On March 18, 2023, young people in the Cayman Islands celebrated Global Youth Day 2023 under the theme “Love is a Verb”. Hundreds of youth from the Conference of Seventh-day Adventists congregated on Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac to participate in community outreach activities. This year’s focus was on impacting teachers and educators to show them that love is truly a verb.
The Youth Executive Committee and AY leaders, under the leadership of former Youth Director, Pastor Carlon Nyack and newly appointed GYD coordinator Pauline Greene, decided to impact Cayman Academy, an Adventist school, and CIFEC, a government school, by putting on assemblies for the schools and surprising over 80 teachers and staff with sweet treats and fruit platters. These events were held leading up to Global Youth Day.
On Global Youth Day, the three zones on Grand Cayman, Eastern, Central, and Western, along with the zone on Cayman Brac, joined forces to impact their communities meaningfully. Each zone participated in worship before heading out for the morning impact, which included prayer walks, home visitations, distribution of tokens, prayer cards, evangelistic materials, magazines, and fruit baskets. In addition, the young people visited approximately seven retired teachers in their homes and recognized them for their meaningful contribution to the children and youth of these islands.
In the afternoon, everyone gathered at the George Town Seventh-day Adventist Church for a special event called “Love is a Verb” to show appreciation. They gave out over 400 certificates to leaders, who would then give them to different teachers and administrators in their own churches. The certificates were given to Sabbath School Teachers, Home School Teachers, Primary and High School Teachers, University Lecturers, School Administrators, Pathfinder and Adventurer Club Teachers.
The Western Zone recognized Sonya Grant-Clayton, a teacher from the community, for her hard work, commitment, and dedication to the education of children and youth, with a Plaque. The Eastern Zone recognized three retired teachers in the communities of East End, Bodden Town, and Savannah. A total of 6 one-hour Massage Gift Cards were given out for this year’s Appreciation Service.
The youth were able to make a great impact in the communities and among teachers, and they did so while wearing their new red “Love is a Verb” GYD shirts. The Youth Leaders, the Youth Executive Committee and Sponsors, the GYD Zone leaders, Eastern – Jordon Williams, Central – Owen Knight, Western – Rascine Smith, and Cayman Brac – Lori-Ann Bingham-Street, were all thanked for their hard work and dedication in supporting and organizing the event.
In conclusion, we give special thanks to Pastor Obed Babb, the Education Director for the Conference, for his powerful message in the afternoon program for the teachers. The youth are grateful for the support from the pastors, parents, and teachers who showed up to support them. And we hope that God will continue to use the youth mightily on Global Youth Day and every day of their lives.
You can see the live stream for the afternoon programme here:
Submitted by: Pastor Carlon Nyack, Executive Secretary l Edited by: Devarro Whittaker, Associate Television Producer.
