Facing a temperature of about 30°C (86°F), thousands of people give color to the avenues of the Adventist College of Bahia (FABDA), in Cachoeira, in the interior of the state. Coming from more than 50 countries, they come to the place with a common interest: to learn and share ways to contribute to the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church around the globe.
Among the group are people who have already had some kind of volunteer and mission experience, including serving in other cultures. In addition, there are those who are looking to take their first steps and discover opportunities for how they can use their gifts and talents to meet specific needs and tell about Jesus.
Student Miguel Mamani, age 24, has already been involved in several missionary projects in his country, Bolivia, and also in Argentina and Paraguay. For him, this has a special meaning. "Mission is more than just being in a specific place, but rather a lifestyle," he stresses.
Mamani’s objective is to learn more about the subject and get to know missionary projects the church maintains in South America and around the world. Besides, he wants to understand how he can be useful in his sphere and other regions.
Student Clara Liz also saw in the program an opportunity to better serve other people. "I always liked to help others. When I saw the Maranatha [Volunteers International] projects on TV Novo Tempo, it inspired me. I wanted to do that," she says. However, she almost gave up on the idea of coming.
Miguel is in the process of training in the area of Communication at the same university where I Will Go began Credit - (Photo: Jefferson Paradello)
Due to personal problems she faced recently, the will to be at I Will Go was weakening, but Liz understood that, at this moment, there would be no better place to go: "I decided to come because I want to help my neighbor, and here I will find myself again," she believes.
From Heart to Heart
The initiative that now brings together 5,000 people in Bahia was born, in fact, in a modest way in the hearts of two young people who breathed mission. While medical students at the Universidad Adventista del Plata (UAP) in Argentina, Rigoberto Vidal and a fellow medical student were leading the Mission Institute that existed on campus. The desire of both was to involve more students in activities of this nature as part of their academic and professional training.
While visiting south-east Asia, one of them met Lester Merklin, then professor at the Institute of World Mission, and shared how he would like the UAP to be more immersed in mission. His dream was that some people would have the opportunity to train for transcultural mission at UAP.
In August 2010, at the training that followed this conversation, Dr. Acosta proposed, after conversations with Dr Merklin and Dr Kuhn, the plan of a congress for university students who desired to enter the mission field. His plan was discussed and approved.
See the details below of the previous editions of I Will Go:
2011—Argentina
Adventist University del Plata
700 participants
2013—Argentina
Universidad Adventista del Plata
1,000 attendees
2015—Brazil
Adventist University Center of São Paulo
2,000 attendees
2017—Argentina
Universidad Adventista del Plata
2,000 attendees
2019—Peru
Universidad Peruana Unión
3,642 students
To the Whole World
Clara, who lives in a city near Salvador, has not yet participated in any volunteer and mission initiatives, but hopes that will change soon Credit - (Photo: Jefferson Paradello)
In the vision of Pastor Stanley Arco, president of the Adventist Church for eight countries in South America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay have received a heritage with regard to mission, since the Adventist message has reached these territories precisely because families were willing to leave their homeland to share what they had discovered.
For Arco, Adventist institutions, especially educational ones, must form people to serve. "We have a debt to the world, and so we cannot look only to ourselves. We need to make that hope reach other places, like the 10/40 Window, China, and so many other locations. We are forming a generation of professionals with a missionary focus," he points out. "We want these women and men to leave a legacy in other places and come back to influence locally."