21 March 2013, St Albans, UK [Paul Tompkins, tedNEWS] On Saturday, March 16th the first ever Global Youth Day (GYD) was held, under the theme ‘One in Compassion.’ Adventist young people were asked to “be the sermon” and to be involved in acts of kindness in their localities. The idea was to think globally but act locally, and who better to do this, than the youth departments of our church!!!
The young people responded well throughout the world and, whilst data is still coming in, it looks like this event (on Twitter and Facebook) has been the largest Global Social Networking event our Church has ever conducted, with over 26,759 people talking about it, and 3,457,327 people having seen the media files published on the Facebook page alone (https://www.facebook.com/AdventistGlobalYouthDay)?
Live television links were held through Hope Channel studios in different parts of the globe. GYD was featured live on Hope Channel International for one hour from Australia, for one and a half hours from Darmstadt, Germany, and one hour from the General Conference HQ in Washington DC. Hope Channel Europe from Germany hosted a fast moving and interactive afternoon programme, coordinated by Stimme der Hoffnung, and featured live Skype reports as well as Facebook posts with pictures and videos. The Trans-European Division (TED) was well represented as part of the skype interviews and included a live link to GC President, Ted Wilson, who was in Serbia at this time.
Within TED a number of excellent projects took place. In Norway young people took to the streets where they were visited by hundreds of visitors as they made free waffles, hot drinks, gave away hugs, balloons and sang. The local organizer commented, 
‘The Youth Department would like to thank all the Youth groups in Norway for making today a truly memorable Global Youth Day. Well done!’ In Serbia blood donation was organized, while in Turkku Finland, Albania, Deft, Netherlands, Sweden and other parts of our Division, older people were visited in Nursing Homes or simply in their own home if they were sick or unable to get out. In the UK, the South England Conference (SEC) Youth department in association with the London Youth Federation had home missionaries throughout London for the day. Though raining all day, they were not deterred from also singing in the streets, visiting the elderly in nursing homes and hospitals and giving blood. One youth department, supported by the majority of the church, even became a place of refuge for abused women. Pastor Steve Thomas, SEC Youth Ministries Director, commented: ‘We thank God that our youth became the sermon for that day’.
In Denmark, Adventist Youth took over the streets in Copenhagen with fruit baskets, tracts and other literature while the young people in Arhus braved the cold as they served waffles and talked to local people. Other reports are still being received as young people were challenged to visit their local communities and to be involved in random acts of kindness.
The day has been an undoubted success and will be repeated every year with the next one being on Saturday, 15th March 2014 which will once again mark the beginning of the International Youth Week of Prayer.? To see more photos of the GYD, please click here. [tedNEWS]
tedNEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ted-adventist.org
tedNEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division. You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin without need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify tedNEWS whenever you publish these materials.
