Rebecca Turner Retires

Rebecca Turner, Editorial Assistant for Women’s Ministries, Retires 2025

Well-known and loved by her friends throughout the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Rebecca “Becki” Timon Turner transferred to the Women’s Ministries Department in 2012 as the administrative assistant to the late Heather-Dawn Small, during her tenure as the director. 

Before working for Women’s Ministries, Rebecca served in Presidential from 1990 to 2012 as assistant to two vice presidents concurrently. Her wealth of experience has provided Women’s Ministries with great advantages. Rebecca says she knew nearly everyone who worked at the GC because she created the first organizational flowchart and the first employee flowchart. With more than twenty-one years of experience in Presidential, she learned the history of committees and rules and regulations for the in-house workflow at the headquarters. Even after coming to Women’s Ministries, GC employees continued to call her, asking questions they knew she could answer. She considers her legacy at the GC to be helping the Presidential offices transition into the computer age.

In August 2016, Rebecca moved into the position of WM editorial assistant. The systems of work in the department reflect her attention to detail and meticulous oversight. Some examples of this include extensive spreadsheets, budgets, and binders to manage the workflow of the various department projects.

In 2024, Rebecca’s dedication was reflected in her contribution to the Mother’s Day celebration for GC employees planned by the Scholarshipping Our Sisters team. The celebration was an opportunity to donate to the GC WM Scholarshipping Our Sisters fund and to honor the special women in the employees’ lives. Among other things, Rebecca designed the tribute slideshow, which became a popular part of the program and has led to generous contributions to the SOS project. This laid the foundation for the success of the 2025 Mother’s Day program.

Another project which she contributed to was an in-house women’s retreat, planned for Sabbath in November 2024. Rebecca was the only member of the department who had attended two previous retreats held by Rose Otis in 1992 and Ardis Stenbakken in 1997, the first and third GC WM directors. These were the only previous in-house events for women since 1990 when Women’s Ministries became an official entity in 1990. Working with the contributors of the annual women’s devotional book has been a favorite aspect of her work in Women’s Ministries.

A few fun facts about Rebecca include that she had worked in the building since the first day it opened, June 12, 1989. Other offices and departments were moved from Takoma Park during that first week. Educated in English, journalism, and elementary education, Rebecca created the first Women’s Ministries newsletter in 1991, simply because her desk in the presidential office suite was situated close to Rose Otis, then the director of the newly organized office of Women’s Ministries—and because Rebecca was willing to help. Her favorite Bible text is “The Lord’s mercies . . . [and] compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22, 23, KJV). Rebecca also has lived in Maryland for most of her life. Her young son, Jamie Timon, was one year old when his mother began working at the GC complex. Together they enjoyed participating in the Walk Through Bethlehem event that lasted more than a decade and being involved in some of the productions written by Tom Neslund, Health Ministries associate director in the 1990s. A special responsibility that Rebecca was given while working in Presidential was decorating thirteen Christmas trees with items representing each world Church division.

Rebecca is only four months younger than Heather-Dawn Small was, and they deeply bonded through their spiritual and creative pursuits. The untimely loss of Heather-Dawn in January 2024 made an impact on Rebecca, and she decided she would only work one more year. At 47, Rebecca had lost her first husband Dan Timon to cancer. She wants quality time for as long as possible with her second husband Charles Turner, whom she married in 2017 after a twelve-year span of being alone.  

Rebecca’s retirement reception, January 29, 2025, was planned to coincide with a day when her former GC WM supervisor, Raquel Arrais, with husband Jonas Arrais, were visiting the area from their current location in Seoul Korea, where Raquel is the Women’s Ministries director of Northern Asia-Pacific Division. Rebecca couldn’t imagine a farewell without including Raquel because “those ten years working with Raquel were some of the best in my life.”

It is not easy to find someone who has worked in the same organization for 35 years, but Rebecca has never wanted to leave her coworkers, who have become a lifeline of friends. She says, “I am so thankful for those friends who have been with me through the years of life’s transitions, including the loss of my parents, sibling, and husband, the births of my four grandchildren, and a surprise bridal reception. And then there are the other friends who insisted that I should have a church wedding—and we managed to put it together in a week! That wasn’t a transition, that was a paradigm shift!”

The Women’s Ministry Department sends our best wishes with her on her retirement journey. And we appreciate her generosity in joining our staff once more at the 2025 General Conference Session.

Celeste Diaz-Vazquez, GC Women’s Ministries editorial assistant, with Rebecca Turner, GC Women’s Ministries editorial assistant emeritus