Youth Ministries Department: one hundred years later.

As announced, about 400 young Seventh-day Adventists met in La Lignière, Gland, Switzerland, during the week-end from 11th to 13th of May to celebrate the centennial of the Adventist Youth Department. One century ago, on May 15, 1907, at 15:00, the General Conference Committee, held in Gland, voted the organization of our department.

To mark this important event for the Youth Ministries Department, we organized a week-end of activities, during which all the young people were invited to participate in a program brimful of spiritual messages (Friday and Sabbath morning), praise (all the week-end long), seminars (Sabbath afternoon), sport events (Sunday morning) and an awesome fellowship (all the time). Sabbath evening a competition of short films, bearing on the motto of this week-end, “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13), was launched. The people responded positively: several films were shown to them to determine the winner of the competition. Young concurrent were asked to show by video the meaning of being the salt of the earth. We thank particularly all those who have been involved in the realization of this first festival of short films by the Adventist Youth.

All the attendees enrolled for this event, came from the European countries, such as Portugal, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Romania, Italy and Switzerland.    

The worldwide Youth Ministries Department was also present at this ceremony, with its director, Baraka Muganda, and his associates Hiskia Missah, Jonatan Tejel and John Graz, Public Relation and Religion Liberty secretary at world level and above all former Youth Leader from the Euro-Africa Department (EUD). We also appreciated the presence of the Youth Ministries Department director from the North American Region (NAD), James Black, accompanied by his wife.

The president of Euro-Africa region, Ulrich Frikart, preached a message full of challenges for the whole church, particularly for the young people. In his message, he challenged the church to a deeper cooperation between the respective generations. Other departmental directors were also present, a fact which reveals a close cooperation with the young people. I cannot miss mentioning those who had already been present for the celebration of the 50-year jubilee. It would be difficult to mention them by name, as it would be shameful to forget some of them. The presence of many former Adventist Youth directors who came to commemorate this event was also more than appreciated.

Although the celebration took all the wee-end, the official ceremony took place on Sabbath May 12 at 15:30 around a tree planted especially for this occasion. This fruit tree, a chestnut tree, is to be considered as a symbol of our young people, who must always grow and bear fruit to God’s glory. The Motto of the meeting “You are the salt of the earth”, was considered as a confirmation of the ever alive investiture made by Jesus two thousand years ago.

All the programs were realized in the “La Lignière Clinic” property. Thanks to them, all the important places to the realization were provided. We particularly appreciated very much its availability.

The plenary meetings took place in a large hall belonging to the Community of Gland.

I wish to thank especially all the young people and all the Adventist Youth directors of the Euro-Africa region, who made a special effort for the celebration of this centennial. Our thanks go particularly to the youth leaders of the French-speaking Swiss and Tessin Conference, Miguel Cordas, and German-speaking Swiss Conference, Stephan Sigg, and to their teams, for the good organization and the warm welcome we received from them. Our thanks also go to the leadership of the Euro-Africa Region of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and to our sponsors, particularly the DeVauGe Health Foods Factory and the La Lignière Clinic, for their support in the realization of this event.

Corrado Cozzi

AY Director