Young members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are making an impact in communities in northern Mexico, blending community service with evangelism, reports Libna Stevens, news correspondent for the church in Inter-America.

More than 650 young Adventists recently covered the city streets of Mexicali, Baja, California, and Mazatlan, Sinaloa, as part of an evangelism program in North Mexico called “Super Mission.” The young people hit the streets for five or more days at a time to clean avenues, restore public gardens, paint public buildings, fix children’s playgrounds, plant trees, clean beaches, prepare food for animals in local zoos and much more, according to Pastor Luis A. King, youth director for the church in North Mexico.

“Many people ask, ‘Who are you?,’ ‘Why are you doing this?,’ or ‘Are you getting paid or are you being punished?,’” says King. He says people are surprised to hear the Adventist youth say that they are living to serve. Many want to become part of the group or want their children to be involved, he adds.

After the youth cleaned the streets in Mexicali, they participated in a series of anti-drug lectures offered to hundreds of young people from the city. In Mazatlan, the youth presented evangelistic lectures in the evenings.

“This is an opportunity [for Adventist youth] to invite people to evening presentations and to get them registered for Bible studies, which are later followed up by the local churches,” explains King.

The initiative is based on two stages of the evangelistic program of the church: the “planting and searching” of interested individuals and the consolidation or strengthening of new members. King reports that they have had over 180 churches involved in Super Mission and 1,400 persons enrolled in Bible studies.

Three more Super Mission programs are planned this summer in Nuevo Leon, Sonora, and Mexico City.