[Editor’s Note: Liliana Henao, anchor and producer of the Church’s “Adventist NewsLine” program, was a participant in the recent “Impact 10/40” youth community service event. Here, she shares a personal view of this global conference and its impact on those who ventured forth to share with others.]

“...And you thought you came here for a nice vacation, to visit a new country, to hang out with your friends…” said Pastor Jose Rojas with a chuckle, talking to the more than 1,300 delegates on the opening night of the World Conference on Youth Community Service Impact 10/40, held in Bangkok, Thailand, Dec. 30 to Jan. 3.

“God has a purpose for you and you are not here by chance,” Rojas asserted. As director of Volunteer Ministries for the Adventist Church in North America, he was the event’s principal speaker. The response to an altar call that same night was overwhelming: Hundreds of young Adventist people from all walks of life, from more than 50 countries, with different cultural and religious backgrounds, responded to a call for consecration, many with tears in their eyes, and the congress had just barely started.

The community service projects were already accomplished, and those projects changed many of the participants’ lives. Among the nearly 30 community projects in Bangkok and other cities, there were seeds planted by acts as simple as picking corn, cleaning up streets, doing construction work, teaching English and interacting with orphan kids; a seed now growing in the givers and receivers.

From devotionals to seminars, the rooms were packed—some more than others—with young people and youth leaders praising God and eager to equip themselves with tools to take their mission back home. You could also see young people fast asleep during the day, at seminars, in the lobby, outside the main ballroom, but who could blame them? After crossing the International Date Line and traveling more than 10 time zones—more or less—we all wanted to do the same. Most kids were real troopers.

In a nation where 90 percent of the people are Buddhist and only 2 percent are Christian, any little act of love counts as sharing the Gospel. In any case, wasn’t that what Jesus did: help others?

“Many Hands, One Mission” was the theme of the event, and the many hands present in Bangkok are ready to do it all again in 2008. The event was the first of its kind for the Adventist Church. At the conclusion of the congress youth leaders from around the world voted to hold this event every five years in a country within the so called “10/40 window,” though the proposal still has to be approved by the Executive Committee of the Adventist world church.

While I waited at the airport for the trip home, I heard a youth leader talking with a woman. He told her that he had just come from an Adventist Church youth congress on community service. With a puzzled face she responded, “Well, that’s an interesting place to hold a Christian event!” Interesting enough to the outside world, I thought to myself, and that was precisely the point of Impact 10/40.