Seventh-day Adventist world church leaders are planning a major youth conference for December in Taiwan, hoping to pave the way for future church growth in the northern East Asia nation.

About 2,000 Adventist high school-aged youth will meet for a week of service projects before gathering in the capital, Taipei, said Baraka Muganda, youth ministries director for the Adventist world church.

“Our church is not well known in Taiwan and we have a small membership there,” Muganda said of why organizers chose the location. “We want Taiwan to see Adventist young people demonstrating their love for them and Christ.”

There are about 5,200 Adventists in Taiwan worshiping in 50 churches. The Adventist Church in Taiwan became self-supporting in 2005, moving from a “mission” status and achieving the rank of “conference.”

“We’re excited and our church members are quite astonished that the world church is focusing on our little corner of the world,” said John W. Ash III, president of the Adventist Church in Taiwan.

The country’s Adventist Youth director, Noah Lai, said the church there is not large, but members will be strengthened with the coming support.

“I think this is a great chance for [people] in Taiwan to know that we are a happy family and people around us will get to know our beliefs,” Lai said.

Adventists are also celebrating 60 years of the church’s existence in Taiwan.

The Adventist Church sponsored a similar conference in Bangkok, Thailand in 2004.

“We’re not just going to preach to them; we want the youth to come and do something in Taiwan,” Muganda said of service opportunities ranging from leading health classes to building renovations and sports education.

“Some of our service projects have been created by the government, so our young people will be working with the Taiwanese,” Muganda said.

The Christmastime event is a “gift” to the people of Taiwan, Muganda said.

The deadline to register for the World Conference on Youth and Community Services is November 2. The conference runs from Dec. 24 to Jan. 5.

For more information see the Web site www.youth.gc.adventist.org.