10 years ago on March 13, 2023, the General Conference launched a mission initiative called, Global Youth Day (GYD). The vision of GYD according to the General Conference Youth Ministries “is to recapture the reality of Adventist youth as a global movement mobilized for service, contributing to the proclamation of the Everlasting Gospel, and ushering in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

There is a lot more to religious faith than simply going to church and listening to sermons. The true practice of religion involves the revelation of God’s love in living out Jesus’s gospel commission as He bade us to before He ascended to heaven: through all manners of selfless acts that point a desperately needy world to the ultimate hope of the better world He has made possible for us.

 Grounded in the concluding words of Jesus in the parable of the Good Samaritan, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:25-37), the mission of every Global Youth Day is to “Be the sermon.” Ellen White reminds us that “a Christian reveals true humility by showing the gentleness of Christ, by being always ready to help others, by speaking kind words and performing unselfish acts, which ELEVATE and ennoble the most sacred message that has come to our world,” Christian Experience and Teachings of EGW 74.2. Elevate Mission is one of the Mission Strategic Points for the South Bahamas Conference Youth Ministries. 

This Sabbath, under the theme, “Love Is A Verb”, Global Youth Day 2023 will impact school administrators and teachers. Local church AYS will adopt a school in their community to minister and impact throughout the year. Global Youth Day is an ongoing mission initiative and not just a one-day event. While “not all can go as missionaries to foreign lands, but all can be home missionaries in their families and neighborhoods. There are many ways in which church members may give the message to those around them,” Adventist Home, p.485.

Our youth on public campuses are called to be GYD missionaries every school day among their classmates and teachers. “Wherever possible, students should, during the school year, engage in city mission work. They “the youth” should do missionary work in the surrounding towns and villages. They can form themselves into bands to do Christian help work. Students should take a broad view of their present obligations to God. They are not to look forward to a time, after the school term closes, when they will do some large work for God, but should study how, during their student life, to yoke up with Christ in unselfish service for others,” Counsels to Teachers, p.547.

Let us pray that Global Youth Day 2023, will elevate a passion for mission in our local churches for our communities and transform our country.

Article from Pastor Jamal Franklyn, South Bahamas Conference Youth Director