Seventh Day Adventist Church marks Global Youth Day serving others |20 March 2017

Young people of all ages from the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church donning colourful t-shirts bearing the inscription ‘Be The Sermon’ gathered in the grounds of Camion Hall on Saturday morning to be blessed and to hear words of encouragement from the principal secretary for youth Fabian Palmyre before taking part in activities to mark Adventists’ Global Youth Day (GYD).

The idea of the movement is to call on Adventist youths all over the world to reflect on the reality of   young people and as a global movement to mobilise them for service, contributing to the proclamation of the everlasting gospel and to do good deeds in the community in preparation for the second coming of Jesus Christ.

After the blessing the younger children were divided into five groups and they were posted in various locations around Victoria namely at the Codevar Building, ground floor at Orion Mall, Deeva’s Arcade, Post Office and Independence House. Under the guidance of the adults they sang gospel songs, talked to passers-by and distributed words of encouragement to those who stopped to listen and talked to them and were willing to accept especially in this world of turmoil that we are living in.

During that time the teenagers and senior youths were engaged in giving blood and encouraged people out and about in town to come and give blood.

In the afternoon a group of youth also spent quality time with residents at the Home for the Elderly at La Retraite.

Natalie Edmond, the communications director of the SDA, said on GYD young people of the church go out and do good deeds in the community.

“Such activities are very important for us as our mission is to go out and save others and this can be done in many ways such as through community work, visiting the sick and less fortunate, and giving blood to save lives,” Ms Edmond said.

She said through the different youth clubs of the SDA they work to empower the young people from a very tender age to be good and responsible citizens.

GYB is a day of awareness for SDA youths all over the globe.

“There is a lot more to our religious beliefs than just simply going to church and listening to sermons. But we have to ‘be the sermon’ to others not just preach to them but do what we preach by doing good and be good example for others,” Ms Edmond said.

She said “what we aim to achieve at the end of the day is empowerment of our young people, equipping them with good values, spiritual education so they grow to become good citizens and responsible adults who would do things the right way in their lives”.

She went on to add that the world today is full of so much temptation, social misconduct and young people have to be properly educated in all aspects of their upbringing in order to resist all these influences and remain responsible individuals.