greatest desire is for you to see a clear picture of His character. When you see Him clearly, you will find His love irresistible.

For many, "seeing God clearly" requires that they see God's face. However, how He looks is not the issue. Seeing and understanding His character is what's most important. The more clearly we understand Him, the more we will find His love irresistible. As we begin to experience His love, our own lives will begin to make more sense.

God most clearly reveals His character in three great events. The first is His creation of man and woman--and His giving them the freedom of choice. He created humans with the ability to choose to love Him or to hate Him! The death of Jesus Christ, God's only Son, on the cross as our substitute is the second great event. In that act He paid the penalty we deserve for our hateful choices toward God and His ways. Jesus' death guarantees forgiveness for those choices and allows us to spend eternity with Him. The third event confirms the first two and fills every heart with hope: Christ's tomb is empty! He is alive, living to fill us with His love!

Jesus' disciple John wrote that if everyone wrote all the stories they knew about Jesus, the whole world could not contain them. Our knowledge of God helps us understand His love, character, and grace. Experiencing that love begins a lifelong adventure in growth and service. This knowledge and experience powers our mission to tell the world about His love and His offer of salvation.

Scripture is a road map. The Bible is God's voice, speaking His love personally to you today.

The Bible speaks the Creator's directions to us, like a detailed road map that clearly shows the exit ramp directly into heaven. It is also much like an owner's manual for a life ready to be lived on the cutting edge of liberty.

Sometimes His voice speaks through stories, such as those of David and Goliath, Ruth and Boaz, Naaman's little servant girl, Christ on the cross, and fisherman Peter learning how to tend sheep. Some of these stories teach us how to handle the troubles we face each day. Others fill us with hope and peace. Each of them is like a personal letter from God to you.

Portions of Scripture are direct instructions and laws from God such as the Ten Commandments, recorded in Exodus 20. These tell us more about God and His expectations for us. When people asked Jesus to summarize these commands, He focused on the way God's love affects the way we live. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul," He said. "And love your neighbor as you love yourself."

On other pages the Bible gives God's practical advice and encouragement through parables, lists, promises, and warnings. Amazingly, though many different writers throughout thousands of years wrote the Bible, each page describes the same God in ways we can understand and apply in our lives today. This book is always His voice talking personally to anyone who is willing to read and hear.

God loves us even when we choose to reject His love. In those times He allows us to walk away into the life of our own choices. Yet He is still there, always ready to redeem us from the results of our decisions.

Jesus is the one who never changes in a universe that always does. Jesus is Creator, Sustainer, Saviour, Friend, God's Son, and God Himself!

Everything in this world is always changing, even our desires, interests, skills, and body shapes. But Jesus? He's consistent. He's always the same. Sure, He's always surprising us and touching our lives in thousands of new and different ways, but His character is unchanging. He's God's Son, the Creator, our Saviour, and Friend.

Jesus has promised to be all of that, and more, for each of us. We can trust His promises because He is God. When the words of Colossians say "in Him all things hold together" (1:17, NIV) that includes everything in our lives. He keeps us whole when the enemy is trying to make us fall apart.

Seventh-day Adventists believe that Jesus is one of the three persons, called the Trinity, who make up our one God. The Bible describes Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit as each being committed to our growth as Christians and to our salvation as their children. They made this salvation possible when Jesus came to Bethlehem as a human baby. He lived a life perfectly in accord with God's will and then died innocently for all of our sins. He was placed in a borrowed tomb, but He came back to life three days later. Now he is in heaven interceding with the Father for us, preparing for our deliverance from sin and death.

When everything may be falling apart, when you feel totally alone in the universe, Jesus is right there in the center of it all, offering personal peace and hope. Allow Him into your life. He immediately begins "remodeling" who you are and how you live. Jesus, in fact, is busily transforming His followers into accurate representatives of God's character.

Look to Jesus, and you'll be looking into the understanding and loving face of God.

God's vision for you is life as He lives it! God loves you, and wants to give you the highest quality of life imaginable.

