Seventh-day Adventist world church president, Pastor Jan Paulsen, heads to East Asia this week for two regional installments of his Let’s Talk live televised dialogues with youth.

Paulsen will host Let’s Talk in Manila, Philippines on February 7 and in Hong Kong on February 10. The programs will air live on the church’s Hope Channel and its Web site www.hopetv.org.

The shows will be first in Asia for Paulsen. He has hosted 18 similar previous live programs with youth worldwide since 2003. Church leaders say the visits to Manila and Hong Kong are especially significant as the Adventist Church is represented widely and is growing in Asia.

According to Orville Parchment, assistant to the church president, Paulsen hosts the dialogues hoping that young people will gain a better understanding of their church, its structure and the role young people play in their faith community.

“I believe it’s significant for the young people in Asia to meet with the world church leader and ask him questions because access to a world church leader is limited,” Parchment said.

“A meeting in Hong Kong with Chinese young people will give the world church leader a first-hand opportunity to hear about their Christian witness and aspirations,” Parchment said.

“The young people are very enthusiastic about this opportunity to be able to talk to our world church leader,” said Daniel Jiao, communication director for the church’s Chinese Union Mission.

Paulsen’s visit will fall during Chinese New Year, one of the most important festivals of the year, Jiao said. Participants for the Hong Kong broadcast will come from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In Manila, the group will represent the diversity of nations and cultures of the region. Jonathan Catolico, coordinator of the event in Manila, and communication director of the church’s Southern Asia-Pacific region, explained that “this dialogue is very significant because this group [of participants] represents 18 countries in the church’s Southern Asia-Pacific region. This multi-cultural youth group comes with issues inherent in countries they represent.”