Young people all over the world are talking. They are talking to each other on their cell phones, via email and instant messages and face-to-face, sharing their concerns, joys, hopes and dreams. And on April 23, some of these Seventh-day Adventist young people from South America will, instead of talking just to each other, sit down and talk to the leader of their world church, Pastor Jan Paulsen.

In what is becoming a new tradition, Pastor Paulsen continues traveling to different places in the Adventist world church to meet with a variety of young people. The live, unscripted conversations called “Let’s Talk” has taken Paulsen from the United States, to Germany to Australia and next to São, Paulo, Brazil, where young people share their concerns with the church leader on a variety of topics of their choosing.

Pastor Paulsen said he initiated Let’s Talk to increase communication between church leaders and Adventist young people. He added that he hopes that through these live broadcasts that young people will “step up and get involved.”

When asked why the Let’s Talk series was important Larissa Preuss, who will host the upcoming broadcast with Jônatas Ferreira, said: “Having the president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church listen and address face-to-face some of the questions and concerns that we as young people have, to me, is an amazing initiative taken by the church leadership. I think it is important to understand the issues young people face in order to tell the world that Jesus cares.”

“Let’s Talk opens the door of the office of the church’s main figure, its president, and invites the young people to step in, sit back and talk away,” Ferreira agreed. “Clearly the church is reaching out to [its] young people.”

Let’s Talk South America will be aired at 2 p.m. (local time) and will be broadcast live on the Hope Channel. For more information and global broadcast times see the Let’s Talk Web site, www.letstalk.adventist.org or the Hope Channel Web site, www.hopetv.org. Paulsen will also travel to Cameroon and Uganda in August for similar televised conversations with the church’s youth.