No, not a second-rate existence somewhere on earth, but the highest quality of life imaginable, here and in eternity with Him! That's what God wants us to have. The best!

This is why He provides church families where we can belong. This is why He gives each of us special gifts and talents, so we can live life fully. Amazingly, this is why He's concerned about what you're doing, when you're doing it, and how you relate to Him. God doesn't want anything to get in the way of our friendship. He especially doesn't want us to get involved in anything damaging or hurtful. He's like a loving father or a good big brother. He's someone who loves you so much that He's always looking out for you.

When God designed you, He included special talents and skills that will help you become a uniquely valuable individual. These may be your ability to teach, your love for others, or your leadership skills. Still, whatever special gifts you have received, God has also provided all of the energy and wisdom necessary for you to use them well.

By the way, how God feels about death is part of the quality life He offers. For followers of Christ, death holds no fear. Remember, Jesus defeated death on Calvary and has given us freedom from death. Cemeteries, then, are filled with followers of God who are in the "peaceful pause before the resurrection." Yes, they are dead, but that death holds no power over their future. Jesus is coming to take them (and those of us who are still living) HOME! Death is almost like a wintery promise of spring.

The Seventh-day Adventist faith in today and in the future comes from seeing this life "overflowing" with hope!

Because love is the key aspect of His character, God is also deeply into gratitude. Before we even finish saying thank you, He's already busy sending more blessings.

In the heart of God is a place you can experience as home. God loves you, and wants to spend time with you personally, one on one, as two close friends.

Because you and God are friends, you will spend time together as friends do. Each morning you'll share a hello and a hug and discuss how you can face the day's events together. Throughout the day you'll talk with Him about how you feel. You'll laugh with Him at funny things and ache with Him over sadness and hurts. It's pleasant being God's friend, able to snuggle comfortably into the safety of your relationship. You can always trust Him to treat you well, because He loves you.

The seventh day (Saturday) is an extra-special part of the relationship. The Bible, from Genesis through Revelation, describes the seventh day as the one day God has set aside for focused fellowship with His people. God has named that day "Sabbath" and asked us to spend it with Him. "Remember the sabbath day," He says, "to keep it holy." The Sabbath is a whole day to deepen our friendship with the Creator of the universe! A day when we're together, Jesus with us and us with Jesus.

There's another great truth about friendship with God. It doesn't end in a cemetery, for God is planning a homecoming better than anything we can dream. A homecoming filled with angels, trumpets, Jesus, and resurrections! He's promised to bring His followers, those who have accepted the offer of His life-changing love, from this earth to His home, a place He calls heaven. A place where our friendship can go on growing forever, endlessly, joyfully!

• God keeps a family album-and your picture is in it. God loves you and has a plan for your life.

God's love is about you. Personally.

God made you and has a very special plan for your life. It's a plan that will fill you with hope, love, peace, and activity. In fact, when Christ paid the penalty for sin on the cross, that gave Him the right to claim you as His own. As a result, you can experience His love and priceless salvation freely and fully without limit.

By the way, pictures of everyone fill that album: Nepalese, Brazilians, Nigerians, Yupiks, Germans, people of every nation, culture, background, gender, hair color, and foot size. In God's eyes all are equally "children of the King"!

Salvation? God cleans away all our sins and replaces them with His goodness. We don't have to be "good" for Him to accept us. Nevertheless, we must accept His promise and allow Him to clean out everything the enemy has left in us. Then we begin to experience the transforming power of His love. It's like a giant war: one side pulling us toward empty pleasure and destruction, and God urging us to accept His offer of peace and purpose.

