<\/p>\n
Walking up to a complete stranger and offering to pray for them is a bold move\u2014even more so when you are 14 years old, and you\u2019ve never done anything like it before.<\/p>\n
Yet that is what more than 200 young people faithfully chose to do on Thursday afternoon during the sixth annual Amazing Facts Youth Conference (June 17\u201320). The four-day event hosted at the W.O.R.D. Center in Granite Bay, Calif., was devoted to the theme: \u201cSend Me: Here I Am, Lord!\u201d<\/p>\n
Over and over again, the 600-plus youth in attendance were encouraged to dedicate their lives to Christ and devote themselves to His service. Guest speaker Cami Oetman, vice president of Adventist World Radio, shared, \u201cGod chose you to be born at this time in Earth\u2019s history. He needs you to share the three angels\u2019 messages with the world. God started this church with young adults who believed God had called them to share a special end-time message with this world, and He is going to finish it with young people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other speakers included Doug Batchelor, president of Amazing Facts International; Carlos Mu\u00f1oz, director of AFCOE; Daniel Hudgens, assistant director of AFCOE; and Justin and Charissa Totossian from Australia.<\/p>\n
The young people responded eagerly to appeals to follow Jesus and work for Him. \u201cRegardless of what their full-time calling might be, God has big plans for each young person,\u201d says Pastor Doug. \u201cHe has a place for each of them in outreach, and even as full-time missionaries. The young people I talked with over the weekend had caught that vision.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a brief training on how to share their faith, young people and the adults accompanying them prepared to go into the community to pass out literature and pray for those who needed it. Drivers and riders coordinated into outreach groups, and pairs of young people picked up their allotment of books. After a special prayer, the young people filed out of the Granite Bay Hilltop Church and into a world in need of the Savior.<\/p>\n
Teams of teens fanned out into shopping malls, parking lots, and apartment complexes. They wore \u201cHey, Let\u2019s Pray!\u201d t-shirts and carried stacks of Footsteps <\/em>(a reprint of the classic Steps to Christ<\/em>) to share with anyone who wanted one.<\/p>\n For some young people, this was their first time doing outreach, and they went out with a little trepidation. Yet an hour later, all the young people returned to the church with stories to tell of how God had led. Even the shyest could say that God had been with them.<\/p>\n Providing young people with experiences like this is an intentional part of Amazing Facts Youth (AFY). Daniel explains, \u201cWe send kids out for outreach for a few reasons. We pray they experience divine encounters that will boost their faith. They meet people of various backgrounds, such as Muslims, Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, and atheists, which gives them experience talking with others in a winsome way. The youth always experience worry when they first go out, so this gives them a chance to get out of their comfort zone and see how God can lead, give us strength in our weakness, and give us courage in our fear. It also helps them understand that if they can go pray with strangers, then they can pray with those they know at home too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI realized that even if we reach only one person, it\u2019s worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n Even parents who attended with their youth were inspired to be more actively involved in evangelism in their communities. Alvin, a father of three from southern California, said, \u201cIt\u2019s been rejuvenating. It makes me want to do more for my church. I\u2019m going home with a mission.\u201d He and his family were attending AFY for the first time.<\/p>\n While the conference was dedicated to inspiring and equipping young people for ministry, the weekend was also a welcome spiritual retreat and social connection for the hundreds who attended. The opportunity to reconnect with old friends and build new friendships with like-minded young people was a real blessing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was fun making new friends,\u201d said Faith, from Oregon. \u201cIt\u2019s really nice knowing that everyone here believes the same way I do.\u201d<\/p>\n The young people socialized between meetings, over meals, and in the evenings at afterglow. \u201cPeople didn\u2019t want to go home at the end of the day,\u201d said Tony Scarpino, who leads the online AFY events throughout the year and helped coordinate the conference. \u201cIt was wonderful to see their smiles and how much everyone appreciated what God was doing in and around them.\u201d<\/p>\n AFY began in 2020 as a way to reach out to young people who were feeling isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The biweekly online meetings quickly grew into a close-knit family of young people. Recognizing the need, Amazing Facts hosted our first youth conference in 2021. Since then, the conferences have grown every year, attracting families from across the United States.<\/p>\n The biweekly online meetings have also become a birthplace for spiritual leaders. Many of the young people who first started attending online now regularly attend the AFY conferences and help plan and run the events. Many of them have also become strong leaders for Christ in their own communities.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing a part of AFY gave me confidence to become the youth leader at our church,\u201d said Bishop, from California. Roper, from North Dakota, agrees: \u201cAFY has helped me share Christ with my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n Not all who attend the AFY conferences attend the online meetings, but all are invited. \u201cIf you are serious about lifting up your peers in prayer and are willing to get involved, then please join us!\u201d says Roper.<\/p>\n Watch archives of the presentations and learn more about Amazing Facts Youth here: afyouth.com<\/strong><\/p>\n Your Next Read<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe USA and Iran: The Ultimate Peace Deal?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Walking up to a complete stranger and offering to pray for them is a bold move\u2014even more so when you are 14 years old, and you\u2019ve never done anything like it before. Yet that is what more than 200 young people faithfully chose to do on Thursday afternoon during the sixth annual Amazing Facts Youth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[334,7347,9973,960,1460],"class_list":["post-29963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bible-trivia","tag-conference","tag-empowers","tag-inspires","tag-send","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
A Full Weekend<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Six Years of Growing Young People<\/strong><\/h4>\n