by Arthur Griffith
No doubt many of you are eager to hear what happened in the time between when I landed in Baltimore, Maryland, March 27and departed April 3, 2001. I can say it was a dramatic week.
On Thursday all of us who had been invited to the Workers' Retreat as deaf workers or members of the board of Adventist Deaf Ministries moved to Fairfield Inn, which is not far from the General Conference buildings where our meetings were held. The leading speaker for the seminar was Pastor Jeff Jordan from the Atlanta, GA area. He presented the new ministerial series "Seeds" - an outline of the best ways to plant new churches, with modifications to fit the special situation of the deaf.
The most exciting event was Sabbath, March 31, in which the whole worship time was given to the ordination of David M. Trexler, our new deaf minister from Washington DC and surrounding areas under Potomac Conference. It was truly a high day for the deaf, with all the leaders of the deaf work present in the main sanctuary of Silver Spring Church.
The stirring ordination sermon was given by the president of Potomac Conference, Elder Herbert Broeckel, and it showed how well he understood the needs and the challenges of the deaf work. For the deaf, it was skillfully interpreted in ASL by David's own son, Arthur. The charge was read by Dr. Manuel Vasquez, Vice President of NAD, in charge of the Multilingual Department, who is also a board member of Adventist Deaf Ministries. I had the ordination prayer. Young Arthur supplied voice. We were all surprised and thrilled to see, sitting in the front row, watching with obvious pride, David's father and uncle, because neither were religious. David's dad was a fighter pilot in WWII. There were quite a number of non-Adventist deaf friends in attendance too.