Remember, Jesus has already won the war. He is victorious! We celebrate His victory in our lives when we participate in the Lord's Supper. This meal includes three symbols:

• Foot washing (which symbolizes our commitment to love others as Jesus loves us),
• bread ("This bread is my flesh," Jesus said, "which I will give for the life of the world," John 6:51, NIV), and
• wine or grape juice ("Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life." John 6:54, NIV)

To help us understand how God can transform us into His children, Jesus modeled the process of baptism for us. Baptism symbolized dying to self and coming alive in Jesus. Seventh-day Adventists practice full immersion baptism because by being fully buried beneath the water we symbolize that God's grace fully fills us with His new life for the future. Through baptism we are truly born again in Jesus.

Eternal life, peace, purpose, forgiveness, transforming grace, hope: Everything He promises is ours, because He's offering it and He's shown we can trust Him to do exactly as He promises. Accept His gifts, and you immediately become an active part of His family, and He joyfully becomes part of yours.

VISION

“We are a church that evangelizes, makes disciples, praises, ministers and lives in harmony in favor of all generations, because we are led by the power of the Holy Spirit”

MISSION

“Bring sinners to the feet of Jesus and help them in the development of their character, training them to minister to the church and its mission around the world, in order to magnify the name of God”

PURPOSE

Fraternize
Each Church member who has accepted God as their personal Savior and has been baptized by immersion, joins the big family of God and changes into a “brother/sister” with whom we should walk together in harmony toward heaven.

Evangelize
We train, prepare and go out in pairs or in Groups to fulfill the commission given by Christ, who said: “…Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” Mathew 28:19

Minister
We give our talents to the Lord and through the Holy Spirit we develop them to serve with love in our community of faith, our neighborhoods and other overseas missions.

Discipleship
Each person that joins our community of faith starts a process of continuing education in discipleship. This is done through continuing education, Sabbath School, training seminars, weeks of spiritual revival and small group of friendship (GPA in Spanish)

Praise
We praise God with power, eagerness and boldness and every Sabbath we gather together to worship Him and exalt Him in unity. It is a privilege to be together in the House of God. Our services are inspiring and filled with His Spirit.

What to expect from your Seventh-day Adventist neighbor, or, a few answers to frequently asked questions

It's 9:00 Saturday morning and your neighbors have just come out of their front door dressed as though they're going to a symphony concert. But two of them are carrying Bibles! Chances are your neighbors are Seventh-day Adventists on their way to Sabbath morning worship services at their church. That means you're in for a very special relationship, a friendship marked by kindness, openness, and honesty--one that could well enrich your life.

You will find your Adventist friends committed to some very specific beliefs about God and about God's relationships with people. They will be genuinely concerned about the needs of others and interested in bettering your community. If you observe them at their workplace, within their families, and at their church, they will be busily involved in many activities.

Watch your neighbors closely, and you'll probably notice (at least) the following:

• Their love for God supersedes everything else in their lives
• They worship on Saturday instead of Friday or Sunday
• No beer cans or wine bottles dot their trash
• They value their health
• They appear upbeat and friendly
• They work hard to make the community look great
• They want to hear what makes you and your family happy

You will soon discover that your neighbors genuinely like you and accept you as you are. They share their friendship across the back fence, in the marketplace, and at the bus stop. You'll see smiles that come from a depth of peace--in the midst of chaos. That's right, "chaos." Your Adventist neighbors are just like you. They experience the same stresses and disasters that strike everyone else in the neighborhood. Yet you'll notice a difference in how they respond to the challenges. They have a deep inner peace that allows them to look the enemy in the eye and smile. They are looking far beyond today's troubles to the certainties of the future. Because they already know the outcome, they are comfortable with final victory!

Peace, strong inner contentment, is a personal trait of committed Seventh-day Adventists. Many Allied pilots saw that peace in the lives of the Adventist Fiji Islanders who rescued them from the jungles during World War II. Residents of Florida, Iran, the Philippines, Somalia, and thousands of other places have seen that peace. It showed up in the lives of Adventist aid workers who helped them "dig out and start over" after earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, floods and other disasters.

Your neighborhood will see this peace in the lives of your Adventist friends, even when the well runs dry, a tree falls on the house, or the car is stolen from the parking lot. No, this peace is not a cavalier, "Oh, whatever!" attitude. It is the intense peace that comes from knowing God and that whatever happens here in this world is as "nothing" when compared to the joys of living forever in heaven with God.

