Baptist youth from more than 60 countries are traveling to Singapore for the 16th Baptist Youth World Conference from July 17-21.
The event, planned and sponsored by the Baptist World Alliance® (BWA) and held every five years, has opportunities for worship, fellowship, study and mission.
Daily morning and evening plenary sessions include Bible Study presentations, sermons and inspirational music, song, dance and drama.
Conference speakers include Edmund Chan, pastor of the Covenant Evangelical Free Church in Singapore; Christian Rommert, head of the German Baptist Youth Department; Lucas Leys of Argentina, director of the Hispanic Division of Youth Specialists and vice president of publishing at Vida Publishers, the Spanish language division of Zondervan publishers; and Rachael Tan, formerly of the Taiwan Baptist Theological Seminary and the Asian Baptist Graduate Theological Seminary.
Other speakers include Thembelani Jentile, senior pastor for the Mamelodi Baptist Church in South Africa; Dave Overholt, founding pastor of the “Church on the Rock” in Canada; and Diana Francis, president of the Student Christian Movement of Bahamas and host of a youth television program.
Performers include those from the Baptist Church of Mizoram and Lairam Baptist Church choirs from Mizoram state in Northeast India; Nagapellas, an acappella choir from the Northeast Indian state of Nagaland; the Okinawa Power drummers and dancers from Japan; and a traditional dance group from the Tedim Baptist Convention Youth Department in Myanmar.
In addition to groups from Singapore, other performers include Timoty Tipoe, a flautist from Hong Kong, Joey Woch, a classical guitarist from Nagaland, New American Singers, an Australian/American group, and youth choirs from Indonesia and Argentina. Music, dance and dramatic presentations will be made by the Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, in the United States, while the Tallowood Players of the Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, in the US, will make dramatic presentations.
“Family Groups” offer further Bible study reflections, but also enable youth from a variety of national and cultural backgrounds to connect with each other in settings that are less formal and more interactive.
A number of seminars and workshops focus on issues relevant to youth. Among these are, Practical Advice for Growing in Faith, The Role of Christian Youth in the Fight against HIV/AIDS and establishing ministries through the creative arts, sports and creation care. Other sessions will examine how to live out one’s faith in school, how to study the Bible, the dynamics of worship, social media, women in the sex trade, the environment, and peace and justice issues.
Youth will participate in two major mission opportunities. Participants at the conference are being asked to make monetary or in-kind donations toward school kits for refugee children in Thailand. There are an estimated 31,000 school children from Myanmar living in seven refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border.
The BWA has partnered with Stop Hunger Now to fill two 20ft containers of pre-packaged meals for distribution in Asia. It is estimated that in order to fill these containers, the BWA will require 2,000 volunteers during the youth conference, working two shifts of four hours each. If successful, these containers will carry 285,120 meals.
Youth groups have other mission opportunities in Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand and other Asian countries leading up to, or following the conference.
“The Singapore Baptist community is eager and committed to offer our hospitality and service,” wrote Edwin Lam and Peter Tang, chairman and executive director, respectively, of the Singapore Baptist Convention. “Come for a shared spiritual experience of a lifetime and bring it home to bless your church and community.”
Baptist World Alliance®
© July 14, 2013