Chesapeake Conference

Story by Andre Hastick

The Chesapeake Conference Executive Committee recently named Renee Humphreys as associate superintendent of schools. Humphreys fills the vacancy of Michael Jakobsons, whose wife, Andrea, accepted a call to serve as lead pastor of Ohio Conference’s Kettering church.

Humphreys has more than 35 years of educational experience in public and Seventh-day Adventist schools, including superintendent of education for the Lake Region Conference (Ill.) from 2014–2018. Before arriving to Chesapeake, she served as principal/teacher at Ephesus Junior Academy in Richmond, Va.

Editorial by Andre Hastick

It’s 2021, and we turn a new page in our calendars. But now, perhaps more than ever, we hope to not only turn a literal page, but a figurative one as well. We seek to turn a new page on the global pandemic. We seek to turn a new page with the employment rate in our nation. We seek to turn a new page to reclaim a sense of “normalcy” again.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20, NKJV).

To me, this verse is one of the most personal, heartfelt invitations in the Bible. So often we think of Revelation as the book about the antichrist, the mark of the beast, or the seven last plagues. But first and foremost, it is a book where Jesus patiently waits for us to surrender our hearts to Him so that He can love and lead us.

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isa. 26:3, NKJV).

My favorite and most comforting verse in the Bible is Isaiah 26:3. This text brought me peace of mind after I completed writing “love letters” to my husband and children, encouraging them and expounding on how much I loved them and sharing my hopes for their future.