Sadness? Yes, that's an Adventist emotion, but they believe God's love comforts the sorrowing.

Pain? Yes, Adventists experience pain. Their healthy lifestyle does allow them to live longer than others--as studies done on Adventists in the United States have shown. But Adventists still break limbs, contract cancer, fall off their bikes, and lose loved ones. Yet pain, even at its worst, is always accompanied by the healing love of God.

Anger? Yes. Even anger shows up in the lives of Adventists. Remember, they're normal people trying to live with God on a chaotic earth! But God is good enough to bring the calming power of His love into each angry situation. Even there the result is peace.

Praise, an intense eagerness to thank God for all He is doing in our lives, is another visible trait of Seventh-day Adventists. If you stop by your neighbors' home at breakfast time, you'll probably find someone praying and reading a thought for the day from a book or the Bible while the others eat their meal. Evenings often include a time of thankfulness to God for a good day, Bible reading, and prayer. Many Friday and Wednesday nights your neighbors will participate in Bible study classes, public lectures on religion, or special activities for youth and children at their church. Saturday morning the whole family will join other church members for Sabbath School and a corporate worship service. Don't be surprised if your neighbors invite you to join them at one or more of these activities.

Sabbath school is like Sunday school. It is a one-hour time praising God through music, prayers, mission stories, and small group Bible study. During the time there are separate classes for children grouped according to their ages and for adults with varied interests and understanding of the Bible. Music and fellowship are central to each Sabbath school program. You will find Sabbath school to be a "good time" with each other and with God.

The corporate worship service, or "church," is a more formal time of worship and praise. During this hour you will hear a practical, Bible-based sermon designed to help you see God more clearly and to provide you with strength to live as a Christian during the week. Church also includes worship music, public and personal prayers, and an opportunity to give tithe (10 percent of one's income) and thank offerings to God. During the prayer time, worship leaders will give you an opportunity to share your personal needs or requests so these can be included in the congregational prayer.

Seventh-day Adventist worship styles differ greatly. Some congregations conduct public worship very formally, often singing hymns and anthems accompanied by a pipe organ and piano. Worship in some other congregations is much more laid-back and features praise music led by guitars or even a small band. Still others reflect the cultural heritage of the congregation and may feature exuberant expressions of praise. Ask your neighbors to describe how their congregation worships so you'll know what to expect when you accept their invitation to join them. Whatever the worship style, all Adventist congregations are worshiping the same eternal God who gives us cause for praise!

Purpose, a deep commitment to accomplishing specific goals, is also a personal trait of Seventh-day Adventists. We are not here just to get up, go to work, and come home. We have accepted the challenge of Christ and so function as ambassadors of the Creator. Our purpose is to represent God so clearly that you will find His love irresistible!

You'll see that purpose when your Adventist friend talks about his son who is going abroad as a student missionary to help build a church. You'll see it on the many evenings your neighbors go to church rather than stay home and watch TV. You'll see it in their visible commitment to healthful living, to protecting life, to caring for the earth, and to building friendships with their neighbors. Adventists are a purposeful group of people, busy following a lifelong mission. That mission comes from the words of Jesus Christ Himself. "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19, 20 NIV).

Adventists believe that Jesus Christ is coming soon to take all of His followers home to an eternal heaven. Because Jesus has asked His followers to "go and teach," Adventists purposefully share the good news of Christ with everyone they can find--especially their neighbors!

Peace, praise, and purpose. All of these result in a unique power for living, an internal energy that comes from having yielded to Christ. You will see this as a power that flows from God through your Adventist neighbor to you. That is our greatest hope as Adventists.

We also hope that you will see in us the power, purpose, and peace that God offers to each human being. Even more, we hope you will find these to be so attractive that you will choose to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Won't you join us in this lifetime adventure called Christianity?