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 4th 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.
