July is always an exciting time in the churches when the youth take up leadership roles and are in charge of the services. They participate, organize, preach and do many other activities during the month. The theme chosen for this year’s youth month was Building Resilience.
And the department saw it to be a fitting theme as we want the young people to be able to bounce back and become even stronger with Christ while dealing with the many challenges they will face in this life.
This year, the churches were placed in 3 zones—zone 1 – eastern churches, zone 2 – central churches and zone 3 – western churches. Throughout July, we rotated among the three zones to have joint AY services to build momentum for the evangelistic series and bring the youth together to discuss essential topics while focusing on different aspects of building resilience.
Examples of the events held are:
- W.W.J.D. on July 2, organized by Zone 2
- Building Resilience in Nature on July 9, organized by Zone 1.
- Special Prayer Emphasis P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Something Happens) on July 23, organized by the Youth Ministries Director.
The Youth Ministries Department also held a “Building Resilience” Youth Evangelistic Series, which started on Sunday, July 24, ended on July 30 and was held at the Kings Adventist Church.
The evangelist was Markino Fearon, a dynamic, engaging, Holy Spirit-filled young man and recent graduate from Northern Caribbean with a B.A. in Religion and Theology. Every evening he poured out his heart and lifted the Word of God to motivate, inspire and enrich the young people and those in attendance in person and online! It was a tremendous blessing, and we experienced a revival. Praise God; seven precious persons were baptized at the end of the series!
Each evening Pastor Carlon led interactive sessions which dealt with important topics like stress, anxiety, depression and suicide. The aim was to inform and show practical tips on how the youth can build resilience in their lives.
I want to say special thanks to the A.Y.M. leaders who came out and supported and who helped to organize this evangelistic series. Special thanks to my Assistant Youth Director, Merle Watkins, Sonya Brown, the A.Y.M. Association President, my two fantastic co – campaign managers, Tristina Robinson, A.Y.M. leader from the Savannah church, and Owen Knight, A.Y.M. from the Kings church. They all did a fantastic job in ensuring everything ran each evening smoothly.
We say special thanks to Colindra-Rodericka, who aided us in assuring we had wonderful music through specials and the various Praise and worship teams from the churches. The music was rich and a blessing that set the atmosphere for the speaker.
We thank the Pathfinders and Adventurers who were there every night as ushers assisting Director Merle Watkins to give a warm welcome, hand out gifts, and collect the evening’s offering. In addition, we say thanks to Asharah Walker, A.Y.M. from Maranatha, who helped with the registration of the visitors in attendance.
Special thanks to Devarro Whittaker, associate T.V. producer at C.I.C. and Communications/P.R. coordinator for Youth Ministries, for all the fantastic flyers and P.R. before and during the campaign. We thank the Kings Media Team, who did a tremendous job making sure we had good sound, graphics and videos on the screen and could stream through YouTube live every night. (Check out the recordings @Cicmediaky).
I thank Tamara Battick, A.Y.M. from East End, who organized the churches to provide delicious refreshments every evening. Thanks to Jordon Williams and his team, who assisted us in the finance department. Thanks to Michael McLean for praying for the evangelist every evening and praying for the campaign. Special thanks to Hilreth Morgan from Kings, who led the interactive session and she dealt with rest and the Sabbath.
Thanks also to Pastor Reinaldo Dracket, President of the Cayman Islands Conference, for being there on opening night to give greetings and also to the administrators for their financial support. Thanks also to Pastor Vaughn Henry and Dr Ivor Harry, former Youth Directors who came and supported us. Thanks to all the other pastors for their continued prayers and support. Thanks to the King’s church for allowing us to use their church for this series.
Truly a special thanks go out to the Bible Counselors, Elder Powell and Brother Spence, who provided the studies to help the seven precious persons accept Jesus.
Thanks also to Sonya Brown, who organized a joint social where we were able to climax youth month with some good fun, food and fellowship. The youth enjoyed themselves. Thanks to the George Town Adventist church for allowing us to use their youth hall for the social.
We thank God for all the gifts and talents of our amazing young people. We thank all the youth who sang, prayed and did anything to make the campaign successful. God sees you and is pleased, and we thank you for availing yourselves to be used by God. I pray that God will continue to help us to “Build Resilience” in Christ every day and prepare us and others for Jesus’ soon coming.
Submitted by: Pastor Carlon Nyack, Youth Director Cayman Islands Conference.
