RICHMOND, Va.—The Latino Network of Virginia Baptists has announced plans to sponsor 10 Latino youth to attend the Baptist Youth World Conference next summer in Singapore.
The conference, sponsored by the Baptist World Alliance, is expected to draw about 6,000 youths from around the world to the July 17-21, 2013, event, held every five years.
It’s the second time the Latino Network has assisted young people to attend the conference. In 2008, the network sponsored 10 youths and four chaperones at the meeting in Leipzig, Germany. Prior to that conference, the Latino youth led a week-long vacation Bible school for Roma children in Hungary.
A mission experience also will be included in next year’s trip, this time to a Southeast Asian country.
“The Latino Network is delighted to once again offer this transformative trip for Latino youth in Virginia,” said Greg Smith, the Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s Kingdom Advance ambassador to Latino ministries. “The mission component, along with the chance to worship and learn with youth from around the world, was definitely a highlight for the Latino youth who participated in the last Baptist Youth World Conference. They returned energized and ready to serve as Baptists in their local mission field.
“The interaction between the Latino youth, often marginalized in the United States, and the marginalized Roma children in Hungary was powerful,” said Smith. “They made an immediate connection.”
Dean Miller, a Virginia Baptist Mission Board staffer who also is an organizer for the youth conference, said he hoped for at least 100 Virginia participants in Singapore.
“In addition to the Latino Network’s contingent, I know of at least seven congregations in Virginia planning to take groups of people,” said Miller. “I’m sure there will be others.”
Conference speakers, whose names were released this month, include Edmund Chan, pastor of Covenant Evangelical Free Church in Singapore; Christian Rommert, head of the German Baptist Youth Department; Lucas Leys, director of the Hispanic division of Youth Specialists and vice president of publishing at Vida Publishers, the Spanish-language division of Zondervan; and Rachael Tan, a member of the faculty at the Taiwan Baptist Theological Seminary and associate dean at the Asian Baptist Graduate Theological Seminary.
Other speakers include Thembelani Jentile, senior pastor of Mamelodi Baptist Church near Pretoria, South Africa; Dave Overholt, founding pastor of the Church on the Rock near Toronto; and Diana Francis, president of the Student Christian Movement Bahamas and host of a youth television program.
Updates on the conference are available here and on Facebook.
Latino youth who are active in a Virginia Baptist church are encouraged to apply for a place on the 2013 team, said Smith. A recommendation from their pastor and an essay are required.
Persons interested in helping to sponsor a youth are encouraged to contact the Latino Network at greg.smith @vbmb.org.
The Latino Network of Virginia Baptists is a cooperative ministry supported by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia, Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia, the John Leland Center for Theological Studies, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, LUCHA Ministries and the Network for Theological Education.
Robert Dilday (rdilday@religiousherald.org) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.